Sustainability Midterm Questions

The University's Sustainability Metrics for 2016 cites features trending in the wrong direction. These features include:

Air travel greenhouse gas emissions and campus-wide water consumption

What are examples of anthropogenic greenhouse gases?

CO2, methane, and chlorofloroethane

Another name for greenhouse effect

Callendar effect; Callender linked CO2 and temp. together

Comprehensive Sustainability Strategy

Campus (infrastructure and operations), culture (sustainable behaviors), curriculum (sustainability education and research), and community (enhancing sustainability in the greater community)

VP Colella's and Scott Lupin organized their presentation around 4 realms beginning with the letter C. What were three of them?

Campus, culture, and curriculum

The Presidents' Commitment on Climate Change commits the University to:

Carbon neutrality by 2050

Transect

Characteristics of settlement design from natural to urban core

What is motivation for growth management?

Chesapeake Bay

According to Prof. Sullivan, the functions of ecosystems include:

Existing structure (hierarchy), dependence on an external energy source & abiotic factors, can perform specific functions (ex: carbon cycling and reproduction), self-perpetuating, and continuously changing but functions continued to be carried out

Mark Stewart discussed 6 ways to be a green terp. What are they?

Live car free, use less stuff, be water wise, join a student organization, eat less meat, and flip the switch

For dining services, sustainable food means:

Locally grown, humane, and ecologically sound

Sustainable food commitment of diner

20% sustainable food by 2020, 1-4% annual increase in sustainable food purchases; incremental increases in sourcing from local growers

3 components of any standard:

Define what you want to measure, decide on a metric, and identify a baseline

Postwar Suburbs

Designed for production not community making

Sustainable Development

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (how sustainability is defined by UN)

What 3 terms are a part of the sustainability stool?

Economic, social, environmental (and sometimes equity)

Prof. Sullivan cited the use of poison in New Zealand to:

Eliminate invasive species and protect indigenous species against invasive

What is Energy Use Intensity?

Energy per square foot per year, calculated by dividing the total energy consumed by the building in one year by the total gross floor area of the building

Negative impacts of sprawl

Environmental, costly, social segregation, and obesity

For the Metric CO2e, the e means:

Equivalent

What was listed by VP Colella and Scott Lupin as sustainability objectives of the campus?

Reduce electricity consumption by 20% by 2020, offset all emissions attributable to new campus construction, and count zero emissions from purchase electricity by 2020.

President's Energy Initiatives

Reduce electricity use on campus by 20% by 2020, Off-set new greenhouse gas emissions from new construction by using energy from renewable sources, and eliminating carbon emissions from purchased electricity by 2020 by purchasing from only renewable sources

Which policy would you endorse to discourage sprawl?

Reduce taxation on working farms

Global Warming Potentials

Referenced to the updated decay response for the Bern carbon cycle model and future CO2 atmospheric concentrations held constant at current levels

Land use regulation in the United States:

Requires permission to build anything, happens mostly at the local level, and requires public participation to change

5 Components of Suburban Nations

Residential only developments, commercial only shopping centers, commercial only office "parks", large, widely separated civic uses, and large highways to connect separate uses; produce more GHGs than cities

Green Roofs

Roofs with vegetation and a growing medium planted over a waterproofing membrane; intensive: big, extensive: small

Peter Calthorpe compared carbon emissions for different kind of settlements. Which kind of community produced the most carbon emissions?

Sprawl

In the curve relating world temperature and carbon emissions, what is the most important feature?

The unprecedented rise in temperature and CO2 concentration

What is the Chesapeake Project?

Two day work shop that teaches faculty about how they can be sustainable

What are the different greenhouse gas emission percentages?

1. CO2 43% 2. Methane (CH4) 27% 3. Soot (C) 12% 4. V.O.C.'s 7% 5. Nitrous Oxide (NO2) 4% 6. Halocarbons 8%

If I use 10,000 kWh of electricity in one year and my house is 1000 square feet in size, my Energy Use Intensity is:

1000 kWh/sf/year

Sustainability Studies Minor Requirements/Info:

15 approved credits; 9 from 300 & 400 level classes

What are the Kyoto Protocols and when did they occur?

1997; They are international agreements linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which commits its Parties by setting internationally binding emission reduction targets.

What is the upper limit of global temperature rise set by COP21, the Paris Climate Agreement conference of 2015 to avoid catastrophic conditions?

2 degrees celsius

Dining services serves:

27,000 meals a day with a staff of 1500

Which Representative Concentration Pathway does Prof. Salawitch find to be the most likely to be correct?

4.5

Americans waste how much of their food?

40%

What's the main goal of UMD's climate action plan?

50% carbon reduction from 2005 levels by 2020

How much waste did UMD recycle in 2015?

85%

What is anytime dining?

A new arrangement, assures that every student can eat for the duration of their plans, and tries to encourage students to eat in the dining halls; eliminate 6,300,000 discarded items

Ecological Resilience

Ability of an ecosystem to maintain key functions in times of stress (ex: longleaf pine has adapted to fire); disturbance fosters this

According to Prof. Sullivan, resilience refers to:

Ability to maintain basic functions and ability to change forms to resist change

What do green roofs do?

Absorb CO2, conserve habitats, make buildings cooler, and help manage storm water by retaining water then returning it to the atmosphere via evapotranspiration

In the Radiative Forcing diagram shown in both sessions, what energy flows are clouds involved in?

Absorbing radiation from the earth, re-radiation of energy to earth's surface, and radiation from earth's surface to space

What are extremely likely to have caused climate change?

Anthropogenic CO2, methane, and NO2

UMD commitments to sustainability

Be a national model for a green university, eliminate the university's carbon footprint, prepare all students to create a sustainable future, use water sustainably, minimize waste, and advance sustainability locally and globally

Ecosystem

Complex association of biotic and abiotic factors that interact to perpetuate or sustain itself

Growth management tools

Comprehensive and local plans, financial incentives, capital improvement programs, taxes and fees, zoning and subdivision regulations, and eminent domain

How do you think critically?

Consider the source; Understand the Agendas; Be Alert for Self-Service, Ignorance and Misrepresentation

In Maryland, some land use policies are dictated by state law; examples of such laws are:

Critical areas near the Chesapeake Bay and funding for state facilities in sensitive locations

Temporal Scale

Habitat lifespan relative to a generation

What does achieving 4.5 RCP by year 2060 require?

Half of total, global energy to be supplied by sources that don't emit GHGs

Visions required for local plans in Maryland:

Implementation, stewardship, resource protection, environmental protection, economic development, housing, transportation, infrastructure, community design, designated growth areas, public participation, quality of life and sustainability

INDC

Intended Nationally Determined Contributions to reduce GHG emissions

IPCC stands for what United Nations organization?

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

How is sustainability defined as by the UN Commission (Brundtland) on Environment and Development?

Meet present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs

The term MTCO2e means:

Metric tons of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent including CH4 and NO2

What are the characteristics of Smart Growth?

Mixed land uses, compact building design, housing variety, walkable communities, distinctive communities with strong sense of place, transportation choices, preserve open space, strengthen existing communities, predictable/cost effective decisions, and encourage collaboration

I have a house with solar collectiors on the roof which collect enough energy over the year to equal my energy use. How can I describe my house?

Net zero

What do the animals in New Zealand have in common?

Only 2 species of bats are indigenous, the rest are wild/invasive; the tuatara predates the dinosaur and is considered to be a living fossil

Sprawl refers to:

Post WW2 suburban development and large areas of single use development

Examples of Maryland incentives to develop according to Smart Growth principles include:

Priority funding areas and Legacy Open Space - funding to preserve open space

What was mentioned as being part of the Curriculum agenda of the sustainability program?

Sustainability advising, 60 min briefing during orientation, and the Chesapeake project

What is carbon footprint?

The amount of carbon dioxide and other carbon compounds emitted due to the consumption of fossil fuels by a particular person, group, etc.

What is the Holocene?

The geological epoch that began 11,700 years ago

Anthropocene refers to:

The name now applied to our epoch in earth history and a name which places us, homo sapiens, at the center of this epoch

Do IPCC projections over-estimate global warming?

Yes