2. Global Environment

Question 1

What is Sustainable Development?

Answer 1

“development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987)

Question 2

(World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987)

Answer 2

“development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”

Question 3

What is Environmental degradation?

Answer 3

“a process through which the natural environment is compromised in some way, reducing biological diversity and the general health of the environment”

Question 4

How can Environmental degradation happen?

Answer 4

Can be entirely natural in origin

Can be accelerated or caused by human activities.

Question 5

Environmental degradation as one of the major threats facing the planet,

Answer 5

Since humans have only been given one Earth to work with

-if the environment becomes irreparably compromised-

it could mean the end of human existence

Question 6

Climate Change Denial

Answer 6

Donald Trump

Question 7

Commitment to Environmental Challenge (Climate and Pollution) has been very weak

Answer 7

Kyoto Protocol

US non-ratification

Canadian withdrawal

China no binding targets

Question 8

Addressing the Environmental Challenge

Answer 8

Marrakech COP22 3-year process of how to achieve real progress

Bonn COP23 characterised by the existence of two US delegations

Financing climate mitigation and adaptation (lessening impact) difficult to agree on

How to support developing nations in combating climate change, and how to strike a balance with their long-term economic development

Question 9

Bonn COP23 meeting

Answer 9

Characterised by the existence of two US delegations

1. US President Trump’s position
2. “we are still in” delegation

Question 10

Marrakech COP22

Answer 10

Meeting commenced, amidst climate change sceptic Trump’s election, a supposed 3-year process of detailing how to achieve real progress.

Question 11

Sayer (2009: 351)

Answer 11

”The poor are invariably greener than the rich and yet far more vulnerable to environmental hazards”.

Question 12

(DiMuzio, 2015) Carbon capitalism

Answer 12

Global capitalism is a ”carbon capitalism”, profoundly dependent on the exploitation of carbon (DiMuzio, 2015).

Question 13

Given dependence upon low-cost energy

Answer 13

“major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) without reductions in growth and hence capital accumulation” is hard to imagine. Sayer 2009

Major reductions would spell economic crises.

Question 14

Expectation of continued increases in affluence, or insatiable acquisitiveness, is not compatible with reductions in GHGEs

Answer 14

Mitigation therefore requires a levelling down of incomes of the well-off, and with that changes in lifestyles

Question 15

Sayer (2009: 351): ”The World Cannot Afford the Rich”

Answer 15

Not even the current lifestyles of middle classes.

Question 16

”The World Cannot Afford the Rich”

Answer 16

Sayer (2009)

Question 17

Conflict between Climate Change and Capital

Answer 17

Substantial decline in consumer demand from middle classes would be a major blow to global capital accumulation.

Question 18

What is Entropy in the Production Process?

Answer 18

Materials used in production are transformed:

Enter in a state of low entropy (are useful)

Leave in a state of high entropy (are now useless)

Question 19

No recycling processes can ever be 100% efficient

Answer 19

Residual waste and environmental damage are thus inevitable

Question 20

What is the greenhouse effect?

Answer 20

Global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased markedly as a result of human activities since 1750 (IPCC 2007)

Question 21

Global increases in carbon dioxide are due primarily to

Answer 21

Fossil fuel use and land use change

Question 22

Methane and nitrous oxide increase primarily due to

Answer 22

Agriculture

Question 23

Dicken 2011

Answer 23

Uneven population growth

Question 24

Unevenness of Damage

Answer 24

The double exposure problem: poverty/inequality + pollution

Air pollution in world cities

Pollution from Maritime Transport

Question 25

Pollution from Maritime Transport

Answer 25

Shipping-related emissions contribute approximately 60.000 deaths annually at a global scale (Corbett et al 2007)

Question 26

Premature Deaths Annually

Answer 26

Highest in China nearly 600,000

India 460,000

Established market economies 20,000

Question 27

Global Production Networks and the Environment

Answer 27

“production not as value creation but as a process of materials transformation in which environmental change and the organisation/disorganisation of matter and energy are integral rather than incidental to economic activity” (Bridge,2008, p. 77)

Question 28

Wasteful GPNs and GPNs of Waste

Answer 28

• Hazardous waste
• Radioactivity
• Mineral Extraction
• E-Waste

Recreating Value from Waste…

• Shifting Waste globally, but unevenly
• It is those who are the least able to recycle who take on the task of doing so…
• “Pollution Havens”
• Uneven Environmental Regulation

Question 29

Brand and Görg (2000) on competition states in relation to biodiversity:

Answer 29

Capital interests are a driving force in the use of genetic resources and hence the depletion of biodiversity

Question 30

E-Waste

Answer 30

Computers, mobile phones, etc. exported, but importing countries are unable to effectively recycle the material.

Question 31

Environmental damage is uneven

Answer 31

It affects those least able to protect themselves, but typically making the smallest contribution to this damage, the most

Question 32

The current path of development is unsustainable,

Answer 32

Not only from the perspective of the poorest, but from a global perspective.