Ecology Review
Populations
Resources
Biodiversity
Waste
1. Exponential Growth
• A. Remains constant
• B. Starts out slowly and remains
slow
• C. Starts out slowly then becomes
very rapid
• D. Starts rapidly and remains rapid
2. Earth’s capital includes all
of the following except:
• A. Wildlife
• B. Sunlight
• C. Water
• D. Soil
3. A sustainable society
• A. lives off of income without
depleting its earth capital
• B. meets the needs of its people
without jeopardizing the needs of
future generations
• C. Manages its economy and
population size without exceeding
the carrying capacity of the
environment
• D. all of these answers
4. Most of the environmental
problems we face are
• A. increasing linearly
• B. decreasing linearly
• C. increasing exponentially
• D. decreasing exponentially
5. Approximately how
long as the species Homo
sapiens lived on Earth?
• A. 4,000
• B. 12,000
• C. 60,000
• D. 100,000
6. Domestication of wild
plants and animals
occurred about ____
years ago.
• A. 5,000
• B. 10,000
• C. 15,000
• D. 20,000
7. The industrial revolution
began about ___ years ago.
• 100
• 175
• 200
• 275
8. Which of the following
characterize cultural
revolutions?
• A. Decreased food supplies
• B. Increased resource consumption
and pollution
• C. Worsening living standards
• D. Shorter life spans
9. Which of the following
statements about
developing countries is
true?
• A. They are highly industrialized.
• B. They have high average GNPs
per person
• C. The US, Canada, Japan and
western European countries are
developing countries
• D. They use about twelve percent
10. About ___% of the
world’s human population
lives in the developing
countries.
• A. 49
• B. 59
• C. 69
• D. 79
11. More than ___% of the
projected increase in world
population is expected to
take place in developing
countries.
• A. 65
• B. 75
• C. 85
• D. 95
12. Since 1960, the gap
between rich and poor, as
measured by GNP per capita,
has
• A. decreased, then increased since
1980
• B. increased, then substantially
decreased since 1980
• C. increased, then substantially
increased since 1980
• D. decreased, then substantially
decreased since 1980
13.For something to be
classified as a resource, it
must
• A. satisfy a human need
• B. Be steadily renewed or
replenished
• C. be a form of matter
• D. exist in abundance
14. All of the following are
potentially renewable
resources except
• A. groundwater
• B. trees in a rainforest
• C. fertile soil
• D. oil
15. Use of a natural resource
based on a sustainable yield
applies to
• A. renewable resources
• B. nonrenewable resources
• C. perpetual resources
• D. amenity resources
16. Which of the following
best describes the concept of
environmental degradation?
• A. using solar power at a rapid rate
• B. using oil
• C. cutting trees for wood products
• D. letting agricultural runoff cause
oxygen depletion and fish kills
downstream
17. Resources that are called
nonrenewable
• A. are also called perpetual
resources
• B. are only resources that are alive
• C. are capable of economic
depletion
• D. are derived from solar capital
18. All nonrenewable
resources can be
• A. converted to nonmetallic
minerals
• B. converted to renewable ones
• C. exhausted or depleted
• D. recycled or reused
19. Which of the following
statements best illustrates
the tragedy of the commons?
• A. A factory pollutes a river as much
as the law allows.
• B. Some levels of pollution are life
threatening.
• C. Some activities harm the
environment, but others do not
• D. Irrigated cropland can be ruined
20. On the outskirts of a
municipality lies a forest on
public property. A person
applying the precautionary
approach
• A. Clear-cutting the forest to provide
taxes for the town
• B. Converting the natural woods to tree
farms
• C. harvesting trees at their estimated
sustainable yield
• D. Harvesting trees below their
estimated sustainable yield
21. New efforts to prevent
the tragedy of the commons
include
• A. using common-property
resources at or above their
sustainable yields
• B. converting land from private to
more public ownership
• C. moving from a taxpayers pay
approach to a users pay approach
• D. deregulation of industries that
use common-property resources
22. Which of the following is
an example of recycling?
• A. Collecting and remelting beer
cans
• B. cleaning and refilling soft drink
bottles
• C. selling used clothing at a garage
sale
• D. saving leftovers in a peanut
butter jar
23. We can extend use of
nonrenewable resources by
• A. reducing direct consumption of
the resource
• B. reusing the same form of a
particular resource many times
• C. recycling a resource into new
products
• D. all of these answers
24. When a resource is
economically depleted, we
can
• A. Recycle or reuse existing
supplies
• B. waste less
• C. develop substitutes
• D. all of these answers
25. Pollution includes
• A. dumping detergents into
streams, causing fish kills
• B. Spraying with DDT, lowering the
eagle population
• C. releasing gases from coal
combustion, causing acid rain
• D. all of these answers
26. Effects of pollution might
include
• A. being unable to see the top of
skyscrapers because of smog
• B. acid rain-induced destruction of
a statue in your city park
• C. spread of disease from an open
dump
• D. all of these answers
27. Point sources of pollution
include all of the following
except
• A. an automobile tailpipe
• B. a factory smokestack
• C. a drainpipe from a power plant
• D. runoff from cropland
28. Nonpoint sources of
pollution include all of the
following except
• A. pesticides dispersed by airplane
and wind onto a crop
• B. runoff from a stockyard
• C. a smokestack from a power
plant
• D. Fertilizer runoff from lawns.
29. Which of the following is
not important in determining
the damage caused by a
pollutant?
• A. concentration
• B. persistence
• C. origin
• D. chemical nature
30. Persistent pollutants
include
• A. grass clippings
• B. most plastics
• C. paper cups
• D. food waste
31. Nondegradable
pollutants include
• A. tin cans
• B. human sewage
• C. lead
• D. detergent
33. You generally buy and
eat microwave dinners. After
dinner, cardboard tops and
plastic trays remain. The
least effective way to deal
with this solid waste is to
• A. store leftovers in the plastic trays
• B. put all of the solid waste in household
trash to be taken to the landfill
• C. donate the plastic trays to the local
nursery schools to use with preschoolers
• D. recycle the components
34. Pollution cleanup
approaches
• A. may be overwhelmed by
continuing population growth
• B. often transfer pollutants
between different parts of the
ecosystem
• C. May be very costly once
pollutants are dispersed in the
environment
• D. all of these answers
35. Pollution prevention
receives about ____% of the
US environmental pollution
budget
• A. 1
• B. 10
• C. 20
• D. 30
36. Of the following major
environmental problems, the
one with the least effect on
food supply is
• A. groundwater depletion
• B. overgrazing
• C. outdoor air pollutants
• D. soil erosion
37. Underlying root causes of
unsustainable resource use
include all of the following
except
• A. poverty
• B. overpopulation
• C. overreliance on renewable
energy resources
• D. prices that do not include
environmental and social costs of
products
39. Exponentially growing
depletion and degradation of
earth capital cause
• A. soil erosion
• B. loss of biodiversity
• C. deforestation
• D. all of these answers
39. A very simple model of
environmental degradation
and pollution would include
all of the following except
• A. number of people
• B. the climate in which the people
live
• C. average number of units of
resources each person uses
• D. amount of environmental
degradation and pollution generated
40. Of the following
behaviors, the one that runs
counter to the way the Earth
works is
• A. Recycling of materials
• B. Controlling population growth
• C. producing and consuming
anything people are willing to buy
• D. making sacrifices now for future
generations
41. Of the following actions,
the only one that does the
least to sustain the Earth is
• A. protecting Earth’s biodiversity
• B. controlling human population
growth
• C. utilizing renewable resources
whenever possible
• D. increasing our dependence on
nonrenewable resources