Reading Review and Assessments:
Companion to Intermediate Text
Global Issues and Sustainable Solutions
Questions and Answer Key
Reading Review and Assessments: Companion to Intermediate Text © Facing the Future, 2005
Global Issues and Sustainable Solutions
Chapter 1: Sustainability (pages 4-7)
1. Name five global issues.
Population Growth, Conflict, Migration, Increased Consumption, Declining Resources,
Scarcity and Poverty, Discrimination
2. Why are trees considered a renewable resource?
With forest management, new trees can grow and provide wood products
3. Why is coal considered a nonrenewable resource?
Coal takes thousands of years to form and therefore does not regenerate or renew
4. What are fours ways to determine the extent to which a particular resource is renewable?
1. How much of the resource exists?
2. How much of the resource is being used now and what will be the future demand for it?
3. How quickly does the resource regenerate?
4. What are the impacts of producing and using the resource?
5. Define sustainability.
Meeting our own needs today without limiting the ability of future generations to meet their
needs
6. What are the three main areas of sustainability?
Environment, society, and economy
7. Looking at the mobile on page 5, describe a scenario that shows how global issues are
interconnected.
Answers will vary. Example: Population growth causes increased needs which causes increased
consumption that is followed by declining resources and migration.
8. What do the terms developed and developing countries refer to?
The differences in levels of wealth and standard of living between different countries around
the world
9. What are some of the quality of life factors that contribute to sustainability?
Renewable energy can help us live sustainably today without using the resources people may
need in the future
10. How can renewable energy technologies reduce global warming and contribute to a
sustainable future?
A peaceful society, a rich culture, a satisfying life, and cultural pursuits such as art, music, and
athletics
Reading Review and Assessments: Companion to Intermediate Text © Facing the Future, 2005
Global Issues and Sustainable Solutions
Chapter 2: What’s Up With Population, Anyway? (pages 8-11)
1. Give the world population for the following dates:
1950- 2.5 billion
Today- more than 6.3 billion
2050 – 9 billion
2. How can population continue to grow when the rate of population increase drops?
Even if the rate goes down (for example from 10 percent to 1 percent) the overall number still
goes up
3. In simple terms, when does population grow?
Whenever more people are born in a year than die
4. What are two statistics that describe the state of poverty in developing countries?
60% do not have basic sanitation, one-third do not have access to clean water, one-quarter lack
proper housing, 20 percent don’t have access to modern health services, 20 percent of children
do not attend school through grade five.
5. Why do many people in developing countries have large families?
Large families can help a family survive by caring for the elderly, gathering cooking fuel,
hauling water, growing food, and tending livestock
6. If richer, developed countries have lower population growth rates, how can their resource
consumption rate be higher than in developing countries?
People in developed countries consume more resources per person than do people in
developing countries
7. What steps were taken by the Iranian government in the 1980s to successfully reduce their
population growth rate?
Providing free family planning services to all citizens, encouraging families to space their
children, and educating men about family planning, offering maternity leave for only the first
three children per family, using the media to raise awareness of population growth and family
planning, lowering infant mortality rates, promoting women’s education, and extending social
security benefits
8. What are some benefits of lowering population growth rates in developing countries?
Higher levels of education, improved rights for women, increased economic opportunity
9. How does reducing poverty help lower population growth rates?
When people make more money they often have smaller families and invest in educating their
children
10. What choices/decisions would you consider making to create a sustainable world?
Answers will vary
Reading Review and Assessments: Companion to Intermediate Text © Facing the Future, 2005
Global Issues and Sustainable Solutions
Chapter 3: Population Throughout History (pages 12-15)
1. How many years did it take for the world’s population to double, from 3 billion to 6 billion?
40 years
2. About 10,000 years ago, what major shift in human lifestyle allowed for major population
increases?
People began to make more food by learning how to grow plants and raise animals; when there
is more food it causes the population to grow
3. As towns and cities grew, and even though more food was available, what factors served to
limit the world’s population?
Disease, war, and hunger (caused by crop disease)
4. What were some positive impacts of the growth of population and civilizations?
Larger populations with enough food allowed people to specialize in different professions and
led to advances in science, health, and technology. Cities grew and developed roads, water
systems, and public buildings.
5. What were some negative impacts of the growth of population and civilizations?
Larger populations sometimes outgrew their resources. As populations grew, forests were cut
down, soils were eroded, and clean water became scarce. This often led to economic collapse
hunger, war, and migration.
6. At the current growth rate, what will Earth’s population be in 2025? (see graph)
More than 8 billion people
7. What did the process of colonization gain for Europe?
It brought a flood of new resources to the European continent making some nations rich. New
plants provided additional food sources (e.g. potatoes, corn) which in turn increased population
in European countries.
8. What were the costs of colonization for native peoples?
European colonists used force against native peoples. Native people were often pushed out of
their homes by newcomers and were sometimes enslaved or murdered in the process. European
colonists also bought diseases with them which killed millions of native people.
9. Explain how the industrial revolution and germ theory impacted population?
The industrial revolution made way for new machinery and more food. The germ theory
improved medicine and sanitation. Better water and sewer systems cut back the death toll from
communicable diseases. The invention of antibiotics and vaccines controlled many diseases
that had been fatal in the past.
10. After World War II, what advances in the developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin
America created exponential population growth?
Health and Sanitation advances caused a rapid fall in the death rate
Reading Review and Assessments: Companion to Intermediate Text © Facing the Future, 2005
Global Issues and Sustainable Solutions
Chapter 4: How Many People Can the Earth Support? (pages 16-19)
1. Define carrying capacity.
The maximum number of people the planet can support now, without using up resources that
future generations will need to support themselves
2. Why do experts disagree on the population that is Earth’s carrying capacity?
Carrying capacity depends on what kind of and how many resources are available. It also
depends on how they are distributed and how much of them each person uses.
3. What human decisions and actions can serve to limit Earth’s carrying capacity?
Deforestation, soil erosion, pollution, and higher levels of resource consumption per person
4. Define ecological footprint.
The area of the earth’s productive surface that it takes to support a person
5. What are the ecological footprints (in acres) for India, Mexico, France, and the United States?
India- 2 acres; Mexico-6.4 acres; France-14 acres; U.S-23.6 acres
6. Explain how energy, carbon dioxide, and ecological footprint size are related.
Much of the human footprint today is taken up by the wastes we create especially the land and
water area needed to absorb our carbon dioxide emissions. Since much of carbon dioxide
comes from burning oil and coal for energy, producing energy in new, nonpolluting ways can
reduce our footprint significantly.
7. In what ways do people living in extreme poverty need to increase their consumption of
resources?
They need their basic needs meet (more food, education, more health care, and more fuel and
energy resources)
8. Apply the concept of ecological footprint by comparing Warren’s lifestyle and resource
consumption (page 19) to that of either Bati or Jyoti. Describe their resource uses in your
comparison.
Answers will vary. Example: Warren has electricity in his house and Bati does not. Warren has
new clothes and Bati has old worn down clothes. Warren goes to school almost everyday, Bati
goes twice a month, Warren eats a full breakfast, Bati is lucky if he eats anything the whole
day.
9. What part of your ecological footprint do you think you could reduce? Explain how.
Answers will vary
Reading Review and Assessments: Companion to Intermediate Text © Facing the Future, 2005
Global Issues and Sustainable Solutions
Chapter 5: Global Trends – Food, Water, and Income (pages 20-24)
1. How and where did the Green Revolution of the 1950s boost food production?
Scientists worked with farmers in developing countries to introduce fertilizers, pesticides,
hybrid seeds, new machinery, and irrigation projects.
2. If enough food is produced worldwide to provide adequate daily calories to every human on the
planet, why do at least 840 million people still suffer hunger?
Food is not distributed equally. People in the developed world consume much more food and
calories then people in developing countries.
3. What is the result of over-nourishment for more than 1 billion people in mostly developed
countries?
They are to the point of being overweight or obese
4. What have been some of the negative impacts of the Green Revolution on the environment?
Some of the gains in food production came from creating more farmland by clearing forests,
filling wetlands, and converting prairie land. This has resulted in loss of valuable habitats for
people and animals.
5. What are the two major challenges for meeting the food needs of the human population?
1. Ensuring that the way we produce food is sustainable so that the systems that support all life
on Earth are not damaged
2. Ensuring that people can get the basic food they need and that our food distribution systems
work so that no one is seriously malnourished or starving.
6. Describe three ways that humans deplete or damage important freshwater supplies, including
rivers, aquifers, and the hydrologic (water) cycle in general.
Pumping aquifers dry, diverting rivers, affecting climate change do to global warming
7. Until countries do a better job of managing fisheries, what role can individuals play?
Learn about the fish that are most overfished and do not purchase those
8. What particular type of water use places the greatest demand on freshwater supplies, and what
are at least two solutions for conserving water in this area?
Growing Food and raising crops places the greatest demand on freshwater supplies. Solutions
are to irrigate crops more efficiently and growing food that requires less water to produce.
9. Cite at least three statistics that point out the harsh facts of poverty and economic inequity.
Two our of every five people on the planet live on less than $2 a day, The twenty richest
countries have thirty-seven times the gross domestic product (GDP) of the twenty poorest
countries, The richest 1% of the global population receives as much income as the poorest
57%, the wealth of the world’s 200 richest people equals the combined annual income of the
worlds poorest 2.5 billion people.
10. Explain how a history of colonization in less developed countries contributed to present day
poverty.
Reading Review and Assessments: Companion to Intermediate Text © Facing the Future, 2005
The extraction of resources from developing countries left little opportunities there for wealth
and infrastructure, such as water, and sewer facilities, schools, hospitals, and roads.
Global Issues and Sustainable Solutions
Chapter 6: Environmental Sustainability (pages 26-30)
1. What are the two main causes of negative environmental trends such as habitat loss, species
extinction, and global warming?
Rapidly expanding population and ecological footprints that are larger than the Earth can
sustain
2. Explain the forests function as carbon sinks and also how this impacts climate.
Forests capture carbon dioxide and keep it out of the atmosphere. This is important because too
much carbon dioxide can contribute to global warning and climate change.
3. Give four reasons why forests are cut down, and describe selective harvesting (one method of
sustainable tree harvesting).
1. Increased population and the resulting increased consumption
2. Clearing forest for farmland to produce more food
3. Harvesting wood for fuel
4. Rich countries use a large amount of wood for construction and homes.
Selective harvesting is when only a portion of the forest is cut down each year. This leaves
many trees standing so that the forest is still intact and can provide habitat, recreation space,
and conversion of carbon dioxide into oxygen.
4. What is a simple technology that 1) reduces the amount of fuel wood used in developing
countries, and 2) reduces illness related to wood smoke inhalation?
A smokeless Chula – which is an inexpensive indoor cooking stove
5. What is biodiversity and how is it impacted by habitat loss?
Biodiversity refers to the variety of species. When forests are cut down or wetlands are
drained, the plants and animals that live in these places can’t survive.
6. Explain the concept, Tragedy of the Commons, by discussing sheep herding or fishing as an
example.
Because the resource is free (commonly-held) people might be inclined to take more of it than
they would if the resource wasn’t held in common. Eventually the resource will be used up and
can’t produce for anyone.
7. Give examples of the economic costs (Mexico) and health costs (U.S.) of air pollution.
In Mexico City schools and factories have had to close and cars have to drive with the lights
on. In the U.S. air pollution has caused a rise in asthma.
8. What are greenhouse gasses and how do they cause global warming?
When certain gasses build up in the atmosphere and entrap heat from the sun. This can raise the
temperature of the earth’s climate.
9. Describe two ways that the pace of global warming can be slowed.
Kyoto Protocol, hybrid, bio-diesel, fuel cell cars, solar panels, and energy conservation
Reading Review and Assessments: Companion to Intermediate Text © Facing the Future, 2005
10. What is the goal of people who are working to achieve environmental justice?
They want to make sure that projects that negatively impact the environment or people’s health
are distributed throughout society and don’t affect one group more than another.
Global Issues and Sustainable Solutions
Chapter 7: People and the Planet – What is the Good Life? (pages 32-35)
1. How can poverty cause people to overuse the environment?
People trying to survive are sometimes forced to overuse the environment to meet their needs.
2. Why does poverty tend to increase family size?
Having more children can help a poor family survive. In poor countries children often do a lot
of work to support their families – growing and gathering food, hauling water, collecting
firewood, working in sweatshops, begging on the streets.
3. As a family rises out of extreme poverty, what is something they might be able to afford
which can break the cycle of poverty for their children?
They can send one or more of their children to school to receive an education. This may help
the kids and the family in the future because kids with a higher education receive better jobs
then kids with less education.
4. Name three human activities that have been linked to the emergence of new diseases.
Cultivation of new land areas and engaging in intensive farming practices can create and spread
disease from animal to humans, transportation systems make it easier for new diseases to
spread quickly, increasing global temperatures allow pests and diseases to survive in places
where they never could in the past.
5. Describe four ways that societies are impact by the loss of so many productive workers to
HIV/AIDS.
This can negatively affect education, food production, and the economy. It can also lead to
social and political instability.
6. Define:
Immigrants- People who move for economic or personal reasons.
Refugees- People who leave their homes out of fear that they will be discriminated against
because of their race, religion, nationality, or political beliefs.
Internally displaced people- People who are forced to leave their homes because of war, food,
scarcity, or other crisis but who remain within their country.
7. Explain the difference between environmental scarcity and structural scarcity.
Environmental scarcity means that there is just not enough of a resource to go around;
structural scarcity means that there is enough of the resource but some people get a larger
amount than others.
8. Give two statistics that show how girls and women often suffer structural scarcity.
- Of the 1.2 billion people in extreme poverty, 70 percent are female
- Two of every three illiterate people in the world are female
Reading Review and Assessments: Companion to Intermediate Text © Facing the Future, 2005
- Around the world, women hold only 11 percent of the seats in parliaments or equivalent
elected positions.
- Four million women or more have been taken from their own countries and forced to become
prostitutes, slave laborers, or mail-order brides. Trafficking of women is estimated to generate
$5 billion to $7 billion every year.
9. Name five factors that can contribute to conflict between or within countries.
Economic inequality, ethnic disputes, pressure on scarce resources, poverty, and population
pressures.
10. Give an example of how sustainable solutions are often interconnected and can work together
to improve quality of life.
Answers will vary. Ex: Providing reproductive and community health care, fight poverty,
expand education, increase jobs, or protect the environment all help promote each other.
Global Issues and Sustainable Solutions
Chapter 8: The USA in the Sustainability Puzzle (pages 36-39)
1. The U.S. is only 5 percent of Earth’s total population, yet from the perspective of Earth’s total
ecological footprint, it is of great concern that the United States’ population is growing faster
than any other developed nation. Why?
U.S citizens use many more resources than other people in the world.
2. Give three examples of how the United States’ high levels of resource consumption have
affected its environment.
U.S. Citizens consume 26 percent of all oil and 25 percent of all coal
U.S. Citizens own about one-quarter (25%) of the world’s automobiles
U.S. Cars create carbon dioxide emissions equal to the total CO2 emissions of the entire
Japanese economy (or 25% of the total emission worldwide)
U.S. citizens use 33 percent of the world’s paper and plastic
3. Give examples of how the United States government both has and has not encouraged
sustainability.
Has encouraged: The U.S Government made certain laws to stop pollution and protect the air,
water, and land in the U.S.
Has not encouraged: Allowing private companies to cut trees on forest service lands.
Subsidizing the use and production of fossil fuels such as oil, gas, and coal.
4. How does the U.S. government subsidize the use and production of fossil fuels such oil, gas,
and coal, and how do these subsides contribute to global warming?
U.S Government subsidizes the use of fossil fuels such as oil, gas, and coal by giving more than
$5 billion each year to help these industries. This contributes to global warming because
subsidies create lower prices and encourage consumers and businesses to use more fossil fuels
which can contribute to air pollution and global warming.
5. What health concerns are connected to high consumption and busy lifestyles in the U.S.?
Diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease
Reading Review and Assessments: Companion to Intermediate Text © Facing the Future, 2005
6. Once a basic level of human survival needs have been met, what factors have been shown to
contribute to human’s overall happiness?
High Self-esteem and strong relationships with family, friends, and community
7. What does gross domestic product (GDP) measure?
All the dollars that pass through the U.S economy in a year. It is a measure of growth of the
economy
8. What additional quality of life factors are measured by alternate measures of progress, such as
the Genuine Progress Indicator and the Fordham Social Indicator?
Value of paid and volunteer work, crime pollution and family breakdown, teen suicide, people
with out health care, income inequality, level of youth involvement in community service, air
quality, and the availability of affordable housing
9. What is the primary reason why people come to the U.S. as immigrants, and how can
economic arguments be used both for and against immigration to the U.S.?
The primary reason immigrants come to the U.S is to earn more money than they can in their
home countries (ex: $278 per week instead of only $31 per week in Mexico). People against
immigration say that newcomers take jobs away from U.S citizens and use government
services. People for immigration say over time new U.S citizens contribute more to the country
than they take.
10. How could taxes and business practices be restructured in favor of sustainability in the U.S.?
The government could tax pollution instead of income. Businesses have adopted practices
based on recycling all components of a product and have been able to increase profits and
protect the environment.
Global Issues and Sustainable Solutions
Chapter 9: Sustainable Solutions – It’s Our Future! (pages 40-43)
1. Why does a child born in the U.S. actually have a greater impact on Earth’s ecological
footprint than does a child born in a developing country?
A child in the U.S will use more resources then a child born in a developing country.
2. How can decisions about your family car and alternative transportation reduce your
ecological footprint?
By using alternative forms of transportation individuals can create less pollution and reduce
greenhouse gases
3. How can decisions about low impact and organic foods reduce your ecological footprint?
Meat consumption uses more resources and therefore results in a larger ecological footprint.
Since organic foods do not contain pesticides or fertilizers it is healthier for people and the
environment.
4. How can decisions about recycling reduce your ecological footprint?
I can help the environment, reduce your trash, and have compost to help grow your own
vegetables.
5. How can you vote with your dollars to support sustainability?
Reading Review and Assessments: Companion to Intermediate Text © Facing the Future, 2005
Let the people who make the products I spend my money on know that I will not continue
spending my money on them if they keep hurting people or the environment.
6. What are three ways you can become more involved as a citizen?
1. Help educate elected officials and media about issues I care about
2. Point out the connections between issues
3. Remind them that my family will be voting on these issues now and in the future
7. What are three ways to reduce extreme poverty?
-Provide debt relief to poor nations so they can spend money on development, not debt
-Promote trade policies that don’t unfairly favor producers in rich countries
-Promote access to land, credit, and sustainable jobs so people can make a good living without
hurting the environment
-Support human rights so girls, women, and ethnic and religious minorities aren’t left out of all
these efforts.
8. Why does educating and empowering women have such a powerful effect on other global
issues?
The majority of the poor, hungry, and illiterate people in the world are females. Women are not
paid as much as men. If a woman is educated she would most likely have a smaller family
which would improve the odds of her having healthy kids and sending these kids to school. She
would also probably have a higher income and more power in her family and community.
Educating and empowering girls and women helps slow population growth, protect the
environment, and reduce poverty.
9. What is worldview and why is it often so slow to change?
Worldview refers to the deeply ingrained ideas we have about how the world works.
Worldviews are so slow to change because people’s worldviews have developed over
thousands of years.
10. What are three important target areas to work towards for a sustainable future?
Three important target areas to work towards for a sustainable future are to stabilize world
population at a sustainable level, protect the environment, and balance the most destructive
inequities between nations, individuals, and genders.
Reading Review and Assessments: Companion to Intermediate Text © Facing the Future, 2005