Name Date Period
H ES: Chapter 1 Study Guide - ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS, THEIR CAUSES, AND SUSTAINABILITY
1-1 Living More Sustainably
1. Define the following terms:
· Environment – everything that affects a living organism
· Ecology – a biological science that studies the relationships between living organisms and their environment
· Environmental Science – an interdisciplinary study of how the earth works, how we are affecting the earth’s life-support systems (environment), and how to deal with the environmental problems we face
2. Different environmental professionals are concerned with environmental sustainability. Identify what each type of professional does for humans and the environment.
Ecologists
Conservation Biologists
Environmentalists
Preservationists
Restorationists
Environmental Scientists
______a. Use scientific information and concepts to understand how the earth works, learn how humans interact with the earth, and develop solutions to environmental problems
______b. Study the impact of people on environmental quality and believe some human actions are degrading parts of the earth’s life-support systems for humans and many other life forms
______c. Biological scientists studying relationships between living organisms and their environment
______d. Devoted to restoration of natural areas that have been degraded by human activities
______e. Concerned with setting aside or protecting undisturbed natural areas from harmful human activities
______f. Investigate human impacts on the diversity of life found on earth and develop practical plans for preserving biodiversity
______g. Concerned with using natural areas and wildlife in ways that sustain them for current and future generations
3. Give examples of the different types of environmental capital listed below:
· Solar capital – energy from the sun
· Natural capital (resources) – the planet’s air, water, soil, wildlife, forests, rangelands, fisheries, minerals, and natural purification,, recycling, and pest control processes
· Solar energy – includes direct sunlight and indirect forms of solar energy such as wind power, hydropower, biomass
4. What are the two goals of an environmentally sustainable society?
ü to satisfy the basic needs of its people for food, clean water, clean air, and shelter indefinitely
ü to not deplete or degrade the earth’s natural resources while achieving the first goal
5. What is capital?
wealth used to sustain a business and to generate more wealth
6. What is interest?
wealth generated from capital
7. Is it better to live off capital or interest? Explain your answer.
It is better to live off of interest. By protecting your capital you can keep generating more interest. If you spend your capital you will eventually run out of everything.
1-2 Population Growth
8. At what rate is the world's population growing?
Exponentially at a rate of about 1.26% per year
1-3 Economic Growth, Economic Development, Poverty, and Globalization
9. Define the following terms:
· Economic growth – an increase in the capacity to provide people with goods an services
· Economic development – the improvement of living standards by economic growth
1-4 Resources
10. Define the following terms:
· Resource – anything obtained from the environment to meet human needs and wants
· Perpetual resource – a resource that can be renewed continuously (solar energy)
· Renewable resource – a resource that can be replenished fairly rapidly
· Nonrenewable resource – a resource that exists in a fixed quantity and cannot be replenished within the human lifespan
11. Give an example of a nonrenewable resource.
coal, oil, natural gas, iron, copper, aluminum, salt, clay, sand, and phosphates
12. Give an example of a renewable resource.
forests, grasslands, wild animals, fresh water, fresh air, fertile soil
13. Describe what each of the “four R's" stands for:
· reduce – lessen the amount of the resource being used
· reuse – use a resource over and over again
· recycle – collecting and reprocessing a resource into a new product
· refuse – do not use a resource
1-5 Pollution
14. Define pollution.
any addition to air, water, soil, or food that threatens the health, survival, or activities of humans or other living organisms
15. What are the two (2) basic approaches to dealing with pollution?
ü pollution prevention
ü pollution cleanup
1-6 Environmental and Resource Problems: Causes and Connections
16. What are the five (5) major environmental problems? (HINT: Look at Figure 1-9.)
ü air pollution
ü water pollution
ü waste production
ü food supply problems
ü biodiversity depletion
17. What are the five (5) basic causes of the environmental problems we face? (HINT: Look at Figure 1-10.)
ü Rapid population growth
ü Unsustainable resource use
ü Poverty
ü Not including the environmental costs of economic goods and services in their market prices
ü Trying to manage and simplify nature with too little knowledge about how it works
1-7 Cultural Changes and Sustainability
18. What are the 3 major cultural changes that humans have undergone?
ü agricultural revolution
ü industrial revolution
ü information and globalization revolution
19. Summarize the 3 major impacts that humans have had on the environment.
ü given us much more energy and new technologies with which to alter and control more of the planet to meet our basic needs and increase our wants
ü allowed expansion of the human population
ü greatly increased our resource use, pollution, and environmental degradation
1-8 Is Our Present Course Sustainable?
20. Read the "Solutions" chart on page 16 and summarize four (4) things we must do to move toward a sustainable society.
ü Prevent pollution before it happens
ü Reduce and prevent waste from being created
ü Protect where species live
ü Restore environments/habitats
ü Use resources wisely/frugally
ü Decrease birth rates to stabilize population growth
ü Protect natural capital and live off of interest (in terms of resources)
21. In your own words, describe a sustainable society.