Exploring environmental issues

Question 1

What is the natural environment?

Answer 1

All living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth

Question 2

Types of environmental issues

Answer 2

• Deforestation & habitat destruction to maintain our current living standards
• Soil problems (erosion, salinization & soil fertility losses)
• Water management problems
• Overhunting
• Overfishing
• Effects of introduced species on native species
• Increased per capita impact of people

Question 3

Typical human response to common and freely accessible resources?

Answer 3

To over-exploit them, leading to their degradation.

Self-interest=degradation of the commons

Question 4

Perception of environmental issues?

Answer 4

We have a biased perception towards environmental pollution – that they are static and have nothing to do with us.

We tend to forget about issues that don’t occur in our neighbourhood.

Question 5

Climate change examples:

Answer 5

Summer 2018 was UK’s joint hottest on record, Met Office says
2017: Crossing of the northern sea route without ice breakers signals

Temperature gradually increasing, we are alarmed because scientists are afraid if we continue with current living standards, we will have more images like this.

Question 6

Causes of environmental crisis?

Answer 6

• Population growth
• Industrialisation
• Profit maximising firms e.g. VW, Apple scandals.
• Natural resource pressures
• Urbanisation

Question 7

Trouble with economic theory?

Answer 7

• GDP ignores the environment and excludes environmental protection
• Information asymmetries (one party has more info than the other)
• We have transformation of market into oligopolies/monopolies
• The information we have is the one written of the packet of the product

Question 8

Perfect competition?

Answer 8

• Food and veg markets in other countries

- Many producers, no differentiation, consumers can choose, no barriers, freedom of info

Question 9

Trouble with globalisation?

Answer 9

• Change in market structures (from monopolistic competition to oligopolies/ monopolies)
• States retreating is a problem because you need someone to monitor the market
• Neoliberalism: shrinking the state in the name of cost efficiency… less employees, less money from the tax payers
• If you pass everything onto the market, the state will run more effectively because the state will have less costs and its operations will be more cost effective
• Passing everything onto market then everything will be privatised
• ExonMobil: paid scientists to publish reports in favour of climate change because from climate change comes profit maximising opportunities

Question 10

What is globalisation?

Answer 10

The process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale.

Question 11

What is the Tragedy of Commons?

Answer 11

A situation of a shared-resource system where individual users act independently according to their own self-interest and behave contrary to the common good of all users by depleting or spoiling that resource through their collective action.