Ecology and Global Business Flashcards
The _______ federal regulatory agency of the U.S. government is the Environmental Protection Agency.
largest
Explanation
The Environmental Protection Agency was created in 1970 to establish and enforce environmental protection standards, conduct environmental research, monitor the environment, and assist the Council of Environmental Quality in recommending new policies to the President.
The ___ is responsible for establishing water quality standards and enforcing the Clean Water Act.
EPA
Explanation
The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is responsible for enforcing pollution and other environmental laws. Companies go to the EPA to obtain permits to discharge pollutants into navigable waters, and the EPA has the power to bring lawsuits against violators.
The _________ Act, originally passed in 1963, and most recently amended in 1990, recognizes air pollution as a national problem and authorizes the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) to establish and enforce national air quality standards.
Clean Air
Explanation
The Clean Air Act is the most significant federal statute for controlling air pollution, to include smog, soot, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, acid rain, etc…
Under the ______ Protocol (2005) industrialized nations are required to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases.
Kyoto
Explanation
Greenhouse gases are produced when fossil fuels are burned.
Analysts believe that policymakers on environmental regulations should be guided by the humility, reversibility, precautionary, prevention, integrative and _____________ justice principles.
environmental
Explanation
The EPA defines environmental justice as the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies.
____ rain is rain that has a lower pH than that normally associated with rain.
Acid
Explanation
Nitrogen and sulfur compounds are pollutants produced by a variety of industrial processes, including the burning of high sulfur content fuels. When nitrogen and sulfur oxides combine with moisture in the atmosphere, they are converted to nitric and sulfuric acid. The resulting acid rain, acid snow, and acid fog are responsible for the destruction of aquatic life and vegetation in the eastern United States and Canada.
The damaging effects of acid rain to humans include causing ___________ disease, leaching of toxic metals into our drinking water and decreasing atmospheric visibility.
respiratory
Explanation
Prolonged exposure to air pollutants can break down our defenses (hairs in the nose and sticky mucus in the upper respiratory tract) that protect us from these pollutants and hence make us more susceptible to these conditions.
Human activity has greatly increased the concentration of carbon dioxide in air. This increase has led to global warming–an increase in temperatures around the world–a phenomenon known as the __________ effect.
greenhouse
Explanation
The increase in carbon dioxide and other pollutants in the air has also led to acid rain, where water falls through polluted air and chemically combines with carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides, and sulfur oxides, producing rainfall with pH as low as 4.
The __________ effect is the warming of the Earths surface that is produced when solar heat becomes trapped by layers of carbon dioxide and other gases.
greenhouse
Explanation
As first predicted a decade ago, the progressive increase in carbon dioxide appears to have resulted in a greenhouse effect. This effect has caused a slight but progressive arming of the earths surface.
CERCLA, more commonly known as the _________ Law, was passed in 1980 to create a fund for use by the EPA and state and local governments in dealing with uncontrolled releases of hazardous wastes.
Superfund
Explanation
The Superfund Law, formally called the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, creates this fund and sets strict obligations for the organization that releases a hazardous substance.
The extremely high costs associated with environmental legislation has resulted in an increase in the use of ___________________ Resolution techniques–using methods other than litigation to settle environmental disputes.
Alternative Dispute
Explanation
Use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) techniques is rising rapidly, as using litigation often is not cost effective. For example, under the Superfund, the EPA is required to try to negotiate settlements with private parties.
NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) requires federal agencies proposing “major federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment” to submit Environmental Impact _______.
statements
Explanation
NEPA requires federal agencies to submit Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) which detail the environmental effects of the action.
The process of reducing the threat of loss from uncontrollable events and funding potential losses is called ____ management.
risk
Explanation
The main functions of risk management are to assess risk, control risk, and finance risk by shifting it to an insurance company or by self-insuring to cover possible losses.
Research has shown that human activities which add certain chemicals to the atmosphere cause depletion in the natural production of protective Ozone in the __________.
stratosphere
Explanation
Ozone is generated naturally in a sequence generated by UV (ultraviolet) radiation. It is present in low concentrations and prevents about 98% of the harmful UV rays from reaching the Earth.
A variety of chemicals are responsible for ozone depletion but the most famous and widely used chemical held responsible is the ____.
CFC
Explanation
Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), this chemical was demonstrated in research produced by Rowland and Molina in 1974, to be responsible for damaging the ozone layer.
