Environmental Studies

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What is the Environmentalists Paradox? How do you explain it? What does it mean for the future?
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Terms in this set (21)
What is the Environmentalists Paradox? How do you explain it? What does it mean for the future?
over the past 40 years, human well-being has been steadily improving, while natural ecosystems have been declining.

4 hypothesis that explain the paradox which are:
-food production has enhanced
-human technology
-leg between ecosystem decline and human well-being;the worst is yet to come
What is the human population? What has been happening to it over your lifetime? What is the projection for the future? What is the HDI? what does it measure? Has it been getting better or worse over your lifetime. What is the status of our environment?
human population is more than 7.3 billion in 2014, and has grown by 2 billion last 25 years. Population is gradually slowing and the projection for the future is in 2050 will exceed 9.3 billion.
Four Global Trends
-human population growth
-decline of ecosystems
-global climate change
-loss of biodiversity
How has the economic theory failed in its approach to the environment? Do we need environmentalism. In what ways does out economy need to change?
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How does the Free Market work? What are externalities, provide examples.
buyers and sellers negotiate prices for goods and services influence the decisions about what gets produced and in what quantities.
EXTERNALITIES: external cost not included in the usual calculations.
EXAMPLE: Air pollution, poor health, contaminated groundwater
Tradegy of the Commons
The idea that where there is no clear ownership of rights to a natural resource, the users of the resource are likely to overexploit it. This becomes an argument either for strong government intervention or for privatization of rights to the resource.
EXAMPLE: global climate change
The Policy Life Cycle
-recognition (early perceptions of an environmental problem)
formulation: increasing political weight
implementation: policy determined and move to regulatory agencies
control/monitor:
Communities
Biomes
-communities: assemblages of different populations that live together in a defined area

-biomes: a broad, regional type of ecosystem characterized by distinctive climate and soil conditions and a distinctive kind of biological community adapted to those conditions.
populations
Ecosystems
-populations: groups of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area

-Ecosystems: concerned with the movement of energy and materials through organisms and their communities
Image: populations Ecosystems
landscapes:
-landscape: The overall appearance of an area that is shaped by both human and natural influences

-Species: A group of similar organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring.
Biomes. How is the biome limited, what is missing for optimal growth?a large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat, e.g., forest or tundra.C:P:N:Spopulation dynamicsThe study of how complex interactions between biotic and abiotic factors influence variations in population size.Population Growth curvesConstant rate of population growth: simplest type of growth to model Exponential increase: every species has the capacity to increase population when conditions are favorable ( J-curve) Carrying capacity (K): upper limit to the population of any particular species that an ecosystem can support Logistic growth: when processes slow population growth so that size of population levels off (S-curve) Real-life growth: often do not follow idealized equationstrophic level of food chainHow do terrestrial and Marine Ecosystem food chain differ in terms of structure and efficiency? How can the pyramid be inverted into a marine chain?Transfer of energy is more efficient in aquatic system Aquatic systems do not always have the same kind of biomass pyramid as terrestrial systems -Short life cycles of organisms on the bottom of the food chain -Animals at the top of the food chain live far longerHow do biomes/ecosystems respond to disturbance/change?Role of fire--prairie--reseeding (controlled burns; railroad and native plants)What is succession, what are its stages and how does it change?the process by which the structure of a biological community evolves over time. Two different types of succession. Primary succession occurs in essentially lifeless areas—regions in which the soil is incapable of sustaining life as a result of such factors as lava flows, newly formed sand dunes, or rocks left from a retreating glacier. Secondary succession occurs in areas where a community that previously existed has been removed; it is typified by smaller-scale disturbances that do not eliminate all life and nutrients from the environment.how does mitigation and restorations differ?mitigation is the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by a variety of strategies and policies. Restoration ecology is the intent of ecosystem restoration is to repair damage to specific lands and waters so that normal ecosystems integrity resilience and productivity return.theory with respect to common goods?introduced/invasive speciesspecies that is not native and was brought to an area as a result of human activity