midterm 2 Flashcards
Political Ecology
Political ecology encompasses a diverse range of traditions and approaches, lacking a central focus and instead drawing from various disciplines. It employs concepts from broader schools of thought to understand complex socio-environmental issues. Originating from development-oriented research in small communities, it often utilizes ethnographic techniques. Comparative analysis highlights local knowledge and practices, revealing how political and economic changes affect social networks and ecologies.
Tsunami in the Indian Ocean (Khao Lak)
Before tsunami it was exploited rubber tree and tin extracted it was naturally supposed to have reef but the land being exploited it could not protect itself and after the tsunami
Elseworth Huntington
retreated behind “complex” and “competing”
factors and poorly defined trajectories of adaption to climate
environment
“Civilization and Climate”, the fundamental political
and historical questions of domination, colonization, and
extermination are erased
Alexander von Humboldt
Humboldt the “inequality of fortunes” between white colonials and
indigenous communities only solved through equal access to both
civil employment and fertile land (Humboldt 1811).
Alfred Russel Wallace
simultaneously developed the theory of
natural selection
§ critiqued social hierarchy and land management.
§ Wallace’s research in Amazonia the Malay Archipelago and
Indonesia during the mid-1800s
§ How geographic factors influenced the range of species, whether
they enabled or limited their distribution.
§ Discovered a line in the South Pacific, separating the distribution of
Asian animals from Australasia animals, the “Wallace’s Line” (Raby
2001)
The co-founder of the Theory of Evolution
motivated Darwin to publish his theory on evolution and natural
selection
* often looked at as the “Founder of Biogeography”
Wallacia
Glacial period, water level as low as 120m lower than today
* The deep sea trenches such the one between Lombok and Bali still
acted as a barrier for flora and fauna to cross
* Wallacia is populated plants and animals capable of crossing open
water over the 50 million year period which the islands within the
region were separated
Mary Sommerville
Sommerville countered Huntington’s climate determinism by showing how humans changed climates long before modern science. She criticized colonial powers for displacing and endangering indigenous peoples, linking political and ecological destruction and advocating for reflection and caution.
Marx
The first is the assertion - social and cultural
systems are based in historical (and changing)
material conditions and relations - tangible
The second notion - capitalist production (a specific and
recent kind of production) - the extraction of surpluses from
labor and nature.
§ As extraction increases in intensity, contradictions emerge
that provide barriers to further growth
§ A possible end to capitalism. Capitalism is a roaring engine
that proliferates contradictions that must be solved
Materialists
the way humans interact with natural
objects provides a “base” upon which law, politics,
and society are founded and around which they are
given form
Human induced Atmospheric change
Human introduced impurities into the
atmosphere at an exponential rate
* Greenhouse gases
* Warming of the Oceans ( the worlds broiler)
- phytoplankton
- changes in Ocean Currents
- frequency of storms , extreme weather
-melting of Polar and Antarctic Ice sheets
Increase in temperature, vs. species ability to
adapt
Atmospheric obstruction
The amount of atmosphere solar radiation has to pass
through, closer to 90 degrees, less amount of atmosphere
* Latitudinal radiation balance
- 28ON and 33OS = energy surplus more incoming than
outgoing
- above and below this mark, energy deficit
key technologies to reduce emissions
energy supply, transport, buildings
Examples of Alternative Energy Sources
The discovery of an electrolyzer which stores energy by converting
water into Hydrogen fuel
S Applications, with use of alternative energy sources, solar, wind,
could be used in homes essentially taking them off the grid
S Implications for cities – alternative energy for hotels, buses, cars
The Earth Summit, 1992
ocal agenda 21
* The European Union as the instrument
* Primary goal initially was to enact
change at the local level to achieve
sustainable development
Local Agenda 21
ocal environmental policy and development that is
in-tune the local geography and ecology
* attempt to address and balance development with
the local economy and stakeholders
wise management is based on
nature is a resource to be used not preserved
- conservation must work together with the dominant values of the surrounding society not against them
- primary value of natural areas lies in their value. to modern society
preservation or righteous management is based on
the universe is non dualistic, a totality with all of its parts interrelated and interlocked
the biotic community and its processes must be protected
First wave
solution, energy crisis, offshore oil drilling , nuclear power and the characteristics are individuals alienating themselves to detach from social political order and and=ti technological order
second wave
global warming, ozone depletion, habitat concerns waste reduction, characteristics are globalized concerns acceptance of envirnmental ideas with economic and political elites
ENVIRONMENTAL VALUES
Placing a value on some aspect of our environment
healthy fish populations in Canada’s rivers and oceans,
clean air in industrialized regions
scenic beauty, or the preservation of natural landscapes may be based on utilitarian, ecological, aesthetic, or moral categories.
Example, the history of the the National Parks and the justification for having them
