ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AND

MANAGEMENT
The Environment
Environmental Change
Sustainability
THE ENVIRONMENT

 Biophysical (atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere,

biosphere, cryosphere)
 Managed (managed natural environments e.g.
agricultural landscapes)
 Constructed (formed and built by humans e.g.
industrialisation and urbanisation)

 Crysophere = part of the earth’s water in solid form

e.g. frost, ice
CHALLENGES – POLITICAL,
ENVIRONMENTAL, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL

Population
Urbanisation Habitat loss
growth

Land Climate
Energy use
degradation change
IS IT POSSIBLE TO CREATE A BIOSPHERE 2
ON EARTH?
What is Biosphere 2?
Self-contained ecosystem serves as an experimental research facility comprising an enormous greenhouse structure.
Where is it?
Oracle, Arizona
Why create Biosphere 2?
 An attempt to construct a new ‘earth’ that consists of biomes e.g. rainforest, savannah, desert and ocean so that
 scientists can study the interactions between living organisms, the atmosphere and the physical environment.
 What challenges does the project have?
 Struggle to maintain CO2 and O2 levels in the greenhouse
 Crops fail to thrive

What benefits does the project bring?

It advances our understanding of the complex interactions between the living organisms and the environment through the data generated
and they are useful to understanding global environmental issues e.g. climate change and biodiversity loss

Evaluation
Biosphere 2 is an ambitious visionary ecological research attempt and is very expensive to maintain. Nevertheless, it
has provided us an insight to the understanding of the complexities that interactions between living organisms and the
environment.
Today, Biosphere 2 continues to serve as a valuable research facility. The site has been used to study a range of
different topics, including the effects of climate change on tropical rainforests, the impacts of ocean acidification on coral
reefs, and the potential for closed ecological systems to support human habitation on other planets.
BIOSPHERE 2

 Is it a failure?
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yAcD3wuY2Q
 SYSTEMS THINKING
 Development brings about improvement in human wellbeing and deems a priority to
many countries.
 Environmental considerations are not given the same level of regard in the initial stage of
development.
 With more issues being discussed about changes in the climate and the challenges we are
facing, countries are starting to realise that the two components are mutually supportive.
 Identify the challenges we are experiencing…

 Systems thinking is an approach to study the changes in the environment by looking at

the issues as a whole. By using the DPSIR Framework, it is possible to adopt the systems
thinking approach to assess the environmental challenges and issues that we are facing.
DPSIR FRAMEWORK

 Textbook p. 33, Fig. 1.42 and p.

34, Fig. 1.43
 Questions, p. 35, no. 6a-c
NATURAL GREENHOUSE EFFECT
CLIMATE CHANGE
 Study the diagram and
highlight all the changes
occurred as a result of
climate change.
 How does the enhanced
greenhouse effect
contribute to the changes
shown in the diagram?
 Textbook page p.27
Climate change is the long-term shifts in precipitations,
temperatures and wind patterns. Global warming is part of
climate change.
EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

 Pollution
 Habitat Loss
 Land Degradation
PLASTIC
POLLUTION AND
CLIMATE CHANGE
 https://blogs.worldbank.org/
endpovertyinsouthasia/6-re
asons-blame-plastic-pollutio
n-climate-change
 https://wwf.org.au/blogs/pla
stic-waste-and-climate-chan
ge-whats-the-connection/

 https://youtu.be/cwTDvqaq
PlM
SOURCE FUNCTION

 Natural resources directly from the biophysical environment

 E.g. water, soil, timber, fish stocks, minerals and fossil fuels
 Earth's natural geomorphic, atmospheric, hydrologic and
biologic systems are responsible for both their existence and
their uneven distribution across the planet
 Natural resources are classified as renewable (able to be
replenished by nature in a relatively short amount of time) non-
renewable (unable to be replenished in a human lifetime, only
on geologic time scales which range from hundreds to millions
of years) and continuous (wind and sunlight)
SINK FUNCTION

 Safe absorption of the wastes and pollution

produced by human activities and life
 The way in which the environment deals with
what people put into it.
 Humans depend on the environment to break
down, recycle or safely store their waste.
 Wastes include rubbish, gaseous emissions
from use of vehicles, effluent, industrial wastes
and fertiliser run-off.
 SERVICE FUNCTION

 The provision of environmental or ecosystem services

that support life without requiring human action.
 E.g. earth's natural greenhouse effect operates to hold
the heat produced by incoming solar radiation during the
day and keep warm at night.
 Also, earth's ozone layer helps to screen out ultraviolet
radiation.
 Other examples : heat budget, water cycle, carbon cycle,
photosynthesis, pollination, seed dispersal, carbon
sequestration and soil formation.
 SPIRITUAL FUNCTION

For example, the Aboriginal

Earth's intrinsic
recreational, psychological,
aesthetic and spiritual value
of environments is referred
to as its spiritual function.
The extent of this function
and Torres Strait Islander
will vary depending on the
people have very strong
culture, beliefs and values
spiritual links to the land
of the people who use the
based on their beliefs of the
land and sea.
Dreamtime.

Hindus in India believe the

Ganges River to be of
spiritual significance.
However, spiritual does not
only refer to a religious
context.
It is also about emotions,
psychological attachment
and aesthetic feelings
about places.
THE CARBON
SINK
It is anything that absorbs more
carbon from the atmosphere
than it releases 
– for example, plants absorb
more carbon dioxide through
photosynthesis,
Oceans store excess heat and
energy released from
greenhouse emissions
Soil stores carbon that is
absorbed from plants in the
form of carbon sequestration
Note the carbon source -releases more carbon into the
atmosphere than it absorbs – for example, the burning of fossil
fuels or volcanic eruptions.
 WHAT IS A WELL-MANAGED LANDFILL
SITE?
 https://www.cleanaway.com.au/sustainable-future/what-is-landfill/

 Wastes generated are sent to landfill.

 A landfill in the modern context is highly engineered and regulated pit that is divided into
cells, which is engineered to perform maximum compaction and potentially reduce
environmental impacts.
 When landfill is not managed properly, leachate can contaminate groundwater and this can
bring devasting effects to river systems, and impact on ecosystems.
HABITAT LOSS

 What is habitat?
 What is biodiversity?
 There are 6 levels of threat – extinct, extinct in the
wild, critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable
and threatened
 Biodiversity loss is a result of the different levels of
threat

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

CAUSES OF BIODIVERSITY LOSS

 Habitat loss and degradation e.g. desertification

 Introduced species leads to competition
 Over-exploitation e.g. hunting
 Diseases cause wipe out of species
 Plastic pollution
 Acid pollution e.g. acid rain
 Climate change
 Wildlife trade
DPSIR ON HABITAT LOSS

Critically think about the following areas of the DPSIR framework (Pearson, page
33) and give examples to illustrate them:
 Drivers –
 Pressures –
 State –
 Impacts –
 Responses – protected areas, zoos, botanical gardens, seed bank, international
agreements, CITES, World Heritage Convention
LAND DEGRADATION

 This is the downgrading of land making it less productive than before.

 Two types of land degradation:
 Soil degradation
 Vegetation degradation
 Soil degradation is caused by soil salinity, erosion, compaction and acidification
 Vegetation degradation is caused by introduction of new species, fires, weed
infestations
 Other causes – desertification, poverty leads to over-cultivation and
marginalisation, coastal degradation leads to coastlines being encroached and
altered
VEOLIA – WASTE MANAGEMENT AND
BIOREACTOR
Evaluate the pillars of sustainability in managing wastes by Veolia, including the use of old
mine, conventional landfill strategy and bioreactor.
 MBT – mechanical biological treatment
 It involves pre-treatment to separate wastes so that leachate is stored in pre-built ponds.
 Treatment process is to breakdown the waste into organic compost to replenish the old
mine.
 Residual waste is a challenge and needs to be treated too. Bioreactor is used to speed up
waste degradation, one way is to produce biogas and generate more energy for
households
 Veolia is working on a more advanced technology and this means wastes are treated by
combustion and does not need to go through landfill, the gas released from burning will
be converted as energy and used by the neighbouring households of Tarago.
https://www.veolia.com/anz/about-us/arc-project-overview
THE MULLOON INSTITUTE

Discuss the environmental worldviews of TMI in practising regenerative

agriculture. Remember to consider functions of the environment that bring
about sustainable land management.
Regenerative agriculture – a conservation approach to farming that focuses on
restoring topsoil, creating biodiversity through improving ecosystem and
balancing water cycle.
Service functions of the environment include carbon sequestration and water
cycle
Environmental worldviews – Textbook pages 36-39
HUMAN-CENTRED WORLDVIEW

 Humans are superior

 With human ingenuity and technology, we can manage our resources
 Economic growth is unlimited
 In short-term, there has efficiency but long-term costs could cause environmental
damage.
STEWARDSHIP

 We have ethical responsibility to be caring managers or stewards of the earth.

 Indigenous communities are best examples of this worldview. Together with
spiritual function of the environment, they have an intimate knowledge and
appreciation of their environment and act responsibility to ensure its continuing
productivity.
 We use resources responsibly because the earth and its resources are really being
borrowed from future generations.
EARTH-CENTRED WORLDVIEW

 People believe that nature exists for all species on earth, humans are not superior
and all forms of life have a value.
 Humans are part of, and entirely dependent on, nature, and that nature exists for
all species.
 Advocate sustainability, such as protecting the earth’s biodiversity and the
maintenance of its life support systems for all forms of life.