DP Environmental Systems and Societies Questionbank

To what extent does sustainability play a role in making decisions about energy and climate change policies at national and international levels? 

Explain how environmental indicators are used to assess sustainability.

Outline how the concept of sustainability can be applied to managing natural capital.

To meet the minimum criteria for sustainability, a country needs to raise its human welfare above the threshold of high human development and have an ecological footprint below the Earth’s biocapacity.

Evaluate two strategies a country can implement to achieve the minimum criteria for sustainability.

With reference to information in the resource booklet, evaluate the sustainability of Canada’s management of the Large Ocean Management Area of the St Lawrence River estuary and Gulf of St Lawrence.

Explain how the concepts of natural capital and natural income are useful models in managing the sustainable exploitation of a resource.

Discuss how effective an environmental impact assessment for this project may be in protecting the local environment.

Distinguish between the terms renewable and sustainable.

Using evidence from Figures 4(a) and 4(b), explain why the people of Inle Lake have lived sustainably until recently.

Discuss the relationship between the economic development of countries and the sustainability of their food production.

Describe the similarities and differences between the terms sustainable yield and sustainable development.

Describe two possible methods that could be used to collect data for a baseline study for an environmental impact assessment.

Evaluate the impact of economic development on the ecological footprint of a human population.

Discuss the potential for designing a protected forest area that allows for the harvesting of natural resources while at the same time conserving its biodiversity.

Explain why the ecological footprint of two populations consuming the same quantity of food and energy may be different.

With reference to data throughout the resource booklet, to what extent would the establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) benefit marine ecosystems and human societies within the Coral Triangle?

Discuss the consequences of changing global per capita meat consumption on the conservation of ecosystems and biodiversity.

Discuss strategies that can be used to improve the sustainability of food production systems.

Outline two ecosystem services in a named biome.

To what extent does Algonquin Provincial Park provide a model of sustainable management of a protected area?

Discuss the implications of environmental value systems in the protection of tropical biomes.

To what extent might Iceland be viewed as a role model for sustainability by other countries?

Increasing concern for energy security is likely to lead to more sustainable energy choices.

Discuss the validity of this statement, with reference to named countries.

Quantitative models are frequently constructed to show the flow of energy and cycling of matter in natural systems.

To what extent can these models be useful in assessing the sustainability of named food production systems?

To what extent could development away from traditional lifestyles lead to greater sustainability in Madagascar?

Describe the trend in the ecological footprint over the period shown in Figure 7.

With reference to Figures 4(a), 4(b) and 4(c), outline two reasons why a change from tavy agriculture to agroforestry may be more sustainable.

To what extent are the concepts of net productivity and natural income useful in managing the sustainable harvesting of named resources from natural ecosystems?

With reference to Figure 11(a), suggest what conclusions can be drawn regarding the sustainability of the Brazilian population over the period shown.