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ENR 2501 MIDTERM
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What are the multiple ways that people defined and depict sustainability? What are the differences between these definitions and depictions? | Theres multiple different ways to define "sustainability" none are wrong just incomplete answers. |
| Do we need a single definition of “sustainability”? What are the arguments for and against? | A single definition would allow for strict criteria to be set into place for the topic. Though it would then exclude other ideas for the word which could lead to the newly established definition to become obsolete. |
| What are some of the key questions we should ask ourselves when discussing what sustainability means? | What industry are we attempting to try and apply the idea of sustainability to? Are we looking at the history of something or someone? How do we include or exclude certain factors? |
| What are the foundational concepts, competencies, and pillars, for sustainability and why are they important (e.g. time, tradeoffs, systems thinking, efficiency vs reduction, individual vs structural change, collective action/social dilemmas, etc,). | They all look at aspects of sustainability and how pratical the act of actually being sustainable is on many different scales. |
| What is the difference between stocks and flows and how does this relate to biogeochemical cycles and sustainability? | Stocks (The thing being measured), Flows (What comes in and out of the thing). Biogeochemical cycles: Carbon, Water, Nitrogen, and Phosphorous |
| How are human activities affecting important biogeochemical cycles? | If human being are changing the amount of a stock it then can alter the flows |
| What are the various ways that “development” has been defined? What is the history of the concept of “development” | Echoes of colonialism and neo-imperialism. Developement is structural change |
| What are the multiple ways that poverty has been defined and measured? | lack of access, not lack of income. (absolute vs relative) |
| Why is it important to try to reduce poverty? | Poverty can inhibit improvement in aspects of sustainability (lack of access, lack of security, lack of political voice, etc...) |
| How do we measure inequality and why is it important in the context of sustainability? | inequality is not just the distribution of wealth, but the structural problems that create unfairness by limiting the opportunities of proportions of the population. |
| What are the important components of a “community”? | Human, Finiancial, and Built Capital. Communtiy can be a big start of change and action. |
| What is the difference between “development” and “economic growth” | one focuses on quantitative data for a country or community while the other includes qualitative data such as quality of life. |
| Why might some people claim that population growth is not as pressing a problem for sustainability as overconsumption? | Consumption is a key driver of enviromental impact, addressing consumption is more direct, developed nations have the highest amount impact per capita, consumption isnt easily understood across every field (no consensus) |
| What strategies have been successful at reducing population growth? | improving education acces for women, providing easy access to contraceptives, changing the cost of childrearing |
| what are the various impacts of consumerism? | growing energy production, and material usage |
| why might one argue that an emphasis on technology and efficiency is not be sufficient for achieving long lasting sustainability (i.e. strong sustainability) | as income and markets grew so did consumption which led to enviromental losses and rising carbon emissions. |
| What is conspicuous consumption? | the act of buying goods or services to show off ones wealth, income, and status |
| What are the pros and cons of consumption from a social/cultural/equity perspective? | pros: food, housing, clothing, transportation, education, etc. cons: buying and doing things in excess that are not needed for survival |
| What is the Work-spend cycle? | increased productivity leads to increased incomes and so theres an increase in consumption. |
| What is the “sustainability doughnut” and how does it relate to the profound dilemma of sustainability introduced in the lectures. | a visual framework of acheieving human properity within planetary limits. It doesnt allow for endless growth, shows we need to reduce and focus on other sectors in order to acheive a balance. (social needs vs enviromental needs) |
| Decoupling and Impact decoupling | Reducing the rate of use of primary resources per unit of economic activity, Increasing economic output while reducing negative environmental impacts (no real evidence of such but still theoretically possible) |
| What is degrowth? What is a key argument against degrowth as a strategy for sustainability and addressing overconsumption? | a planned reduction of energy and resource use designed to bring the economy back into balance with the living world in a way that reduces inequality and improves human well-being. |
| What is the “systems reconfiguration approach to sustainable consumption? How does this approach think about economic growth? | achieving sustainability requires fundamentally transforming entire socio-technical systems and everyday practices, not just encouraging individual consumers to make greener choices |
| Why is it important to consider the metrics we are using to track “economic development” or “progress” when considering sustainable consumption? | GDP focus on growth without accounting for enviromental and social cost which leads to a misleading picture of progress. |
| Be familiar with the six pillars of sustainability discussed in the introductory section on business and economic concepts. | Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink, Refuse, and Repair |
| Environmental Kuznets Curve-EKC | economic inequality tends to increase during the early stages of economic development, but then decreases as a country becomes more developed |
| What does anthropocentric mean and how does it apply to economic values? | a system that places human interests and well-being at the center, valuing nature primarily as a resource for human benefit and economic activity |
| Margin” in an economic sense. | the difference between a product's selling price and its cost |
| Why do economists tend to agree with the concept of weak sustainability versus strong sustainability? | allows for substitutability between different types of capita |
| Define Externality | a side effect of an economic transaction that affects a third party not involved in the deal. |
| Marginal external cost | The additional cost imposed on a third party from producing one more unit of a good or service |
| Social marginal cost | the total cost to society, calculated as the sum of private costs and external costs, for producing an additional unit of a good or service |
| Discounting | the process of determining the present value of a future sum of money or stream of payments. It's based on the principle that a dollar today is worth more than a dollar in the future |
| Are ecosystem services likely to be worth more or less than economic activity valued in markets?Why or why not? | Ecosystem services are likely worth more than economic activity valued in markets because many are not included in market prices, have infinite value to human survival, or have non-market values that are difficult to quantify. |
| What is meant by the idea that society grants a company the "license to operate", and what are some conditions under which that license may be revoked? | The "license to operate" is an informal and unwritten permission granted by society to a company, allowing it to conduct business with a certain degree of public trust. |
| How have drivers of sustainability, namely population and income growth, affected forests and carbon emissions from deforestation around the world? | Population growth and rising incomes drive deforestation and related carbon emissions through increased demand for land, food, and resources |
| Why has the stock of trees in the United States increased in the last 100 years? | rising wood prices, increasing crop yields, falling agricultural prices, replanting, intensive management, carbon fertilization, and climate change have all played a role |
| Who was Frederick Weyerhaeuser? | Weyerhaeuser created a syndicate that controlled millions of acres of timberland. The syndicate also controlled sawmills, paper mills, and processing plant |
| Is this forest transition – the movement from deforestation to reforestation – a global phenomenon, and why? | This transition happens because a growing economy leads to the abandonment of marginal agricultural land, a decrease in reliance on rural livelihoods, and the intensification of farming on more productive land, |
| Does consumption always lead to reduced environmental quality and lower sustainability? Be able to explain why or why not, using the forestry or other examples? | Consumption does not always lead to reduced environmental quality and lower sustainability, but the type, rate, and scale of consumption are critical |
| How does what we consume change as our income rises? How is this important for sustainability? | As income rises, consumption increases, shifting from basic necessities to more expensive, and often less sustainable, goods like large homes, private transportation, and resource-intensive foods like beef. |
| What happens to the marginal utility of income as we consume more? | marginal utility decreases, meaning each additional unit provides less satisfaction than the one before. |
| What does under-consumption look like? Is under consumption a sustainability issue? Why? | it reduces the demand for resource extraction, manufacturing, and waste, which in turn lowers greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, and strain on ecosystems |
| Define GDP and Recall this equation? | GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT, Income = Consumption + Savings + Government expenditure + Net exports |
| The article by Papola suggests that economic growth, defined as income growth, id really driven by savings (and thus investment) rather than consumption. Why? | asserts that economic growth is driven by savings and investment because they are the means by which a society builds capital goods, increases productivity, and creates new wealth |
| Historically, when did income start growing., and why? | 1500s, but rose more rapidly in 1800s with industrial revolution, and then substantially more rapidly starting in mid-1900s) |
| What things can a country change to grow their income over time ? | technological change, investments, labor force growth |
| Why is technological change so important for future income growth? | it boosts productivity, which allows for higher wages and the creation of new, higher-paying jobs, and increases economic efficiency by reducing costs and enabling innovation |
| Does the proportion of income we spend on various goods and services stay the same as our income changes | No, the proportion of income spent on various goods and services does not stay the same as income changes. |
| If consumption itself is a bad thing, as some have argued, and we need to do less of it, what policies could we adopt to consume less? | taxing resource-intensive goods, banning single-use plastics, investing in public transportation and renewable energy, and promoting a circular economy through incentives for repair and reuse |
| How would efforts to reduce consumption affect businesses and business models? | pushing them towards a circular economy model, emphasizing long-term use and resource efficiency over a linear "take-make-dispose" model |
| Is most freshwater in the world allocated to agriculture, industrial, or individual consumptive uses? | Most of the world's freshwater is allocated to agriculture, which accounts for about 70% of global usage. |
| What are the drivers of renewable water resources per capita | Population growth, economic development, industrialization, and the expansion of irrigated agriculture |
| What are prior appropriation and riparian water rights and how do they differ? Where in the United States are they primarily used | Riparian: Landowners with property on a flowing water source have a right to use the water. Prior: The earliest user has the senior right and is prioritized in times of shortage. |
| What is the Klamath Reclamation project? Why did the government develop it? Who values the water in the Klamath basin? | a federally managed irrigation system authorized in 1905 to provide water for agriculture and wildlife refuges in the Klamath Basin. |
| What is the difference between point and nonpoint source water pollution | point source pollution comes from a single source like a pipe from a factory, while nonpoint source pollution comes from multiple, diffuse sources and is often carried into waterways by runoff, such as from agricultural fields or urban areas. |
| What is the Clean Water Act and what did it do? | a landmark U.S. law, basic structure for regulating pollutant discharges into the nation's waters and sets standards to restore and maintain their chemical, physical, and biological integrity. |
| How has the regulatory system in the US differed for point source and nonpoint sources of pollution? | ppoint sources are federally managed while non point are state led |
| What type of regulatory approach has been used with waste-water treatment plants in the US historically? | permit-based system and progressively stricter treatment requirements for wastewater treatment plants, driven by the Clean Water Act (CWA) of 1972 |
| Where do we spend most of our money as a society in water quality: fixing point source problems or non-point source problems | As a society, we have historically spent significantly more money on fixing point source water pollution problems |
| What are some reasons why we haven't fixed harmful algal blooms in the western Lake Erie basin | Voluntary measures (end up with free riders), Not enough money/resources spent, We don't take a systems approach and we have a leaky system problem., We've made some mistakes and haven't always learned from them |
Created by:
monioyesola