SOCECOL E8 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Hurricane Preparedness For New Orleans, Overfishing, Southern California
16 Jun 2018
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Why Won’t We Act?
• Why won’t humanity act to confront and reverse the negative trends which are so evident?
1. Lourie’s seven reasons why we don’t act:
○Our friends or cultural group aren’t taking action/don’t believe
○Doing so contradicts a fundamental belief or value
○It will cost too much
○It will be inconvenient
○It won’t affect us personally
○It won’t happen for a long time
○The solution is unclear
• Is it possible to chart a course toward a more sustainable future for the Planet?
●How are three types of “Environmental Surprise” defined?
○Discontinuity: an abrupt shift in trend or a previously stable table. For example,
overfishing can cause population crash
○Synergism: several phenomena combine to produce an effect that is greater than
would have been expected from adding up their effects taken separately
○Unnoticed trend: an unnoticed trend even if it produces no discontinuities or
synergism, ay still do a surprising amount of damage before it is discovered.
● How do we apply Environmental Surprise to the cases of Hurricanes Pam, Katrina and
Sandy?
○Hurricane Pam was a simulated hurricane to help plan in need of an emergency
○Hurricane Katrina:
■ discontinuity - hurricane level was at 5 than the intended level of 3
■Synergism: loss of wetland ,geographic shape of the city, warmer water,
problem with evacuation
■Unnoticed trend: impact of climate change
○Hurricane sandy
■Discontinuity: direction of the hurricane, predicted to go a certain
direction but instead changed course of direction
■Synergism: warmer water, two joined superstorms
■Unnoticed trend: impact of climate change
●Why is it difficult to access clean water in both local and global context?
○Globally the water in undrinkable and filled with pollution
○Local context:
■Drought, increasing competition, expensive to build reservoirs, depleting
groundwater, and ownership of rainwater
Document Summary
Why won"t we act: why won"t humanity act to confront and reverse the negative trends which are so evident, lourie"s seven reasons why we don"t act: Our friends or cultural group aren"t taking action/don"t believe. Doing so contradicts a fundamental belief or value. It won"t happen for a long time. Discontinuity: an abrupt shift in trend or a previously stable table. Synergism: several phenomena combine to produce an effect that is greater than would have been expected from adding up their effects taken separately. Unnoticed trend: an unnoticed trend even if it produces no discontinuities or synergism, ay still do a surprising amount of damage before it is discovered. How do we apply environmental surprise to the cases of hurricanes pam, katrina and. Hurricane pam was a simulated hurricane to help plan in need of an emergency. Discontinuity - hurricane level was at 5 than the intended level of 3.
