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What is your understanding of the following terms and concepts in the context of the related issue
and the key issue of the course? Can you explain them in the context of globalization?
ecological footprint
sustainability
stewardship
resource gap
Kyoto Protocol
container ship
Alberta Tar
Sands
‘BIG’ QUESTIONS:
alternative energy
Explain the concept of an ecological footprint?
Describe all of the things you do, on a daily basis, that make-up your ecological footprint.
Provide a rationale for the data you see in the chart.
Provide a rationale for the data you see in the chart.
What is your ecological footprint? Go to the following website and find out:
http://www.royalsaskmuseum.ca/gallery/life_sciences/footprint_mx_2005.swf
How does your footprint compare with other places in the world?
How many earths would we need if everyone lived like you? ______
How can you reduce your footprint? (try the quiz again and try to reduce your footprint by altering your responses)
Briefly explain the following case studies which explore attempts to promote sustainability:
The Kyoto Protocol
The Alberta Tar Sands
What is your understanding of the following terms and concepts in the context of the related issue
and the key issue of the course? Can you explain them in the context of globalization?
sustainable
development
sustainability
knowledge
economy
HDI
GDP
(Human Development Index)
(Gross Domestic Product)
privatization
Millennium
Development Goals
GNH
(Gross National Happiness)
global climate
change
subsidize
foreign investment
‘BIG’ QUESTIONS:
Explain the following conepts:
sustainable prosperity
sustainable development Sustainable development: the bigger picture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keZmg56ahdM (8:32 min.)
How are the concepts similar and how are they different?
Explain the following concepts as measures of global prosperity:
Gross domestic product (GDP):
Human Development Index (HDI):
The Happy Planet Index (HPI) is an index of human well-being and environmental
impact that was introduced by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) in July 2006.
The index is designed to challenge well-established indices of countries’
development, such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the Human Development
Index (HDI), which are seen as not taking sustainability into account. In particular,
GDP is seen as inappropriate, as the usual ultimate aim of most people is not to be
rich, but to be happy and healthy. Furthermore, it is believed that the notion of
sustainable development requires a measure of the environmental costs of pursuing
those goals.
The HPI is based on general utilitarian principles — that most people want to live
long and fulfilling lives, and the country which is doing the best is the one that allows
its citizens to do so, whilst avoiding infringing on the opportunity of future people and
people in other countries to do the same. In effect it operationalises the IUCN's
(World Conservation Union) call for a metric capable of measuring 'the production of
human well-being (not necessarily material goods) per unit of extraction of or
imposition upon nature'. Human well-being is operationalised as Happy Life
Years.Extraction of or imposition upon nature is proxied for using the ecological
footprint per capita, which attempts to estimate the amount of natural resources
required to sustain a given country's lifestyle. A country with a large per capita ecological footprint uses more than its fair
share of resources, both by drawing resources from other countries, and also by causing permanent damage to the
planet which will impact future generations.
As such, the HPI is not a measure of which are the happiest countries in the world. Countries with relatively high levels of
life satisfaction, as measured in surveys, are found from the very top (Colombia in 6th place) to the very bottom (the USA
in 114th place) of the rank order. The HPI is best conceived as a measure of the environmental efficiency of supporting
well-being in a given country. Such efficiency could emerge in a country with a medium environmental impact (e.g. Costa
Rica) and very high well-being, but it could also emerge in a country with only mediocre well-being, but very low
environmental impact (e.g. Vietnam).
Each country’s HPI value is a function of its average
subjective life satisfaction, life expectancy at birth,
and ecological footprint per capita. The exact
function is a little more complex, but conceptually it
approximates multiplying life satisfaction and life
expectancy, and dividing that by the ecological
footprint. Most of the life satisfaction data is taken
from the World Values Survey and World Database
of Happiness, but some is drawn from other
surveys, and some is estimated using statistical
regression techniques.
The concept of gross national happiness (GNH)
was developed in an attempt to define an indicator
that measures quality of life or social progress in more holistic and psychological terms than gross domestic
product (GDP).
The term was coined in 1972 by Bhutan's former
King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who has
opened Bhutan to the age of modernization,
soon after the demise of his father, King Jigme
Dorji Wangchuk. He used the phrase to signal
his commitment to building an economy that
would serve Bhutan's unique culture based on
Buddhist spiritual values. At first offered as a
casual, offhand remark, the concept was taken
seriously, as the Centre for Bhutan Studies,
under the leadership of Karma Ura, developed a sophisticated survey instrument to measure the population's general
level of well-being. The Canadian health epidemiologist Michael Pennock had a major role in the design of the instrument,
and uses (what he calls) a "de-Bhutanized" version of the survey in his work in Victoria, British Columbia. Ura and
Pennock have also collaborated on the development of policy screening tools which can be used to examine the potential
impacts of projects or programs on GNH. These tools are available on the grossnationalhappiness.com website.
Like many psychological and social indicators, GNH is somewhat easier to state than to define with mathematical
precision. Nonetheless, it serves as a unifying vision for Bhutan's five-year planning process and all the derived planning
documents that guide the economic and development plans of the country. Proposed policies in Bhutan must pass a GNH
review based on a GNH impact statement that is similar in nature to the Environmental Impact Statement required for
development in the U.S.
Watch the youtube clip on Bhutan and answer the following questions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXJwNSkdTH0
1) What did you like the most about the small country of Bhutan?
2) What did you like the least about the small country of Bhutan?
3) What lessons do you think we, as Canadians, can learn from Bhutan?
How is water connected to sustainable prosperity and sustainable development? Watch the clip on
bottled water from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se12y9hSOM0
Identify at least two different perspectives on the following issues that
fall under the heading of trade liberalization and sustainable prosperity:
ie, American farmer
ie, developing country farmer
farm
subsidies
ie, worker in the manufacturing sector
ie, big business owner
knowledge economy
ie, supporter of privatization
ie, opponent of privatization
privatization
ie, supporter of foreign investment
ie, opponent of foreign investment
foreign investment