Unit 14 Textbook Answer Key

1. Mass transit is used by over 75% of the population. Over 70% of the residents recycle. Environmental education for adults and all children. No litter! 99% of the people are glad to live there.

2. See your worksheets!

3. Europe, North America, and Latin America are highly urbanized. Africa and Asia are below 45% urbanized.

4. Urban agglomerations are mergers of multiple municipalities. Many of the world's large cities will keep expanding until they merge with their neighbors to form giant urban complexes. These megacities are urban agglomerations with populations over 10 million people. Tokyo in Japan, S„o Paolo in Brazil, New York City, and Mexico City are examples of megacities.

5. Providing food, housing, transportation, jobs, clean water, and sanitation.

6. Urbanization (the move of people from rural to urban settings) has occurred at an unprecedented rate in China since the mid-1980s. Because China is the most populous country in the world, this represents a major social, economic, and environmental change.

7. search for jobs, food, and housing; economic problems and war in rural areas; entertainment and freedom from traditions; opportunity for upward social mobility, prestige, and power; opportunities in arts, crafts, and professions for which markets do not exist elsewhere

8. air and water pollution, not enough safe drinking water, poor or no housing, no sanitation or health care, intense crowding, etc.

9. Slums and shantytowns lack clean water sanitation and safe electrical power.

10. Movement of people to the suburbs has created urban sprawl, which has taken away land formerly used as wildlife habitat and farmland. Urban sprawl has also led to increased transportation times and distances (from home to work), leading to increased consumption of gasoline and increased pollution. Urban sprawl makes public transportation inefficient and expensive. One of the end results: we have become even more dependent on fossil fuels.

11. Smart growth makes effective use of land resources and existing infrastructure by encouraging in-fill development that avoids costly duplication of services and inefficient land use.

There are 10 bulleted principles of smart growth listed in the textbook. Know them!

12. As cities have become increasingly spread out and impersonal, citizens have fewer opportunities for healthful exercise and socializing. Well-designed cities promote exercise and socializing through providing a healthful and appealing setting.

13. Sustainable development means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

14. See your worksheets!

15.

a. classical economics: resources, such as iron, gold, water, and land, are finite. As populations grow, resources will become scarce, and limit population growth.

b. neoclassical economics: the concept of resources was expanded to include labor, knowledge, and capital. These are not finite because every new person can add more labor and energy, and growth can create more capital.

16.

a. natural capital: goods and services provided by nature

b. human capital: knowledge, experience, human enterprise

c. manufactured (built) capital: tools, buildings, roads, technology

d. social capital: the shared values, trust, cooperation, and organization that can develop in a group of people but cannot exist in one individual alone

17. According to neoclassical economics, continued growth is ALWAYS necessary for continued prosperity. Natural resources contribute to production and growth, but they are not critical supplies that limit growth. They are not limiting because resources are considered to be interchangeable and substitutable. As one resource becomes scarce, neoclassical economics predicts that a substitute will be found.

18. The gross national product (GNP) is the sum of all products bought and sold in an economy.

19. Ecological economics applies ecological ideas of system functions and recycling to the definition of resources.

In natural resource economics (an extension of neoclassical economics), natural resources are more abundant, and therefore less valuable, than manufactured or human capital.

Ecological economics, however, acknowledges the importance of ecosystem functions for the continuation of human economies and cultures. We need an economy that recycles materials and uses energy efficiently, much as an ecosystem does. Natural capital is recognized as equally or more valuable as manufactured and human capital.

20. Ecological services are functions such as absorbing and purifying wastewater, processing air pollution, providing clean water, carrying out photosynthesis, and creating soil. (additional services are described in Table 14.5) These services are free. We don't pay for them directly, although we pay indirectly when we suffer from their absence.

21.

a. more efficient use: we use less steel in cars than we used to

b. substitution: car parts once made of iron are now made of plastic and ceramics

c. recycling: using materials such as steel and aluminum over again, rather than mining more

d. new technology: using new technology to extract previously unrecoverable resources

22. As the population increases and food supplies and industrial output increase, the world's carrying capacity is exceeded and a catastrophic crash occurs as population, food production, and industrial output all decline rapidly while pollution increases.

23. Technological progress, pollution abatement, population stabilization, and new public policies mitigate the effects of scarcity.

24. The Tragedy of the Commons refers to what happens when a shared resource is exploited by all. The competition between users to maximize their profits virtually assures that the resource will be misused. Examples include clean air, fish in the ocean, clean water, wildlife, and open spaces.

25.

a. Community members have lived on the land or used the resource for a long time, and anticipate that their children and grandchildren will as well. This gives them a strong interest in sustaining the resource and maintaining bonds with their neighbors.

b. The resource has clearly defined boundaries.

c. The community group size is known and enforced.

d. The resource is relatively scarce and highly variable so that the community is forced to be interdependent.

e. Management strategies appropriate for local conditions have evolved over time, and are collectively enforced (meaning that those affected by the rules have a say in making the rules).

f. The resource and its use are actively monitored, discouraging anyone from cheating or taking too much.

g. Conflict resolution mechanisms reduce discord.

h. Incentives encourage compliance with rules, while sanctions for noncompliance keep community members in line.

26. Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is the process of accounting and comparing the costs of a project and its benefits. CBA tends to discount the value of natural resources, ecological services, and human communities, and it is often used to justify projects that jeopardize these resources. Critics of CBA point out its absence of standards, inadequate attention to alternatives, and the placing of monetary values on intangible and diffuse or distant costs and benefits. (Who determines the monetary value of costs and benefits?) Placing monetary values on everything leads to a belief that only money and profits count, and that any behavior is acceptable as long as you can pay for it.

27. Gross national product does not account for natural resource depletion or ecosystem damage.

28. Other measures of wealth (you do NOT need to know their names!) take into account factors such as natural resource depletion, ecosystem damage, the value of unpaid labor, life expectancy, educational attainment, standard of living, etc.

29. See your worksheets!

30.

a. externalizing costs: shifting the expenses to someone other than the individuals or groups who use a resource

b. internalizing costs: those who reap the benefits of a resource also pay all the external costs

For example, when you buy a car, you pay for the materials and the assembly. However, the other costs (such as paying for the damage to the environment from extracting the resources, as well as pollution created by the manufacturer) are EXTERNALIZED, meaning that society, and not you, have to pay for these other costs. A more fair system would be to INTERNALIZE all the costs of environmental damage, but then, none of us would be able to afford a car!

31. It externalizes costs on a grand scale. Many of the costs are internalized when products are made in the United States. However, when those products are made in developing countries, we pay very low prices, and the environmental costs are externalized. This leads to serious pollution problems and resource depletion.

32. The international banking systems that finance international trade are set up by and for the wealthy countries. Representatives of less-powerful countries often charge that the trade agreements trap poorer nations into the role of suppliers of natural resources and suppliers of cheap labor.

33. The World Bank is controlled in part by the United States. Many of the projects funded by the World Bank appear to be more for the benefit of the richer nations (such as paying for beef production for export) and to help rich investors make a profit. Many of these projects have resulted in severe environmental destruction in developing countries.

34. The small loans are often given to women and help them purchase something that allows them to run a home business, thus providing direct economic aid to individuals. The repayment on these loans is extremely high, and there is much less environmental destruction than with big loans.

35. Green businesses are environmentally conscious, and operate according to the principles of sustainable development and environmental protection. This is good for public relations, employee morale, and sales. Green business works because consumers are becoming aware of the ecological consequences of their purchases.

36. Buildings are designed to save electrical and other utility costs, be made of low-toxicity materials, be constructed in ways that do not damage the environment and provide a work environment that make employees happy and productive.

37. Only 0.1% of all large-scale layoffs in the United States in recent years were due to environmental laws and regulations. (Most layoffs were due to the jobs being seasonal work, due to falling product demand, or due to completion of a contract.)

38. These are the regions and countries you need to identify from Unit 14: Indonesia, Poland, Haiti, and Botswana

These are the regions and countries you learned in previous units: Galápagos Islands (part of Ecuador), Sonoran Desert (S. Arizona & N. Mexico), Lake Victoria (in Africa), Greenland, North America, Western Europe, Japan, China, India, sub-Saharan Africa, California, Amazon, Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, Thailand, Mexico, Russia, Bangladesh, Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming), Canada, New Zealand, Madagascar, Brazil, Argentina, the Philippines, United Kingdom (Britain, Wales, N. Ireland), Nigeria, Great Lakes, Egypt, Antarctica, Hawaii, Australia, Amazon River, Congo River, Yangtze River, Mississippi River, Pacific Ocean, Alaska, Columbia, Italy, Denmark, Venezuela, Sweden, and Portugal

http://dtc.pima.edu/blc/105/
All contents copyright © 2004-2009. All rights reserved.
Email comments to nan.schmidt@pima.edu