This movie covers Subtopic 1.1 Environmental Value Systems under the main topic of IBESS Topic 1 Foundations of Environmental Systems and Societies. The significant ideas of this subtopic are 1. Historical events, among other influences, affect the development of environmental value systems and environmental movements. 2. There is a wide spectrum of environmental value systems, each with their own premises and implications. The title of this subtopic contains the word systems.
So let's begin with that word. A system is a set of connected things or interrelated parts working together to make a complex whole. For example, in this image, there are several systems.
Look at this one, the tree. There are many parts of this tree that work together to allow it to photosynthesize by capturing light and taking in carbon dioxide to make sugar, oxygen, and water. The monarch butterfly is also a system. It is a set of connected things like the wings, the antenna, the legs, the circulatory system. And, like the tree, the flower is another system in this image.
A system doesn't have to be... living thing. For example, look at the many parts of this system that work together to make a complex whole.
In this course we will be considering three types of system. This image serves as a sneak preview of what is to come. An open system is a system in which both energy and matter can enter and leave the system. In a closed system you have only an exchange of energy. And in an isolated system, there is no exchange of matter or energy.
Most living systems are open systems. And for now, be aware that a system involves inputs that go into the system and are processed. So there is a processing event that happens or processing events that occur inside the system.
resulting in outputs. We will discuss these concepts in more detail later in the course. For this topic, I want to discuss how environmental values can be considered systems.
First, you have to realize that an environmental value system is a worldview or paradigm that shapes the way an individual or group of people perceive and evaluate environmental issues. This, of course, is influenced by many different things. This will be influenced by cultural, religious, economic, and socio-political contexts. An environmental value system, or EVS, might be considered as a system in the sense that it might be influenced by education, experience, culture, and media, all inputs, and involves a set of interrelated premises.
premises, values, and arguments that can generate consistent decisions and evaluations. These are the outputs. Consider the example of Jane Goodall. When she was a young girl, her father gave her a chimpanzee toy animal, which she loved dearly.
Her parents fostered her love for animals. And as a young woman, she went to Africa to study chimpanzees. And there she had many amazing experiences. as she observed these animals and became the expert on chimpanzee behavior. All of these experiences were inputs into Jane Goodall's environmental value system.
And what are the outputs? She founded the Jane Goodall Institute and the Roots and Shoots Project. She is an advocate and voice for the conservation movement and protection of the earth.
She is a huge contributor to the environmental movement. As Jane Goodall is a contributor to the environmental movement, significant historical influences on the development of the environmental movement have come from literature, the media, major environmental disasters, international agreements, and technological developments. The idea that humans impact the environment has been around for a long time.
Even in ancient Rome, the Romans were concerned about the problems of air and wind and water pollution that resulted from human activity. Even 2,000 years ago, terrace farming was conducted in China, India, and Peru, partly in an effort towards soil conservation. But the modern-day environmental movement as we know it today didn't really begin until the 1960s and it was jump-started by the work of Rachel Carson and her book Silent Spring. In this book she warned the world about the effects of DDT on human health. DDT is a pesticide used to kill mosquitoes and other small pests.
It is sprayed on vegetation. The vegetation is consumed by animals and fish. which are in turn consumed by humans. If you have a small amount of pesticide on a small amount of plants, but the rabbit comes through and consumes a lot of the plants, then you have an accumulation of the pesticide in the rabbit or the fish, if the fish is doing the eating.
Then the human maybe eats two rabbits or many fish. You then have biomagnification of the pesticide in the human. The term biomagnification is a sneak preview of what is to come in more detail later in this course. However, in Rachel Carson's book, she identified that this biomagnification of DDT in humans resulted in increased levels of cancers. Her book really made the world aware of the impact that certain chemicals can have on the environment and human health.
Her work resulted in the banning of DDT in many countries. In addition to the work of Rachel Carson, there are many other individual and groups contributing to the environmental movement. These include environmental pressure groups, such as Greenpeace.
Corporate businesses also play a role, especially those that are established throughout the world. And sometimes their role is to push back on the environmental movement, because their product often has an impact on the environment, though they are producing things that we as humans want. and use. Governments also play a role in the environmental movement.
For example, Costa Rica is a country that aims to be 100% fossil free in the near future. They already generate 90% of their electricity from renewable resources. There are intergovernmental bodies, such as the United Nations, that also make policies and influence worldwide decisions on the environment. And there are also influential And so, individuals such as Al Gore, who produced a film titled An Inconvenient Truth in 2006, which raised awareness of climate change, clearly stating that climate change was a result of greenhouse gases released by human activities and that we needed to act on this as a moral issue. And it was the first time global warming was described on a mass scale.
In addition to the works of groups and individuals, there are also historical events that influence the environmental movements. One such event is the Bhopal disaster of 1984, considered to be the world's worst industrial disaster in which a pesticide company released 40 tons of the chemical methyl isocyanate, immediately killing nearly 3,000 people and ultimately causing the death of 15,000 to 22,000 people. Events like this make people aware and make them want to generate policies.
so that these things don't happen again. In the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, this was the worst nuclear disaster that had ever occurred. The nuclear reactor went into a meltdown and released a cloud of highly reactive material over much of Russia and Europe. The effect of this event has had lasting effects that stretch even to today and has affected countless individuals from the first 31 workers who died from the radiation to others who have been stricken with various cancers due to radiation exposure.
There are estimates that 1 million people will have died as a result of this disaster. More recently, in 2011, we had the Fukushima nuclear disaster following the tsunami that hit Japan. This resulted in nuclear fallout even into China and contamination of water.
Following this incident, there were many anti-nuclear demonstrations in other countries. Germany announced the closure of its older reactors and France, Belgium and Switzerland had public votes to stop or slow down nuclear power production. You are responsible for becoming familiar with major landmarks in environmentalism. You need to have a case studies that you can discuss and refer to when answering questions throughout the course as they relate to different topics that we cover.
To help you with that endeavor, here is a list with a Additional influences in the environmental movement. You will be making a video in my class to address one of these influencers. Stop the movie and read through the list and become familiar with this list of influencers in the environmental movement.
All of these events have helped to influence EVSs. They've raised public awareness, provided media coverage, increased sense of stewardship over the earth, and had impact on local and global governments and regulations. There is a spectrum of EVSs from ecocentric through anthropocentric to technocentric value systems.
Keep in mind that different EVSs ascribe different intrinsic values to components of the biosphere. I will now define these different EVSs. An ecocentric viewpoint integrates social, spiritual, and environmental dimensions into a holistic ideal.
It puts ecology and nature as central to humanity and emphasizes a less materialistic approach to life with greater self-sufficiency of societies. An ecocentric viewpoint prioritizes bio rights, emphasizes the importance of education, and encourages self-restraint in human behavior. To fully appreciate the ecocentric viewpoint, be aware that this viewpoint understands that the environment can have its own intrinsic value. You need to be able to discuss this idea.
Here are some quotations that illustrate the idea that the environment or nature has intrinsic value. i'll read a couple of these these things species count whether or not there is anybody to do the counting species have value in themselves a value neither conferred nor revocable but springing from a species long evolutionary heritage and potential and this last one endangered species are objectively valuable kinds good in themselves they do have their own welfare respect for life ought to be direct based on this value. Stop the movie and read through these quotes. Do you agree or disagree? Here are some headlines from the recent news indicating a growing movement towards identifying nature as having rights of its own.
The idea that nature has intrinsic value is making the headlines. Rivers and forests have rights too. Species, in addition to humans, have rights too. And Anthropocentric viewpoint argues that humans must sustainably manage the global system.
This might be through the use of taxes, environmental regulation, and legislation. Debate would be encouraged to reach a consensual, pragmatic approach to solving environmental problems. An anthropocentric viewpoint encourages practices that manage resources in a sustainable manner so that the resources can be enjoyed and used by humans.
A technocentric viewpoint argues that technological developments can provide solutions to environmental problems. This is a consequence of a largely optimistic view of the role humans can play in improving the lot of humanity. Scientific research is encouraged in order to form policies and understand how systems can be controlled, manipulated, or exchanged to solve resource depletion.
A pro-growth agenda is deemed necessary for a society's improvement. Technology already has made huge progress in developing more energy and water-efficient technology. And check out this example. A British company called Windhorse Aerospace is designing edible drones. The idea is that the drone will be constructed of various foodstuff to drop supplies and then itself into territories in need of aid.
This drone would be built of honeycomb or compressed vegetables, with salami serving as the landing gear. Why salami? Because it's physically strong with good tensile strength and flexibility.
Again, technocentrists believe that technology will be able to solve the problems that humans create through their existence. There are extremes at either end of this spectrum. For example, the... deep ecologists on the ecocentric end to cornucopians on the technocentric end, but in practice, EVS is very greatly with culture and time and rarely fits simply or perfectly into any classification.
On one extreme of the EVS spectrum, we have deep ecologists that put more value on nature than humanity and believe strongly in bio-rights. Soft ecologics are also biocentric, and they believe that all life has inherent value. They recognize that resources are limited.
and humans should protect, preserve, and conserve Earth. Managers see the Earth as a garden that needs tending, and humans have a stewardship or ethical duty to take care of Earth. Cornucopians on the other end of the spectrum see the world as having infinite, endless resources to benefit humanity. And because of this infinite availability, a pro-growth agenda is acceptable. You need to be able to evaluate the implications of two contrasting environmental value systems in the context of given environmental issues.
Additionally, justify the implications using evidence and examples to make the justification clear. For example, how might different EVSs respond to the following environmental issues? Climate change is resulting in a decrease in bee populations.
An ecocentric viewpoint is earth-centered. Thus would support educating humans and encouraging change to reduce climate change in order to preserve biodiversity, including the bee on earth. An anthropocentric view would also support policies to reduce climate change, recognizing that we need a healthy earth to survive ourselves.
Biodiversity supports and enhances the pleasures of human life, so we should do what we can to preserve it. Furthermore, Bees are key in pollination, so we would do what we can to save them. We need them for our food source. A technocentric viewpoint is technology-centered and might argue that robotic bees, pictured here, can substitute for regular bees, especially in the row of pollination. How about this environmental issue?
Increase of world population is resulting in a decline of Earth's resources and biodiversity. An ecocentric viewpoint would argue that we should reduce human population or at least achieve a zero growth rate because other living organisms are suffering and our existence is not more important than theirs. Ecocentrics would support education and access to contraceptives to achieve this aim.
Anthropocentrics would argue that humans have as much right if not more to earth but that we should manage our resources so there is enough for everyone. One method to achieve that might be through genetically modified food, which would result in higher yields and more food for more people. A technocentrist would agree with the anthropocentric viewpoint in that technology, such as GMOs, can feed all the people on Earth, no matter how many people there are.
There are many environmental worldviews. I will share a few of them with you. Buddhists believe that birth, aging, suffering, and death are all conjoined in one journey, and that we, plants and animals, are all dependent on each other, and thus humans are not more important than other living organisms. In the Judeo-Christian religions, there is a notion of mastery over earth, as illustrated in this Bible verse out of Genesis.
Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature. that moves on the ground. But the question does arise whether there is also a suggestion of responsibility and stewardship as well.
Islam teaches that earth is given to man as a gift for sustenance and that the animal world is a community equal to the human one. Humans are not masters over earth. In the Native American community, they generally share common property and live with low impact technologies plants and animals are considered to have a spirituality here is a very brief summary of the topics we have covered in this movie historical events among other influences affect the development of environmental value systems and environmental movements there is a wide spectrum of environmental value systems each with their own premises and implications An EVS can be considered a system with inputs and outputs. Know the definition of ecocentric, anthropocentric, and technocentric. Recognize there are extreme ends on the spectrum, deep ecologists and cornucopians.
Be able to discuss the view that the environment can have its own intrinsic value. Be able to evaluate the implications of two contrasting environmental value systems in the context of a given environmental issue. justify the implications, and using evidence and examples to make the justification clear. This ends the movie for IBESS Topic 1.1, Environmental Value Systems, under the main Topic 1, Foundations of Environmental Systems and Societies.
The slides are created by me, Dr. Nina Markham. Images are courtesy of Creative Commons, unless otherwise indicated with a citation under the image, with the exception of the images from Slides 13 and 15, which are on the following slide. If all images on the slide are from the same source, the source is simply cited at the bottom of the slide. Another resource for your learning is your IBS ESS textbook, whether in hardback form or online, such as Cognity.
Here are the sources for the animated slides, numbers 13 and 15. Thank you for listening.