REM 100: Midterm 2 Flashcards
Midterm
Institution
An elemental structure required for the functioning of a society
Embodies a particular set of values, norms, and roles that a society
Environment
The complete range of external conditions physical and biotic, in which the organism lives, including soil, water, climate, and food supply.
It includes for social, cultural and – for humans – economic and political considerations.
Global Change
Human induced transformation of the global environment
What makes a problem global?
Macro in scale
Can’t be solved by one country
It’s solution challenges the status quo
Challenges global institutions
The biosphere
The part of the earth that consists of all living organisms and their collective environments
The Great Transformation
- The transformation of the biosphere from “natural state” by the human action
- During the great transformation the elements of the biosphere have been altered by human activities, often sustainability
- However, the “natural state” of the environment is a difficult concept because the environment has undergone considerate change since the end of the last ice age
Mode of Adaptation
• Together with the physical limits of the environment, a mode of adaptation determine the population size that can be supported by a given environment
Environmental Impacts of Hunter-Gatherer
However, harmony with nature is a vague notion – hunter-gatherer people do substantially alter their environment to increase usability
Use of fire to move around
May have been a driving force of the mass extinctions of the Pleistocene
Population densities supported by this mode of adaptation are low and ecologically sustainable
Environmental Impacts of Agrarian Societies
- Simplification of natural ecosystems to a smaller number of domesticated species
- Elimination of predators and competitors
- Invention of agriculture and herding allowed for a higher human population densities
- Agricultural surpluses allowed for specialization political organization and the development of urban elites
- However, sometimes over populations led to the over exploitation of resources and the collapse of the cultures dependent on them
Agrarian Society Features
• Although they transformed the landscape most agrarian societies were ecologically sustainable
• Partly because:
o Farming methods evolved to limit environmental degradation
• Eg. Crop rotation (fallow)
o Population density was low, mostly rural
o Urban population growth was slowed by epidemic disease
• Eg. the plague and yellow fever
o Adverse environments effects were localized
o It was still feasible for populations to move
The Greatest Transformations
- Religion -> Science
- Feudal -> Democracy
- Rural -> Urban
- Agriculture -> Industry
- Biomass fuels -> Fossil fuels
- Muscle power -> Machines
Industrial Revolution
- Replacement of the cottage industry with machine based factories – powered by water and later by steam
- Wealth from colonies help provide for Europe
- Serious social, health, and environmental problems in industrial cities led to pressure for reform
- Improvements in diet, sanitation, and health care such as vaccinations increased life expectancy
- Mechanism, fertilizers, irrigation and agro-chemicals boosted agricultural production
Results of Modernization
- This has resulted in affluent Western societies utilizing resources from every region of the earth.
- “Old-fashioned” virtues of thrift and avoidance of waste have been replaced by convenience and consumerism
- Consumerism funded by easy access to credit has been promoted to sustain economic growth
World Population Increase
- 1800 AD – World population of 1 billion
- 1999 AD – World population of 6 billion
- 2011 AD – World population of 7 billion
Results of the Agricultural and Industrial Revolution
o People lived longer now
o Malnutrition was widespread
o In Europe in the 17th century people were poor
o Life expectancy was about 35 years
o Agriculture was based on common lands and tenant systems
Effects of Enclosure
• More available food
• People were pushed off the land
• Crisis looming in the iron industry
• Iron producers learned to use coal
• Coal had to be moved in bulk
o The result was the creation of a transportation network
• Eg. Trains
• Network of people no longer isolated -> could move food and people
• Nutrition improved and population increased
• More available labour, more people were able to buy their products
Lifecycle of a Consumer Product
Extraction -> Manufacturing -> Distribution -> Consumption -> Disposal
Planned Obsolescence
• Designed to be quickly used and then disposed of
Perceived obsolescence
• Makes people believe that they need to buy new products
o Ethics of first world economies
Dioxin
- The most toxic man-made substance
* This could be prevented
Domination
• Technocratic perspective
• Highly anthropocentric
• Utilizes an economic lens
• Can be:
o Cornucopian
o Environmental manager perspective (unsustainable yield)
• Nature has intrinsic value or rights
• The use of and maintenance of environmental resources are moral and ethical issues;
• Humans are reliant upon the existence of a functioning ecosystem
• Ecocentric or biocentric perspective
Range of Economic Spectrum
- Domination (status quo)
- Stewardship
- Conservation
- Eco-feminism
- Deep ecology
Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862)
Early conservationist argued for the protection and valuing of nature
- “In the wilderness is the preservation of the world.”
- The root of civil disobedience, accept the punishment to prove that what is happening is wrong, opposed the USA – Mexico war stopped paying taxes and as a result went to jail.
John Muir (1838 – 1914)
Early conservationist argued for the protection and valuing of nature Periodical nature writer, established Yosemite National Park, California (1890)
• A prime mover in the establishment of national parks in the USA
• President of the Sierra Club from founding in 1892.
• “None of nature’s landscapes are ugly so long as they are wild.”
George Perkins
• Early conservationist argued for the protection and valuing of nature• 1864 – Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action (1874 as The Earth as Modified by Human Action)
Lewis Mumford
Early conservationist argued for the protection and valuing of nature
o “Fountainhead of the conservationist movements”
• 1885 – Banff National Park established as Canada’s first National Park
Preservationist Conservationists
Sought to maintain natural areas in their natural state
Utilitarian Conservationists
see to manage the sustainable harvesting of natural resources for human benefit
Aldo Leopold (1887-1948)
o “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” – A Sand County Almanac
o Argued that we need an ethic for landowners and farmers to live by
o Would have made the 1930s less of a disaster (could have prevented the Dust Bowl to some extent)
o Earliest examples of an ecocentric Western scholar
o Instrumental in establishing professional wildlife management
o Assents that a basic lack of human regard for the land was the cause of most natural resource and agricultural problems.
o Echoes of St. Francis of Assisi
• “Plain member and citizens” of the biotic community
o He calls for an ethic that deals with humans “relation to the land and to the animals and plants that grow upon it”
• By extension ecological philosophy
o Calls for the establishment of an ecological conscience
o Asserts most private landowners are in need of a land ethic in order to explicitly acknowledge our obligations to the land
o He argues for this by enlarging the boundary of the community to include the land
Preservation
- Land is a biota which provides services of nature
- Natural species
- More than just a provider of commodities
Conservation
- Only the soil land provides for commodity production
* Trees provided by tree farms and silviculture (agronomic)
Preservationist Views of Wildlife Management
- Other species provide the basic commodities for sport and meat (game hunting, sport fisheries)
- Focus is on allowable annual kills and artificial propagation
Conservationist Views of Wildlife Management
- How can management restore shrinking species, threatens rare species
- Can be extended to wildflowers
Preservationist Views of Agriculture
• “Conventional” agricultural relies on extensive use of prochemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides
Conservationist Views of Agriculture
• Organic agriculture depends on thriving soil, flora, fauna, natural predators for integrated pest control and composted wastes to build the soil
Agriculture in the Global South
The people who raise the food are the ones who are exposed to the chemicals, in the global south people have no protection, not educated. The chemicals on the food can’t be washed off, builds up into our bodies, is it worth it to have a better food supply?
Deep Ecologists
James Douglas
Arne Naess
Principles of Deep Ecology
- All life has value, independent of its usefulness to humans
- Richness and diversity contribute to life’s wellbeing and have value in themselves
- Humans have no right to reduce this richness and diversity except to satisfy vital needs in a responsible way
- The impact of humans in the world is excessive and getting worse
- Humans lifestyles and population are key elements of this impact
- The diversity of life, including cultures, can flourish, only with reduced human impact
- Basic ideological, political, economic and technological structures must therefore change
- Those who accept the foregoing points have an obligation to participation in implementing the necessary changes ans to do so peacefully and democratically
Human Perspectives on Nature
- Domination
- Stewardship – sustainable yields
- Romanticism/Deep Ecology
Eco-feminism
• Eco-feminism draws a link between the oppression and cruelty towards women and the oppression of nature
Eco-feminists
Rachel Carson
Vanadana Shiva
Cartesian View of the World
- Inert and passive
- Uniform and mechanistic
- Separable and fragmented
- Separate form humans
- Inferior to be dominated and to be exploited by ‘man’
Shiva’s Ideology
o An ecologically sustainable future can draw from the past. Ancient civilizations thrived for centuries, want to keep diverse cultures. Ecological ways of knowing nature are participatory
General Types of War Damages
- Environmental disturbances and destruction from weaponry
- Direct consumption of resources such as timber, water, and food to support
the army - Indirect consumption of resources by military industrial complexes that supply the war effort
Contemporary War in Contrast to Ancient War
Armies and battlefields are larger
Munitions are more powerful
High casualty rates
Battles and wars last longer and the environmental disturbances are more widespread
Changes In Battles During the American Civil War (1861-1865)
During this conflict the temporal nature of war increased. In the 18th – 19th century battles lasted several hours. They rarely went into the night, by the end of civil war it was the norm to fight at night. However the advancements were still in their infancy.
Technological Innovations From the American Civil War
o Alfred Nobel introduced smokeless gunpowder, blasting caps, and ‘safer’ form of explosive called Trinitrotoluene (TNT)
o Hupy (2003) notes that “these of explosives combined with the age of industrialism ushered in a new form of warfare capable of leveling forests and altering landscapes beyond recognition.”
World War II Military Innovations
• Artillery took up positions in the rear and perfected the art of indirect fire based on the calls of forward observers.
o The military objective was to indurate an area with explosive shells in order to destroy enemy defenses and shatter morale.
o Artillery fire was placed directly in front of advancing troops to obliterate anything on the surface
Conclusions Drawn at Atomic Bomb Panel
o 1. The bomb should be used against Japan as soon as possible
o 2. Should be used against war plants surrounded by workers homes or other buildings susceptible to damages in order “to make a profound psychological impression on as many as possible.”
o 3. Done without warning
State of the World in the Cold War
Bipolar, the US and the USSR were superpowers, fighting for 2 very different ideals
Conclusions Drawn at Atomic Bomb Panel
o 1. The bomb should be used against Japan as soon as possible
o 2. Should be used against war plants surrounded by workers homes or other buildings susceptible to damages in order “to make a profound psychological impression on as many as possible.”
o 3. Done without warning
State of the World in the Cold War
Bipolar, the US and the USSR were superpowers, fighting for 2 very different ideals
Long Term Effects of the Atomic Bomb in Japan
• Felt if they struck at a capital city that would be worse
o Grossly underestimated the effect of this
o 200,000 people died
o 20-30 million people died in WW II
Agent Orange
The defoliant, laced with dioxin that was used by the US military on the jungles of Vietnam to uncover the Viet Cong
Carpet Bombing in Vietnam
- B-52 bombers
- 3-12 aircraft
- each carry 108, 500 lbs bomb
- 26 million craters left in Vietnam from this military action
Tonnage of Explosives Dropped In the 20th Century
- WWII – 2 million tons in all theatres
- Korea – 1 million tons
- Vietnam (1965-1971) the USA dropped 14 million tons of munitions
Resource War
A war fought over critical resources eg. oil
Neo-Malthusian Issues Related to Resource War
People will fight over resources as long as they are scarce
Negative Peace
The absence of war
Positive Peace
Social justice needs are met
People aren’t so desperate
People don’t see war as a solution to their problems
Cultural Peace
People aren’t trying to assimilate everyone to become one cultural
Understanding of everyone’s lifestyle
Peace Dividend
The money that would be available if no countries where trying to fight wars
This money could be used towards sustainable development
Most Rapidly Heating Part of the Arctic
Where Yukon and Alaska meet
Cognitive Dissonance
If a person has two beliefs that are inconsistent he or she experiences ‘psychological discomfort’ (dissonance) and so he or she changes one or more beliefs to make them more consistent
Rational Economic Persons
• Classic models are built on a model of human behaviour that supposes that individuals are motivated by ‘rational self-interest’
• REPs seek to maximize their individual welfare (utility) by choosing from among competing to satisfy wants
• Wants are assumed to be substitute if you can’t get “X” than “Y” will do.
o You will get “Y” if it costs less than “X”
• Efficiency and consistency indicate rationality
• However, ethical and moral obligations are not recognized at the level of the individual
Humanistic Economic Paradigm
• Based on behavioural psychology and emphasizes a hierarchy of needs rather than a collective of substitutable wants
Global Climate Change
• We are principally interested in climate change attributed to the effects of human activity:
o Primarily caused by the effect of emissions to the atmosphere of ‘greenhouse’ gases and aerosols that affect the heat budget of the earth’s surface and atmosphere
o Concentration of a range of gases and aerosols are increasing in the atmosphere as a result of human industrial and agricultural and the effects of deforestation
o To make life difficult for scientists the climate also varies without the effects of human activity
Sustainable Development
• Development which meets the needs of the present populations of humans and other species without compromising the ability of future generations to both thrive and survive
First Stage Demographic Change
birth rates and death rates fluctuate, with some overall increase
Second Stage Demographic Change
birth rates decline and death rates stay high
Third Stage Demographic Change
birth rates drop to close to replacement levels
o These changes occur because of increased sanitation, access to health care, access to reproductive knowledge, access to education etc
Reasons for Falling Birth Rates
o Access to family planning
o Access to sanitation
o Keep having children to support the family
o Education of women in the global north
Easterlin Paradox
higher levels of material consumption have not increased people’s perception of happiness
Dominant Social Paradigm
• The most widely held set of beliefs, values that guide the thinking about society, governance and the role of the individuals.
Developing Country Perspective
Set livelihood above nature
eg. Ramchandra Guha
Dominant Social Paradigm in Western Countries
o The dominant social paradigm for western societies includes democracy
o acceptance of regulated capitalism
o individualism
• people don’t interact as well as they used to
o economic growth
o the notion of progress
• “next year a more efficient car will come out, don’t worry about the pollution now” – Things will be made up for in the future
o a faith in science and technology (technological science)
Paradigm Shift
When a society changes one or more of its institutions
As dissonance grows it will overtake the institution, as it overtakes the institution a new or modified institution will be developed
Examples of Paradigm Shifts
The Civil Rights movement
Equal rights for women
The acceptance of divorce
Ecological Sphere of Urban Development
- Efficient and ecologically sensitive land use
- Reduction in the use of natural resources
- The reduction or elimination of pollution
Social Sphere of Urban Development
- Equality (equity in text)
- Community capacity
- Urbanity
Economic Sphere of Urban Development
- Economic security
- Local self reliance
- Ecological sound economic activity
