EQ3 - indicative mock content Flashcards
What is the environmental Kuznets curve?
It is the model which shows how much environmental degradation occurs throughout a country’s level of development increase. There is a peak at peak industrial sector employment, and a dip towards investing in renewables.
Name some examples on the Environmental Kuznets curve:
low develop., low emissions = (Remote Amazonia today)
incr. develop., higher emis. = Indonesia today = 530,000,000 t
middle develop. peak emis. = China today = 10,000,000,000 t
lowering emis. peak devel. = UK today = 770,000,000 t
What are anomalies to the EKC?
Canada = high development but extract tar sands which leads to 2.5 MHa of tree loss in 2021.
Togo = loss of 60% of its forests
Costa Rica = mid devel. = 100% carbon neutral.
what are the four ecosystem services?
Cultural services
supporting services
Regulating services
provisional services
What are Cultural services?
An ecosystem service which aids in the education, and spiritual wellbeing to humans. Non-material benefits. e.g., Bathing in the Andes.
What are Provisional services?
An ecosystem service which accounts for the material product people can gain from the ecosystem. I.e., wood, fuel. E.g., timber from the Tundra in Russia.
What are Regulating services?
An ecosystem service which accounts for global regulation of systems. E.g., air quality and water quality. E.g., phytoplankton photosynthesis on the sea’s surface.
What are Supporting services?
An ecosystem service which keeps the ecosystem healthy through biological processes. E.g., nutrient cycling, primary producer production.
What is an example of a degrading supporting system?
service: Coral reefs in Maldives = shield 25% of marine life.
degradation = 60% of its reefs have been affected by bleaching.
management: Reefscapers are replanting scaffoldings of reefs to protect them.
what is an example of a degrading provisional service?
service: provide timber in the UK through UK forests. 11 million tonnes.
threat: 60% of our native animals and species have been wiped out int he last 50 years.
management: forestry commission - fast-growing spruce in Scottland.
What is an example of a degrading regulating service?
service: The arctic regulated thermohaline circulation.
threat: It is warming 4X as fast as the rest of the world.
management: No arctic treaty, we need to reverse climate change.
What is an example of a degrading cultural service?
service: Mangroves employ 300,000 fishers in Thailand
threat: 35~% of global mangroves have vanished.
NGOs: Mangroves for the Future. Re-planting through local people.
What are the impacts of climate change on the H2O cycle?
inc. glacier melt.
temp. inc. = larger at poles.
precip. = more rain, not snow.
storm freq. inc.
inc. evapo.
inc. groundwater = less permafrost
wet = wetter
dry = drier.
What is adaptation?
It is the methods used to cope with the present consequences of climate change:
- GM plants (Drought resistant)
- Thermal mapping and smart irrigation.
- solar radiation management
- land-use planning
- flood-risk management ]
what is mitigation?
it is the attempted decrease of the consequences of climate change:
- renewables
- recyclables
- radical energy
- reducing energy use
Rank the adaptation strategies
1) Water conservation management - 6 x less water consumption in Singapore
2) Resistant agricultural systems - 30% higher crop yield in Senegal from GM plants.
3) Flood-risk management - Beavers re-introduced at Knepp - increase biodiversity.
4) solar radiation management - America are planning to reflect more light from the sun back into the atmosphere through aerosols.
Rank the mitigation strategies
1) CCS - Canada cut emissions by 90%
2) energy efficiency - Germany is making it the law that emissions are cut by 25% domestically.
3) Afforestation - China’s Great Green Wall’ - planted 1 billion trees.
4) carbon taxation - Quota forcing lower emissions on businesses.
What are the costs and benefits of water conservation?
benefit: Singapore used 6x less water.
cost: the used a holistic system not applicable to bigger nations.
What are the costs and benefits of drought-resistant agricultural systems?
benefit: Senegal got a 30% higher crop yield.
Cost: they are owned by large TNC’s which exploit farmers.
What are the costs and benefits of solar radiation management?
benefit: Would offset some GHG.
cost: Ludicrously expensive. And in its infancy.
What are the costs and benefits of land-use mapping?
benefit: increased wetland areas in places such as Knepp estate in Sussex.
Cost: Farmers dislike the disruption to land caused by beavers.
What are the costs and benefits of flood-risk management?
benefit: Not permanent, is not an eye-sore, do aid in the prevention of flooding. installed after Storm Franklin.
cost: they can be expensive to install, they have a risk of faulty forecasting.
What are the costs and benefits of carbon taxation?
benefits: Gives EU companies a motive to decrease carbon emissions clearly with quotas.
cost: They can trade quotas, therefore there is little motivation to decrease emissions.
What are the costs and benefits of energy efficiency?
benefits: unequivocally reduces emissions. In Germany by 25%.
costs: Germany itself is still wasting a lot of energy.
