1.1 EVS-Introduction.pptx

Dr. Zoe Badcock
www.inthinking.co.uk
zoebadcock@hotmail.com
- Independent, International, Innovative

Dr. Zoe Badcock
zoebadcock@hotmail.com
INTHINKING
Welcome to ESS

The Development of Environmental Thinking
1.1 Environmental History

© Zoe Badcock
Prehistory (>100,000 years ago)
 The ability of humans to first
control fire has been dated
from 1.5 million years ago - soot
found on ceilings of prehistoric
caves is evidence of high levels
of pollution
 “Pollution is the addition to an
environment of a substance or
an agent (such as heat) by
human activity, at a rate greater
than that at which it can be
rendered harmless by the
environment, and which has an
appreciable effect on the
organisms within it.”

© Zoe Badcock
Ancient Civilisations (>10000 years ago)
Moving from hunter-gatherers to pastoralists, the
ability of the local environment to assimilate waste
would have been tested.
Core samples of glaciers in Greenland indicate
increases in pollution associated with Greek, Roman
and Chinese metal production.
The collapse of several ancient civilisations has been
linked to environmental factors, e.g. Mesopotamia
and Easter Island

© Zoe Badcock
Tribal Societies
Primitive Societies are often held up as
paragons of "living in tune with nature"
At low population densities, humans have
less impact on the environment.
Tribal communities are often nomadic and
may deplete an environment almost
completely of its resources before moving
on, only returning when the area has had
time to recover.
When a tribe then settles in one area, as
some are now forced to do, they quickly
deplete the surrounding environment.
Watch Documentary (BBC) on Sanema Tribe

© Zoe Badcock
Gandhi
Colonialisation (1400s to present day)

© Zoe Badcock
Colonialisation (1400s to present day)
• From the late 1400s to 1900s, European countries have colonised
other countries, exerting power and control, exploiting their natural
resources in order to expand their own economic base.
• Less economically developed countries often blame this period for
their current economic and environmental difficulties.
• Neocolonialism is sometimes referred to as the relationship that
some more economically developed countries have with less
economically developed countries, claiming that the MEDCs
interfere in the politics of the LEDCs in order to gain a trade
benefit.
• It can be argued that the maintenance of third world debt, the
decisions to grant, or not grant, loans by the World Bank, and the
actions of multi-national corporations investing in projects in LEDCs
which only enrich a minority of people, are examples of
neocolonialism.

© Zoe Badcock
Agricultural Revolution (1750s - 1850s)
• During the 1700-1900s there
was a revolution in the way
that the land was managed in
Western Europe.
• "Wheat yields increased by
about a quarter between 1700
and 1800, and then by about a
half between 1800 and 1850"
in the British Isles.
• This led to a growth in
population and a decline in
those working on the land,
thus providing labour for the
industrial revolution.

© Zoe Badcock
Industrial Revolution (1800s)
• During the 1800s there was
increased mechanisation of
manufacturing.
• With this burning of coal came
increasing air pollution and
the start of carbon dioxide
accumulation in the
atmosphere.
• Mass movement of people to
urban areas led to cramped
living conditions and poor air
and water supplies.
• Smog began to kill people and
there were epidemics of
cholera and typhoid.

© Zoe Badcock
Advances in Health and Science (mid-1600s - 1900)
• During the enlightenment
advances in science led to an
improvement in public health.
• Edward Jenner developed the
first vaccine with a vaccination
for Smallpox at the end of the
18th century
• Louis Pasteur developed
further vaccines, the process
of pasteurisation, and the
germ theory of disease during
the mid 1800s

© Zoe Badcock
Environmental Appreciation Amongst
Non-Western Cultures
If you are thinking a year
ahead, sow seed
If you are thinking ten
years ahead, plant a
tree
If you are thinking a
hundred years ahead,
educate the people
Chinese poet Kuan Tzu
500 BC

© Zoe Badcock
Growth of an Environmental
Movement (mid-1700s - 1900s)
• In the mid-1700s Benjamin - improve
public sanitation and improve water
supplies.
• Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1836-
Transcendentalist movement in which
human intuition and spirit were held in
higher regard than religious doctrine.
• In the mid-1800s in America
– George Catlin - national park system;
– "The Mother of the Earth" a 2500 years old
giant sequoia tree, - Yosemite National Park;
– Henry David & George Perkins Marsh write
about environmental issues & thinking.
• In 1872 Yellowstone National Park was
established by John Muir - father of the
National Park Service.

© Zoe Badcock
Growth of an Environmental Movement (20th
Century)
• Theodore Roosevelt - US Forest Service - 1891
• In 1916 the National Park Service was established.
• During the 1930s and the Great Depression, droughts
led to the American Dust Bowl with the loss of tons of
top soil and the abandoning of many farms.
• In 1949 Aldo Leopold's ‘’A Sand County Almanac’’ -
argued the moral necessity to protect environment.
• 1961 international effort establish WWF
• In 1962 Silent Spring by Rachel Carson - problems
caused by pesticide DDT. The book led indirectly to the
formation of the Environmental Protection Agency in
1970.
• 1970 first Earth Day.
• In 1968 Paul Ehrlich published ‘’The Population Bomb’’
and Garrett Hardin had his article The Tragedy of the
Commons published
• Friends of the Earth was founded in 1969 in the US and
Greenpeace was founded in 1971

© Zoe Badcock
The Green Revolution (1960s-1970s)
• During the 1960s and
1970s new varieties of
crops were introduced,
responding well to
irrigation and the use of
pesticides and fertilisers.
• This doubled productivity
• Increasing amounts of land
were brought into
production.
• This fed the growth in
population in LEDCs.

© Zoe Badcock
An International Approach to
Environmental Problems (1972 - present)
• From the late 1960s - international approach
emerges
• 1972 -1st UN Environment Conference was
held in Stockholm, Sweden, leading to the
establishment of UNEP
• Montreal Protocol in 1987 has very
successfully controlled ozone depleting
substances
• The Rio Earth Summit in 1992 saw the
adoption of three major pieces of
environmental legislation by 178 countries
• 1997 - Kyoto Protocol. Binding targets for 37
industrialized countries and the European
community for GHG emissions.
• Paris Agreement in December 2015 – a
massive breakthrough that will drive policy
making in the future

© Zoe Badcock
An International Approach to
Environmental Problems (1972 - present)

1 Argentina 6 Canada 11 Sudan
2 Finland 7 Japan 12 Norway
3 Sweden 8 Turkey 13 India
4 Thailand 9 Angola 14 Philippines
5 Denmark 10 China 15 Benin

© Zoe Badcock
Consider the following questions:
How do I make decisions about environmental issues?
What influences me consciously and subconsciously?
How do I act?
How do others act?
How do live in relationship to the environment?
How do others live in relationship to their environment?
What shapes their beliefs and actions?

1.1 Environmental Value Systems

© Zoe Badcock
Environmental Value Systems
 The ESS Subject Guide
defines an EVS as “a
worldview or paradigm
that shapes the way an
individual, or group of
people, perceives and
evaluates environmental
issues, influenced by
cultural, religious,
economic and socio-
political contexts.”
Paradigm - Oxford English
Dictionary
• a typical example or pattern of
something; a pattern or model:
society’s paradigm of the ‘ideal
woman’
• a world view underlying the
theories and methodology of a
particular scientific subject.

© Zoe Badcock
What drives an Environmental Value
System?

© Zoe Badcock
Task: Create your own EVS Mind Map on colored paper

© Zoe Badcock
A Spectrum of EVSs
• There is a spectrum of EVS and where you
fit may depend upon the issue
Ecocentric
Anthropocentric
Technocentric

© Zoe Badcock
Ecocentric
• Integrates social, spiritual and
environmental dimensions into an
holistic ideal.
• Ecology and nature are central to
humanity
• Emphasises a less materialistic
approach to life with greater self-
sufficiency of societies.
• prioritises biorights (a matter of
morals)
• Emphasises importance of
education is key
• Encourages self-restraint
?

© Zoe Badcock
Anthropocentric
• Humans must
sustainably manage the
global system.
• Might use taxes,
environmental
regulation and legislation
• Debate encouraged to
reach a consensus
• Pragmatic approach to
solving environmental
problems
?

© Zoe Badcock
Technocentric
• Technology developments can
provide solutions to environmental
problems.
• Largely optimistic view of the role
humans can play in improving the lot
of humanity
• A pro-growth agenda is deemed
necessary for society’s improvement
?

© Zoe Badcock
How do these overlap?
• For each environmental
issue you may have
greater connection to a
different aspect of these
value systems.
• Each culture may have a
viewpoint which is
derived from different
historical, spiritual and
cultural roots and be
difficult to categorise
with this western-centric
taxonomy.
Ecocentric
Anthropocentric
Technocentric
Deep
Ecologist
cornucopian
Environmental
manager

1.1 EVS-Introduction.pptx

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