ENV ch 2

• Anthropocentrism


  ethics that considers concerns about humans
• Biocentrism 


  a part of ethics when the interest of all living things are considered
• cap and trade is where a government sets a max emission cap and makes companies buy permits to emit above this
• Utilitarianism 


  ethics that define whats right by determining the least amount of harm possible
• ecocentrisman


  Ethics concerned with all living and non living components of an ecosystem
• Economic system is a chain of exchange that shapes production, distribution and consumption of everyday products
• Externality


  Failure of markets to account for the costs and benefits of goods and services
• Negative externalities


  Impacts someone who isn’t involved in a situation negatively
• Positive externalities


  Benefits received to someone as an indirect effect
• True cost accounting 


  Method of gathering and assessing the direct or indirect costs of a product
• Tragedy of the commons


  When there’s open access to a resource without adequate policies or costs to limit individual use
• Government enforced regulations can stop overexplotion of a resource
• People cause pollution by using matter and energy resources to produce and consume goods
• Concentration orders small to large

  1. 1 pptr
  2. 1 ppb
  3. 1 ppm
  4. 1 g
• Concentration order small to large

  1. ng/L
  2. micrograms
  3. mg/L
  4. g/L
• Smaller the concentration, the more deadly it can be due to its potent ability
• Types of pollutants

  • Non-persistent or biodegradable
  • persistent or non-biodegradable
• Non persistent or biodegradable pollutant


  broken down over time by natural or human mad systems
• Persistent or non biodegradable pollutants

  Forever chemicals
• Pollutants have to hit a threshold to be considered harmful
• Kilo (k)= 10^3
• Milligram(m)= 10^-3
• Microgram= 10^-6
• Ng(n)= 10^-9
• Environmental crisis problem

  impact= n * c * p
• Impact equals…

  1. N= population size
  2. c = per capita rate of consumption
  3. p = per capital rate of waste production
• Burning fossil fuels results in climate change, air pollution and acid precipitation
• Malthusian


  Too many mouths to feed = population grows faster than food, leads to poverty and disease
• Neo-Malthusian 


  small amount of people use resources and create pollution at high rates, leads to obesity