Global Issues Flashcards
What is fertility rate?
Average number of children born to a woman in a particular country across her lifetime. More developed counties have lower fertility rates.
Improved contraception
High level of female education
What is life expectancy ?
Average number of years a person can expect to live for. More developed countries have longer life expectancy
Better healthcare, sanitation and nutrition
What is birth rate?
The ratio between the number of live-born birth in the years and the average population of that year
What is death rate?
The number of deaths every year per 1000 people in population
What are the relationship between population growth and consumption?
With growing population, increased consumption is likely to occur
What is mass extinction?
Major disturbance to the planet causes extinction rates to rise hundreds/thousands of times above the background level
What is background extinction?
Not a dramatic event, the species just fades away as it can’t keep pace with environmental change
What are the main causes of the current biodiversity crisis?
Habitat destruction
Overfishing
Pollution
Climate change
What is the IUCN red list categories species by threat level ?
Least concern
Near threatened
Vulnerable
Endangered
Critically endangered
Extinction in wild
Extinct
What are EDGE species ?
“Evolutionary Distinct, Globally Endangered”
Attempt to identify the species that are most deserving of conservation funding and effort
What are the 2 factors that decide whether a species should be considered an EDGE species?
Evolutionary distinction- measure of how unique or unusual the genome of a species is
Globally endangered- the IUCN red list defines the threat level to over 100,000species worldwide
What is a flagship species?
A species selected to act as an ambassador, icon or symbol for a defined habitat, issue, campaign or environmental cause. Brilliant marketing tool.
-they are mamals
-they are large
-they are cute and fluffy
What is a keystone species?
Stone at the top of an archway. It’s the one that holds the arch up- you could remove one of the other stones and the structure would remain standing, but take away the keystone and the whole thing would come tumbling down. Is the one that considered vital to the health of the ecosystem in which it lives. If the keystone species were go to extinct, the whole ecosystem would collapse and many more species would be lost
