Value Systems & Worldviews
This worldview places intrinsic value on nature and argues for minimal human interference.
What is ecocentrism?
This 1962 book by Rachel Carson awakened public concern about pesticide pollution.
What is Silent Spring?
A system component that stores matter or energy is called this.
What is a storage (or “stock”)?
In an ecological system, energy cannot be created or destroyed—this is known as the ____ law of thermodynamics.
What is the first law of thermodynamics?
A mode of resource use that preserves the ability of ecosystems to renew themselves.
What is sustainable use / sustainable development?
The worldview that nature is primarily a resource for human use, regulated by laws and policies.
What is anthropocentrism?
The 1986 nuclear accident that influenced how people view technological risks.
What is Chernobyl?
A system where both matter and energy can cross its boundary.
What is an open system?
Over time, energy transformations increase disorder—this principle is the ____ law.
What is the second law of thermodynamics?
The concept that natural resources are part of a capital that must be managed.
What is natural capital?
Name two factors that influence a person’s environmental value system.
Cultural, religious, economic, socio-political, education, family
A disaster in India in 1984 involving methyl isocyanate gas release.
What is the Bhopal Gas Tragedy?
This property arises from the interactions between parts of a system, not from any single part alone.
What is an emergent property?
A system that responds to disturbance and tends to return to original state exhibits this.
What is negative feedback / steady-state equilibrium?
Contrast renewable vs. nonrenewable resources.
Renewable can regenerate within human timescales; nonrenewable are finite (fossil fuels, minerals).
This worldview believes in using technology and innovation to solve environmental problems.
What is technocentrism?
This 1987 international agreement successfully phased out the use of CFCs to protect the ozone layer.
What is the Montreal Protocol?
Name and define two types of feedback loops.
Positive feedback (reinforces change) & negative feedback (stabilizes return to equilibrium)
When a change in a system leads to greater change in the same direction, this is called ____ feedback.
What is positive feedback?
Name one way human societies negatively impact systems in Topic 1 (foundations).
Pollution, habitat destruction, overconsumption, emissions, unsustainable resource use
Explain a conflict that might arise between someone with an ecocentric EVS and someone with a technocentric EVS.
The ecocentric person might oppose large infrastructure projects (like dams) for ecosystem disruption, while a technocentric person supports them for energy or development—leading to tensions over resource use and conservation.
Explain how one of these historical events changed environmental policy or public attitudes.
(e.g., Silent Spring → pesticide regulation, public awareness; Chernobyl → stricter nuclear safety, environmental risk awareness; Bhopal → industrial safety laws)
Describe a case where a systems model is useful, and one limitation of that model.
(Use e.g. climate model, or nutrient cycling model; limitation: oversimplifies, omits variables, assumptions may not hold)
Give one real-world example of positive feedback in an environmental system and explain why it fits.
(E.g., melting ice → less albedo → more warming → more melting)
Propose one strategy to reduce human impact on a system, and discuss a challenge in implementing it.
(E.g., renewable energy adoption, recycling, policy changes; challenge: cost, infrastructure, political will)