Environmental Science: GEN1040 Summer 2019 Quiz Solution

This document provides the answers to a comprehensive Environmental Science quiz, covering various critical topics within the field. The quiz includes multiple-choice questions on environmental problems, renewable and non-renewable resources, pollution types, and sustainability concepts. It further explores water resources, including groundwater, desalination, and water waste reduction. The assignment delves into human population dynamics, fertility rates, and demographic transitions. Energy-related questions address net energy, fossil fuels, energy efficiency, and renewable energy sources like solar power. Air pollution topics encompass primary pollutants, smog, and acid deposition. Climate change and ozone depletion are also examined, including greenhouse gases, the impacts of warming, and strategies for mitigation. The quiz concludes with questions on water pollution sources and solutions, as well as solid and hazardous waste management, including reduction, reuse, and integrated waste management approaches. The solution also contains short answer questions related to minimizing energy waste and advantages of solar over wind power.

Running head: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: GEN1040 SUMMER 2019
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: GEN1040 SUMMER 2019
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: GEN1040 SUMMER 2019
Task 1 – Individual Quiz
CHAPTER 1 – ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS, THEIR CAUSES AND
SUSTAINABILITY
Question 1: Using normally renewable resources faster than nature can renew them is called
Answer: e. degrading natural capital
Question 2: The highest rate at which a renewable resource can be used indefinitely without
reducing its available supply is called
Answer: b. sustainable yield
Question 3: Which of the following is not a renewable resource?
Answer: d. oil
Question 4: All non-renewable resources can theoretically be
Answer: c. exhausted or depleted
Question 5: Pollution includes
Answer: e. all of these
Question 6: Pollutants can have which of the following unwanted effects?
Answer: e. all of these
Question 7: Which of the following would be a type of degradable pollutant?
Answer: e. human sewage

2ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: GEN1040 SUMMER 2019
Question 8: Nonpoint sources of pollution include all of the following except
Answer: c. a smokestack from a power plant
Question 9: Which of the following is one of the root causes of environmental problems?
Answer: a. rapid population growth
Question 10: Which of the following is not normally an effect of poverty?
Answer: b. lack of clean drinking water
Question 11: The real prices of goods and services do not include
Answer: c. the environmental costs of resource use
Question 12: An irreversible shift in the behavior of a natural system is called a(n)
Answer: a. ecological tipping point

3ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: GEN1040 SUMMER 2019
CHAPTER 13 – WATER RESOURCES
Question 13: What percentage of the earth's surface is covered by water?
Answer: b. 71%
Question 14: What percentage of the world's water supply is liquid freshwater that is available
to living organisms?
Answer: d. 0.024%
Question 15: The geological layer, consisting of underground caverns and porous layers of sand,
gravel, or bedrock, where groundwater flows, is called
Answer: c. an aquifer
Question 16: Saudi Arabia gets 70% of its drinking water from
Answer: d. desalinization
Question 17: The advantages of withdrawing groundwater include all of the following except
Answer: a. pollution is quickly removed
Question 18: Tapping deep aquifers for water sources creates all of following concerns except
Answer: d. deep aquifers are heavily polluted
Question 19: One method of desalination uses high pressure to force saltwater through a
membrane filter. This method is called
Answer: c. reverse osmosis

4ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: GEN1040 SUMMER 2019
Question 20: Which of the following is not one of the solutions for water waste?
Answer: b. discourage organic farming
Question 21: Which of the following is not a way to reduce water waste in industry and homes?
Answer: c. raising the cost of water in water-short areas

5ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: GEN1040 SUMMER 2019
CHAPTER 6 – THE HUMAN POPULATION AND ITS IMPACT
Question 22: The total fertility rate is
Answer: a. the number of children born to a woman during her lifetime
Question 23: The exponential rate of growth of the total human population over the past 100
years resulted from
Answer: b. sharp drop in death rates
Question 24: Which of the following is not one of the factors currently affecting birth and
fertility rates?
Answer: a. number of people 60 or older
Question 25: Which of the following is not an economic factor decreasing the likelihood of a
couple having a child?
Answer: b. religious beliefs
Question 26: Which of the following is true of demographic transition as countries become
industrialized?
Answer: a. Death rates drop, followed by birth rates
Question 27: Women tend to have fewer and healthier children for all the following reasons,
except
Answer: e. when they have access to the internet

6ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: GEN1040 SUMMER 2019

7ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: GEN1040 SUMMER 2019
CHAPTER 15 - NON RENEWABLE ENERGY
Question 28: In order to get high-quality energy you must use high-quality energy. This rule is
the result of which of the following?
Answer: e. the second law of thermodynamics
Question 29: The second law of thermodynamics means dictates which of the following?
Answer: a. it takes a lot of energy to make high-quality energy from low-quality energy
Question 30: The total amount of high-quality energy available after the energy needed to make
it available is subtracted, is called
Answer: a. net energy
Question 31: When the net energy ratio is below what figure is there a net energy loss?
Answer: c. 1
Question 32: Currently, oil has a high net energy ratio because
Answer: c. It comes from cheap-to-extract deposits
Question 33: Which of the following is not an advantage of using conventional crude oil as an
energy source?
Answer: c. environmental costs included in market price
Question 34: Which of the following is true of natural gas?
Answer: c. it emits less carbon dioxide than other fossil fuels

8ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: GEN1040 SUMMER 2019
Question 35: Which of the following is not a problem with burning coal?
Answer: c. it emits trace amounts of radioactive materials
Question 36: Which of the following is not true of nuclear powered electricity generation?
Answer: a. plenty of uranium
Question 37: Proponents of nuclear power proclaim nuclear power releases no carbon dioxide.
Critics point out that carbon dioxide is released at all of the following points except
Answer: during the operation of the nuclear plant

9ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: GEN1040 SUMMER 2019
CHAPTER 16 - ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RENEWABLE ENERGY
Question 38: The best way to reduce our unnecessary waste of energy is to improve
Answer: d. energy efficiency
Question 39: Reducing unnecessary energy waste does all of the following except
Answer: b. increases the cost
Question 40: Which of the following does not waste large amounts of energy and money when
used?
Answer: e. mass transit
Question 41: Industries can cut energy waste by all of the following means, except
Answer: c. switching from coal-burning power plants to nuclear power plants
Question 42: Ways to save energy in transportation includes all of the following, except
Answer: d. encourage bicycle use by building bike lanes along highways and city streets
Question 43: The energy efficiency of buildings can be improved by all of the following
strategies, except
Answer: c. plugging leaks
Question 44: The advantages of solar cells include all of the following, except
Answer: c. electricity storage systems readily available

10ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: GEN1040 SUMMER 2019
CHAPTER 18 - AIR POLLUTION
Question 45: Approximately how much of the air we breathe is composed of nitrogen and
oxygen?
Answer: a. 99%
Question 46: Most of earth's climate occurs in the
Answer: a. troposphere
Question 47: Most of the ozone layer is found in which of the following?
Answer: d. stratosphere
Question 48: Harmful chemicals emitted directly into the air from natural processes and human
activities are called
Answer: e. primary pollutants
Question 49: The biggest air pollution threat to poor people is
Answer: c. indoor air pollution
Question 50: Which of the following is not one of the major air pollutants?
Answer: d. formaldehyde
Question 51: Which of the following is not a way to prevent lead poisoning?
Answer: b. ban the use of lead pencils in schools
Question 52: Photochemical smog is formed when primary pollutants interact with

11ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: GEN1040 SUMMER 2019
Answer: a. sunlight
Question 53: Which of the following would not be an effective preventive measure for acid
deposition?
Answer: e. remove SO2 and NOx from motor vehicle exhausts
Question 54: Respiratory illnesses in developing countries are most likely to be caused by
Answer: d. asbestos
Question 55: Large diesel trucks emit as much particulate matter as how many cars?
Answer: d. 150