Advanced Placement (AP)
The social scientists, especially the economists, are moving deeply into ecology and the environment these days, with disquieting results. It goes somehow against the grain to learn that cost-benefit analyses can be done neatly on lakes, meadows, nesting gannets, and even whole oceans. It is hard enough to confront the environmental options ahead, and the hard choices, but even harder when the price tags are so visible. Even the new jargon is disturbing: it hurts the spirit, somehow, to read the word environments, when the plural means that there are so many alternatives there to be sorted through, as in a market, and voted on. Economists need cool heads and cold hearts for this sort of work, and they must write in icy, often skiddy, prose.Natural Man,Lewis ThomasIn the first sentence of the first paragraph, the writer uses the word "disquieting to express disapproval ofthe dominant influence of consumerism in society.citizens failure to adopt sustainable economic practices.methods and perspectives adopted by social scientists.the environmental impact of certain businesses and industries.office environments in which economists and other social scientists work.
