139 final exam Flashcards
Proximate causes for deforestation–Madagascar
• Population growth and land use (slash and burn ag)
o Accelerated loss of forest (net result)
o Losing incredible biodiversity
Underlying causes for deforestation–Madagascar
• French annexation in 1986
o Uprooting Malagasy and other tribes from traditional homes
• Land tenure
o Plantations and export economy (logs)
o Privatization and band on shifting cultivation
o Debt—forest concessions
o Population growth—vaccines and public health
o Governance—coups and corruption
Proximate causes of deforestation–Boreno, Indonesia
• Bauxite mines—generates waste-rock and toxic red mud
o Right underneath the forests
o When process these mines, wind up with a lot of toxic waste
o On one hand, over period of time with production, a lot of money was produced
• Palm oil plantations—animals are disoriented b/c deforestation happens so fast; orangutans are tranquilized and taken somewhere else
Underlying causes of deforestation–Boreno, Indonesia
• Globalization, politics, and money
o Demand from China (logging and palm oil)
o Foreign investment before Currency Crisis (97/98)
o About 40% of logging was illegal under leader Suharto
Proximate vs. underlying causes of deforestation in general
- Cost is an immediate/proximate
- Don’t take into account underlying costs
- Broader and have been around for years
- Much more geographical and historical scales
- Proximate = population pressure, shifting cultivation (particularly slash and burn)
- Underlying = colonization, land tenure, warfare (end up in debt)
- Seems like proximate causes, but often because of what happened generations ago
social and ecological consequence s of different forestry practices
o Reduction in forest species diversity
o Trees will be same age after planting area
o Uprooting tribes from traditional homes
o Two types:
• Clear cutting—everything is taken
• Uneven age management and species management
• i.e. trees
• As soon as the trees are gone, the mills are shut down and no jobs
• About applying steady employment over period of time
Ecological consequences of large dams
- Dramatically changing environment w/ dams—from river to lake
- Dam collects sediments upstream, eventually making water useless
- Downstream, sediment strained
- Species and areas of land upstream get flooded and decompose, emitting greenhouse gases
- Downstream: salinization, erosion, earthquakes
Social consequences/political issues of large dams
- Rivers don’t run according to political borders
- Mouth of river does not make to bigger bodies of water b/c colonialism
- Seasonal stress on top of political, ethnic reasons—Syria/Fertile Crescent
- Completely cutting off water supply, killing off populations and species in Iraq
- Possibility of controlling everything down stream
Social consequences of fossil fuels
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Ecological consequences of fossil fuels
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Ecological consequences of renewable energy
• All forms of energy production have some kind of environmental impact • Just question of magnitude • Solar production: • Ivan pav solar mirror plantations o Need storage o Endangered species
Social ecological consequences of renewable energy
- Great amounts of energy
- Most efficient—decentralized grid
- Gets everyone access to power production—every house is own power plant
Reasons for global climate change
o Changes in Earth’s orbit
• Shape of orbit—high eccentricity = like football, seasonality very intense
• Amount of Earth’s tilt—tilt of axis
• Direction of Earth’s axis—the greater the tilt, the greater seasonality
o Changes in Sun’s output/strength
• Looking at sunspots
• Maunder Minimum: minimal sunspot activity = minimal output
o Plate tectonics (volcanoes)
• Leads to both cooling and warming
o Configurations of land mass to oceans
• i.e. Change when North, Central, and South America were all joined, separating Atlantic and Pacific
Consequences of global climate change
o Rising ocean temperatures—dramatic changes in phytophlankton
o Rising ocean acidity—absorb about ¼ of all carbon dioxide emissions
• Killing reefs, shellfish, and other calcium carbonate dependent organisms
o Rising sea levels—impacting coastal cities; Bangladesh is living example
Geoengineering and removal of carbon dioxide from atmosphere
o Peridotite deposits—type of rock
• Want to expose bed of rick surface to get peridotite
• But…what will happen to everything on top of rock?
o Albedo augmentation
• No more dark surfaces (i.e. black tops and houses)
• Will reflect solar radiation; NOT absorb
o Strafospheric aerosols
• Make fuel dirtier and emit particles that would reflect solar radiation
• But…what about health risks?
o Carbon scrubbers
• With solar updraft towers…very low efficiency though
• Turns into sold waste form…where will they dump this?
Political economy approaches to remove carbon dioxide in atmosphere
o Cap and Trade • Set carbon ‘cap’ through regulation • If don’t use up all, can sell ‘carbon space’ • If use too much/go over, pay a fine • Higher costs for end-consumers of energy • Has not worked very well in past o Carbon tax • Stimulates technological change • Proceeds used for consumer relief
Carbon justice issues
o Taking responsibility for carbon emissions
• Who?
• The beneficiaries or the ones w/ burdens?
• Only 7-8 countries have produced most greenhouse gases—USA, China, England, etc.
• These are not the countries who are dealing with the burdens, though
o Luxury carbon vs. survival carbon
• iPhone vs. cooking over burning wood
• Are these sources equal?
• Survival—producing carbon dioxide for essentials of life
o Media coverage of global climate change—not so much an issue
• Beware of linkages to single evens or linear cause and effect
o Carbon dioxide colonialism
• Do a lot of carbon dioxide accounting
• If you plant trees, you are eliminating carbon footprint
• Get companies that will lease land who in poor countries and plant a forest—make a profit for doing this but only goes to core countries that hired them
• Locals cannot cut down the trees b/c don’t own them; end up losing control of the situation
• People in low lying, poor tropics and subtropics that are carrying burdens
• Most important thing: be self aware of pros and cons
Environmental justice
o What are the concerns of environmental justice?
• Unequal distribution of benefits and burdens
• Access to resources
Renewable energy issues
o Critiques: • Expensive • Renewable energy is cost competitive • Prices are going to keep going down • Production capacity/inefficiencies • Solar cell is as efficient as highest quality of coal • Intermittent power • Storage (power on demand) • Rapidly closing gap between power demand and power production
Energy grids
o USA electric grid (normal; what we have now)
• Centralized power generation and long distance transport
• Transmission losses and distribution losses
• Not very efficient
• Consists of large power plant
• In order to transmit that power, must get to very large distances
o HUGE energy losses throughout entire process
• Made for one way energy emission—not very easy though
o The ‘smart grid’
• Decentralized and multi-path power generator
• Travel both ways, more than one type of electricity
• Must make new grid before switching to renewable energy sources
• Must flow in multiple directions
• By decentralizing, everyone can be a power producer
Alternative transportation, energy, and building techologies
o Transportation:
• Personal—cars, very big production in Japan; hover cars
• Public—Maglev trains and Elon Musks Hyper Loop trains
o Buildings:
• Manchester, England
• Solar building and no carbon dioxide release
• Producing more energy than using
• Zero waste
