1. Review for the Final

2.  You’ve been a great group… I’m going to miss you.   Courtesy of a former student: http://news.sky.com/story/1377035/poo-power-bus- runs-on-gas-from-human-waste http://news.sky.com/story/1377035/poo-power-bus- runs-on-gas-from-human-waste

3.  Courtesy of a former student: Proposals for cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch:  http://www.theoceancleanup.com/ http://www.theoceancleanup.com/  Woman who has lived trash-free for two years:  http://www.collective- evolution.com/2014/11/23/she-hasnt- made-any-trash-in-2-years-this-is-what-her- life-is-like/ http://www.collective- evolution.com/2014/11/23/she-hasnt- made-any-trash-in-2-years-this-is-what-her- life-is-like/

4.  The final is in Building 250, Room 125 on Friday the 24 th from 1 to 4. Be there on time; there will be another class in there at the same time.  The exam will be a mix of short answers and essay questions, with a sprinkling of multiple choice and true-false. The weighting will be on the short answers and essays.  For these, the answers will be evaluated based on how thoroughly you answer the questions (I will indicate minimum lengths), on how coherently and well-structured your answers are, the originality of your analysis where that is called for and, to a much less degree, on the quality and legibility of your hand-writing.

5.  The exam will cover the material from Chapters 12 to 23, even those that were not covered extensively in class, and to a lesser degree key concept from the first couple of weeks.  Key concepts like: carrying capacity, limits to growth, ecological footprint, full world, feedback cycles (positive and negative, and examples of each), environmental science and environmental geography, scientific method, ecosystems, demographic transition.  Difference between environmental scientists and environmentalists.

6.  The sources of air pollution in different parts of the world and its effects.  The nature and sources of climate change, why it is a major threat, and how it ties in with a system of feedback loops.  What caused the ozone layer to thin out.  Different kinds of fossil fuels, their benefits and impacts.  The concept of peak oil.  Alternative conventional fuels, both fossil and others.  Renewable forms of energy, and their strengths and limitations.

7.  The nature of the waste stream in Canada and the U.S. and what can and is being done about it.  Four kinds of environmental hazards.  Ways in which Canada and the U.S. profit from exporting products they themselves have banned.  Why cities are both part of the problem of sustainability and potentially part of the solution.  Definition and origin of urban sprawl.  What the movements ‘smart growth’ and ‘new urbanism’ are about.  Why moving away from automobile dependence towards other forms of transportation and mixed land use is so crucial to making cities more sustainable.

8.  What ethics has to do with our current ecological crisis.  The difference between anthropocentrism, biocentrism, and ecocentrism.  Places in the world where anthropocentrism is being challenged.  In what sense is the current economy both circular and linear?  The conflict between conventional economic perspectives and ecological perspectives.  The notion of (currently) unpriced ecosystem services and externalities.  Some of the key precepts of ecological economics.  Why Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is not necessary an accurate reflection of social well-being.

9.  What is traditional knowledge?  What environmental policies are.  Key elements of environmental policies – for instance, at universities like VIU.  Different approaches to environmental policies.  Different strategies for changing institutions in a more sustainable direction (not limited to what we discussed in class).  Different strategies for changing individuals/ households in a more sustainable direction (not limited to what we discussed in class).  What are some positive things being done in different parts of the world to move us in a more sustainable direction?