EDES 406 Week 4: Materialism

What are McDonough's three eco-effective design principles (including a brief explanation of each)?

1. waste = food (waste from one system can feed another)

2. use current solar income (use resources available abundantly, not fossil fuels)

3. celebrate diversity (allow difference for life)

McDonough's design strategy "waste = food" is based on the understanding of two "metabolisms" using "two kinds of nutrients."

Name these two nutrients. What are some examples of each?

technical nutrient - products of consumption

---the technical metabolism, designed to mirror the earth's cradle-to-cradle cycles, is a closed-loop system in which valuable, high-tech synthetics and mineral resources—technical nutrients—circulate in a perpetual cycle of production, recovery, and remanufacture.

biological nutrient - products of service

---nature's nutrient cycles constitute the biological metabolism. Materials designed to flow optimally in the biological metabolism are biological nutrients. Products conceived as these nutrients, such as biodegradable packaging, are designed to be used and safely returned to the environment to nourish living systems.term-23

Annie Leonard's film, "The Story of Citizens United v. FEC," warns that Citizens United v. FEC has given the same rights of political contributions that individual people enjoy to ______________________?

According to her, why is this a problem?

-Elections

-Corporations are designed for maximum profit, not for the health of the people

Citizens United v. FEC is based on an interpretation of which constitutional amendment?

1st constitutional amendment, for freedom of speech

According to Leonard, the problem is that by definition these entities are motivated by the market and fiduciary responsibility to (choose one):

a) Do the right thing for consumers.

b) Turn waste into food

c) Support environmental causes.

d) Maximize profits for shareholders.

d) maximize profit for shareholders

According to Leonard, during the 2010 midterm congressional elections, corporate donations to political action groups exceeded $300 million which was more money spent on political contributions __________

a) than in 2006

b) than ever before

c) than all the midterm elections since 1990 combined

d) all of the above

d) all of the above

Annie Leonard claims that 53 of the largest 100 ________________ are corporations.

world economies

It has always been said that "The business of America is business" but Michael Moore's film claims that America's tipping point into a nation politically dominated by corporations, a "plutonomy," occurred when _____________________ was elected president?

Ronald Regan

What were the six "rights" Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposed as a "Second Bill of Rights" for Americans in his broadcast at the end of his final "State of the Union" address in 1944?

1. The right to a useful job

2. The right to make enough to buy food, clothes, and recreation

3. Right of every farmer to sell & raise his product

4. Right of every business to have free and fair trade

5. The right of every family to a good home

6. Right to adequate medical care

7. Right to protection from sick, accident, old age, and unemployment

8. The right to a good education

Moore wants to replace capitalism with ____________________?

democracy

McKibben argues that much of modern American Christianity conflates several basic and mutually exclusive ideas in a form of denial for the sake of continuing certain American myths and which has had an impact on the direction of American politics. What basic ideas are conflated in his view?

America is said to be the most professedly christian of the developed nations but they have the least christian behavior

How does Gro Harlem Bruntland explain the problem with such a massive wealth gap?

"A world in which poverty is endemic will always be prone to ecological and other catastrophes.

"Without prosperous local economies, the people have no _____ and the land no ____."

-Wendell Berry

-power

-land

The World Inequality Report aims to address the fact that although we live in a very data-abundant world, we lack basic information about

inequality

Contemporary income and wealth inequalities are very ________ (The World Inequality Report)

large

Europe has the lowest levels of inequality while "MENA" is the most unequal region of the world. What does "MENA" stand for? (The World Inequality Report)

Middle East and North Africa

List three countries that have "experienced spectacular increases in inequality." (The World Inequality Report)

US, Russia, India

Inequality is always a ________________________ choice, not an inevitability. (The World Inequality Report)

political choice

Contemporary global inequalities are close to early 20th Century levels at the peak of Western ___________________ . (The World Inequality Report)

Western imperialism

Nations have become richer, but ______________________ have become poorer. (The World Inequality Report)

Governments

Addressing large inequalities in carbon emissions is essential for tackling _______________ _________________ . (The World Inequality Report)

Climate Change

What are the "four issues that need to be addressed" by nations (especially the USA) in order to "tackle inequality" ? (From "World Inequality Report 2018" film.)

1. Increase tax progressivity (tax the wealth people more)

2. Establish a Global financial registry

3. Access to Education and jobs

4. Public investments and debt reduction