Week One Module Notes:

Questions that Motivate us

Questions: Geography, Earth, and Environmental Science

- Question: How do we connect both people with nature in an equitable way that benefits both? What does it take to get win-win-win outcomes for ecosystems and human communities?

- Question: How do we widen participation in and engagement with science?

- Question: Why does the ocean floor look the way it does? How did it form and what sorts of processes change it over time?

• These questions stood out to me as I am intrigued in the satet of our global climate and what actions we can/should take to make a positive, effective impact, while still maintaining activites and systems that hold society together. I also love the ocean and have grown up with it my whole life which drives my passion and understanding around the ocean.

Questions: Human, social and Behavioural Sciences

- Question: Why does social, economic, and environmental inequality persist and what can we do about this?

- Question: How have evolutionary processes and historical events shaped human diversity - both biological and cultural?

• I choes these two questions as general inequity is a concept hard to accept for me, and is something I would love to understand the why and how’s behind it. Human diversity is such a strength in society and the roots/causes of it is important to understand so we continue to grow and share our diversity.

Sustainability

- Sustainability is composed of 3 domains:

• Society

• Environment

• Economy

• Sustainability allows us to see relationships between each domains and how each domains affect or is affected by the others

- Sustaiabality Definition: “Development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs” - (WCED, 1987)

An Economic Perspective

• Manufactured good support economic growth

• Increased consumption leads to increased disposed waste

• Disposing waste can be expensive, especially when done in ways to minimise social and environmental impact

An Environmental Perspective

• Manufactured goods place pressure on the environemnt e.g = excration of raw materials, energy and waste associated with manufacture or transportation, packaging and end of life disposal

• Depletion of finite resources, pollution, loss of biodiversity, disturbance of ecosystems are consequenses of manufacuting processes

A Social perspective

• People place different values on econmic and environmental aspects

• Benefits and harms associated with manufacturers not evenly distributed e.g effect lower SE communities - Environmental and economic impacts of unsustainability don’t affect all people equally

A Sustainability perspective

• A sustainability perspective helps us see how different decisions might impact individuals, societies and the environment

• How should we be living now to ensure that we meet our needs without compromising the needs of future generations

Kaitiakitanga

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• Thinking across generations

• Looking to the past to inform the present and futures

• Thinking about our impacts on people, environments

Sustainable Devlopment

• In 2015 the UN unanimously adopted 17 sustainable development goals alongside measurable targets to meet these goals

• These goals are used by scientists to help us understand how we might contribute to sustainability

Why Sustainability

• Science offers a range of methods, and expertise to tackle some of the most challenging problems that we might face

• Sustainabilityis a complex issue, and solutions often require collaboration betwen people with diffiirent views on the world