CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS

Albedo Effect

The phenomenon where lighter surfaces reflect more sunlight, influencing local and global temperatures.

Ecosystems

System theory of ecology that emphasizes the interdependence of organisms and their environment, highlighting complex interactions that sustain biodiversity and influence climate resilience.

Feedback Loops

Crucial mechanisms in ecosystems that amplify or dampen changes in environmental conditions, vital for regulating climate dynamics.

Chance (in environmental context)

The likelihood of extreme weather events impacting ecosystems, necessitating comprehensive environmental policy approaches.

System Analysis

A method for evaluating ecological system components, allowing understanding of how changes in one part affect others.

System Theory

A framework emphasizing interconnections within ecological and social systems, important for environmental policy.

Consumption Fetishism

The excessive focus on acquiring material goods, leading to unsustainable practices and environmental degradation.

Positive Feedback Loop

A process in which initial changes lead to further changes that amplify the original effect, like melting polar ice reducing albedo.

Negative Feedback Loop

A process counteracting changes to stabilize a system, such as increased cloud cover reflecting sunlight.

System Boundaries

Limits defining a system, indicating what is included or excluded from analysis.

Collective Choice Arrangements

Systems allowing all stakeholders to participate in decision-making processes.

Graduated Sanctions

Establishing penalties for users violating sustainable resource use rules.

The Tragedy of the Commons

A concept illustrating how individuals acting in their self-interest can deplete shared resources.

Elinor Ostrom

An economist known for her work on local communities developing their own rules for resource management.

Governing the Commons

Ostrom's framework for sustainable management of common pool resources.

Paris Agreement

A landmark treaty aimed at combating climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius.

False Consciousness

The belief that individuals in capitalism are misled about social and environmental issues, leading to detrimental practices.

Garrett Hardin

An ecologist best known for his essay critiquing shared resources, warning against individual exploitation.

Civil Society

The aggregate of non-governmental organizations and institutions representing citizens' interests.

Nation-State

Imagined political communities characterized by a collective identity and governance.

International Political System

Framework governing relations and interactions between nation-states in global issues.

System 1

Fast, instinctive and emotional responses that often lead to immediate, unconsidered actions.

System 2

Slower, deliberate thinking processes that help develop comprehensive strategies.

Environmental NGOs

Non-governmental organizations focused on addressing environmental issues and advocating for sustainability.

Multi-Level Governance

A governance approach involving interactions across different levels of government and stakeholders.

Feedback Mechanism

Processes that can either amplify or dampen effects of changes in the environment.

Common Pool Resources

Resources that are shared and can be overexploited without proper governance and collective management.

Environmental Governance

The frameworks and mechanisms by which environmental policies are enacted and enforced.

Interdisciplinary Approaches

Integrating insights from different fields to address complex environmental problems.

The structure and function of s political system can be identified as

the set of formal legal institutions that constitute a state and the actual as well as prescribed forms of behavior that exist in society

Which of the following is not a common pool resource

A house

A negative feedback loop takes place when a secondary effect reinforces the main trend

False

An ecotone is an attribute of landscape structure

True

A positive feedback loop takes place when secondary effects partially offset the main trend

False

According to Hardin in the tragedy of the commons human-environmental interactions are…

A “no technical” [problem that needs to be addressed by curbing human rational egoist behaviour

Which of the following is an example of a negative feedback loop?

An income in the consumption of suckling pigs by consumers reduces grain fodder consumption amongst stabulated pig herds, stabilizes their number thus decreasing greenhouse of the sector

Which of the following would be an example of cultural perception determining environmental behavior?

A person willing to pay more for organic produce as a way of feeling emotionally better about themselves

Preindustrial, industrial and postindustrial stages of economic development are inspired in which Marxist political economy concept?

Modes of production

A system analysis of environmental politics

All of teh above

Ostrom methodological approach to common pool resources analysis can be best decribed as

inductive

A cultural system can be best described as…

A system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic form

According to Hardin which of the following mechanism can be involved to solve the tragedy of the commons type of environmental problems?

State intervention

According to Ostrom what is the best solution for tragedy of the commons type of environmental problems?

The eight point framework for the long lasting sustainability of common pool resources

which of the following is NOT characteristic of sustainable use of common pool resources sccording to Ostrom?

State regulations

A social system can be driven by feedbacks with which other human systems?

All of above

Feedback in systems analysis

Are contingent upon the operating rules or emergent properties of a system in a given point in time

The dimension of change in ecosystems is referred to as…

Disturbance

Which of the following is NOT a dimention of a system?

Feedback

Hardin’s theory of the integrity of the commons is based on which premise regarding human behavior and decision making?

Rational choice theory

The structure and function of a political system can be described as...

The set of formal legal institutions that constitute a state and the actual as well as prescribed forms of behaviour that exist in society

Which of the following is NOT a common pool resource?

Space

A negative feedback loop takes place when secondary effects reinforce the main trend

False

A positive feedback loop takes place when secondary effects partially offset the main trend

False

Which of the following is NOT characteristic of a sustainable use of common pool resources according to Ostrom?

State regulations

Feedbacks in systems analysis

Are contingent upon the operating rules or emergent properties of a system in a given point in time