Final Exam Flashcards
1
Q
Written Answer Question
What can you do to tread lighter on our environment? How will this benefit you?
A
There are a few ways I can reduce my envinronment impact. This includes reducing consumption rather than solely relying on recycling. This will help me more relfect on what is actually a necessity rather than a want or luxury. I could also reduce plastic consumption and not wasting food and water. Lastly,
2
Q
Written Answer Question
What is a trophic cascade? Example?
A
A trophic cascade is a phenomenon where the removal or addition of a top predator in a food web significantly alters the populations of species at lower trophic levels. For example, when apex predators are hunted by humans, they become fewer in number, leading to a cascade in which abundance of herbivores goes up, abundance of plants goes down, and abundance of nutrients goes up.
Example: Wolves & Aspen
* Yosemite wolves absent from 1926
* Reintroduced in 1995
–> Wolves became more numerous
–> Elk dropped in abundance
–> Cottonwoods became larger
—-> Wouldn’t be eaten by elk
–> Willows had a larger growth increase shortly after reintroduction
–> Aspen trees became taller
3
Q
Written Answer Question
How does the concept of non-market value pertain to the environment?
A
4
Q
Written Answer Question
Compare the three dominant fossil fuels in terms of pollutant emissions (CO2, SO2) for each unit of energy produced.
A
- Natural gas:
CO2 - 0.5 kg CO2/kWh (157 stack emissions)
SO2 - 0.12 kg kWh-1 - Oil:
CO2 - 0.75 kg CO2/kWh (215 stack emissions)
SO2 - 135 kg kWh-1 - Coal:
CO2 - 0.90 kg CO2/kWh (278 stack emissions)
SO2 - 310 kg kWh-1
5
Q
Tragedy of the Commons
What is a technical solution in reference to Tragedy of the Commons?
A
Anything involving science and technology
6
Q
Tragedy of the Commons
What are the assumptions of the Tragedy of the Commons?
A
- World and its resources are finite
- People require resources
- World can support finite number of people
7
Q
Tragedy of the Commons
What are the “commons”?
A
International areas (e.g., oceanic waters) not owned by any single country (i.e., resources owned by nobody)
8
Q
?
A
9
Q
Tragedy of the Commons
What are examples of “commons”?
A
Water bodies, air, public land areas
10
Q
Tragedy of the Commons
How are ways of preventing a tragedy of the commons?
A
- Food-producing areas –> legislation; build fences
- Waste disposal –> laws
- Protect recreational areas –> set number of entry tickets/permits; ensures that too many people do not overuse this resource
- Overpopulation
11
Q
Agr. impacts - CAFOs
Concenctrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)
A
12
Q
Agr. impacts - CAFOs
CAFO Environmental impacts
A
- Conc waste production, polluting air and water
-> methane (GHG)
-> ammonium
-> sulfide - Intensive use of antibiotics, growth hormones
13
Q
Agr. impacts - eutrophication
Eutrophication
A
over-fertilization of the natural environment (i.e., enrichment of nutrients and increase of phytoplankton in bodies of water)
14
Q
Agr. impacts - eutrophication
How does eutrophication happen?
A
Phytoplankton are supplied with sulfur and phosphorus -> leads to extreme phytoplankton growth
15
Q
Agr. impacts - eutrophication
What are the impacts of eutrophication?
A
- Algal blooms - rapid population increase of algae
- Red tides
3.Dead zones - aquatic areas with low oxygen concentrations and few organisms
16
Q
Anthropocene
A
period of significant human impact on Earth’s geology and ecosystems
17
Q
What are the manifestations of the Anthropocene?
A
- dense urban living
- energy use (-> resource use)
- global change
- biodiversity loss
- geomorphological manipulation (farming, mining, landfills, dams, coastal reclamation)
- New materials (e.g., plastics)
- fertilizer
18
Q
Biosphere experiment
What were the methods of the biosphere 2 experiment?
A
1991 missions:
* two-year closure of eight humans (“Biospherians”)
* Humans are placed inside
* Raised many plants (e.g., bananas, papaya)
* Included some animals
19
Q
Biosphere experiment
What was the purpose of the Biosphere 2 experiment?
A
To examine the role of ecology and see if we can survive the journey to another planet
20
Q
Biosphere experiment
In what ways did the biosphere experiment fail?
A
- oxygen dropped from 21% -> 14%
- Weight loss (male: 16%, female: 9%)
- High CO2 concentrations
- started off at 80 parts/million
- current concentrations: 422 parts/million - cockroaches, other insects flourished
- all pollinators died (bees, moths)
- 19 of 25 vertebrate animal species died
- Not a closed system: deliveries of O2, seeds, vitamins, mouse traps etc.
21
Q
What did the Biosphere 2 demonstrate?
A
We don’t understand the functioning of ecological systems well enough to replicate them to go elsewhere (e.g., a different planet)
22
Q
A
23
Q
A
24
Q
Climate change
Climate change is one aspect of ______________.
A
global change
25
# Climate change
Climate
long term pattern of atmospheric conditions
26
# Climate change
Global warming
increase in Earth's average surface temperature
27
# Climate change
What factors influence climate?
1. Sun - energy source; provides heat for Earth
2. Atmosphere - absorbs, reflects, transmits energy
3. Oceans - stores, transports energy; moderates heat
28
# Climate change
What is the Earth's Energy Budget?
Describes the balance between the radiant energy that reaches Earth from the sun and the energy that flows from Earth back out to space
29
# Climate change
Describe the Earth's Energy Budget before human modification.
* Incoming solar energy/radiation
* Some absorbed by clouds
* Large amount absorbsed by gases in atmosphere
* Most asborbed by land and oceans
* In equilibium: in = out (balanced by energy that leaves)
30
# Climate change
Describe the Earth's Energy Budget after human modification.
* Amount of solar energy/radiation absorbsed by atmospheres and cloud have increased
* Not balanced
* Less energy/heat leaving --> Earth is warmer
31
# Climate change
What are greenhouse gases (GHGs)?
gases that absorb infrared radation, trap heat in the atmosphere, and contriute to the greenhouse effect
32
# Climate change
Global warming potential
relative ability of one molecule of a given greenhouse gas to contribute to global warming over 100 years
33
# Climate change
What are the global warming potentials of the following GHGs: carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide?
Carbon dioxide - 1
Methane - 23
Nitrous oxide - 296
34
# Climate change
Carbon dioxide increases due to:
1. fossil fuel burning
2. rainforest clearing
35
# Climate change
Methane is described as a ____ process.
Anaerobic
36
# Climate change
Methane has increased ____ % since 1750.
150%
37
# Climate change
Nitrous oxide has increased ____ % since 1750.
17
38
# Climate change
Causes of increase in methane?
1. fossil fuel extraction
2. landfills
3. rice paddies
4. cattle
39
# Climate change
Causes of increase in nitrous oxide?
1. auto emissions
2. feedlots
3. agriculture
4. chemical industry release
40
# Climate change
List the greenhouse gasses (GHGs).
1. Water vapor
2. Carbon dioxide
3. Methane
4. Nitrous oxide
5. Ozone
6. Chloroflouorocarbons (CFCs)
41
# Climate change
What are the impacts of climate change: physical changes?
1. Oceans temps increasing
2. Greater incidence of severe storms (e.g., increase in precipitation)
3. sea level rising (ca. 3.2 mm/year)
4. Ocean acidification (CO2 + H2O --> 2H+ + CO2-/3)
42
# Climate change
What are the impacts of climate change: biological changes?
1. Northward shifts in distribution
2. "Feed-need" disjunction
3. Shifts in phenology
43
# Climate change
What are the fates of trees as a result of climate change?
1. Migrate to track "temperature window"
2. Adapt to altered contions (in place)
3. Disappearance (extirpation)
44
# Climate change
Phenology
* study of environmental conditions that trigger important life events (e.g., loss of leaves in the fall)
* timing of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena (usually in relation to climate)
45
# Climate change
What is the outcome of "feed-need" disjunctions?
Phenology shifts:
* elevated temps -> predators don't concur with prey
* Herbivores 6 days earlier, upper trophic levels < 3 days earlier (herbivores arrive before upper trophic levels; decoupling between predator and prey)
46
# Climate change
What are approaches to dealing with global change?
1. Reduce energy use
2. Shift from fossil fuels -> alternative energy (electrification)
3. Carbon capture and storage
4. Geoengineering
5. Birth control?
47
# Climate change
What are ways of reducing energy use to deal with global change?
1. More efficient vehicles
2. More efficient buildings
3. Smart growth
48
# Climate change
Smart growth
1. Maximize benefits of urban infrastructure and simultaensly preserve green space and protect agricultural lands
2. Build and renovate in ways that make things accessible
49
# Climate change
What is carbon capture and storage?
1. Suck CO2 out of atmosphere and make it solid, then bury it somewhere
2. Captured carbon dioxide is pressurized into a liquid and injected deep underground for permanent sotrage
50
# Climate change
What are the functions of geoenginerring in helping deal with global change?
1. CO2 removal:
* pull CO2 out of atmosphere
* Reforesting/replanting
2. Solar radiation management
51
# Conservation of biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biological diversity; variety of life at all organizational levels from genes through ecosystems
52
# Conservation of biodiversity
Biodiversity is biological variety typically measured by:
1. number of unique species in an area
2. diversity among, within species, and across ecosystems
53
# Conservation of biodiversity
Why do we love biodiversity?
1. Habitat degradation/loss
2. Invasive species
3. Pollution
4. Over-exploitation
54
# Conservation of biodiversity
What describes conservationists?
Good management of resources
55
# Conservation of biodiversity
What describes preservationists?
Land should remain untouched
56
# Conservation of biodiversity
What are the causes of the current 6th Mass Extinction Episode?
1. Habitat loss, degradation
2. Overharvesting
2. Non-native species
3. Global change
4. Pollution
57
# Conservation of biodiversity
Explain how overharvesting contributes to the mass extinction episode?
* Problem in ocean > on land
* On land: overharvesting + paired with other threats = endangered
* Tiger claws: supposed to solve insomnia
58
# Conservation of biodiversity
Invasive species
introduced species (non-native to environment) that establishes itself, threatens endemic species and biodiversity, and has potential to cause major ecosystem changes
59
# Conservation of biodiversity
What is an example of how non-native species endanger species?
Australian paperbark tree
* Require lots of water
* Replaced native plants (>400,000 acres of soFL)
* Increased fire frequency, intensity
* --> Acts as a fire source
* Native birds, mammals in decline
* Not liked as a food source
* Native birds will not nest
60
# Conservaiton of biodiversity
What ties of all the causes of the 6th mass exinction together?
1. People, population
2. Per capita resource demands greater than ever before
61
# Conservation of biodiversity
What do the following exctinct/endangered species have in common: dodo, passenger pigeon, tasmanian tiger, greak auk, steller's sea cow, carolina parakeet, ivory-billed woodpecker, pinta island tortoise, hawaiian crow, javan tiger, W. Arican black rhino, zanzibar red banana bat, bubal hartebeest?
1. All birds and mammals
2. Greater resource demands than other animals (e.g., reptiles)
62
# Conservation of biodiversity
63
# Poverty and ecotourism
Biodiversity "hotspots"
64
# Conservation of biodiversity
"pro-poor approah" (e.g., WWF)
65
# Poverty and ecotourism
Poverty traps
66
# Poverty and ecotourism
The phase "poverty begets poverty" best describes?
Poverty traps
67
# Poverty and ecotourism
In what ways is current poverty a cause of future poverty?
1. low wages
2. lack of educational opportunities
3. violence
4. lack of medical care
68
What is ecotourism?
responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education
69
What are the principles of ecotourism?
1. build environmental and cultural awareness
2. minimize impacts (physical, social, behavioral)
3. provide financial support for conservation
4. generate financial benefits for local economy
70
# Conservation of biodiversity
Typical ecotourism is ________.
WEIRD (Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic country)
71
# Conservation of biodiversity
Costa Rica is the only country in the developined world to have done what?
Reversed deforestation
72
# Conservation of biodiversity
Compare the forest cover in Costa Rica in the mid-1980s vs current.
Mid-1980s forest cover - 21%
Current forest cover - > 50%
73
# Economics and environment
"Invisible hand" concept
when individuals pursue own self-interest; society benefits
If everybody if selfish and does what's best for them, society as a whole benefits
74
# Economics and environment
Negative externalities
Costs imposed on people other than the buyer or seller
75
# Economics and environment
Who bears the costs of clean up of unwanted by-products?
The taxpayers (everyone)
76
# Economics and environment
What is the difference between false price and true price of externalities?
False price - only includes internal costa and profit
True price - includes clean up costs
77
# Environmental policy
Environmental policy
78
# Environmental policy
Who pays for impacts?
If taxpayers: impacts costs are “external” to transaction
If buyer or seller: all costs of product included in transaction
79
# Environmental policy
What was the purpose of the laws put in the first wave of US environmental policy?
To promote land settlemtn and resource extraction
80
# Environmental policy
What laws were placed in the first wave of US Environment policy?
Homestead Act (1862)
Timber Culture Act (1873)
81
# Environmental policy
What laws were placed in the second wave of US Environment policy?
Soil Conservation policy (1935)
Wilderness Act, 1964
82
# Environmental policy
What was the goal of the Clean Water Act?
all water fishable and swimmable
83
# Environmental policy
Montreal Protocol
Bans CFCs and HCFCs
84
# Environmental policy
How does environmental policy work?
1. Command and control (“end of pipe”): gov’t regulations set limits, penalties for violations
--> E.g., sewage pollution of local waters
Incentivizes protection
2. “Green” taxes: charged on environmentally harmful products, activities
--> E.g., tax based on gasoline purchased
Incentivizes protection
3. Marketable permits: pollutant emissions set; firms buy/sell/trade permits
--> E.g., SO2 permit trading
85
# Environmental policy
Marketable permits: "cap and trade"
86
# Environmental policy
What are examples of environmental policy successes and how were they successful?
Clean Air Act:
* Reduced SO2 and Pb (lead) emissions by 96%
87
# Environmental policy
What are the difficulties associated with environmental policies?
1. cost of compliance
2. our cognitive biases
88
# Psych and env
Cognition is the mental process of...
1. reasoning
2. memory
3. understanding
89
# Psych and env
Cognitive dissonance
mental discomfort (conflict) associated with actions counter to positive self-image
90
# Psych and env
In cognitive dissonance, all:
(i) hold contradictory ideas
(ii) mutually exclusive actions
91
# Psych and env
How can we reduce mental discomfort?
1. change our behavior
2. justify behavior by changing reasoning
3. justify behavior by adding new reasoning
92
# Psych and env
What are the barriers to reducing impact?
1. Perceived need for comfort and convenience (“It’s too hard”)
2. Demand for a balance between personal costs and social gains (“It costs me too much to help others”)
3. Belief in technological solutions (Technology will save us)
4. Loss of trust in government, science
5. Displaced commitment (“I protect the environment in other ways”)
6. Denial of responsibility (“I am not the main cause”)
7. Powerlessness (“I am infinitesimal piece”)
8. Ignorance (“consequences? What could go wrong?”)
9. Inevitable death (“Why should I care about the future? I am going to be dead”)
93
# Psych and env
What actions individuals can take (most to least effective):
1. Live car free
2. 1 fewer transAtlantic flight
3. Buy green energy
4. Switch e-car to car free
5. Buy more efficient car
94
# Psych and env
Compare credible and implausible arguments
* Credible argument supporting my beliefs: I tend to remember
* Credible arguments against my beliefs: I tend to forget
* Implausible argument supporting my beliefs: I tend to forget
* Implausible arguments against my beliefs: I tend to remember
95
# Psych and env
Provide two examples of the psychological value of nature or why the natural environment is important.
1. Hospitalization reaction
* Window view: wall vs. trees
* -> Trees:
* --> Patients spent less time in hospital
* --> Patients demanded fewer doses of narcotic pain meds
* --> Patients had less negative nurse notes
2. Short-term memory
* Two groups of students
* Backwards digit seuqence test
* Group 1: Backwards sequence memory test -> Arboretum walk (20-30 mins) -> backward sequence memory test
* Group 2: backwards sequence memory test -> downtown ann arbor walk (urban environment) -> backwards sequence memory test
* Results: Arboertum -> better scores
* Wlaking improves memory (both groups)
96
# Environment and risk
What is risk? Give an example.
an adverse event that could occur (e.g., car accident, global warming)
97
What is uncertainty? Give an example.
Probability not exactly known (e.g., probability warming of 3 C by 2050)
98
What are sources of uncertainty?
1. Uncertainty from info (theory and data)
2. Uncertainty from different paradigms
3. Uncertainty from semantics
99
# Environment and risk
"How acceptable is risk"? depends on:
1. degree of control - less fear of what we feel we have control over (driving car vs. passenger in car)
2. degree of familiarity - less fear of what we feel we understand (nuclear vs. fossil fuel power)
3. degree of "voluntary-ness" - more likely to accept the risk voluntarily; less fear of what we do voluntarily (e.g., bungee jumping off a bridge)
4. whether consequence is catastrophic - less fear of what we feel is not likely to be catastrophic (e.g., airplane crash vs. car crash)
100
# Renewable energy
What are the types of renewable energy?
1. Biomass
2. Solar
3. Wind
4. Geothermal
5. Hydroelectric power
101
# Renewable energy
Biomass is converted to ________.
Biofuel
102
# Renewable energy
What is used to create biofuel?
Organic substances produced by recent photosynthesis
103
# Renewable energy
List the organic susbtances produced by recent photosynthesis to add in use of biomass.
1. Methane (gas)
2. Ethanol (liq)
3. Biodiesel (liq)
104
# Renewable energy
How does methane (gas) contribute to biomass energy?
Anaerobic fermentation of biomass
105
# Renewable energy
How is biodiesel produced?
Vegetable oils (used cooking grease, animal fat)
106
# Renewable energy
How does ethanol (liq) contribute to biomass?
* anaerobic fermentation of biomass
* reduces net automotive emissions
107
# Renewable energy
Hydroelectric power
the use of hydropower as a source of electricity
108
# Renewable energy
What is the most commony way of transforming energy of moving water to electricity?
Make use of a dam, reservoir, and turbine
109
# Renewable energy
What are the cons of hydropower?
1. Climate change risk (drought) -> not enough water
2. Dams vs. fish (increasing temperature)
3. Reservoir have been identified as sources of methane emissions
110
# Renewable energy
Solar energy
Limitless, renewable energy from the sun
111
# Renewable energy
Passive solar
building design
112
# Renewable energy
What is the purpose of passive solar use?
* maximize heat capture in winter
* minimize heat capture in summer
* through: orientaiton & window placement; thermally absorbent matierals (absorb, store, release heat)
113
# Renewable energy
Active solar
technology to focus & convert solar energy
114
# Renewable energy
What are the two steps of active solar?
1. Energy captured as heat
2. Energy converted to electricity directly
115
# Renewable energy
Describe a solar panel system
Photons of light hit semiconductor membrane of photovoltaic cells (squares in solar panel), exciting electrons and stimulating an electric current
116
# Renewable energy
Photovoltaic cell
Functional unit of a solar panel
117
# Renewable energy
What are the constraints on solar power?
1. Geography
2. Weather
3. Efficiency
118
# Renewable energy
When was the first wind turbine for electricity used?
Late 1800s
119
# Renewable energy
Wind power converts ____ energy to ________ energy.
mechanical; electrical
120
# Renewable energy
What are the constraints on wind power?
1. Geography
2. Weather
121
# Renewable energy
What is geothermal energy?
radioactive decay in Earth's core (i.e., heat within the Earth)
122
# Renewable energy
What are the constraints on geothermal power?
1. Geography
123
# Trophic levels
What does the word trophic mean?
"Feeding"
124
# Trophic levels
Trophic level
position in the food chain that reflects energy flow
125
# Trophic levels
Describe the transfer of energy between trophic levels.
Plants (1 million units of biomass) → (10% transfer of energy; 90% lost as heat)
Herbivores (100,000 units of biomass) → (10% transfer of energy; 90% lost as heat)
Mesocarnivores (10,000 units of biomass) → (10% transfer of energy; 90% lost as heat)
Apex predators (1,000 units of biomass)
126
# Torphic levels
Why is "plant biomass → humans"
better than "plant biomass → cows → humans"
* Plant biomass → cows → humans: Energetically inefficient
* Plant biomass → humans: Less energy lost
127
# Urban environment
Urban
City area; an area with a population of 2,500 or more
128
# Urban environment
Rural
countryside; an area with a population with less than 2,500 people
129
# Urban environment
Megacities
conglomeration of more than 10,000,000 people
130
# Urban environment
Suburbs
part of urban sprawl; urban area sparsely populated relative to a desner population in the city proper
131
# Urban environment
Explain the development of suburbanization
* Late 1950s: flight from cities (create suburbs)
* Before: People were born and grew up in rural areas and when they got older the moved to cities
* People sought…
--> Economic opportunity
--> Cheaper real estate
--> Better schools
--> Less crime
--> Real & perceived
--> Cities have reputations of being dirty and unsafe
--> People moved out of cities into suburbs
132
# Ubran environment
How did suburbs impact transit?
Mass transit de-emphasized
133
# Urban environment
What is sprawl?
Spread of low-density devleopment outward from an urban center
134
# Urban environment
What are the characteristics of sprawl?
1. No center community
* Businesses arrayed in long strip along a roadway
* Requires a car to where you want to go
2. Low-density single-use development - you live there but can't shop there
* Places are spread out
* Nobody walks in LA
* Distances are so great
* Detached homes
* Large lots
* Far from commerce
* Cul-de-sac vs. mass trans
3. Scattered (leap-frog) development
135
# Urban environment
What are the impacts of sprawl?
1. Transportation: sprawl = driving
2. Pollution impacts of driving (smog, ultrafine particulate matter, metals)
3. Land use change drive ecological impacts
4. Sprawl promotes physical inactivity
5. Funnels tax $$ into infrastructre, health impacts
136
# Urban environment
Urban Heat Island (UHI)
Air temperatures are higher in cities relative to surrounding rural areas
137
# Urban environment
Why do UHIs exist? Why are there higher temperatures in the city than outside?
1. Dark colors that soak up sun
2. Lots of asphalt and concrete
- Absorbs a lot of sunlight
- When sun goes down, asphalt and concrete release absorbed heat
138
# Urban environment
When and how intense is the urban effect on temperature? When is the effect on urban temperature strongest?
* 11:00pm-3:00am
* Difference is about rate of cooling
* During daytime, rural and urban are not that different
* Differences appear during night time
139
# Urban environment
(delta T u-r) night = up to ____ C
(delta T u-r)day = ____ C
10; 0-2
140
# Urban environment
What season is UHI not as intense?
Winter
141
# Urban environment
Why is UHI not the same as climate change?
UHI: smaller scale; city/regional scale
Climate change: global scale
142
# Urban environment
UHI magnitude determined by:
1. Time of day (greatest UHI in night/early am)
2. Degree of conversion (amount of impervious surface/green);
3. Building height & concentration
4. Season (--> weather): wind & cloud cover (UHI greatest when calm, clear)
5. City characteristics
143
# Urban environment
How does the degree of conversion (amount of impervious surface/green) determine the mangitude of UHI?
* Albedo ( fraction of incoming solar radiation that is reflected) of surfaces
* Shading → reduced heat capture
* Evapotranspiration
--> When plants photosynthesis, water is evaporated from leaves
--> At night, stomata opens and lets CO2 in
--> Evaporation of water → molecules carry away heat energy with it (Reduces intensity)
144
# Urban environment
How does building height & concentration determine the mangitude of UHI?
* Cities typically have Reduced air flow
* Heat the air trapped between narrow streets
* Reduced energy release into atm
--> Buildings are crowded together
----> Leads to reduced air flow
----> Cities stay warm
145
# Urban environment
How do city characterists determine the mangitude of UHI?
* How a city is built will determine how hot it gets
* Population
--> Larger city = greater population = hotter
146
# Urban environment
Name an example of greening the urban environment.
Frederick Law Olmsted:
* Landscape architect
* Partnered with Calvert Vaux
* Gave landscape design of:
->Trinity college
->Yale university
->Uc berkeley
->Prospect park
-> Niagara park
-> Central park
* Golden Gate Park (1870)
147
# Urban environment
What is an example of mitigating the urban environment and how did it do so?
Central Park (1857-1976):
* City around park is quite warm
* Park represents a place of relative coolness in the city
148
# Definitions
What is a wicked problem?
problem with many interdependent factors making it seem extermelty difficult or impossible to solve
149
# Definitions
What are characteristics of "Wicked problems" in the environment?
1. Novel
2. Large scale
3. Interconnected
4. Multiple stakeholders
5. Cross boundaries
6. Long time to evaluate solutions
150
# Definitions
NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard)
Phenomeon where people oppose development or change near their homes although they support the same development or change elsewhere
I.e., statement expressed by people who agree with a change in infrastructur as long as it isn't near their home
151
# Definitions
Ecosystem services
Nature performs at no cost
152
# Definitions
List some examples of ecosystem services, or ways in which nature performs at no cost.
* Provides oxygen
* Soil formation and fertility
* Provision of pure water
* Climate regulation
* Generation of raw materials (food, pollination)
* Foods that rely on pollinators (e.g., bees): Apple, Peach, Tomatoes, Vegetables (broccoli, asparagus, etc.)
* Nutrient cycling (--> waste recycling)
* Erosion control, flood moderation
* Recreation, aesthetic, spiritual
153
# Defintions
Shifting baselines
gradual normalization of environmental degradation, where each generation perceives a progressively altered or diminished state of the environment as the "new normal."
154
# Definitions
What assumption do humans make in reference to the shifting baselines concept?
"Current state is normal"
155
# Definitions
Keystone species
species that profoundly affect community structure despite low abundance
156
# Definitions
What are some characteristics of keystone species?
1. Only takes one beaver to have an effect
2. Few in number
3. Presence determines structure of community
157
# Definitions
Greenwashing
Act of making false or misleading statements about the environmental benefits of a product or practice
158
# Definitions
What is the purpose/goal of greenwashing?
Marking spin: green PR to persuade public of environmental friendliness
159
# Definitions
"Vegan leather" is often made of?
PVC or polyurethane plastic
160
# Definitions
Why does greenwashing work?
1. We don't want to think our actions believe our attitudes
2. We want to be convinced
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# Urban environment
What are ways of making building height & concentration contribute less to UHI?
* Shorter buildings
* --> makes it easier for heat to escape
* multiple story buildings
* --> impervious surfaces are impeccable of releasing heat back into environment
* Cities with broad roadways
* --> cooler temps
* --> release of heat energy is easier
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Biodiversity hotspots
Regions with high levels of biodiversity and endemic species that are also threatened
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What are some modern agriculture issues and why are they an issue?
1. Monoculture - economically efficient, but risks “ all eggs in one basket”
2. Pesticide use - pesticides gradually become less effective as pests evolve resistance
- > few pests that survive pesticide (b/c happen to be genetically immune) reproduce and pass on pesticide resistance genes to next generation
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CO2 concentration has increased ____% since Industrial Revolution
50
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Per capita vs. total
Per capita: 2 tons CO2 emitted/person
Total: 2 tons/person x persons = total
