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Essay on APES Ch 1 Study Guide

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Unit 1: Introduction to Environmental Science & Sustainability
Reading Questions 1A
Opening Story: The Mysterious Neuse River Fish Kill
Environmental science offers important insights into our world and how we influence it.
Humans alter natural systems.
Environmental scientists monitor natural systems for signs of stress.

1. What happened in the Neuse River, and how did it affect the local population & economy?

2. What is the importance of studying systems in environmental science? Why can’t we just study isolated events or isolated individuals?

3. Environmental Science is interdisciplinary, in that it includes life sciences, natural sciences, and social sciences to study the interactions of living, nonliving and …show more content…

12. Why are both natural AND controlled experiments necessary to increasing scientific understanding, and how do their roles in the scientific process differ?

13. What factors make research in environmental science particularly difficult?

14. What are the goals of the environmental justice movement, and why are they relevant to sustainability?
Reading Questions 20A
Opening Story: Assembly Plants, Free Trade and Sustainable Systems
Sustainability is the ultimate goal of sound environmental science and policy.
Economics studies how scarce resources are allocated.
Economic health depends on the availability of natural capital and basic human welfare.
Ecosystems provide valuable services (p77-80).

1. Do you think the expansion of maquiladoras has been more of a benefit or a harm to Mexico? Why?

2. Why would environmental scientists be interested in social and economic issues that arise from the maquiladoras, as well as the environmental effects?

3. In a market economy, how are scarce resources distributed to satisfy unlimited wants?

4. What are externalities, and how do they typically affect the price of a good or service?

5. How are the wealth and productivity of a nation usually measured, and what other factors must be considered when evaluating the well-being of a nation’s people?

6. In reference to the Kuznets Curve, why does the

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