Midterm Flashcards
Malthus
- population grows exponentially but resources are linear
- disease, famine, war are natural corrections
- poor and women = bad
Neo Malthusian
population has greatest impact on environment but effects of population are mediated by lifestyle differences
IPAT
impact on environment = population x affluence x technology
Environmental Kuznet’s Curve
pollution goes up as cities become industrial and then decreases as they become service economies
Forest Transition Theory
period of deforestation in a region during development, followed by a return of the forest when the economy becomes more conservation oriented
Carrying Capacity
theoretical limit of a population that a systems resources can sustain
Ecological Footprint
theoretical spacial extent of the Earth’s surface required to sustain an individual, group, system, or organization
an index of environmental impact
Boserup
- Conditions of Agricultural Growth
- demands for food rise with increased population
- amount of food produced on same amount of land increases
Cornucopian
-seeing population as a resource, not problem
Induced Intensification
- scarce resources = people innovate
- more brains/hands working to solve problems
Green Revolution
- technical innovations from 50s-80s in fertilization, mechanization, and policy changes
- increased yields beyond consumption
- example of induced intensification
Demographic Transition
multi stage model that describes population growth over time and considers the changes in birth and death rates through stages of economic development
Fertility Rates
As women’s rights, education, and literacy increases, fertility decreases
Simon Elrich Bet
- E = neo malthusian, S = cornucopian
- bet on prices of 5 metals over 10 years
- E = increase bc of scarcity, S = decrease bc of innovation
- S won
- demonstrated ability of humans to alter outcomes of population growth
Market Response Model
- Resource scarcity causes prices to rise
- decrease in demand and increase in supply lead to less scarcity and lowers prices
- decrease in demand = substitution, higher efficiency use, recycling
- increase in supply = expanding extraction, discovering new
Externalities
costs or benefits that are not figured into the price of goods or services
Coase Theorem
externalities can be most efficiently controlled through contracts/bargaining between parties assuming the transaction cost of reaching a bargain are not excessive
Transaction Costs
Costs in time, money, personnel, or materials to ensure enforcement of exchange rules or contracts
Monopoly
one seller for many buyers (seller determines price) that creates artificially inflated pricing of goods/services
Monopsony
one buyer for many sellers (buyer determines price) that creates artificial deflated pricing of goods/services
Cap and Trade
- Regulations set a maximum for pollution emissions, but individuals or firms may trade the right to pollute to others
- intended to reduce emissions w/o excessive cost
Greenwashing
claims about green practices do not always match actual practices
Green Certification
used to verify claims about green practices
Green Consumption
-relies on costumer demand to change environmental conditions
Prisoners Dilemma
theoretical game in which a particular action would benefit all but individuals behaving selfishly will create a situation that is not optimal for everyone
Game Theory
- applied mathematics used to model and predict people’s behavior in strategic situations where people’s choices are predicted on the decisions of others
- best outcome achieved through cooperation but individual incentives lead to non cooperation
Hardin
theorized the “tragedy of the commons” as a particular type of prisoners dilemma
Ostrom
- critically analyzed game theory
- what if prisoners could have talked before interrogation?
- when players can negotiate, more likely to cooperate
Institutions
formal laws and social norms
Common Property
- good/resource whose characteristics make it difficult to fully enclose or partition
- res nullius = not owned, open to anyone
- res communes = owned collectively, only group has access
Tragedy of the Enclosure
- bc of Hardin’s logic, resources transferred from local management to private firms or government so access to resources restricted
- locals: no alternative livelihood, turn to less desirable alternatives, continue to use resource at risk of being a criminal
Principles of Sustainable Common Pool Resource Management
boundaries, proportionality, collective choice, monitoring, sanctions, conflict resolution, autonomy
Factory Farms
raise animals for industrial meat production but often use morally questionable methods
Ethics
philosophy of right and wrong
Environmental Justice
stresses need for equitable distribution of environmental goods and environmental bads between people
Anthropocentric
human centered
Ecocentric
environment/Earth centered
Dominion Thesis
biblical tradition that humans should control nature and use it how the wish
Utilitarian
based on theory of John Locke, nature only has value if it is useful to humans and anything left unused is waste
Pinchot
- Utilitarian conservationist
- resources can be used as long as they are used sustainably
- best thing is greatest good for greatest amount of people
- forest service
Muir
- preservationist
- nature should be left alone as much as possible
- areas with little human impact should be protected
- park service
Conservation
management of resource/system to sustain its productivity over time, scientific management
Preservation
management of resource/system for protection for its own sake
Hetch Hetchy Valley
- Pinchot/conservationists = river should be dammed to provide steady water supply to San Fran, wild area serves fewer people
- Muir/preservationists = landscape remain unaltered for people to enjoy, it has intrinsic value
Leopold/Land Ethic
- argues that something is right if it promotes healthy ecosystem functioning
- use of environment isn’t right or wrong: depends on whether it is used sustainably
- ecocentric
Animal Liberation
movement that argues for the extension of ethical consideration to individual animals
Deep Ecology
argues for more truly ecologically informed view of the world and focuses on interactions between humans and the environment
Intrinsic Value (of nature)
value of natural object in and for itself, as an end rather than a means
Hazard
a thing, condition, or process that threatens individuals and society in terms of production (making a living) and reproduction (being alive)
Risk
the known or estimated probability that a hazard related decision will have a negative consequence
Uncertainty
the degree to which the outcomes of a decision or situation are unknown
Risk Perception
the tendency of people to evaluate the hazardousness of a situation based on biases, culture, or human nature
Over/Under Estimation of Risk Biases
- Voluntary/Involuntary
- trusted source/non trusted source
- observable/unobservable
- delayed effects/immediate effects
- common non catastrophic/uncommon catastrophic
Social Amplification of Risk
risk events interact with individual psychological, social and other cultural factors in ways that either increase or decrease public perceptions of risk
Cultural Theory/Douglas
- the way people think about risk is related to how society is organized
- preferred risk management strategies depend on views of the environment
Precautionary Principle
- nature is fragile and disturbances may leave permanent damage
- exercise caution until proven safe
Commodity
a thing that can be bought or sold
Means of Production
infrastructure, equipment, machinery, etc required to make things, goods, and commodities
Conditions of Production
material and environmental conditions required for specific economy to function (i.e water for use or health of workers)
Surplus Value
capital accumulated by undervaluing labor and over extracting resources
Exchange Value
goods are exchanged for the value of the persons directly involved in the transaction
First Contradiction of Capitalism
capitalism undermines itself through:
- over accumulation; wealth is in the hands of a few so many cannot afford to buy commodities to keep system expanding
- overproduction (too many goods produced) and underconsumption (people can’t afford goods); goods are not purchased as quickly as they are produced
Second Contradiction of Capitalism
capitalism undermines itself by undervaluing the environmental conditions necessary for its own propagation through:
- environmental degradation (harms conditions of production and worker health)
- over extraction of resources (produces scarcity that limits growth)
Production of Nature
thesis that argues:
- nature is always altered by human activity
- we must be critical of attempts to use markets to solve environmental problems
- we must be critical of activities that treat the environment as external to politics and the economy because the underlying causes of degradation will be ignored
Spatial Fix
moving the processes of production or consumption to a new location
- resource extraction to where it isn’t depleted
- factory to location with cheaper labor or less strict environmental standards
Globalization
ongoing process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a globe spanning network of exchange
Social Construction of Nature
any category, condition, or thing is understood to have certain characteristics because people agree that it does
Constructivist
examines how concepts, beliefs, and practices shape not only how we understand the world, but also the world itself
Pristine Myth (of the New World)
Europeans constructed image of the new world as pristine and undeveloped, and used this concept to justify violently displacing its inhabitants
Discourse
spoken and written language that not only represents the world but may materially change it. Includes Narrative, concept, ideology, signifying practices
Wilderness
a natural parcel of land more or less unaffected by human forces
-increasingly viewed as social construction
Sustainable Development
development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
Sustainable Science
field of study guided by normative goals about society and the environment:
- Earth is complex adaptive system
- trade offs inherent
- requires multiple and new forms of knowledge
Trade-Offs
- no one optimal path
- over space, over time, across scales, between objectives
Disciplines
organized knowledge according to subject and approach to study
Multidisciplinary
requires multiple forms of expertize to address different dimensions of a problem
Interdisciplinary
requires multiple forms of expertize to address different dimensions of a problem
Trans-disciplinary
knowledge falls between academic and non-academic domains, requires a blending of approaches
Credibility, Salience, Legitimacy
scientific approach is credible, subject matter/findings useful for stake holders, legit info is respectful of stakeholders
Boundary Organizations
neutral territory for scientists and stake holders to co-produce knowledge to address ‘real world problems’
Boundary Objects
easy to interpret for science and society but retain core meaning
Anticipatory Governance
- decision making under uncertainty
- embrace, not reduce, uncertainty
- co produce scenarios for multiple plausible futures based on scientific evidence
- adjust as new info emerges
Ecosystem
all of the biotic and abiotic components of the environment functioning as a unit
Biodiversity
the variety of life in an ecosystem; species and function
6th Mass Extinction
periods of rapid biodiversity loss, the current period is most severe and thought to be caused by humans
Ecosystem Services
all the benefits humans receive from nature
Provisioning, Cultural, Regulating, Supporting Services
part of the MEA 2005
- framework for future research
- emphasis on human well being
- acknowledges failure of conservation efforts
Substitutes
provide some, but not all functions of biodiversity
- rooftop gardens
- white roofs
Ecological Accounting
strategies for assigning monetary value to ecosystem services
Ecological Resilience
the capacity of an ecosystem to tolerate disturbance without collapsing into a qualitatively different state that is controlled by a different set of ecological processes
Adaptive Capacity
the ability to cope with or respond to stress
Poverty/Rigidity Trap
- poverty persists because actors lack the resources and capacity to accumulate wealth
- unsustainable trajectories persist, despite abundant resources, because those in power benefit in short term from the status quo
Adaptive Management
ecosystem management and policy are experiments to engage in analytical or social learning
-trial and error, best guess, embrace uncertainty
Adaptive Co-Management
including multiple stakeholder groups often and early in the management process improves the quality and durability of decisions about the environment
