Midterm

Some Types of Capital are Not Substitutable

Critique of the neoclassical assumption of infinite substitutability.

Nonmaterial benefits obtained from ecosystems (educational, recreational, heritage, spiritual)

Cultural Services

Environment, (Urban disinvestment, racism, homes, community) Intra-generational component, and People (low-income, POC)

Environmental Justice Paradigm

Which of the following refers to a cost or benefit that is not included in the price of a product or service? Discounting Externality Ignoring constraints that environmental limits put on economic systems Irreversible changes Substitutability

Externality

Resource use DECREASES as economy grows. Material use/emissions decline as economy grows.

Absolute decoupling (absolute = decrease)

Distributional Justice

Fairness in how it's divided up

True or False: According to Daly (2005) the ecosphere is a subsystem of the economy.

False

True or False: According to Hardin, the sum of separate ego-serving decisions are the best possible one for the population as a whole.

False

Care/Feminist Ethics

Feminist criticism of justice in which it's too abstract and assumes relationships between equals as many relationships are unequal across generations, nonhuman nature, and between people of different social-economic status.

True or False: The ecological footprint per capita in the United States is greater than in China and India.

True

- Heart of the interdisciplinary process. Integrate to pull insights together. - Capacity to critically evaluate interdisciplinary insights, locate sources of conflict, create common ground, and construct a comprehensive understanding of the problem.

Integration

1972 report by Club of Rome, articulated for first time dynamic nature of our dependency on physical resources/ecological systems. Illustrated process of 'overshoot and collapse' that can happen when these limits are approached. Suggested that without a shift in direction, adverse consequences would become obvious "within the next century". Report attracted fierce controversy.

Limits to Growth Study

What was the response to the limits to growth study?

Media storm, viewed as founding text of the environmental movement. Criticism by economists. In 1990's, "not enough credit to ingenuity".

What are the 5 assumptions of Ecological Economics?

Shortened for memory: E. Economies in environmental systems C. Capital not substitutable I. Irreversible changes D. Discounting unsustainable P. Prices fail to capture Long description: 1. Economies exist within environmental systems 2. Different types of capital not substitutable 3. Some changes irreversible 4. Discounting -> unsustainable decisions 5. Prices fail to capture all costs/benefits associated with actions

Which of the following refers to the capacity to view a problem or subject from alternative viewpoints (including disciplinary ones)? - Perspective taking - Humility - Critical thinking - Integration

Perspective taking

- Fairness in the process by which we are making the decisions. - Diverse representation in decision-making bodies. - Ethical (justice).

Procedural Justice

Products obtained from ecosystems (food, water, forest products etc)

Provisioning Services

What are the 4 areas of focus for Just Sustainability?

QPJL 1. Quality of Life 2. Present and Future generations 3. Justice and Equity 4. Living within Ecosystem limits

Ignorance-based worldview

Recognize limits of one's training and expertise. Our perspectives are unavoidably limited. (i.e, humility in interdisc. values)

Benefits obtained from regulation of ecosystem processes, includes moderating climate and regulating floods

Regulating Services

Which of the following is NOT one of Miller and Mansilla's (2004) four modes of increasing integration of bodies of knowledge in groups? - Stereotyping - Merging - Perspective taking - Rejecting - Mutual ignorance

Rejecting

Resource use INCREASES more slowly than economic growth. Material use/emissions still grows.

Relative decoupling [relative = increase]

there is no objective knowledge; beliefs and values are all relative.

Relativism

27 principles of sustainable development. Is Anthropocentric.

Rio Declaration on Environment and Development

What are three pillars of sustainability?

environment economy social

uncertainty effects

environmental systems are inherently uncertain, uncertainty undermines cooperation

What does the word "tragedy" mean in Tragedy of the Commons?

greek sense of the word, whitehead: "...not unhappiness, it resides in the solemnity of the remorseless working of things"

Leopold's contributions to environmental ethics: Good Oak

sawing of the tree and counting the rings to count back in time recalling the people and natural history.

Land Ethic (Leopold)

"...enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land." - Aldo Leopold

Capacity to analyze, critique, and asses ______. All disciplines focus on this.

Critical thinking

Criticism for GDP:

Criticized as a measure of welfare as it doesn't add to the quality of life

knowledge can be objective but not absolute; disciplinary insights = partial truths.

Critical pluralism

Elkington's 7 Drivers [Think MVTLPTC]

(1) Markets, where the old paradigm is compliance, and the new paradigm is competition (2) Values, old paradigm is hard, new is soft (3) Transparency, old is closed, new is open (4) Life-cycle technology, old is product, new is function (5) Partnerships, old was subversion, new is symbiosis (6) Time, old is wider, new is longer (7) Corporate Governance, old is exclusive, new is inclusive

What are the 2 dimensions of Cultural Cognition Thesis?

(HieEga) (IndCom) - Hierarchical-Egalitarian. - Individualist-Communitarian.

Which of the following is NOT an attribute of a disciplinary perspective as described by Miller and Mansilla (2004)? - Based on one's subjective outlook, opinion, beliefs, or knowledge - Typically associated with expert knowledge-creating communities - Based on commitments to a theory system, profession, discipline, or discourse community

- Based on one's subjective outlook, opinion, beliefs, or knowledge

Which of the following is NOT a belief that White specifically associates with Christianity? - Animals exist for man's benefit and rule - Earth is at the center of the solar system - It is God's will that man exploit nature

- Earth is at the center of the solar system

Cultural Cognition Thesis

- Identifies psychological predisposition. - behavior is honorable = socially beneficial - behavior they see as a base = socially detrimental

Which of the following, according to White, are the three basic tenets of the medieval Christian worldview: Linear time (constant progression) The priority of a personal relationship between an individual and God Natural areas set aside as sacred Exploitation of nature is God's will Nature is here for man's benefit

- Linear time (constant progression) - Exploitation of nature is God's will - Nature is here for man's benefit

Criticisms of the New Environmental Paradigm

- Mostly composed of White ppl. - Thinks of nature as "out there" v. here and all around us (even urban spaces).

Problems with the rational decision-making model (Environmental psychology)

- Not practical. - We rarely know all outcomes of their probabilities. - We are not purely rational beings.

What are the two dual trends of environmental change?

- Rapid population growth and (rapid) economic growth (consumption)

Disciplinary

- Shared language, methods, epistemological commitments - Focus on what matters within discipline

What was the beginning of the Environmental Justice movement?

- Warren County, NC. - Citizens protested proposed toxic waste dump that included PCBs. - PCBs suppress immune systems, disrupt thyroid, reproductive functions, increases risk for cardiovascular, liver disease, and diabetes.

Which of the following best completes this sentence: The term ________ refers to the area of biologically productive land and water necessary to produce all the resources you consume and to absorb the waste you generate, using prevailing technology and resource management practices. - ecological footprint - sustainability -energy flow - absolute decoupling

- ecological footprint

Typology of Participatory Management

- passive participation - information giving - interactive participation

Ecosystem decline

-60% of ecosystem services in decline. -Consumption increasing. -Most decline: regulating and supporting services. -Most increase: provisioning services. (most important to human well-being in the context of the environmentalist's paradox). -Human well-being

Leopold's contributions to environmental ethics: Narrative

-Attracted an audience, -allowed for vicarious experience, -personal identity and foundation of the Land Ethic

Deontological Ethics (Kantian)

-Depends on nature of the action -Focuses on universal rules, duties and obligations, and the context doesn't matter. E.g. "Don't lie"

Utilitarian Ethics (Consequentialist)

-Depends on the outcome -The ends justify the means -Greatest benefit for the greatest number of people. E.g. "Lie for a good reason"

Disciplinary research

-Disciplinary gatekeepers maintain coherence. -Highly valued and useful. -Often insufficient to understand complex problems concerning social-ecological systems.

Misconceptions about Mental Models

-False Analogies (Climate = weather) -Personal experience over statistics -Static models of dynamic systems

What is not counted in GDP?

-Home care for children and elderly -Clean Air -Stable climate -Free information available online -Distribution of income

Strong Sustainability

-Limits to substitutability -Different types of capital must be maintained independently

Which of the following is true of Neoclassical economics, according to Daly? -Neoclassical economic assumptions work for an empty world, but not for a full world. -Neoclassical economic assumptions do not work for either an empty world or a full world. -Neoclassical economic assumptions work both an empty world and a full world. -Neoclassical economic assumptions work for a full world, but not for an empty world.

-Neoclassical economic assumptions work for an empty world, but not for a full world.

New Ecological Paradigm

-Research tool to measure environmental worldview groups of people -Researcher understand how concerned people are for the environment/awareness of its limits

Role of scientists in post-modern view

-There's no window into objective reality -Observation implies interpretation (observation is theory-laden) -Inclusions of other ways of knowing (stakeholder insights/perceptions)

Weak Sustainabilty

-Utility must not be created -Relies on substitution of capital

What are the 4 hypotheses regarding Environmentalist's Paradox?

1. (Critical dimensions of human well-being not) adequately captured. -Rejected 2. (Increased provisioning services outweigh reduction) in other services. - Accepted 3. (Technology/social innovation have decoupled human well-being) from ecosystem services - Partially Recejected 4. (Time lag between declines in natural capital/human) well-being. - Mixed Evidence, uncertain

What are the 4 categories of Milleniumm Ecosystem Assessment?

1. (P)rovisioning Services 2. (R)egulating Services 3. (C)ultural Services 4. (S)upporting Services

Three ASPECTS unique to interdisciplinary:

1. Assess disciplines via comparative perspective. 2. Intellectual dexterity: communicate to broad people. 3. Shift focus from narrow to broad.

What are the 8 behavior change tools?

1. Commitment strategies 2. Social Diffusions 3. Goal Setting 4. Social Norms - (Most Effective Method when not already supportive) 5. Prompts 6. Incentives 7. Feedback 8. Convenience

Three foundations of interdisciplinary thinking?

1. Critical thinking 2. Integration 3. Perspective taking

Schultz's (2011) four key research findings [Think EHIS]

1. Education doesn't typically result in increased conservation behavior 2. Human thinking is biased and promotes short-sighted responses to environmental threats 3. Individuals generally perceive themselves as separate from nature 4. Social norms guide behavior

Four values for interdisciplinary work

1. Empathy 2. Humility (ignorance-based worldview) 3. Tolerance of ambiguity 4. Appreciation of diversity

Two dimensions of Discipline:

1. Epistemic: "what counts as knowledge". Disciplinaries favor specific objects of study. 2. Social: Disciplinaries share common experiences.

Three senses of PERSPECTIVE:

1. Individual: outlook, opinion, belief knowledge. 2. Role: based on one's position or role (e.g., parent, boss, fisher, farmer). 3. Disciplinary: based on commitments to a theory system, profession, discourse community.

Environmental Ethics: 4 Types of Values

1. Intrinsic (inherent) - a value that something has itself, warranting a direct moral obligation 2. Instrumental - associated with usefulness. 3. Eudaimonistic - adding meaning to one's life. 4. Fundamental - providing an essential part of one's identity or existence.

Agyeman's 3 PARADIGMS (define them and distinguish them from each other)

1. New Environmental Paradigm 2. Environmental Justice Paradigm 3. Just Sustainability

Five steps of CBSM:

1. Select behavior 2. Identify barriers and benefits to behavior 3. Develop strategies 4. Piloting 5. Broad-scale implementation and evaluation

Four parts of perspective taking:

1. Viewing yourself - Self-awareness. 2. Viewing others - Identifying perspectives and biases of others. 3. Viewing cultures - Explaining how different access to knowledge, technology, and resources affects cultures. 4. Viewing disciplines - Explaining how communities of expertise understand a situation differently.

Precautionary principle (like FDA)

Approach widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty not used as reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.

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

Brundtland's Definition of sustainable development

What were the three stories of our time by Macy and Johnstone?

Business as Usual - politicians follow this, people only worried about getting ahead The Great Unraveling - concerns about resource depletion, climate change, and species loss The Great Turning - transition of a doomed economy into life-sustaining society

Which of Costanza's social traps refers to the tragedy of the commons that Hardin describes? Time delay Ignorance Collective Vicious cycles

Collective

What does the word "Commons" mean in Tragedy of the Commons?

Common resource

Marketing with the focus on changing the behavior direction, and you may end up changing the hearts and minds

Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM)

Chrysalis economy metaphor: 4 Corporate...

Corporate locusts = Destructive; destroying social and environmental value and undermining Corporate caterpillars = Hard to spot, their impacts are more localized; degenerative impacts but potential Corporate butterflies = Easy to spot, track towards sustainability; not enough though for economies to be sustainable. Corporate honeybees = sustainable and regenerative.

"any situation in which short-run, local reinforcements guiding individual behavior are inconsistent with long-run, global best interest of the individual and society."

Costanza's Social Traps

Which of the four hypothesis do the authors clearly reject? -Critical dimensions of declining human well-being are not captured adequately. -There is a time lag after ecosystem service degradation before human well-being is affected. -Technology and innovation have decoupled human well-being from ecosystem condition. -Only provisioning services are important for human well-being. Human well-being is not measurably affected by declines in regulating and cultural ecosystem services.

Critical dimensions of declining human well-being are not captured adequately.

Which of the following epistemic positions is preferred when dealing with complex challenges pertaining to sustainability? - Colloquialism - Critical pluralism - Relativism - Dualism

Critical pluralism

Decoupling

Decoupling economic growth ($) from physical throughout and environmental impacts

A field of study or body of knowledge with an accepted vocabulary, epistemology, and set of methods

Discipline

A perspective that assumes there is a clear right and wrong answer with no room for discussion is associated with ____. Relativism Dualism Critical pluralism

Dualism

knowledge is objective and absolute. ("right/wrong approach")

Dualism

Three Epistemic Postitions:

Dualism Relativism Critical Pluralism

"Full world" applies to __________ economics.

Ecological

Leopold's contributions to environmental ethics: Thinking like a Mountain

Ecological context of the mountain as a whole, where you remove the top predator, the mountain will be over-run with a less species that destorys the ecosystem because they are left unchecked

Flows of material, energy, and information from natural capital stock, which combine with manufactured and human capital services to produce human welfare. (shorthand for "goods and services)

Ecosystem Services

Costanza's solutions to social traps:

Education and Superordinate authority. Downsides(?): - Heavy time investment required by "learners". - Everyone has to learn the lessons to avoid the traps. - Government regulations. - Religion. - Restructuring incentives (e.g., tax on pollution).

Enviornmental values [Think EAB]

Egoistic: focus on self. Altruistic: focus on other people. Biocentric: focus on environment.

Ideal characteristics of a behavior for CBSM

Focus on specific behaviors, avoid abstract ideas ("Save the earth"), avoid long list of behaviors, promote positive behavior alternatives

According to Newell (2014 et al.) _________ refers to the description of an issue or question to achieve a desired interpretation or response. Environmental values Uncertainty Cultural cognition Framing

Framing

Which of the following best characterizes how, according to Leopold, the land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens? - From invader of the land to settler of the land - From consumer of resources to producer of resources - From conqueror of the land community to plain citizen of it - From follower to leader

From conqueror of the land community to plain citizen of it

Exaggeration of a company's environmental credentials. That is, marketing communications impress business operations to be better for the environment than they are in reality.

Greenwashing

The monetary value of all final goods and services produced in a country in one year. (includes any spending, even bad - like oil spill cleanups).

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

Environmentalist's Paradox

Human well-being improves as ecosystems decline

Anthropocentric

Humans at center for sustainable development. Entitled to healthy life in harmony with nature.

- Higher level of integration/cooperation. -Address specific 'real world' system problems. -Research process forces participants from unrelated disciplines cross boundaries to create new knowledge. -Bridge disciplinary viewpoints and enable examination of existing knowledge from perspective of a neighboring discipline

Interdisciplinary

Prioritizes justice and equity, doesn't downplay environment, flexible, and overlapping discourses. (Combo of New Environmental Paradigm and Environmental Justice Paradigm.)

Just Sustainability

Match the terms Modernist or post-modernist: Scientists have a window into objective reality, independent of interpretation. Scientists are constrained by their own perspectives like everyone else, but scientific inquiry is set up to avoid having personal feelings and biases influence their results. Non-scientists may have important insights about complex systems that are not readily available to scientists.

Modernist view - Scientists have a window into objective reality, independent of interpretation. Postmodernist view - Scientists are constrained by their own perspectives like everyone else, but scientific inquiry is set up to avoid having personal feelings and biases influence their results. Postmodernist view - Non-scientists may have important insights about complex systems that are not readily available to scientists.

- Least integrative form of integrated research. Disciplines are not integrated. - Not as problem-focused as interdisciplinary. - Involves input from people representing more than one discipline.

Multidisciplinary

MIT

Multidisciplinary Interdisciplinary Transdisciplinary

According to Daly, which type of capital is most likely the limiting factor in a "full world"?

Natural

Conventional Environmentalism that involves: -Environment (wilderness and natural resources) -Future focus (strong intergenerational component, and weak intragenerational component) -People (white, educated, middle class)

New Environmental Paradigm

What was Hardin's view on Population Growth?

Smaller families = more ethical; Hardin's solution: "Mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon"

Explicit or implied rules about how you should behave; we underestimate the influence of those norms.

Social Norms

According to the Rockstrom study (cited by Jackson and Webster), four of the nine planetary boundaries have already slid into or beyond the "uncertainty zone." Which of the following is NOT one of those four? - Stratospheric ozone - Damage to nitrogen and phosphorous cycles - Biodiversity loss - Climate change

Stratospheric ozone

group identity

Strong in-group identity can increase cooperation within a group and can inhibit inter-group cooperation (cooperation between different groups)

Services necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services (soil formation, photosynthesis, nutrient cycling, etc)

Supporting Services

A quantitative aggregation of many indicators.

Sustainability index

_____ _____: Measuring aspect of environmental, economic, or social systems - useful for monitoring changes in system characteristics relevant to continuation of human and environmental well-being. _____ _____: A quantitative aggregation of many indicators.

Sustainability indicator Sustainability index

What does "SDG" stand for in United Nations lingo?

Sustainable Development Goals

Which of the following best represents the way that Stock and Burton (2011) characterize the value of traditional disciplinary approaches? a) Traditional disciplinary approaches are the best way to address contemporary challenges. b) Traditional disciplinary approaches to research have failed to provide any valuable insights to modern science. c) Traditional disciplinary approaches to research have had a considerable and overwhelmingly positive impact on the development of scientific method, but are not sufficient for some tasks. d) Traditional disciplinary approaches have no place in addressing contemporary challenges.

Traditional disciplinary approaches to research have had a considerable and overwhelmingly positive impact on the development of scientific method, but are not sufficient for some tasks.

- Highest level of integration. - Includes not just disciplinary experts, but stakeholders themselves. - Farmers, fishermen, members of community - those who have important insight into the issue.

Transdisciplinary

An agenda focused on corporation's environmental and social value that they add, or destroy through the 3P formulation (people, planet and profits).

Triple Bottom Line

According to Miller and Mansilla (2004), disciplines are a primary means for dividing up and organizing both how we know and how knowers get socially grouped.

True

-Humility for the human species -Using Saint Francis of Assisi: Patron saint of ecologists

White's Alternative view: Greening Christianity

What is the perspective on the limits to growth study 40 years later?

World is tracking on "standard run" (overshoot leads to an eventual collapse of production and living standards). "Nine Planetary Boundaries".

What were the three scenarios in the limits to growth: model resource study?

[BTS] 1 Business as usual: continuation of present trends. Collapses due to resource depletion. 6 Technological scenarios: improved technology increases available resources and agricultural productivity, reduces pollution and limits population growth. 2 scenarios collapsed, 4 avoided. 5 Stabilization scenarios: either population growth or industrial output were stabilized.

What are the 9 Planetary Boundaries?

[COBBSFLAN] 1. Climate change 2. Ocean acidification 3. Biosphere integrity 4. Biogeochemical flows (Nitrogen and Phospherous) 5. Stratospheric ozone depletion 6. Freshwater use 7. Land system change 8. Atmospheric aerosol loading 9. Novel entities (e.g. plastics)

What are the six social traps, according to Costanza?

[ICETVH] 1. Ignorance - Negative consequences of an action are not known; examples, CFC's and Asbestos 2. Collective - Hardin's tragedy of the commons 3. Externality 4. Time delay - Examples: Sunburn, Hangovers. 5. Vicious cycles 6. Hybrid

The Limits to Growth Study focused on trends in what 5 areas?

[easy reminder, PIPRL] 1. Population 2. Industrialization 3. Pollution 4. Resource Depletion 5. Land availability for food

According to Jackson and Webster, which of the following is NOT one of the five major areas that the Limits to Growth study focused on? - climate change - pollution - resource depletion - population and industrialization

climate change

knowledge structures that we develop to describe, explain, and predict the world around us

mental models

Commodification in context of ecosystem services

transformation of ecosystem component-processes into products-services that can be privately appropriated, assigned exchange values, traded in markets.