INTL 280 Final: INTL 280 Final Study Guide
2 Jul 2018
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STUDY GUIDE for Final Exam, INTL 280, Global Environmental Issues
Questions will come from the following topics:
Review the paradigms covered during the beginning of the course (neoliberal,
state-interventionist, political ecology, indigenous etc), understand them and be able to
apply them to any of the topics listed below. Think, for example, how a person or
institution who ascribes to each paradigm would address the various issues: mining, oil
and gas development, water management, renewable energy development, green
building etc.
Paradigm review:
“Free”-market, neoliberal
○ was epitomized by Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of UK,
somewhat Reagan, Bush 1&2, somewhat Clinton
○ Basic assumption: Development = max economic growth/GDP
○ Growth will trickle down through the “free market"
○ Minimize the role of the state (e.g. trade, financial, env, health, safety
regulations)
○ Environment: growth will bring better environmental technology that will
deal with the negative impacts of development
○ Typically politically conservative viewpoint
●“State Approach”, i.e. state-interventionist/Keynesian
○ President Jimmy Carter of 1970s, Roosevelt, Obama?
○ Development = max economic growth BUT trickle down economics is not
automatic… therefore government needs to redistribute $$ via taxes,
social services etc
○ Environment: also tend believe econ growth will bring better environmental
technology
○ But also believes government needs environmental regulations (NEPA,
CEQA)
○ Many democrats follow this view
●Political Ecologist
○ views politics, economics, and culture as root causes of environmental
change, like “triangle” model, e.g. Eugene Maitreya Ecovillage
○ Our teacher has used this model
○ Development does not equal economics growth
○ Development = health, food, security, clean and undegraded environment,
gender equity, economic well-being for all
○ Global economy / political systems must be radically restructured to
improve the health of the planet and future generations, e.g. by following
indigenous peoples’ models, ecosocialism etc
○ Capitalism or socialism that pushes conventional development not
sustainable (exhausts resources they depend on )
●State Capitalist/state socialist
○ e.g. Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela
○Evo Morales Example:
○“The capitalist economy’s drive to ever-expanding production created a
destructive and unsustainable relationship between human society and the
natural world ...”
○ “The thirst for profit without limits of the capitalist system is destroying the planet.
Under capitalism, we are not human beings, but consumers. Under capitalism,
Mother Earth does not exist. Instead, there are raw materials.”
○“The grave effects of climate change, of the energy, food and financial crises, are
not a product of human beings in general, but rather of the capitalist system as it
is, inhuman, with its idea of unlimited industrial development ... To save planet
Earth, to save life and humanity, we are obliged to end the capitalist system.”
○Morales’s alternative to capitalism: “communitarian socialism” which he describes
as “living well”, as opposed to the capitalist notion of “living better”:
○“For us”, said Morales, “what has failed is the model of ‘living better’, of unlimited
development, industrialization without frontiers, of modernity that deprecates
history, of increasing accumulation of goods at the expense of others and nature.
For that we promote the idea of ‘living well’, in harmony with other human beings
and with our Mother Earth.”
●Indigenous
○ communal, cooperative
○ Buen Vivir/Vivir Bien (Andes): living modestly, not at expense of others or
the earth
○ Ahupuaa Hawaii: “As the native Hawaiians used the resources within their
‘ahupua’a, they practices aloha (respect), laulima (cooperation), and
malaga (stewardship) which resulted in a desirable pono (balance)"
■ not about ruling over the land but learning your place within it
Weeks 6: Deforestation, Habitat Loss and Conservation of
Biodiversity
Understand how policies & projects financed by international financial
institutions (like the World Bank & International Monetary Fund (IMF)) affect
deforestation in the Amazon
○“Ranching has grown by half in the last three years, driven by new industrial
slaughterhouses which are being constructed in the Amazon basin with the help of the
World Bank. The revelation flies in the face of claims from the bank that it is funding
efforts to halt deforestation and reduce the massive greenhouse gas emissions it
causes….The World Bank, which unveiled a new programme to fund "avoided
deforestation" at the UN climate summit in Bali last month, is at the same time pouring
money into the expansion of slaughterhouses in the Amazon region...In a single project
last year, the IFC -- part of the World Bank group -- handed $9m to Brazil's leading beef
processor to upgrade its slaughterhouse operations in the Amazon, despite an
environmental study, carried out for the IFC, which showed that expansion of a single
slaughterhouse in Maraba would lead to the loss of up to 300,000 hectares of forest to
make way for more cattle.” -WB Amazon Deforestation Reading
Why Malthusian models of explaining deforestation are inadequate (see
powerpoint and lecture notes)
● Malthusian Model of deforestation argues: overpopulation → deforestation of the
commons
● Inadequate because:
○ In Brazil deforested areas had declining population + mostly intl
displacement not population increase due to higher birth rates
○ Much deforestation is due to relatively small numbers of people involved in
“private” large-scale cattle ranching and mechanized agro-industrial
farming of export crops
○ Deforestation that is caused by small farmer colonists is often driven by
drought, famine, land concentration, and military regime and later
development strategies
○ In Bolivia deforestation is mostly due to small numbers of people with
machinery that is very effective in clearing forest (large-scale
agro-industrial agriculture, ranching)
■ Low population and low pop density and few inhabit forest areas
■ 70% deforestation due to large-scale agric and ranching, 5% due to
logging, THEN small scale-farmers colonizing forest
■ Colonization by slash and burn farmers caused by gov
development strategies (March to the East, econ crises partly
triggered by debt to World Bank/IMF)
Be able to identify & explain direct and indirect drivers of deforestation in the
tropics.
● Direct
○ Logging
Document Summary
Study guide for final exam, intl 280, global environmental issues. Review the paradigms covered during the beginning of the course (neoliberal, state-interventionist, political ecology, indigenous etc), understand them and be able to apply them to any of the topics listed below. Think, for example, how a person or institution who ascribes to each paradigm would address the various issues: mining, oil and gas development, water management, renewable energy development, green building etc. Was epitomized by margaret thatcher, former prime minister of uk, somewhat reagan, bush 1&2, somewhat clinton. Basic assumption: development = max economic growth/gdp. Growth will trickle down through the free market" Minimize the role of the state (e. g. trade, financial, env, health, safety regulations) Environment: growth will bring better environmental technology that will deal with the negative impacts of development. Development = max economic growth but trickle down economics is not automatic therefore government needs to redistribute 22774 via taxes, social services etc.
