Unit 3 Quiz

Overgrazing of public land by privately owned livestock is an example of what?

• Tragedy of the commons
• Multiple use lands
• Sustainability
• Externality

What solution do many economists feel is the only solution to the tragedy of the commons?

• More regualtions
• More public land and less private ownership
• More enforcement of resource regulation violations
• Private ownership of land

Sustainable use of forests in the United States would likely be encouraged by

• cutting small groups of medium- and large- sized trees in uneven-aged forests
• clear-cutting old-growth forests to allow for secondary succession
• allowing road building in wilderness areas so that older, clear-cut forests have time to regenerate
• logging on steep slopes in designated wilderness areas

A person’s ecological footprint is the total amount of land required to offset a person’s carbon emissions. The table below shows ecological footprint data for five different students. Each value is a measure of the number of hectares per land required. If Student 2 wanted to change his or her footprint to be more similar to that of Student 1, which of the following actions would he or she choose based on the data given in table 1 ?

• Using mass transit options when available
• Reducing the amount of meat in his or her diet
• Moving into a smaller home or an apartment complex
• Upgrading his or her electronic devices, such as laptops and cell phones, more often

After reviewing personal footprint data, Student 5 decides to take action to lower his or her overall footprint by reducing money spent on shoes and clothing. Land use in which of the following categories will be most affected by this change?

• Food
• Carbon emissions
• Housing
• Goods and services

Which of the following scenarios best explains the concept of the tragedy of the commons?

• Fish farming, a type of aquaculture, produces fish through selective breeding to produce a cheap source of protein, reducing the fishing pressure on wild stock fish.
• A collapse of the fishing industry leads to a loss of fishing-related jobs, which will have negative consequences on the economy.
• Declines in the fish population lead to a decline in the population of fish predators, affecting the entire food chain.
• Fish are shared resources, and as the fishing industry competes for the fish, the resource extraction is no longer sustainable

Which of the following is most likely to occur in a forested region that has been recently clear-cut?

• The average depth of topsoil will increase.
• The water temperature in streams running through the region will decrease.
• Volume of runoff after rains will decrease
• Erosion will increase in the area, causing many possible adverse impacts

Costs or benefits of a good or service that is not included in the purchase price

• Sustainability
• Externality
• Multiple use land
• Tragedy of the Commons

Removal of single trees or small amounts of trees

• Ecologically sustainable forestry
• Tree plantations
• Clear cutting
• Selective cutting

Less erosion and loss of biodiversity are pros of selective cutting, but what is a drawback?

• Will never grow into a mature ecosystem
• Frequent mudslides
• Logging roads
• Difficult to compete with mechanized practices