ANSWER:
The typical lifestyles of the citizens of developed nations are built on high levels of consumption and unsustainable use of natural resources. This type of affluence has an enormously harmful environmental impact.
On the other hand, affluence can lead people to become more educated, environmentally aware, and concerned. It also provides money for the development of improved technologies that can help to reduce pollution, resource waste, and environmental degradation.
DIFFICULTY:
Bloom’s: Analyze
REFERENCES:
1.3 Why Do We Have Environmental Problems?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
ENVS.MLSP.16.1.3.2 - Discuss how affluence has harmful and beneficial environmental effects.
93. Explain how poverty drives population growth.
ANSWER:
To many poor people, having more children is a matter of survival. Children are effectively the labor force for a poor family, helping with crop tending, gathering wood or fuel, hauling water and livestock tending. Children also help to care for their aging parents, most of whom do not have social security, health care, and retirement funds. This daily struggle for survival is largely why populations in some of the poorest countries continue to grow at high rates.
DIFFICULTY:
Bloom’s: Analyze
REFERENCES:
1.3 Why Do We Have Environmental Problems?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
ENVS.MLSP.16.1.3.3 - Discuss how poverty causes harmful environmental and health problems.
94. What is the difference between a renewable resource and an inexhaustible resource?
ANSWER:
A renewable resource can be replenished by natural processes within hours to centuries, as long as we do not use it up faster than natural processes can renew it. An inexhaustible resource, like solar energy, is in continuous supply.
DIFFICULTY:
Bloom’s: Understand
REFERENCES:
1.1 What Are Some Principles of Sustainability?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
ENVS.MLSP.16.1.1.3` - Differentiate among inexhaustible, renewable, and nonrenewable resources.
95. Explain how the IPAT model and the ecological footprint model emphasize different aspects of how natural resources are affected by unsustainable use.
ANSWER:
The IPAT model includes the per capita use of both renewable and nonrenewable resources, while the ecological footprint model emphasizes the use of renewable resources.
DIFFICULTY:
Bloom’s: Analyze
REFERENCES:
1.3 Why Do We Have Environmental Problems?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
ENVS.MLSP.16.1.3 - Specify the four major causes of environmental problems.