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Global environmental Issues - First Year uni > Climate change > Flashcards

Flashcards in Climate change Deck (39)
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1
Q

What is the tragedy of the commons (Roopnarine, 2013)?

A

The tragedy of the commons describes situations in which a shared resource is destroyed or access is rendered progressively. (Roopnarine 2013)

2
Q

How have the common’s resources become over utilized?

A
  • mining
  • oil extraction
  • overfishing
  • whaling
3
Q

What was the Artic Haze?

A

first recognized in 1970s that contaminants generated from America and Europe were travelling to the Artic

4
Q

What is the difference between one hop and multi hop contaminants?

A

one hop = cant revolatize and re enter the atmosphere whereas multi hop can
one hop = doesn’t travel very far, whereas multi hop can travel great distances and become globally distributed,

5
Q

Name some examples of one hop contaminants

A

sulphates, nitrates, non- volatile heavy metals and radionuclides

6
Q

Name some examples of multi hop contaminants

A

POPs, PCBs, semi volatile organics - HCHs and mercury

7
Q

What are some effects of PCBs in mammals?

A
  • affect reproduction of mammals

- neurological and carcinogenic effects

8
Q

What are the impacts of POPs on the tragedy of commons (Easton, 2002) ?

A

infiltrate food chains and bioaccumulate up each food chain to top predators

9
Q

What properties of contaminants make them dangerous in the Artic (Donaldson, 2010)?

A
  • chemical and physical properties

- highly lipophilic and resistant to biodegradation

10
Q

What are the main impacts of eating hamburgers (Spencer 2005)?

A
  • linked to colon cancer, diabetes and over weight/ higher body mass indices
  • obesity linked to arthiritis, cancer, CVD, diabetes and high cholesterol
11
Q

How much has litter increased in the UK by since 1965?

A

500%

12
Q

How do air pollutants become spread globally?

A

they cross international boundaries as carried long distances by air circulation patterns

13
Q

What does over grazing lead to?

A

soil erosion and desertification

14
Q

Who was Thomas Malthus?

A

first person to recognize that the population grows at exponential rates whereas resources don’t

15
Q

Define carrying capacity

A

“The maximum number of a species that can be supported indefinitely by a particular habitat”

16
Q

Name the 4 possible outcomes of population growth

A
  • continuous growth
  • sigmoid growth
  • overshoot and oscillation
  • overshoot and collapse
17
Q

When does continuous growth occur?

A
  • physical/ resource limits are far off

- physical/resource limits are growing exponentially

18
Q

When does sigmoid growth occur?

A
  • signals from physical/resource limits are responded to rapidly
  • population limits itself without needing signals from carrying capacity limits
19
Q

When does overshoot and oscillation occur?

A

signals/ responses are delayed

- resources can recover rapidly

20
Q

When does overshoot and collapse occur?

A

signals or responses are delayed

resources can’t recover rapidly

21
Q

What was the key point that Hardin believed in about the tragedy of the commons?

A

you had to legislate to prevent the tragedy of the commons

22
Q

What is understood by the term Neo-Malthusianism?

A

family planning is of vital importance throughout the world to avoid the social consequences, environmental degradation and depletion of resources that occurs through population growth

23
Q

Who said that ‘The Artic was considered a pristine environment due to remoteness from other regions but studies in 1980s-90s showed evidence of contaminants in all components of the Artic ecosystem’?

A

Donald SG, 2010

24
Q

Who said that ‘Increasing industrialization of the northern hemisphere has lead to a rapid increase in pollution entering rivers, oceans and lakes’?

A

Easton, 2002

25
Q

2?3 of freshwater discharge into the Artic is by…

A

3 main Russian rivers

26
Q

What is the largest river in Russia called?

A

Yenisey

27
Q

What is an important role in the transport of contaminants?

A

River ice

28
Q

Where is a particularly productive zone?

A

The ice edge, when it melts it’s high in nutrients and this margin is a high productive zone for phytoplankton but contaminants also get released which get incorporated into food chain

29
Q

Name 2 substances which have biomagnified up the food chain

A

POPs and mercury

30
Q

What are the environmental implications of hamburgers?

A
  • cattle require a lot of water (1 beef steak= 4500 L of water)
  • deforestation in order to clear land for cattle to graze
31
Q

Implications of deforestation for cattle grazing?

A
  • loss of biodiversity
  • 50% of all species live in TRF
  • extinction is irreversible, loss of genetic diversity
32
Q

What are teh socio economic effects of hamburgers?

A
  • fast food dominates agricultural practices
  • Displacement of teh small farmer from the land
  • meat packs and slaughter house done by major companies with low immigrant workers
33
Q

3 words to describe Antarctica

A

coldest
highest
windiest
continent on earth

34
Q

4 impacts of climate change over ANtarctica

A
  • ozone hole
  • warming temperatures
  • increasing sea ice
  • ice sheet thinning
35
Q

What are teh impacts of the ozone hole on climate?

A

+ reduced ozone levels lead to the Antarctic stratosphere cools
+ tropical to polar thermal gradient amplified
+ intensifies SAM trend making it more positive

36
Q

Name 3 methods you can measure the entire mass balance to teh Antarctic ice sheet

A
  1. surface elevation change and density correction
  2. mass budget method
  3. gravity method
37
Q

‘POPs can enter food chains and this become an issue of exposure for those who rely on traditional Artic food items’

A

(Vorkamp, 2014)

38
Q

‘Some of the contaminants are POBs which have infiltrated food chains and have bioaccumulated up each chain to top predators’

A

(Easton, 2002)

39
Q

‘Due to their chemical and physical properties, contaminants tend to be highly lipophilic and resistant to biodegradation’

A

(Donaldson, 2010)