Global Change 2: Human Impacts
REVIEW SHEET: Final Exam
Format - The exam will be worth 150 points. 100 of those points will cover
material from the last third of our class (since midterm II). 50 points of the exam
will be cover material from the first two thirds. You can expect the same general
format: multiple choice, fill in the blank, and short answers.
Helpful Hints - In order to make the most of your exam preparation, we suggest you 1)
study your notes thoroughly, 2) study the web notes thoroughly, 3) check your knowledge
using this review sheet (which covers a great deal of material but, in and of itself, will not
completely prepare you for the exam), 4) go to the review session that will be announced,
5) use your GSIs and Professors, and 6) start studying now!
GOOD LUCK!
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Greenhouse gases and the potential impacts of climate change on China and
the United States
 How do greenhouse gas emissions relate to energy resources and use, land
degradation, urbanization?
 What is the IPCC?
 What is the greenhouse effect: be able to describe how it works, why it is
important to life on earth, and how it is related to human activites
 Name 3 greenhouse gasses other than carbon dioxide
 Understand where historical data of global temperature and carbon dioxide
levels come from (e.g. tree rings, coral, ice cores, etc.). Why are these data
useful?
 What is the average residence time of CO2 in the atmosphere? Why is this
important?
 Past CO2 increases associated with: removal of forest and industrialization.
 Understand what the effects of elevated CO2 are on crops and how this
relates to nutrient availability
 Understand how global warming might affect temperature, sea level,
precipitation patterns, human health.
 Understand how greenhouse gasses might affect cloud formation.
 Do aerosols have a warming or cooling effects?
 China case study: understand no regrets policy. What did the IPCC report
predict (with 2x increase in CO2)? Understand predicted impacts, particularly
to agricultural yield, meat production and fisheries. How might natural areas
be affected? What was the cost-benefit analysis? Recommendations?
 US case study: compare and contrast with China. What are predicted impacts
of climate change on agriculture, human health, economy? Understand key
NAST findings and recommendations.
Ozone depletion and its impacts
Understand and be able to define:
 Troposhere, trophospheric ozone, pollution effects of ozone
 Stratosphere, stratospheric ozone
 Ozone depletion vs. ozone hole.
 Reactive vs. reservoir species
 Ozone creation and depletion
Global Change 2: Human Impacts
 What is the timescale of human-caused ozone depletion, from start to finish?
 Antarctic ozone hole and relationship with temperature.
Be able to discuss:
 Why does an ozone layer exist in the stratosphere? How is it created?
 Why does the ozone layer move as a function of season?
 What is the role of chlorine and CFCs in ozone depletion?
 What are the impacts of ozone depletion on humans? Plant life? Animal life?
Materials?
 How many ozone molecules can a chlorine molecule destroy? Why?
 What is the Montreal protocol, and why is it important? Why was it
successful?
The Economics of Pollution Control at the Local and Global Levels
Understand and be able to define and discuss the following:
 Economy as an open system: economy must extract resources, process
resources, dispose of resources.
 Resource depletion and pollution as an economic problem – what are the
costs and benefits?
 Why are resources such as air and water polluted?
 Cost-benefit analysis and efficient level of pollution control
 Costs and benefits of CFC control.
 Cost internalization
 Hidden costs
 Free market transactions
 Understand the difference between regulatory vs. incentive-based pollution
control policies, and be able to discuss examples of each.
o Advantages and disadvantages of: emission charges, emission
standards, command and control regulation, pollution rights, emission
offsets, the bubble, emissions banking
 Understand why governments may have problems regulating pollution, and
potential alternatives.
 When is pollution control necessary at a global level?
 Understand differences in success of Montreal Protocol vs. Kyoto Protocol
 Understand differences between protocol adoption and ratificaton.
 Key aspects of Kyoto Protocol – its significance, intentions, who participated,
current administration’s standpoint.
 Definitions: What are the differences between a convention, a protocol, and a
treaty? Date of ratification, date of entry into force, date of adoption, date of
signature.
Development and Poverty
Be able to understand and define the following:
 GNP
 Real per capita output
 Personal income
 Poverty income threshold
 Capital
 Poverty definitions: US, World Bank, UN
 Human poverty index and significance for measuring poverty
 Is the gap between the world’s richest and poorest growing or shrinking?
Be able to discuss:
Global Change 2: Human Impacts
What are the steps from GNP to personal income? Why is this important?
What is the importance of reinvestment and savings?
Why is GNP not a good predictor of sustainable development?
How do national wealth and poverty correlate? Poverty and life expectancy?
How does poverty affect the environment?
Why do poor tend to suffer most from environmental degradation?
Do the poor tend to use more or less resources per capita than others?
How do issues of poverty, environmental degradation and population
intertwine?
 Basic causes of low per capita output in less developed countries and how
they interrelate
 How can less developed countries acquire capital and become more
developed?
 Be able to discuss World Bank solutions to poverty, and the role of
development projects. What have they entailed? How have they affected the
poor and the environment? What are possible solutions?
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Achieving Sustainable Development
Be able to understand and define:
 Externalities
 Human-made capital
 Natural capital
 Human capital
 Social capital
 Sustainability: include all types of capital
 Weak sustainability, sensible sustainability, strong sustainability
 Green accounting
 Net National Product
 Green NNP
 Genuine Savings
Be able to discuss and think in-depth on:
 How does GNP measure as an indicator of human progress and well-being?
 How have our perceptions of natural capital changed within the past 100
years?
 How does the valuation of other forms of capital (other than human-made
capital) affect accounting of GNP and of progress?
 What are ways that are used to try to account for the value of natural capital?
 How might development project affect human capital?
 How can we valuate human capital?
 What is sustainable development? How can it be measured?
 How does green accounting affect estimates of GNP? Why?
 What is needed to make sustainable development operational?
Cultural-Political Aspects of Sustainable Development – Professor Curran
“Sustainable development is development that meets the eneds of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
***(This section requires some extra thought. You probably won’t find explicit
answers in your notes. Think through the questions and see if you can explain them
based on Professor Curran’s lecture and other things you’ve learned this semester.)
Global Change 2: Human Impacts
Understand why the following questions about sustainable development are
important.
 What is to be sustained? [ecological, economic, sociopolitical sustainability]
 For how long?
 Who gets to decide?
Understand and explain the following concepts:
 Overdeveloped nations and the poverty of affluence
 Ecodevelopment
 Social justice
 Sustainability as a normative ethical principle
Understand the difference between mainstream and alternative strategies to
sustainable development.
 Which perspective is best used to tackle global environmental problems?
 Where do technical tinkerers and radical reformers fit into efforts toward
sustainable development?
Know important ingredients to sustainable development?
 Effective governance
 Social cohesion
 Institution-building
 Government competence
 Non-governmental and community based organization’s participation
Understand the importance of civic-participation.
 Sharing of wealth
 Sharing of power
 Social self-determination
 Community self-reliance
 Cultural integrity
 Problem-solving capabilities
 Individual development and fulfillment outside of materialism
Land and Resource Tenure Systems. Understand and explain the interconnections
among:
 Resource rights
 Land rights
 Property rights
 Human rights
 Displacement
 Marginalization
 Power
Property Rights must be:
 Well-defined
 Exclusive
 Secure
 Indefinite
 Enforceable
 Transferable
What is the “noble savage” argument and what does it have to do with land and
resource tenure systems?
Why must property rights draw their fundamental legitimacy from the community
rather than individuals or the nation-state?
What are the advantages of community based management systems?
Define:
 Institutions
Global Change 2: Human Impacts
 Property rights
 Common property
 The exclusion problem
 The subtractability problem.
What are the conditions that allow for a successfully managed sustainable
development project? Consider:
 Power
 Resource control
 Value and discount rates
 Checks and balances
 External and Internal stability
 Self-determination
 Problem-solving capabilities, etc
Be able to reproduce these particular case studies – Professor Curran
Case Study I – Indonesia
Case Study II – South Africa
Analytical Tools for Looking Ahead – Professor Ness
Guiding Questions:
 Why do we need to look ahead?
 How do we look ahead?
 What are models? What are models of the mind, and constructed dynamic
models?
 What are global models and how do they differ from local or regional models?
Understand and Explain:
 Overshoot
 The importance of models
 Projection
 Assumptions
What are the five major lessons to be learned from projections?
 Fertility
 World populations
 Population distribution
 Aging
 Growth in young male populations
What can models tell us about the possibility of sustainability?
Know case studies and the utility of models there:
 Pakistan
 Khon Kaen, Thailand
 Pusan South Korea
 Kobe, Japan
Review and understand Professor Ness’ concluding remarks in his notes.
Role of Technology in Development – Professor Carroll
Guiding Questions:
 How has the information technology advanced in recent history?
 What is the role of these technologies in squandering and/or saving our
natural resources?
 What conditions optimize invention and innovation and facilitate the
acquisition of technology?
 What are some of the negatives associated with technological change?
Global Change 2: Human Impacts
 What are the recommended roles for overnment, the private sector, and the
scientific, research and development communities?
Understand and explain:
 Growth of information Technology facts (page 1 of Professor Carroll’s notes)
 Role of technologies in the conservation and loss of natural resources
 The bad news and the good news
 Conditions that encourage inventions and innovations
 Negative impacts of new technology
 Opportunities and Strategies by sector
- agriculture
- manufacturing and services
- environment and energy
- health
- education
 Health sector research and development needs
 Symposium participants’ recommendations for institutional roles
- Government
- Private Sector
- Scientific and Research Community
- Development Community
 Success stories