1. What do you think of the ecological tax reform proposed on page 145? What are the pros and cons of having such a system?(ex. Can you put a price on air quality? Should you?)
2. Is it essential for humans to become more "connected" to the environment in order to move towards sustainability? How do we as humans disconnect ourselves from nature? How can we re-establish that connection?
3. What does "quality of life" really mean? Would a sustainable lifestyle affect our quality of life? What do we have in our life that we could give up, without jeopardizing our quality of life?
4. What, in your opinion, is the biggest obstacle in the way of a move towards sustainability, and how might that obstacle be overcome?
5. There are certain sustainable practices (i.e. recycling, paper vs. plastic, paper towels vs. cloth) that don't have an extremely significant effect in reducing the ecological footprint. Can these practices do more harm than good by making people feel that they are "doing their part," or are they necessary for a sustainable lifestyle? How can we educate people that the three main factors of the footprint are transportation, housing and food decisions?
1-In what ways can we increase public awareness of our ecological footprints?
2-Why do people ignore issues of sustainability?
3-What are some effective ways to reduce material consumption in everyday life while maintaining livability?
4-How can the issues of sustainability be brought forth on a local level?
1) It seems like in every story we've read about environmental benefits from new technology, the socio-economic factor is what inhibits the project. How can we change this so that technology is in the denominator of the I=PAT equation and still economically and socially beneficial.
2) Through advances in technology can we really significantly reduce our impact on the environment in the long run, or are we just reallocating our ecological impact?
3) On page 10, Marten states, "Sustainable interaction with ecosystems is only possible if demands are kept within bounds." Do you agree? Why or why not?
4) In ecological footprints, we only analyze information for actions that are sustainable, so pollution such as toxic waste and radioactive waste are not taken into account. How do these factors affect our impact on the environment? Does the absence of these factors make ecological footprints less useful/reliable as a sole indicator of environmental impact of a certain action?
5) Think of an example of an unintended consequence from the environment
or on the environment. How could this have been foreseen beforehand?
(download questions with diagrams)
Chapter 2. Class Discussion Questions and Topics
1. Why do positive feedbacks cause the changes in ecosystems to seem sudden?
2. If population of a species grows exponentially so that it goes over its carrying capacity for a certain period of time, would it possible for the species to become extinct due to a rapid decrease in the population afterward?
3. What is earth's carrying capacity for humans? Have we reached the carrying capacity yet? If not, what makes you think that? If yes, do you think humans will undergo a drastic decrease in the population like it was mentioned in question 2? Why or why not? (diagram included-to be displayed in class).
4. The diagram on page 19 shows a competition between two positive feedback loops. Do you think there is a same competitive relationship between countries in terms of using and trading limited resources? If yes, do you think buying resources from other countries is morally wrong? (diagram included-to be displayed in class).
1)Where do you think humans are on the sigmoid curve? Is the human population past the carrying capacity mark, or are we still in the exponential growth period?
2)What might have happened to the human population if people had not been able to develop more productive farming methods when there was population pressure? How might that have affected the current population today and in the future?
3)On page 34, Marten asks "Can we expect another revolution in agricultural technology to elevate the carrying capacity even higher than it is today?" His response to this was "no." Do you agree?
4) How do you think that humans will be able to tell when our population has reached the limit for our population growth and the environment will no longer be able to support our population?
5) Are polygamy and only having the sons with inheritance being allowed to marry reasonable solutions for over population? Besides having government regulation of birth control what are other methods of limiting how big families can get?
6) "The most serious consequence of human overpopulation is the heavy demand on ecosystems for food." (39) Which causes more strain on the environment our demand for food or the waste we produce?
7) Does "community solidarity" (40) contribute to larger ecological footprints?
1. On page 51, the book gives rules on how to obtain a business's survival. What rules would enable new ideas (human culture's mutations) to survive?
2. If, given sustainability as the new idea, will the rules from question (1) still apply? If not, is sustainability still a new idea that can survive in our current society?
3. What are some emerging properties that may evolve from ecosystems and social systems as we establish our sustainability projects on campus? For example might they be counter-intuitive, in denial, etc.
4. Page 49 shows a food web in the island story. Can we produce a money web concerning economy opposed to ecology where parents are producers (of money)?
5. Assuming there are no more places available for people to move when the population exceeds carrying capacity, will people experience a population crash as the insects did on pg. 57?
1) How does the increasing population and its increasing ecological footprint affect the homeostasis of the Earth's ecosystem?
2) How do the relationships between natural, agricultural, and urban ecosystems lead to environmental issues in a landscape mosaic?
3) An urban ecosystem is very different from a natural ecosystem. But, in what ways are the two similar?
4) Can ecological homeostasis regulate the growing population of developing countries or can they disturb ecosystem homeostasis? If they have to compete, who will win?
5) How do natural and urban ecosystems interact through agricultural ecosystems?
1. On p.83, Marten states that urban succession is an analog to ecosystem succession. Pick some of the key ecosystem concepts from pp. 78-83 and draw some analogies in a more specific way than Marten does on p. 83.
2. Marten uses three examples to demonstrate human/ecosystem interaction (forest fires, desertification and over-fishing). Try to develop a systems archetype that encompasses all three examples.
3. These days, many businesses are merging to form larger corporations. What rules of ecological succession might a business leaders want to understand to better manage such a change?
1. Based on the Ecobeaker simulation, what variables would you change to allow for two species to survive? Why?
2. Provide an example in nature of coadaptation. Does coadaptation ever lead to coevolution? What is the difference between the two?
3. What are the minimal components required to have a functioning ecosystem (start with a fish in a fish bowl with water)?
1. What is the economic value of a species of pollinators like bees?
2. In the case of New York deciding to conserve upstream forests rather than construct a new water treatment facility, whet are some of the trade-offs?
3. Did waste exist before humans appeared? If not, at what point in humanity's evolution did waste start to appear?
4. Is there an analogy between food chain efficiency and the efficiency of man-made products?
1. Describe how your religious upbringing affects your perception of nature.
2. How might organized religions help make the transition to sustainability?
3. Did the move towards a monotheistic culture make sustainability more or less likely? Explain.
4. Which view of nature from Figure 9.2 do you think is most accurate? Why?
5. Does teh conceptio of an afterlife tend to reinforce or work against
an ethic of respect for nature? Explain.
1. Are migrants like invasive weeds? If so, how. If not, why not?
2. Give an example of a technology that enhances sustainability. Defend your choice (consider systemic effects).
3. How does one avoid the trap of portable capital in making sustainable decisions?
4. Look at the tragedy of the commons archetype in Senge's appendices and draw a causal loop diagram for one of the "real-world" applications of the archetype listed in the text.
5. In what ways does our culture foster biophilia? Biophobia? Would it make a difference regarding sustainability if our culture fostered biophilia more?
6. Is the positive feedback loop in Fig. 10.4 guaranteed to lead to an less sustainable society?
7. What does resilience have to do with sustainability?
8. Is there wisdom to the precautionary principle? If so, is it a hallmark
of our culture? Provide examples.