DHS Environment (Lecture Notes)

GP Lecture: The Environment (T3W6 2024) ------------------------------------------- CONTENTS 1. Definition 2. Value and Importance 3. Environmental challenges 4. Who is to be blamed? 5. Saving the Environment 6. CR Evaluation Framework 7. Enduring Understandings ------------------------------------------- 1. Definition An environment is the combination of all of the physical, chemical, and biological factors acting upon an organism or an ecological community. The interaction of these factors determines the form and survival of living things and of the environment itself. (Encyclopedia Britannica) ==================== 2. Value and Importance Importance: This is our home planet. Given that there is no other habitable planet that is comparable (not at least within the next few centuries), our existence depends on it. It is the source of all that we need to sustain life and we need to conserve it to ensure the continued functioning of modern life and society as we know it. What value does the environment have for us? • Ecological value: Natural ecological systems support the natural processes that allow for life on earth. They ensure biodiversity, climate management, water management, natural resource management, and others. Currently, we are staring our very extinction in the eye because for a span of a few hundred years, we forgot nature’s ecological value. • Economic value: Provisioning of raw materials for products that range from our basic needs to luxury goods and services, as well as energy, all of which help make up our current modern lifestyle. Besides that, our economies are driven by industries that derive their raw materials from nature, including forestry, agriculture and pharmaceutics. For Singapore, it contributes significantly to the tourism section through the intangible benefits it brings. Recently, with the efforts to save the environment, new sectors have emerged, such as carbon trading, green technology and recycling.

• Cultural value: Many cultures imbue elements in their natural environment with symbolism and significance, that continues to be important today. These help shape the identity of many peoples. E.g. Grand Canyon’s wild, dramatic and almost harsh beauty represents America’s Wild Wild West, which the first frontiersmen conquered. • Aesthetic Value: • We appreciate nature for the beauty of its landscape, flora and fauna with many artists inspired by it. E.g. Van Gogh’s painting - ‘Starry Night’. • When we come face to face with the wonders of nature, we feel a visceral emotional response such as awe, wonder and joy. In that moment, we are removed from the quotidian concerns of life, the mundane routine details that can be almost soul-deadening. E.g. More dramatically, for Victor Frankl, nature’s beauty took him away from the cruelties of life in the concentration camps. • There is a beauty in knowing that we are in the midst of greatness- the immensity of nature—that we are part of something greater. That sense of connection to a larger natural order is meaningful and beautiful. • Research reveals how nature’s beauty can heal us on many levels. University of California, Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner and colleagues found that people who experience awe in response to nature’s beauty have less health problems, e.g. lower levels of inflammation. • Educational value: Of direct relevance are subjects such as Science and Geography, where natural phenomena and the natural world are investigated and specimen are required for hands-on learning. Nature helps foster personal growth and character development through adventure experiences. Where a sense of place is derived from natural heritage, nature can bring about a sense of belonging. • Recreational and social value: Nature lovers find enjoyment but others find nature an optimal setting for various leisure activities, e.g. hiking, mountain biking, beach and water activities, e.g. beach volleyball. In this, nature is varied and able to meet the needs of different groups of people, and that in itself is irreplaceable. (Adapted from "A Child's Place in the Environment", sponsored by the California Department of Education in cooperation with Konocti Unified School District) Reflect, Connect, Apply (to gain insights and conceptual understanding) As an urbanite, your relationship with nature will be different from someone who lives in a rural area. Exercise perspective-taking. How would it be different and why? =============================== 3. Environmental challenges we face • Man-made environmental problems: • Loss of Biodiversity: E.g. Decline of coral reefs due to coral bleaching caused by warming seas. Loss of livelihood and source of food.

• Pollution and Environmental Degradation: E.g. air pollution in cities like New Delhi, India due to emissions from vehicles, industry, and crop burning, affecting health and causing even loss of life. • Public Health Risks: Habitat destruction in tropical regions increase the risk of zoonotic diseases like Ebola and potentially cause pandemics like COVID-19. • Resource Scarcity and Conflict: E.g. Competition for water resources in the Middle East The management of the Nile River, for instance, is a source of diplomatic and geopolitical disputes among Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia, affecting regional stability and development. • The worse is yet to come. • Climate change has caused more extreme and unpredictable weather patterns. Attempts to halt or even just to slow down the rate of carbon emissions are half-hearted. What about reversing and repairing damage done? We face a frightening future of death, pain, suffering, loss, social harms such as economic collapse and extreme inequality. • What is the worst case scenario? • Global warming continues unbated. • Existential threat to all creatures including mankind, as they faced the prospect of widespread disasters at the level of mass loss of lives and damage. 4. Who is to be blamed? • Egocentric ethics: An egocentric ethic is grounded in the self. The assumption is that the individual optimizing outcomes for himself will ultimately be optiziming outcomes for society. This supports therefore the extraction of resources from nature to benefit the self (or private corporation). • Homocentric ethics: A homocentric ethic is grounded in society and is based on the assumption that policies should reflect the greatest good for the greatest number of people and that, as stewards of the natural world, humans should conserve and protect nature for human benefit. A homocentric approach can be illustrated by government charged with protecting the welfare of the general public. • Ecocentric ethics: An ecocentric ethic is grounded in the cosmos. The whole environment, including inanimate elements, rocks and minerals along with animate plants and animals, is assigned intrinsic value. Of primary importance is the survival of all living and non-living things as components of healthy ecosystems. Based on moral grounds, all things in the cosmos as well as humans should be considered. Where most adopt an egocentric or homocentric perspective, the environment will continue to be secondary to their priority which is the human benefit. Carolyn Merchant, ‘Environmental Ethics and Political Conflict: A View from California’, https://nature.berkeley.edu/departments/espm/env-hist/articles/29.pdf

Who is to be blamed? [Looking at the Stakeholders] ○ Governments, whose agenda includes gaining/ expanding/ maintaining power, influence and resources. 1. Colonization (historical): e.g. Resource extraction in Central Americas by European powers, Monoculture plantations introduced to S.E.Asia. [However, it is arguably true that we can’t assign blame here since there was a lack of knowledge about man’s impact on the environme