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VALU 191

The Environment and Society 4/11/2013

Unit 1 Study Guide for Exam 1


Test covers materials in the first 5 articles, supplemental lecture material, and unit 1 vocabulary terms. There will be 14 questions selected from the 5 articles (taken from the list below), 16 questions taken from the supplemental material & 10 of the 20 vocabulary terms will also be on the test. Questions will be multiple choices, true/false, short answer and matching.

Article 1 Climate Changes 2007, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change


1.

A lot of the nitrous-oxide emissions are anthropogenic and are primarily due to what industry or activity? Agriculture pg
3

2. How does the period of 1990-2006 rank in terms of global surface temperatures since records have been kept (i.e. since 1850)? 1995-2006=11/12 warmest years 3. Warming increases the fraction of anthropogenic emissions that remains in the atmosphere because it tends to do what? Reduce land and ocean uptake 4. How has the maximum area covered by seasonally frozen ground changed in the Northern Hemisphere since 1900? -7% up o -15% in spring 5. What does the IPCC report as the fate of sea ice? Late summer sea ice disappears almost entirely by latter part of 21st century

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Article 2 How Many Planets? 1. Why must economic growth be handled with care when trying to help the poor in developing countries? It can leave a degraded or even devastated natural environment for future 2. What is the difficult part about creating economic growth in poor countries? What we owe future generations and how to reconcile with moral obligation to poor today 3. Whats the authors opinion regarding the concept of sustainable development? (I.e. can it be achieved?) dont ditch the idea salvage emphasis on future. 4. Why have Gandhi and other people been against developing their countries the same way that Great Britain or other economic powers developed their country? Because it takes so many planet resources to achieve this level of prosperity 5. What are some of the concerns regarding global warming? Droughts, floods, storms in poor parts of the world.

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Article 3 Five Meta-Trends Changing the World


1. What have behavioral researchers determined are results of cell phone usage?

have blurred or changed the boundaries between work and social life; (i.e. more and more of us are always on duty),

have blurred or changed the boundaries between personal and public life, (people in public places routinely use their cell phones to loudly discuss personal matters within earshot of crowds of strangers, reinforcing privacy research, which has shown that most peoples desire for privacy applies to a relatively small area of their personal lives), and have also increased users propensity to micro-manage their lives, to be more spontaneous, and therefore, to be late for everything. 2. According to the authors of this article, what is the key to human sustainability on this planet? Cultural modernization 3. What did the article say about the retirement age in the United States? Retirement age no longer means playing golf and spoiling grandchildren. Seniors in good health who enjoy working probably wont retire, slowing the prophesied work drain. 4. What are two of the three great cultural consequences of industrialization, and what do current trends suggest is happening to them? Urbanization of society , institutionalization of work, atomization of the family 5. What will the advent of a comparable global wage" mean for labor in developed countries? Raise workers wages for freely traded goods and services in developing nations

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Article 4 Globalization's Effects on the Environment 1. According to the author of this article, what is the real problem for the world environment? Lack of key institutions: 1. Rule of law 2. Property rights 3. Free and open Markets. 2. What does the data from the Index of Economic Freedom show with regard to countries with the most economic freedom? They enjoy higher rates of long term economic growth and prosperity than those with less economic freedom. 3. Why will global air pollution levels continue to rise? Because most of the worlds population earned per capita incomes well below est. turning points. 4. How do poor countries and richer countries compare in terms of the levels of pollution present? High pollution= lower income countries, lower pollution= grow out with wealth 5. What is the relationship between property rights and environmental degradation? Makes no sense to exploit and destroy your own property ownership creates long term perspective to preserving and protecting property.

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Article 5 Do Global Attitudes and Behaviors Support Sustainable Development? 1. What did the 2002 survey of Americans show with regard to their opinions about nature? Nature has intrinsic value and humans have moral duties and obligations to animals, plants, and non living nature (rocks, air, water) 2. According to the article, which nations had a majority of their respondents to the survey indicate that their governments were doing too much to help the poor? US & Phillipines 3. According to the survey results, what kind of society did people globally prefer? Competitive 4. What type of energy technology was most preferred by survey respondents in Europe? Renewable: solar, wind, biomass 5. What did the survey results indicate regarding respondents and their feelings toward technology? 67% increased emphasis on tech development is good thing, 9% bad

VALU 191

The Environment and Society 4/11/2013

Supplemental Lecture Material 1. How much has the global temperature changed? .74 +/18degrees C (1.33 degrees +/- .32degrees F) 2. What is the difference between the environmental problems of global warming and the ozone hole (i.e. ozone depletion)?

Differences: Global warming is an increase in surface temperatures. The hole in the ozone layer is a natural repeating phenomenon, for the pole that is experiencing winter. Ozone decays naturally with time, and due to forcings by various contaminants. The pole that is experiencing winter receives no UV-C from the Sun, no new ozone is formed, so the poles only receive ozone by diffusion from adjacent areas. The concern is not the "ozone hole" per se, but the documented increase in the size of the ozone hole. Similarities: Both phenomenon have components that are due to the actions of Nature, and some that are due to the actions of Man (the ozone hole gets larger due to the actions of Man, for example). Both portend drastic changes in Man's biome, and the survivability of the host of organisms we depend on for food.

3. What facts do we know about greenhouse gases?

Global warming is the increase in Earth's surface temperatures. Scientists say that Earth's surface temperatures rose by an estimated 1.3 degrees F in the last hundred years. In fact, eleven of the last twelve years rank among the warmest since temperatures were first recorded in the late 19th century. The chart below plots the global average temperature from the late 19th century to the year 2000. Like glass in a greenhouse, these gases allow the sun's heat through the atmosphere, but then trap much of it near the Earth's surface. For billions of years they have played an important role in maintaining the proper temperatures for life to thrive. But since the Industrial Revolution, human activity has led to a dramatic increase in the amount of these heat-trapping gases. Carbon dioxide levels have risen from pre-Industrial levels of 280 parts per million to 379 parts per million. The amount of methane, another greenhouse gas, has more than doubled. The result has been a measurable warming trend called global climate change or, more specifically, global warming.
Many greenhouse gases occur naturally, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Others such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride

What creates greenhouse gases?

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(SF6) result exclusively from human industrial processes.

What is the

greenhouse effect?

The greenhouse effect is the rise in temperature that the Earth experiences because certain gases in the atmosphere (water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane, for example) trap energy from the sun. Without these gases, heat would escape back into space and Earths average temperature would be about 60F colder. Because of how they warm our world, these gases are referred to as greenhouse gases.

4. What are the predictions for how climate change could impact people? The impacts of climate change across world population

will not be distributed evenly (Smith et al., 2001:957).[9] Some regions and sectors are expected to experience benefits while others will experience costs. With greater levels of warming (greater than 23C by 2100, relative to 1990 temperature levels), it is very likely that benefits will decline and costs increase (IPCC, 2007b:17). Low-latitude and less-developed areas are probably at the greatest risk from climate change (Schneider et al.., 2007:781).[10] With human systems, adaptation potential for climate change impacts is considerable, although the costs of adaptation are largely unknown and potentially large. In a literature assessment, Schneider et al.. (2007:792) concluded, with high confidence, that climate change would likely result in reduced diversity of ecosystems and the extinction of many species.

5. Which groups of people will be most susceptible to climate change or increases in ambient temperatures (especially in the summer)? Warming of the global climate is unequivocal. The global average
surface temperature has increased by about 0.74 C over the last 100 years. The projected increase for Europe between the end of the 20th and 21st centuries varies from 2.3 C to 6 C, depending on the scenario. Man-made greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, particularly from the burning of fossil fuels, are warming the earth. GHGs have increased by 70% over the last four decades, trapping more heat in the lower atmosphere. Even if emissions were to halt immediately, temperatures would still be expected to rise by over 0.6 C this century. In the WHO European Region, the largest increases in emissions have come from the transport sector. Health effects are already observed. Natural disasters, such as heat-waves, floods and droughts, cause severe human suffering, great loss of life and substantial financial loss each year. Since 1990, the International Disaster Database (EM-DAT) has recorded more than 1200 natural events in the WHO European Region, which affected over 48 million people and caused more than 112 000 deaths, at an estimated loss of more than US$ 241 billion. Extreme temperatures caused the highest death tolls. Evidence is growing that climate change is contributing to an increase in the frequency of such disasters. The life of thousands of people may be threatened by more frequent extreme weather events. In Europe, over 70 000 excess deaths were observed in 12 European countries in the heatwave summer of 2003. Summer temperatures as high as those are expected to be the norm by the middle of the century in Europe. Although cold waves are projected to decrease, they will still affect a major part of the European Region, especially in northern latitudes. Poorer households that cannot afford to pay for fuel will be most affected, particularly when

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electricity and heating are cut. The intensity of heavy rain events has increased in the past 50 years. Up to 20% of the European population lives in river basins that are likely to be affected by increased flood hazards. The number of winter floods is projected to rise in northwestern countries, and of flash floods throughout the Region. Coastal flooding is likely to threaten up to 1.6 million more people every year in the European Union. Climate change affects some of the most fundamental prerequisites of health: food, water and air. Crop production is extremely susceptible to climate change. In the European Region, food productivity is projected to decrease in the Mediterranean area, south-eastern Europe and central Asia, where food security is at risk. Crop yields could decrease up to 30% in central Asia by the middle of the 21st century and threaten food security. This may lead to a worsening of malnutrition, especially among the rural poor, whose family income is closely linked to food production. Climate change also raises the issue of food safety. Higher temperatures favour the growth of bacteria in food. Infections with Salmonella spp. rise by 5 10% for each one-degree increase in weekly temperature, at ambient temperatures above 5 C. Water stress is projected to increase over central and southern Europe and central Asia, affecting 1644 million additional people by 2070. Water runoff is projected to increase up to 40% at higher latitudes, and decrease up to 30% in dry regions at mid-latitudes by the middle of this century. In central Asia, around 70% of the total population has access to a safe water supply, but only 25% of the rural population. This disparity contributes to the diarrhoearelated deaths of 13 500 children every year. In 2005, 40 European Member States faced a total of 500 000 premature deaths per year from particulate matter (PM) air pollution. Changes in wind patterns, increased desertification and fires boost the long-range transport of air pollutants. The projected increase in heat-waves in Europe is expected to result in more frequent ozone episodes. During heat-waves mortality is higher when PM and ozone pollution are high. Shifts in the distribution and behaviour of insect and bird species are early signs that biological systems are already responding to climate change. Plant and animal species have shifted northward by hundreds of kilometres and upwards by hundreds of metres; for example, ticks have progressively spread into higher latitudes in Sweden and altitudes in the Czech Republic. This is leading to changes in infectious disease transmission by vectors. The movement of people and goods certainly plays a significant role, as in the case of the introduction of Chikungunya virus to Italy in 2007. As temperatures and precipitation favourable to malaria persist in some areas of Europe and central Asia, climate change may challenge the progress made towards eliminating this disease (from over 90 000 cases in 1995 to only 589 in 2008) in some countries of the WHO European Region. Public health security may be at risk. Climate change can have impacts far beyond the locations where it originates and can create conflicts and competition for resources. In the Mediterranean, a decrease in water availability is anticipated to cause increasing competition between the demands for human consumption and for irrigation by 2025. Recent cuts in energy supply have illustrated the risk of dependency, raising concerns for security and human health: for example over 54% of energy in the European Union is imported. Climate change will affect everybody but everybody is not equally vulnerable. Children are developing organisms with long-term exposure, and are thus most at risk from the effects of climate change. Heat and cold primarily affect elderly people: an unhealthy cardiovascular system and multiple chronic diseases can increase the risk of heat-related mortality. Emergency service providers and labourers in outdoor environments are especially affected by extreme weather events.

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Climate change will have adverse effects on economic growth . Already, more than 60 million people in the eastern part of the Region live in absolute poverty. Climate change may significantly worsen health inequities within and among countries and put additional stress on 1. poorer groups. The global cost of climate change is estimated to be up to 5% of gross domestic product by the end of this century. Thus, climate change threatens to undermine progress made towards the Millennium Development Goals: poverty cannot be eliminated while environmental degradation exacerbates malnutrition, disease and injury.

6. What are the predicted impacts on forests?

that from 60 to over 80% of the species in tropical forests are likely to become extinct in less than 100 years. Given that over half of terrestrial plant and animal species current live in such forests, this projection rivals what took place during the late Triassic extinction event.

7. Along the U.S. coasts, how much have sea levels changed? Rise of .36 inches (9mm) 8. For each degree Celsius, how much of a shift in temperature zones is expected? In the mid-latitude regions (45 to 60 latitude), the
shift is expected to be about 200-300 kilometres for every degree Celsius of warming

9. What is an environment?

The environment is the complex set of physical, geographic, biological, social, cultura,l and political conditions that surround an individual or organism and that ultimately determine its form and the nature of its survival.

10. What are some causes of extinction? Pollution, destruction of habitat, introduced species, overharvesting, taking animals for profit, hunting and trapping, 11. How is the presence of man related to environmental impacts? This is a list of environmental issues that are due to human
activities. These articles relate to the anthropogenic effects on the natural environment.

Anoxic waters Anoxic event Hypoxia Ocean deoxygenation Dead zone Climate change Global warming Global dimming Fossil fuels Sea level rise Greenhouse gas Ocean acidification Shutdown of thermohaline circulation

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Conservation Species extinction Pollinator decline Coral bleaching Holocene extinction Invasive species Poaching Endangered species Energy Energy conservation Renewable energy Efficient energy use Renewable energy commercialization Environmental degradation Eutrophication Habitat destruction Invasive species Environmental health Air quality Asthma Electromagnetic fields Electromagnetic radiation and health Indoor air quality Lead poisoning Sick Building Syndrome Genetic engineering Genetic pollution Genetically modified food controversies Intensive farming Overgrazing Irrigation Monoculture Environmental effects of meat production Slash and burn Pesticide drift Plasticulture Land degradation Land pollution Desertification Soil Soil conservation Soil erosion Soil contamination Soil salination Land use Urban sprawl Habitat fragmentation Habitat destruction Nanotechnology Nanotoxicology Nanopollution Nuclear issues Nuclear fallout Nuclear meltdown Nuclear power Nuclear weapons Nuclear and radiation accidents Nuclear safety High-level radioactive waste management. Overpopulation Burial Water crisis Overpopulation in companion animals Tragedy of the commons Ozone depletion CFC Pollution Light pollution Noise pollution Visual pollution Nonpoint source pollution Point source pollution Water pollution Acid rain Eutrophication Marine pollution Ocean dumping Oil spills Thermal pollution Urban runoff Water crisis Marine debris Microplastics Ocean acidification Ship pollution Wastewater Fish kill Algal bloom Mercury in fish Air pollution Smog Tropospheric ozone Indoor air quality Volatile organic compound Particulate matter Sulphur oxide Reservoirs Environmental impacts of reservoirs Resource depletion Exploitation of natural resources Overdrafting

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Consumerism Consumer capitalism Planned obsolescence Over-consumption Fishing Blast fishing Bottom trawling Cyanide fishing Ghost nets Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing Overfishing Shark finning Whaling Logging Clearcutting Deforestation Illegal logging Mining Acid mine drainage Mountaintop removal mining Slurry impoundments Toxins Chlorofluorocarbons DDT Endocrine disruptors Dioxin Toxic heavy metals Herbicides Pesticides Toxic waste PCB Bioaccumulation Biomagnification Waste E-waste Litter Waste disposal incidents Marine debris Medical waste Landfill Leachate Recycling Incineration Great Pacific Garbage Patch

12. Do the actions of the people in one country impact the environments of people in other countries? How? Weather systems cycle across the globe rain, snow, pollution, etc. 13. How does water consumption create economic problems? [P]rivate ownership of water or, what is called the privatization of water, is
increasingly becoming one of the most serious threats to our to Earths water security. Given our water crisis (One person in six in the world does not have access to clean drinking water. The U.N. predicts that by 2025, two-thirds of the worlds population will not have access to sufficient drinking water.), governments and world monetary institutions are increasingly seeing the privatization of water as a solution to the problem. Put water in the hands of transnational corporations, who, in actuality, see the crisis as an economic opportunity. Fortune magazine has stated: Water promises to be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th century: the precious commodity that determines the wealth of nations. A handful of transnational corporations are taking over the management of public water services, usually with a dramatic increase in the price of water for local residents.

14.

What is a treaty and how are they used? A treaty is an

express agreement under international law entered into by actors in international law, namely sovereign states and international organizations. A treaty may also be known as: (international) agreement, protocol, covenant, convention, exchange of letters, etc. Regardless of the terminology, all of these international agreements under international law are equally treaties and the rules are the same. Treaties can be loosely compared to contracts: both are means of willing parties assuming obligations among themselves, and a party to either that fails to live up to their obligations can be held liable under international law.

15. What is an environmental indicator and how are they used? An environmental indicator tells us about the condition of an ecosystem. A

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good indicator is relatively easy and inexpensive to measure and gives a clear signal of condition. Animal and plant communities often make good indicators because healthy plant and animal communities require quality habitat and ecosystems. Environmental indicators are monitored by federal and state natural resource agencies. Monitoring provides early warning signals of environmental problems, allowing these problems to be solved before they become severe and more expensive or impossible to fix.

16.

The water footprint of a product is an empirical indicator of how much water is consumed, when and where, measured over the whole supply chain of the product. The water footprint is a multidimensional indicator, showing volumes but also making explicit the type of water use (evaporation of rainwater, surface water or groundwater, or pollution of water) and the location and timing of water use. The water footprint of an individual, community or business, is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business. The water footprint shows human appropriation of the worlds limited freshwater resources and thus provides a basis for assessing the impacts of goods and services on freshwater systems and formulating strategies to reduce those impacts.

What is a water footprint?

17. Which category is the highest for water withdrawal in the U.S.? Industrial use 18. How do children born in the U.S. compare to the rest of the world in terms of energy use and natural resource use? 19. What are 3 key elements of sustainable development that are interconnected? Maintain, supply with necessities and nourish, support 20. What is environmental crime? What are examples of environmental crime? Illegal acts which directly harm the environment. Littering, smuggling of ozone depleting substances, illegal trade of exotic, endangered animals, illegal logging, 21. Explain how environmental treaties such as Montreal Protocol can make a difference in addressing global environmental problems. Due to its widespread adoption and
implementation it has been hailed as an example of exceptional international co-operation

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22.

refers to an equitable spatial distribution of burdens and benefits to groups such as racial minorities, residents of economically disadvantaged areas, or residents of developing nations. Environmental justice also includes providing the opportunity for meaningful participation, recognition or awareness of local and/or cultural issues, and ensuring the capability of people to function fully with society.

What is environmental justice?

Vocabulary (10 definitions will be on the test. The terms will be taken from this list.) Anthropogenic Pollution taxes Radiative forcing Ozone depletion Permafrost biotechnology Sustainable development global sustainability Carbon cycle Anthropocentric Carbon sequestration Atlantic conveyor belt Ecological footprint Kyoto Protocol green house effect Montreal Protocol paleoclimatology climate change "sunshine" policy meta-trend

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