GEOG 210 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Incineration, Endangerment, Toxic Waste
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Reading 1: Chapter 12
The Environment
Sustainable Development
• Balance: the need to integrate the environment into our
decision making
• Ecosystem: environmental assessment should be completed;
reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production
and consumption; conserve biodiversity
• Partnerships: access to information held by public authorities;
opportunities to participate in decision making
• Precautionary Principle: where there are threats of serious or
irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not
be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to
prevent environmental degradation
Ecological Footprint: way to measure human consumption of the
environment
Responding to Global Climate Change
Overview: The Science of Climate Change
• Greenhouse Effect: a natural condition and necessary element
in the earth
o The increased absorption of long-wave radiation from
the earth’s surface is the concern
o This increased absorption is raising earth’s
temperatures
o This can also cause increased natural disasters
• Positive Affects of Climate Change
o More rainfall and longer growing seasons in high
latitudes
o Shifting agricultural land
• Global warming will reduce latitudinal differences
• Kyoto Protocol
• Adapting to Climate Change
o Perceptions, legal requirements, finances, new
technologies
o Adjustment Strategies
! Mitigation: reductions in greenhouse gas
emissions
! Adaptive: how humans alter or adjust their
activities in response to changing climates
o Kyoto Protocol Article 10
! Promotes adaptation technologies to address
climate change
! Intent and purposefulness
! Timing and Duration