to life with greater self-sufficiency of During the ESS course students should societies. An ecocentric viewpoint be encouraged to develop their own EVS prioritizes biorights, emphasizes the and to be able to justify their decisions on importance of education and encourages environmental issues based on their self-restraint in human behavior. EVSs. An anthropocentric viewpoint argues that International-mindedness: humans must sustainably manage the global system. This might be through the Ecosystems may often cross national use of taxes, environmental regulation boundaries and conflict may arise from and legislation. Debate would be the clash of different value systems encouraged to reach a consensual, about exploitation of resources (for pragmatic approach to solving example, migration of wildlife across environmental problems. borders in southern Africa). A technocentric viewpoint argues that Differences in cultures and societies may technological developments can provide influence the development of solutions to environmental problems. environmental value systems. This is a consequence of a largely optimistic view of the role humans can Theory of knowledge: play in improving the lot of humanity. Scientific research is encouraged in EVSs shape the way we perceive the order to form policies and to understand environment—which other value systems how systems can be controlled, shape the way we view the world? manipulated or changed to solve Connections: resource depletion. A pro-growth agenda is deemed necessary for society’s ESS: Conservation of biodiversity (3.4); improvement. soil degradation and conservation (5.3); There are extremes at either end of this photochemical smog (6.3), acid spectrum (for example, deep deposition (6.4); climate change—causes to and impacts (7.2); resource use in but in practice, EVSs vary society (8.2) greatly depending on cultures and time Diploma Program: Social and cultural periods, and they rarely fit simply or anthropology, geography (HL) perfectly into any classification. Different EVSs ascribe different intrinsic value to components of the biosphere.
to life with greater self-sufficiency of societies. An ecocentric viewpoint prioritizes biorights, emphasizes the importance of education and encourages self-restraint in human behavior. An anthropocentric viewpoint argues that humans must sustainably manage the global system. This might be through the use of taxes, environmental regulation and legislation. Debate would be encouraged to reach a consensual, pragmatic approach to solving environmental problems. A technocentric viewpoint argues that technological developments can provide solutions to environmental problems. This is a consequence of a largely optimistic view of the role humans can play in improving the lot of humanity. Scientific research is encouraged in order to form policies and to understand how systems can be controlled, manipulated or changed to solve resource depletion. A pro-growth agenda is deemed necessary for society’s improvement. There are extremes at either end of this spectrum (for example, deep to but in practice, EVSs vary greatly depending on cultures and time periods, and they rarely fit simply or perfectly into any classification. Different EVSs ascribe different intrinsic value to components of the biosphere. During the ESS course students should be encouraged to develop their own EVS and to be able to justify their decisions on environmental issues based on their EVSs. International-mindedness: Ecosystems may often cross national boundaries and conflict may arise from the clash of different value systems about exploitation of resources (for example, migration of wildlife across borders in southern Africa). Differences in cultures and societies may influence the development of environmental value systems. Theory of knowledge: EVSs shape the way we perceive the environment—which other value systems shape the way we view the world? Connections: ESS: Conservation of biodiversity (3.4); soil degradation and conservation (5.3); photochemical smog (6.3), acid deposition (6.4); climate change—causes and impacts (7.2); resource use in society (8.2) Diploma Program: Social and cultural anthropology, geography (HL)
IB_Environmental_Systems_and_Societies_2016.docx