Sustainable Environment Exam 3

Explain how recycling in Curitiba's model to sustainability is incorporating/mutually reinforcing three pillars of sustainability?

Recycling reduces the amount of waste (environmental protection) and it provides jobs for marginalizing groups (social equity and economic growth).

Name the three pillars of sustainable development and indicate two specific/major economic and social challenges to achieving sustainable development.

Social equity, environmental protection, and economic growth are the three pillars. An economic challenge is capitalism and social challenge is racism and patriarchy.

Based on Havana, Cuba video explain in detail what prompted urban food growing in Havana; and indicate how the food is grown through the city.

The Soviet Union collapsed and used to be allies with Cuba. So overnight Cuba lost their resources that were crucial to growing food so they had no other option but to grow on small farms without pesticides and fertilizers. Growing it in an organic matter was done out of pure necessity.

Both geography and level of global energy consumption have changed over the last several decades, and are projected to further change. Explain what is meant by the "changing geography;" and the main reason/driver behind this particular change.

The driver behind this "changing geography" is that the developing world is where most of increased energy consumption is taking place.

Indicate three major reasons that explain why there is an increased push/benefit to switch our energy sources from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Fossil fuels have a limited supply, while renewable energy sources are unlimited. The burning of fossil fuels is directly related to CO2 emissions, while renewable energy sources do not. Fossil fuels also destroy the environment, while renewable energy sources do not.

In 1993 the city government of Belo Horizonte declared that food was a basic right of citizenship. Based on the video and class discussion indicate what problems prompted this action; the goal of the initiative; the particular approach of the initiative; and its results; and the cost.

It was prompted by widespread hunger especially among children. The goal was to wipe out hunger entirely. People could go and get a cheap meal because it was subsidized by local government and they were fresh and nutritious meals. Schools also provided meals for children. This eradicated hunger at the cost of 2% of the city's annual budget.

Briefly explain the nature of mountain top removal as a coal mining strategy; indicate why MTR emerged since the late 1970s, i.e. what is the main rationale for adopting the strategy; and locate MTR practices geographically.

MTR is where the literally blow off the top of a mountain with explosives to get coal while cutting down the of human labor. The argument is that it is a cheaper, effective, and economically efficient method that usually takes place in West Virginia and eastern Kentucky.

Indicate the principle of sustainability; time period in which the sustainability paradigm emerge; and three concerns that triggered the emergence of the paradigm.

The time period was 1980, the principle was that our survival directly or indirectly depends on the environment. Three concerns that emerged were population growth, consumption of resources, and economic development.

Name and explain three elements of Curitiba's model to sustainability is incorporating/mutually reinforcing three pillars of sustainability.

Three elements that address environmental concerns are green space which helps prevent flooding and provides parks, public transit which saves on gas consumption and pollution, and recycling which reduces the amount of waste.

Based on the "Coal Country" movie and our class discussion, explain what constitutes environmental injustice in movie. Explain by focusing on distributional inequity dynamics associated with coal mining/its location and effects vs "cheap" electricity/location and effects.

We receive "cheap" energy from MTR, but the communities where this takes place are paying full costs: socially and economically. Us, as consumers, are not exposed to it. However, the people there face many issues. This environmental injustice is on local vs national scale.

Indicate two renewable energy sources that dominate the energy supply in Samso Island.

Wind and solar.

Explain negative environmental and social consequences associated with the production of bioethanol and palm oil.

You need corn to produce bioethanol and that could be used as food supply instead. This increases foods prices and food insecurity world wide. We get palm oil by deforestation of tropical rain forests. This not only decreases biodiversity, but cutting down rain forests adds carbon to the atmosphere because we eliminated a natural service provided to us.