Objectives
Economics and International Cooperation
1. Achieving sustainability will require cooperation and communication at many levels of society.
2. Some goals of international agreements on the environment have been achieved and successfully implemented. Other goals have been set but not yet achieved.
3. Economic systems operate within the environment by using resources and by returning both desired and undesired results. Economic systems sometimes fail to balance all the costs and benefits of people's actions.
What is sustainability?
1. the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level.
2. avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.
Which of the following trends is not a challenge to achieving sustainability?
a. the increasing human population
b. the decreasing supply of freshwater in the world
c. disagreement among governments
d. advancement of scientific understanding
d. advancement of scientific understanding
Which of the following statements about U.S. environmental policy is not true?
a. During most of the 19th century, most Americans were not concerned about environmental consequences
b. During the 1960s, several individuals had strong effects on public thinking about environmental issues
c. Before Earth Day 1970, no one in the United States cared about the environment
d. The Environmental Protection Agency was established at a time of increasing public awareness of environmental problem.
c. Before Earth Day 1970, no one in the United States cared about the environment
Environmental Policies in the United States
1. Since the early 1900s, U.S. government has developed policies to address environmental problems and has established agencies to implement those policies
2. Citizens can influence policy at all levels of government, but especially at the local level
3. Lobbying and the media also influence policy and public opinion.
What is economics?
At the 1992 Earth Summit, representatives from around the world
a. created the Kyoto Protocol
b. tried to balance economic development with environmental sustainability
c. could not reach agreement on anything important
d. talked about environmental problems for the first time ever
b. tried to balance economic development with environmental sustainability
State and local environmental regulations
a. cannot be influenced by individuals
b. simply enforce federal standards
c. do not have to follow federal standards
d. are often more strict than federal standards
d. are often more strict than federal standards
The Importance of the Individual
1. Individuals can have an effect on environmental interactions through leadership and education. Many environmental problems were brought to the public's attention by a few individuals.
2. You make important decisions about the environment every day. How you choose to spend money, vote, and use resources will have an impact environment.
3. You can apply scientific thinking, acknowledge to any decisions that you may face.
What is the Environmental Impact Statement?
a government document that outlines the impact of a proposed project on its surrounding environment
International environmental agreements include
a. the Montreal Protocol
b. Earth Day
c. the World Trade Organization
d. the Wilderness Act of 1964
a. the Montreal Protocol
The main function of an Environmental Impact Statement is
a. to predict the effect of a federal project might have on the environment
b. to produce a record of environmental change throughout history
c. to satisfy the requirements in international agreements
d. to limit real estate development and the activities of businesses
a. to predict the effect of a federal project might have on the environment
What is lobbying?
Lobbying is generally described as any attempt to influence the action of any legislative body or any federal, state, or local government agency, or to affect the opinions of the general public or to persuade politicians to vote on legislation in a way that will favor the interests of the environmental group they represent.
Economic systems
a. do not depend on limited natural resources
b. rarely balance the cost and benefits of every action
c. should not include the cost of pollution with the cost of an action
d. must operate within the environment
d. must operate within the environment
Local governments do not regulate
a. recycling
b. sewage treatment
c. garbage disposal
d. Environmental Impact Statements
d. Environmental Impact Statements