Questions and Answers of A Personal Approach To Sustainability Education

3. Use the calculator at www.myfootprint.org to compare the average housing footprint for each type of house:a. An estate, ranch or farm (1 acre)b. A free standing single family house (1 acre)c. A
2. Use the calculator at www.myfootprint.org to compare the average carbon footprint for each type of housing location: newer suburb, older suburb, rural, and inner city locations.
1. Use the ecological footprint calculator at www.myfootprint.org to calculate your ecological footprint. Then calculate how much it would shrink if you cut the following in half:a. Size of your
7. In the United States wildlife is protected in terrestrial wildlife refuges (https://www.fws.gov/refuges/) and marine protected areas
6. Choose a species that was on the endangered species list (https://www.fws.gov/endangered/)and is now delisted. Do some research on that species, and write a short description of the methods that
5. Go to the IUCN Redlist (http://www.iucnredlist.org/) and choose a species that is now extinct. Do some research on that species, and write a short description of how the species became extinct,
4. Describe an adaptive cycle of an ecosystem other than the ecological succession of a forest described in Section 15.1.
3. Give an example of an ecosystem, and sketch a realistic food web for that ecosystem.
2. Describe a problem caused by an invasive species in the United States.
1. Describe an example of a problem caused by biodiversity loss in the United States.
4. Use Scorecard (http://www.scorecard.org/) to find the major pollutants and polluters in your neighborhood.
3. Find a dose–response curve for an anthropogenic pollutant. Is there a linear relationship?Is there a threshold dose?
2. Give examples of commons-based peer production that reduce waste and pollution.
1. Make lists of examples of the 3 Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle.
5. Use the calculator at www.myfootprint.org to compare the food footprint associated with different food sources:a. Farmers markets, gardens, cooperatives, and other local and fresh sourcesb.
4. Use the calculator at www.myfootprint.org to compare the food footprint of vegan, vegetarian, omnivore, carnivore, and “top of food chain” diets.
3. Research topics to write short papers or give short presentations on:a. Sustainable livestock productionb. Community gardensc. Community supported agricultured. Permaculturee. Biochar
2. Describe a scheme to diversify your food supply portfolio to reduce risk.
1. Summarize the pros and cons of aquaculture, and take a side on whether it should be expanded. Elaborate.
2. Calculate the total and average per capita water footprint for the United States.
1. Describe a scheme to diversify your water supply portfolio to reduce risk.
6. Use the Kaya identity to calculate the carbon footprint of the United States associated with:a. Air travelb. Auto travelc. Coal burning
5. Use the free software BEopt (Building Energy Optimization, available at https://beopt.nrel.gov/) to design an energy efficient home.
4. Describe a scheme to diversify your energy portfolio to reduce risk.
3. Use the “2050 Global Calculator” at http://tool.globalcalculator.org/ to find a combination of variables that limits the global temperature increase to 2°C by 2050.
2. Energy intensity is often defined as the amount of energy used to produce one unit of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Obtain historical data for the last decade on GDP from the U.S.Bureau of
1. What do you think a country like the United Kingdom should do to make up for the discrepancy between consumption rate and maximum sustainable energy production rate?
1. Choose a country other than the United States or the United Kingdom. Acting on behalf of that country, what form of renewable energy would you most invest in? Make your case.
6. Use the U.S. Energy Information Administration website (http://www.eia.gov) to find historical data on consumption of coal and natural gas in the last decade. Plot the data in a spreadsheet and
5. What is the biggest obstacle to the expansion of nuclear power?
4. How do natural gas and nuclear energy production contribute to global climate change mitigation?
3. Name one desirable and one undesirable trait of nuclear power.
2. What is the dominant preferred method of coal mining in the Appalachians?
1. Should clean coal technology be developed, given our energy needs, supply of coal, and economic stability?
3. Visit the URLs in the captions of Figures 7.1 and 7.2. Do updated versions of those figures show any changes in global temperature or atmospheric CO2 concentration over time?*
2. Think about the mitigation and regulation strategies discussed in Sections 8.3.1 and 8.3.2.What combination of these do you think would be most effective, affordable, and realistic?Why? On what
1. What are the three primary approaches to reduce climate impacts in the future? List and give an example of each.
3. Class discussion: Why do so many people refuse to accept that humans are causing GCC?
2. Use the numbers in Figure 7.4 to calculate the average residence time of carbon in the oceans.
1. Think about the environment in and around your hometown. How will its three pillars of sustainability be affected by GCC?
3. Find data on historical prices for the following resources. What do the trends tell you about changes in the relative abundance or scarcity of the resource?a. Oilb. Phosphorousc. Uraniumd.
2. Using data from the most recent annual “Statistical Review of World Energy” report produced by British Petroleum
1. Find updated versions of Figures 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5. Have trends changed, and if so, why?
6. You work for the Gates Foundation, and your budget for the year is $1 billion. Choose a country in the developing world to spend that $1 billion to promote sustainability, that is, improve the
5. Many social experiments are being conducted in communities that aspire to be sustainable.Choose one of the following topics to research and give a presentation on (give references):a.
4. Group project: Devise a plan to build a sustainable city from scratch. Describe the guidelines you would use for choosing a suitable site, and the designs for your sustainable food, water, energy,
3. Choose a city that you think exemplifies unsustainability, one that is likely to become a ghost town or at least be economically depressed in the future and with a falling population.Give
2. Update Figure 5.1. Does the update change any conclusions?
1. Think of or search for one example of unsustainability in a developing country of your choice.What innovations are being/have been put into place to remedy this situation?
7. Calculate the residence time of water in the ocean using data from Figure 4.8.
6. Define positive feedback loop and negative feedback loop in your own words, and give an original example of each.
5. Draw a causal loop diagram illustrating each of the following dynamic processes: forest growth, fish population in a fishery, or fossil fuel depletion. Why is the diagram different for fossil fuel
4. Describe an example of an ecosystem or past society that went through an adaptive cycle.Describe each of the four phases.
3. Identify one society not discussed in the text that collapsed in the past. What do published studies have to say about the cause of the collapse?
2. Use data from the Internet (provide sources) to estimate the average global risk associated with shortages of food, safe drinking water, infectious diseases, air pollution, and (if possible)global
1. Update the charts and tables in this chapter with more recent data. Do the new data lead to conclusions different from those in the text?
9. Use the calculator on the Sustainable World Initiative website (http://swinitiative.com/calculator/) to find a combination of the four factors of population, lifestyles, energy mix, and
8. If population doubled in 25 years, what is the annual growth rate in percent?
7. Calculate the doubling time if the annual growth rate is 3%.
6. In 2016, the global biocapacity was 1.2 × 1010 hectares and human population was 7.4 × 109. What was the global per capita biocapacity in gha and in acres? How does this value compare to the
5. Calculate your ecological footprint at www.myfootprint.org.
4. If you were a scientist visiting a poor community in the developing world, what would you teach them that would significantly improve their lives and make them more sustainable?
3. Propose a new sustainability index. How would you calculate it? Defend your choice of parameters and weightings. What are the advantages and disadvantages of your index?
2. Make a list of five examples of sustainable behavior/development and five examples of unsustainable behavior/development.
1. Use www.gapminder.org to plot a trace of the population of your country over time to see if there is a correlation between:a. HDI and educationb. Fertility and population densityc. Longevity and
3. Imagine you are an alien approaching Earth from space. Your planet has scarce resources, so your culture has developed taboos against wasting them. You see a view similar to one seen from the
2. Choose one of the countries plotted in Figure 2.3. Are its human well-being and ecosystem well-being index scores high or low? Speculate on the reasons why.
1. Use the Internet to find a measure of environmental sustainability other than the Ecosystem Well-being index. Which index do you think is preferable, and why?
What will it take to shift attitudes to waste in developed nations?
What lessons can be drawn from historic shifts in perception and attitudes towards waste?
What are the most promising strategies for reducing global volumes of waste streams?
What are the different pathways for revaluing electronic waste in Bangladesh?
What are some key differences between relatively rich and poor nations on attitudes and practices relating to waste disposal?
What is the difference between recycling and extending the lifespan of material goods? Which is preferable from an environmental perspective and why?
What are some of the factors causing an increase in the volume and complexity of global waste flows?
Within debates about the benefits and pitfalls of cities for social and environmental sustainability, what are the key arguments for and against the city?
What are some of the strategies being implemented in particular cities in the USA, Europe and Australia to contain urban sprawl?
What are some strategies for reducing car dependence within cities?
What are the negative social and environmental consequences of urban sprawl?
What are some of the key environmental and social challenges arising within the burgeoning cities of the ‘developing world’?
What are some of the key differences in the urban form as it has developed in the USA and Europe?
What are some of the key principles for designing and implementing ecologically sensitive food systems?
How can growth-stimulating plant fertilisers be bad for the environment?
What particular concerns have arisen in relation to the capacity of soils to support food production?
What are the key negative environmental impacts of industrial and Green Revolution agriculture?
In what ways does a reliance on market mechanisms undermine the sustainability of global food production and distribution?
What are some of the negative consequences of selective use of agricultural tariffs and subsidies?
What are some of the factors causing food insecurity in much of Africa and in a range of impoverished nations around the world?
Why have the global increases in food production in recent decades failed to deliver significant gains in global food security?
Why is ‘catchment consciousness’ rated so highly by scholars like Carolyn Merchant?
What strategies are needed to reduce water waste and water pollution globally?
What is meant by the notion of ‘environmental flows’?
What can be done to increase public awareness of the rising stresses on marine environments and what could come from increased awareness?
What key insights emerge from focusing on freshwater ecology?
What can be gained by thinking about the global mobility of water molecules within the hydrosphere?
What can be done to get more people to value water more highly?
What do you think of the suggestion that water scarcity can pose increasing problems for international peace and security?
Why has it been suggested that we need to embrace uncertainty and what is meant by the concept of ‘emergence’?
What are the key ingredients for a successful scenarios mapping workshop?
How can scenarios mapping help us to think further into the future?

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