ESS General
What does ESS means? And what are we studying?
Environmental Systems and Societies, which is a course that contains various sciences, coupled with a societal viewpoint, all intertwined to help you understand the environment and its sustainability.
What is the Gaia Hypothesis?
Is a theory that states that Earth is a synergistic, self-regulating system. The Earth functions as an organism.
What is an ecocentric EVS?
A point of view of the environment that integrates social, spiritual and environmental dimensions into a holistic ideal.
What are the four characteristics of a system?
Flows, storages, transfers and transformations.
What is the first law of thermodynamics?
What is the IA?
The internal Assessement, is an investigation to identify a ESS issue and develop a methodology to generate data and knowledge to understand better the issue and propose solutions or alternatives.
What is an EVS?
An EVS is a worldview or paradigm that shapes the way an individual, or group of people, perceives and evaluates environmental issues, influenced by cultural, religious, economic and socio-political contexts.
Which environmental philosophy states that the humans must sustainably manage the global system?
Anthropocentric EVS.
What is the Biosphere?
The biosphere is the layer of the planet Earth where life exists.
What is entropy?
The measurement of disorder in a system.
What is outline?
Give a brief account or summary
Why is an EVS considered a system? (Hint: The elements are education, experiences, culture media, actions, decisions, evaluations)
An EVS might be considered as a system in the sense that it may be influenced by education, experience, culture and media (inputs), and involves a set of interrelated premises, values and arguments that can generate consistent decisions and evaluations (outputs).
What is the Cornacupian worldview?
It is a worldview that believes that continued progress and provision of material needs for humanity will be met by continued technological advances.
Identify if the following examples are transfers or transformations.
a) Food web
b) Precipitation
c)Eating a delicious elotito
d)Plants making starch from glucose
a) Transfer (chemical energy -> chemical energy)
b) Transfer
c) Transfer
d) Transformation
What is the role of the producers in an ecosystem?
Producers transform light energy from the sun into chemical energy (photosynthesis)
What percentage of the final evaluation does the IA accounts for?
25% of your final grade.
What idea was introduced in the Brundtland Report?
Sustainable development.
What is the difference between deep ecologists and soft ecologists?
Soft ecology: self-sufficiency in resource management. Ecological understand a principle for all aspect of living. Shun large scale profit motives for action, for small-scale community orientated schemes.
Deep ecology: a need for spiritual revolution to fix environmental problems is at the core of all environmental issues. Nature is at the center, equal rights for species. (nature before human)
State the two types of flows that exist in systems and models. Give an example of each in the water cycle.
Evaporation (output), Precipitation (input).
If the producers obtain 300 J from the sun and only 45 J are transferred to the secondary consumers. How much energy is being lost (in percentage)?
85%
What are the evaluations in the ESS course?
Internal Assessment 25%
Paper 1 Case Study 25%
Paper 2 External Assessment 50%
Define paradigm.
A distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitutes legitimate contributions to a field.
State what is the Kyoto Protocol.
The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which commits its Parties by setting internationally binding emission reduction targets.
Define emergent property and give an example.
An emergent property is a property which a collection or complex system has, but which the individual members do not have. A failure to realize that a property is emergent, or supervenient, leads to the fallacy of division.
Example depends :)
How is energy used in an ecosystem? (Hint: they are two main process, one is using it and the other is loosing it)
Work (to use it) and heat (to loose it)