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ENVS 56 Midterm Questions & Detailed Answers 2024
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ENVS 56 Midterm Questions & Detailed Answers 2024
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ENVS 56 Midtermmajor impacts of global warming - ANS 1. agricultural output
2. natural ecosystems-->ocean acidification
3. sea-level rise
Four economic questions addressed in the book - ANS 1. How much pollution is
too much?
2.. Is government up to the job?
3. How can we do better?
4. Can we resolve global issues?
positive and negative feedback - ANS Causes uncertainty in predicting the degree
of global warming. Changing temperatures affect different parts of the earth and
its surface, leading to either and acceleration of the warming (positive feedback)
or a deceleration (negative feedback)
runaway greenhouse effect - ANS initial warming will feed on itself. triggered by
the positive feedback effect
Kyoto global warming treaty - ANS Accord requiring participating countries to
reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases
-poor countries (including india and china) were explicitly excluded bc rich
countries should shoulder initial burden of developing tech. to make it affordable
,-Bush pulled US out bc said we couldn't afford to tackle global warming (called for
"voluntary" action
Stern & Nordhaus - ANS Offered differing options of net benefits of reducing
emissions.
- Stern said global warming would reduce global output of goods & services from
5-20%.
-Nordhaus said impacts would be 3%
- "deep cuts" vs. "start slow, ramp up."
- both did come to the conclusion that global warming should be held below 4
degrees F
Differences of Stern & Nordhaus: - ANS 1. how much warming will be generated by
business-as-usual
2. the costs of acting to slow climate change
3. the costs of inaction
efficiency standard - ANS the use of benefit-cost analysis by economists to control
pollution only if the measurable monetary benefits of doing so are greater than
the measurable monetary costs.
safety standard - ANS emphasizes fairness. Safety requires reducing pollution to
(socially defined) "safe" levels, unless the costs of doing so are prohibitive
, ecological sustainability - ANS Requires protecting natural ecosystems from major
changes unless the costs of doing so are prohibitive. "can we even put benefit
numbers on things we know nothing about". Stems from uncertainty of potentially
catastrophic costs of climate change.
imperfect information - ANS 1st obstacle to effective gov action. Regulators often
have a hard time obtaining accurate information about the benefits and costs of
pollution reduction
opportunity for political influence - ANS 2nd obstacle to effective gov action.
conservatives - ANS view gov intervention as a necessary evil and argue for as
limited a gov role as possible in all affairs, including environmental
progressives - ANS view government as capable of promoting an activist agenda to
serve the general interest of the public
command-and-control regulation - ANS the current, dominant approach to
environmental protection where gov would regulate CO2 emissions by mandating
adoption of particular types of CO2 abatement technology on, for ex. coal burning
power plants
incentive-based regulation - ANS set emmission targets and leave it up to the
industry to figure out the best way to comply. firms provided with incentives to
reduce emissions: a tax on pollution and cap-and-trade are examples
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