Ch. 13 Environmental Problems Flashcards
Brazil annually deforests how many acres of forest?
5.7 million acres
Half of the USA water consumption is used for what?
Grow corn for cattle.
What is Green washing?
a deceptive marketing practice that misleads the public into believing that a company is environmentally friendly. It’s a from of advertising that uses “green” language to promote products, services, or policies that may not be as environmentally sound as they claim.
The McValue meal cannot be possible without:
- Economy and Government Institutions
- Groups of people desperate to work
- Status/role of the consumer
- Time-Strapped families (families with no time to cook)
Environmental problems:
- Are based in society rather than the environment.
- Nothing in the environment decides to burn an entire forest just to grow corn to feed cattle.
- Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
- The problem doesn’t come from the environment, it comes from our societies. We need to shift our focus.
Thomas Maltus:
- Must limit the population or face starvation.
- Argued that , welfare programs are a problem bc it takes care of them, therefore increasing the population.
- Ending welfare forces the poor to make “better choices” or literally die; restores the population/resources balance.
- He feared this would create a vicious cycle: more welfare → more births → more poverty → more suffering.
Malthus vs. Sarlo:
- Malthus feared overpopulation and opposed welfare because he saw it as a root cause of mass suffering.
- Sarlo critiques how we define poverty but does not completely reject welfare. He focuses on ensuring that aid goes to those in genuine need.
How do we make money? Where does new money comes from?
- Central Banks: Central banks control the money supply by setting interest rates and using tools like quantitative easing (essentially “creating” new digital money to stimulate the economy).
How do we make money? Where does new money comes from?
- Commercial Banks: Here’s the real kicker: Most money isn’t printed—it’s loaned into existence!
When you deposit $1,000 in a bank, the bank only keeps a fraction (say 10%) as reserves. The rest ($900) is loaned out to someone else. That borrower then deposits it somewhere, and the process repeats.
This system—called fractional reserve banking—creates new money through lending. It expands the money supply without physically printing new bills.
How do we make money? Where does new money comes from?
- Government Spending & Debt: When governments borrow money by issuing bonds, they’re effectively creating money. Central banks or investors buy these bonds, and the government spends the money into the economy.
If the central bank buys government bonds directly (monetizing the debt), it’s almost like printing new money.
Perpetual economic growth…
is NOT environmentally SUSTAINABLE.
- We have an economic system of perpetual growth on a planet of finite resources.
