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Issue Description
The impact of humanity’s actions on the environment is, as ever, a much-debated topic. Our everyday lives have a huge effect on the world around us, and equally the environment has a significant effect on human beings. Covering topics including sustainability, climate change, waste management, biodiversity, population pressure, pollution, water and sanitation, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the discussions surrounding sustainability and environment.
The information comes from a wide range of sources and includes government reports and statistics, newspaper articles, features, magazine articles and surveys, literature from lobby groups and charitable organisations.
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Key Facts
- The environment is the complex set of physical, geographic, biological, social, cultural and political conditions that surround an individual or organism and that ultimately determine its form and the nature of its survival. (page 1)
- Living sustainably means balancing our consumption, our technology choices and our population numbers in order to live within the resources of the planet. (page 5)
- UK climate projections predict increasing summer temperatures and higher incidences of extreme weather such as heatwaves. (page 6)
- An ESRC survey has shown that women are more likely than men to adopt pro-environmental behaviours: for example, they are four per cent more likely, on average, to be willing to pay more for environmentally-friendly products. (page 9)
- Reserves of fossil fuels are being exhausted and global warming, caused by carbon dioxide emissions, is beginning to impact on our everyday lives. (page 10)
- Around 40% of waste from households is currently recycled, as of 2011, compared to 11% in 2000/01. (page 12)
- The Earth’s population is using the equivalent of 1.5 planets’ worth of natural resources, but the long-term decline of animal life appears to have been halted, a WWF report shows. (page 13)
- In 2007, the IPCC announced that the planet has warmed about 0.75 degrees Celsius since the beginning of the 20th century. It said there is a greater than 90 per cent chance that global warming over the last 50 years is due to human activity. (page 19)
- Seas and oceans absorb 25% of global carbon emissions from human activity and UK seas contain rich and varied wildlife with over 8,000 species represented. (page 22)
- 884 million people in the world do not have access to safe water. This is roughly one in eight of the world’s population. (page 36)
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Sustainable Resources
The environment, Environmental justice, Sustainability, Sustainability and the city, Resources and consumption, When it comes to the environment, education affects our actions, Environmentalism, energy and consumer choice, Waste and recycling: a quick guide, Waste and recycling, Western lifestyles plundering tropics at record rate, WWF report shows, Scandal of UK’s illegal e-waste trade exposed.
Chapter 2 Safeguarding the Natural World
Attitudes of Europeans towards the issue of biodiversity, Biodiversity loss degrades natural capital and ecosystem services, A history of climate change, REDD herring, Forgotten forests have vital role in keeping deserts at bay, The marine environment, Floods and droughts, ‘Shocking’ new report confirms threats to world’s oceans and reefs.
Chapter 3 People and the Environment
Population and the environment: where we’re headed and what we can do, Demographic change and the environment, Urgent action needed to redesign the food system due to the world’s growing population, Water and sanitation, Reducing water wastage in the UK, Water statistics, Biodegradable products may be bad for the environment, Rising tide of drugs and medicines polluting EU waters, Aid policy: ten facts and figures from the 2011 Millennium Development Goals Report.
