SOCIOL 229 Midterm

What is a central theme of the course? (see ‘course description’)

the environmental issues we face are profoundly social issues

What are different components of critical thinking?

all of the above

What are components of ‘active’ reading?

reading with the purpose of identifying the author's argument, and critically engaging with the author's argument (i.e. questioning the evidence-base supporting their argument and identifying the limits of their argument)

What is class policy around using laptop computers during lecture?

online surfing is not allowed during lectures, and you will need to pick up a pass during office hours to use the laptop during lectures, and if you misuse laptops during lecture time, your privilege to use it will be revoked for the rest of the semester

How many online quizzes will I count towards your course grade?

seven

What topic will lecture 4A cover?

the environmental problems created by car-dominant transportation systems

Which of the following is NOT a course learning objective?

they are all course learning objectives

Drawing on the McCarthy and King article, which of the following are parts of the ‘environment’?

all of the above

Which of the following are elements of the Green Agricultural Revolution that Western countries brought to developing countries?

mechanization of agriculture, heavy pesticide and fertiliser use

What are social factors that contributed to the Fukashima Nuclear disaster?

a cozy relationship between government officials and industry leaders, and a lax regulatory environment

What is the difference between the ‘ecological modernization’ paradigm and the ‘treadmill of production’ thesis?

the ecological modernization thesis posits that our environmental problems can be solved through more sophisticated technologies, whereas the "treadmill of production" argues that capitalism's emphasis on growth is at the heart of our environmental problems

Which of the following statement aligns with the “risk society” concept that McCarthy and King discuss?

the political, ecological and individual risks created by the momentum of innovation increasingly elude the control and protective institutions of industrial society

Based on the Michael Bell reading, which of the following are problems associated with relying on coal for our energy production?

They are all problems with coal-based energy

According to Michael Bell, what are some problems associated with renewable energy sources?

bio-fuels need land, which competes with needs for land to grow food, and the sight and sound of wind power annoys people living next to them, and dams block the flow of ecology and displaces people from their land and homes

According to Michael Bell, what are some of the irrigation problems?

all of the above

Drawing on the Michael Bell article, what is the definition of “severe water scarcity”?

it is when demand for fresh water is double or more than the supply

Drawing on the Michael Bell article, what does ‘peak’ water refer to?

it is the moment when a country’s overall water demand exceeds the replenishment rate

According to Bell, which of the following is true of the world’s water situation?

none of the above

Drawing on the Michael Bell article, what are concerns associated with the increased ultraviolet light that is produced by the ozone hole problem?

all of the above

Which of the following is NOT a problem that Michael Bell attributes to ground-level ozone production?

it bleaches choral reefs

Drawing on Michael Bell’s chapter, what of the following is not an example of “environmental bads”?

getting access to land for growing crops

Which of the following is an example of environmental racism?

hazardous waste landfills are significantly more likely to be sited near communities of color

Drawing on Bell’s chapter, what is the hazardous waste crisis he refers to?

first world countries are trying to off-load their hazardous wastes onto poor countries

Drawing on Bell’s chapter, which country has the lowest average per capita income?

Burundi

Drawing on Michael Bell's chapter, what are health consequences associated with "consumption gaps"?

chronic undernourishment, and malnourishment leads children in developing countries to have trouble learning and to experience lifelong damage to their mental capacities, and malnourishment children experience stunted growth

In his article Michael Bell discussed the “pollution gap.” What is an example of that concept?

per capita production of carbon dioxide is 12 times higher in European countries than it is in developing countries

What is the main argument of the "Wolves and Rivers" video?

the re-introduction of the wolves dramatically improved the ecosystem's biodiversity

Based on the Wolves video, what are “ecosystem engineers”?

animal species who create niches for other animal species

What impact did the wolves re-introduction have on other living species in Yellowstone park?

none of the above

Drawing on Michael Carolan's "Biodiversity" chapter, what is the relationship between biodiversity and human health?

all of the above

Drawing on Carolan's text, which of the following is NOT an example of an ecosystem service provided by biodiversity?

they are all ecosystem services

According to Michael Carolan, what was ultimately determined to be the cause of reduced bird population at the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary?

the absence of grazing animals and the ban placed on grazing

What are the objectives of the Convention of Biological Diversity?

the conservation of biodiversity, the conservation of biodiversity, the equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources

Drawing on Michael Carolan’s text, which of the following are examples of biopiracy?

corporations taking indigenous knowledge about trees in indigenous region without justly compensating them for their knowledge.

How does patent law facilitate biopiracy?

it makes it very difficult for indigenous populations to call bio-cultural knowledge their own and indigenous populations tend to pass down their knowledge through storytelling instead of the written word, thereby enabling multinational corporations to write down the knowledge and claim it as their own

Drawing on Michael Carolan's chapter, which of the following are examples of agrobiodiversity practices?

building memory banks that help ensure future generations have working knowledge of species diversity and allowing farmers to save seed from one year to be planted the next

According to Michael Carolan’s chapter on Greenhouse gas emissions, which are the questions that are currently being debated in the peer-reviewed literature?

What are we to do about climate change? Do we all bear equal responsibility for climate change? Do some individuals and nations deserve a greater share of the blame?

Based on the Michael Carolan chapter, which are the five countries with the highest rate per capita greenhouse gas emissions? 

Australia, New Zealand, US, Japan, Canada

Drawing on the Carolan text, which of the following are human health impacts associated with climate change? 

all of the above

Drawing on the Carolan text, how will climate change impact food security? 

all of the above

According to Carolan, where will the problem of climate change refugees be most pronounced?

poor countries, where the adaptive capacity of people, cities and nations is low

Based on the Carolan chapter, which behavior change offers the most emissions reduction (“per (MTC))?

using fuel efficient vehicles

According to Carolan, what are concerns about the geoengineering solutions for climate change?

all of the above

According to Carolan, which of the following are associated with “green building”?

building highly efficient buildings increases total costs between 0 to 2 percent, building highly efficient buildings yields a total life-cycle savings of 20 percent, in buildings that optimize the use of daylight, students perform better

What does Carolan’s first chapter refer to by ‘too much individualism’?

many explanatory models place too great an emphasis on individual contributions and not enough on systemic ones

According to Carolan, what are problems with placing too much focus on individuals?

all of the above

What is Carolan’s critique of technological solutions to environmental problems?

technological solutions don’t consider the role people play in creating social change and technological solutions don’t consider the social, economic and political probability of having a solution accepted

According to Carolan, what do social scientists contribute to discussions of environmental problems?

social scientists have an expertise in explaining why we get ourselves into environmental messes, and social scientists have an expertise in communicating how we might get out of environmental messes

According to Carolan, when does society have the most control over a technology?

when it is first introduced

Drawing on Carolan’s text, which of the following structural factors is NOT part of Carolan’s explanation for why the Dutch use their bikes so much more than Americans?

Dutch parents do more chauffeuring of children than American parents

Drawing from the Michael Carolan text, what does "virtual water" refer to?

the water used during the growing, making, or manufacturing of a given commodity

According to Carolan, how have the World Bank and the IMF exacerbated water-related problems?

They have heavily encouraged water privatization and they have prohibited developing countries from borrowing from them if they don't have a water-privatization policy in place

According to Carolan, how is global climate change expected to impact our access to freshwater?

all of the above

According to Carolan, what are limits to addressing water shortages with desalinization plants?

all of the above

Which of the following are characteristics of water that justify pricing it with more care than other economic goods?

water is essential... there is no life, economic production, or environment without it, and water is finite... the water that currently circulates through the hydrological cycle is all there is, and water is a system... water is part of a complex system and helps make possible innumerable ecosystem services

Based on the Carolan chapter, which of the following are attributes of effective water governance?

water users should have a voice in the decision-making process, and the decision-making process should be transparent and open to scrutiny, and effective water governance should be grounded in society's ethical principles, such as the belief that water is a fundamental human right

According to Michael Carolan, how do supermarkets exacerbate the food waste problem? 

they offer consumers Buy One Get One (BOGO) free promotions, which lead to waste, and they impose high aesthetic standards on the farmers, which leads some farmers to toss out as much as 30% of the crops they grow, and they contractually forbid their growers from selling the rejected product to anyone else

What does Carolan mean by "Waste isn't the fault of consumers–it's a design flaw"? 

manufacturers aren't making things that can be easily reused and recycled

What are social justice problems associated with recycling? 

all of the above

What are social justice implications of E-waste?

the recycling of electronic waste is dangerous and tends to be concentrated among the poor

What have been consequences of the ‘extended producer responsibility’ concept? 

it has created an incentive for companies to manufacture products that are easier to reuse and recycle

How has South Korea managed to remove 98% of food waste from its municipal waste stream? 

in 2005 they made it illegal to send food to landfills, and South Koreans are expected to separate all food waste and put it in a 100% compostable bag

Drawing from the Michael Carolan chapter, what is the relationship between cars and public health?

road traffic noise increases ischemic heart disease, heart attacks, and high blood pressure

Drawing from the Carolan chapter, what are problems associated with ‘islandization’?

it increased the likelihood of species extinction for species trapped between highway corridors, and populations isolated by islandization are at greater risk of being overhunted, and populations isolated by islandization are at greater risk from major events, like fire and floods

What does the ‘fundamental law of highway congestion’ refer to?

increases in road capacity with be met with a proportional increase in traffic volume

According to Carolan, what are ways through which governments currently incentivize (i.e. encourage) car driving?

all of the above

According to Michael Carolan, what are ways to disincentivize car driving?

eliminate free parking, impose a gas tax, and base urban design around interconnectivity, instead of street-hierarchy logic

What are benefits of pay-as you drive auto insurance?

all of the above

Based on the Anne Lappé’s Do we need industrial AG to feed the world? video, what are arguments against the industrial farm?

industrial farming uses up huge amounts of water, which will only get more expensive as freshwater resources dwindle, and industrial farms produce toxic run-off that pollutes rivers, oceans and human beings, and industrial farming requires more fossil fuels, which will get more expensive as supplies run out

According to the Anne Lappé’s video, why don't we need to double our food by 2050?

all of the above

Drawing from the Michael Carolan text, what are social structures that reinforce practices associated with the global food system?

regulatory, legal, and economic structures

According to Carolan, what are impacts of industrial agriculture on human communities?

all of the above

Why is biofortification not an answer for micronutrient malnutrition?

because biofortification does nothing to increase dietary diversity

What are environmental consequences of the “pesticide treadmill”?

diminished ecosystem biodiversity, increased ecosystem vulnerability to pest infestations, and every year farmers are required to gradually increase the dose and toxicity of pesticides

What is La Via Campesina?

it is a world-wide movement representing about 200 million farmers that is promoting food sovereignty principles

Which of the following are differences between the Food Sovereignty model and the Dominant Model?

the dominant model believes seeds can be privatized, whereas the food sovereignty model views seeds as a heritage that everyone has a right to, and the dominant model believes agriculture should be an occupation reserved for the rich, whereas the food sovereignty model views it as an occupation that should be available to all, and the dominant view believes food production should be governed by the market, whereas the food sovereignty model posits that food should be exempt from trade agreements

What are characteristics of ‘Fast Fashion’? 

consumers have access to inexpensive clothing

What was the Rana Plaza disaster?

none of the above

What are some of the problems associated with the ‘Fast Fashion’ industry? 

all of the above

Based on the True Cost documentary, which country has experienced the largest wave of farmer suicides in history? 

India

Based on the True Cost documentary, what items are valued above all in consumer capitalism?

capital accumulation (i.e. increasing profits)

Based on the True Cost documentary, what are some people doing to address problems with the fashion industry?

activists are trying to raise awareness through activist campaigns and entrepreneurs have started Fair Trade companies (like People Tree) that protect workers rights and pay them a living wage

Which of the following are the five components of the “materials” economy that Annie Leonard discusses in The Story of Stuff?

resource extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal

According to Annie Leonard the materials economy is in crisis. Why does she argue it is in crisis?

because it is a linear system operating in a world of finite resources

Which of the following is NOT example of externalizing the costs of production?

oil extraction companies who are required to pay for cleaning up the costs of all spills associated with oil extraction and the healthcare costs incurred by their employees

According to Leonard, why are 3^rd World workers putting up with terrible working conditions?

their land was taken from them and they can't grow their own food, and because they have few other options in which to earn money to buy food

Drawing from Michael Carolan's Political Economy chapter, how does natural capital differ from reproducible capital assets?

depreciated natural capital is often either slow to recover or irreparable, it is often difficult to substitute one depleted or exhausted ecosystem service for another, ecosystems can collapse abruptly, with little prior warning

According to Carolan, what do "treadmill of production" scholars say about capitalist societies?

they say capitalist societies are driven by a never-ending pursuit of economic growth, and they say governments generally support industries in their quest for economic growth

Drawing from the Carolan chapter, what does the "metabolic rift" refer to?

a rupture in the normal metabolism of ecological systems

What contributes to the metabolic rift?

pursuing farming practices that don't respect ecological limits, and increases in industrial waste production, and increases in the use of artificial fertilizers, which kills the soil

Drawing from Carolan's discussion of capitalism's contradictions, what is "the crisis of overproduction"?

when industry produces too much stuff and there aren't enough people to buy it all

What are benefits of levying Pigovian taxes?

they generate revenues with which to pay for the cost of industry impacts that were previously paid by taxpayers, and they generate revenue with which to monitor industry, and they serve to dis-incentivise companies from pursuing polluting behaviours

What type of regulations does the Porter Hypothesis call for and why?

stricter environmental regulations because it will incentivize businesses to adjust to environmental realities, like diminishing natural resources

What is the main question that Schnaiberg and Gould's article focuses on?

how do institutions perpetuate the treadmill of production?

According to Schnaiberg and Gould, while many more people now consider themselves “environmentalists,” we haven’t made much progress on reducing our ecological impact. Which of the following are explanatory factors they offer to explain that puzzle?

people equate recycling with being environmental, recycling is one of the least impactful environmental behaviours, and while Universities offer more environmental education, the majority of education is still geared towards reproducing the treadmill of production

Based on the Schnaiberg and Gould article, what are factors that lead the family to reinforce the treadmill of production?

the interpenetration of mass media into the family sphere

According to Schnaiberg and Gould, how does the education system perpetuate environmental ignorance?

none of the above

Which of the following are aspects of Schnaiberg and Gould's critique of the education system?

all of the above

According to Schnaiberg and Gould, why is it that scientists often conceal their ecological findings?

they fear occupational reprisals if they challenge their employers with the data and there is no public demand or rewards for their environmental research

Drawing from Scott Carlson’s article (i.e. “In Search of the Sustainable Campus”), what energy projects has the University of Florida pursued? 

creating diesel from the vegetable oil used by on-campus cafeterias and restaurants, and part of their motor pool (i.e. motor vehicles) runs on bio-diesel and ethanol, and they have put in place energy efficiency standards for all new building construction