Assignment

1. Name one ecosystem service that nature provides for "free".

2. Who often ends up paying for the "external costs" incurred by industries that degrade the environment?

3. What do economists mean by market failure?

4. What factors are included in GPI that are not considered in GDP?

5. Briefly summarize the scenario known as the "tragedy of the commons."

6. What was the world's first national park?

7. What are the functions of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act?

8. What is the function of a Green Tax?

9. Googler: True or False...the U.S. government still subsidizes the oil and gas industry.

10. Googler: What does the EPA do?

11. What is one reason we can't just keep expanding farmland (using current industrial farming techniques) to keep pace with population growth forever? What do we have to do instead?

12. Describe two kinds of Malnutrition.

13. Define leaching (in reference to soils).

14. Name and briefly describe the 5 soil horizons (in order).

15. Name 6 different strategies to help conserve soil.

16. What is a weed? What is a pest?

17. What is one new way that farmers are preventing water waste in irrigation?

18. What are 3 benefits of no-till farming?

19. Why are antibiotics so heavily used in CAFO's (feedlots)? What is one reason that this is a problem?

20. What is a transgenic organism?

21. Why is species diversity generally higher near the equator?

22. "Googler": Name one generalist species that has thrived due to human disturbance?

23. Imagine a plant species that is hidden deep in the rainforest and has yet to be discovered by man. Name one reason we might not want it to become extinct.

24. Define background extinction rate.

25. Name three factors scientist attribute to the global decline of amphibians.

26. Describe the positive relationship between forests and aquifers.

27. What are at least two differences between a primary and secondary forest?

28. Where did the paper that comprises your textbook come from?

29. In what way do you, the taxpayer, subsidize private lumber harvesting on public land?

30. How are animals affected by forest fragmentation?

31. What effect is global warming having on the spread of certain diseases?

32. "Googler": Define persistent organic pollutant. Name one example.

33. What is meant by LD50?

34. Why must certain countries use DDT?

35. What agency sets human chemical exposure standards in the U.S.?

36. Explain how toxicants can become concentrated at Earth's poles and mountain regions?

37. Name and Describe (including width, density, and composition) the 3 layers of the Earth.

38. What are 3 ways we can protect humans from geological disasters?

39. What is the purpose of the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act?

40. What are 3 environmental risks associated with mountaintop removal mining?