How do I teach Environmental Conservation? Presenter: Dr. Yuri Gorokhovich, Lehman College

Transcription

1 How do I teach Environmental Conservation? Presenter: Dr. Yuri Gorokhovich, Lehman College

2 Do we need science in Environmental Conservation course? Things to consider: 1. How many majors take it? 2. What students will remember, % of CO2 in atmosphere or climate is changing and there is an evidence for change such as decrease of ice in Arctic; this can cause a change in ocean currents circulation along continental margins; etc.? 3. Do we want students to remember information or learn how to search for it? 4. Do we want to make out of students believers and followers or shakers and movers? 5. What does it mean to teach science in Environmental Conservation course? a. Controversies in many issues; science is relatively new (e.g. climate science, genetic engineering, etc.) b. Can we make students remember in one course all soil types and principles of coastal geomorphology? c. Or we need to establish pre-requisites such as Introduction to Geology, Weather and Climate, Environmental Geology, Introduction to Biotechnology, Statistics, etc.? 6. What about Quantitative Reasoning instead of Statistics and Math?

3 Environmental Conservation Quantitative Reasoning Task: Family has two cars: old Jeep (10 mpg) and Sedan (25 mpg). They cover daily 100 miles to get to the work. Because of environmental ( a lot of pollution + concern for future generations in terms of non-renewable resources) and economical concerns (gas is getting more and more expensive) they decided to improve the efficiency of their cars. In the dealership they were offered two options: Option 1: Option 2: Switch old Jeep to sedan with 25 mpg Change sedan to hybrid with 50 mpg Which option is better? Why?

4 So, how will we teach Environmental Conservation course? Environmental- Issues/dp/ /ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid = &sr=8-1&keywords=Taking+Sides+environmental+issues sr=8-1&keywords=environment+12%2f13

5 Environmental Conservation and Science: - interaction between humans and nature Ye live not for yourselves; ye cannot live for yourselves ; a thousand fibers connect you with your fellow-men, and along those fibers, as along sympathetic threads, run your actions as causes, and return to you as effects. Rev. Henry Melvill, Golden Lectures, 1855, p.454 Fritjof Capra: The Web of Life (excerpt):

6 Environmental Conservation and Science: - interaction between humans and nature Things to consider: 1. Human history is based on various philosophies/religions (animism, monotheism, Marxism, etc.) that steers our actions, including development of new societies and technologies. 2. In modern societies the development of new technologies (including food production, transport, medicine, etc.) is considered as a main progress (economical determinism). This progress: a. stimulates the use of natural resources (conquering the nature); b. favors utilitarian point of view on natural resources (how useful it is?); c. distracts human mind from the vision of the natural system as a whole (e.g. a thought which element of the system is profitable/problematic today? ); we lost/losing system thinking element in our science; science now is created to solve problems, not to guide the progress.

7 Environmental Conservation and Science: - interaction between humans and nature Sample Problems / Questions: Is global warming a catastrophe? Do we have a population problem? Is technology a threat to the environment? Do ecosystem services have economic value? Modern environmental movement: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, Governmental response: 1967 US Air Quality Act; 1970 Environmental Protection Agency was formed (Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, etc.); 1987 Montreal Protocol (banned the use of chlorofluocarbons, CFCs); 1997 the Kyoto Protocol (reduce carbon dioxide emissions); 2002 The UN World Summit on Sustainable Development; 2005 the UN Millenium Project Task Force on Environmental Sustainability released its report Environment and Human Well-being: A Practical Strategy

8 Environmental Conservation and Science: - interaction between humans and nature Examples of environmental conservation topics: Human Population Biodiversity Soils and food security Fisheries Freshwater resources Energy resources Air quality and pollution Climate change Sustainability Chronic diseases Consumerism and consumption

9 Environmental Conservation and Science: - interaction between humans and nature The overall goal: Sustainable development, i.e. meet human needs now and provide for the future generations Obstacle to the goal achievement: Tragedy of commons. Garret Hardin. Science 13 December 1968: Vol. 162 no pp Benefit to one; shared damage among all

10 Joke or reality? Mexican fisherman and american businessman

11 Theoretical (philosophical) principles on the background

12 Cartesianism: mind and physical body are independent René Descartes View of the world as separated into mechanical (physical) and other (non-physical) components. So-called dualism. Lead to mechanistic approach in science when the whole was broken into pieces and replicated or improved or invented Episode from Mindwalk movie:

13 Environmental Conservation: bad news and good news, but more bad news. Can metaphysics help? Noosphere: myth, reality or metaphysics? Can we introduce students to metaphysics in 21 st century? metaphysics, the philosophical study whose object is to determine the real nature of things to determine the meaning, structure, and principles of whatever is insofar as it is. Although this study is popularly conceived as referring to anything excessively subtle and highly theoretical and although it has been subjected to many criticisms, it is presented by metaphysicians as the most fundamental and most comprehensive of inquiries, inasmuch as it is concerned with reality as a whole... (76 of 37,112 words). Encyclopædia Britannica

14 New thoughts at the dawn of technical revolution: - mind is also physical and a force Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky Édouard Louis Emmanuel Julien Le Roy Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

15 Noosphere: nous (greek) = mind, sense, way of thinking In 1922/23 Vernadsky was lecturing in Sorbonne (Paris, France) on his own developed scientific discipline biogeochemistry where he described connections between biosphere and litosphere. His lectures were attended by Le Roy and Chardin. In 1927 Le Roy (together with Chardin) in his lectures in Collège de France invented term noosphere, apparently influenced by Vernadsky. 1927: Le Roy, in L'exigence idealiste et le fait d'evolution, P., 1927, p. 196 some human sphere above animal biosphere and continuing of biosphere; the sphere of reflection of free and conscious invention; the sphere of thought itself, the sphere of spirit. 1936: Vernadsky, in On logic of natural science sphere that is the result of biosphere changed by human thought 1938: Chardin, in The Phenomenon of Man the collective consciousness of human-beings, which emerges from the interaction of human minds Sources: Internet as the Factor of the Development of the Noosphere. Few words about the noosphere:

16 Édouard Louis Emmanuel Julien Le Roy, first time used «noosphere» in his book «L'exigence idealiste et le fait d'evolution, P., 1927, p. 196.» Les origines humaines et l'evolution de l'intelligence. Paris, p.47 «Deux grands faits, devant l'esquels tous les autres samblent presque svanouir, dominent dans l'histoire passe de la Terre: la vitalisation de la matire, puis l'hominisation de la vie.» Two great facts, ahead of all others seem almost fainted, dominate the story moves from the Earth: vitalization of the matter and humanization of life.

17 Vladimir Vernadsky, Scientific thought as a planetary phenomenon, 1938 Biosphere of the 20 th century turns into noosphere, created primarily by the growth of the science, scientific comprehension and social work of humanity that is based on it. Problems more often do not fit into the framework of one, already developed scientific direction. We specialize not according to sciences but according to problems. Few words about noosphere, In: Successes of the contemporary biology, 1944, 18 (2), p In reality, none of the living organisms on the Earth is in a free form. All organisms are connected in space and time first of all by the food and breathing with surrounding material- energetic environment.

18 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man, 1938 To harmonise objects in time and space, without presuming to determine the conditions that can rule their deepest being: to establish an experimental chain of succession in nature, not a union of ontological causality; to see, in other words, and not to explain this, let it not be forgotten, is the sole aim of the present study. mechanical interaction in the definition of the partial centers of the universe given above is replaced by consciousness. we may be sure that every time a richer and better organized structure will correspond to the more developed consciousness we find the fundamental condition characteristic of primordial matter the unity of plurality. Much more coherent and just as extensive as any preceding layer, it is really a new layer, the thinking layer, which, since its germination at the end of the Tertiary period, has spread over and above the world of plants and animals. In other words, outside and above the biosphere there is the noosphere. We saw geogenesis promoted to biogenesis, which turned out in the end to be nothing else than psychogenesis.

19 Conclusion: Philosophical category of noosphere in my opinion is the key element of possible solution to many environmental problems. It presents our consciousness and scientific knowledge as two main forces that changed and continue changing the planet. Our consciousness and scientific knowledge affect the most important elements of our society that can cause environmental improvement: education, policies and economic interests. Recognizing noosphere is a challenge to our modern technocratic society