ENST 150 midterm 1

What are the four factors that control changes in climate?

1. Amount of sunlight Earth receives 2. Amount of sunlight Earth reflects (Albedo) 3. Retention of heat by atmosphere 4. Evaporation and condensation of water vapor (clouds)

Pillars of climate justice?

1. Just transition to renewable energy 2. Social, Racial, and Environmental justice 3. Indigenous climate action: climate action should understand their knowledge and role 4. Community resilience and adaptation 5. Natural climate solutions: regenerative farming, forest restoration 6: Climate education and engagement

Two definitions of the climate gap and. how to solve it

1. gap in affects of climate change between poor and rich communities 2. gap between international attention to climate change and the needs of vulnerable communities. Addressing the everyday issues of people will strengthen their livelihoods, making them less vulnerable and more adaptable to climate change.

What is the difference between anthropocentrism/biocentrism/ecocentrism and how might these ethical perspectives impact environmental choices?

Anthropocentrism: Humans are superior to all else --> utilitarian biocentrism: Living things are most important --> weak non-utilitarian ecocentrism: places importance of the ecosystem as a whole --> non-utilitarian :: anthropocentric people are unlikely to support many sustainability efforts

What's the concept of benign/malign problems (for this you should also know what can make a problem harder or easier to solve).

Benign = easy to solve with current knowledge and tools Malign = incredibly complex problem to solve. Scientific development needs, Stakeholders with different perspectives, interests etc. technological development needs,

How do we know that modern climate changes are man-made and not "natural"?

CO2 and ice core levels do not correspond with Milankovich cycle levels, meaning it can't be explained just through Milankovich.

Name GHGs and their source.

CO2: fossil fuels, deforestation. Methane: Fossil fuels, waste dumps. Nitrous Oxide: Fertilizer, industrial combustion

MDGs: How were the MDGs created ? What were some of the MDG outcomes and were the goals achieved? How about criticisms?

Created by a group of experts of the UN. Process led by rich nations aimed at poor nations. Achieved some success such as their poverty goal and gender disparity in education. Did not meet most of their goals, some of which were wildly off the target such as HIV/AIDS prevention.

What are the social dimensions of deforestation?

Deforestation is happening in developing countries. As was shown by the PES lab, poorer communities may value the goods they can reap from the forest more so than making sure they are using it in the most sustainable way because they are more worried about the wellbeing of their community, children, etc. than the wellbeing of the planet.

Deforestation vs Degradation

Degradation: caused by unsustainable use of forests that inhibit its ability to provide services for the ecosystem (forest is still there, but not as healthy, sustainable, etc.) Deforestation: caused by taking down massive amounts of forestry to build infrastructure over it.

Where is deforestation and forest degradation occurring?

Developing countries (latin america, africa, indonesia)

what are environmental ethics and norms, how are they related, similar, different?

Ethics consider our moral responsibilities to other species and ecosystems. Norms are informal social rules that govern behavior based on collective beliefs of appropriate behavior. Both are ways to consider how we should treat the earth. Ethics drives development of norms. Ethics is the theoretical, norms are how change begins.

What are the concepts of the enabling coalition and blocking (veto) coalition?

In environmental regimes, an enabling coalition is a group of actors that work together to promote and implement environmental policies and practices. This coalition is usually made up of governments, non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders who share a common goal of promoting sustainability and protecting the environment. On the other hand, a blocking or veto coalition is a group of actors who work to prevent or block the adoption of environmental policies and practices. This coalition can be made up of industry groups, governments that prioritize economic growth over environmental protection, or other stakeholders who may have conflicting interests with the enabling coalition.

Indicators of Human Influence on Climate.

Increase CO2 in atmosphere from fossil fuels, less O2, less heat escaping atmosphere, nights warming faster than days.

what are some of the important functions (uses) of forest ecosystems (indirect, consumptive and non-consumptive)?

Indirect: CO2 sequestration. Erosion prevention. Reecycling of human waste. Maintenance of ecosystem. Consumptive: Water, construction materials, energy. non-consumptive: spiritual/religious information. artistic inspiration. scientific information.

What are Milankovich cycles and why are they important?

It shows Earth's climate has very long cycles of climate fluctuations. This is important because the climate changes naturally, so taking that into consideration when measuring how much humans are changing the climate.

What's the precautionary principle?

Lack of scientific certainty doesn't mean we shouldn't look for and implement cost-effective means to prevent environmental degradation

MDGs vs SDGs (goals, differences)

MDGs: Poverty Reduction in developing. countries. Not enough transparency and democratization of goals, targets, etc. SDGs: Sustainable development whole world. Broader and more goals (including environmental goals). Bigger emphasis on the planet and prosperity. Update and enhance MDGs.

What is the difference between mitigation and adaptation?

Mitigation is restricting the emission of CO2 to stop the root cause of climate change, and adaptation is reducing the risks on humans from climate change

PES: What is PES and what are its advantages and under what circumstances may PES be effective or ineffective? What are some of the issues faced when trying to implement PES?

Payment for Economic Services (PES) is the idea to incentivize sustainable development and disincentivize unsustainable development. PES is most effective when the compensation is equal to the opportunity cost of sustainably developing. Unsustainable development can be economically prudent for poorer communities to do, and PES aims to get rid of that. Issues include the fact that PES must be fair for people to buy into it, but different communities have very different levels of incentives for unsustainable development, so in order to get rid of all of it and be fair, PES would likely overpay many families, which is money that could've been spent on scientific development, etc.

What is climate justice/injustice?

Poorer, developing countries are most affected by climate change, when the rich countries are the ones that created it.

How do we know what the earth's climate was like in the past?

Proxies: sediments seem to give us the most info from long ago.

Examples of how climate injustice manifests:

Rich companies emit a bunch of CO2 and create a bunch of waste. Rich countries have technology to deal with pollution effects on them, but poor countries can't. Rich countries pay poor countries to hold waste for them.

How were the SDGs created? What is the difference between a goal, target and indicator? What were some of the SDG outcomes and were the goals achieved?

SDGs created through a consultation process that includes stakeholders of many types globally. Goal addresses a high-level problem. Targets are smaller goals that work together to satisfy the goal (more specific). Indicators are specific data thresholds that if achieved, will result in hitting the corresponding target. SDGs are moving in the right direction, but the pandemic was a black swan event that put us a few years back in some indicators. There are large regional differences and they project we are unlikely to reach some targets.

What is sustainability development?

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

How have the SDGs been localized to cities and/or universities? What's the importance of this?

Targets and indicators can and have been localized like in Los Angeles. Every level of community and governance has duties to implement strategies to best hit the targets and indicators in their community and keep lower levels accountable. Local Knowledge Systems are extremely valuable for figuring out how to best tackle climate change within a community.

What's the polluter pays principle?

Those who pollute must pay for the prevention and damages to human and environmental health. International norm in Stockholm

What are the specific causes of deforestation/degradation? How can deforestation be prevented? What are sustainable forestry practices and why are they important?

Timber extraction, beef production, oil/beauty products. Preventable through policy, public engagement, and behavioral changes. Sustainable practices: reforestation, buying/conserving land, international treaties, reducing consumption of services provided through deforestation, PES.

Understand UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, and Paris Agreement - what are they, how are they related, what is their goal, what is their general structure/methods for reducing climate change? What are some ways that the goal of reducing emissions can be achieved under these regimes?

UNFCCC: benchmarks for greenhouse gases, technological dev for fighting CC. Focus in developing countries. Kyoto: mandatory targets on GHGs. Theoretical enforcement. Creation of Carbon Market. Paris: VOLUNTARY agreement (no enforcement of legally binding treaties that made some countries reluctant to join. Every 5 years countries join together and present their plans for climate action over the next 5 years. Goal is to limit GW to under 2 degrees C (1.5)

What are utilitarian and non-utilitarian values of ecosystems?

Utilitarian: Ecosystem has value as so far what they provide for human. Non-utilitarian: Ecosystem and its elements have intrinsic value.

Name some policy instruments for env protection (5)

Voluntary: Pollution market. Incentives (PES). Involuntary: Tax on Pollution. Regulations. Compliance mechanisms.

How do Western and Indigenous worldviews/ethics compare?

Western: Humans are separate from and in control of nature • Private property and ownership of land • The notion of "subduing" the land and "taming" the wilderness • Extraction for wealth. ::: Indigenous: Humans are a part of nature • Everything is connected and related • People live on but do not own the land • TEK developed across generations

What's the tragedy of the commons?

When no social construct governs the use of resources, the common people will use the resources unsustainably, causing the resources to run out for everyone

What are the three pillars of sustainability? : and some (4) objectives of sustainability?

environmental, social, economic : eliminate unsustainable use of natural resources • Reduce waste and pollution • Stop degradation of the natural systems • Change systems that undermine people's abilities to meet their needs

What are some of the proxies we use to measure climate change?

ice cores • tree rings • corals • ocean, lake sediments and microfossils

What is redlining and what are the effects of redlining (environmental and otherwise)?

redlining is is the use of arbitrary boarders to segregate impoverished communities of color (started in the 30s). People living in these communities would be discriminated against, unable to have the same financial services because of where they live. In terms of the environment, town waste facilities and other polluting bodies are put in redlined areas, which are most vulnerable to the health risks. The lack of financial services and disinvestment caused a cycle of poverty for those in redlined neighborhoods, creating massive economic and racial disparity.

what are the two definitions of regime effectiveness?

• Do actors make agreements and/or change behaviors (an IR approach) • Do environmental indicators improve (environmental assessment)

what are the environmental impacts of deforestation? (4)

• biodiversity loss • soil degradation • desertification • contributing to climate change.

What are the 4 stages of environmental regime building?

•Issue definition • Fact-finding • Bargaining on regime creation • Regime strengthening