Midterm Flashcards
11 Key Global Env. Problems:
climate change, rivers and lakes, air pollution, biodiversity depletion, endangered species, deforestation, desertification , toxic chemicals, hazardous waste trading, water pollution, whaling
The “Public”
- polarization of left and right wing view of env. issues = big problem.
- Issues seem remote, priority to eminent things.
- Fatigued about env. problems = becomes complacent.
Booster shots of Env:
- negative: disasters that redirect attention i.e. oil spills & nuclear power plant disasters.
- positive: Earth day on April 22, “Silent Spring” Rachel Carson, and climate change activism by younger generations
One shared objective by all people:
Save the Plant, only question of "how?" We disagree on: 1. is there a problem? 2.if so, what is causing it? 3.solutions
Key Actors
States, Businesses, Epistemic Community, Civil Society (NGO’s), and IGO’s.
Climate vs. Weather
Climate= long range calculation Weather = today
Global Warming =
years and years of calculations
Nature of Env. Problems vs. Political Response
Env. problems are immediate and dangerous, but political response is slow and little.
Why is the political response slow to env. problems?
- Slow to get attention
- Requires a lot of scientific info
- States vary (democracy vs. authoritarian)
- Treaty (MEA)
World’s top three greenhouse gas emitters
- China
- USA
- India
World’s top three per capita emitters
- USA
- China
- India
1798 “An Essay on the Principle of Population”
Malthus
Top four populations today:
- China
- India
- USA
- Indonesia
Top three populations in five years:
- India
- China
- Nigeria (2050)
“Aren’t poverty and need the greatest polluters? The env. cannot be improved in the conditions of poverty”.
Indira Gandhi
1969 Major Disasters in USA
Cuyahoga River on Fire and Santa Barbara
Title of Rachel Carson’s Book:
Silent Spring
Global events that attracted global attention:
- 1984 chemical disaster in Bhopal, India
- 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster
- 1989 Exxon oil spill
Tragedy of the Commons
common places/resources will be depleted:
- the rational herder will try to get more and more animals to graze without limit.
- eventually, there will be no more grass.
Rivalrous resources
can be depleted
non-rivalrous resources
infinite
excludable rivalrous/non-rivalrous resources
rivalrous: private goods like my money and car/
non-rivalrous: club goods like cable or satellites.
non-excludable rivalrous/non-rivalrous resources
rivalrous: common goods like air and water
non-rivalrous: public goods like outer space, police safety, and roads
Solutions to Tragedy of the Commons (Hardin)
- Privatization
2. Socialism
Three key assumptions behind Tragedy of the Commons:
- Humans are selfish and short-sighted.
- The “commons” in the parable is completely unregulated.
- There are only two solutions to the problem/ humans are unable to find reasonable solutions to preserve commons.
Stevenson’s critique of Hardin’s assumptions:
- Humans can be cooperative.
- Informal rules or norms probably exist in the herdsmen.
- There are alternatives to socialism and privatization /
Examples of global commons?
- upper layers of the atmosphere and outer space.
- High seas
- Anartica
Four key characteristics of global commons:
- It is not owned by any state or private entity
- It belongs to global community as a whole.
- Its use is intended to benefit humankind a whole.
- The international community can set rules for accessing it or using it.
Define sustainable development: (From the Brundtland Report)
development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the future generations ability to meet their own needs.
Key arguments of Malthusianism:
- World is producing more food = fuels population growth
- Population growth will always grow faster than food supply.
- As population grows, resources lag.
- People cannot control their urge to procreate.
- As populations grow, each individual has fewer and fewer resources. i.e. triggers the conditions that put an end to it: misery, diseases, famine and war.
How to escape malthusian trap?
- Birth rate solution: make fewer children
2. Death rate solutions: letting misery, diseases, famine, and war reduce population levels to sustainable levels.
Neo-Malthusianism
- 1968 “The Population Bomb” Paul and Anna Ehrlich
2. 1972 “The Limits to Growth” by the Club of Rome.
Issue of doubling time
- It took 1650 years to go from 270 million people in the year 0 to 540 million in the year 1650.
- It took only 37 years to go from 2.5 billion people in 1950 to 5 billion in 1987.
Current global population: + how many we add each year
7.6 billion and add 83 million each year
GPG might plateau around year ___ and reach 10-12 billion
2100
92% of future GPG is expected to mostly come from____
Asia and Africa- 2.6% population growth rate, with a fertility rate of 4.7 births per woman.
The global population is aging or new?
aging
Three f’s that impact population growth:
food, fiber, and fuel
UNPF (UN Population fund
promoted birth control in developing countries. women in these countries also promoted development as the best contraceptive.
Critics of Neo-malthusianism say that:
- problem is not population growth, but POVERTY.
2. 1972 UN conference on the human env. in Stockholm agreed to shift focus to poverty and underdevelopment.
Kuznets Curve
An inverted “U”-shaped curve shows the relationship between economic development and pollution effects.
The N-Curve
Some have shown that pollution increases with economic development, then declines once a certain level is reached. The N-curve shows that it restarts climbing when technological innovation cannot keep up with the growing demand for products and services.
The “Illusion of Sustainability”
One other problem is the fact that the environmental progress achieved by wealthier, developed countries may be the result of a “transfer” of polluting activities from the rich countries to the poorer ones.
Developing countries 2 views on env. problems:
- concerned more with economic development.
- env. conditions can have significant effects on selected communities. ex) rising sea level affecting island states and Bangladesh and rice farmers in Vietnam/Indonesia dependance on trees.
Anthropocene Epoch
In our very brief period on earth we have dramatically impacted the ecological balance so much we have entered a new epoch starting in 1950.
Environmentalism is not just for rich people example:
In France, the Gilet Jaunes (yellow vests) challenged President Macron’s new tax on gasoline. The protests were violent. Composed mostly of middle and lower class people from rural areas who would have a greater impact on gasoline taxes.
“Bottom Billion”
Face extreme challenges. ex) 736 million people live with less than $1.90 a day.
2.1 billion lack access to safe drinking water.
Carbon Footprint
a measure of the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by a factory, a country, an individual, etc. Our footprint is based on primary and secondary.