Topic 1: Foundation

• A perspective is how a situation is viewed and understood by an individual • Based on mix of personal and collective assumptions, values and beliefs • Personal perspectives influence choices and actions on environmental/social issues

• Informed by sociocultural norms, scientific understandings, laws, religion • Informed by economic conditions, local/global events, lived experience • Perspective ≠ argument (arguments support or counter perspectives)

• Qualities or principles with worth and importance in life • Affect priorities, judgements, perspectives and choices • Individual but shared/shaped by community

• Seen through communication and actions • Organizations show values through advertisements, media, policies, actions • Different values → tensions between individuals and organizations

• Investigate social group perspectives towards environmental issues • Effective design accommodates various perspectives

• Lenses shared by groups to perceive and act within environment • Shape values/perspectives through culture, philosophy, ideology, religion, politics • Internet/social media expand influence beyond local community • Models to classify perspectives are useful but imperfect

• Model showing inputs affecting perspectives and resulting outputs • Inputs: media, education, worldviews • Outputs: judgements, positions, choices, actions

• Technocentric: technology can resolve all environmental issues • Anthropocentric: humans as central/most important element • Ecocentric: natural world has pre-eminent importance and intrinsic value • Categories not exclusive, individuals have complex mix

• Perspectives and beliefs change over time in all societies • Influenced by government/NGO campaigns, social/demographic change

• Influenced by individuals, literature, media • Major disasters (e.g., Chernobyl, Fukushima) • International agreements (e.g., Rio Earth Summit, COP conferences) • Technological developments (e.g., Green Revolution) • Scientific discoveries (e.g., pesticide toxicity, habitat degradation)

• Sets of interacting or interdependent components • Components organized to create functional whole

• Holistic way of visualizing complex interactions • Applied to ecological or societal situations • Has storages and flows (inputs and outputs of energy and matter)

• Storages: rectangular boxes • Flows: arrows (direction indicates flow direction)

• Transfers: change in location of energy or matter • Transformations: change in chemical nature, state, or energy

• Open: exchanges both energy and matter across boundary • Closed: exchanges only energy across boundary • Most systems are open (e.g., local ecosystem, Biosphere 2) • Global geochemical cycles approximate closed systems

• Encompasses biosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, geosphere, atmosphere, anthroposphere • Gaia hypothesis: Earth as single integrated system

• Small-scale: bromeliad in rainforest • Large-scale: entire rainforest • Global: atmospheric circulation, Gaia hypothesis

• Output inhibits/reverses same process to reduce change • Stabilizing, counteract deviation • Example: Daisyworld model (temperature regulation)

• Maintained by stabilizing negative feedback loops • Steady-state equilibrium: inputs constantly balanced with outputs • Tendency to return to equilibrium following disturbance

• Disturbance leads to amplification of disturbance • Destabilizing, drives system away from equilibrium • Examples: population decline → reduced reproduction → further decline • Melting ice → reduced albedo → greater warming

• Positive feedback drives system towards tipping point • Minimum change causing destabilization • System shifts to new equilibrium/stable state

• Small alteration → large overall changes • Result in regime shifts between alternative stable states • Example: nutrient concentrations → eutrophication

• Simplified representation of reality • Used to understand system function and predict responses • Forms: graphs, diagrams, equations, simulations, words

• Simplification involves approximation • Results in loss of accuracy • Example: climate change predictions, population growth projections

• Appear from component interactions • Components themselves don't have these properties • Examples: predator-prey oscillations, trophic cascades

• Tendency to avoid tipping points and maintain stability • Capacity to resist damage and recover from disturbance

• Diversity within systems • Size of storages • Affect speed of response to change (time lags) • Example: prairie systems vs. monoculture crops

• Reducing storages and diversity • Example: deforestation reduces storage size and diversity

1.3.1Sustainability definition

• Measure of extent practices allow long-term system viability • Responsible maintenance of socio-ecological systems • No diminishment of conditions for future generations • Enhancing system resilience increases sustainability

1.3.2Three pillars of sustainability

• Environmental, social, and economic pillars • Strong sustainability: economy in society, both in natural environment • Weak sustainability: overlapping three pillars

1.3.3Environmental sustainability

• Use/management allowing resource replacement • Recovery and regeneration of ecosystems • Focuses on resource depletion, pollution, biodiversity conservation

1.3.4Social sustainability

• Creating structures/systems supporting human well-being • Health, education, equity, community • Survival of societies and cultures

1.3.5Economic sustainability

• Economic structures supporting production/consumption • Support human needs into future • No economic sustainability without environmental sustainability

1.3.6Sustainable development

• Meets present needs without compromising future generations • Maintains economic stability, social equity, ecological integrity • Brundtland report (1987) introduced social/economic aspects

1.3.7Ecosystem collapse

• Result of unsustainable natural resource use • Example: Newfoundland cod fisheries overfishing

1.3.8GDP limitations

• Gross Domestic Product neglects natural system value • May lead to unsustainable development • Green GDP subtracts environmental costs from GDP

1.3.9Environmental justice

• Environmental justice refers to the right of all people to live in a pollution-free environment, and to have equitable access to natural resources • Consider: one local and one global example of environmental injustice • Examples could include: Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Gulf of Mexico (2010); landfills located in low-income areas; Union Carbide gas release in Bhopal, India (1984)

1.3.10Inequality and resource access

• Inequalities in income, race, gender and cultural identity within and between different societies lead to disparities in access to water, food and energy • Examples of inequality include the inability to afford an electricity supply, or the privatization of water sources

1.3.11Scales of sustainability and justice

• Sustainability and environmental justice can be applied at the individual to the global operating scale • Sustainability and environmental justice issues exist at different operating scales • Operating scales include individual, business, community, city, national and global levels

1.3.12Sustainability indicators

• Sustainability indicators include quantitative measures of biodiversity, pollution, human population, climate change, material and carbon footprints, and others • These indicators can be applied on a range of scales, from local to global • Consider: the use of one named environmental indicator to assess sustainability

1.3.13Ecological footprints

• The concept of ecological footprints can be used to measure sustainability • If these footprints are greater than the area or resources available to the population, this indicates unsustainability • An ecological footprint is the area of land and water required to sustainably provide all resources at the rate of consumption

1.3.14Carbon and water footprints

• The carbon footprint measures the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) produced, measured in carbon dioxide equivalents (in tonnes) • The water footprint measures water use (in cubic metres per year) • There are different ways of using footprints to measure sustainability • Students do not need to know details of how these are calculated

1.3.15Biocapacity

• Capacity to generate renewable resources and absorb wastes • Unsustainability: ecological footprint exceeds biocapacity

1.3.16Citizen science

• Monitors Earth systems and sustainable resource use • Information relevant to local problems and global issues

1.3.17Sustainability frameworks

• Range of models support understanding • Each has uses and limitations • All are simplified versions of reality

1.3.18UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

• Social and environmental goals/targets • Guide action on sustainability and environmental justice • Uses: common policymaking ground, addresses inequality • Limitations: may not go far enough, top-down approach, lacks local context

1.3.19Planetary boundaries model

• Nine processes/systems regulating Earth system stability • Identifies limits of human disturbance • Crossing limits → risk of abrupt/irreversible changes • Uses: science-based limits, alerts public/policymakers • Limitations: focuses on ecology not human dimension, work in progress

1.3.20Doughnut economics model

• Framework for regenerative and distributive economy • Social foundation (inner): based on social SDGs • Ecological ceiling (outer): based on planetary boundaries • Safe and just space for humanity between boundaries • Uses: includes ecological and social elements, supports environmental justice • Limitations: work in progress, broad principles without specific policies

1.3.21Circular economy model

• Decouples economic activity from finite resource consumption • Three principles: eliminate waste/pollution, circulate materials, regenerate nature • Contrasts with linear model (take-make-waste) • Uses: regenerates systems, reduces emissions, extends product lifecycle • Limitations: lack of awareness, regulations, technical limitations