GVPT 306 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - International Law, Greenhouse Gas, Climate Change
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
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GVPT 306
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
GVPT 306 Lecture 1: Syllabus
• The World is Changing
o How? Why?
o There are five important global macro-trends:
▪ Population growth
• Population in 1900: ~1 billion
• Population today: ~ 7.5 billion
▪ Global energy use
• More vehicles being driven further
• More goods being bought
▪ Greenhouse gas emissions
• Global growth has been uneven
• Most emissions come from a handful of wealthy industrial
countries such as the United States
• The consequences of environmental problems disproportionately
affect developing countries
▪ Water usage
• Drinking water, irrigation, industrial applications, dams, etc.
• International disputes about water rights, upriver or downriver
pollution, and damming
• About half of the world experiences water scarcity
▪ Household consumption
• Larger houses, more cars per household, more household goods
being bought
• Consumption is concentrated in the developed world
o Motivating Examples
▪ Three Gorges Dam (China)
• Largest dam in the world in terms of capacity
• Chinese development plan seeks to lift millions out of poverty and
increase economic growth
o China is also building coal power plants, solar farms, and
wind farms.
• The dam does not generate greenhouse emissions.
• One and a half million people displaced due to the redirection of its
river.
• The dam decreases the stability of the land around it as well as
disrupting the flow of the river.
▪ Deforestation (Global)
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• Concentrated in Brazil and Indonesia, where there are large
rainforests.
• Palm oil plantations are built on clear-cut land, with the timber
created not necessarily being used.
o Palm oil is used in many consumer products, such as
shampoos and cosmetics.
• Deforestation plays into Brazilian and Indonesian development
goals.
• Forests are often burned rather than cut, releasing greenhouse
gases and reducing the forest’s ability to act as a carbon sink.
▪ Automobiles (Global)
• The U.S. has added 3.6 additional cars each year, on average, since
1950.
• More cars lead to more traffic.
o Traffic problems affect local environments by forcing
jurisdictions to increase the size of roads.
o Cars generate greenhouse gas emissions and particulates.
• Domestic policies in the U.S. have been introduced to curb
automobile emissions, especially in California.
o Vehicle emissions standards are currently in flux.
• Consequences
o Changes to atmosphere and biosphere
▪ Endangered species
▪ Ozone depletion
o Depletion of natural resources
▪ Water scarcity
▪ Deforestation
o From Holocene to Anthropocene
▪ Changes in the last century are extreme enough to begin thinking about
today as a new geologic era.
▪ Anthropocene = (hu)man-controlled
o What consequences might we expect for international relations?
▪ Resource depletion will lead to economic conflict and protectionism.
▪ Exacerbation of the developed country-developing country divide
▪ Increased competition for resources
• Tensions among the Arctic countries regarding navigation and
resource rights
• Possible resource wars or internal conflicts
▪ Refugee crises as regions become uninhabitable, leading to mass
migration.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
International issue emergence: anthropogenic environmental impacts (full set) Shared natural resource problems: shared natural resources are physical or biological systems that extend into or across jurisdictions of at least two states, examples, oil pools, fish stocks, migratory birds, river basins, solutions: Transboundary externality problems: transboundary externalities occur when activities occuring wholly in the jurisdiction of one state affect the welfare of those residing in another, examples, chernobyl, acid rain, rainforest destruction, solutions: Exercise: classifying problems: geoengineering: briefly describe the problem, brainstrom possible solutions. Identify what type of problem the article is describing. Should it be? global warming, etc. : regulating black carbon may provoke industrial opposition (esp. automotive and petroleum industries), black carbon is not as well known as other pollutants. Assignment one: policy memo: scenario: you are working as a policy adviser in the climate office of the u. s. state department. This will not count towards the two-page limit.
