Lesson 1: Introduction to Environmental transition to slower growth rates in most

Science countries, present trends project a population

between 8 and 10 billion by 2050 (fig. 1.3).
Environment

(from the French environner: to encircle or Climate Change

surround) Burning fossil fuels, making cement,
cultivating rice paddies, clearing forests, and
the circumstances or conditions that other human activities release carbon
surround an organism or group of dioxide
organisms, and other so-called “greenhouse gases” that
trap heat in the atmosphere
the complex of social or cultural conditions Over the past 200 years, atmospheric CO2
that affect an individual concentrations
or community. have increased about 35 percent.
By 2100, if current trends continue,
climatologists
Environmental science warn that mean global temperatures will
probably increase 2° to 6°C compared to
the systematic study of our environment and
1900 temperatures (3.6° to 12.8°F: fig. 1.4
our proper place in it.
a).
A relatively new field, environmental
climate changes caused by
science is highly interdisciplinary,
greenhouse gases are very likely to result in
integrating natural sciences, social sciences,
increasingly severe weather events
and humanities in a broad, holistic study of
including droughts, floods, hurricanes, and
the world around us.
tornadoes.
Mission- oriented
Canadian Environment
seeks new, valid, contextual knowledge
Minister David Anderson has said that
about the natural world and our impacts on
global climate change is a greater threat than
it, but obtaining this information creates a
terrorism because it could threaten the
responsibility to get involved in trying to do
homes and livelihood of billions of people
something about the problems we have
and
created.
trigger worldwide social and economic
catastrophe
Barbara Ward
Economist
Hunger
pointed out, for an increasing number of Over the past century, global food
environmental issues, the difficulty is not to production has more than kept pace with
identify remedies. human
population growth,
Ed Abbey
Soil scientists report that about two-thirds of
said, “It is not enough to fight for the land; it is
all agricultural lands
even more important to enjoy it.
show signs of degradation.
Biotechnology and intensive farming
With more
techniques
than 7.1 billion humans currently, we’re
responsible for much of our recent
adding about 80 million more to the world
production gains often are too expensive for
every year. While demographers report a
poor
farmers. could give us cleaner, less destructive
United options if we invest in appropriate
Nations estimates that some 925 million technology.
people are now chronically undernourished,
and at least 60 million face acute food Biodiversity Loss
shortages due to natural disasters or Biologists report that habitat destruction,
conflicts. overexploitation, pollution, and
introduction of exotic organisms are
Clean Water eliminating species at a rate comparable to
Water may well be the most critical resource in the great extinction that marked the end of
the twenty first century. the age of dinosaurs
at UN
least 1.1 billion people lack an adequate Environment Program reports that, over the
supply of safe drinking water, and more than past century, more than 800 species have
twice that many don’t have modern disappeared and at least 10,000 species are
sanitation now considered threatened.
Polluted water and
inadequate sanitation are estimated to Air Pollution
contribute to the ill health of more than 1.2 Over southern Asia, for
billion people annually, including the death example, satellite images recently revealed a
of 15 million children per year. 3-km (2-mile)-thick toxic haze of ash,
About 40 acids, aerosols, dust, and photochemical
percent of the products regularly covers the entire Indian
world population lives in countries where subcontinent for much of the year.
water demands now exceed supplies, and Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen estimates that at
by2025 the UN projects that as many as least 3
three-fourths of us could live under similar million people die each year from diseases
conditions. Water wars may well become the triggered by air pollution.
major source of international conflict in United Nations estimates that more than 2
coming decades. billion metric tons of air pollutants (not
including carbon dioxide or wind-blown
Energy soil) are emitted each year
Fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas)
presently provide around Population and Pollution
80 percent of the energy used in Clean technology, such as the solar panels
industrialized countries. and wind turbines
problems now being produced in China, help eliminate
associated with their acquisition and use— pollution and save resources.
air and water pollution, mining damage, Population
shipping accidents, and geopolitics—may has stabilized in most industrialized
limit what we do with remaining reserves. countries and even in some very poor
Cleaner renewable energy resources, such as countries
those now being produced in China where social security and democracy have
including solar power, wind, geothermal, been established.
and biomass, together with conservation, Over the last 20 years, the
average number of children born per woman
worldwide has decreased from 6.1 to 2.7
By 2050, the UN Population Division British Prime Minister Tony Blair laid out
predicts that all developed countries and 75 even more ambitious plans to fight global
percent of the developing world will warming by cutting carbon dioxide
experience a below-replacement fertility emissions in his country by 60 percent
rate of 2.1 children per woman. This through
prediction suggests that the world population energy conservation and a switch to
will stabilize at about 8.9 billion rather than renewables.
9.3 billion, as previously estimated
Carbon Markets and Standards
Health Cap and trade programs in which limits are
The incidence of life-threatening infectious established on greenhouse gas emissions
diseases has been reduced sharply in most and companies can buy and sell discharge
countries during the past century, while life In 2010, California, which would be the
expectancies have nearly doubled on eighth largest economy in the
average world, if it were an independent country,
Since 1990, more than 800 million people established a similar program, the first of its
have kind in America.
gained access to improved water supplies
and modern sanitation. International Cooperation
Currently, more than 500 international
Information and Education environmental protection agreements are
The increased speedat which information now in force
now moves around the world offers
unprecedented opportunities
for sharing ideas.

Sustainable Resource Use Around the World

We are finding ways to conserve resources
and use them more sustainably. For
example, improved monitoring of fisheries
and networks of marine protected areas
promote species conservation as well as
human development

Habitat Conservation
Brazil, which has the largest area of tropical
rainforest in the world

Renewable Energy
prices for solar panels dropped by 50 percent
in 2010 making them much more
competitive with fossil fuels.
The European Union
has pledged to get 20 percent of its energy
from renewable sources by 2020.
Former
Lesson 2: Education for Sustainable Develop Latin America
and Caribbean
34.3 million
Oceania
The SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) 1.4 million
provide a lens through which to consider
how we can positively impact the world
GOOD HE A LT H
around us. A ND W EL L-BEING
The SDGs were created in To ensure healthy lives
and promote well-being
2015 by the United Nations and are meant to for all at all ages.
More than six million
be achieved by the year 2030. children still die before
SDGs provide a framework to their fifth birthday each
year, and only half of all
pinpoint global and local issues that we can women in developing
regions have access to the
help to address. health care they need.
if we spent
$1 billion in expanding

NO POVERTY:
immunization coverage
against influenza, pneu
monia and other prevent
able diseases, we could
To end poverty in all its save 1 million children’s
forms everywhere by 2030. lives each year.
The overwhelming

QUALITY
majority of people living
on less than $1.90 a day
The overwhelming

EDUCATION
majority of people living
on less than $1.90 a day
Right now there
are 30 million children Ensure inclusive and qual
growing up poor in the
world’s richest countries. ity education for all and
To end extreme promote lifelong learning.
poverty worldwide in 20
years, economist Jeffrey While enrolment in primary education in
Sachs calculated that the
total cost per year would
developing countries has reacged 91%, 57
be about $175 billion. million children remain out of school

ZERO GENDER
HUNGER:
To end hunger, achieve
EQUALITY
food security and improved To achieve gender equal
nutrition and promote ity and empower all
sustainable agriculture women and girls.
There are On average, women in the labour market still earn 24 percent less than mane
nearly 800 million people globally
who suffer from hunger

CL E A N WAT ER
worldwide, the vast major
ity in developing countries.
We will need an esti

AND SANITATION
mated additional $267
billion per year on aver
age to end world hun
ger by 2030 To ensure access to
safe water sources and
Breakdown of hungry sanitation for all.
Water
people by region scarcity affects more than
in 2015 (est.) 40 per cent of the global
population and is projected
US and Europe to rise.
14.7 million
Africa
232.5 million
Asia
511.7 million
A F FOR DA BL E A
ND CLIMATE ACTION
Taking urgent action to
tackle climate change

CLEAN ENERGY: and its impacts

A $6 billion USD investment in disaster risk reduction over the next 15
years would avoid losses of $360 billion USD
To ensure access to afford
able, reliable, sustainable
and modern energy for all.
Energy is the dominant contributor to climate change, accounting for around
60% of total global greenhouse gas emissions.

DECEN T WOR K A
ND LIFE BELOW
ECONOMIC GROWTH WATER
To promote inclusive and
sustainable economic To conserve and sustain
growth, employment and ably use the world’s oceans,
decent work for all. seas and marine resources.
30 million: Number of jobs required every year for new entrants to the
labour market to keep up with the growth of the global working age Marine protected areas contribute to pverty
population. reduction by increasing people’s income and
improving health.
INDUS T RY, INNOVAT
ION
AND INFRASTRUCTURE LIFE ON
LAND
To build resilient infrastruc
ture, promote inclusive and
sustainable industrializa
tion and foster innovation
Industrialization’s job multiplication effect has a positive impact on society. To sustainably manage
Every one job in manufacturing creates 2.2 jobs in other sectors forests, combat deserti
fication, halt and reverse

EQUALITY
land degradation, and
halt biodiversity loss.
Around 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihood
To reduce inequalities within
and among countries.
We cannot achieve sustainable development if we exclude any part of the PEACE, JUSTICE, AND
world’s population
STRONG INSTITUTIONS
Promote peaceful and

SUSTAINABLE inclusive societies for

sustainable development,
provide access to justice

CITIES for all and build effective,

accountable and inclusive
institutions at all levels.
To make cities inclu
sive, safe, resilient Peaceful, just and inclusive societies are necessary to achieve the
Sustainable Development Goals
and sustainable
95% of urban expansion in the next decade will take place in developing

PARTNERSHIPS
countries

R ESPONSIBL E To revitalize the global

partnership for sustain

CONSUM P T ION & able development

To successfully implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,
we must swiftly move from commitments to action. To do that, we need

PRODUC T ION strong, inclusive and integrated partnerships at all levels.

To ensure sustainable
consumption and pro
duction patterns If the global population reaches 9.6 billion by 2050, the
equivalent of almost three planets will be required to sustain the current
lifestyles.