GEO 103 First Exam

The 7 Turning Points of Human Habitation

Harnessing of fire, Emergence of language, exodus from Africa, domestication of plants and animals, emergence of cities/rise of urbanism, the Columbian Exchange, and adoption of fossil fuels

Anthropocene

Geological time period characterized by the rise/importance of human activity on the climate and enviornment.

Ecological Imagination

Understanding how human actions affect nature

Sociological Imagination

Understanding how society affects environmental choices

Mitigation

Actions to reduce or prevent emissions

Climate Resilience

Prepare for and cope with climate change

Treadmill of Production

Continuous production/consumption that leads to environmental degradation.

*Biological Exchange*

Exchange of plants, animals, and pathogens from one part of the world to another. (Columbian exchange was 1st era of globalization, and this is how COVID19 came)

The Great Acceleration 1945-Present

Explosion in scale of the human enterprise after 1945.

Energy use increases dramatically, especially with transportation and motor vehicles.

Malthusian Population Theory

Population grows exponentially (increasing amount) while food production grows arithmetically (same amount). Leading to food shortages and resource scarcity.

Preventative Checks

Ways of controlling population growth by decreasing fertility rates (birth control, postponing marriage, celibacy).

Positive Checks

Ways of controlling population growth by increasing mortality rates.

Neo-Malthusians

People who argue that birth control is necessary to prevent the global population from exceeding Earth’s carrying capacity and outpacing food production. (Paul Ehrlich - the population bomb 1968).

Boserup Effect

Ester Boserup argued that population pressure can propel agricultural innovation and increase food production.

Cornucopian Theorists

Theorists who reject concerns about overpopulation and resource scarcity, believing human ingenuity and technology can solve environmental problems.

Replacement Rate

2:1 Children per women. This is approximately the fertility rate needed for a population to replace itself.

Youth Bulge

A large population of people ages 15-29. Can cause instability if there aren’t enough jobs, education, or opportunities.

Migation

Movement of people within or across national borders.

Immigration

Permanent relocation into another country.

Internal Displacement

People forced to relocate within their own country.

Climate Migrant

Person who moves because of climate related stressors such as drought, flooding, or sea-level rise.

One Child Policy

China’s government policy introduced in 1980 that asked families to limit themselves to one child; it expanded into compulsory sterilization and forced abortion.

“Later, Longer, Fewer'“

China’s voluntary family-planning program in the early 1970’s that encouraged people to have children later, space births farther apart, and have fewer children.

Coercive Policy

A policy enforced through pressure of force rather than being truly voluntary. The article describes the one-child policy as coercive because of forced sterilizations, abortions, and other abuses.

Demographic Transition

Five stage process describing changes in birth rates, death rates, and population growth.

1: population doesn’t grow because of high death rate. HIGH BIRTH RATE

2: dramatic increase of population. HIGH BIRTH RATE

3: death rate continues to drop. BIRTH RATE DECREASE

4: birth rate drops and death rate drop. STABLE POPULATION

5: population is beginning to increase

Ecological Footprint

Measures the amount of resources we consume and how much waste we produce compared to nature’s ability to generate new resources and absorb our waste.

Carbon Footprint

Aggregate direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions of household consumption.

Planned Obsolescence

Consumer goods become obsolete through:

Obsolescence of function: when a new product functions better than an old one.

Obsolescence of quality: when a product is designed to break in a short amount of time.

Obsolescence of desirability: when a product’s design is no longer fashionable.

Electronic Waste

Fastest growing solid waste stream in the world. E-Waste can contain lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury. It can contaminate soil and water of pollute the air when incinerated.

Sacrifice Zones

Vulnerable populations are disproportionately exposed to industrial pollution or hazardous waste.

Fast Fashion

Inexpensive, low quality clothing that is quickly produced to keep up with a weekly (or at least monthly) fashion season.

Microplastics

Tiny bits of plastic created when plastic waste breaks down. They can contaminate food chains.

Circular Economy

Strives to reuse and repurpose materials and products to their fullest extent.

In a circular economy, what would normally be considered waste is recognized as a resource than can be recovered to make new products.

Sustainable Consumption

Minimizing harm to the environment by means of our consumer behavior at the microlevel and structural changes in production and policy at the marcolevel.

Green Consumption

Purchasing environmentally-friendly products/services.

Considered a weaker form of sustainability because it does not reduce how much we consume.

Voluntary Simplicity Movement

People who seek to cultivate non-materialistic sources of satisfaction and meaning by reducing consumption.

Downshifters: give up some but not all consumer goods while maintaining a relatively affluent lifestyle

Strong Simplifiers: trade high income and stressful jobs for more time and less income.

Simple Livers: change their entire lifestyle according to an anti-consumerism philosophy.

Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC)

Proposes that economic growth initially harms the entire environment, but as societies transition to postindustrial economies, economic growth can become inversely correlated with environmental harm.

Externalities

Costs or benefits that are not figured into the price of goods or services.

Pollution from industry is not counted in the cost of a product.

Anthropocentrism

A way of thinking that places humans at the center, often treating nature primarily according to it’s usefulness to people.

Primitive Accumulation

The historical process of taking control of previously communal/free land and resources, forcing people who once supported themselves independently into wage labor.

Key example: Englands’s Enclosure laws

Second Contradiction of Capitalism

Tendency of capitalism to undermine environmental conditions to perpetuate itself through environmental degradation and sickening workers.

Response: social movements to conserve environment and safeguard human health.

Ghost Gear

Abandoned fishing gear that pollutes the ocean and can kill marine life that becomes trapped in it.

Decoupling

Separate economic growth from negative environmental impacts.

Means of Production

The tools, machinery, equipment, factories, computers, etc. used to produce goods.

Spatial Fix

The idea that capitalism can respond to problems by moving production, resources, or environmental problems somewhere else geographically.

Data Centers

a physical facility housing large groups of networked computer servers and equipment that consumes massive amounts of electricity and water.

Globalization

Ongoing process by which regional economies and societies integrated into networks of exchange.

Feathered Hats -> Bird Conservation

1880s to 1900 feathered hats showed status and women's fashion.

- Toll on plume bearing birds

- Audubon Society (est 1886): Anti-bird hat campaign

- Role of upper class white women: shaming women not to wear bird hats, and made bird hats unfashionable.

Environmental impact of (fast) fashion

Growing a lot of cotton, Dyes - toxic chemicals, water pollution, Clothing as waste

- Americans discard 25 billion pounds of clothes per year.