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Summary SUSTAINABLE LIVING _ CHAPTER SUMMARIES
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Chapter summaries from the textbook for Sustainable Living 771.
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SUSTAINABLELIVING
771
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, Introduction
ENVIRONMENT, ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
Currently, global environmental issues dominate the mass media, spelling doom
and gloom for humankind.
This century = continued global population growth, technological advancement
and the subsequent burdens on the natural world arising from consumer
demands.
There is increasing evidence of ecosystem change, destruction and
malfunctioning - this will make it impossible for the environment to continue
supporting human needs and life in the medium to long term.
Anthropocene = period from the end of the Second World War until the present
- negative socio-ecological interactions:
- sharp increase in the world's population
- rampant industrialisation
- gross exploitation of natural resources for the benefit of humans
Environmental problems are diverse and include:
1. Climate change
2. Deforestation
3. Biodiversity depletion
4. Population resource imbalances
The rate of population growth and use of the earth's (natural) resources will lead
to a decline in the capacity of the earth's systems to continue to support human
needs.
Environmental problems have reached unprecedented levels - many
environmental problems, such as climate change, transcend national borders, but
the effects thereof are felt by local communities.
Many of the problems mentioned above are visible, manifest in many locations
and are linked to a variety of causes
The root causes are often found in human activities that are detrimental to the
ecosystems of the earth. The central problem is often described as a socio-
ecological tension, meaning a tension between humans (social/cultural) and
what we describe as natural or ecological processes.
There is often a call for education to 'do something' to address the problem/s.
, Short suggests that 'a citizenry capable of understanding the complexity of
environmental issues and actively participating in their resolutions is vital’.
Environmental Education (EE)is a field that has been in existence for almost four
decades, constantly enganging with both local and global environmental issues,
and has in a sense served as a response to environmental issues and problems.
THE CONCEPT 'ENVIRONMENT'
The term 'environment' is a complex social construct.
Di Chiro, points out, we imbue a concept with meaning by virtue od providing a
name for it. She says: We define (the environment) as such by use of our
individual and culturally imposed interpretive categories and it exists as the
environment the moment we name it and imbue with meaning. Therefore the
environment is not something that has reality outside or separate from ourselves
or our social milieu. Rather it should be understood as the conceptual
interactions between our physical surroundings and the social, political
and economic forces that organise us in the context of these surroundings.
It is in this sense that we say the concept environment is socially constructed.
For a long time people perceived the concept of environment to be the
biphysical aspects (plants, animals, physical elements and factors - sunlight,
water, soil, wind etc.) and excluded humans, their activities and the possible
impact that these activities had on the natural environment.
With increased understanding of new insights, the term environment is now
constructed to mean the product of interactions between human activities and
the life-supporting biophysical world in which human activities occur. Other
dimensions were added to the construct environment: social, political and
economic activities of humans.
The following figure shows the linkages between the four aspects of the
environment. It is now accepted that these four dimensions exist in intricate
closeness and interdependence as the arrows in the figure indicate:
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