Reference no: EM133191026 , Length: Word count: 2 Pages

Please utilize/reference the following textbook:

Essential Environment: The Science Behind the Stories by Jay Withgott & Matthew Laposata, 2018 Pearson

ISBN.13: 978-0-134-71488-2

GED 108 - Environmental Science

Assignment Task 1:  You only need to select one question from the list below:

1. Compare and contrast the philosophies of John Muir and Gifford Pinchot.

2. Discuss the role of humans in regulating carrying capacity for the human species and in altering the carrying capacity for other species.

3. List the three major trophic categories in a food web. What types of organisms are found in each level? At what levels are the autotrophs and heterotrophs found? Discuss the significance of each level for the integral functioning of the food web.

Assignment Task 2: You only need to select one question from the list below:

1. What is the main goal of environmental policy? Describe the "tragedy of the commons" and external costs, and explain why environmental policy would focus on these problems.

2. What are the arguments for and against genetically modified crops? Discuss the scientific, economic, and political issues.

3. Is extinction natural? How has the extinction rate changed over time? Why are extinction rates today different from past extinction rates?

Assignment Task 3: You only need to select one question from the list below:

1. How has the Smokey the Bear campaign, which attempted to eliminate wildfires from forested areas altogether, damaged forest health? What is the importance of fire in ecosystem management? What is the cost of fire suppression for ecosystem health? What is the alternative to fire suppression?

2. Explain risk assessment and risk management. Discuss how risk management combines science and other social factors.

3. Define water pollution, point source pollution, and non-point-source pollution. Which of the two (point source or non-point-source) is easier to identify? Which is easier to legislate? Which currently poses the greatest threat to fresh water?

Assignment Task 4: You only need to select one question from the list below:

1. Why is the concept of radiative forcing critical to understanding the causes of global climate change?

2. If reducing waste can increase efficiency, why is the output of industrial waste still so great? What is the application of industrial ecology and life-cycle analysis to these problems?

3. Why do urbanized societies need stretches of uninhabited and undeveloped land?