Chapter 4. Chapter 4: Environmental Economics and Consumption
What factors influence how much human actions impact the environment...
Guiding Question 4.3
What factors influence how much human actions impact the environment, and how can we reduce that impact?
Why You Should Care
If calculating one’s footprint is so important to finding sustainable options, then we need to be able to categorize factors to make it easier to explain to other people. The most popular model for this is called IPAT and it breaks those factors into population (P), affluence (A), and technology (T).
Since the equation multiplies the three factors together, it is easy to see that an increase in any factor will increase the I value (impact or footprint). Any decrease would then decrease the impact. This makes our decision about choices much easier because, if we can broadly show that any action decreases at least one factor (keeping the others constant), then it decreases impact and should be sustainable.
Test Your Vocabulary
Choose the correct term for each of the following definitions:
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| A measure of how many resources are needed to support a human population. | |
| A measure of how available or abundant resources or wealth are. | |
| An equation that identifies three factors that increase human impact directly: population size, affluence, and technology. | |
| Applied use of science for practical uses. | |
| All the humans inhabiting a particular place (city, state, or country). |
Question Sequence
Question Sequence
Using the animated Infographic, please answer the following questions.
1.
What would the settings and final value be for a typical more developed country (MDC)?
| A. |
| B. |
| C. |
| D. |
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