Developing Sustainability

Question 1

ethics

Answer 1

understanding good and bad, right and wrong

Question 2

ethical standards

Answer 2

criteria that helps differentiate right from wrong, derived from worldviews, consequences of actions are the only standard of righ and wrong

Question 3

utilitarian/practical/functional principle

Answer 3

smth is right when it produces the most benefit for the most ppl

Question 4

how ethical considerations have expanded over time

Answer 4

• economic prosperity
• leisure time
• fewer anxieties
• science as a source of knowledge
• understanding the interconnection of organisms

Question 5

env issues are:

Answer 5

• presented as only with trade-offs
• conflicting econ benefits and social or ethical concerns
• varying assumptions and value judgements

Question 6

human expansionist ethic

Answer 6

sets society outside or independent of nature, the only good thing is human prosperity

Question 7

economics

Answer 7

managing resources to ensure stability, about the global system, has many components, resource use and depletion are treated as acceptable losses

Question 8

culture

Answer 8

knowledge, beliefs, values, and ways of life shared by a group of ppl

Question 9

worldview

Answer 9

person or group’s belief about the meaning, purpose, operation, and essence of the world

Question 10

trade-offs

Answer 10

• economic argument: env protection costs too much, interferes with progress, leads to job losses
• opposing view: human economies are coupled with env, env culture is good for the economy, management extends resource life cycle

Question 11

egocentrism

Answer 11

humans are at the top of the hierarchy and build ourselves on top of everthing else in the env

Question 12

ecocentrism

Answer 12

humans are part of the env system, no hierarchy, everything in nature is equally valuable, impacts on one aspect will affect others

Question 13

land ethic

Answer 13

enlarges the boundaries of the community to include the land, rather than limiting it to econ

Question 14

env ethics

Answer 14

the application of ethical standards to relationships between humans and the env systems that support us

Question 15

neoclassical econ

Answer 15

views resources as being infinite and substitutable, env costs are externalities, long-term effects are discounted, growth is good and should be promoted, demands emphasis of consumption and discarding

Question 16

gross domestic product

Answer 16

adds up all the money spent, econ growth is defined as an increase in goods and services, considered an indicator of progress

Question 17

genuine progress indicator

Answer 17

makes crucial distinctions: positive econ contributions of household and volunteer work and negative factors like pollution, crime, mental health, and family breakdown,

Question 18

human development index

Answer 18

composite measure of a nation’s social and econ development that includes measures of health, wealth, and education

Question 19

happy planet index

Answer 19

measure of a nation’s quality of life that includes survey results on happiness, life expectancy at birth, the degree of inequality across society and the ecological footprint

Question 20

conventional econ

Answer 20

2 groups are households (consumers) and firms (manufacturers), consumers work in firms as labour and in return, consumers receive money, frms produce goods, consumers buy the goods which leads to a cycle

Question 21

ecological view of econ activity

Answer 21

natural resources are used to facilitate the econ and industry which exchange matter with the ecosystem, produces waste, and recycle

Question 22

ecological economists’ argument

Answer 22

econ growth is linear and unsustainable, ecol limits apply to all species’ growth, advocate against growth and to shrink the econ to make it more efficient

Question 23

components of sustainable econ activity

Answer 23

• no-till cultivation
• forest conservation
• energy-efficient vehicles
• sustainable fishing and ag
• high-speed trains
• wind farms
• cycling
• reuse/recycle/compost
• passive solar homes
• water conservation
• solar-cell fields
• sustainable organic ag
• drip irrigation

Question 24

trade-offs of green taxes and fees

Answer 24

• advantages: full-cost pricing, incentives for businesses to do better to save money, change behaviour of polluters and consumers, easily administered
• disadvantages: penalizes low-income groups, hard to determine optimum level, need to frequently readjust levels

Question 25

values of ecosystem services

Answer 25

• use: worth of services directly used
• option: future service use
• cultural: services that define culture
• scientific: services as subjects of research
• educational: services for understanding how the world works
• aesthetic: services that provide beauty and emotion
• existence: service that simply exist

Question 26

how policy affects pollution and waste

Answer 26

• decreases depletion and degradation of natural resources
• improves env quality by full-cost pricing
• encourages pollution prevention and waste reduction
• stimulates creativity in solving env problems
• rewards recycling and reuse
• relies more on marketplace rather than regulation for env protection
• can stimulate sustainable econ development
• allows income cuts

Question 27

Brundtland Report

Answer 27

formalized idea of sustainable development, stated that env decline isn’t inevitable, main directions: sustainable econs should maintain basic resources, surviving and thriving on interest, econ restructuring requires societal change, and new econ development strategies

Question 28

principles of sustainability

Answer 28

• solar energy: nature runs on renewable solar energy, so we should rely on it
• nutrient recycling: nature recycles its wastes, so we should prevent and reduce pollution by recycling/reusing resources
• biodiversity: nature relies on the variety of species to maintain itself and adapt to new env conditions, we should preserve biodiversity by protecting ecosystem services and habitats, prevents premature extinctions
• population regulation: nature controls pop size and resource use by interactions with its env and other species, so we should reduce human births and wasteful resource use to prevent env overload, depletion, degradation

Question 29

what’s unsustainable:

Answer 29

• degradation of the ecosphere (deforestation, ag, dams)
• expansion of resource manipulation and consumption
• exponential growth of the human enterprise

Question 30

minimize and eliminate for sustainability

Answer 30

• quantitative growth as a measure of progress
• consumption of non-renewables and energy
• production and release of wastes
• social and cultural inequality and disharmony

Question 31

protect and restore for sustainability

Answer 31

• air and water quality
• soil integrity and extent
• biodiversity and habitats
• essential ecological processes conservation, restoration, reducing impacts, mitigation)

Question 32

maximize for sustainability

Answer 32

• rehab of degraded resources
• reliance on perpetually available resources
• efficiency and diversity of econ activities
• community self-reliance and econ resilience
• reliance and development of suitable tech
• qualitative improvement as a measure of progress
• values of cooperation, stewardship, accountability
• integrity of connections within and among communities

Question 33

fundamentals of sustainability

Answer 33

• perceptions of the env: human species as being interdependent on it, stabilizing world pop to reduce impacts
• env accounting methods: must include real and intangible costs
• natural resource accounting: measure econ policy impact on ecocapital, maintain life support systems
• revise econ development strategies: re-ealuate domestic consumption, re-establish sustainable ag