L3. Environmental Sustainability: What, How and Why Systemic Approach

Question 1

Holocene

Answer 1

Most stable phase in Earth history temperature wise; leading to agriculture and human development

Question 2

Anthropocene

Answer 2

Earth’s most recent geologic time period (new geological epoch) as being human-influenced, or anthropogenic; atmospheric, geologic, hydrologic, biospheric and other earth system processes are now altered by humans; human activity being the hardest factor to predict in scientific models

Question 3

Hockey stick effect

Answer 3

sharp increase in indicators in a short time frame

• In socio-economic trends; increases in rates of change occur around the1950s
• For Earth Systems: Global-scale changes as a result of the dramatic increase in human activity (socio-economic pressure)

Question 4

Implications of Anthropocene

Answer 4

• Change in business models of organizations

- Equity issues

Question 5

Planetary Boundaries

Quadruple ‘squeeze’

Answer 5

• Population 20% /80%
• Climate Agenda
• Ecosystem decline/ resilience
• Surprise (generated by flips, instead of stability) breaking resilience; systems are complex and adaptive

Question 6

9 planetary boundaries (scientific debate)

Answer 6

draw the thing

• 3 big system (Climate change, ozone dep, ocean acidification)
• Slow variables
• 2 non-quantifiable

Question 7

To stay in a stable system

Answer 7

have to stay within the boundaries, the ‘safe operating space’

Question 8

At first, for Monsanto’s round up, from the environmental standpoint

Answer 8

¥ the approach is less impactful and invasive than other techniques

Question 9

diffusion of superweeds

Answer 9

¥ that quickly developed and spread «an adaptive evolution to the selection pressure exerted by the glyphosate herbicide».
Theory 1: Darwinian selection/evolution of plants resistant to herbicides as a result of random genetic mutation
Theory 2: natural hybridization

Question 10

Social-Ecological Systems (SES) (Berkes and Folke, 1998)

Answer 10

emphasize the integrated concept of humans in nature, with spatial and temporal scales

Question 11

core assumptions of ses

Answer 11

• ecosystems are linked – interdependent,
  nested, integrated - with social systems
• such coupled systems exhibit many, and strong, types of interactions and co-evolve

Question 12

4characteristics of SES

Answer 12

¥ SES consist of large numbers of heterogeneous components that interact in parallel and have a number of basic properties associated with any complex adaptive system.

¥ Ecosystems are non-linear systems: transformations occur through complex paths primarily governed by reinforcing stochastic events, non-linear causation, and path dependency.

¥ They are composed of a variety of species, and the generation and maintenance of this diversity is a fundamental condition for their functioning.

¥ Ecosystems are based on a range of different flows including nutrient, energy, material, and information flows that interconnect the single parts in a web of relations.

Question 13

SES can be described as

Answer 13

Complex Adaptive Systems (Levin, 1998)

Question 14

Ecosystem

Answer 14

range of scales, from a pond to the entire globe, most often landscape scale system; Complex and Adaptive Systems.

Question 15

Ecosystem Services

Answer 15

• Provisioning services: goods and products obtained from ecosystems (i.e. food, freshwater, fiber..)
• Cultural services: non-material benefits that ecosystems provide
• Regulating services: benefit obtained from natural processes like climate regulation, erosion regulation, pollination