Global Environment Second Exam

The amount of the Earth's Net Primary Productivity that human activity consumes, and the amount of the total ice-free land surface devoted to human activities.

-Human land: 75% of the ice-free land surface -Human directly consume: 25% of the planetary primary productivity

The author of the book "The Population Bomb"

Paul Ehrlich

The examples of a 'tragedy of the commons' type situation given in class

People treat the environment as a commons to dump waste into -Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" -Collapse of Grand Banks Fisheries -Traffic Congestion

The author of the book "Silent Spring"

Rachel Carson (damage from pesticide)

The founder of the Sierra Club, and a major figurehead in the birth of the United States National Park system.

John Muir

The reasons, both mathematical and biological, why Paul Ehrlich thought population an unsolvable problem.

"No changes in behavior or technology can save us unless we can achieve control over the size of the human population. The birth rate must be brought into balance with the death rate or mankind will breed itself into oblivion. We can no longer afford merely to treat the symptoms of the cancer of population growth; the cancer itself must be cut out."

Boserup thinking

(another Danish economist) took this approach to agriculture in the developing world, and showed how increased population pressure encouraged agricultural intensification and innovation

Soil

-Holds moisture and provides nutrients to the plant -Edaphic Variability: variation in nutrients and water attributed to variation in soil type

The solution that Hardin offered to solve the 'tragedy of the commons'

-"A dilemma with no technical solution" -- the iron laws of nature are the limits -We can't control population by appealing to conscience--those will a conscience will make themselves extinct

The approximate amount of the Amazon that has been cleared. The reductions of Brazilian Amazonian deforestation that has occurred in Indigenous Reserves, Parks, "Sustainable Use" and "Not protected" areas.

-15% cleared -Sustainable Use: 12.2% -Not Protected: 55%

The timeline of Love Canal

-1890s: attempt to build canal between Lake Ontario and Niagara River -1940s: the area became a waste dump -1953: 21,000 tons of chemical waste dumped there -1980s: most of the community have been evacuated

The fertility rate in Africa in the middle of the 20th century, the present day, and the predictions for the end of the 21st century

-20th Century: 6.6 births -Present day: 2.51 -21st Century: 1.99

The amount of Americans that visited national parks in 2015, and the most popular national park.

-307 million visits in 2015 -Most popular - Great Smoky Mountains NP - 10 million + visitors

Topography

-Controls the microclimate experienced by the plant -Affects delivery of ground water to the plant

The ways in which topography can affect vegetation.

-Controls: the microclimate experienced by the plant -Affects: delivery of ground water to the plant

Simon/Boserup general thinking

-Economic laws determine social activity

The country in SE Asia with the largest area of tropical rainforest. The country who has increased its forest coverage by 39% since 1990.

-Largest area of tropical rainforest: Indonesia -Increased coverage by 39%: Vietnam

Malthusian thinking

-Natural laws ultimately determine social activity -Population could grow unchecked with resource abundance -Famine was the ultimate mechanism by which nature would gain revenge

Disturbance

-Natural: fire, wind, floods, landslides, insect outbreaks -Anthropogenic: clearing of land, invasive insect outbreaks

The two types of leaf, in terms of their persistence and shape. An example species of each of these trees.

-Production-oriented: Sugar Maple -Persistence-oriented: Black Spruce

The relationship between the writing of Thomas Malthus and the The definition of a Malthusian catastrophe. The reasons why a Malthusian catastrophe was predicted to occur.

-The problem of global population growth was reenergized in the 1960s with the publication of The Population Bomb by Paul Ehrlich -The logic of Malthus was the relationship between the population and the production of food -"People are bound by natural laws, specifically population" -Humanity is hardwired to breed without restraint...it is always going to be determined in the end by the natural world....famine will keep the balance intact if social measures to control population fail

Changing vegetation patterns as you travel North down the Nile, and the driving forces behind these.

-Variation caused by Hadley Cell and ITCZ -Tropical Wet climate -Tropical Wet & Dry climate -Sub-tropical desert climate

Changing vegetation patterns as you move North from New Jersey into Canada.

-Variation caused by day length and sun angle -Humid continental climate -Severe continental climate -Polar climate

Changing vegetation patterns as you travel from West (California) to East (New Jersey) across the United States.

-Variation caused by gradients of precipitation -Mediterranean climate -Highland climates -Mid-latitude desert and steppe climates -Humid continental climate -Wetter humid continental climate

The 5 environmental controls on vegetation. The most important of these on a global scale.

1. Climate 2. Topography 3. Soil 4. Biota 5. Disturbance

The three types of plant form

1. Tree - single, tall, woody stem 2. Shrub - multiple, short, woody stems 3. Herbaceous - non-woody stems

Different vegetation types

1. Forest - trees w/ a contiguous canopy 2. Woodland - trees w/ a non-contiguous canopy 3. Savanna - herbaceous with scattered trees or shrubs 4. Shrubland - shrub dominated 5. Grassland - all herbaceous plants

Climate

Affects energy from the sun, water

Julian Simon thinking

An economist who argued that population growth was a spur to innovation and technological change, rather than a harbinger of inevitable doom

Mild Technocentrism

Can adjust to environmental factors without affecting living standards

The name of the Nobel prize winning economist who argued against the Tragedy of the Commons thesis

Elinor Ostrom won Nobel Economics prize in 2009 for showing this precise process mathematically -- people do not always act in their narrow self-interest

The name of the failed settlement in the Amazon. The tropical rainforest product that this settlement was based around producing.

Fordlandia: rubber production

Study the population pyramids for Ghana. Understand what the changing shape of the pyramid over time indicates

Ghana -1990: -Age group 0-4 has biggest population (about 1.4 million for each Men and Women) -Population is decreasing at a steady rate as you increase the age group -2010: -Age group 15-19 has biggest population (about 1.4 million) -Age group 0-4 is just under 1.2 million in contrast to 1990 when it was 1.4 -From ages 0-19, the population for each group is increasing but then starts to decrease after age 19

Mild Ecocentrism

How can we live more sustainably - small scale

The assumptions that are present in Malthusian thinking about how people are affected by natural laws of population growth and fall.

Humanity is hardwired to breed without restraint...it is always going to be determined in the end by the natural world...famine will keep the balance intact if social measures to control population fail

Radical Ecocentrism

Humans as negatively affecting environment. Non-humans have rights

Study the population pyramids for Kenya. Understand what the changing shape of the pyramid over time indicates

Kenya -1990: -Age group 0-4 has biggest population (about 2.2 million people) -Population is decreasing at a steady rate as you increase the age group -2010: -Age group 10-14 has biggest population (about 2.2 million people) -Age group 0-4 is just under 2.0 million in contrast to 1990 when it was 2.2 -From ages 0-14, the population for each group is increasing but then starts to decrease after age 19

Biota

Large animals: grazing and seed dispersal, insects provide pollination or can defoliate plants, and plants affect each other through competition for resources

Know the demographic transition model well. Especially the birthrate and death rate, the balance between them, and how this changes as societies pass through varying levels of economic development.

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The relationship between poverty, education level, and rural/urban location, and the number of children had by women.

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There will be several questions asked about this reading, so learn the associated table well. It has been placed in the supplementary readings - Exam 2 folder. Know the three different types of sustainability identified in class and discussed in the table well. Know how they relate to debates surrounding sustainable development

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Radical Technocentrism

Technology and human ingenuity solve problems to improve human development

Bjorn Lomborg thinking

a Danish economist, points out that global food supply per person per day (so accounting for population growth) increased 23% between 1960 and 2000

Example of natural disturbance

groundwater drainage created a riparian environment in the chaparral in California

Example of anthropogenic disturbance

tobacco in the Atlantic coastal plains, cotton and sugar in US South, Grape growing, corn/soybean in American Midwest