Chapter 2 Essential Questions
Use supplement 5 to answer the 1st four questions
1. What major events happened during the conservation era of the environmental history of
the United States (a) 1870 and 1930 and (b) 1930 and 1960?
2. Distinguish between preservationists and conservationists. Describe the ongoing
controversy between these two groups in the environmental community.
3. What is the environmental movement in the United States? What major events happened
during the environmental ear of the environmental history of the United States during the
(a) 1960’s, (b) 1970’s, (c) 1980’s, and (d) 1990’s and 2002?
4. Describe why the 1990’s and 2002 were largely disappointing for the environmental
movement and encouraging for the anti-environmental movement in the US.
5. Define science and explain how it works. Distinguish among scientific data, scientific
hypothesis, scientific model, scientific theory, and scientific law.
6. What is a controlled experiment? What is a multivariable experiment?
7. What is the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning? Give examples of
each.
8. What is a system? Distinguish between inputs, throughputs, stores, and outputs.
9. What is a feedback loop? Distinguish between positive and negative loops and give an
example of each.
10. Define synergy, given an example of how it can change a system. List two
environmental surprises that we have encountered and three causes of the surprises.
11. Distinguish between matter, elements, compounds, and mixtures.
12. Distinguish among atoms, ions, and molecules. What are the 4 states of matter?
13. What is the concentration of a chemical? What is pH?
14. Distinguish between organic compounds and inorganic compounds. Distinguish among
hydrocarbons, chlorinated hydrocarbons, chlorofluorocarbons, simple carbohydrates,
polymers, complex carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids, and nucleotides.
15. Distinguish between high-quality matter and low-quality matter, and give an example of
each. What is material efficiency?
16. What is energy? What is radiation?
17. Distinguish between kinetic and potential energy. Give and example of each.
18. What is electromagnetic radiation? List 3 types.
19. Distinguish between heat and temperature. Explain the 3 forms of heat transfer.
20. What is the law of the conservation of matter? Explain why there is no “away” as a
repository to pollution.
21. What three factors determine the harm that a pollutant causes? Distinguish among
concentrations of parts per million, parts per billion and parts per trillion. What is
persistence? Distinguish between degradable, biodegradable, slowly degradable, and
nondegradable.
22. What is a nuclear change? Distinguish among natural radioactive decay, radioisotopes,
gamma rays, alpha particles, beta particles. What is half-life? How many half-lives must
an isotope go through before it can be considered safe?
23. Distinguish between nuclear fission and nuclear fusion.
24. Distinguish between the first law of thermodynamics and the second law of
thermodynamics. Use the second law to explain why energy cannot be recycled.