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Sustainability Flashcards

1
Q

What is environmental science the study of?

A

Environmental Science is the study of connections in nature; specifically

(1) how the earth works and has survived for so long
(2) how humans interact with the environment
(3) how we can live more sustainably

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2
Q

What is ecology?

A

Ecology is a branch of biology that focuses on how living things interact with the living and nonliving parts of their environment

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3
Q

What is a species?

A

A group of organisms having a unique set of characteristics that set it apart from other groups

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4
Q

What is an ecosystem?

A

A set of organisms within a defined area of land or volume of water that interact with one another and their environment of nonliving matter and energy

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5
Q

What is environmentalism?

A

A social movement dedicated to protecting the earth’s life and its resources

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6
Q

What is biodiversity?

A

The variety of genes, species, ecosystems and ecosystem processes

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7
Q

What is natural capital?

A

The natural resources and ecosystem services that keep humans and other species alive and that support human economies?

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8
Q

What is a natural resource?

A

Material and energy provided by nature that is essential or useful to humans

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9
Q

What are three different types (and examples) of natural resources?

A

Inexhaustible Resources - Sun (at least for our intents and purposes)
Renewable Resources - any resource that can be replenished by natural processes within hours to centuries, as long as humans do not use this resource faster than it can be replenished - clean air, freshwater, forests, fishes, topsoil
Nonrenewable Resources - fossil fuel energy resources (such as coal, oil and natural gas) metallic mineral resources (such as copper and aluminium) and non metallic mineral resources (such as salt or sand). These take millions of years to form through geological processes

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10
Q

What is an ecosystem service and what is an examples?

A

Natural services provided by healthy ecosystems that support life and human economies at no monetary costs to us. i.e. forest purify air and water, reduce soil erosion, regulate climate and recycle nutrients.

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11
Q

What is sustainable yield?

A

The highest rate at which people can use a renewable resource indefinitely without reducing its available supply

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12
Q

What are the six principles of sustainability?

A
  1. Dependence on solar energy - plants use this to create nutrients
  2. Biodiversity - provides ways for species to adapt to changing environmental conditions
  3. Chemical cycling - continuous cycling of needed chemicals
  4. Full-cost pricing (from Econ) - Inclusion of harmful environmental and health costs of producing and using goods and services in their market prices.
  5. Win-win Solutions (from political science) - For the Earth and the largest number of people
  6. Responsibility to future generations (ethics)
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13
Q

How can conflicts arise when we try to tackle environmental solutions? How can these these be dealt with?

A

Conflicts can indeed arise when environmental protection has a negative economic effect on groups of people or certain industries.
Trade-offs need to be made.

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14
Q

What is environmental degradation?

A

The waste, depletion and degradation of the earth’s life-sustaining natural capital

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15
Q

Who enjoys more than two thirds of the earth’s natural resources?

A

Only 17% of the world population in developed countries enjoy approximately 70% of the world’s natural resources

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16
Q

How much of the earth’s total surface area is affected by human activity?

A

Around 83% (excluding Antarctica) -

urban development, crops, energy production, pasture for livestock, mining, timber cutting

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17
Q

What is natural capital degradation, 8 examples and what are its main causes?

A 
Degradation of  normally renewable natural resources and natural services, mostly from population growth and increased resource use per person:
Shrinking forests
Degraded wildlife habitat & species extinction
Water pollution
Air pollution
Soil Erosion
Declining ocean fisheries
Climate Change
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18
Q

Ways of dealing with degrading commonly shared resources?

A

(1) Using these at a rate below its estimated sustainable yield (limiting access, or mutual agreements to reduce use)
(2) Private ownership

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19
Q

What is the ecological footprint?

A

The harmful environmental impact; the amount of land and water (biocapacity) needed to supply a population in an area with renewable resources and to absorb and recycle the wastes and pollution such resource use produces.

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20
Q

What is the per capital ecological footprint?

A

The average ecological footprint of an individual in a given country or area

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21
Q

What is biocapacity?

A

The ability of ecosystems to regenerate the renewable resources used by a population, city, region, country or the world, and to absorb the resulting wastes and pollution indefinitely

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22
Q

What are the largest components of our ecological footprint?

A

Climate change
Ocean acidification and
Air pollution

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23
Q

What is an ecological deficit?

A

When the total ecological footprint of a system or a place is larger than its biocapacity

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24
Q

What are the components of the IPAT Model?

A

Impact = Population X Affluence X Technology

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25
What is the advantage of using the IPAT model over ecological footprint?
The IPAT model includes both the environmental impact of using both renewable and non renewable resources while the ecological footprint only emphasizes the former.
26
What were the three cultural revolutions and when did they take place?
The agricultural revolution - roughly 10 000 BCE The Industrial-Medical Revolution - roughly 300 years ago; people invented machines for large scale production of goods in factories. Large quantities of food were grown; many people moved rural - urban; medical advances. The globalization-information revolution - About 50 years ago when we developed new technologies for gaining access to all kinds of information and resources on a global scale.
27
What are the (six) basic causes of environmental problems?
1) Population growth 2) Wasteful and Unsustainable Resource Use 3) Poverty 4) Full-cost Pricing 5) Increasing isolation from nature 6) competing environmental worldviews
28
What is full-cost pricing?
The inclusion of harmful environmental and health costs of producing and using goods and services in their market prices.
29
What are two ways to implement full-cost pricing?
1) Shift from environmentally harmful government subsidies to environmentally beneficial subsidies to sustain or enhance natural capital 2) To increase taxes on pollution and wastes that we want less of and reduce taxes on income and wealth that we want more of
30
What are three environmental worldviews?
1) Human-centered - see humans as separate from and in charge of nature and the natural world is a support system for humans. Stewardship worldview/ Planetary management worldview 2) Life-centered - ethical responsibility to avoid hastening the extinction of other species 3) Earth-centered - we are part and dependent on nature, and natural capital exists for all species, not just humans. Our long-term survival depends on learning how the earth has sustained itself for hundreds of millions of years.
31
What does living sustainably mean?
Living sustainably means living on earth's natural income without depleting or degrading the natural capital that it supplies.
32
What do scientists do?
Scientists collect data, develop hypotheses, theories and laws about how nature works.
33
What does matter consist of?
Matter consists of elements and compounds, which in turn are made up of atoms, ions or molecules.
34
What is the first law of thermodynamics?
Whenever energy is converted from one form to another in a physical or chemical change, no energy is created or destroyed.
35
What is the second law of thermodynamics?
Whenever energy is converted from one form to another in a physical or chemical change, we end up with lower-quality or less-usable energy.
36
What are two types of energy?
Kinetic energy and potential energy
37
What is electric power?
The rate at which electric energy is transferred through a wire or other conducting material - typically expressed in watts or megawatts per hour.
38
What is electromagnetic radiation?
Energy travels from one place to another in form of waves formed from changes in electrical and magnetic fields
39
What is thermal energy?
The total kinetic energy of all moving atoms, ions or molecules in an object, a body of water, or a volume of gas such as the atmosphere.
40
In what three ways can heat be transferred?
1) Radiation - the transfer of heat through space by electromagnetic radiation (infrared specifically) 2) Conduction - the transfer of heat from one solid substance to another cooler one through physical contact 3) Convection - the transfer of heat energy within liquids or gases when warmer areas of the liquid or gas rise to cooler areas and cooler liquid or gas takes its place
41
What is potential energy and what is an example?
Every object with the potential to release kinetic energy (stored in bonds in chemical reactions). Example: the nuclear energy stored in the strong forces that hold the particles in the nuclei of atoms together
42
What is renewable energy and some example of it?
Energy gained from resources that are replenished by natural processes in a relatively short time. Solar, wind, moving water, firewood from trees and geothermal energy.
43
What is non-renewable energy and an example of it?
Energy from resources that can be depleted and are not replenished by natural processes within a human time scale. Burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) and nuclear energy.
44
What does nuclear energy derive from?
When the nuclei from the atoms of uranium (fuel) is split apart.
45
What percentage our energy comes from the sun? Where does the remainder come from?
99% of the energy that keeps us warm and supports the plants that we, or the animals we eat, eat comes from the sun. The remainder is commercial energy - energy that is sold in the marketplace.
46
Where does the commercial energy we use come from.
About 90% of the global commercial energy comes from burning nonrenewable fossil fuels.
47
Where do fossil fuels come from?
Fossil fuels were formed over a hundred million years ago as layers of decaying plant and animals remains that were exposed to intense pressure and heat within the earth's crust.
48
What is the difference between high- and low-quality energy?
High-quality energy is concentrated energy that has a high capacity to do useful work. Low-quality energy is so dispersed that it has little capacity to do useful work.
49
What is energy efficiency?
The measure of how much work results from each unit of energy that is fed into a system.
50
What is a system and what are some examples.
Any set of components that function and interact in some regular way. A cell, a forest, the economy, the earth, a tv set.
51
What does every system contain?
Every system contains inputs (of matter, energy and information from the environment) flows (or throughputs - of matter/energy/information within teh system) and outputs (matter/energy/information into the environment).
52
When does a system become unsustainable?
When the flows of matter and energy resources exceed the ability of the system's environment to provide the required resource inputs and to absorb or dilute the system's outputs of matter and energy.
53
What is a feedback, and a feedback loop within the context of a system?
Any process that increases or decreases a change to a system. A feedback loop is when an output (of matter, energy or information) is fed back into the system as an input and changes the system.
54
What is a positive vs negative feedback loop and an example of both?
A positive f. loop causes a system to change further in the same direction, whereas a negative f. loop causes it to change in the opposite direction. The ripening of fruit is an example of a positive feedback loop as when a fruit ripens it induces further ripening. When we recycle (an aluminium can for example), the output (the used can) becomes a new input that reduces the need for further input (for mining and manufacturing in the case of the can).
55
What leads to an increase and decrease in population size?
A population increases through births and immigration and decreases through deaths and emigration.
56
What is the key factor that affects birth and death rates and the size of a population.
The total fertility rate - The number of children born to women in a population.
57
What affects how fast a population grows or declines?
The number of males and females in young, middle and older age groups.
58
How can we slow rapid population growth?
1) Reducing poverty through economic development, (2) elevating the status of women and (3) encouraging family planning.
59
What is weather?
Weather is a set of short-term atmospheric conditions ovr hours to days to years.
60
What is climate?
Climate is the general pattern of atmospheric conditions in a given area over periods ranging from at least three decades to thousands of years.
61
What are the key factors that influence the earth's climate?
1) Incoming solar energy (causing cyclical movement of air) 2) the Earth's rotation 3) Global patterns of air and water movement (primarily) 4) Gases in the atmosphere 5) and the earth's surface features.
62
What are the key factors that influence the weather?
1) Moving masses of warm and cold air, (2) changes in atmospheric pressure, and (3) occasional shifts in major winds.
63
What is atmospheric pressure
Atmospheric pressure results from molecules of gases in the atmosphere (mostly nitrogen and oxygen) zipping around at very high speeds and bouncing off everything they encounter. It is greater near the earth's surface.
64
What is a high (in atmospheric terms)? What is a low?
An air mass with high pressure containing cool, dense air that descends slowly toward the earth's surface and becomes warmer. A low contains low-density, warm air at its center that will rise, expand and cool.
65
What happens to the weather in the presence of a high?
Due to the warming, no condensation occurs, and thus no cloud forming occurs. Fair weather with clear skies follows.
66
What happens to the weather in the presence of a low?
As the air cools and drops beneath the dew point, the moisture in it condenses and forms clouds. This process typically requires particles of dust, smoke, sea salt or volcanic ash (called condensation nuclei) around which water can form. A low tends to produce cloudy and sometimes stormy weather.
67
What is needed for precipitation to occur?
The droplets in the clouds need to coalesce into larger drops or snowflakes heavy enough to fall from the sky .
68
What are jet streams?
Powerful winds that circle the globe near the top of the troposphere.
69
How can jet streams influence weather?
They can move moist air masses from one area to another.
70
What is the primary factor that influences the earth's climate?
Global air circulation and ocean currents. Both these processes distribute heat and precipitation unevenly between the tropics and other parts of the world.
71
How does the cyclical movement of air determine regional climate and what is it called?
Cyclical movement of air is a form of convection (1 pt) - where the warmer and less dense part of a mass of air rises, while the cooler and more dense part sinks, due to gravity. The cool air then becomes warmer and flows toward lower pressure and picks up moisture and again begins to rise (3 pts). This cyclical pattern is called a convection cell (1 pt).
72
How does the uneven heating of the earth's surface by the sun affect determine regional climate?
Air is heated much more at the equator, where the sun's rays strike it directly (and not at an angle). Thus the insolation (2 pts) - the input of solar energy in a given area - results in different temperature regions across different latitudes.
73
What is latitude?
The location between the equator and one of the earth's poles.
74
What are gyres?
Ocean currents that flow clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counter clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
75
What are hadley cells?
Hadley cells are the two convection cells nearest the equator (30 degrees north and south of the equator).
76
How do ocean currents affect regional climate?
Ocean currents help distribute heat from the sun influencing climate and vegetation especially near coastal areas. The solar heat and differences in water density create warm and cold ocean currents that are driven by the earth's rotation (Coriolis effect) and prevailing winds.
77
What is the Coriolis effect?
The effect the earth's rotation has on ocean and wind currents (clockwise in the n. h., counter-clockwise in the s. h.). The earth spins faster at the equator.
78
How many complex movements of air result between the equator and the poles?
Six huge regions.
79
What are greenhouse gases and how do they act?
Certain molecules - carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide (N2O) absorb some of this solar energy and release a portion of it as infrared radiation (heat) that warms the lower atmosphere and the earth's surface. It also absorbs longer-wavelength infrared radiation, which bounces of the earth's surface and get re-emitted onto the earth's surface as even longer wavelength infrared radiation.
80
What is the greenhouse effect?
We are emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere faster than they can be removed by the earth's carbon and nitrogen cycles.
81
How do surface features affect local climates?
Mountains disrupt the flow of prevailing surface winds and the movement of storms.
82
How does climate affect the nature and location of biomes?
Desert, grassland and forest biomes can be tropical, temperate, or cold depending on their climate and location.
83
What are the four types of climate resulting in different biomes as you move up or down from the equator.
1) Tropical rain forest, or savanna 2) Temperate deciduous forest, Chaparral, temperate grassland and temperate desert 3) Evergreen coniferous forest (taiga, boreal forest) and cold deserts 4) Arctic tundra
84
What are some environmental indicators?
1) GPI - Genuine progress indicator - GDP plus the the estimated value of beneficial transactions that meet basic needs, minus the estimated harmful environmental, health and social costs of all transactions. 2) The Global Green Economy Index - measures the performance of 60 nations in areas of leadership on climate change, energy efficiency, markets and investments, and natural capital, based on analysis by a panel of experts.
85
What is greenwashing?
A deceptive practice that some businesses use to spin environmentally harmful products and services as green, clean, or environmentally beneficial.
86
What is a more favoured approach to command-and-control?
Incentive-based environmental regulations | & Innovation friendly environmental regulations
87
What is one approach toward more environmentally beneficial economies?
Selling certain services in place of products that provide those services. This would involve minimal material use, energy and pollution.
88
What is poverty?
A condition under which people cannot meet their basic economic needs.
89
How can we reduce the harmful effects of poverty?
1) Mount a massive global effort to combat malnutrition and infectious diseases. 2) Provide universal primary school education 3) Provide assistance to less-developed countries by investing in family planning, reducing poverty and elevating the social and economic status of women. 4) Focus sharply on reducing the total and per capita ecological footprints of US, China and India. 5) Make large investments in small-scale infrastructure (i.e. solar cell power) for rural villages and sustainable agriculture projects to help less-developed nations work toward more energy efficient and environmentally beneficial economics. 6) Encourage lending agencies to make small loands to poor people who want to increase their income

Geography (2 decks)

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