Class 1 - introduction (ES and planetary boundaries) Flashcards
Define ES
Ecological characteristics, functions and processes that directly or indirectly contribute to human well-being OR the relative contribution of natural capital to the production of human benefits
How can ES’s be realised?
Natural capital must be combined with either manufactured, social, or cultural capital
The 4 types of ES
Provisioning services, regulating services, cultural services, and supporting services
What are provisioning services of ES
The ES that combined with built, human, and social capital produce food, timber, fiber, or other provisioning benefits
What are regulating services of ES
Services that combined with built, human and cultural capital produce flood control, storm protection, water regulation, human disease regulation, water purification, air quality maintenance, pollination, pest control, climate control
What are the cultural services of ES
Combines built, human and social capital to produce recreation, aestetic, scientific, cultural identity, sense of place, or other cultural benefits
What are the supporting services of ES
Services that maintain basic ecosystem processes such as soil formation, primary productivity, biogeochemistry, and habitat provision
Why are many ES public goods?
Non-excludable and non-rivalrous
When does an ES exist?
Only if it contributes to human well-being, not in itself
What does GDP have to do with ES?
GDP does not represents a limit to the valuation of ES, for example a study valued ES across 16 biomes to over GDP at the time
What do businesses have to do with ES
They should concider thie costs to the ecosystem and try to minimise these
What to sources do ecological conflicts arise from?
- Scarcity and restriction in the amount of ES that can be provided, 2. The distribution of the costs and benefits of the provisioning of the ES
How many planetary boundaries are transgressed?
6 out of 9
What is the planetary boundary framework?
Framework characterising how different 9 areas are now than in the Holocene-like interglacial state where the global environment and life-support systems were stable over the past 10,000 years, stable and warm conditions
What affects the earth system?
External forces (solar energy, asteroid strikes), internal forces (geosphere and biosphere), human activity
How much did the global temperature change between 9000 years ago and the industrial revolution?
+- 0,5 degrees
When are we fucked (temperature)
1-2 degree change, no more than 1.5 degrees leads to irreversible change
What are the 2 core planetary boundaries?
Climate change and biospehere integrety
What are the control variables for biosphere integrety?
Genetic diversity (maximum extinction tolerable) and planetary function (NPP net primary prodcution - energy available in the ecosystem)
When was the PB biospehere integrety transgressed?
At the end of 1800s
Name all the planetary boundaries and whether or not they are transgressed
Biosphere integrity (passed), climate change (passed), novel entities (passed), stratospheric ozone depletion (safe), atmospheric aerosol loading (safe), ocean acidification (barely safe), biochemical flows (passed), freshwater change (uncertain, passed), land system change (passed)
Control variables for Climate change?
Atmospheric CO2 concentration and total anthropogenix relative radiative forcing at the top of the atmosphere
Control variables for stratospheric ozone depletion?
Stratospheric O3 concentration
What is stratospheric ozone depletion?
Special case of novel entities where gaseous halocarbon release and deplete the ozone layer
Control variables for ocean acidification?
Carbonate ion concentration
Worsening trend even though safe
Control variables for biochemical flows?
Phosphate flow from freshwater into ocean and industrial and intentional fixation on nitrogen
Control variables for land system change?
Area of forested land as a percentage of original forest cover
Important to note on land forest cover?
Deforestation has increased and global forest area continues to decrease + this PB is very important for the Paris agreement to be reached
Control variables for freshwater change?
= Blue water: Human induced disturbance of blue water flow and Green water: Human induced disturbance of water available to plants
When was the PB freshwater change transgressed?
In 1905 and 1929
Control variables for atmospheric aerosol loading?
Difference in AOD (reduction in sunlight reaching earth’s surface caused by absorption and scattering the air column)
Important aspects of the PB Atmospheric aerosol loading?
There has been a global doubling of dust depletion since 1750 + it affects monsoon systems and regional rainfall
Control variables for novel entities?
Percentage of synthetic chemicals released into the environment without safety testing
What are novel entities and what should the safety level be?
Truly new entities in Earth system like synthetic chemicals, radioactive materials, human modifications of evolution like genetically modified organisms +
Only truly safe at 0%
What has happened to the level of the planetary boundaries that had transgressed when measured in 2015?
All have worsened
Where are the tropics, tropics of cancer and tropics of capricorn?
Tropic of cancer: 23 degrees north, Tropic of Capricorn, 23 degrees south
What determines the variation in rainfall and temperature?
Global unequal distrbution of energy from the sun due to the world spinning at an angle. When it rains in the tropics, the heat makes the air rise, cool, decend, then heat and take up moisture, making arid climates
What are two factors that matter when we talk about nature?
Equity and access
What are some values and benefits from access to nature in South Africa?
Peace, silence, contact with nature, open space, time alone, time with friends, health, mental health, clean air, shade, extraction of resources, business opportunities, passage through
What are some of the costs and risks of access to nature in South Africa?
Crime, dangerous animals, dangerous materials, lack of maintainance, pollution, people feel like they are not involved in decision making
How do the tropical ecosystems change as you move northa nd south?
Tropics - savanna - desert
What happens to rain at the eqautor?
Instead of getting colder and warmer, the rains rise and fall
What are the 3 levels of equity?
Procedural (participation, representation, recognition), contextual (preconditions, political and social structures), distributive (costs and benefits, based on need, merit or equality: Who gets what)
