Developing Sustainability Flashcards
ethics
understanding good and bad, right and wrong
ethical standards
criteria that helps differentiate right from wrong, derived from worldviews, consequences of actions are the only standard of righ and wrong
utilitarian/practical/functional principle
smth is right when it produces the most benefit for the most ppl
how ethical considerations have expanded over time
- economic prosperity
- leisure time
- fewer anxieties
- science as a source of knowledge
- understanding the interconnection of organisms
env issues are:
- presented as only with trade-offs
- conflicting econ benefits and social or ethical concerns
- varying assumptions and value judgements
human expansionist ethic
sets society outside or independent of nature, the only good thing is human prosperity
economics
managing resources to ensure stability, about the global system, has many components, resource use and depletion are treated as acceptable losses
culture
knowledge, beliefs, values, and ways of life shared by a group of ppl
worldview
person or group’s belief about the meaning, purpose, operation, and essence of the world
trade-offs
- 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
egocentrism
humans are at the top of the hierarchy and build ourselves on top of everthing else in the env
ecocentrism
humans are part of the env system, no hierarchy, everything in nature is equally valuable, impacts on one aspect will affect others
land ethic
enlarges the boundaries of the community to include the land, rather than limiting it to econ
env ethics
the application of ethical standards to relationships between humans and the env systems that support us
neoclassical econ
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
gross domestic product
adds up all the money spent, econ growth is defined as an increase in goods and services, considered an indicator of progress
genuine progress indicator
makes crucial distinctions: positive econ contributions of household and volunteer work and negative factors like pollution, crime, mental health, and family breakdown,
human development index
composite measure of a nation’s social and econ development that includes measures of health, wealth, and education
happy planet index
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
conventional econ
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
ecological view of econ activity
natural resources are used to facilitate the econ and industry which exchange matter with the ecosystem, produces waste, and recycle
ecological economists’ argument
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
components of sustainable econ activity
- 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
trade-offs of green taxes and fees
- 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
values of ecosystem services
- 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
how policy affects pollution and waste
- 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
Brundtland Report
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
principles of sustainability
- 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
what’s unsustainable:
- degradation of the ecosphere (deforestation, ag, dams)
- expansion of resource manipulation and consumption
- exponential growth of the human enterprise
minimize and eliminate for sustainability
- quantitative growth as a measure of progress
- consumption of non-renewables and energy
- production and release of wastes
- social and cultural inequality and disharmony
protect and restore for sustainability
- air and water quality
- soil integrity and extent
- biodiversity and habitats
- essential ecological processes conservation, restoration, reducing impacts, mitigation)
maximize for sustainability
- 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
fundamentals of sustainability
- 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
