Chapter 1 - Mandatory Readings Flashcards
How do human activities affect global Earth systems?
Earth consists of many physical and biological systems, including an abundance of resources that allows many forms of life to thrive.
Humans, through technology and a growing population, have exploited these resources to the point that we have put the environment at risk.
How is human development generally characterised?
Human developed is typically associated with wealth-related factors.
For instance, highly developed countries (HDCs) have represented less than 20% of population globally, but account for more than 50% of resource use.
LDCs, on the other hands, are those with high poverty rates, low levels of industrialisation, etc., but also the ones bearing the brunt of human’s resource overuse.
Increasingly, many countries in the world also have mixed development, such as China and India, where urban residents may own far more wealth than other urban and most rural residents living in poverty.
Renewable / Non-Renewable Resources
Renewable resources are those that nature replenishes/replaces fairly rapidly and can be used forever as long as they are not overexploited in the short term.
Non-renewable resources are present in limited supply and are diminished by use.
Explain the impact of population and affluence on consumption.
As population increases, people can exceed the capacity of a region to support basic needs. When consumption by individuals substantially exceeds these basic needs, the resources in a region will be exceeded even more quickly.
What is an individual’s ecological footprint?
An individual’s ecological footprint is the amount of productive land, fresh water, and ocean required on a continuous basis to supply that person with food, energy, water, housing, material goods, transportation, and waste disposal.
