Sustainability Studies Exam
Questions
Course Introduction
Sustainability Studies is an interdisciplinary course that explores the principles, challenges, and strategies related to achieving environmental, social, and economic sustainability. Students examine the impacts of human activity on natural systems, assess methods for reducing ecological footprints, and investigate policies and technologies aimed at promoting sustainability at local, national, and global scales. Key topics include resource management, climate change, renewable energy, social equity, and sustainable development practices, equipping students with the analytical tools to evaluate and address complex sustainability issues in diverse contexts.
Recommended Textbook
Sustaining the Earth 10th Edition by G. Tyler Miller
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14 Chapters
1846 Verified Questions
1846 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability
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101 Verified Questions
101 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/42453
Sample Questions
Q1) An environmental worldview that holds that we are dependent on nature and our success is dependent on learning how the earth sustains itself and integrating this knowledge into the way we think and act,is
A) planetary management.
B) stewardship.
C) environmental wisdom.
D) national origin.
E) technological.
Answer: C
Q2) Which of the following characterizes cultural revolutions?
A) decreased food supplies
B) increased resource consumption and pollution
C) worsening living standards
D) shorter life spans
E) lower average per capita GNP
Answer: B
Q3) When a country's GDP decreases,the per capita GDP must also decrease.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Page 3
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Chapter 2: Science, Matter, Energy, and Systems
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162 Verified Questions
162 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Using this image,outline a possible food chain.
Answer: example: Phytoplankton - krill - fish - emperor penguin - leopard seal,etc.
Q2) Energy flow can be used to diagram the ecological interdependence of species.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) The matter and energy laws tell us that we can recycle
A) both matter and energy.
B) neither matter nor energy.
C) matter but not energy.
D) energy but not matter.
E) none of these answers
Answer: C
Q4) What does this figure depict?
Answer: A pyramid of energy flow
Q5) Sequences of nucleotides that contain information about characteristics passed from parents to offspring are called _____.
Answer: genes
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Chapter 3: Biodiversity and Evolution
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104 Verified Questions
104 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Biomes are not uniformly distributed because of discontinuities in the distribution of resources and human influence.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) The vertical zones of the open sea (euphotic,bathyal,and abyssal)are based primarily on ____________________.
Answer: penetration of sunlight
Q3) Which of the following results in the loss of the most species?
A) background extinction
B) mass depletion
C) adaptive radiation
D) speciation
E) reproductive isolation
Answer: B
Q4) ____________________ is determined by environmental factors including temperature,sunlight,dissolved oxygen,and available nutrients.
Answer: Aquatic biodiversity
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Community Ecology, Population Ecology, and the Human Population
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117 Verified Questions
117 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following would undergo secondary succession?
A) cooled volcanic lava
B) a new sandbar exposed by the ocean
C) a heavily polluted stream that has been cleaned up
D) a bare rock outcrop
E) a newly formed, shallow freshwater pond
Q2) Why is predation considered beneficial at the population level but harmful at the individual level?
Q3) On the exponential growth of reindeer figure,choose the portion of the graph that can also be called a "dieback."
Q4) Forms of nondestructive behavior between organisms include all of the following except
A) resource partitioning.
B) sharing resources by looking for food in different places.
C) parasitism.
D) mutualism.
E) commensalism.
Q5) ____________________ is competitive interaction between species for food,space,or other resources.
Q6) Which age-structure diagram represents a declining population? Page 6
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Page 7
Chapter 5: Sustaining Biodiversity: The Species Approach
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114 Verified Questions
114 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) To control nonnative species that have no natural competitors,scientists must remove the species from the ecosystem.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Direct causes of wildlife extinction include all of the following except A) earthquakes.
B) climate change.
C) oil spills.
D) habitat destruction.
E) invasive species.
Q3) ____________________ includes collecting wild eggs laid by endangered bird species and then hatching them in zoos or research centers.
Q4) Gene banks,zoos,and aquariums are sanctuaries being used to protect wild species. A)True
B)False
Q5) One solution to the problem of ____________________ is to connect the patches by planting corridors of native vegetation.
Q6) ____________________ is diminished by extinction.
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Chapter 6: Sustaining Biodiversity: The Ecosystem Approach
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142 Verified Questions
142 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Draw a megareserve including its component parts.Explain how megareserves both protect global biodiversity and compromise with human needs and interests.
Q2) We have reserved 95% of earth's land area for human use. How can we sustain wild species in areas dominated by human activities? Give five examples.
Q3) Currently,____ of the earth's land area is protected either strictly or partially by nature reserves,parks,wildlife refuges,wilderness and other areas.
A) 5%
B) 10%
C) 12%
D) 20%
E) 30%
Q4) Natural ecosystem recovery can be achieved through A) restoration.
B) rehabilitation.
C) replacement.
D) creating artificial ecosystems.
E) all of these answers
Q5) Reversing environmental damage is called ____________________.
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Chapter 7: Food,Soil,and Pest Management
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151 Verified Questions
151 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) A pest is any organism that
A) spreads disease.
B) interferes with human activity.
C) competes with humans.
D) is simply a nuisance.
E) all of these answers
Q2) Cattle and dairy cows are responsible for producing around 16% of the world's annual emissions of which greenhouse gas?
A) carbon dioxide
B) nitrogen dioxide
C) carbon monoxide
D) chlorofluorocarbon
E) methane
Q3) According to pesticide proponents,pesticides do all of the following except A) protect natural enemies.
B) increase profit for farmers.
C) work faster than alternate controls.
D) increase food supplies.
E) save lives.
Q4) What are five major obstacles to food security?
Page 10
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Chapter 8: Water Resources and Water Pollution
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147 Verified Questions
147 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following offers the least conservation of water?
A) Center-pivot sprinkler systems
B) Low-energy precision-application (LEPA) sprinkler systems
C) Trickle or drip irrigation
D) Gravity-flow canal systems
E) Diagonal-pivot systems
Q2) The only effective way to protect groundwater is to
A) prevent contamination.
B) use monitoring wells.
C) cover all wells carefully.
D) treat all water from underground sources.
E) pump more water into aquifers to dilute contamination.
Q3) On the groundwater system figure,choose the letter that represents an area that replenishes an aquifer by surface runoff and infiltration.
Q4) Cold temperatures of groundwater slow down the chemical reactions that decompose wastes.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Why do people live on floodplains in spite of the risk of flooding?
Q6) ____________________ treatment uses biological methods such as digestion.
Page 11
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Chapter 9: Nonrenewable Energy Resources
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100 Verified Questions
100 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The amount of usable high quality energy from an energy resource is its
Q2) There is a large push to tap domestic oil supplies.Do you agree or disagree,and why?
Q3) Shale oil and tar sands ____ than conventional oil deposits.
A) are easier to extract
B) have lower net useful energy yield
C) have less environmental impact
D) are the source of more useful products
E) are less expensive to produce
Q4) Combustion of natural gas produces more carbon dioxide per unit of energy produced than oil or coal.
A)True
B)False
Q5) It takes energy to get energy.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Coal is more polluting but cheaper than oil.
A)True
B)False
Page 12
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Chapter 10: Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
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114 Verified Questions
114 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) If energy prices were kept artificially high,
A) energy efficiency would be encouraged.
B) dependence on imported energy sources would be reduced.
C) the use of non-renewable energy resources in the future would decline.
D) all of these answers
E) none of the answers
Q2) An example of a widely used device that wastes over 65% of energy from its fuel is
A) a coal-fired power plant.
B) an internal combustion engine.
C) a nuclear power plant.
D) an incandescent light bulb.
E) all of these devices.
Q3) ____________________ transform the sun's energy into heat,which is then used to produce electricity.
Q4) Some new types of solar cells can be applied to windows and outside walls.
A)True
B)False
Q5) List three (3)actions that governments can use to encourage the shift to more sustainable sources of energy.
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Chapter 11: Environmental Hazards and Human Health
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116 Verified Questions
116 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) All chemicals in commercial use were screened for toxicity before they were accepted for use.
A)True
B)False
Q2) LD50 values for acute toxicity to humans are extrapolated from animal tests at measured low-dose exposures.
A)True
B)False
Q3) DDT is banned in most countries but is still widely used for malaria control.
A)True
B)False
Q4) After poverty and gender,the greatest risks people face are mainly from lifestyle choices.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Six infectious diseases are influenza,hepatitis B,SARS,HIV,malaria and West Nile.
A)True B)False
Q6) System reliability (%)= ____________________ x ____________________
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Chapter 12: Air Pollution, Climate Change, and Ozone
Depletion
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148 Verified Questions
148 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which is false?
A) CFCs are persistent chemicals.
B) Ozone depletion is worst in Antarctica.
C) There are substitutes to CFCs.
D) Ozone thinning is a permanent problem.
E) CFCs contribute to global warming.
Q2) Melting the Arctic permafrost is not likely to ____.
A) release methane trapped in the permafrost
B) result in habitat loss for many species
C) spread tropical disease to Arctic areas
D) alter lifestyles for Native Alaskans
E) allow for saltwater inundation of coastal areas
Q3) A warmer atmosphere is beneficial to wildlife habitats and plant species because of the increased temperature and productivity.
A)True
B)False
Q4) We can reduce our exposure to UV radiation by going out only when the skies are overcast or cloudy.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 13: Urbanization and Solid and Hazardous Waste
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189 Verified Questions
189 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Phytoremediation
A) involves using natural or genetically engineered plants to absorb pollutants from soil and water.
B) results in the production of high-level hazardous wastes. C) may be used at considerably more expense than landfills and incineration. D) is widely accepted as the best way to cut hazardous wastes. E) does not yet exist.
Q2) In our material-flow economy,manufacturers make more money on a product if it can be recycled because of the reduction of raw materials needed.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Scientists suggest that in order to deal with hazardous waste we must produce less waste,convert hazardous to nonhazardous substances,and
Q4) The list of 12 chemicals,called the dirty dozen,includes DDT and 8 other fluorine-containing persistent pesticides,PCBs,dioxins,and furans.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The two types are recycling are ____________________ and
Page 16
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Chapter 14: Economics, Politics, Worldviews, and Sustainability
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141 Verified Questions
141 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Environmental economists view
A) the earth's natural capital as a subset of human economic systems.
B) economic systems as subsystems of the biosphere and advocate refining existing economic systems toward more sustainable economies.
C) the potential of economic growth as unlimited.
D) high waste economies as desirable as long as waste and pollution are managed.
E) energy flow and matter resources as inputs to economic systems that must be maximized.
Q2) ____________________ advocate passing laws or establishing regulations favorable to their cause.
Q3) Three types of resources are used to produce goods and services.They are ____________________,____________________ and
Q4) Green taxes would replace environmentally harmful subsidies and encourage the termination of unnecessary consumption.
A)True B)False
Q5) Why are more companies embracing environmental regulations?
Page 17
Q6) A(n)____________________ includes the harmful indirect or direct costs of goods.
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Page 18