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Q:
Discuss how governments can use policies to improve food security.
Q:
It is well-documented that while some synthetic pesticides have caused great harm to living creatures, others have saved lives. Give a brief account of one that has, ironically, saved human lives: DDT.
Q:
It can take 400 to 1,000 years to break down ____ that end up in landfills or the ocean.
a. disposable coffee cups
b. batteries
c. glass bottles
d. plastic bags
e. aluminum cans
Q:
Denmark, Finland, and the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island have banned all ____ that cannot be reused.
a. batteries
b. plastics
c. packaging
d. grocery bags
e. beverage containers
Q:
The fee-per-____ waste collection systems charge consumers for the amount of waste they throw away.
a. unit
b. product
c. material
d. energy
e. bag
Q:
From an environmental standpoint, refusing, reducing and reusing are preferred over recycling because they are ____ approaches that tackle the problem of waste production at the front end.
more feasible
a. waste prevention
b. integrated
c. management
d. green
e. more feasible
Q:
What approach do most analysts call for in approaching our waste problems?
a. waste management
b. waste reduction
c. integrated waste management
d. reusing
e. recycle
Q:
What variety of hazardous waste does not a have a scientifically and politically acceptable way of disposal?
a. e-waste
b. coal ash
c. pesticides
d. nuclear
e. medical waste
Q:
Which category most accurately describes waste such as food wastes, cardboard, cans, bottles, yard wastes, furniture, plastics, metal, glass, and e-waste?
a. e-waste
b. municipal waste
c. solid waste
d. industrial solid waste
e. municipal solid waste
Q:
What kind of waste is hospital medical waste?
a. e-waste
b. biogenic waste
c. solid waste
d. toxic waste
e. industrial waste
Q:
Which country is the worlds largest producer of solid waste?
a. United States
b. China
c. Russia
d. India
e. Brazil
Q:
What do workers in countries with cheap labor use to recover valuable metals from e-waste?
a. lead
b. sharp knives
c. heat
d. acid
e. mercury
Q:
Why can the U.S. legally transport its electronic waste when other countries cannot?
a. The United States can export its e-waste legally because it is the only industrialized nation that exports directly to recycling centers.
b. The United States can export its e-waste legally because it is exempted from most international laws.
c. The United States can export its e-waste legally because it can afford the safety measures needed for safe transport.
d. The United States can export its e-waste legally because it is the only industrialized nation that has not ratified the Basel Convention.
e. The United States can export its e-waste legally because it has previous trade agreements with some countries.
Q:
Tires being shredded and converted into surfacing for public roads is an example of ____________________ recycling.
Q:
_____________________ are chemical substances that persist in the environment and accumulate in the fatty tissues of humans and other organisms.
Q:
The Basel Convention was designed to ____.
a. promote international subsidies for reusing and recycling
b. curb greenhouse gas emission through reusing and recycling programs
c. ban participating countries from shipping hazardous waste to or through other countries without their permission
d. wipe out hazardous waste smugglers
e. regulate the 12 widely used persistent organic pollutants
Q:
The primary role of hazardous waste ____ is to evade the laws by using an array of tactics, including bribes, false permits, and mislabeling of hazardous wastes as recyclable materials.
a. emitters
b. producers
c. manufacturers
d. smugglers
e. users
Q:
In 2000, delegates from 122 countries completed a global treaty to control 12 persistent organic pollutants (POPs) that contain ____.
a. DDT
b. ozone
c. chlorofluorocarbons
d. methane gas
e. mercury
Q:
Which country has passed a law that states all chemicals that are persistent and can accumulate in living tissue will be banned by the year 2020?
a. the United States
b. France
c. China
d. Norway
e. Sweden
Q:
What is a way that governments can encourage reuse and recycling?
a. Governments can set fair market prices for various products.
b. Governments can force people to recycle with negative incentives.
c. Governments could remove the harmful Superfund Act.
d. Governments could encourage the use of POPs in controlling waste.
e. Governments can increase subsidies and tax breaks for reusing and recycling
Q:
In nature, the waste outputs of one organism become the nutrient inputs of another organism, so that all of the earths nutrients are endlessly recycled. Applying this concept to industry and manufacturing is called ____.
a. biomanufacturing
b. environmental sustainability
c. environmental economics
d. biomimicry
e. eco-industrialization
Q:
Using blood tests and statistical sampling, medical researchers at New York Citys Mount Sinai School of Medicine found that it is likely that nearly every person on the earth has detectable levels of ____ in their bodies.
a. hazardous chemicals
b. carcinogens
c. petrochemicals
d. DDT
e. persistent organic pollutants (POPs)
Q:
If you live in the United States, you can find out what toxic chemicals are being stored and released in your neighborhood by ____.
a. going to the EPAs Toxic Release Inventory website
b. visiting the U.S. Library of Congress
c. calling your local Superfund council
d. obtaining a copy of the National Priorities List
e. asking local manufactures to comply with the Toxic Substances Control Act
Q:
Under what regulation are hazardous waste permit holders must use a cradle-to-grave system?
a. The Superfund Act
b. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
c. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
d. The Toxic Release Inventory Act
e. The Clean Air Act
Q:
What was the Superfund Act designed to do?
a. To make polluters pay for cleaning up abandoned hazardous waste
b. To ensure the safety of chemicals used in the manufacture of many products
c. To identify sites where hazardous wastes have contaminated the environment
d. To generate funds for the EPA so that it can enforce environmental laws
e. To pay for the Toxic Release Inventory
Q:
EPA studies have found that 70% of all U.S. hazardous waste ____ have no liners and could threaten groundwater supplies.
a. sanitary landfills
b. deep-well disposal sites
c. open pit landfills
d. storage ponds
e. storage tanks
Q:
Plasma gasification is a technology that uses arcs of electricity in the absence of ____ to produce very high temperatures for vaporizing trash.
a. water
b. hazardous chemicals
c. coal
d. oxygen
e. carbon dioxide
Q:
In the United States, almost two-thirds of all liquid hazardous wastes are ____.
a. recycled into useful materials
b. bioremediated
c. injected into deep disposal wells
d. incinerated
e. stored in guarded facilities
Q:
Although burial of hazardous waste is the last thing we should do, why then is this the most widely used method of dealing with our hazardous waste?
a. politics
b. health
c. laziness
d. lower cost
e. complexity
Q:
Using charcoal or resins to filter out harmful solids is a ____ method.
a. chemical
b. physical
c. biological
d. geological
e. physiological
Q:
What process involves the use of plants to remove contaminants from polluted soil and water?
a. phytoremediation
b. plasma gasification
c. bioremediation
d. incineration
e. composting
Q:
What process involves the use of bacteria and enzymes to destroy hazardous substances?
a. phytoremediation
b. plasma gasification
c. bioremediation
d. incineration
e. composting
Q:
Denmark ____ 54% of its municipal solid waste in state-of-the-art facilities that exceed European air pollution standards by a factor of 10.
a. buries
b. incinerates
c. recycles
d. reuses
e. composts
Q:
What is the primary reason many U.S. citizens, local governments, and environmental scientists oppose waste incineration?
a. It is more expensive than landfills.
b. It must burn a lot of trash to maintain profitability.
c. It is difficult to regulating incinerators.
d. It emits air pollutants.
e. It undermines waste reduction strategies like reduce and reuse.
Q:
Of the two types of dumps utilized for solid waste, open dumps ____.
a. are rare in developed countries
b. cover wastes with clay or plastic foam
c. have little odor
d. are vermin free
e. are the most environmentally friendly
Q:
When a cool layer of air is below a warm layer of air, this is called a(n) ____________________.
Q:
The emission of ____________________ from certain trees and plants in urban areas can promote the formation of photochemical smog.
Q:
Life as we know it could not exist without the protective layer of ____________________ in the stratosphere.
Q:
____________________ is a colorless gas used in foam insulation and can cause irritation of the eyes, throat, skin, and lungs.
Q:
In comparing CO2 emissions sources, scientists use the concept of a(n) ____________________, which is the amount of CO2 generated by an individual, an organization, a country, or any other entity over a given period of time.
Q:
____________________ is a mixture of primary and secondary pollutants formed under the influence of UV radiation from the sun.
Q:
____________________ are harmful chemicals emitted directly into the air from natural processes and human activities.
Q:
The ____________________ is the layer of the atmosphere that contains the protective ozone layer.
Q:
____________________ are manmade compounds that have been widely used as refrigerants and in spray propellants and foam blowing.
Q:
What is an advantage to placing taxes and fees on carbon and energy usage?
a. Tax laws are typically very simple and straightforward.
b. Tax laws tend to have few, if any, loopholes.
c. Lower emissions are nearly guaranteed.
d. Tax laws and fees tend to be politically popular.
e. The administration is simple and revenues are predicable.
Q:
What is a disadvantage of cap-and-trade policies?
a. There is no clear legal limit on emissions.
b. There are no rewards to cut emissions.
c. There is no record of success.
d. The expense to consumers is very high.
e. The revenues are not predictable.
Q:
Explain the following statement (quotation at the beginning of Chapter 15) made by the German scientist Paracelsus: The dose makes the poison.
Q:
Explain why infants and children are more susceptible to the effects of toxic substances than adults.
Q:
Discuss why estimating risks from technologies is difficult.
Q:
Discuss the specific hazards we face from infectious diseases and exposure from chemicals and make a general statement about how we can reduce these major risks.
Q:
Since the AIDS virus has reduced life expectancy in some sub-Saharan African countries by as much as 20 years, the result is that some countries, such as Botswana and Zimbabwe, will each lose half of their adult population within a decade. Briefly discuss the implications of this tragedy.
Q:
What purpose does the accompanying graph serve in our challenge of evaluating hazardous chemicals?
Q:
On the accompanying graph, explain what the designation LD50 means.
Q:
Discuss at least one of the factors that explains why most people do a poor job at evaluating risk.
Q:
Describe at least one principle that can help us to evaluate and reduce risk.
Q:
On the accompanying graph, what dose in hypothetical units did it take to kill 25% of the population?
Q:
In the accompanying figure, in what age range are females more likely to die from AIDS than males?
Q:
In the accompanying figure, in what age range are men more likely to die from AIDS than females?
Q:
In the accompanying figure, how many more men between 20 and 24 years of age would live if AIDS could be eradicated?
Q:
In the accompanying figure, how many more women between 20 and 24 years of age would survive if AIDS were eradicated?
Q:
Water bottles can contain ____________________, which is an estrogen mimic that is used as a hardening agent in certain plastics.
Q:
Examples of chemicals that can be ____________________ include DDT, PCBs, and methylmercury.
Q:
Some studies have shown that exposure of human babies to the group of hormonally active agents called ____________________ may correspond with early puberty in girls and male infertility.
Q:
The ____________________ system is a complex network of glands that release tiny amounts of hormones into the bloodstreams of humans and other vertebrate animals.
Q:
It is estimated that approximately one of every 12 women of childbearing age in the United States has enough ____________________ in her blood to harm a developing fetus.
Q:
The immune system has specialized cells and tissues that protect the body against disease and harmful substances by forming ____________________, which are specialized proteins that render invading agents harmless.
Q:
An alternative approach to combating _____________ is to provide free or inexpensive insecticide-treated bed nets to poor people in the regions most affected.
Q:
An important breakthrough to help prevent death from dehydration for victims of severe diarrhea has been the development of _________________________.
Q:
Although coal is an abundant fuel, when burned it produces very high ____________________ ____________________ emissions.
Q:
Large reserves of ____________________ are located in Canada and its oil reserves are considered to be second only in size to those in Saudi Arabia.
Q:
____________________ produces fewer pollutants than burning coal, but is significantly more expensive and produces radioactive wastes.
Q:
One way to save energy is through ____________________, which uses a combined heat and power (CHP) system.
Q:
The coal and electric utility industries have financed a highly effective publicity campaign touting the benefits of ____; however, this campaign is misleading because there will always be some associated environmental damage.
a. clean burning natural gas
b. clean coal
c. nuclear energy
d. renewable energy
e. green technology
Q:
What is the benefit of including the harmful environmental and health costs associated with fossil fuels, nuclear energy, and other nonrenewable resources?
a. It would ensure that renewable energy is competitive with nonrenewable resources in terms of market price.
b. It would make more funding available for cleanup and health care.
c. It would provide more profit-based incentives for energy production.
d. It would ensure infinite resources by requiring conservation and higher efficiency.
e. It would eliminate the need for subsidies, tax incentives, and government regulations.
Q:
What is an advantage of hydrogen fuel?
a. It has a positive net energy yield.
b. It produces no CO2 when engineered from carbon compounds.
c. Its low cost eliminates the need for subsidies.
d. It can be produced from plentiful water at some sites.
e. It requires no new storage and distribution systems.
Q:
What is the byproduct of combing hydrogen and oxygen to produce energy?
a. carbon dioxide
b. smoke
c. water
d. hydrogen sulfide
e. heat
Q:
What is an advantage of geothermal power?
a. The cost is relatively low at most sites.
b. There are a great variety of suitable sites.
c. There is a medium net energy yield and high efficiency at accessible sites.
d. There is zero noise and no greenhouse gas emissions.
e. There are government subsidies and tax incentives that make the systems relatively cheap.
Q:
What is a disadvantages of producing energy by burning solid biomass?
a. The availability of biomass is relatively low.
b. There are high costs associated with growing suitable plants.
c. The net energy yield is low.
d. There is a high CO2 emission problem.
e. The clear-cutting of trees and plants can lead to soil erosion, water pollution, and loss of habitat.
Q:
What is a disadvantage of wind power?
a. Wind farms have a low net energy yield.
b. Wind farms need backup storage systems when the wind dies down.
c. Wind is not widely available.
d. Wind farms are expensive in terms of generating electricity.
e. Wind farms are difficult to build and expand.
Q:
Wind farms that are located ____ are more costly to install, but are expected to see increasing use because they can harness stronger winds and thus reduce the cost of producing electricity.
a. on mountaintops
b. offshore
c. near shorelines
d. in wide open plains
e. desert valleys