Environment, Nature, and Change
These molecules, including CO2 and CH4 (methane), have geometric configurations that enable most incoming solar radiation to pass through them, but trap heat re-emitted from the earth’s surface.
Greenhouse gasses
This Swedish naturalist is considered the father of modern biological taxonomy.
Carl Linnaeus
This famous curve shows that although many poor people and some extremely wealthy people saw their incomes rise dramatically in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, people in the global upper middle class—including many normal folks in Europe and North America—didn’t.
Elephant curve
This is the transition zone between unoccupied land and human development
Wildland Urban Interface (WUI)
This is the idea that political and market systems should strive to maximize the greatest benefit for the most people for the longest time.
Utilitarianism
The change of species in an ecological community over time is the concept of
Succession
In her article on the Sixth Mass Extinction, what does Elizabeth Kolbert argue is currently the largest driver of global amphibian declines?
Chytridiomycosis (caused by the Bd fungus)
Environmental planning in the US often involves working at different levels of government, and questions about the relative powers of the states vs the federal government. This system of government where power is divided and shared between a central national government, and smaller regional governments, such as states, is called:
Federalism
This is an example of human vulnerability to environmental stressors that we learned about in the Preps
Many possibilities here
This is the idea that—based on self-interest, and in the absence of government regulation or private property rights—people will tend to overuse resources before others do the same.
Tragedy of the commons
This is the interdisciplinary scientific field that studies our planet as a complex, dynamic, and non-linear “system of systems”.
Earth system science
This is the idea that we should value diverse methods and approaches to gathering knowledge in an interdisciplinary field like environmental studies.
Pluralism
This is the movement aimed at the systematic and democratic reduction of production and consumption as a solution to socio-ecological crises
Degrowth
Whereas _____ is the statistical probability of a harmful effect on human health or ecological systems resulting from an environmental stressor, _______ describes the more subjective characteristics and circumstances of an individual or community that expose it to a hazard.
risk…vulnerability
In her guest talk, and in her book, Rosanna Xia said this is the most effective way to start sensitive conversations with people about coastal erosion and sea level rise
Finding common ground in shared values
According to John Holdren’s 2006 article, societies have three broad options for responding to climate change.
Mitigation, adaptation, and suffering
Globally, 34 regions are considered _______ of biodiversity, owing to their high numbers of native and endemic species.
The term ________ refers to an actual relationship between two variables or phenomena, whereas the term ________ refers to a relationship that is unclear, indirect, or nonexistent.
Causation…correlation
This is something inherent to all environmental problems that makes it hard to characterize the issue with just one form of evidence
Uncertainty
This is the idea that shifting to a low-carbon society may disproportionately affect some people and groups, and that society owes it to these people and groups to support them in making this shift.
A just transition
________ says that the same gradual processes that have always shaped life on Earth continue to do so today, whereas ________ points out that the earth's history has been shaped by rare, unpredictable, and occasionally transformative events.
Uniformitarianism…catastrophism
________ are large-scale processes that create the general conditions for change, whereas ________ are smaller-scale events that cause change in specific, tangible ways.
Driving Forces…proximate causes
Under the US Constitution, the federal government has only _______ powers, but laws passed under these powers are ______ to those of the states.
enumerated…supreme
This is an example of how market forces increase the vulnerability of California citizens to wildfires
Possible answers:
Building closer to/expanding WUI.
Insurance not covering wildfires - less wealthy hardest hit.
This is compensation given to acknowledge and repair the causes and consequences of human rights violations, such as racial injustices and legacies of colonialization