EVSC 100 Study Guide - Final Guide: Ecological Footprint, Sweet Potato, Global Hectare

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Environmental Science
• Course: EVSC 100
• Professor: All

Document Summary

Spaceship earth and easter island: spaceship earth. Resources necessary to sustain life are limited to those already contained on planet earth. Natural capital: natural resources must be available in minimal quantities needed to sustain life, and in much larger amounts in economic systems that are growing over time, easter island. Small, isolated island in the southern pacific ocean. Brought chicken and sweet potato; hunted fish, porpoises and rats. Transported monoliths to resting sites by rolling them on logs: widespread deforestation. Trees also used for fuel, building construction and fishing boats. Without forests, the society began to collapse. 1772: few remaining residents living in caves, engaged in warfare and cannibalism. Lesson: minimum natural capital required to support societies. Carbon represents the amount of forest land that could sequester co2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, excluding the fraction absorbed by the oceans which leads to acidification.