GEOG256 Exam 1 Study Guide Lectures 1 7 GEOG256 Environmental Cities and Societies Midterm 1 Study Guide 1 What did Toynbee say about the rise and fall of civilizations Civilizations die from suicide not by murder Rise occurs when creative minorities respond to physical or social challenges in ways that reorient society and cause them to flourish e g when Sumarians converted swamps to irrigation in 5000 BC Decline occurs when nepotism supplants meritocracy e g environmental problems for the Maya Polynesians and Roman Empire 2 Describe what Marsh argued in Man and Nature A man should 1 moderate his activities and 2 develop a morality in respect to his use of the earth His focus was on land 3 What does Jared Diamond list as the causes of societal collapse 4 What is the Russian Dolls model All economic activity should be bent toward social progress and this must be achieved within environmental limits 5 Contrast the Frontier Economics Open Earth with Spaceship Earth Closed Earth models Frontier Economics Open Earth nature is boundless Spaceship Earth Closed Earth the biosphere conditions possibilities 7 What did Rachel Carson focus us on Pollution 8 What was common to most of the approaches to sustainability reviewed by Kidd Concern for future generations thus merging science and values 9 What did Pivo say in class were the key points from Kidd Has shifted towards sustainable development to address the issue of jobs vs environment 10 What is the Great Reconciliation Refers to shift from limits to growth to managing limits sustainable development implies limitsnot absolute limits but limitations imposed by present state of technology and social organizations 11 In your own words contrast the Expansionist and Steady State paradigms Expansionist treat the economy as an open growing independent system lacking any fundamentally important connectedness to an infinite environment aka open earth frontier economics cowboy economics Steady State ecological economists sees the economy as an open growing wholly dependent subsystem of a materially closed non growing finite ecosphere aka closed earth spaceship economics 12 What is Carrying Capacity and what happens if animal populations overshoot it In Population Ecology the number of animals an ecosystem can support without being damaged If animal populations overshoot it the death rate will exceed the birth rate until the population falls back to the carrying capacity Overshoot can damage ecosystems and lower carrying capacity 13 What are some conceptual problems with applying the carrying capacity approach to humans It is not fixed it can change with technology or consumption It is a maximum not an optimum short of die off what standard of well being do we want There are data problems we don t know the planetary capacity Difficult to say a region of the planet can support a certain number when humans transport themselves and resources over vast distances 14 What is the Ehrlich Holdren thesis and what does it suggest explains the level of impact per capita I PxAxT Impact population x affluence x technology 15 What is the Capital Approach to Sustainability What types of capital are there Focuses on population and impacts focus on resource base well being comes from goods and services produced from capital stocks K K can be natural or man made Km man made capital Kn natural made capital 5 Types of Capital manufactured financial human social and natural capital 16 What s the difference between Weak and Strong Sustainability Weak sustainability allows sustainability of Km for Kn Strong sustainability requires constant stock Kn 17 What do proponents of the Material Input approach say should be our objective in order to move toward sustainability What is the ecological rucksack Reduce material input by 10 fold or dematerialization Ecological rucksack is the total amount of stuff that goes into the things that we consume 1 rucksack 15kg of resource consumption per capita and day 18 In Decoupling what is being decoupled from what Decoupling of resource use from economic growth and decoupling of environmental impact from resource use 19 When did Sustainability emerge as a major theme according to Kidd 1972 21 What s growing faster city populations or the amount of land they use Land development 22 What are the 5 equities and why are they relevant to sustainability Why does fairness matter to sustainability according to Haughton 1 Intra generational syn contemporary social equity justice E g Oregon Fisheries 2 Geographical a spatial form of intra generational e g San Bruno Mountain 3 Procedural regulatory and participatory systems that treat people openly and fairly Helps procedures shared knowledge compormoise etc E g back room deal on Tucson infill project 4 Intra generational fairness to future generations The most widely recognized elements of S e g Bay conservation and development commission 5 Interspecies rights of natural objects Emphasis on biodiversity e g Sierra Club vs Morton Fairness matters in sustainability because it promotes corporation and it promotes less waste and pollution 23 What are consumption landscapes see Seto Auto centric low density cities 24 What do Seto et al say are the major characteristics of contemporary urbanization Agriculture outdoor recreation and tourism development domestic livestock and ranching activities resovoirs and other diversions modified fire regimes and silviculture pollution of water air and soil mining lodging construction disease vandilism 25 How do Seto et al describe the contemporary form of cities 26 Why are cities an important focus for people interested in sustainability Cities have certain advantages that create opportunities for sustainability like their compactness inventiveness and dynamic markets Cities are where future growth will occur and is the epicenter for resource use Focus for greenhouse gas issues use 75 of Earth s resources but occupy only 2 of surface 27 When did cities become the home for the majority of the world s population 28 What are some of the advantages cities have over rural places when it comes to sustainability Better land use efficiency less land per capita large enough markets to support niche innovations green roofs distributional efficiency cheaper reclaimed water distribution less transmission waste potential for local productive and consumption efficient waste reuse round put waste heat usage transit options social economy nonprofits citizen groups 30 What are