Chapter 1
Key Themes in Environmental Sciences
- Justification that sees some aspect of the environment as valuable because it provides individuals with economic benefits:
a) utilitarian
b) ecological
c) moral
d) aesthetic
e) economical
Ans: a
Link to: 1.7
Difficulty: Easy
- Justification that has to do with the belief that aspects of the environment have a right to exist:
a) utilitarian
b) ecological
c) moral
d) aesthetic
e)economical
Ans: c
Link to: 1.7
Difficulty: Easy
- Justification that is based on the value of some factor that is essential to larger life support functions, even though it might not benefit an individual directly:
a) utilitarian
b) ecological
c) moral
d) aesthetic
e) economical
Ans: b
Link to: 1.7
Difficulty: Easy
- The example of the John Eli Miller Family in the textbook illustrates which of the following themes:
a) global warming
b) sustainability
c) human population expansion
d) a global perspective
e) urbanization
Ans: c
Link to: 1.2
Difficulty: Easy
- What is meant by the “population bomb”?
a) nuclear weapons used on urban centers
b) an uncontrolled increase in human population
c) the number of individuals per unit area
d) a graphical representation of growing population
e) an international plan to control the ever growing number of people living on Earth
Ans: b
Link to: 1.2
Difficulty: Easy
- Which of the following is not a major theme of environmental science:
a) human population growth
b) an urbanizing world
c) sustainability of our population and all of nature
d) science and values
e) all of the above are major themes of environmental science
Ans: c
Link to: 1.1
Difficulty: Easy
- Which of the following has contributed to the fact that the human population has increased significantly over time:
a) modern technology
b) supply of food
c) modern medicine
d) supply of clothing and shelter
e) all of the above
Ans: e
Link to: 1.2
Difficulty: Easy
- According to the textbook, most current environmental damage results from:
a) the size of the human population
b) automobiles
c) agriculture
d) industry
e) all of the above and more, because they interact and degrade the environment
Ans: e
Link to: 1.6
Difficulty: Easy
- According to the Environmental Science text, overuse of local resources had little or no long-lasting effect:
a) before the Industrial Revolution
b) during the Industrial Revolution
c) after the Industrial Revolution
d) when there were only a few people on the Earth
e) overuse always had a global effect
Ans: d
Link to: 1.2
Difficulty: Easy
- The population density of the first farmers was much higher than the density of hunters and gatherers because:
a) of stable shelters
b) mortality of farmers is less than that of hunters and gatherers
c) more food was available
d) of a lowered death rate
e) population has grown according to the J-curve from the beginning of human history
Ans: c
Link to: 1.2
Difficulty: Medium
- Aspects and limitation(s) of the early approach to environmental issues included:
a) a lack of scientific knowledge
b) a general recognition that real solutions to environmental problems include and depend on human beings
c) recognition that we must seek sustainability in the environment and our economic activities
d) a lack of understanding that environmentalism and economic progress are not contradictory
e) all of the above
Ans: e
Link to: 1.3
Difficulty: Medium
- What is the carrying capacity of the Earth for humans?
a) zero
b) under 1 billion
c) just over 5 billion
d) between 10 and 20 billion
e) any estimate depends on who you ask and what assumptions they make
Ans: e
Link to: 1.3
Difficulty: Medium
- The question “Which is more important, the survival of people alive today or conservation of the environment?” is difficult to answer. Answering this question demands:
a) value judgments
b) sustainability
c) science and technology
d) a global perspective
e) a legal basis
Ans: a
Link to: 1.7
Difficulty: Medium
- Two arguments that justify human interaction with nature by placing human survival above all other considerations are:
a) utilitarian & aesthetic
b) ecological & moral
c) moral & aesthetic
d) utilitarian & economic
e) ecological & aesthetic
Ans: d
Link to: 1.7
Difficulty: Medium
- The Gaia hypothesis proposes that:
I. the global environment at a global level has been profoundly changed since life appeared on Earth
II. life is sacred, and eating meat or animal by-products is unethical
III. changes in the environment tend to improve the environment for life
a) I only
b) II only
c) I and II
d) I and III
e) I, II, and III
Ans: d
Link to: 1.4
Difficulty: Easy
- “Famines in Africa illustrate that population crises feed on themselves.” Which of the following arguments supports this quotation?
a) food production in Africa has not exceeded human population growth there
b) African desert land appears to be spreading as a result of increased human pressure
c) humans affect the environment, and the environment affects humans
d) the control and destruction of food in Africa has been used as a weapon
e) all of the above
Ans: b
Link to: 1.2
Difficulty: Medium
- Ecological justification is related to:
a) the direct economic benefit for one or more individual
b) the human instinct for individual survival
c) the beauty and wonder in nature
d) moral obligations to and about the environment
e) the belief that aspects of the environment have a right to exist independent of human needs
Ans: e
Link to: 1.7
Difficulty: Medium
- According to Frederick Law Olmsted, planting vegetation in cities provides:
a) medical benefits
b) psychological benefits
c) social benefits
d) aesthetic benefits
e) all of the above
Ans: e
Link to: 1.6
Difficulty: Easy
- The total amount of food produced each year worldwide is sufficient to feed all the world’s people today. Why do famines nevertheless occur?
a) food production is insufficient in some local areas
b) logging destroys agricultural land
c) worldwide transportation of food is inadequate
d) severe local shortage of firewood affects the ability to cook
e) a and c
Ans: e
Link to: 1.2
Difficulty: Medium
- The figure below shows the population of Europe from 800 to 1800 A.D. What caused the large dip in the graph around 1350 A.D.?
a) the Hundred Years War
b) the Punic Wars
c) emigration to North America
d) depredations by Nazgul
e) the Black Death
Ans: e
Link to: 1.2
Difficulty: Easy
Essay
- Explain why most megacities (17 of them worldwide by one recent count) are situated in the developing world?
Ans: As urban sprawl degrades the environment (e.g., wetlands are filled, floodplains are developed) many poor farmers and peasants are forced to relocate into the city areas to find work to survive.
Link to: 1.6
Difficulty: Medium
- The total amount of food produced each year worldwide is sufficient to feed all the world’s people today. Explain why famines nevertheless occur?
Ans: Famines occur because local food production is insufficient and worldwide food transportation is inadequate.
Link to: 1.2
Difficulty: Medium
- Explain the difference between carrying capacity and sustainability.
Ans: Carrying capacity is the max. number of individuals of a species that can be sustained by an environment. Sustainability means that an ecosystem although we are harvesting one of its resources is still able to maintain its essential functions and properties.
Link to: 1.3
Difficulty: Medium
- The human species has accumulated a vast wealth of knowledge, but it is doing more damage to the environment than ever before in its history. According to the Environmental Science text, what else must knowledge be combined with in order to solve these problems?
Ans: values
Link to: 1.7
Difficulty: Easy
- Explain the basic principle of the Gaia hypothesis.
Ans: that life on Earth alters the environment to suit its own needs
Link to: 1.4
Difficulty: Medium
- List the four justifications for placing a value on aspects of the environment.
Ans: utilitarian justification, ecological justification, aesthetic justification, moral justification
Link to: 1.4
Difficulty: Medium
- List four of the five unifying themes in environmental science introduced in the first chapter of the textbook.
Ans: human population problem
sustainability
a global perspective
an urban world
the roles of values and science
Link to: 1.1
Difficulty: Easy
- Name four of the five most populous countries in the world.
Ans: China, India, USA, Indonesia, Brazil
Link to: 1.5
Difficulty: Easy
- Name four of the eight justifications the value of the environment is based on?
Ans: aesthetic, creative, recreational, inspirational, moral, cultural, ecological, utilitarian
Link to: 1.7
Difficulty: Easy
- The estimate of how many people the Earth can support ranges from 2.5 billion to 40 billion. Explain why the estimates vary so widely.
Ans: It depends on the quality of life people are willing to accept. The poorer the quality of life, the more people earth is able to sustain.
Link to: 1.2
Difficulty: Medium
- In what two ways does increasing urbanization subject humanity to increasing exposure to pollutants?
Ans: Increasing urbanization concentrates pollutants in an area, and exposes more and more inhabitants to those high levels of pollution.
Link to: 1.5
Difficulty: Medium
- Famine is a shocking example of the results when human population exceeds the local food supply. In recent history, famine has struck repeatedly in Africa. Name three leading causes of these famines.
Ans: drought, political turmoil, overpopulation, environmental degradation
Link to: 1.5
Difficulty: Easy
Chapter 2
Science as a Way of Knowing
- An observation that is agreed upon by the majority of scientists is called a
a) hypothesis
b) controlled experiment
c) technology
d) theory
e) fact
Ans: d
Link to: 2.3
Difficulty: Easy
- A scientific statement that can be proven or disproven is called
a) hypothesis
b) controlled experiment
c) technology
d) theory
e) fact
Ans: a
Link to: 2.3
Difficulty: Easy
- An experiment that can be compared to a standard is called a
a) hypothesis
b) controlled experiment
c) technology
d) theory
e) fact
Ans: b
Link to: 2.3
Difficulty: Easy
- Which of the following is the correct sequence of steps, from beginning to end, in the Scientific Method:
a) hypothesis –> controlled experiment –> inferences –> conclusions
b) conclusions –> controlled experiment –> observations –> hypothesis
c) controlled experiment –> inferences –> deductive proof –> hypothesis
d) observations –> hypothesis –> controlled experiment –> conclusions
e) conclusions –> observations –> alter observations to fit conclusions –> future research grants and awards
Ans: d
Link to: 2.3
Difficulty: Medium
- One distinction between (A) science and (B) religion, ethics, and morals is that scientific statements are:
a) disprovable
b) universally accepted
c) inference
d) deductive
e) numerical
Ans: a
Link to: 2.1
Difficulty: Medium
- Inductive proof:
a) is speculative
b) is based on hypotheses
c) is probabilistic
d) is absolute
e) produces new knowledge
Ans: c
Link to: 2.1
Difficulty: Easy
- Deductive proof:
a) is speculative
b) is based on hypotheses
c) is probabilistic
d) is absolute
e) produces new knowledge
Ans: d
Link to: 2.1
Difficulty: Easy
- Models that offer very broad, fundamental explanations of many observations are called:
a) hypotheses
b) data
c) theories
d) methods
e) fringe science
Ans: c
Link to: 2.3
Difficulty: Easy
- In the textbook’s case study, “Birds at Mono Lake”, what was the scientists’ main concern when Los Angeles diverted the streams that feed into Mono Lake in order to provide water for the city?
a) the lake would dry up completely
b) the lake would become too salty for wildlife in the lake
c) the tufa towers would collapse and under their own weight
d) the lakes riparian vegetation would die off
e) scientists were not concerned because groundwater and rain would provide ample water for the lake
Ans: b
Link to: 2.3
Difficulty: Medium
- Unlike the Ancient Greek philosophers who developed a theoretical approach to science by asking “why?”, modern scientists asked “how does it work”. What method of thinking was developed as a result of this approach?
a) the modern method of science
b) the theory
c) the hypothetical method
d) the scientific method
e) method of validity
Ans: d
Link to: 2.1
Difficulty: Easy
- The textbook discusses how many environmental issues, such as the dwindling of the California condor, are not easy to solve with controlled experiments. One alternative approach mentioned in the text is the use of:
a) rough approximations
b) historical evidence
c) political polls
d) anecdotal evidence
e) widespread opinion
Ans: b
Link to: 2.6
Difficulty: Medium
- A hypothesis is defined as:
a) an accepted theory
b) true in its facts but false in its assumptions
c) an interested inference
d) a statement that can be disproved
e) a fact
Ans: d
Link to: 2.3
Difficulty: Easy
- Science and technology are often confused with each other. Which of the following is an incorrect statement regarding science and technology?
a) science cannot be advanced without technology
b) technology is the application of scientific knowledge
c) science is limited by the technology available
d) science leads to new technological advances
e) science is the search for understanding the natural world
Ans: a
Link to: 2.5
Difficulty: Medium
- A scientist wishes to test the effects of different amounts of water and fertilizer on yields of corn. In a series of test fields, she varies the supply of water and the amount of fertilizer applied to a given strain of corn and measures the weight of the crop that results. In this experiment, which is/are the dependent variable(s)?
a) corn yield and variety of corn strain
b) water supply and supply of fertilizer
c) corn yield
d) water supply and effect of climate
e) supply of fertilizer and variety of corn strain
Ans: c
Link to: 2.3
Difficulty: Medium
- Which of the following statements is not true about assumptions of science?
a) events in the natural world follow patterns
b) science is based on a type of reasoning known as induction
c) basic processes and laws are not the same throughout the universe
d) generalizations can be subjected to tests that disprove them
e) science can provide absolute proof of the truth of its theories
Ans: c
Link to: 2.1
Difficulty: Medium
- You measure the lengths of worms for your PhD dissertation. Your ruler is marked every millimeter (10 marks per cm). One worm goes from the zero mark exactly to the 3.1 cm mark. The measurement should be recorded as:
a) 3 cm
b) 3.0 cm
c) 3.1 cm
d) 3.10 cm
e) 3.100 cm
Ans: d
Link to: 2.2
Difficulty: Medium
- In the ancient civilizations of Babylon and Egypt, observations of the environment were carried out for all of the following purposes except:
a) planting crops
b) religious reasons
c) predicting human events
d) to understand the fundamental laws of the universe
e) for navigation of ships
Ans: d
Link to: 2.1
Difficulty: Easy
- Science is the search for ______of the natural world, while technology is the search for ______the natural world for human benefit.
a) control; damage to
b) understanding; control of
c) improvement; damage to
d) improvement; control of
e) control; use of
Ans: b
Link to: 2.1
Difficulty: Medium
- Refer to the diagram and the statements that follow below:
A• ______•B
– The shortest distance between two points is a curved line
– The line A-B is the shortest distance between point A and point B
–––> Therefore, line A-B is a curve.
Which of the following statements is the correct analysis of the above proof:
a) the assumptions are correct, but the conclusion is wrong
b) the proof is internally correct, but the assumptions are wrong
c) the proof is flawed, but its conclusion is correct
d) the proof reaches a flawed conclusion because it is not a syllogism
e) the statements are correct, but irrelevant
Ans: b
Link to: 2.3
Difficulty: Medium
- The conclusion of an inductive proof is more ______than the conclusion of a deductive proof.
a) general
b) accurate
c) speculative
d) certain
e) precise
Ans: c
Link to: 2.3
Difficulty: Medium
- – Humans are the only tool-making organisms.
– Chimpanzees make tools.
–––> Therefore chimpanzees are human.
The three statements above are all of the following except:
a) a syllogism
b) a deductive proof
c) an inductive proof
d) internally correct
e) the conclusion defies common sense
Ans: c
Link to: 2.3
Difficulty: Medium
- Science is one specific way of looking at the world. The most important criterion for studying science is use of the Scientific Method. The Scientific Method allows scientists to:
a) analyze personal values
b) test a hypothesis by observation
c) make a conclusion about standards of beauty
d) use logic to make a hypothesis on issues of good and evil
e) observe nature and apply these observations
Ans: b
Link to: 2.3
Difficulty: Medium
- Modern science (as opposed to technology) is focused on:
a) the ultimate role of life on Earth
b) control of the natural world
c) alchemy
d) observations of the natural world
e) the existence of supernatural things
Ans: d
Link to: 2.1
Difficulty: Easy
- You weigh flour on a scale to find out how much you need for baking cookies according to your recipe. But yesterday the scale fell from the counter onto the floor and is now off by 10.00 grams. Your scale still reads two decimal places (for example (90.02 g), so it still gives a(n) ______measurement of the amount of flour
a) accurate
b) deductive
c) inductive
d) estimated
e) precise
Ans: e
Link to: 2.2
Difficulty: Medium
- You weigh flour on a scale to find out how much you need for baking cookies according to your recipe. But yesterday the scale fell from the counter onto the floor and is now off by 10.00 grams. If you do not correct for the effect of the fall, your cookies will come out like bricks because the scale does not give a(n) ______measurement.
Ans: a
Link to: 2.2
Difficulty: Easy
Essay
- This figure illustrates the range of certainty in science and pseudoscience. Fit each of the five topics below into this classification by placing an A, B, C, D, and E into the appropriate spots in the figure.
A - extrasensory perception
B - theory of electricity and magnetism
C - global warming
D - crop circles
E - cold fusion
Ans:
Link to: 2.5
Difficulty: Medium
- What is the difference between “science” and “technology”?
Ans: Science is the search for understanding of the natural world, while technology is the search for control of the natural world for human benefit.
Link to: 2.5
Difficulty: Medium
- A scientist wishes to test the effects of different amounts of water and fertilizer on yields of corn. In a series of test fields, she varies the supply of water and the amount of fertilizer applied to a given strain of corn and measures the weight of the crop that results. In this experiment, which are the independent variables and which are the dependent variables?
Ans: independent: water supply, supply of fertilizer