Deck 16: The Environment: a Global Collective Good

Question 1

Which of the following countries has exceeded 85 percent in meeting environmental goals?

A) Canada.
B) France.
C) Iceland.
D) The United States.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

What is meant by a "collective good"?

A) It offers benefits that must be shared and for which everyone, therefore, has an incentive to pay.
B) It is provided by governments for all those who have political influence.
C) It must be paid for by anyone who wishes to enjoy its benefits.
D) It offers benefits that must be shared and made available to everyone if it is to be enjoyed by anyone.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

What is meant by a "private good"?

A) It offers benefits that must be shared and for which therefore everyone has an incentive to pay.
B) It can be enjoyed only by some and need not be shared.
C) It is available only to those who are coerced to pay for it.
D) It offers benefits that must be shared and made available to everyone if it is to be enjoyed by anyone.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Why has the United States been reluctant to join other countries in carrying out the Kyoto Protocol to limit greenhouse gases?

A) It would have to pay a significant amount of the costs.
B) It would receive relatively few benefits.
C) Other industrialized countries have refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
D) There is inadequate evidence that carbon gases cause global warning.

Question 5

What is the "tragedy of the commons"?

A) The system leads to underused resources.
B) The system results in overinvestment in agriculture.
C) The system encourages individuals in a way that is harmful to the group as a whole.
D) The system encourages the group to behave in a manner that harms individuals.

Question 6

Which of the following is an example of a "side payment"?

A) Providing tax breaks to industries regardless of whether they install anti-pollution equipment.
B) Providing tax breaks to industries that install anti-pollution equipment.
C) Taxing industries that refuse to install anti-pollution equipment.
D) Arresting polluters.

Question 7

What political leader sought to encourage population growth in his country?

A) Neville Chamberlain.
B) Franklin D. Roosevelt.
C) Josef Stalin.
D) Benito Mussolini.

Question 8

How did ancient Greece deal with overpopulation?

A) By providing free contraception.
B) By exposing female children at birth.
C) By encouraging late marriages.
D) By establishing overseas settlements.

Question 9

What was Thomas Malthus's argument regarding population?

A) Population increased geometrically while food supplies increased arithmetically, so that the former outstripped the latter.
B) A "green revolution" would allow food supplies to keep pace with population growth.
C) If population growth outstripped food supplies, parents would adjust and have fewer children.
D) Rapid population growth would provide the cheap labor necessary for industrialization.

Question 10

Which of the following is among the six countries that account for half the annual population growth?

A) Russia.
B) India.
C) Brazil.
D) Indonesia.

Question 11

By 2000, what percentage of the world's population lived in less-developed countries?

A) 40 percent.
B) 50 percent.
C) 80 percent.
D) 90 percent.

Question 12

Which of the following is likely to apply to countries with large numbers of young males?

A) It is likely to experience rapid economic growth.
B) It is likely to be politically unstable.
C) It is likely to have an excellent system of higher education.
D) It is likely to be a democracy.

Question 13

What is a particularly effective way of reducing birth rates in poor countries?

A) Land reform.
B) Permissive abortion policies.
C) Reducing the proportion of females in the population.
D) Education of women.

Question 14

Where are population growth rates highest?

A) East Asia.
B) South Asia.
C) Sub-Saharan Africa.
D) Latin America.

Question 15

Which of the following accompanies the transition from high to low birth rates?

A) Agricultural reform.
B) Lower wages.
C) Urbanization.
D) Lower quality of education.

Question 16

Which of the following cities features high crime and violence?

A) Tel Aviv.
B) Karachi.
C) New York.
D) Lima.

Question 17

Which of the following is not viewed by Thomas F. Homer-Dixon as a consequence of environmental degradation?

A) Wars resulting from social inequalities.
B) Wars resulting from a breakdown of the balance of power.
C) Wars between ethnic or cultural communities.
D) Scarcity wars.

Question 18

Which of the following is most effective in reducing population growth?

A) Economic development.
B) Agricultural free trade.
C) Major wars.
D) Widespread famine.

Question 19

Which of the following is one of the consequences of population density in a country?

A) Government efforts to enforce birth control.
B) Land hunger.
C) Exploitation of natural resources.
D) Government coercion to encourage migration.

Question 20

What country dramatically reduced birth rates by combining coercive family planning and economic development?

A) China.
B) India.
C) Vietnam.
D) El Salvador.

Question 21

Which of the following does not help overcome labor shortages in "graying" societies?

A) Immigration.
B) Reduced welfare benefits.
C) Employment of women.
D) Encouraging more births.

Question 22

What environmental hazard was rated by the US Embassy in Beijing as "Crazy Bad"?

A) Pesticides in food.
B) Air pollution.
C) Lead poisoning.
D) Untreated waste water.

Question 23

What caused London's "pea-soup" fogs in the nineteenth century?

A) The burning of trash.
B) The use of coal for heating.
C) The smog from factories.
D) Frequent incidents of arson.

Question 24

Which of the following countries is least likely to support energy conservation?

A) Germany.
B) South Africa.
C) Brazil.
D) Saudi Arabia.

Question 25

What is OPEC?

A) A free-trade area.
B) A military alliance.
C) A commodity cartel.
D) An industrial consortium.

Question 26

Which of the following is not a cause of increased oil prices?

A) Growing global reliance on nuclear power.
B) China's growing demand for energy.
C) Tensions between Iran and the West.
D) Flagging US energy conservation.

Question 27

Who pioneered the use of "environmental terrorism"?

A) Osama bin Laden.
B) Saddam Hussein.
C) Muammar Qaddafi.
D) Hugo Chavez.

Question 28

What is one of the consequences of global warming?

A) The growth of palm trees in Canada.
B) The appearance of icebergs off Ireland.
C) Increased agricultural productivity in Central America.
D) The probable inundation of Tuvalu.

Question 29

What treaty was signed in 2016 in an effort to slow global warming?

A) North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation.
B) The Kyoto Protocol.
C) The Paris Climate Agreement.
D) The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer

Question 30

What was one reason the United States refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol?

A) China was not required to limit carbon emissions.
B) Russia was permitted to increase carbon emissions.
C) Other counters were greater sources of carbon emissions than the United States.
D) France and Germany refused to ratify the protocol.

Question 31

Where did the largest oil spill in marine waters taker place?

A) Alaska.
B) The Gulf of Mexico.
C) The Pacific Ocean.
D) The Strait of Malacca.

Question 32

Where was food used as a weapon in global politics in 1992?

A) Russia.
B) Nigeria.
C) Somalia.
D) Yemen.

Question 33

Which of the following NGOs seeks to alleviate famine and malnutrition?

A) Greenpeace.
B) Oxfam.
C) Sierra Club.
D) Amnesty International.

Question 34

What was once called the "lungs of the world"?

A) The Canadian Rockies.
B) The steppes of Central Asia.
C) The Amazon basin.
D) The Nile delta.

Question 35

What environmentalist was murdered in 1988?

A) Chico Mendes.
B) Rachel Carson.
C) Erin Brockovich.
D) Paul Ehrlich.

Question 36

What do we call the arrangement whereby a government pays off a debtor country's obligations at reduced interest and the debtor country uses the funds it would have paid in interest to improve the environment?

A) The Habitat Scheme.
B) Environmental stewardship.
C) Carbon bonds.
D) Debts-for-nature swap.

Question 37

Where did the Soviet navy dump its radioactive wastes?

A) The North Sea.
B) The Barents Sea.
C) The Baltic Sea.
D) The Atlantic Ocean.

Question 38

What major body of water is drying up owing to the diversion of rivers that feed it?

A) The Aral Sea.
B) Lake Superior.
C) The Great Salt Lake.
D) Lake Titicaca.

Question 39

What environmental group was born when activists protested a US underground nuclear test?

A) Nature Conservancy.
B) Friends of the Earth.
C) Taiga Rescue Network.
D) Greenpeace.

Question 40

What was the cause of the "mad hatters' disease" in Alice in Wonderland?

A) Carbon gases.
B) Cholera caused by human wastes in drinking water.
C) Mercury poisoning.
D) Lead poisoning.

Question 41

Why do some developing countries refuse to take steps to protect their environment?

A) Environmental measures reduce the rate of economic development.
B) Environmental protection is relatively less important than disease and famine.
C) Environmental controls limit the profits of politically important interest groups.
D) Environmentalists become too influential in local politics.

Question 42

What species became extinct in the nineteenth century?

A) The Galapagos giant tortoise.
B) The dodo.
C) The American bison.
D) The passenger pigeon.

Question 43

How has the United States dealt with the radioactive waste from nuclear weapons?

A) It has buried it at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.
B) It has encased them in cement and dumped it in the Pacific Ocean.
C) It has sent it to poor countries for burial.
D) It has not solved the problem.

Question 44

Where did three nuclear reactors simultaneously overheat?

A) Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania.
B) Fukushima, Japan.
C) Chernobyl, USSR.
D) Visaginas, Lithuania.

Question 45

What is another term for global warming?

A) Ozone depletion.
B) Acid precipitation.
C) The greenhouse effect.
D) Eutrophication.

Question 46

Why was the Arab oil embargo against the United States in 1973 unsuccessful?

A) The availability of US oil reserves.
B) The availability of non-Arab oil supplies.
C) Fear of American military intervention.
D) American energy conservation.

Question 47

What was the first country to have more people over the age of 65 than under the age of 15?

A) Iceland.
B) Russia.
C) Italy.
D) Mexico.

Question 48

What country was the scene of civil war in the 1980s that was partly a result on unequal land distribution?

A) Venezuela.
B) El Salvador.
C) Vietnam.
D) Iran.

Question 49

What former American president established a center for conflict resolution?

A) Bill Clinton.
B) George H. W. Bush.
C) Jimmy Carter.
D) Ronald Reagan.

Question 50

Which of the following authors describes a future world of apocalyptic chaos?

A) Richard Rosecrance.
B) Robert Kaplan.
C) Stephen Krasner.
D) Hans Morgenthau.

Question 51

If chaos engulfed the world, what would probably follow?

A) A revival of authoritarian states.
B) The resurgence of global civil society.
C) Reform of international organizations.
D) Spreading democratization.

Question 52

Who predicted that the Soviet Union would "bury" the United States?

A) Vladimir Lenin.
B) Vladimir Putin.
C) Nikita Khrushchev.
D) Joseph Stalin.

Question 53

Which of the following is not a trend in contemporary global politics?

A) Centralization of global power.
B) Intensification of religious and ethnic identities.
C) Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
D) Privatization of public functions.

Question 54

Which of the following best describes the most likely future?

A) The triumph of globalization.
B) Restructuring of global politics to allow for a greater role for international organizations.
C) Escalating chaos.
D) Elements of all the above.

Question 55

Which of the following is the world envisioned by Richard Rosecrance?

A) A stateless world.
B) A world of virtual states.
C) A world of chaos.
D) A world of reinvigorated states.

Question 56

What is a "body" state?

A) A country that specializes in research and development.
B) A country that suffers from overpopulation.
C) A country that manufacture physical products.
D) A country that lacks an adequate education system.

Question 57

Where did political chaos and popular anxiety encourage authoritarianism?

A) Chile.
B) France.
C) Gabon.
D) Tunisia.

Question 58

Why does Richard Rosecrance believe that war is obsolete?

A) The distribution of nuclear weapons.
B) Economic interdependence.
C) Spreading pacifism.
D) Growing middle classes.

Question 59

Which of the following institutions has been proposed as a possible Forum for Indigenous Peoples?

A) UNICEF.
B) The UN Trusteeship Council.
C) The UN Economic and Social Council.
D) The World Bank.

Question 60

What territory is claimed by both China and Japan?

A) Spratly Islands.
B) Senkaku Islands.
C) Andaman Islands.
D) Nicobar Islands.

Question 61

What political philosopher declared that "fortune is the ruler of half our actions"?

A) Niccolò Machiavelli.
B) Thomas Hobbes.
C) Immanuel Kant.
D) Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Question 62

Which of the following illustrates a world dominated by liberal institutions?

A) The failure of the Doha trade talks.
B) Russia's annexation of Crimea.
C) Humanitarian intervention in East Timor.
D) Anglo-American intervention in Iraq.

Question 63

Where did the UN authorize humanitarian intervention in 2011?

A) Libya.
B) Gaza.
C) Cambodia.
D) Morocco.