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Flashcards · IB Diploma Programme Environmental Systems and Societies · Topic 1

Foundation flashcards

20 cards on Topic 1, subtopics 1.1 to 1.3. Pick a subtopic or study them all.

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1.1 Perspectives

What is an environmental value system (EVS)?
The worldview that shapes how a person or group sees and judges environmental issues. A perspective is how someone sees one particular issue; a worldview is the wider set of beliefs and values behind it.
Ecocentric, anthropocentric and technocentric: what does each believe?
Ecocentric: nature has value in itself (deep ecologists, self-reliance soft ecologists). Anthropocentric: manage nature for human benefit (environmental managers). Technocentric: technology will solve environmental problems (cornucopians).
How can an EVS be described as a system?
Inputs: culture, religion, education, media, experience, economic position. Processing: values. Outputs: decisions, actions and arguments.
Name five events often used as examples of shifts in environmental perspectives
Silent Spring (1962), Chernobyl (1986), the Montreal Protocol (1987), the Brundtland Report (1987) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (2015, 17 goals).
How do you label a stakeholder's EVS from a source?
Find their own words or actions; ask what they value most (nature itself, human benefit, or a technical fix); name the EVS; quote the evidence and explain the link. If the position is mixed, place it on the spectrum and say why.
A politician says new desalination plants mean the country will never run short of water. Which EVS is this?
Technocentric: it trusts technology to remove the limit.

1.2 Systems

Transfer versus transformation in a system
Transfer: a flow with no change of form or state (river flow, grazing). Transformation: a flow with a change of form or state (evaporation, photosynthesis, respiration).
Open, closed and isolated systems
Open: both energy and matter cross the boundary. Closed: only energy crosses. Isolated: neither crosses.
Steady-state equilibrium versus static equilibrium
Steady-state: an open system with continuing flows that fluctuates around an average. Static: no change at all; found in non-living systems.
Negative versus positive feedback
Negative feedback reduces a change and stabilises the system. Positive feedback amplifies a change and destabilises it. The words describe the direction of the effect, not whether it is good or bad.
What are a tipping point and resilience?
Tipping point: a threshold beyond which a small change causes a large, often long-lasting shift. Resilience: the ability of a system to absorb disturbance and keep the same state. It rises with diversity, large storages, fast recovery rates and a wide geographic range.
How do you calculate the change in a storage?
Net change per time = total inputs − total outputs. New storage = old storage + net change × number of time steps. Example: 500 units, inputs 80, outputs 95 per year → −15 per year → 440 units after 4 years.
Strengths and limitations of models
Strengths: they simplify, predict, allow testing and communicate. Limitations: they omit factors, rest on assumptions, are sensitive to input data and become less accurate the further ahead they predict.

1.3 Sustainability

What is sustainability?
Using resources to meet present needs without reducing the ability of future generations to meet theirs. A plan must be judged on all three pillars: environmental, social and economic.
Natural capital versus natural income
Natural capital: the stock of natural resources (the forest). Natural income: the yield that can be taken from the stock each year without reducing it (the yearly timber growth).
How do you test whether a harvest is sustainable?
Natural income = stock × growth rate. Compare the harvest with it: harvest ≤ income is sustainable; harvest > income depletes the capital. Example: 20,000 t fish stock growing 6% a year → income 1,200 t; a 1,500 t catch is not sustainable.
Ecological footprint versus biocapacity
Ecological footprint (EF): the land and water area needed to supply a population and absorb its waste, in global hectares (gha). Biocapacity: the area actually available. EF > biocapacity is an ecological deficit; EF < biocapacity is a reserve.
Name the four categories of ecosystem services
Provisioning (food, timber, water), regulating (for example pollination, climate and flood regulation), cultural (recreation, spiritual value) and supporting (soil formation, nutrient cycling).
Planetary boundaries versus doughnut economics
Planetary boundaries: nine Earth-system limits (Rockström and colleagues, 2009) — environmental limits only. Doughnut economics adds a social foundation (inner ring: basic needs) below the ecological ceiling (outer ring); the aim is the space between.
What are the stages of an environmental impact assessment (EIA)?
Baseline study → predict impacts → mitigation → report → decision → monitoring. An EIA predicts and reduces impacts; it does not guarantee that harm will not happen.

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