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Sustainability, Environmental Policy, and Ethics — HS Environmental Science practice questions

12 multiple-choice questions and 18 flashcards on Sustainability, Environmental Policy, and Ethics, about 8% of the HS Environmental Science bank. Every one carries a written rationale.

Written and maintained by the CoStudy team · last updated 2026-10-02 · how we write and review questions

What this chapter covers

Sustainability, Environmental Policy, and Ethics is one of 11 chapters in CoStudy's HS Environmental Science bank, and it holds 12 of the bank's 150 multiple-choice questions — roughly 8% of the total. That proportion is not arbitrary: chapters follow the certifying body's published exam outline, and the number of questions in each is set by that domain's published weight, so the share of your practice time this chapter takes matches the share of the real exam it accounts for.

Studying by chapter is worth doing once you have a diagnostic score. A single overall percentage tells you whether you are close; it does not tell you which domain is dragging. Working a weak chapter in isolation, and re-testing it in isolation, is the fastest way to move a score that has stalled — and it is why the mock exams in CoStudy report by domain rather than as one number.

Free Sustainability, Environmental Policy, and Ethics practice questions

3 questions drawn from this chapter, with the full rationale shown — the controlling principle behind the right answer, and why each wrong option tempts and fails.

Sustainable development is development that:

  1. maximizes economic growth regardless of environmental cost
  2. stops all use of natural resources
  3. returns society to pre-industrial life
  4. meets present needs without harming future generations

Answer: D — meets present needs without harming future generations

D) Correct — This is the Brundtland Commission's 1987 definition. A) Ignores the environment and the future. B) Use is allowed if it can continue. C) Is not the goal.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires federal agencies to:

  1. ban all pollution
  2. charge a carbon tax
  3. prepare environmental impact statements
  4. require recycling in every state

Answer: C — prepare environmental impact statements

C) Correct — Major federal projects must study their environmental effects. A) NEPA does not ban pollution. B) NEPA sets no tax. D) NEPA does not mandate recycling.

The view that all living things have value, not just humans, is:

  1. biocentrism
  2. anthropocentrism
  3. ecocentrism
  4. consumerism

Answer: A — biocentrism

A) Correct — Moral value extends to all life. B) Values nature for its use to humans. C) Values whole ecosystems, including nonliving parts. D) Is not an environmental ethic.

Sustainability, Environmental Policy, and Ethics flashcards

4 cards from the 18 in this chapter.

Environmental justice?

Equal protection from environmental harm regardless of race/income. Some communities disproportionately affected.

Circular economy?

Design out waste. Products reused/recycled rather than disposed.

Clean Air Act?

1963/1970. Regulates US air pollutants. Major reductions in pollution.

Worked example — Ecological footprint: An average US resident's footprint is ~8 global hectares (gha) per person. If Earth's biocapacity is ~1.6 gha per person, how many Earths would be needed if everyone lived like the average American?

Step 1 — Set up ratio: footprint per person ÷ biocapacity per person = Earths required. Step 2 — Substitute: 8 gha ÷ 1.6 gha ≈ 5. Step 3 — Interpret: ~5 Earths would be required. This means current US lifestyle is not globally generalizable — a key sustainability indicator showing overshoot of planetary limits.

Practise the full chapter

These are a sample. The full Sustainability, Environmental Policy, and Ethics chapter runs 30 items with per-chapter progress tracking, on the web and in the iOS app.

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Other HS Environmental Science chapters

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