Apes Miller Ch. 1 Questions
Miller Chapter 1 Reading Questions
1. Three ways that human activities are affecting the environment include our exponential increase in population and our resource consumption, which have degraded the air, water, soil, and species in the natural systems that support our lives and economies. A third way is limiting the access that other species have to resources.
2. The goals of environmental science are to learn how nature works, how the environment affects us, how we affect the environment, and how we can live more sustainably without degrading our life-support system.
3. Environmentalism is a social movement dedicated to protecting the earth’s life-support systems for us and other species, and is political in nature. Sustainability, also known as durability, is the ability of earth’s various systems to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely.
4. The five steps towards sustainability are understanding the components and importance of natural capital, recognizing that human activities degrade natural capital by using resources faster than they can be renewed, looking for workable solutions, making trade-offs or compromises, and recognizing that individuals matter. They must be supported by sound science, or the concepts and ideas that are widely accepted by experts in a particular field of the natural or social sciences.
5. Natural capital is the natural resources and services that keep us and other species alive and support our economies. It changes over millions of years in response to environmental changes such as global warming and cooling and huge asteroids hitting the earth.
6. Economic growth is an increase in the capacity of a country to provide people with goods and services. It’s measured by GDP, the annual market value of all goods and services produced by all firms and organizations, foreign and domestic, operating in a country. It goes up with either a population increase, more production and
1. Three ways that human activities are affecting the environment include our exponential increase in population and our resource consumption, which have degraded the air, water, soil, and species in the natural systems that support our lives and economies. A third way is limiting the access that other species have to resources.
2. The goals of environmental science are to learn how nature works, how the environment affects us, how we affect the environment, and how we can live more sustainably without degrading our life-support system.
3. Environmentalism is a social movement dedicated to protecting the earth’s life-support systems for us and other species, and is political in nature. Sustainability, also known as durability, is the ability of earth’s various systems to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely.
4. The five steps towards sustainability are understanding the components and importance of natural capital, recognizing that human activities degrade natural capital by using resources faster than they can be renewed, looking for workable solutions, making trade-offs or compromises, and recognizing that individuals matter. They must be supported by sound science, or the concepts and ideas that are widely accepted by experts in a particular field of the natural or social sciences.
5. Natural capital is the natural resources and services that keep us and other species alive and support our economies. It changes over millions of years in response to environmental changes such as global warming and cooling and huge asteroids hitting the earth.
6. Economic growth is an increase in the capacity of a country to provide people with goods and services. It’s measured by GDP, the annual market value of all goods and services produced by all firms and organizations, foreign and domestic, operating in a country. It goes up with either a population increase, more production and