Lecture 1 - Introducing LEC.101 and Global Environmental Challenges

Question 1

How can TV affect global problems?

Answer 1

Causes consumer awareness -> Consumer pressure -> Political change + economic impact

Question 2

Give an example of consumer pressure having a positive impact on global problems

Answer 2

Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet -> Greater awareness of plastic -> Consumer pressure -> Re-use the straw movement and 5p plastic bags result in reduced plastic

Question 3

How many species worldwide were threatened with extinction in 2019?

Answer 3

1 million

Question 4

What are the two most dangerous human activities contributing to the extinction of species?

Answer 4

Habitat destruction (Human land use)
Habitat degradation (pollution and over-exploitation of resources)

Question 5

Indirect Drivers of biodiversity loss?

Answer 5

Demographic and sociocultural
Economic and technological
Institutions and governance
Conflicts and epidemics

Question 6

Direct Drivers of biodiversity loss?

Answer 6

Land/sea use change
Direct exploitation
Climate change
Pollution
Invasive alien species

Question 7

How much have natural ecosystems declined on average (relative to their earliest estimated states)?

Answer 7

47%

Question 8

What % of species are already threatened with extinction?

Answer 8

25%

Question 9

Biotic integrity definition

Answer 9

The abundance of naturally-present species

Question 10

How much has biotic integrity declined?

Answer 10

23%

Question 11

How much has the global biomass of wild mammals fallen by?

Answer 11

82%

Question 12

What do we need to do to try and understand and solve these global problems?

Answer 12

Transformative change

Question 13

What is transformative change?

Answer 13

Fundamental, system-wide reorganization across technological, economic and social factors

Question 14

What environmental issues arise from human activity?

Answer 14

Loss of biodiversity
Over-use of natural resources
Environmental and health issues (air pollution, contamination etc)

Question 15

What are environmental issues directly linked to?

Answer 15

Sustainability of ecosystems and poverty

Question 16

What does sustainability and ecosystems affect?

Answer 16

Resource security and political stability

Question 17

What happens if there is resource scarcity and political instability?

Answer 17

pressure and uncertainty in competition for natural resources, and the capacity of ecosystems to ensure continued food, energy and water security

Question 18

Give an example of how food supply issues are connected

Answer 18

We need good soils and large areas of land for our food supply
The use of fertilization has an impact on ecosystems and water supplies - environmental impact
Then, we need to get food to the population.
More people live in cities, therefore food has to be transported greater distances into cities - problem with urbanisation
More energy is used, and greater carbon emissions occur - further environmental impacts

Question 19

Wicked problem definition

Answer 19

Challenges that deal with complex social-bio-physical assemblages (they involve social, biological and environmental aspects), and operate on global scale (but also on smaller scales)

Question 20

Examples of wicked problems

Answer 20

Agri-food
Water
Energy
Environment
Climate

Question 21

What is the main difficulty with wicked problems?

Answer 21

They involve multiple different issues, which can make it hard to understand where to even start.
Because the problems are all linked, by solving one you may make another worse

Question 22

How can we solve wicked problems?

Answer 22

Interdisciplinary approaches

Question 23

What is the problem with interdisciplinary approaches?

Answer 23

We have specialized each discipline so that they use their own language, group and culture
Working together involves working against organizations and their structures