Environmental Systems

The Clean Water Act was established to restore and maintain chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the water supply in the United States. It has an exemption provided to agricultural facilities that allows them to avoid regulations on their agricultural runoff. Agricultural runoff is water from farm fields due to irrigation, rain, or melted snow that flows over and into the Earth. This runoff contains fertilizer and chemicals known to have negative impacts on the environment. What environmental parameters should be monitored to determine if policy changes are needed?

• number of farms in a given area

• changes to soil and water quality

• cost of changing current farming practices

• cost of filtering toxic nutrients out of the water

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The above poster shows a potential future use for waste. Using this process would best prevent which part of the waste cycle?

• Releasing excess O₂

• Production of leachate

• Releasing excess CO₂

• Releasing excess CO₂

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Why would the government feel a monitoring plan for a new landfill is important?

• So the city can charge the landfill more money

• To ensure the landfill doesn’t impact the local environment

• To stall the building of the landfill so it could be voted away

• To promote the local economy by hiring local environmentalists

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In Florida, many acres of private land is being developed. What environmental parameters should be monitored to determine long term impacts to future policy decisions?

• economic profits created by the new communities

• jobs created from development of new company locations

• baseline data on number of species present in the environment

• cost of developing the areas into human habitable environments

Answer explanation

this is the only answer that includes an environmental parameter

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What long-term impact could the destruction of large areas of forests have on Earth?

• decreased rates of erosion

• increased atmospheric carbon dioxide levels

• decreased amounts of acid rain

• increased atmospheric oxygen levels

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In 2017, the Python Elimination Program was started in the Florida Everglades. This program began paying hunters to humanely euthanize (painless death) pythons. What environmental parameter changes would indicate the need to incentivize the euthanization of these organisms?

• a decline in native wildlife populations

• a need to increase tourism in the Florida Everglades

• a desire to increase the number of jobs available in the community

• a report indicating that the pythons were causing injuries to community members

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The clearing of a forest and its replacement by another land use is called

• forestry

• clear-cutting

• timber harvesting

• deforestation

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Your friend tells you she’s decided not to use pesticides or synthetic chemicals on her farm; instead she’ll rely on composting and biological pest control. She is practicing

• industrial agriculture

• organic agriculture

• sustainable agriculture

• monoculture

The Paris Climate Agreement is a treaty between 195 countries, including the United States. After observing past, current, and future predictions on the global impact of climate change, this agreement was formed aiming to keep average global temperatures from rising about 2 degrees Celsius. If this goal is not met scientists have predicted many ecological disasters and catastrophic weather events. A recent report produced by the United Nations, highlights the importance of increasing sustainable land use to reaching the goal. The United States has recently rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement and is committed to using this land use guidance provided in the report. Assuming the United States follows the land use guidance, what impacts could result?

• climate change will no longer occur

• global average temperature increases may slow

• global average temperatures will stop increasing

• natural climate disasters, such as hurricanes will no longer occur

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In 2021 the Piney Point reservoir, holding water from previous phosphate mining activity, began leaking contaminants into the groundwater. This groundwater is used by Floridians for household and drinking water. In order to relieve pressure on the leak, more than 200 million gallons of the contaminated water was pumped into Tampa Bay. When phosphate contaminants build up in water, they are known to cause toxic algal blooms that harm local wildlife, ecosystems, air quality, and water quality. Piney Point was 1 of 27 phosphate mining reservoirs found throughout the state of Florida. Is there a need for changes to the current waste management strategies at phosphate mining sites?

•  No, data has not been presented to indicate this is more than an isolated issue

• Yes, changes should be made in monitoring of these sites to prevent similar future events from occurring.

• No, there is no data to support requesting large sums of money from the responsible companies to fund a cleanup.

• Yes, changes should be made to release the holding water at scheduled times so that leaks are not a surprise occurrence.

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