Final Exam Questions - Assignment Example

Provide definitions for the following vocabulary. Sustainability – sustainability is the capa of a program meet present time needs with no or little compromise on future generations’ ability to meet achieve their desirable needs. This effectively is to say the program should be able to maximally tap the benefits of development without negatively impacting or inducing changes resources of nature with time. There should thus be a proactive vision and good economic reason.
The Triple Bottom Line- This is a concept used to measure sustainability of programs by incorporating three crucial dimensions of the programs i.e. social, economic and environment. While assessing whether a program is sustainable the three dimensions should be considered with a view of determining the program’s social impacts, its effects on the environment as well as its economic benefits. A sustainable program therefore is one whose economic benefits are real, is environment friendly and does not elicit social and cultural conflicts.
Anthropocene- This term is derived from anthropo which means man and cene which means new. The term is therefore is used in reference to the fact that human activities have impact to a great extent the major systems. Man for instance through deforestation, industrialization and urbanization has heavily polluted the environment and caused global warming with resultant disappearance of some ecosystems as well as extinction of certain life species. As population increases consumption also increases and so does the impacts.
Earth Systems Engineering and Management – This is the ability of designing, engineering and managing by employing dialog and relying on constant feedback. It involves integrating both built and natural systems with the intention of achieving mutuality in terms of human goals which include environmental considerations, technological, economic and even personal desires while staying within the confines placed by nations and the adaptive systems that exist. Engineering programs must thus serve economic goals while considering the environment and social well being of humanity.
2. (Critical thinking) Describe how ESEMP principle “Governance” can be applied to the development of new fuel standards in the US senate energy committee.
ESEM projects usually come with critical concerns ranging from economic, scientific, technologic, theoretical, ethical, and technical to political ones. Governance of these projects therefore requires genuine democracy, transparency and accountability. The energy committee in the senate therefore while formulating policies to govern fuel standards in the United States must ensure inclusivity and embrace dialog in a multicultural style. There must be appreciation for the high uncertainty levels and perceive the policies for ESEM as a continuous dialog with systems involved. Flexibility should be prioritized in the policies in order to fast evolve and respond to changes that occur in the systems. Continued learning is key and must assured in the policies that are formulated by the energy committee. The committee should also consider availability of enough resources to run the projects at hand as well as development of scientific technology needed to ensure responsiveness to changes in system nature over time. Energy as a topic is very to the United States and the world at large and there policies must be carefully implemented to govern it while considering the nature energy resources availability, sustainability and environmental impacts.
3. Name four greenhouse gasses and their GWP in CO2 eq.
Greenhouse gas
GWP
Carbon dioxide
1
Methane
7.6
Nitrous Oxide
153
Sulphar hexafluoride
32,600
Works Cited.
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