Deck 10: Ecology and Sustainable Development in Global Business

Question 1

A commons is a shared resource, such as land, air or water that a group of people uses collectively.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

About 20 percent of the world's people have incomes below the international poverty line.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The world's natural resource base - the air, water, soil, minerals, and so forth -- is essentially finite, or bounded.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

A shared resource, such as land, air, or water, that a group of people uses collectively is a(n):

A) Economic village.
B) Collective resource.
C) Global unification.
D) Commons.

Question 5

Life-cycle analysis involves collecting information on the lifelong environmental impact of a product, all the way from extraction of raw material, to manufacturing, to its distribution, use and ultimate disposal.

Question 6

Ecology is the study of how living things - plants and animals - interact with one another in an ecosystem.

Question 7

A new imperative for governments, businesses and society is to:

A) Preserve the global commons and assure its continued use.
B) Assure fair access to the global commons for all individuals.
C) Equalize the usage of the global commons among all nations of the world.
D) Avoid the use of the global commons in order to preserve it for future use.

Question 8

Sustainable development is an appealing idea but also a very controversial one.

Question 9

Human society used 60 times as much energy in the late 20^th century as it did in 1860, when industrialization was in its early stages.

Question 10

The study of how living things interact with one another in a unified natural system is called:

A) Anthropology.
B) Zoology.
C) Ecology.
D) Socio-biology.

Question 11

Land, even when properly cared for, is not a renewable resource.

Question 12

Depletion of the ozone layer, destruction of the rain forests, and species extinctions all have an impact on:

A) All of society.
B) A particular region.
C) A particular nation.
D) Only developing countries.

Question 13

Deforestation - cutting down and not replacing trees - contributes to global warming.

Question 14

In 2000, a group of nations negotiated the Montreal Protocol, agreeing to increase CFC production and use by 50 percent by 2020.

Question 15

The paradox of the commons is that if all individuals attempt to maximize their own private advantage in the short term, the commons will still remain productive in the long run.

Question 16

Sustainable development will require technology cooperation through long-term partnerships between companies in developed and developing countries to transfer environmental technologies.

Question 17

In which year was the first World Summit on Sustainable Development held?

A) 1982.
B) 1985.
C) 1990.
D) 1992.

Question 18

Rain forest destruction is controversial because these environments are more valuable cut down than standing.

Question 19

Biodiversity refers to the number and variety of species that have become extinct.

Question 20

The world's income is distributed equally among nations.

Question 21

Industrialization is often accompanied by:

A) Increasing population growth.
B) Greatly decreased crop yields.
C) Rising incomes, bringing higher rates of both consumption and waste.
D) Decreasing incomes, bringing rates of both consumption and waste.

Question 22

Which of the following countries has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol?

A) Germany.
B) France.
C) United States.
D) United Kingdom.

Question 23

The core idea(s) of sustainable development is (are):

A) Economic development must be accomplished sustainably.
B) Poverty is an underlying cause of environmental degradation.
C) Affluence is an underlying cause of environmental degradation.
D) Both A and B, but not

Question 24

Which of the following is an example of a nonrenewable resource?

A) Coal.
B) Fresh water.
C) Timber.
D) Fish.

Question 25

Which of the following statements is not true about the population?

A) The world population will peak at over 11 billion people around the year 2100.
B) For many thousands of years, population growth was gradual.
C) Industrial production would have to quintuple over the next 40 years in order to maintain the same living standard that people have now, given expected population growth.
D) Just 10,000 years ago, the earth was home to no more than 1 million humans, scattered in small settlements.

Question 26

With respect to fresh water, according to one estimate, if it were possible to eliminate pollution, capture all available fresh water, and distribute fresh water equitably:

A) Demand would exceed supply within a hundred years.
B) There would be a balance between demand and supply within a hundred years.
C) Supply would exceed demand within a hundred years.
D) None of the above.

Question 27

The amount of land and water a human population needs to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb its wastes given prevailing technology is called:

A) Ecological footprint.
B) Technological innovation.
C) Sustainable development.
D) Consumption footprint.

Question 28

Which of the following statements is true about the Montreal Protocol?

A) It is an agreement among nations to cut CFC production and use by fifty percent by 1996.
B) The deadline for completely phasing out the manufacture of CFCs has been delayed over and over.
C) The deadline for phasing out CFCs in developing countries is 2010.
D) India and China were leaders in the support of the CFC ban.

Question 29

Sustainable development:

A) Meets the needs of the present while compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
B) Gives precedence to environmental over economic considerations.
C) Balances economic and environmental considerations.
D) Gives precedence to present needs over future needs.

Question 30

An attempt to apply the concept of sustainable development has been made by an initiative called The Natural Step, was created in which country?

A) Brazil.
B) Denmark.
C) Sweden.
D) Switzerland.

Question 31

Which of the following is not true about rain forests?

A) They are the planet's richest areas in terms of biological diversity.
B) They will be severely depleted within the next 8 years.
C) They account for about 7 percent of the earth's surface.
D) They account for somewhere between 40 to 75 percent of the earth's species.

Question 32

Why is inequality an environmental problem?

A) People in the richest countries consume many natural resources.
B) People in the poorest countries often misuse natural resources.
C) People in the richest countries have strong environmental values.
D) Both A and B, but not

Question 33

The commitments of the Convention on Biological Diversity include:

A) Developing national conservation strategies.
B) Eliminating CFC production.
C) Population control education.
D) Massive irrigation projects in developing countries.

Question 34

Who was quoted as saying, "We now face the ultimate management challenge, that of managing our own future as a species?"

A) Clarence Thomas.
B) Maurice Strong.
C) Strom Thurmond.
D) Bill Clinton.

Question 35

Reasons for the destruction of rain forests include:

A) Commercial logging.
B) Cattle ranching.
C) Conversion of forests to plantations.
D) All of the above.

Question 36

According to eminent biologist Edward O. Wilson, the costs of decreasing biodiversity include:

A) Every species extinction diminishes humanity.
B) Species diversity is one of the planet's most important and irreplaceable resources.
C) The capacity for natural genetic regeneration reduces with extermination of species.
D) All of the above.

Question 37

Which of the following statements is not true about arable land?

A) It is a nonrenewable resource.
B) Over half of the irrigated lands in developing countries have been salinized.
C) Poor farming practices have caused arable lands to turn into deserts.
D) Agricultural chemicals have contaminated most of the arable lands.

Question 38

The goal of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development is to encourage:

A) High standards of environmental management and to promote closer cooperation among businesses, governments, and other organizations.
B) World political and business leaders to conserve the earth's biological resources, particularly in species-rich tropical forests.
C) Poorer countries to develop their economies in an environmentally sustainable way.
D) Cut CFC production and use by 50 percent by 2010.

Question 39

Which of the following statements is (are) true about global warming?

A) The earth has already warmed by between 0.6 and 0.9 degrees Celsius over the past century.
B) Burning fossil fuels is the leading contributor of global warming.
C) The amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased by as much as 25 percent since the Industrial Revolution.
D) All of the above.

Question 40

A thin layer of gas that protects the earth from excessive ultraviolet radiation from the sun is:

A) Ozone.
B) Carbon dioxide.
C) Methane.
D) Oxygen.

Question 41

Which of the following is an example of industrial ecology in practice?

A) Developing a paper recycling program in business offices.
B) Using wastes from one process as raw materials for another process.
C) Manufacturing recyclable containers for products.
D) All of the above.

Question 42

What is meant by the Earth's carrying capacity? How can it be measured? Discuss the changes that need to be made in order to bring the Earth's carry capacity back into balance.

Question 43

Do you believe economic development (industrialization) helps or hurts the environment? Why?

Question 44

Life-cycle analysis involves:

A) Accurately recording the production costs at each stage of a product's life cycle.
B) Collecting information regarding the lifelong environmental impact of a product, from extraction to disposal.
C) Reducing recycling costs for disposable products.
D) Increasing productivity while improving the environment.

Question 45

Discuss some of the voluntary initiatives undertaken by businesses around the world in order to incorporate sustainable development into their every day business practices.

Question 46

Which of the following statements is not true about eco-efficiency?

A) Eco-efficient companies are those that add the most value with the least use of resources and pollution.
B) Prices for eco-efficient products reflect the true cost of environmental as well as other resources.
C) Eco-efficiency is only possible in the presence of open and competitive markets.
D) Prices for eco-efficient products reflect highly inflated costs of environmental resources.

Question 47

Three critical factors have combined to accelerate the ecological crisis facing the world community and to make sustainable development more difficult. Explain and discuss these three factors.

Question 48

Identify a business with which you are familiar. What steps could this business take to manage more sustainably?

Question 49

Identify and explain three major threats to the earth's ecosystem as described in the textbook. How will these threats accelerate the ecological crisis?

Question 50

What defines an environmental problem that is inherently global in scope? Discuss in detail two of the four global problems outlined in the textbook that will have major consequences for business and society.

Question 51

The most successful global businesses in coming years will be those companies that:

A) Develop short-term partnerships between companies in developing countries to transfer environmental technologies.
B) Recognize the imperative for sustainable development as an opportunity both for competitive advantage and ethical action.
C) Avoid fully accounting environmental costs in calculating measures of production such as the gross domestic product (GDP).
D) Produce products with a limited useful life.

Question 52

Which of the following illustrates the idea of sustainable development through technological cooperation?

A) Worldwide conferences to encourage developing countries to invest in technological joint ventures with other developing countries.
B) The development of long-term partnerships between companies in developed and developing countries to transfer environmental technologies.
C) Advanced countries developing and selling at a profit environment technologies to developing countries.
D) All countries developing their own environmental technology in order to solve their own problems.