Introduction
This unit focuses on the problem of greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide, and explore what you can do to lighten those emissions to help reduce the rate of climate change. You will assess your ‘carbon footprint’ and see what actions you and, if relevant, other household members could take to lighten that footprint. You will also better understand which actions are more and less effective, and the scope and limits of what individuals can do at the personal and household
Author(s): No creator set
Introduction
The scientific theory of plate tectonics suggests that at least some of these Arctic lands were once tropical. Since then the continents have moved and ice has changed the landscape. This unit will concentrate on evidence from the last 800,000 years using information collected from ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica, and will use this evidence to discuss current and possible future climate. The cores show that there have been nine periods in the recent past when large areas of the Earth
Author(s): No creator set
Introduction
This unit focuses on the substance of environmental responsibility – what matters. The question ‘What should constitute our prime focus of attention?’ can prompt different responses. We consider two points of contrast in differing focuses on what matters:
1 a distinction between nature and the environment
2 a distinction between nature/environment and related human interactions
Author(s): The Open University
Introduction
This unit considers environmental responsibility and what may matter from a caring perspective and an accountability perspective. Caring for an environment compromising the natural world and ensuring accountability for harm or wrong done to the environment.
Author(s): The Open University
Introduction
This unit explores conceptual tools for assisting our thinking and deliberation on what matters. The notion of ‘framing’ nature is introduced and three readings provide an understanding of systems thinking for explicitly framing issues of environmental responsibility.
Author(s): The Open University
2.1 Introduction
This unit explores how engaging in voluntary work can enhance your employment opportunities
Author(s): The Open University
1.1 Introduction
This unit explores how engaging in voluntary work can enhance your employment opportunities
Author(s): The Open University
Introduction
Any local newspaper describes the latest achievements of volunteers in the community: hospital fund-raising, a wildlife pond created. The advantages to the community are obvious, but this unit explores how engaging in voluntary work can enhance your employment opportunities.
It will focus mainly on how voluntary work can improve job prospects, for those actively job seeking or considering a career change. Employers are impressed by volunteering, but many volunteers don’t appreciate wh
Author(s): No creator set
Introduction
Do you want to improve your ability to subtract one number from another, especially if decimals are involved, without having to rely on a calculator? This unit will help you get to grips with subtraction and give you some practice in doing it.
Author(s): The Open University
Introduction
Do you want to improve your ability to divide one number by another without having to rely on a calculator? This unit will help you get to grips with division and give you some practice in dividing numbers.
You don’t need to complete the whole unit if only certain sections are relevant to you. I start with the basics, where you’ll have the opportunity to get some practice in dividing small numbers in your head. Then I deal with dividing bigger numbers and decimals. If you are confid
Author(s): No creator set
Introduction
There is increasing recognition that the reductionist mindset that is currently dominating society, rooted in unlimited economic growth unperceptive to its social and environmental impact, cannot resolve the converging environmental, social and economic crises we now face. The primary aim of this unit is to encourage the shift away from reductionist and human centred thinking towards a holistic and ecological worldview.
Author(s): The Open University
Introduction
Introduction
Our cognitive limitations makes it difficult for many of us to perceive the complex and unpredictable dynamics of wicked problems as they evolve over time. Increasingly accessible computer hardware and software is allowing us to directly engage with this complexity and unpredictability so as to allow us to make better decisions. In this study unit, you will be exploring the unpredictable nature of dynamic, non-linear systems
Author(s): No creator set
2.2 Introduction to communication
There is increasing recognition that the reductionist mindset that is currently dominating society, rooted in unlimited economic growth unperceptive to its social and environmental impact, cannot resolve the converging environmental, social and economic crises we now face. The primary aim of this unit is to encourage the shift away from reductionist and human centred thinking towards a holistic and ecological worldview.
Author(s): The Open University
Introduction
This unit will facilitate your own exploration of key environmental, social and economic threats that will converge to challenge communities in the near future. You will be required to develop this exploration according to three modes of modelling and Author(s):
No creator set
1.4 Introduction to models
Section 1 Readings– Thinking styles and models
1.4 Introduction to models
What gets you out of bed in the morning? In my case, the moment I hit consciousness, I scan my memory for any immediate tasks I need to achieve – do I need to get the kids to school today? Have I got any early morning meetings? Identifying which task is relevant determines my subsequent actions. Still not fully awake, I start following a sequence of well-reh
Author(s): No creator set
1.1 Introduction to thinking styles
Section 1 Readings– Thinking styles and models
1.1 Introduction to thinking styles
What do you do when you want to examine something closely? There are essentially two courses of action that you can take. You can pull it apart and look at how it works, like a watchmaker diagnosing a watch brought in for repair. Or you look at the context within which the thing was found and try to understand it in terms of its relationships with its
Author(s): No creator set
Introduction
Introduction
Communities everywhere are coming under increasing pressure from interlinked social, economic and environmental challenges. Many communities are coming together to tackle these challenges, and individuals with some expertise in exploring wicked problems will play an increasingly significant role. In order to allow effective collaboration in understanding the highly complex and interlinked forces at play, it is important to
Author(s): No creator set
3.1 Introduction to the problems with the way we think
There is increasing recognition that the reductionist mindset that is currently dominating society, rooted in unlimited economic growth unperceptive to its social and environmental impact, cannot resolve the converging environmental, social and economic crises we now face. The primary aim of this unit is to encourage the shift away from reductionist and human centred thinking towards a holistic and ecological worldview.
Author(s): The Open University
Introduction
There is increasing recognition that the reductionist mindset that is currently dominating society, rooted in unlimited economic growth unperceptive to its social and environmental impact, cannot resolve the converging environmental, social and economic crises we now face. The primary aim of this unit is to encourage the shift away from reductionist and human centred thinking towards a holistic and ecological worldview.
Author(s): The Open University
Introduction
Energy from sources other than fossil and nuclear fuels is to a large extent free of the concerns about environmental effects and renewability that characterise those two sources. Each alternative source supplies energy continually, whether or not we use it. This unit considers one of these alternative sources, geothermal energy derived from the interior heat of the Earth, and the potential for this alternative to supplant fossil and nuclear fuel use to power social needs fast enough to avoid t
Author(s): The Open University
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