Download Sarah Maloney APES Chapter 11 Critical Thinking Questions #7

Sarah Maloney
APES
Chapter 11 Critical Thinking Questions
#7-9
7) I think that developed countries should provide most of the money to preserve the remaining
tropical rainforests. This is because if they don’t do it, the undeveloped countries won’t either.
Poverty leads to environmental degradation because people use whatever resources they can find
to get by. If developed countries don’t step in to do something, the forests are sure to be lost. The
counter argument to this is that it isn’t the business of the developed countries because the forests
are in other parts of the world. The truth is that it isn’t about country lines. If we lose a certain
species that contains a resource that can only be found in that species, we all lose out, regardless
of what country we live in.
8) Everything is always undergoing constant change. We should establish and protect nature
reserves because if we don’t, the area is bound to get overrun. We are intervening, but in a way
that is beneficial for the populations the area contains. We should concern ourselves with
ecological restoration too. It’s a careful and tricky process that can easily go wrong, but we
should only do it if we’re righting a wrong that a human action created. We should not use
ecological restoration to make a certain environment behave in a way we want it to behave for
our own purposes.
9) Policies for using and managing forest and parks are tricky because of the role humans must
be assigned. First and foremost, to avoid people complaining about how those crazy
environmental people are taking away their livelihoods/lands/resources, I would find a way to
compensate them with either other land or money. I would also make anyone who uses the
resources of public lands responsible for any environmental damage they cause. This could be by
law or by people’s pockets. Either one tends to work. If they go into a park or forest and choose
to take resources, but leave behind damage they must be responsible for the damage and the
consequences of the damage. Another small thing I would do is reserve certain areas of the park
and keep the public out – no foot traffic. Although a person walking through time to time
wouldn’t do much damage, people are bound to decide to take things (like bits of plant) or leave
their trash. The designated land would be able to be viewed by the people, but not disturbed by
them. Parts of the park/forest would still be accessible (as it is valuable for people to learn from
these resources and discover that it’s valuable to protect them), but I would reserve certain
undisturbed areas just for the non-human species to inhabit and have undisturbed.