ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES FINAL EXAM

Gaia Answer- 1. James Lovelock 2. Suggests that Earth is a self-regulating, self-sustaining entity, which continually adjusts its environment in order to support life 3. Connecting humans to the Earth and having them identify with it by giving it an approachable name and a life-like persona Who is James Lovelock? Answer- James Lovelock is was an individual atmospheric chemist who briefly worked for NASA on The Viking Project Who is Lynn Margulis Answer- Idea of Endosymbiosis; the microbiologist that worked alongside James Lovelock to develop book Biosphere Answer- 1. James Lovelock 2. Regions of the Earth occupied by living organisms 3. Making the Earth a living being that we feel guilty for not protecting -- more approachable Planned Obsolescence Answer- 1. David Suzuki 2. A policy of producing consumer goods that rapidly become obsolete and so require replacing; items made that aren't built to last 3. Apple products slow down after 2 years Economics Answer- 1. Peter Victor 2. The study of given ends and scarce means (how are we gonna work things?); eco- oikos ("house"), nomics- noms ("law"); "rules of the house" 3. -- Progress has come to be defined as ______________. Answer- Economic growth Cowboy economics Answer- belief of endless supply of resources on Earth Spaceship economics Answer- you're stuck with what you've got; resources are finite GNP, Gross National Product Answer- 1. Peter Victor 2. A measurement used by most people of economic growth; everything that is produced in a country and everything that is sold, happens in exchange, all of it 3. air pollution, cig advertising, amount of ambulances dispatched Give three factors that are included in GNP. Answer- 1. air pollution 2. cigarette advertising 3. amount of ambulances sent to collect dead bodies Who said, "GNP measures everything short, except that which makes life worthwhile." Answer- Senator Robert Kennedy, 1968 Green Growth Answer- 1. Peter Victor 2. Promoting economic growth while reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, minimizing waste and inefficient use of natural resources, and maintaining biodiversity 3. Making humans more mindful of our consumption and where/who we buy form Decoupling Answer- 1. Peter Victor 2. Redesigning process so economic output is less dependent on material throughput; you grow but making less pollution (away from damage to environment) 3. Recognition of ways that we can make economic growth better for the environment. Efficiency Answer- Getting more output with less input (i.e: firing people, making bad Apple products) Rebound Effect Answer- 1. Peter Victor 2. "Well that was easy, let's do it more!"; making a less environmentally harmful tactic that, in turn, gets used more because its environmentally friendly and therefore, is equally if not more harmful than the initial tactic 3. Not all efforts are good for the env; too much of anything is bad. Name the 2 types of decoupling. Answer- 1. Relative 2. Absolute Relative Decoupling Answer- the relevant environmental pressure is stable or decreasing while the economic driving force is growing; "we're almost there!" Absolute Decoupling Answer- zero emissions Give an example of decoupling and the rebound effect. Answer- "Harmony of the Seas" cruise ships are 20% more efficient than the sister ships in its decrease in damage to the environment BUT more people wanted to go on it so more ships were made = more/equally dangerous to initial cruise ships Desirable growth Answer- well-being, literacy, life expectancy, security, environmental equality, etc. Undesirable growth Answer- material/energy throughput and related emissions, degradation of air, land and water, human population, etc. GPI, Genuine Progress Indicator Answer- measurement of progress (i.e: crime rate decrease, amount of volunteer work, equal income distribution, etc.) GNH, Gross National Happiness Answer- a holistic and sustainable approach to development, which balances material and non-material values wth the conviction that humans want to search for happiness; exists in Bhutan (country) Who is Ray Anderson? Answer- CEO of Interface, goal is to be fully sustainable by 2020, trying to make fully recyclable carpets and be completely environmentally friendly Who said, "Someday people like me will end up in jail." Answer- Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface Upcycling Answer- An item that can be put to use multiple times; can use as food in the environment when you're done with it; non-toxic (i.e: Cradle to Cradle book) Externalities Answer- the actions of one or more people that harm innocent people that are not involved; "let somebody else deal with the effects of my actions" What 2 cities plan to be fossil-fuel free by 2050? Answer- Vancouver and Stockholm Who is Deborah McGregor? Answer- An Indigenous writer who wrote the essay about the water crisis in Indigenous communities across Ontario Colonialism Answer- 1. Deborah McGregor 2. People come to land that isn't there's and they take over even if there were other people there before them 3. Western Way is not always the right answer for things. Traditional Knowledge Answer- 1. Deborah McGregor 2. Knowledge that comes from the culture; lived experience on land; understood through fasting, rituals, discernment of dreams, storytelling, dance, etc. 3. Recognition of Western Way is not always the way and that other cultures have their beliefs too which can also work. Anthropo- harmonism Answer- 1. Stephen Scharper 2. Being self-reflective and realizing that we will never be able to shed our human skin; never be able to see life from the perspective of a snail or a whale; but, we can recognize that it exists and find ways to live harmoniously with the world 3. Mending our relationship with the Earth Dialectical Contingency Answer- 1. Stephen Scharper 2. We are affected by the environment (i.e: "brother fire", the convos around a campfire are nothing like those around a dinner table) 3. Recognizing our connection to nature and the power it has over us mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Analogous Thinking Answer- 1. Scharper 2. God is good. Pizza is good. But, God is not pizza. Analogy is the "good"; Human's have rights, birds have rights so the analogy is in the rights and seeing that both have them, but a bird does not to have the same rights as a human. 3. Nature does not have the same rights as humans and figuring out ways that we can be mindful of that; anthropo-harmonism. Who came up with the idea of slow knowledge vs. fast knowledge? Answer- David Orr Who said, "Moreover, research on new weapons and corporate products is justified on the grounds that if we don't do it, someone else will and so we must." Answer- David Orr Slow Knowledge Answer- 1. David Orr 2. It is knowledge acquired and applied as rapidly as humans can comprehend it and put it to consistently good use. 3. Recognition of different ways of thinking and that there is no ONE right way; also good for avoiding problems in the first place; standing in one another's shoes. Fast Knowledge Answer- 1. David Orr 2. Believed to be the very essence of human progress; solving problems, power and instability, arises from hierarchy and competition, always new, more knowledge the better, efficiency is key 3. Recognizing the majority of people's way of life and how it can be flawed in our attempts to connect with the earth. Who said, "We can't first set demons at large, and then, somehow, become smart enough to control them." Answer- Wendell Berry What is the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics? Answer- All energy will eventually dissipate into heat that is universally distributed and will no longer be available for performance of useful work. Who said, "The chemist said it was made f wood, glass and metal. The physicist said it radiated heat and light. The engineer said the supporting wheels were too small and in the wrong place for it to run smoothly on a flat surface. But nobody said what it was." Answer- James Lovelock Who said, "Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead filling a vacuum, it makes one." Answer- David Suzuki Anthropo-harmonism recognizes 2 main ways of thinking. What are they? Answer- 1. Humans are dependent on one another 2. Humans are dependent on the natural world and the natural world is, in some sense, dependent on humanity Who said, "Ultimately we are invited not merely to 'think better' about how we related to nature; rather, we are invited to fall in love with the Earth." Answer- David Suzuki Sustainability Answer- The ability to keep in existence or maintain at a certain rate or level radical intersubjectivity Answer- The co-penetration of the human and non-human, as well as among humans. Steady- state economy Answer- An economy can reach a steady state after a period of growth or after a period of downsizing or degrowth. Consumerism Answer- 1. Reverend Billy/ David Suzuki 2. A movement advocating greater protection of the interests of consumers 3. Self reflection as to where our priorities lie. Shopocalypse Answer- 1. Reverend Billy 2. We're a society of consumers, we buy because we want not because we need things and therefore stores are targeting us for that; Rev. Billy talking about "change-luah" 3. Self reflection as to where our priorities lie. Who is Peter Victor? Answer- Discussed steady-state economics in an article; economic de-growth, shorter work year. What was the main goal of David Suzuki's article? Answer- Buying goods to fill the void. Techno-fixes Answer- When we have problems we try to use technology and science to fix them when, instead, we can use common sense to avoid such problems. Economic De-growth Answer- shrinking developed economies to bring them into balance with resource and environmental limits, while improving quality of life.