Definitions
How does Arnulf Grubler define technology hardware?
Manufactured objects like tools that enhance human performance, or enable humans to perform tasks they could not perform otherwise
(Grubler, p. 21)
Give one example we discussed in class of why global temperature matters
Extreme temperatures
Drought
Extreme precipitation, floods
Water availability
Biodiversity, ecosystems, and extinction
Sea level
Human impacts (disease, food security, heat-related illness)
Identify one direct cost of installing new solar panels at Eckerd
Expenses directly related to the production or development of a product or service
Labor costs, manufacturing costs, materials costs, etc.
(Various acceptable answers)
According to the National Science Foundation, what source provides the greatest amount of funding for basic research?
Federal Government
Define "environmental change"
A change or disturbance of environment through natural ecological processes
(Johnson et al, 1997)
Define "stakeholders"
Persons and groups that affect, or are affected by, and organization’s decisions, policies, and operations
(Lawrence and Weber, 2008)
Identify one reason why global energy consumption is increasing
Economic Development (agriculture, industry, transportation)
Rising Population (10,000,000,000 by 2058, U.N. projection)
Technology (increasingly powerful technologies require greater energy inputs)
Identify two groups or organizations who are stakeholders in the Eckerd College Community Farm
Students, faculty, dining services (Bon Appetit), College administration, etc.
(Various answers)
Technology evolution is defined by these four characteristics
Uncertainty: Prevails at all stages of technological evolution, from initial design choices, through success or failure in the marketplace, to eventual environmental impacts and spin-off effects
Dynamic: Technology keeps changing all the time
Systemic: Technology is not a discrete, isolated event that concerns only one artifact. It requires a whole host of other technologies
Cumulative: Changes build on previous experience and knowledge
Joseph Schumpeter identified these three phases of technology development
Invention: The first demonstration of the principal, physical feasibility of a proposed new solution
Innovation: The point when a newly discovered material (hardware) or a newly developed technique (software) is being put into regular production for the first time, or when an organized market for the new product is first created
Diffusion: The widespread replication of a technology and its assimilation in a socioeconomic setting
What are opportunity costs?
Lost benefits, or opportunities, that arise when a business pursues one product or strategy over another
According to Grubler, technology "software" refers to know-how, human knowledge, and skills - the “knowledge base” of hardware. What is one example of software?
How to drive a car
Use of a computer
Mathematics to build buildings and rocket ships
Name two benefits and two threats associated with synthetic farming
Benefits: increased yield, pest resistance, less water required, etc.
Threats: altering local ecosystem, challenges with GMOs, unknown consequences of new farming methods, etc.
(Various Answers)
What proportion of the world's energy currently comes from nuclear and renewable sources?
18%
(Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy, 2023)
Stakeholders can exercise four types of power. What are they?
Voting power, economic power, political power, legal power
(Lawrence and Weber, 2008)
According to the U.S. Energy Information Association, energy is defined as what?
The ability to do work
Give one example of technology substitution that we discussed in class
Cars as a substitute for horses
Dr. Emily Yeh identified three approaches to dealing with climate change. One is mitigation. What are the other two?
Adaptation
Loss and Damage
Among the world's top contributors to climate change, twenty companies are responsible for roughly what percent of the world's cumulative CO2 emissions?
35%, or roughly one-third
(The Guardian, via Dr. Emily Yeh)
What is the Gaia Hypothesis?
All living things on earth (the biosphere) function as one super-organism that changes its environment to create conditions that best meet its needs, with the ability to self-regulate critical systems needed to sustain life
(James Lovelock, 1979)
Complete this definition: "A natural environment is one relatively _____ or ______ by human culture"
Unchanged or Undisturbed
(Johnson et al., 1997)
Imagine going for a walk in the woods. Give one example of an activity or action that you might engage in that is natural, and one that is nonnatural
"We humans as an organic species are natural, but the environmental effects of our unique, rapidly evolved, advanced, and artificial culture are not.
By this reasoning, if one urinates in woods it is natural, but if one chops down the woods with an ax, or burns the woods with a match, lighter, rubbing sticks, or other technology, it is nonnatural"
(Johnson et al, 1997)
DAILY DOUBLE
In the next four minutes, conduct a cost-benefit analysis of nuclear power, including all four categories of costs and benefits we discussed in class
Costs: Direct, indirect, intangible, opportunity
Benefits: Direct, indirect, intangible, competitive
(Various Answers)
The most efficient solar cells to date convert about what percent of sunlight into electricity?
46%
(Richard Komp, TEDx)
What is meant by the term "climate justice?"
Climate justice refers the problem that nations and actors who contribute the least to anthropogenic climate change are those who suffer the greatest consequences