GEOG 227: Our Vulnerable Planet The Great Acceleration

GEOG 227: Our Vulnerable Planet The Great Acceleration

1. Critique how humanity has maximized short-term gains, rather than plan for log-term sustainability?

2. What is some evidence from the book of how human impacts have made changes on Earth?

3. Provide some examples of how the authors use energy as the center of the story they tell.

4. Explain how McNeill and Engelke treat technology as a means of unlocking new energy sources.

5. Analyze why that even if we shift toward non-fossil fuels, the Anthropocene will continue and its consequences will linger for a long time.

6. Chart the emergence of the arrival of the Anthropocene by citing the environmental disasters discussed in the book.

7. What are some of the alternative actions that humans can take that McNeill and Engelke discuss in the book?

8. Define human ecology.

9. Compare and contrast the pollution problems associated with mining coal and oil.

10. Describe the changes in agriculture that occurred due to cheap energy.

11. What is the trend of atmospheric carbon dioxide when comparing the chart on page 75 with a more current chart found online?

12. What is the Kyoto Protocol?

13. What is the sixth extinction? How is the sixth extinction different from the first five extinction events?

14. Summarize the positive aspects of cities.

15. How did industrialization impact cities?

16. Explain how deindustrialization and suburbanization go hand in hand.

17. What were the two reasons why pollution from auto exhaust increased during the postwar era?

18. Generate a list of reasons for the mainstreaming of environmentalism.