{ TOC }-{ Chapter 1 }-{ Chapter 2 }-{ Chapter 3 }-{ Chapter 4 }-{ Chapter 5 }-{ Chapter 6 } Chapter 6: Towards a Sustainable WorldThis final chapter asks you to apply the concept of a sustainable world to the ecosystems that you have been studying—aquatic ecosystems in a bottle, old growth forests of the Pacific Northwest, and tropical rainforests. You will be asked to think about the major themes of global systems science, and how they relate to your life. Meet Tom Suchanek. He is the director of the Western Region of the National Institute for Global Environmental Change. His specialty is aquatic ecosystems. In the above picture, he is working in the rocky intertidal zone—which is the seashore that is exposed between low tide and high tide. This area is very rich in marine life. On a square meter of exposed mussel beds, as many as 300 different species of marine life can be found. This area is also vulnerable to damage by natural disasters and human activities—from people walking over the rocks to such devastating events as oil spills or long-term climate change.
I. Carol’s Grand Cooperative Car ProgramAn Essay on cooperation to provoke your thinking about the long-range effects of your decisions. By Richard Golden.![]() When I was in college I had a friend who many of us thought would either wind up as the first woman president or the head of a large corporation. She had the kind of mind which was forever organizing big projects, and she had the energy to follow through on them. Her name was Carol Mathews. I don’t know were Carol is now. We lost touch. I often wonder what happened to her. But let me tell you about Carol’s grand cooperative car program. ![]() They had the car for a couple of months and there were increasing hard feelings and arguments. Then when Analee was driving she accidentally drove over a curb and one of the tires blew out. They had an argument over the repairs. The others said that Analee should replace the tire. She said that the tire was old and that it probably needed to be replaced anyhow. The spare was no good and so the car was laid up for a week until Analee finally gave in. But later, when the drive shaft broke, Analee refused pay for her part of the repair, and no one else wanted to pay either. They all knew that Debra and her boy friend drove the car on the back roads where only four wheelers should go. They felt she was really responsible even if the breakdown happened when Annalee had the car. In an essay by a biologist named Garrett Hardin, "The Tragedy of the Commons," he speaks of the days when England was a land of small farms and villages. Each village had its commons— a piece of land which was the community property of all the villagers. How would you solve the problem of the commons?
Article from UC Berkeley News Center: II. A New World ViewThe title of this book has more than one meaning. It refers to the new vantage point that space travel has given us, of our Earth as an island of life in the cold blackness of space. It refers to our growing understanding of how the air, oceans, land, and living things interact to keep the Earth from growing too hot or too cold to support life. It also refers to the recognition that everything is connected to everything else—that a rise in the temperature of the Pacific Ocean, for example, can cause storms and floods on the other side of the world. Important, also, is our understanding of how the Earth has changed through time, and the possibility of predicting how we may be changing its future.
{ TOC }-{ Chapter 1 }-{ Chapter 2 }-{ Chapter 3 }-{ Chapter 4 }-{ Chapter 5 }-{ Chapter 6 } |