courses/ESM102/week6/week6-crux-feedback.html

Week 6 Crux Quesions Feedback

General comments:

For this week I broke out the components of the questions. I am trying to see if this makes it easier to get a good answer but I am also interested if all the answers turn out to be the same.

My worry is that providing so much scaffolding will eliminate the individual and creative answers.

Question 1:

Accounting for ecosystem services shows that the some areas of the world get overall benefits from a healthy ecosystem.

1) what are some of these benefits

2) give an example of how they could be of benefit to a community

3) how can this be used to justify green (rather than grey) infrastructure projects

I would have liked to see more direct benefit to the community that is otherwise provided by grey (hard) infrastructure.

Green infrastructure needs to be placed in the ecological context of the community.

3. Grey infrastructure isn't always worse.

3. provide an accounting approach for when greeen may be better than grey

pt 3. need to compare the benefits of green vs grey

good, potential for positive feedback as a argument for green infrastructure

Question 2:

The Happy Planet Index combines three major components into a single index.

1) What are the three components? Briefly describe them.

2) Why is this essentially an efficiency ratio?

3) Why do the creators of this index think it is important to stress progress rather than the fear of an apocalypse?

Good, hit all the points.

The three parts are life expectancy, quality of that life, and the carbon footprint.

It is an efficiency factor because it shows how much happiness can come from the costs of the environmental impact.

pt 3. you didn't address the fear issue