1.1 Perspectives

Flashcards about environmental perspectives and value systems.

What is a perspective?

How a particular situation is viewed and understood by an individual, based on personal and collective assumptions, values, and beliefs.

What are values?

Qualities or principles that people feel have worth and importance in life, affecting priorities, judgments, perspectives, and choices.

What are values surveys used for?

Surveys used to investigate the perspectives shown by a particular social group towards environmental issues.

What are the broad categories of environmental perspectives (worldviews)?

Technocentric, anthropocentric, and ecocentric.

What is technocentrism?

Assumes all environmental issues can be resolved through technology.

What is anthropocentrism?

Views humankind as being the central, most important element of existence.

What is ecocentrism?

Sees the natural world as having pre-eminent importance and intrinsic value.

What is an environmental value system?

A model that shows the inputs affecting our perspectives and the outputs resulting from our perspectives.

What factors inform and justify perspectives?

Sociocultural norms, scientific understandings, laws, religion, economic conditions, local and global events, and lived experience.

What are worldviews?

The lenses shared by groups of people through which they perceive, make sense of and act within their environment.

What is Animism?

Encompasses the beliefs that there is no separation between the spiritual and physical world, and souls or spirits exist in all animals, plants, rocks, etc.

What is the Buddhist perspective on nature?

The belief that human beings are an intrinsic part of nature, balanced view of the world with compassion.

What is the Judaeo-Christian perspective on nature?

Stewardship (humans have a role of responsibility towards the Earth).

What factors can influence perspectives and the beliefs that underpin them over time?

Government or non-governmental organization (NGO) campaigns or through social and demographic change.

What has influenced the development of the environmental movement ?

Literature, the media, major environmental disasters, international agreements, new technologies and scientific discoveries.

Who is involved in the environmental movement?

Individuals, Independent Pressure Groups/NGOs , Corporate businesses, Governments, Intergovernmental bodies

What is Bioaccumulation?

Toxin builds up in organism over time because it is not easily excreted

What is Biomagnification?

Toxin becomes more concentrated in higher trophic levels

What is Green Revolution?

The green revolution transformed global agriculture, especially wheat and rice. Through selective breeding.

What did Rachel Carson's Silent Spring describe?

DDT entered the food chain and accumulated in the fatty tissues of animals, including human beings, and caused cancer and genetic damage.

What happened in 1983?

UN defines sustainability as “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”

The accident at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, released at least 30 tons of a highly toxic gas called?

methyl isocyanate, as well as a number of other poisonous gases.

What is Kyoto protocol?

Signed for nations to reduce carbon emissions by 5% between 2008-2012.

What is Paris Agreement?

UNFCCC reached a landmark agreement to combat climate change