Understanding the Environment (Ch 1 Section 1)

Which statement best defines environmental science?

• An interdisciplinary study of study environmental problems and human impacts on the environment.

• A field that focuses on the theory and practice of government and politics at the local, state, national, and international levels.

• The science that deals with the earth's physical structure and substance, its history, and the processes that act on it.

• The branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.

Ecology is the study of

• plants and animals

• environmental science

• interactions between organisms and their environment

• energy flow in ecosystems

In which of the following situations would an environmental scientist need to gather most of his or her information from the field of chemistry?

• in studying the connection between rapid population growth and resource destruction in abandoned cities of ancient cultures

• in consulting home builders who are renovating homes to be more energy efficient

• in analyzing how changes in global climate contributed to mass extinctions

• in finding ways to reprocess used plastics to make new products

Which of the following is not a way that hunter-gatherers historically influenced the environment?

• by clearing growths of trees with fire

• by overhunting

• by gathering in groups to live permanently in a small area

• by spreading plants to new areas

The Tigris-Euphrates River basin collapsed, in part because the overworked soil became waterlogged and contaminated by salts. Which of the following influenced that collapse?

• hunter-gatherers

• the Agricultural Revolution

• the Industrial Revolution

• the Information Revolution

Which of the following statements best describes why the Earth is sometimes compared to a spaceship?

• The Earth is a closed system floating in the vastness of space.

• Environmental problems on Earth affect the entire universe.

• Humans can control natural forces beyond the Earth's atmosphere.

• Only a limited number of people can live on Earth just as only a limited number of people can fit inside a spaceship.

If the human population continues to grow, all of the following could happen except increased

• pollution.

• biodiversity.

• resource depletion.

• human starvation.

Which of the following resources is a renewable resource?

• oil

• coal

• fresh water

• natural gas

Which of the following is a renewable resource that is in danger of being used up faster than it can replace itself?

• soil

• groundwater

• tropical rain forests

• all of the above

The primary goals of the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions included all BUT the following

• Improve quality of life for humans

• Increase access to and availability of food

• damaging the environment beyond repair

• Learning ways to use natural resources that were readily available