Chapter 1 Botkin and Keller

Question 1

what are the six themes for approaching environmental science?

Answer 1

Human population growth
Sustainability
A global perpective
An urbanizing world
People and nature
Science and values

Question 2

What brought the “environment” into social and political debate in the 60s?

Answer 2

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

At the same time, there were oil spills and threats of extinction of many species

Question 3

What was the “population bomb”?

Answer 3

in the past 40 years the human population has doubled, gong from 2,5 billion to 6,8 billion

Question 4

Famine and food crisis happens when…

Answer 4

occurs when the human population exceeds its environmental resources.

Question 5

Famine in Africa in the 70s

Answer 5

In the mid 70s, 500 000 africans starved following the drought in Sahel

Question 6

Why is there so much famine in africa?

Answer 6

Multiple interrelated causes:
Drought combined with large population size.

Desert in africa are spreading due to climate change and human activity

Food is also a political weapon

Question 7

The famine in Africa illustrate a key theme in environment studies…

Answer 7

people and nature: people affect the environment, and environment affect people

the population size has stretched the capacity of the land to provide sufficient food

Question 8

What has caused the global food crisis in the 21st century?

Answer 8

Mostly by rising food costs on goods such as corn, wheat and rice

Has led to food riots in Mecia, Haiti and Egypt, India and Sudan in 2007 and 2008

Question 9

What is carrying capacity?

Answer 9

the maximum number of individuals of a species that can be sustained by an environment to sustain that same number in the future

Question 10

What are the two formal scientific meanings of sustainability?

Answer 10

sustainability of resources (coal, trees from forests of fish from the sea)

sustainability of an ecosystem

Question 11

When is an ecosystem sustainable?

Answer 11

when it can continue ifs primary functions for a specified time in the future (called “planning time horizon”)

Question 12

What is the 21st century’s environmental paradigm?

Answer 12

Sustainability

Question 13

What attributes to a sustainable economy in the information age?

Answer 13

populations of human and other organisms living in harmony with the natural support system

energy policy that does not pollute

A plan for renewable resources

A plan for non-renewable resources

A social, legal and political system dedicate to sustainability

Question 14

What do we need to do to achieve a sustainable global economy?

Answer 14

develop efficient population control, requires education and lower literacy rates

Completely restructure our energy programs

economic planning, a new tax structure and financial aid to those in need

implement social and legal changes to protect environment in local, regional and educational changes

Question 15

What is “desirable human carrying capacity”?

Answer 15

includes sustainability in the equation - meaning that the it considers how we want the people on earth to have it, not just the number. Depends on our values

Question 16

What is the Gaia hypothesis?

Answer 16

over the history of life on Earth, life has profoundly changed the global environment, and that these changes have tended to improve the changes for the continuation of life.

how people affect the environment locally affects globally

Question 17

What is the precautionary principle?

Answer 17

when there is a serious threat, perhaps even irreversible, environmental damage, we should not wait for scientific proof before taking precautionary steps to prevent potential harm to the environment

it emerged as a new proactive tool of thinking about environment and the EU has implemented it

Question 18

What is utilitarian justification?

Answer 18

some aspects of the environment is valuable because it benefits individuals economically or is directly necessary to human survival

Question 19

What is ecological justification?

Answer 19

an ecosystem is necessary for the survival of some species if interest to us, or that the system itself provides some benefit

Question 20

What is aesthetic and recreational justification?

Answer 20

has to do with our appreciation of the beauty of nature and our desire to get out and enjoy it

this is gaining legal basis in many parts of the world

Question 21

What is creative justification?

Answer 21

the creativity of artists and poets is often inspired by their contact with nature

Question 22

What is Moral justification?

Answer 22

various aspects of the environment have a right to exist and that it is our moral obligation to help them, or at least allow them, to persists

Question 23

What is cultural justification?

Answer 23

different cultures have many of the same values but also some different values with respect to the environment

Question 24

When was the precautionary principle introduced?

Answer 24

1992 Rio Summit

Question 25

The Gaia Hypothesis states that the dominant force that has shaped the global environment through time is:

Answer 25

life