Critical and Creative Thinking Questions 71Critical and Creative Thinking Questions
- If you were an economist examining the previous graph,
would you recommend increasing or decreasing pollution
abatement measures? Why? - Is a ban on logging in a national park an example of
conservation or preservation? Explain. - Explain why policy making for renewable energy projects
requires attention to ethics, economics, culture, and politics
as well as to science. - Describe how writers influenced environmental history in the
19th and 20th centuries. - List at least three issues that would be included in a
national income account that incorporates issues of
sustainability. - Explain why minimizing environmental damage to a large
resource like the Mississippi River requires that we take a
systems perspective. - The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is sometimes
called the “Magna Carta of environmental law.” What is
meant by such a comparison? - How would a utilitarian conservationist’s perspective on
recreation in national parks differ from that of a biocentric
preservationist? - How would an economist approach the problem of climate
change? - In the graph shown below, is the amount of pollution indicated
by the vertical dashed line more or less than the economically
optimum amount of pollution? Explain your answer.
✓✓THE PLANNER
- If you were a member of Congress, what legislation
would you introduce to deal with each of the following
problems?
ÊÊ UÊÊ/ÝÃÊfrom a major sanitary landfill are polluting your
state’s groundwater.
ÊÊ UÊÊV`Êrain from a coal-burning power plant in a nearby
state is harming the trees in your state. Loggers and
foresters are upset.
ÊÊ UÊÊ/ iÀiÊis a high incidence of cancer in the area of your
state where heavy industry is concentrated.
Sustainable Citizen Question- The graph above shows two curves, labeled a and b, that
represent marginal cost of pollution abatement. In this
hypothetical situation, technological innovations were
developed between 2002 and 2012 that lowered the
abatement cost. Which curve corresponds to 2002 and
which to 2012? Explain your answer.
Amount of pollution (in tons of waste discharge)Low High
LowHighCost per unit of waste (in dollars)Marginal
cost of
pollutionMarginal cost
of pollution
abatementAmount of pollution (in tons of waste discharge)Low High
LowHighCost per unit of waste (in dollars)Marginal
cost of
pollution(b) (a)