GEOG 2412 Environment and Culture Fall 2009 First Exam / Version A

Bubble name, student number, and recitation number (recitation # under “1,2,3,4” in top left, all rec’s start

with zero), then write Version (A, B or C) in box marked “SEX”.

(1) This class is organized around three overarching themes in the relationship between nature and human

culture, they are:

(a) Environmental Determinism, Neo-determinism, and Social Domination.

(b) Human perception of the environment, Human transformation of earth, and Human interaction

with environment as resource and hazard.

(c) Exceptionalism, Exemptionalism, and Bio-centricism.

(2) Which of these best exemplifies Marsh’s view as offered by Lowenthal:

(a) Marsh believed that North American pioneers should follow the examples he saw in the

Mediterranean, where careful nurturing of forests and grasslands had supported human settlement

for thousands of years.

(b) Marsh emphasized that victory over nature required care for the global fabric, and efforts to

mitigate the ill-effects of human impact.

(c) Marsh believed that humans inevitably destroy nature and ought to give up technology and

development and return to more primitive, “natural” ways.

(3) Lowenthal reviews the presentations given at a conference on “Man’s Role in Changing the Face of

the Earth” in 1955, finding that:

(a) Rapid population growth and industrial development had made the presenters pessimistic and

universally worried that humans were exceeding the carrying capacity of the earth.

(b) The conference noted that human transformation of the earth had slowed recently.

(c) The rise of environmental activism had made the conference participants more optimistic that

environmental degradation was about to be reversed.

(d) The participants expressed concerns over human transformations and degradation of nature, but

most felt that science and technology could reverse those problems or that earth systems were too

large and well balanced to be overly affected by human activity.

(4) Lowenthal argues that during much of human history, “raw nature” and wilderness was:

(a) viewed as repugnant and to be tamed;

(b) revered and appreciated.

(c) seen as deserving preservation for other species’ sake

(5) Lowenthal argues that, from the Enlightenment on thru the Industrial revolution, humans, on the

whole:

(a) saw their effect on nature as generally negative, often causing degradation and pollution

(b) interpreted positive effects as caused by other powers, perhaps deities happy with human behavior.

(c) saw much of human effects on nature as positive, beneficial, as “improving” in raw nature.

(d) did not even noticed that nature was changing as human societies developed.

(6) Early American Geographer, Ellen Semple, based her analysis of global cultures and development on

what model of nature-society interaction?

(a) Social Dominion / Techno-Optimism

(b) Environmental Determinism

(c) Precautionary models / Sustainable development

(7) Biologist Paul Erhlich’s early work on human population growth can best be classified as what model

of nature-society interaction?

(a) Techno-Optimism

(b) Natural Limits

(c) Interaction model

(8) Economist Julian Simon’s book, “The Ultimate Resource” is a clear statement of what model of

nature-society interaction?

(a) Techno-Optimism

(b) Natural Limits

(c) Precautionary models / Sustainable development

(9) Leiserowitz et al. find in their review of global surveys about the environment and human development

that:

(a) A majority of people feel that humans have a right to, and should, master and dominate nature

(b) Most people feel that we should “co-exist” with nature

(c) People in the most industrialized countries are more optimistic about technology solving problems

of the environment.

(d) Most people buy products with their environmental impacts in mind (Green Consumerism).

(10) Urbanization and suburban development tends to cause what transformation of the hydrological

cycle?

(a) increased runoff

(b) decreased runoff

(c) increased solar radiation at the earth’s surface

(d) decreased precipitation

(11) Humans are intervening in the carbon cycle in such as way that:

(a) storage of carbon in the solid earth is increasing

(b) storage of carbon in the atmosphere is increasing

(c) storage of carbon in the bio-mass is increasing

(12) T or F: “Peak Oil” is an example of arguments about society and nature based on a social dominion

or techno-optimistic model.

(13) T or F: Lowenthal is a techno-optimist.

(14) T or F: Killing off the wolf from much of North America, including Yellowstone National Park, was

an inadvertent transformation (reduction) of the biodiversity.

Over their history, humans have purposefully:

(15) T or F: Reduced the solar radiation that makes it to the surface through air pollution.

(16) T or F: Increased the flux of ground water to the surface.

(17) T or F: Dunlap et al. argue that the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale appears to have at least

some predictive validity because groups that lean toward the Ecological Paradigm also exhibit more

environmentally friendly behaviors, like recycling, and tend in independent surveys to rate environmental

problem as more serious than do those adhering more to the Dominant Social Paradigm.

(18) T or F: Leiserowitz et al. point out that most measures of human development are improving, and

they find in their review of global surveys about the environment and human development that most

people recognize this and offer optimistic assessment of current trends in the human condition.

(19) T or F: According to Leiserowitz et al., people in less developed countries tend to be more techno-

optimistic than more developed countries.

(20) Which of these beliefs and attitudes was not measured directly by Dunlap et al’s NEP survey:

(a) beliefs about the balance and resiliency of nature

(b) attitudes about which political party better protect nature

(c) beliefs about natural limits on human development

(d) attitudes about the correct relation between nature and society

(21) Lowenthal noted that the 1930s Dust Bowl seemed to suggest that:

(a) farmers were still not applying modern science;

(b) even the newly emerging scientific approach to managing resources had great problems;

(c) global warming was already occurring in the 1930s.

(22) The fact that the earth’s climate is slowly warming suggests that:

(a) incoming solar radiation and outgoing terrestrial radiation are balanced

(b) that the amount of incoming solar radiation must be greater than the total of solar radiation

reflected back to space plus the terrestrial (long wave) radiation that also makes it back to space.

(c) more clouds and anthropogenic particulates in the air are trapping more radiation in the earth

system.

(23) Leiserowitz et al. find from their review of global surveys, that:

(a) A majority of people feel that humans have right to and should master and dominate nature

(b) A majority of people feel that we should “co-exist” with nature

(c) A majority of people feel that environmental problems are lessening and the environment is

improving.

(d) A majority of people buy products with their environmental impacts in mind (Green

Consumerism).

(24) T or F: Cloud seeding is a purposeful attempt to transform the hydrological cycle.

Answer these questions about the above photograph:

(25) The left side land cover is forest because:

(a) the trees were planted to absorb carbon

(b) the left side is Canada, where they don’t cut down trees.

(c) that side is a National Forest land where they grew trees to later cut them down

(d) that side is a National Park where they don’t cut down trees

(26) The net radiation absorbed at the surface is probably larger on:

(a) left side

(b) right side

(27) Where and when was the above photograph taken:

(a) Somewhere on the U.S. Great Plains in the 1930s

(b) South Florida in the 1930s

(c) Near Boulder, Colo., in the 1950s

(d) Prof. Travis’s backyard during the drought of 2002

(28) The dust storm depicted above resulted from:

(a) poor agricultural technology

(b) intense natural drought

(c) a combination of poor technology AND intense natural drought

(d) GMO crops

(29) Where is the above river delta?

(a) near mount of the Mississippi River

(b) near mouth of the Colorado River

(c) near mouth of the Nile River

(30) What land use affects most of this river delta?

(a) urbanization

(b) dryland agriculture

(c) irrigated agriculture

(d) forestry

Extra Credit: (31) T or F: In assessing human transformations of the environment, the “baseline” state is

always the “natural” state.