ENEC 201 Midterm 1

In environmental studies, how is 'maladaptation' defined?

A failure to adjust adequately or appropriately to an environment or changing situation.

How do Cornucopians and Neo-Malthusians differ regarding human population limits?

Cornucopians believe humans can adapt continuously to support an infinite population, whereas Neo-Malthusians believe Earth's resources can only support a finite population.

What environmental factor primarily drove the societal catastrophe and population crash on Easter Island?

Environmental degradation, specifically deforestation and soil erosion driven by chiefdom rivalry and the construction of Moai statues.

What four compounding factors caused the societal collapse of the Norse in Greenland?

1. Collapse of the European walrus ivory trade

2. Lack of charcoal from deforestation

3. Colder weather/climate change

4. Conflict with Inuit hunter-gatherers due to a narrow economic niche"

How did industrial pollution post-1945 differ from pre-1945 industrial pollution?

Pre-1945 pollution was localized with short-term environmental effects, whereas post-1945 pollution introduced persistent organic pollutants and synthetic chemicals with long-term, widespread regional impacts.

What was the Law of Nuisance in early industrial policy, and why was it largely ineffective?

It allowed property owners to seek compensation if polluters harmed their land, but judges consistently sided with entities generating the greatest economic output.

What is the key distinction between Miasma Theory and Germ Theory?

Miasma Theory attributed disease to bad odors and foul air, whereas Germ Theory established that microscopic pathogens (viruses, bacteria, protozoa) cause disease.

In environmental policy, what is a 'race to the bottom'?

A competitive market dynamic where competing businesses cut costs by ignoring environmental safety and increasing pollution to offer cheaper goods.

What market mechanics differentiate a carbon tax from a cap-and-trade system?

A carbon tax sets a fixed Pigouvian price on carbon emissions, whereas cap-and-trade sets a mandatory limit on total emissions and issues tradeable pollution permits.

Why does requiring renewable energy quotas promote innovation more effectively than simply regulating $CO_2$ as a pollutant?

Mandating clean energy targets creates market demand and financial incentives for developing new technologies, whereas regulation only caps existing polluters without driving technological advances.

According to policy models, why is the Rational Actor Model inaccurate for analyzing public policy?

Individuals rarely act purely rationally, operate with incomplete information, and frequently prioritize narrow self-interest or identity politics over optimal outcomes.

At which level of government does the Bureaucratic Model exert the greatest direct policy influence?

The local level.

How does Classical Pluralism describe the policy-making process?

As a system where competing interest groups, rather than majority sentiment, govern policymaking through messy compromises brokered by elected officials.

What three entities form the 'Iron Triangle' in US policy implementation?

1. Bureaucratic agencies

2. Congressional committees

3. Key industry interest groups or political campaign donors"

What is the 'Revolving Door' phenomenon in government regulatory policy?

The continuous movement of personnel between roles as elected/regulatory officials and executive positions within private industries.

What occurs during Regulatory Capture?

A regulatory agency becomes dominated and controlled by the specific commercial industries it was created to regulate.

Under US political contribution rules established in 2018, what disclosure requirement applies to dark money contributions?

Donations exceeding $200$ to $501(c)$ groups must disclose the donor's identity.

What flawed assumption underlies the Ergodic Axiom in traditional neoclassical economics?

The assumption that historical economic data from the past provides an accurate representation of future conditions.

What are three major limitations of using Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of societal well-being?

1. Ignores income and wealth inequality

2. Fails to account for environmental degradation

3. Ignores the depletion of natural capital

According to Keynesian Economics, what primary role should the state play in the economy?

The state must actively regulate markets, mitigate market failures, maintain employment, and invest in public goods to ensure a stable middle class.

How does Neoliberalism view government environmental regulation?

It views regulation as an infringement on personal liberty and economic growth, asserting that consumers should instead 'vote with their dollars' in a free market.

What defines Ordoliberalism (the Freiburg School / Social Market Economy) in Germany?

A hybrid model combining free-market liberalism with state protection against market power concentration and strong social safety nets (e.g., universal healthcare, pension insurance).

How did Joseph Schumpeter define entrepreneurship in economic development?

As the execution of 'new combinations,' including introducing new goods, novel production methods, or opening untapped markets.

How do corporate governance horizons differ between the Shareholder Model and the Stakeholder Model?

The Shareholder Model operates on short-term horizons ($2\text{--}3$ years) focused on maximizing immediate investor profits, while the Stakeholder Model operates on longer horizons ($5\text{--}8$ years) to benefit employees, consumers, and society.

What psychological and social traits are associated with a high Materialistic Value Orientation (MVO)?

Lower self-acceptance, weaker community ties, lower felt self-competence, and increased manipulative or competitive behavior.

Demographic Transition Model graph plotting birth rate, death rate, and total population across 5 stages Based on this Demographic Transition Model, what characterizes Stage 2?

Birth rates remain high while death rates plummet rapidly, leading to rapid total population growth.

Demographic Transition Model showing 5 distinct demographic stages According to the Demographic Transition Model, which stage exhibits low birth and death rates paired with a stabilized population size?

Stage 4 (and continuing into Stage 5, where birth rates may drop below death rates).

What is the global replacement fertility rate required to maintain a stable population size?

2.1 births per woman.

What social dynamic is indicated when desired fertility significantly exceeds actual realized fertility?

It indicates that men hold dominant reproductive decision-making power relative to women.

Why are RNA viruses typically more dangerous and adaptable than DNA viruses?

RNA viruses have higher mutation rates during replication, giving them superior adaptability to host defenses and treatments.

How did John Snow establish the foundation of epidemiology during the London cholera outbreak?

He mapped disease cases spatially to isolate contaminated public water pump handles as the source of cholera transmission.

What health advantages did hunter-gatherer societies maintain over early agriculturalists?

Higher dietary variety, longer life expectancy, lower disease risk (due to lower population density), and immunity from crop-failure famines.

What biological threshold enabled the dramatic jump in human fertility during the agricultural transition?

Female body fat ratio increased from $11.2\%$ to $25.3\%$, satisfying the metabolic requirement to maintain regular ovulatory cycles, pregnancy, and lactation.

What mechanism naturally suppressed birth rates in hunter-gatherer societies?

Lactational amenorrhea caused by prolonged breastfeeding.

What trade-offs resulted from corn becoming the central crop of industrial agriculture?

Corn displaced wheat while requiring significantly more water, fueled cheap processed foods and rising obesity, and required heavy public subsidies for ethanol production.

Why are modern high-yield crop varieties more vulnerable to extreme weather and pests?

They allocate maximum metabolic energy to reproductive yield rather than root structure, pest defenses, or drought resilience.

What key structural difference distinguishes Genetically Engineered Crops (GECs) from Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)?

GECs edit or rearrange an organism's existing native genes (e.g., via CRISPR), whereas GMOs insert foreign recombinant DNA from completely different species.

What is the primary economic limitation of indoor vertical agriculture?

It is suited for leafy greens and tomatoes, but space-intensive carbohydrate crops like grains cannot be grown indoor economically.

What is the primary function of Precision Agriculture?

Using sensors, drones, and real-time data to target water, fertilizer, and pesticide applications precisely where needed, reducing chemical runoff and input costs.

What principles guide Labor-Intensive Agriculture / Agroecology?

Increasing land productivity by applying extra human labor to mimic natural ecosystem complexity and capture more solar energy per unit area.

What polyculture innovations were implemented in Vietnam's Mekong Delta to boost rural farming retention?

Integrating fruit and fish farming on the same land, using pheromone pest traps, feeding pigs cheap rice waste, and converting pig waste into biogas.

How does Alley Cropping function as an agroforestry strategy?

Rows of trees are planted alongside agricultural crops to shade plants, retain soil moisture, prevent erosion, and diversify income.

What is a 'stranded asset' in energy transition economics?

An asset that suffers premature write-downs or devaluation due to unforeseen regulatory, technological, or market shifts (e.g., fossil fuel reserves during clean energy adoption).

How did Samuel Insull shape the modern utility business model in the United States?

He leveraged economies of scale to establish regulated natural monopolies, where a single utility provides low-cost power overseen by state regulatory commissions.

What path dependency inefficiency exists between standard AC power grids and modern electronic end-uses?

Grids transmit Alternating Current (AC), but electronics, solar panels, and batteries operate on Direct Current (DC), causing energy waste during constant conversions.

Why are Peak Load power plants economically and environmentally problematic?

They consist of inefficient fossil fuel units built solely to meet maximum peak demand events, operating rarely while generating high emissions and costs.

How does Demand Response (Peak Shaving) balance grid loads without adding extra generation capacity?

It uses real-time pricing and automated smart appliances to curb electricity usage during peak demand hours.

What core policy mechanism made Germany's 1991 Electricity Feed-in Act successful in driving clean energy investment?

It guaranteed renewable power producers long-term, fixed feed-in tariff purchase rates over a $20$-year period.

What is the learning curve rate for solar panel manufacturing?

Every doubling of global production scale achieves approximately a $24\%$ reduction in price.

How is 'Green Hydrogen' produced using clean energy capacity?

Excess, low-cost renewable electricity powers electrolyzers to split water into oxygen and hydrogen gas.

What is Energy Intensity, and why does a lower ratio benefit a national economy?

Energy Intensity is total energy consumed divided by GDP; a lower ratio means producing more economic output with less fuel, yielding a competitive edge.

What causes the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, and how can cities reduce it?

Built dark surfaces trap solar heat, raising city temperatures by $3\text{--}10^{\circ}\text{F}$; it is mitigated by expanding urban tree canopies and applying reflective roof/road coatings.

What advantages do solid-state lithium batteries offer over conventional liquid lithium-ion batteries?

Higher energy density, eliminated fire risks, extended durability, and faster charging rates.

What are primary push and pull factors driving global urbanization?

Push factors include rural conflict, land seizures, and lack of services; Pull factors include urban employment opportunities, education access, and higher social mobility.

What major environmental and health issues affect urban slum residents in developing nations?

Inadequate piped clean water (forcing high payments to private vendors), lack of wastewater management/open defecation, unsafe power theft, and elevated disease transmission.

What is urban sprawl?

A low-density urban landscape characterized by single-use zoning that mandates private automobile usage for daily travel.

How do government policies subsidize urban sprawl?

Through single-family restrictive zoning, mortgage tax deductions, public funding of suburban road/water extensions, and car-centric municipal planning.

What is Braess's Paradox (Induced Demand) in traffic engineering?

Adding road capacity attracts additional vehicles, ultimately recreating gridlock and worsening long-term emissions.

How do dense urban centers foster higher social capital compared to sprawled suburbs?

Dense physical proximity facilitates spontaneous networking, mentorship, diverse collaboration, and startup formation.

How was Exclusionary Zoning applied to racially segregate American neighborhoods?

Local governments zoned Black neighborhoods for industrial uses while designating white suburban areas exclusively for low-density single-family homes.

What was 'redlining' in 20th-century American housing policy?

The practice by banks and the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) of drawing red lines on maps around minority neighborhoods to deny mortgages and investment.

How did post-WWII Federal Housing Authority (FHA) mortgage backing systematically exclude Black families?

The FHA conditioned suburban developer loan guarantees on implementing restrictive racial covenants that prohibited sales to Black buyers.

Why was the 2008 Subprime Mortgage Crisis disproportionately devastating to Black wealth?

Predatory lenders targeted Black homeowners who held equity with high-risk subprime loans, erasing roughly half of total Black wealth when foreclosures hit.

How did urban planner Robert Moses shape infrastructure to segregate communities in New York?

He routed urban freeways directly through Black neighborhoods, prioritized car expressways over public transit, and built low parkway bridges to prevent public buses from reaching suburban beaches.

What is 'underbounding' in southern municipal planning?

The practice by towns of intentionally drawing municipal boundaries to exclude adjacent Black fringe neighborhoods, denying them water, sewer, and trash services.

What is 'Virtual Water' in international economic policy?

The hidden volume of water embedded in agricultural commodities or industrial goods, allowing water-scarce nations to conserve water by importing water-intensive products.

What proportion of US freshwater withdrawals is used by thermoelectric power plants?

$38\%$ of total withdrawals (and $41\%$ of overall water supply usage for cooling).

What main environmental waste challenge is produced by coastal seawater desalination plants?

Discharging high volumes of concentrated toxic brine waste back into marine ecosystems.

Why is climate change considered the 'Achilles' heel' of hydropower generation?

Shifting rainfall patterns and prolonged severe droughts reduce reservoir water levels, rendering generation output erratic and unreliable.

What does Real Business Cycle Theory assume about firm and consumer behavior?

It assumes consumers continuously maximize utility and firms maximize profits in competitive, market-clearing equilibrium conditions.

What is the core assumption of the Rational Expectations Hypothesis?

That people form economic preferences and decisions based on a rational assessment of all available relevant information.

What is a Pigouvian tax?

A targeted tax levied on market activities that generate negative external costs (externalities) for third parties, such as a carbon tax.

How do $501(c)$ social welfare and trade groups function in US political financing?

They accept unlimited tax-deductible political contributions ('dark money') without having to publicly disclose underlying donor identities.

What defines a Net Zero Energy (ZNE) building mandate?

A building efficiency policy requiring structures to generate as much clean renewable energy on-site as they consume over the course of a year.

What was the significance of the 2010 Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court ruling?

It established legal corporate personhood in political spending, striking down caps on independent corporate campaign expenditure.

What defines extensive agricultural practices like Swidden crop rotation and Pastoralism?

They use small inputs of human labor and capital relative to the large land area cultivated or grazed.

What role do Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) play in power grid modernization?

They operate multi-state power grids independently of utility natural monopolies, enhancing reliability and permitting non-discriminatory access for renewable generation.

Why is turf grass lawn monoculture environmentally problematic in urban areas?

It consumes large volumes of treated drinking water and requires chemical fertilizers that run off into surface waters while offering virtually no ecological or food value.

What is High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission, and why is it superior for clean energy grids?

A power transmission design that carries electricity as DC over long distances with minimal line losses, lower infrastructure footprint, and precise flow control.

How does the 'Risk Society' concept describe modern industrial civilization?

A society primarily organized around debating, managing, and mitigating large-scale systematic risks (e.g., climate change, pandemics) that industrial society itself created.