Guelen, Jeanne Therese

JD-2
7023 Natural Resources and Environment Law
SUN 1:30-4:30 PM
Atty. Benjamin Cabrido

CARRYING CAPACITY
Carrying Capacity refers to the degree and type of use that can be
accommodated in particular habitat without unacceptable impacts to
resources. Additionally, it is described as the ability of a system to support an
activity or feature at a given level depending on different site-specific factors.

BIOPHILIA
Biophilia is the humankind’s innate biological connection with nature. It helps
explain why lush trees and crashing waves captivate us; why a garden view can
enhance our creativity; why shadows and heights instill fascination and fear;
and why animal companionship and strolling through a park have restorative,
healing effects.

HARD LOOK DOCTRINE

The hard look doctrine is a principle of administrative law whereby courts must
examine the methodology and substance of agency decisions to ensure that
they have adequate factual support. It is used as a method of testing regulatory
initiatives - by requiring agencies to show that the benefits of regulation justify
its costs, or that a significant problem is involved.

PRINCIPLE OF NON-REGRESSION
Principle of non-regression is an environmental legal concept which requires
that environmental regulations and standards should not be diminished.
Rules, standards and practices that are already adopted can’t be changed if
this means that environmental standards will be weakened.

TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS

Under this construct the “commons” is the cultural and natural resources
accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air,
water, and a habitable earth. These resources are held in common, not owned
privately. The “tragedy” is that individual nations deplete these resources and
that governments are unable to reach long -term solutions to sustain and
preserve these assets for the betterment of all global inhabitants.

MALTHUSIAN THEORY
According to Malthusian theory, three factors would control human population
that exceeded the earth’s carrying capacity, or how many people can live in a
given area considering the amount of available resources. Malthus identified
these factors as war, famine, and disease. He termed them “positive checks”
because they increase mortality rates, thus keeping the population in check.
They are countered by “preventive checks,” which also control the population
but by reducing fertility rates; preventive checks include birth control and
celibacy. Thinking practically, Malthus saw that people could produce only so
much food in a given year, yet the population was increasing at an exponential
rate. Eventually, he thought people would run out of food and begin to starve.
They would go to war over increasingly scarce resources and reduce the
population to a manageable level, and then the cycle would begin anew.

RIVER CONTINUUM CONCEPT

The River Continuum Concept predicts that food webs, in particular,
invertebrates of rivers in temperate, forested drainages should exhibit a
longitudinal gradient from reliance on terrestrially derived organic matter in
the headwaters to autochthonous sources, to suspended material in larger
rivers.

BIOTIC RIGHTS
Biotic rights define human ecological responsibilities. They refer to a generic
metaphor that covers human responsibilities for the whole of the biophysical
world.