S: 2.5 - 2.6 Flashcards
2.5 overall
Global concerns about the physical environment are disproportionately influenced by super power actions
How is climate change inaction a tragedy of the commons
Ecological footprints
• Large economies – selling goods and materials
• Large military machines – requiring goods and supplies
• Large populations – needing food, waste, waste processing
Changing footprints
• Increasing renewable
• Considerable smaller non renewable, e.g. rare earths
• Growing populations, particularly increasing meat (water) in Asian
Causes of degradation
• Fossil fuel use in power stations, industry, cars, homes
• Industrial pollutants high into atmosphere make acid rain
• Home pollution (e.g. open stoves) = local dry deposition (chemical reaction with building stone and respiratory particulates)
• China is main consumer of coal, and biggest imported
• Pollution economic losses of 13.3bn
Forest clearance
• 1990s: Brazil was fastest for Food production
• Land is converted into crops / pasture (soya / cattle feed)
• Beef exports, and poultry, sugar cane, ethanol, soya beans,
• Agriculture = 8-18% of GHG
• Now: forest clearance dropped
OVERALL logic of reducing env impact
• Countries need to be willing – but tragedy of the commons means they default to self interest
• Need to have the technology – but this requires income to invest in R&D
• Need to have income to invest – but this requires political partners to trade with
• Need to have political partners – but influence wanes
Tragedy of commons
If natural resources are public, human rational pursuit of self interest means people will overuse natural resources as they are in abundance to maximise output - until resources are degraded
- doesnt happen with private properties as owners are incentivised to look at LT impacts too, not just short run profit maximising
Who is doing the polluting
Maps show China as the primary contributor to rising emissions, but America are also up there. When it comes to deforestation South America are the highest
Who is acting on the problems caused by climate change
America have the strongest net gain in forest, a carbon sink. Also it’s per capita emissions are the only ones along with the eu to start to decrease
Why are some countries acting but others not
To industrialise and develop, emerging and developing nations choose to emit a lot of green house gases, as modernisation theory as well as Kuznet curve support the idea of short term environmental degradation (manufacturing sector) in order to gain in long term
How do these actions/ inactions create opp. For power
Emissions = more economic growth = higher GDP = higher power - China is a prime example
Action - political unity - political agreements - countries form agreements and groups which brings political power
Is the ToC theory right?
yes, but it places too much emphasis on having private ownership and privatising industries, which also lead to negative externalities for the environment so there’s negatives both ways
Why is it hard for superpowers to take actions
- Complexity of climate change
- Profit incentive
- Global agreement
- Non actors like India and China are large emitters
2.6 overall
Impacts of consumerism on the availability and cost of key resources like oil, rare earths, staple grains and water
As well as physical environment
Chinese rare earth issues
- toxic content of rare earth extraction leaked into groundwater for 20 yrs
- 85% of worl rare earth minerals produced by china
- rare earths laced with radioactive minerals
- 2000tons of toxic waste to process 1 ton rare earth mineral
- since 2010 countries have actively reduced dependence on china for rare earth imports
Environmental impacts of consumerism
- fossil fuel use - China
- oil spills - USA
- landscape scarring - UK
Fossil fuel use - china
• Largest consumer and importer of coal.
• Coal in power stations can lead to acid rain.
• More cars means more oil consumed.
• Largest CO2 emitter in the world 9.7 billion tonnes in 2014, (USA is 2nd - 5.6bn tonnes).
• But emissions growing more slowly (economic slowdown)
Oil spills - USA
• 2010 BP drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded.
• 450 million litres escaped causing widespread pollution.
• Chemicals used to reduce the oil slick damaged marine life and wildlife near the Mississippi delta
Landscape scarring - UK
- 2015 Drakelands Pit in Devon opened to extract tungsten.
• Doubling price (limited supply from China and the US) make it profitable.
• Creates noise and air pollution.
• May also contaminate groundwater due to the chemicals used in extraction
Consumerism driven by
- global middle class wave, which is in mainly Asia.
Obvious consequences of consumerism
• Impacts of extraction- environmental degradation, air & water pollution, health.
• Environmental impacts of consumption – waste, air pollution (fossil fuels), global warming impacts etc.
• Social unrest if a population is unable to access resources at an acceptable price – political challenges.
• Geo-political threats to supply, e.g. China providing 95% of Europe’s rare Earths, Russian oil supplies to Germany
Indirect consequences of consumerism
• Health of the economy is linked to environmental concerns.
• Environmental concerns can lead to political consequences.
• Superpower actions are sometimes subject to diplomatic reaction of other countries.
• It’s mainly TNCs that do the extraction overseas – not in government control.
• There is political damage to developing / emerging countries from extraction, e.g. oil shale extraction
