Chapter 1 Test
Chapter 1 Test
1.
Sustainability is the capacity of the earths natural system and human cultural systems to survive, flourish, and adapt to
changing environmental conditions in the very long-term future.
a. True
b. False
2.
3.
Government subsidies can actually encourage companies to conduct business in ways that result in environmental
degradation.
a. True
b. False
4.
Pollution cleanup efforts focus on greatly reducing or eliminating the production of pollutants.
a. True
b. False
5.
6.
Indirect forms of solar energy, such as wind and flowing water, provide us with inexhaustible power that we can use to
produce electricity.
a. True
b. False
7.
8.
The tragedy of the commons refers to a situation in which the cumulative effect of large numbers of people trying to
exploit a widely available or shared resource can degrade it and eventually exhaust or ruin it.
a. True
b. False
9.
You are installing solar collectors on the roof of your home to cut your use of the propane gas that heats both your hot water
tank and the living spaces in your home. In doing so, you are using a(n) ____ resource rather than a(n) ____ resource.
a. Inexhaustible; renewable
b. Renewable; inexhaustible
c. Nonrenewable; renewable
d. Inexhaustible; nonrenewable
10. What term best describes the living and nonliving things with which we interact in a complex web of relationships?
a. Natural capital
b. Biodiversity
c. The environment
d. The chemical cycle
11. Your text refers to the dependence on solar energy, biodiversity, and chemical cycling as three major natural factors of ____.
a. Resource guidelines
b. Ecological footprints
c. Environmental tenets
d. Scientific principles of sustainability
12. Which resource would best be categorized as inexhaustible?
a.
b.
c.
d.
Oil reserves
Fisheries
Solar energy
Forests
c.
d.
Cutting trees for wood products faster than the trees can regrow
Harvesting fish at a sustainable rate
27. Ecology
b. capacity of Earths natural systems that support life (including human social
systems) to maintain stability or to adapt to changing environmental conditions
indefinitely
c. Biological science that studies how living things interact with the living and
nonliving parts of their environment
29. Biodiversity
30. Sustainability