Lecture 1 - Introducing LEC.101 and Global Environmental Challenges Flashcards
How can TV affect global problems?
Causes consumer awareness -> Consumer pressure -> Political change + economic impact
Give an example of consumer pressure having a positive impact on global problems
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
How many species worldwide were threatened with extinction in 2019?
1 million
What are the two most dangerous human activities contributing to the extinction of species?
Habitat destruction (Human land use) Habitat degradation (pollution and over-exploitation of resources)
Indirect Drivers of biodiversity loss?
Demographic and sociocultural
Economic and technological
Institutions and governance
Conflicts and epidemics
Direct Drivers of biodiversity loss?
Land/sea use change Direct exploitation Climate change Pollution Invasive alien species
How much have natural ecosystems declined on average (relative to their earliest estimated states)?
47%
What % of species are already threatened with extinction?
25%
Biotic integrity definition
The abundance of naturally-present species
How much has biotic integrity declined?
23%
How much has the global biomass of wild mammals fallen by?
82%
What do we need to do to try and understand and solve these global problems?
Transformative change
What is transformative change?
Fundamental, system-wide reorganization across technological, economic and social factors
What environmental issues arise from human activity?
Loss of biodiversity
Over-use of natural resources
Environmental and health issues (air pollution, contamination etc)
What are environmental issues directly linked to?
Sustainability of ecosystems and poverty
What does sustainability and ecosystems affect?
Resource security and political stability
What happens if there is resource scarcity and political instability?
pressure and uncertainty in competition for natural resources, and the capacity of ecosystems to ensure continued food, energy and water security
Give an example of how food supply issues are connected
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
Wicked problem definition
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)
Examples of wicked problems
Agri-food Water Energy Environment Climate
What is the main difficulty with wicked problems?
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
How can we solve wicked problems?
Interdisciplinary approaches
What is the problem with interdisciplinary approaches?
We have specialized each discipline so that they use their own language, group and culture
Working together involves working against organizations and their structures
