Problem Based Learning

The Problem: Can the market be relied upon to deliver the solutions to the environmental damage that is inflicted on the planet by modern production methods and economic growth?

A report conducted by 1,300 experts from 95 countries has presented a stark choice for the planet. The report suggests that as the human race expands beyond the 6 billion mark, the demand that this growing number of people and the economic activities they carry out are placing on nature is outpacing nature's ability to cope. The report suggests that 60% of the ecosystems that support life on Earth are being damaged or used unsustainably. This damage is likely to increase in the next 50 years according to the report.

Such damage is having unpredictable effects on the environment; climate change is clearly at the forefront of the news but there are also other problems such as alien damage to natural life, the emergence of new diseases, the destruction of fisheries, the speeding up of species extinction and a reduction in biodiversity.

Image: Economic growth has brought health and wealth to millions over the last 150 years but is the cost of that growth now becoming greater than the benefits? Copyright: Helle Bro, stock.xchng

Such changes, without measures to reverse the effects, threaten to reduce the likelihood of achieving the Millennium Development Goals laid down by the United Nations. However, the report does suggest that the reversal of such changes is within the capacity of humankind to bring about.