tailieunhanh - Environmental Literacy in Science and Society

Our starting point is the question, “Who invented the environment?” Chapter 1 describes how humans’ awareness of their impacts on the environment developed and when and why the concept of the environment was invented. Chapter 2 provides a first definition of environmental literacy and introduces the value that transdisciplinarity can bring to how humans address environmental issues. Chapter 3 introduces the concept of environment based on an organismic, cell-based definition of the human individual and the complementarity of material–biophysical and social-epistemic levels of human and environmental systems. Here we describe the basic ontological and epistemological assumptions that underlie our world view and thesis | Environmental Literacy in Science and Society From Knowledge to Decisions Environmental Literacy in Science and Society From Knowledge to Decisions In an era where humans affect virtually all of the Earth s processes questions arise about whether we have sufficient knowledge of human-environment interactions. How can we sustain the Earth s ecosystems to prevent collapses and what roles should practitioners and scientists play in this process These are the issues central to the concept of environmental literacy. This unique book provides a comprehensive review and analysis of environmental literacy within the context of environmental science and sustainable development. Approaching the topic from multiple perspectives it explores the development of human understanding of the environment and human-environment interactions in the fields of biology psychology sociology economics and industrial ecology. The discussion emphasizes the importance of knowledge integration and transdisciplinary processes as key strategies for understanding complex human-environment systems HES . In addition the author defines the HES framework as a template for investigating and transforming sustainably coupled HES in the 21st century. Roland W. Scholz chairs the Natural and Social Science Interface in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the ETH Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. A mathematician psychologist and decision theorist by training he is particularly interested in environmental systems analysis human-environment interactions environmental decisions and risk assessment. He has led numerous large-scale transdisciplinary processes to foster sustainable transitions of urban and regional .