Lecture

Ecological Economics: Planetary Boundaries and Climate Linkages

Graph Chat

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.

In course

ENV-610: Ecological economics

This course is an introduction to economic theory applied to environmental issues. It presents the methods used to assess environmental impacts and natural resources as well as environmental regulation instruments. It then broadens the analysis to ecologic ...

Description

This lecture explores the linkages between Ecological Economics and Planetary Boundaries, focusing on sustainability, climate change, and the carbon cycle. It delves into the impact of human activities on the biosphere integrity, land-system change, freshwater use, and biogeochemical flows. The lecture also discusses the implications of climate change, ocean acidification, novel entities, stratospheric ozone depletion, and atmospheric aerosol loading. Various CO2 levels throughout history are analyzed, highlighting the importance of understanding and addressing environmental challenges.

Official source

Related concepts (32)

Planetary boundaries

Planetary boundaries are a framework to describe limits to the impacts of human activities on the Earth system. Beyond these limits, the environment may not be able to self-regulate anymore. This would mean the Earth system would leave the period of stability of the Holocene, in which human society developed. Crossing a planetary boundary comes at the risk of abrupt environmental change. The framework is based on scientific evidence that human actions, especially those of industrialized societies since the Industrial Revolution, have become the main driver of global environmental change.

Ecological economics

Ecological economics, bioeconomics, ecolonomy, eco-economics, or ecol-econ is both a transdisciplinary and an interdisciplinary field of academic research addressing the interdependence and coevolution of human economies and natural ecosystems, both intertemporally and spatially. By treating the economy as a subsystem of Earth's larger ecosystem, and by emphasizing the preservation of natural capital, the field of ecological economics is differentiated from environmental economics, which is the mainstream economic analysis of the environment.

Sustainability

Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long time. Specific definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Experts often describe sustainability as having three dimensions (or pillars): environmental, economic, and social, and many publications emphasize the environmental dimension. In everyday use, sustainability often focuses on countering major environmental problems, including climate change, loss of biodiversity, loss of ecosystem services, land degradation, and air and water pollution.

Environmental issues

Environmental issues are disruptions in the usual function of ecosystems. Further, these issues can be caused by humans (human impact on the environment) or they can be natural. These issues are considered serious when the ecosystem cannot recover in the present situation, and catastrophic if the ecosystem is projected to certainly collapse. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on the individual, organizational or governmental levels, for the benefit of both the environment and humans.

Ocean acidification

Ocean acidification is the decrease in the pH of the Earth's ocean. Between 1950 and 2020, the average pH of the ocean surface fell from approximately 8.15 to 8.05. Carbon dioxide emissions from human activities are the primary cause of ocean acidification, with atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels exceeding 410 ppm (in 2020). CO2 from the atmosphere is absorbed by the oceans. This produces carbonic acid (H2CO3) which dissociates into a bicarbonate ion () and a hydrogen ion (H+).

Related lectures (64)

Sustainable Development Goals: Individual and Collective Actions

Emphasizes the role of individual and collective actions in achieving sustainability through the Sustainable Development Goals and the successes of the Millennium Development Goals.

Circular Economy and Sustainability Strategies

Delves into sustainability strategies, circular economy, and the transition to a net-zero economy, emphasizing the role of key industries in reducing carbon emissions.

Climate Change: Understanding Trends and System Structures

Examines the relationship between climate change events and underlying trends, emphasizing the importance of understanding system structures and feedback loops.

Circular Economy for Sustainable Composites

Delves into sustainability strategies, the circular economy, and challenges in the composites industry, addressing climate change effects and the role of composites.

Circular Economy: Sustainable Transition and NetZero Solutions