APES Chapter 1 (Questions)

What is affluenza and what are its harmful environmental effects? Are you infected with the affluenza virus?

-addiction to overconsumption, resource use

What is the ecological footprint per person? What useful information does it give us about the use of renewable resources?

-amount of water and land needed for resources and waste -we are using renewable resources, un-renewably

What is exponential growth? Give two examples of exponential growth.

A quantity increases at a fixed percentage per unit of time. Fold a piece of paper in half to double its thickness. If you could continue doubling the thickness of the paper 42 times, the stack would reach from the earth to the moon.

Distinguish among environment, ecology, environmental science, and environmentalism.

Environment is the sum total of all living and nonliving things that affect any living organism. Environmental science is an interdisciplinary study that integrates information and ideas from the natural sciences that study the natural world and the social sciences that study how humans and their institutions interact with the natural world. Ecology is a basic tool used by environmental scientists and is a biological science that studies the relationships between living organisms and their environment. Environmentalism is a social movement dedicated to protecting the earth's life-support systems for us and other species.

How rapidly is the world's population growing? How many people does this growth add each year?

Exponential growth of the world's population has slowed but has not ended. Between 1963 and 2006, the exponential rate at which the world's population was growing decreased from 2.2% to 1.23%. This does not seem like a very fast rate but it added about 81 million people to the world's pop. in 2006. This is an average increase of about 220,000 people per day.

Describe a simple model of relationships between population size, resource consumption per person, and technology, and overall environmental impact. How do these factors differ in developed and developing countries?

IPAT -available technology and affluence

List five ways in which poverty is related to environmental quality, peoples' quality of life, and premature deaths of poor people. Why does it make sense for a poor family to have a large number of children?

--pop growth, need for land, deplete forests, pollution, disease

What is pollution? Distinguish between point sources and nonpoint sources of pollution. List three types of harm caused by pollution.

-chemicals at high levels to threaten health, survival, or activities -point: single and identifiable -nonpoint: large and dispersed -noise, health, beauty,

Define and give three examples of common-property resources. What is the tragedy of the commons? Give three examples of this tragedy on a global scale. List two ways to deal with the tragedy of the commons.

-common property resource: nobody own them and are available for no cost -ex: air, ocean, atmospheric gasses -trag of com: degradation of renewable free-access resources -ex: oceans, grazing lands, forests -solutions: reduce population or regulating access to resources and private ownership

Distinguish between economic growth, gross domestic product, and economic development. Distinguish between developed countries and developing countries and give four characteristics of each category.

-econ growth: increase the goods and services for people, requires pop growth and more production and consumption -GDP: market value of all goods and services within a country -econ develop: improve living standards by econ growth -developed country vs developing: degree of industrialization and per capita GDP -developed: high industrialization, high GDP, low pollution and waste, high resource use, small population growth

What is a nonrenewable resource? Draw a full production and depletion curve for a nonrenewable resource and distinguish between a physically depleted resource and an economically depleted resource.

-fixed quantity -phys depleted: taken completely -econ depleted: cost exceeds its value

List five pieces of good news and five pieces of bad news about economic development.

-good: long life, good medical care, education, high living standard, care for elderly -bad: pollution, waste, resource use, unsustainable, species loss

What is an environmental worldview? Distinguish between the planetary management, stewardship, and environmental wisdom environmental worldviews. Which one comes closest to your own environmental worldview?

-how world works and your role in it -planet: we control nature, it's ours to benefit from -steward: we are here to care for Earth sustainably -we are not separate and no more important than any organism

How can affluence help improve environmental quality?

-money to improve environ quality

What are perpetual resources and renewable resources? Give an example of each.

-perpetual: continually renewed, sun -renewable: replenished quickly, water

According to environmentalists, what are five basic causes of the environmental problems we face?

-pop, resource use, poverty, not including environ costs, trying to simplify nature

Distinguish between pollution prevention (input pollution control) and pollution cleanup (output pollution control). What are three problems with relying primarily on pollution cleanup? Why is pollution prevention better than pollution control?

-prevent: reduce production -cleanup: removing after production -temporary, moves pollution, cost -works better, cheaper

What is environmentally sustainable economic development? How does it differ from traditional economic growth and economic development?

-rely on solar, biodiversity, pop control, nutrient cycling - they are a circle and interconnected

Distinguish between reuse and recycling, and give an example of each.

-reuse: in same form, a water bottle -recycle: process and sell as new item

What are sustainable yield and environmental degradation? Give five examples of environmental degradation.

-sustainable yield: use a resource indefinitely -environ degradation: resource use too high and supply shrinks -soil erosion, clear cut forests, groundwater usage, biodiversity, urbanization of land

Distinguish between solar capital and natural capital (natural resources).

Natural capital is the natural resources and natural services that keep us and other species alive and support our economies. We can also think of energy from the sun as solar capital that warms the planet and supports photosynthesis, the process that plants use to provide food for themselves and for us and other animals.

What is an environmentally sustainable society? Distinguish between living on the earth's natural capital and living on the renewable biological income provided by this capital. How is this related to the sustainability of (a) the earth's life-support system and (b) your lifestyle?

One that meets the current and future needs of its people for basic resources in a just and equitable manner without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Living sustainably means living off natural income replenished by soils, plants, air, and water and not depleting or degrading the earth's natural capital that supplies this income. (MORE ON PAGE 10)