Environment Flashcards
Technology
application of scientific principles to improvement of life
•before = naïve optimism - technology can do no wrong
•progress picking up speed - tangible benefits
•post war started doubting technology
•thinking about it as frankenstein rather than saviour
Normal accidents
mishaps because very complexity of modern technologies ensures they will inevitably fail, though in unpredictable ways
normal because inevitable
risk society
social system in which tech distributes danger + advantage among all social groups, although some are more exposed than others are
risk doesn’t derive just from normal accidents there are also mounting environmental threats (more widespread, chronic, lasts longer, more ambiguous because we don’t know what to do about them)
Global Warming and Polar Ice
1.Heat-trapping gases produced by human activity collect in atmosphere
•increasing fuel burning which release co2 + gases into the atmosphere
2.More heat enters atmosphere than escapes: some absorbed + some reflected back by blanket of heat-trapping gases
•solar radiation is trapped
•greenhouse effect increase global warming, gradual increase of surface
Global Warming and Polar Ice
- Heat melts ice, creating water + revealing tundra.
- Tundra releases CH4 (methane), effective heat-trapping gas which traps even more heat
- Water reflects less heat than ice does because it’s darker than ice speeding up global warming
Average Annual Surface Air Temperature and Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide, 1880-2012
Safe upper limit by scientific consensus: 350 ppm - we reached this in 1980
Average annual surface air temperature in degrees Celsius
•rate of increase after 1975
•amount of co2 increase rapidly since 1880
•more water evaporates more rainfall
•more flooding, more erosion, ruins land
•droughts spread as land is eliminated = more famine
•oceans rise because warm water expands
•melting of ice = more water in ocean coastal regions flood
Global Warming, 1880-2012
- a lot more concentration of warm spots especially at the poles
- polar ice cap to the point where permanent ice cap has become water
Sólheimajökull Retreats
- 8 km x 1.5 tongue made of glacier that’s moving down a mountain
- at the end it starts melting into volcanic ash
- lots of melting, more moisture, bigger storms
Worldwide Insured Losses Due to “Natural” and Human Catastrophes, 1970-2012 (in 2005 $US billions)
- collect data on total cost for all disasters
- scared of increasing costs
- we’re contributing to natural resources
Ocean Acidification
high level of CO2 in atmosphere partly absorbed by oceans, causing them to acidify (lowering pH due to the formation of carbonic acid) faster
Ocean Acidification
- 56 million years ago, ocean pH fell by .01 unit per century.
- Now, ocean pH is falling by .1 unit per century.
- Coral reefs, oysters, salmon + other species threatened by ocean acidification
Global Fossil Fuel Reserves and the 2
Carbon Budget
2° C global warming would be catastrophic. We have already warmed the planet by 0.8°. The emissions potential of proven fossil fuel reserves is 2,795 billion tons of carbon dioxide.
Environmental issues become social problems when…
- policy-oriented scientists, environmental movement, mass media + respected organizations discover + promote issues
Only 1980s when they expressed great deal, insurance companies
•started getting a lot of attention from the media
Environmental issues become social problems when…
- people connect real-life events to info learned. If they can’t make a connection, it’s meaningless
•drought in midwest got ppl scared, started to realize the things they experienced, suddenly able to connect the dots
Environmental issues become social problems when…
- scientists, industrial interests + politicians who dispute existence of environmental threats must fail to convince public that threat is illusory + human intervention is unnecessary
•producers of coal + oil: industries fund some scientists that find holes, alternative theories
•some places are effective in US, where they create widespread confusion
Environmental issues become social problems when…
- become social issues only when these 3 conditions happen
- environmental issues only become social problem when it is socially constructed
- environmental risks are distributed
- mass media flock to poorest in trailer parks seeking biggest damage, after a sensational story
Air Pollution and Poverty in Toronto Neighbourhoods
•poor areas of toronto = more pollution
Top Carbon Dioxide Emitters, 201: developing countries
- rapid industrialization
* smog blanket cities
Environmental racism is the
tendency to heap environmental
dangers on the disadvantaged.
- more aboriginals = more pollution in the air
- we place facilities in poor areas
- we supplied the uranium for the bomb, paid poor aboriginals $3 a day to haul in burlap bags down to states
- children were exposed to its dangerous radiant
- community has died of cancers from radiation poisoning
- racism that expose poor to put environmental degradation to poor
Going for a walk in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, 21 January 2013
•most polluted cities in China
•air quality deteriorating
•more fine particles
Trucks in China: dirty oil, high sulfur fuel, lots of trucks for heavy industrialization, pollution accumulated at night
•developing can’t afford much so lack environmental
•move dirtiest work south
Why the market and high technology can’t solve the problems of environmental degradation on their own:
Price signals imperfect: price of oil triples, means we need to figure out a way to produce oil cheaply
•Price of gas low that covers only half of cost of damage
•Price signals hampered for political reasons
Political pressure needed: necessary for social movements to make demands by backing it up with lots of votes
Why the market and high technology can’t solve the problems of environmental degradation on their own:
pace of change too slow: not moving fast enough
•They’re not enough
Renewable Resources, World, Percent Decrease, 1990- 2010
•They are actually decreasing
What needs to be done now
Reduce consumption of everything in rich countries.
Increase investment in energy-saving technologies + environmental cleanup
Subsidize environmentally friendly industrialization in developing countries
•We need to subsidize (rich) clean industrialization
•If it this requires more taxes, less consumption, more cooperation, more sacrifice
What needs to be done now
Renew commitment to voluntary efforts, new laws + enforcement bodies to ensure compliance
Raise taxes
•We’re doomed to extinction, nature is gonna punish us
What needs to be done now
Carefully assess risks associated with biotechnology projects + consult public before such projects go forward
Share profits from genetic engineering with donors of genetic material
•Disaster will prompt action
•We need deaths + tragedies in order to act
Precondition for action
Awareness of the gravity of the environmental problem
Belief in the capacity of people and their governments to solve the problem
Precondition for action
Willingness to make substantial economic sacrifices to get the job done
Environmental issues become social problems when…
- it is disadvantaged people that suffer the most, their circumstances render them most vulnerable
- advantaged put disadvantage at risk so they don’t have to
- oil companies set up shop at poor communities
- they don’t have power to stop them and need the jobs
Environmental issues become social problems when…
- zip codes with no hazardous had 12% minority
- with dangerous facility had 24%-38% minority pop
- 3/5 hispanics + blacks lived with hazardous site in mid 1980
Nano by Tata
- burns dirty fuel
- no pollution control
- rich countries still doing more pollution, but we’re at a point where amount of fossil fuel is becoming dangerous
- agronomists made it possible to feed everyone where crop production increased
Nano by Tata
- looked for cleaner fuels driving market prices down
- we will take action to drive down costs
- market based view: human inventiveness + profit motive will create tech that will save us
- took lead out of gasoline damaging brains
- gas used in refrigerate caused damage on ozone layer, we developed a montreal protocol, no more production of these gases, new refrigerates
Tragedy of the Commons
- Natural resources we share + depend on
- maximize personal economic gain by exploiting commons
- Externality: cost externalized from private company to state + society
economic contingency
more ppl considers environ issue important during good economic times, while smaller issues important in recession
Jevon’s paradox
become more efficient in use of natural resources, cost of using it falls + we use more of it
Polluter pays principle
- Fire/tax serves as a discincentive, causing industry to reduce/eliminate environ impact of its activities
- Pollution permits
Kyoto Protocol
- Gov set absolute limit on total amount of certain pollutant can be emitted
- Right to pollute must be purchased in form of permit from national/international agency that runs newly created market
- Total # of pollution permits issued is fixed
