Answer to Question #206202 in English for Maisi

Question

1. State 6 key characteristics of environmental education [6 marks]

2. Briefly explain the difference between weak and strong sustainability. [4 marks]

3. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a call for action by all countries – poor, rich and middle-income – to promote prosperity while protecting the planet.

Briefly discuss at least 4 practical environmental sustainability activities that you can do with your class within your school environment (buildings and school grounds) towards achieving Goal 12 - Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns [20 marks]

4. We are currently living in the Anthropocene era:

a. Define the term Anthropocene [2 marks]

b. State and describe 4 environmental issues (crises) that have emerged from the Anthropocene era [8 marks] [Total: 50]

Answer 1

Question 1

    I.           It is interdisciplinary and holistic in nature and its application,

  II.           It is an approach to education as a whole, rather than a subject,

 III.           It concerns the inter-relationship and interconnectedness between human and natural systems,

 IV.           It views the environment in its entirety including social, political, economic, technological, moral, aesthetic and spiritual aspects,

  V.           It encourages participation in the learning experience

 VI.           It emphasises active responsibility,

VII.           It uses a broad range of teaching and learning techniques, with stress on practical activities and hands-on experience

Question 2

Weak sustainability postulates the full substitutability of natural capital whereas the strong conception demonstrates that this substitutability should be severely seriously limited due to the existence of critical elements that natural capital provides for human existence and well-being

Question 3

This Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom. We recognize that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development. All countries and all stakeholders, acting in collaborative partnership, will implement this plan. We are resolved to free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure our planet. We are determined to take the bold and transformative steps which are urgently needed to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path. As we embark on this collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets which we are announcing today demonstrate the scale and ambition of this new universal Agenda. They seek to build on the Millennium Development Goals and complete what these did not achieve. They seek to realize the human rights of all and to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. They are integrated and indivisible and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental.The Goals and targets will stimulate action over the next fifteen years in areas of critical importance for humanity and the plane

Question 4

The Anthropocene Epoch is an unofficial unit of geologic time, used to describe the most recent period in Earth's history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet's climate and ecosystems

Consequently, a wide range of environmental problems has emerged; those problems include anthropogenic climate change ('global warming'), the depletion of stratospheric ozone (the 'ozone hole'), the acidification of surface waters ('acid rain'), the destruction of tropical forests, the depletion and extinction of species, and the precipitous decline of biodiversity. Yet, while all of these problems have physical (environmental) manifestations, their causes - and their potential solutions - are invariably bound up with human attitudes, beliefs, values, needs, desires, expectations, and behaviours. Thus the symptoms of the environmental crisis cannot be regarded purely as physical problems requiring solutions by environmental 'specialists'; instead, they are intrinsically human problems and they are intimately related to the question of what it means to be human