Chapter 12

Question 1

Sustainable development and the paradox it causes

Answer 1

• The process of protecting the biosphere while simultaneously advancing human socioeconomic development.
• It’s a paradox because it’s hard to have both economic growth and conservation. It’s hard to sustain the resource-consuming and waste-creating modernization of goals without severely damaging the environment.

Question 2

Carrying capacity formula

Answer 2

Exploding population x Spiraling per capita resource consumption x Mounting waste and pollutant discharges = Biosphere Catastrophe

Question 3

Population growth - where does most of it take place?

Answer 3

• Low-income countries have the highest fertility rate.
• Women in low-income countries have fewer opportunities to limit the number of children they bear.

-Artificial birth control methods and counseling services are less readily available in these countries. Women in LDCs are also less educated than women in EDCS.

Question 4

Fossil Fuels – what are they?

Answer 4

• A natural fuel formed in the geological past from the remains of living organisms.
• Coal, oil, and gas
• The demand for these fuels’ changes, because there are new sources of oil and gas being discovered and new techniques are being developed to tap previously unusable deposits.
• The supply of these fuels is finite and will be exhausted at some point.

Question 5

China and Energy

Answer 5

• Without modern technology, China poses a serious environmental threat.
• China is second, behind the Unites States in terms of national CO₂.
• Increased industrialization is one factor. Another factor is that China generates most of its commercial power by burning coal. Coal produces 45% more CO₂ per unit of energy generated than gasoline. China annually consumes over 2 billion tons of coal.
• There are solutions, but each has their trade-offs. Pollution control equipment such as stack scrubbers to clean the emissions from burning coal can be installed. This would aid the environment but is also extremely expensive.
• China could consume more oil instead of coal, but that would rapidly accelerate the depletion of the world’s finite petroleum reserves.
• Another alternative is hydroelectric power, to help provide nonpolluting energy. Unfortunately, this involves the construction of dams which leads to flooding, displacing its residents, and spoiling the natural beauty of the river valley downstream.

Question 6

Greenhouse effect

Answer 6

The process by which the accumulation of carbon dioxide and other gases in Earth’s upper atmosphere arguably cause an increase in temperature by creating a thermal blanket effect; this prevents some of the cooling that occurs at night as Earth radiates heat.

Question 7

Environmental pessimists

Answer 7

• Analysts who asses the state of the world and believe that humans are causing serious, even irreversible damage to the environment.
• They worry that the environmental damage will increasingly cause human suffering: severe and devastating storms due to global warming, skin cancer due to ozone depletion, warfare over scarce natural resources, and other problems.
• Humans are the cause of all or most of current global warming. Believe that it’s extremely unlikely that global climate change of the past 50 years can be explained without external forcing, and very likely that it is not due to known natural causes alone.

Question 8

Environmental optimists

Answer 8

• Analysts who predict that the world population will meet its needs while continuing to grow economically through conservation, population restraints, and technological innovation.
• Tend to chastise the ecology movement for promoting “green guilt” by alarming people.
• Believe that Earth has natural warming and cooling trends, and a large part of global warming is a result of this, not human activity.
• Predict that some areas could benefit and most could adapt to the changes brought on by global warming.

Question 9

Iron Triangle

Answer 9

-Represents the interaction between military spending, the economy, and politics. It’s very difficult to break; symbiotic relationship.

Example:

• Pentagon contracts Grumman
• Grumman gives political donations to congress
• Congress is in charge of appropriations to the Pentagon