Environmental sociology focuses on which of the following?

• A. The economic systems of production
• B. The history of natural resource use
• C. The study of climate science
• D. How humans affect the environment and how the environment affects humans

Answer: (D)

Environmental sociology studies how people and their environments shape each other—the ways social factors like culture, politics, and economy influence the natural world, and how environmental conditions and processes affect social life, institutions, and inequality. This bidirectional focus is why the description that covers both directions of influence—how humans affect the environment and how the environment affects humans—is the best fit. The other ideas represent economic production, historical resource use, or climate science, which are related areas but not the central sociological lens that centers on social–environment interactions and their consequences for communities.