STS 210 - Midterm #1

Why is environmentalism mainly opposed according to Talshir?

Economic success comes above all else for humans in modern day, all attempts to save the environment eat up money

What is the fivefold framework of environmentalism?

Classifies and assesses the contribution and influence of environmentalism

Natural processes (5fold)?

Ecological problems aren’t immediately apparent so it isn’t easy to determine how to fix them, old scientific truths must be recognized but this clashes with modern relativism

Ecology (5fold)?

Recognized through a social science lens, new definitions challenge traditional knowledge and align with new paradigms

Politics (5fold)?

Ecological stability has been recognized as necessary for the future through politics, new institutions and strategies came about as a result of environmentalism

Green ideology (5fold)?

Contribution of environmentalism to three different philosophical approaches: environmental - there is a lack of social prescriptions for the environment, doesn’t consider the social aspect of ideology; left - Marxism and ecologism don’t match in terms of their foundation so new environmentalism wasn’t necessarily adapted from it; modular - groups many issues in one, often undermining eco-centrality

Environmental theory (5fold)?

Environmentalism transcends human-centred ideas with rights expanding beyond humans, it also informed society of what it meant to be “good”

What is the nature/culture divide?

The idea of what is considered natural vs what is created by humans, the line is blurred almost beyond recognition as humans have touched almost everything natural and we have a natural desire to exist culturally (through language + society)

Anthropocentrism?

The idea that human needs and desires take precedence over everything else

What is the root of environmentalism?

Romanticism (emphasized emotive relationships with nature) and conservationism (preservation of certain nature much like with museums)

What effect did the Silent Spring publication (Rachel Carson) have on environmentalism?

Birthed modern notions of environmentalism through the discussion surrounding the unknown harms of pesticides building up in the body, allowed for more talk about the certain destruction of the environment (through nukes and oil spills)

What were some things that happened during the move to a democracy-centred society?

Economic development was placed at the top in terms of societal importance, new social movements and worldviews developed (community-oriented) including environmentalism, focus on post-material values due to increased safety

Modular ideology?

Where an ideological frame defines different sub-ideologies, it can ultimately combine different ideas into a system (which is the main frame and which is the sub-ideology is a common contestation)

Why is environmentalism contested in modern-day?

It’s relationship to science and postmodernism is complicated, its a question of who speaks for the environment and how the environment is a part of politics

Economic anthropology?

Based upon the idea that economy means “household management”, looked at how different societies provide their own mode of subsistence

How did the Harvard Kalahari Research Group challenge the perception that hunter-gatherers lived dismal lives?

Found that HGs were actually largely healthy due to large caloric intake and high level of activity, on top of this they had flexible social and political structures that allowed them to live full lives based on reciprocity

What are some different types of economic anthropology?

Hunter-gatherers, horticulture (planting), agriculture, pastoralism (livestock)

Generalized reciprocity?

Vagueness of obligation to reciprocate (like gift-giving)

Balanced reciprocity?

Exchanging goods of equivalent value

Negative reciprocity?

Getting something of greater value than what you’ve been given (also includes stealing)

What is the solar-somatic economy?

The period of time in which society was built off of renewable energy (very timely and couldn’t harvest much)

What is the fossil fuel economy?

The period of time in which society was built off of nonrenewable energy (runs out but is extremely potent, 2x that of wood)

How did hunter-gatherers store information about their environment easier?

Systemized information into oral stories, songs, dances, etc; referred to formally as traditional ecological knowledge (TEK)

What is the Pleistocene Overkill hypothesis?

The idea that mammoths were hunted to extinction by hunter-gatherers; possible harmful environmental impact HGs had but is heavily contested

What is the Neolithic Revolution?

The shift from hunter-gatherer societies to one centered around agriculture, led to the removal of wild biodiversity in favour of resources that could benefit humans to a greater degree (such as selective breeding)

Why are domesticated variations of plants/animals so fragile?

Susceptible to wild incursion, easy targets for pests and carnivores, they don’t survive weather conditions as well as natural livestock/crops

How could land productivity be restored as humans used more and more of it?

The simplest way was to obtain more land through conquest warfare

Totemic myth way of thinking?

HG way of thinking which proposed that humans and animals depend on each other and as such, we should respect each other

Anthropomorphization of the sacred?

Human-centred way of thinking in which gods are human-like; humans are the creators of the world through our gods

Why was the economy able to increase so drastically after the 1600s?

Americas were discovered (more land to use), the Great Transformation (revolution in political and social ideology with the emergence of free markets), Second Agricultural Revolution led to the Industrial Revolution (globalization + industrial labour)

What led to the energy transition from solar-somatic to non-renewable?

The industrial revolution mainly because they could now outgrow ecological constraints with greater access to new technology and land to build (could now dig out fuel instead of waiting for it)

Why was coal so inefficient?

Required huge amounts of people to dig up, which often led to the death of many in dangerous mines, also produced black soot which covered whole towns

Why was oil better than coal?

More energy dense, easier to transport, less environmental impact, provides many new resources (petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, plastics), very good EROEI

How did oil change agriculture?

Fuelled heavy machinery which made everything more efficient, allowed for the development of pesticides

Some drawbacks of oil?

It is exploited so heavily that many factions of Earth has collapsed (deforestation, aqueducts, fisheries, ecosystems) also causes tons of pollution which then leads to climate change

What did the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) say about climate change?

Human influence on the environment is clear, the first step to help is to change the rate and magnitude of climate change

Anthropocene (Crutzen)?

The suggested term for the era of time in which humans have had a significant impact on the environment and Earth’s ecosystems

Who was King Hubert?

Looked at the productive life cycle of oil wells and how they declined as they were used more and more, he found that eventually wells end up not being worth harvesting because more resources are needed as oil is used, came up with the term “peak oil”

Peak oil?

The idea that sometime in 2006-2020, oil production will reach its maximum and will decline thereafter, meaning we may have to turn to “tougher” oil sources

What is the growth-degradation link?

The idea that economic growth and the environment are tightly intertwined and that when one grows, the other tends to decline in both ways

Three waves of environmentalism?

Pessimists, optimists and sustainability

Notable events during pessimist wave?

Overpopulation recognized as a problem, limits to growth published, energy crisis, degrowth movement, I = PAT

Limits to growth (Club of Rome)?

Book that essentially said we will overshoot our use of resources and there will be terrible consequences for this greed; the economy and technology are the villians

Degrowth movement?

Advocating for the downscaling of production and consumption through redefining human success and happiness (outside of the economy)

I = PAT

A calculation of environmental impact through multiplying population growth, affluence and technology; when I is less than the other side we’re sustainable

Ecological carrying capacity?

The natural limit of a population set by resources in a particular environment

Solutions for the limits to growth?

Integrate ecological limits into governing economy, refocus economy towards material sufficiency, address poverty, adopt new ways of measuring progress

What are the main ideas of optimists?

Environment is much better off than pessimists suggest, pessimism is political rather than scientific, confidence in humans to overcome limits of growth through free market

How does neoliberalism connect to optimism?

The free market allowed for by less govt regulation is what will allow humans to develop technology that can overcome ecological limits

Simon and Ehrlich wagers?

Simon (optimist) bet Ehrlich (pessimist) that the costs of goods wont go up because technology will allow people to achieve resources more easily (focus on metals) and won, second wager was based on human welfare and climate change

Why was Simon criticized?

He made misleading extrapolations based on historical analogies that made no sense, he talked about making substitutions for lost resources but this isn’t possible for some and assumes that technology only advances when it reality it deteriorates the environment

Climate Change Denial source main ideas (Norgaard)?

Despite scientific consensus on climate change, there’s little public reaction; climate denial isn’t rejection it’s ignorance to avoid disturbing emotions

Some explanations for climate denial (Norgaard)?

Information deficit model says people misunderstand so they don’t act, within political economy the fossil fuel industry influences policy, psychological theories say that more info decreases concern and diffuses responsibility

Strategies for ignoring climate change (Norgaard)?

Interpretative denial where social narratives deflect responsibility through selective perspective and claims to virtue

From Opposition to Orthodoxy main ideas (Carruthers)?

Focus on sustainable development and how it went from being driven by LTG to recasting economic growth from villian to hero through Article 21, subsequently framing sustainable development on poverty alleviation, free trade and technological innovation

Critiques of new sustainable development (Carruthers)?

It’s attached to policies that go against distributional equity, neoliberalism rewards thbose that can externalize negative costs the best and loosening of restrictions negatively impacts humans and the environment; these all go against sustainability

Merchants of Doubt main ideas (Oreskes + Conway)

Focuses on how people in media has taken advantage of free speech by spreading misinformation which just gets amplified, these Merchants of Doubt use different strategies to discount ecologism in favour of neoliberalism and the free market

What is the Scientific Potemkin Village (Oreskes + Conway)?

Creates the appearance of something as scientific through manufacturing expertise, creating fake journals, avoiding peer review and use of petitions

Technofideism (Oreskes + Conway)?

The blind faith in the continuation of technology in fixing our future problems

Why didn’t the scientific community push back against misinformation (oreskes + Conway)?

Professional norms, compromise of their objectivity, intimidation and misplaced faith in truth

Oil Sands Sublime main ideas (Kover)?

Feelings of sublimity is paradoxical in that it evokes a sense of fear and elation, this feeling inspired US conservation efforts; Burtynsky captures the feeling of sublimity through his photography of environmental destruction but there are many issues with this

Industrial sublime (Kover)?

Focus on the greatness of technology, seeing environmental destruction as a necessary evil

Postmodern sublime (Kover)?

Represents modern ambiguity and discomfort, this more aligns with the feelings Burtynsky is trying to evoke, also aligns with the environmental crisis because it is too large to grasp in terms of its severity

Shadows of the Past main ideas (Ponting)?

The demand for resources has placed more emphasis on the development of new techniques that require more effort + energy to meet the same basic human needs; can be seen through agriculture, writing and clothing materials

Passmore’s definition of nature?

Nature is all that has not been directly created or dependent on humans

Main players in conservationism?

Pinochet, Muir and Thoreau (closing of the frontier directly related)

3 pillars of sustainability?

Social, environmental and economic

The Ingenuity Gap (Homer-Dixon)?

Said that problems faced by our society are becoming far too complex for our available solutions

Why do technological developments plateau?

Science is too basic for overlapping problems, limits of human intelligence, limits of scientific institutions and social/political systems

Appropriate technology movement?

Encompasses technological choice/application that is small-scale, decentralized, energy efficient and environmentally sustainable

Kuznets Curve?

The idea that when economic growth starts off, it will be bad for the environment until we gain the necessary wealth to address climate impacts

What does sustainable development suggest?

Current growth is unsustainable, economy must be decoupled from environmental degradation, the future isn’t predetermined

What are the three circles and Es?

Economy. society, environment//equity, economy, ecology

What is the appeal and critique of sustainable development?

It means all things to all people (very broad appeal)