Graduate Take-Home Exam

1. In class, Guy said that limiting consumption is a personal decision. Do you agree? How do your consumption patterns affect other people? [250 words; 10 points]

1. List the "four spikes" we discussed in class. [4 points] Circle the spike that is no longer increasing exponentially. [2 points]

2. What global phenomenon looms as the "fifth" spike? [2 points]

3. Answer one of the following two questions [12 points]:

   a. Select any three of the five phenomena you have listed in the previous questions, and explain how they interact. Using a specific example, explain how the interaction between the two phenomena threatens development of a just, sustainable human enterprise on Earth.

   b. Defend American imperialism from the standpoint of a just, sustainable human enterprise on planet Earth.

4. Near the end of the first chapter of Killing the Natives, the author calls for a Declaration of Interdependence that would depict the links between what three elements? [3 points]

5. Explain Nietzsche's declaration that "God is dead." [4 points]

6. Briefly explain either:

   a. How René Descartes contributed to Nietzsche's conclusion. [3 points] OR

   b. Why you think Nietzsche was incorrect (provide evidence). [3 points]

7. Briefly describe "command and control" as described by Holling and Meffe. [2 points] How might "command and control" act as a constraint on management of vegetation at a particular place and time? [3 points]

8. Define inference. [3 points] Inference depends on what two elements of sampling design? [2 points]

9. Differentiate between a hypothesis and a prediction. [2 points] Use an example to illustrate the difference between the two. [2 points]

10. List and describe one of the cultural adversaries of science described by Steven Weinberg. [4 points]

11. Describe, with a specific example, how a vegetation manager could contribute to a strong, reciprocal link between either a scientist or a policy-maker. [4 points]

12. List three groups or entities that have, within the last decade, concluded that atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases are rising as a result of human actions. [3 points]

13. Describe one potential consequence of rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. [2 points] How would this outcome threaten a just, sustainable human civilization on Earth? [3 points]