Ch10 Sustainability, Population, Test Questions & Answers

Chapter 10

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which has the highest per capita consumption of fossil fuel?
   1. China
   2. European Union
   3. Japan
   4. United States
2. Globally, of all the water that is extracted for human purposes, an estimated ___ percent is used in agriculture.
   1. 25
   2. 15
   3. 70
   4. 40
3. “The twentieth century has been extraordinarily successful for the human species… perhaps too successful.” Who wrote those words?
   1. Wangari Maathai
   2. Lester Brown
   3. Gro Harlem Brundtland
   4. President Richard Nixon
4. Which of these countries has been a leader in both sustainable practices and policies?
   1. Brazil
   2. Costa Rica
   3. United States
   4. Netherlands
5. Which of these statements is not true?
   1. CO₂ has increased 30% since pre-industrial times.
   2. CO₂ is still increasing at an unprecedented rate of about 0.4% per year.
   3. The amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere remained relatively constant since 2008.
   4. The increase in CO₂ is largely due to fossil fuel combustion and deforestation.
6. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has documented that sub Saharan Africa already lacks adequate nutrition for ___ percent of its population.
   1. 5
   2. 15
   3. 25
   4. 35
7. IPAT analysis does not explicitly consider the impact of
   1. Population
   2. Affluence
   3. Technology
   4. Environmental Impact
   5. Industry
8. Which U.S. president appointed the Commission on Population Growth and the American Future?
   1. President Richard Nixon
   2. President George H.W. Bush
   3. President Jimmy Carter
   4. President Bill Clinton
9. Which of the methods below estimate the resource and waste requirements of specific populations?
   1. Environmental Resource Accounting
   2. IPAT
   3. Carrying Capacity
   4. Ecological Footprint Analysis
   5. All of the above.
10. Which of the methods below places a monetary value on environmental goods and services that conventionally, economists have regarded as free?
    1. Environmental Resource Accounting
    2. Population Situation Analysis
    3. Carrying Capacity
    4. Ecological Footprint Analysis
    5. All of the above.
11. The Greenbelt Movement took place in which country?
    1. Kenya
    2. China
    3. Brazil
    4. Costa Rica
12. In the Ecological Footprints of Nations study conducted in the late 1990s, Mathis Wackernagel and colleagues estimated that the world’s people are using about ________ more of the earth’s biological productivity than can be regenerated.
    1. One tenth
    2. One half
    3. One third
    4. One fifth
13. Measured by fleet capacity, which country below is not only of the world’s top fishing nations?
    1. Russia
    2. Japan
    3. China
    4. Indonesia
14. Population Situation Analysis (PSA) allows national and subnational governments to
    1. Use available population data to analyze how current and projected population trends affect development and plan for these changes.
    2. Examine the ecological footprints of their countries.
    3. Gauge how much affluence and technology they will allow.
    4. Calculate the value of environmental goods and services.

True False Questions

1. T F The current relationship between humanity and the environment is nearly sustainable.
2. T F Most developed economies currently consume resources much faster than they can regenerate.
3. T F Roughly 2.5% of all of the Earth’s water is fresh water; the majority of which is relatively inaccessible.
4. T F Most people without access to an improved drinking water source live in rural areas.
5. T F In developing countries, women head more than a third of all households.
6. T F Between 2000 and 2010, the number of hectares of forest lost to logging were 95% replaced by active replanting.
7. T F The production of fish continues to grow roughly at the rate of human population.
8. T F During the twentieth century, water use grew about same the rate of population increase.
9. T F Fully half of the world’s wetlands disappeared during the twentieth century.
10. T F Fish farming has been shown to be a long-term sustainable alternative for ocean degradation.
11. T F Recent analyses suggest that environmental degradation may be occuring faster than population increase.
12. T F Most developing countries with rapid population growth face the urgent need to improve living standards.
13. T F As a group, least developed countries contribute less than one per cent of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
14. T F Initially, the Kenyan government welcomed the efforts of Nobel Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai.

Essay Questions (Sugested Main Points listed)

1. Why are women especially important for sustainable development?
   1. Women are the main users of natural resources from their immediate environment.
   2. Women have led indigenous environmental movements in many regions of the world. Note example of Wangari Maathai in Kenya.
   3. Women are suppliers of food, fuel, and water for household subsistence.
   4. Many village health workers throughout the world are women and they have a large reservoir of social knowledge that can be applied to environmental problems.
2. Discuss some of the major international efforts to address sustainability since the mid-1980’s. How have population issues been integrated into these sustainability efforts?
   1. The 1987 United Nations World Commission on the Environment and Development, chaired by Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, adopted a strategy of integrating conservation and development globally. Its seminal report, Our Common Future, defined sustainable development.
      1. Population could be considered to be one of the societal needs or have an environmental or economic impact in the “triple bottom line.”
   2. The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (known as “Earth Summit”) held in Rio de Janeiro endorsed an action plan for sustainability, known as Agenda 21 or the Rio Declaration.
      1. Principle 8 states that states should reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption and promote appropriate demographic policies.
   3. In 2000, world leaders adopted the Millennium Declaration committing themselves to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women.
      1. Did not address population specifically, but did address maternal mortality and gender discrimination which are related.
   4. At the 2012 U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) held in Rio de Janeiro, leaders from 193 member states approved the nonbinding document, The Future We Want which provides general guidance to shape policies promoting global prosperity, reducing poverty and advancing social equity, and environmental protection.