Midterm Exam (copy)

Sustainability According to Brundtland Report

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to met their own needs

The Three E’s

Environment

-protecting the well being of the environment and our resources

-resource management, environmental protection, habitat restoration

Economic

-ensuring financial stability and growth for now and the future

-smart growth, long-range planning, cost of living

Equity/Social

-meeting the needs of people today and future generations

-quality of life, education, community development

Paris Agreement

-2015 Paris Agreement: Global pact to

limit warming to below 2°C.

-NDCs: Countries set and review emission

targets every five years.

-Legally Binding Framework: Non-binding

targets, but mandatory reporting.

-Adaptation Focus: Financial and technical

support for developing countries.

-Universal Participation: Almost all

countries committed to climate action.

Kyoto Protocol

-First treaty for binding greenhouse gas reduction targets

-Compliance Mechanisms: Introduced

Emissions Trading and Clean

Development Mechanism.

-Limitations: Excluded major developing

countries; faced enforcement challenges.

Rachel Carson

-impacts of chemicals on the environment

-writing advanced the world’s understanding of the impacts of industrialization and use of chemicals

-new age of environmental activism, a silent spring

COP26

-2021 Glasgow COP26: Key UN climate

summit with global leaders.

-Net-Zero Focus: Urged countries to

commit to mid-century net-zero

emissions.

-Coal Phase-Down: Agreed to reduce

unabated coal power and fossil fuel

subsidies.

-Climate Finance: Pledged increased

support for developing nations.

-Adaptation and Resilience: Enhanced

global efforts to adapt and build

resilience.

Rio Summit

1992 Rio Earth Summit: Landmark UN

conference on environment and

development.

-Adoption of Agenda 21: Global action

plan for sustainable development.

-Key Principles Established: Introduced

precautionary and polluter pays

principles.

-Convention on Biological Diversity: Treaty

for conserving biodiversity and

promoting sustainable use.

-UNFCCC: Foundation for future climate

agreements, including Kyoto and Paris.

Natural Resources

anything that is derived from earth and used in it’s natural state

-core building blocks of our environment

-water, air, soil, animals, minerals

Non Renewable resources

-a natural substance that is not replenished with the speed at which it is consumed, it is a finite source like fossil fuels

Renewable Resource

-a resource that can be repeadtly use and does not run out because it is naturally replaced such as solar, wind, hydro

Components of Natural Resource Management

-preserve ecological veriety

-enhance all living things

-provide tools for future generations

-provide people with essential necessities

Methods of Non Renewable Management

-adaptive management approach

-community based natural resource management

-intergrated natural resource management

Ecosystems

the complex of living organisms their physical enviornment and all their interrelationships in a particular unit of space

Example of Ecosystems

-Tropical Rainforest

-Coral Reef

-Savanna

-Wetlands

-Boreal Forest

Biodiversity

the variety of life found in a place on earth or often the total variety of life on earth

Biotic

Living components of ecosystems

Abiotic

Non living parts of ecosystems

Three levels of biodiversity

Ecosystem

-variety of habitats, biological communities, and ecological processes that occur in the biosphere

Species

-refers to the numbers and kinds of living organisms

Genetic

-refers to the genetic variation within a population of species

The characteristics of biodiverse ecosystems

-large number of species

-complex food web

What are major drivers of biodiversity loss?

-habitat destruction

-pollution

-invasive species

-climate change

-overexploitation

Habitat Destruction

the process of changing a natural habitat to the point where it can no longer support the species that live there

Climate Change

long term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns

Overexploitation

the long term consequences of biodiversity loss of the environment

Invasive Species

animals or plants from another region of the world that don't belong in their new environment

Consequences of Biodiversity Loss

Ecosystem Instability

Reduced Ecosystem Services

Cascading Extinctions

Weakened Resilience

Loss of Undiscovered Resources

Conservation

the protection, preservation, management, or restoration of wildlife and natural resources(forest and water)

Primary focus of conservation

Maintaining the health of the natural world, its fisheries, habitats, and biological diversity

Secondary focus of conservation

Material and energy conservation, important to protect the natural world

In situ conservation

-onsite conservation

-conservation of species in a natural ecosystem to protect endangered plants and animals

-natural enviornment

-national parks, biosphere reserves, parks, sancturaries

-dynamic

-captive breeding is not effective in case of all species

-it is cheap and convenient

Ex situ conservation

-offsite conservation

-conservation of endangered species outside their habitat

-artifical environment and habitat

-zoo, aquariam, seed banks

-captive breeding can increase the numbers

-commerical purposes

What are the three primary gases that comprise the earth’s atmosphere

Nitrogen, Oxygen, Argon

Carbon Dioxide

_____________ plays a crucial role in regulating temperature
through the greenhouse effect, where it traps heat and
helps maintain the planet's warmth. It also drives weather
patterns by contributing to cloud formation and
precipitation, and it plays a key part in the Earth's energy
balance by absorbing and releasing heat during phase
changes

Global warming potential

potential is an index to measure how much infrared thermal radiation a greenhouse gas would absorb over a given time frame after it has been added to the atmosphere

Carbon Dioxide Source

any material or process that releases carbon into the atmosphere

Carbon Dioxide Sink

anything that absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases

The greenhouse gas effect

the process in which certain gases trap heat in from the sun and are unable to escape causing

-the sun generatres solar radiation and passes through the atmosphere and transforms into long waves

-short waves come through but can’t go through the atmosphere

Alexander Von Humboldt

The first person to document and describe the phenomenon of human induced climate change was

Climate Action Plans

Top 3 Producers of GHG Emissions

-China

-United States

-India

Top 3 GHG Emitters per Capita. What do they have in common?

-Electricity and Heat

-Transport

-Manufacturing

Highest sectors in global emssions

Electricity and Heat

Major Producers by Gas

CO2

Methane

Nitrous Oxide

Scope 1

Direct emissions produced by an entity that includes stationary and mobile sources

Scope 2

Emissions associated with purchased electricty, steam, heating, cooling. The entity does not directly produce these emissions but is responsible for their release

Scope 3

All other catergories. May include travel, commuting, waste generation, and fugitive emssions

De minimis emissions

Accounts for less than 5% of the total emssions. Often excluded from inventories

Tragedy of the Commons

Introduced by Garrett Hardin

-describe how individuals acting in their own self interest can overexploit shared resources, leading to their depletion

What are approaches to combatting the Tragedy of Commons?

-establishing clear regulations

-privatization of the resource

-community based managment systems

What are sustainable energy management practices?

What are top 3 energy producers?

United states, Saudi Arabia, China

What are top 3 energy consumers?

China, United States, India

Top 3 sectors for freshwater withdrawls

-agriculture

-industry

-domestic

Nexus Approach

identifies mutually beneficial responses that are based on understanding the synergies of water, energy, and agricultural policies.

What are the top 3 countries for water withdrawl?

China, India, United States

What are the top 3 countries for water withdrawal per capita?

Agrarian Societies

any community whose economy is based on producing and maintaining crops and farmland

Green Revolution

a period of agricultural innovation that increased crop yields and helped feed the world's growing population

what are the top agricultural crop type?

corn and soybeans

Sugar Cane

is the most produced crop in the world.

Food deserts

regions where people have limited access to healthful and affordable food

deforestation, ghg emssions, methane emissions, water pollution

A primary concern of modern meat production is

Agroecology

studies ecological processes applied to agricultural production systems

What are the goals of agroecology

-build healthy soil and prevent erosion

-manage water wisely

-minimize air and water pollution

-store carbon in the farm

-promotes diversity

Practices

-cover crop

-elminate tilage

-intergrate livestock, animals graze on certain weeds

-whole system management

Organic farming

-natural forms of agricultural practices

-removes the use of non-natural

-herbicides, fertilizers, pesticides

Small farm movement

-more than 90% of farms in the US are classified as small

-support competitiveness

-protect and enhance natural resources and the enviornment

-maintain rural populations

-fear of losing traditional farming practice

-provide a nursery for the development of new enterprises and marketing systems

Pollution

the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change.

Pollution was intensified by

industrialization

What are the 5 types of chemical pollutants?

-metals, compounds, nutrients, radioactive, and pharmaceutical

Heat pollution

-created by industrial processes

-causes environmental proceses

-disruption to normal ecosystem processes

-release of longwave radiation in urban environments can lead to urban heat islands

-impacts migratory paths

-extreme heat kills more americans than any other weather event

-more than 600 death’s per year

-intesified by climate change

Light pollution

-glare, skyglow, light trespasses, clutter

-washes out starlight

-interferes with astronomical research

-disrupts ecosystem

-waste energy

-adverse health effects

Noise Pollution

-from roadways, airports, destruction

-includes impacts on both the enviornment and humans

-increases risk of heart attacks, respiratory, and metabolic health

-can interfere with breeding cycles and rearing is even hastening the extinction of some species

Visual Pollution

-caused by expansive development of roadways, power lines, and suburban sprawl

-over development and visual clutter

-managed through strict zoning

Litter Pollution

-improper disposal of waste

-reduces overall quantity of ecosystems when out of control

-prominent in areas of the world without regular waste collection and recycling

Point Source

are single points where pollution emerges into the enviornment

ex: smokestacks, tailpipes, or indivdual drainage pipe

Light Source

are linear segments of the landscape where pollution is emitted

ex: roadways, leaking pipes, or line of sight

Areal Sources

occur when there is an aerial or regional sources of pollution

ex: nutrient-rich runoff from agricultural fields or suburban lawns is a good example of areal pollution sources

Stormwater Runoff

causes non-point pollution

What are ways that developed countries are exporting enviornental problems around the world?

-exporting dirty industries

-selling products banned in a developed country to a developing country

-taking advantage of overseas cheap labor that work in poor conditions to avoid paying workers living wage in the home country

-exploiting resources of a country with poor environmental rules

-exporting waste, particularly hazardous waste to other countries with lax regulations

Aldo leopold

-developed the first management plan for the grand canyon

-an ethical system is needed for components of the ecosystem in order to preserve it, the soil and individual plants were as important as the land itself

Ecosystem Services

the direct and indirect benefits that humans receive from healthy ecosystems

-cultural, provisioning, supporting, regulating

Protected Areas

-in situ conservation

-areas of land/sea especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity

-maintenance of target species, and their habitats as well as natural and semi-natural ecosystem

-managed through legal and other effective means such as national parks, bio reserves, and sanctuaries

Clean Air Act

-cooperation

-general emission standards

-research and development

-grants for air pollutant controls

Clean Water Act

-elminate discharge of pollutants

-appropriation of funds

-grants water for pollutant controls

Environmental Movement

-focused on the connection between humans and the environment

-lots of natural lands over the development and pollution

-Earth centered

-resulted in the development of major environmental laws

Civil Rights Movement

-focused on promoting equality of races

-access to good jobs, excellent schools, in particular neighborhoods

-human centered

-resulted in federal, state, and local laws to remove social barries and eliminate institutionalized racism

Environmental Justice

-is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws and regulations, and policies