Waste disposal and recycling
Which country leads in global waste trade (3 million tonnes of waste plastic and 15 million tonnes of paper and cardboard a year)?
China
A human population can potentially grow at a geometric/exponential rate (2, 4, 8, 16, 32…), while improvements in food production from the land could, at best, increase at an ............. rate (1, 2, 3, 4, 5…).
arithmetic
What does Boserup’s optimistic theory claim?
That population growth stimulates resource development (more hands to work and innovate minds).
What is stewardship?
An approach to resource management which views humans as ‘caretakers’ of the natural world.
What is Goal 2?
Zero hunger
Owing to cheaper labour costs and fewer health and safety regulations, in which two countries do the vast majority of global shipbreaking take place?
Bangladesh and India
Which country's population policy is often described as a Malthusian example of a ‘negative preventive check’ on population growth.
China’s one-child rule
Boserup's argument is likened often to an old saying. Which?
‘Necessity is the mother of invention’.
Give one example of marine resource stewardship.
National fishing quotas set by the EU Common Fisheries Policy or catch limits (no cod nor prawns to be caught in the Oslo Fjord this year).
With reference to Goal 2, how many people worldwide still lack access to adequate food?
About 800 million people.
Recycling of aluminium cans saves how many percent of the energy required to make the same amount of aluminium from its virgin source?
95%
Which neo-Malthusian theorist believed that the earth’s carrying capacity would quickly be exceeded, resulting in widespread famine and population reductions.
Paul Ehrlich ("The Population Bomb").
What did Julian Simon argue about scarcity?
That the true measure of scarcity is price.
What is the definition of sustainable development?
Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
What are Goal 6 and Goal 7?
Clean water and sanitation (6) and
Affordable and clean energy (7)
Which convention did the EU sign in 1989 to counter exports of hazardous electrical and electronic waste, specifically to less developed countries.
The Basel Convention.
What did the Club of Rome argue?
That the world is fast approaching (within 100 years) a point where a positive check (like famine, disease or war) to further growth is inevitable.
What were three reasons given by Julian Simon for why the estimates of known reserves for many natural resources have to be revised upwards.
A combination of new discoveries, recycling, and new technology allows less concentrated deposits to be used and previously inaccessible deposits to be mined.
What is circular economy?
An approach to business management and product design that maximizes the efficiency of resource use, and aims ultimately to phase out waste and pollution altogether.
State a figure for the progress of Goal 6.
6.6 billion people, or 91 per cent of the global population, used an improved drinking water source.
But water stress affects more than 2 billion people around the globe, a figure that is projected to rise.
Electronic waste imports into Ghana exceed how many tonnes annually?
200,000 tonnes
What were the five variables that were examined in the Club of Rome's book ‘The Limits to Growth’?
1. World population 2. Industrialization 3. Pollution 4. Food production 5. Resource depletion.
State two reasons why Malthus might be right one day and two reasons why he might continue to be wrong.
Right: WFE nexus and climate change challenges, population growth and changing aspirations.
Wrong: Brainpower (human ingenuity) and technological fixes like using solar power to desalinate seawater for agriculture in deserts etc.)
A circular economy is based on the principles of designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems.
Give a concrete example of circular economy.
Bybonden.
The Ocean Bottle.
State a figure for the progress of Goal 7.
Some 3 billion people, over 40 per cent of the world’s population, relied on polluting and unhealthy fuels for cooking.
Modern renewables grew rapidly, at a rate of 4 per cent a year between 2010 and 2012.