Environmental Literacy in Science and Society pptx

Environmental Literacy in
Science and Society
From Knowledge to Decisions
In an era where humans aect virtually all of the Earth’s processes, questions
arise about whether we have sucient knowledge of human–environment
interactions. How can we sustain the Earth’s ecosystems to prevent collapses
and what roles should practitioners and scientists play in this process? ese
are the issues central to the concept of environmental literacy.
is unique book provides a comprehensive review and analysis of
environmental literacy within the context of environmental science and
sustainable development. Approaching the topic from multiple perspectives,
it explores the development of human understanding of the environment
and human–environment interactions in the elds of biology, psychology,
sociology, economics, and industrial ecology.
e discussion emphasizes the importance of knowledge integration and
transdisciplinary processes as key strategies for understanding complex
human–environment systems (HES). In addition, the author denes the
HES framework as a template for investigating and transforming sustainably
coupled HES in the 21st century.
Roland W. Scholz chairs the Natural and Social Science Interface in the
Department of Environmental Sciences at the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute
of Technology), Zurich. A mathematician, psychologist and decision theorist
by training, he is particularly interested in environmental systems analysis,
human–environment interactions, environmental decisions, and risk
assessment. He has led numerous large-scale transdisciplinary processes to
foster sustainable transitions of urban and regional systems.


Environmental Literacy in
Science and Society

From Knowledge to Decisions
Roland W. Scholz
ETH Zurich
Institute for Environmental Decisions
Chair of Natural and Social Science Interface
Some chapters are coauthored by Claudia R. Binder, Fridolin Brand,
Justus Gallati, Daniel J. Lang, Quang Bao Le, Roman Seidl, Timo Smieszek
and Michael Stauffacher


  
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town,
Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Tokyo, Mexico City
Cambridge University Press
e Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521192712
© R. W. Scholz 2011
is publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2011
Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge
A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data
Scholz, Roland W.
Environmental literacy in science and society : from knowledge to decisions / Roland W. Scholz ;
some chapters are coauthored by Claudia R. Binder [et al.].

p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-521-19271-2 (hardback) – ISBN 978-0-521-18333-8 (paperback)
1. Environmental education. 2. Environmental sciences. I. Gallati, Justus. II. Title.
GE70.S35 2011
304.2–dc22 2011011288
ISBN 978-0-521-19271-2 Hardback
ISBN 978-0-521-18333-8 Paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or
accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in
this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is,
or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

To Maya


vii
Contents
List of boxes ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Praise for the book xv
Preamble xvii
Overview: roadmap to environmental literacy xviii
Legend of the roadmap xxii
Part I Invention of the environment:
origins, transdisciplinarity, and theory of
science perspectives
1 What knowledge about what
environment? 3
2 From environmental literacy to

transdisciplinarity 15
3 Basic epistemological assumptions 29
Part II History of mind of biological
knowledge
4 Emerging knowledge on morphology,
ecology, and evolution 45
5 From molecular structures to ecosystems 94
Part III Contributions of
psychology
6 Psychological approaches to human–
environment interactions 137
7 Drivers of individual behavior 190
Part IV Contributions of sociology
8 Traditional sociological approaches to
human–environment interactions 215
9 Modern sociological approaches
to human–environment
interactions 231
Part V Contributions of economics
10 Origins of economic thinking and the
environment 257
11 Contemporary economic theories dealing
with the environment 281
Part VI Contributions of industrial
ecology
12 The emergence of industrial
ecology 307
13 Industrial agents and global biogeochemical
dynamics 320
Part VII Beyond disciplines

and sciences
14 Integrated systems modeling of
complex human–environment
systems 341
Roland W. Scholz, Justus Gallati, Quang Bao Le,
and Roman Seidl
15 Transdisciplinarity for environmental
literacy 373

viii
Contents
Part IX Perspectives for environmental
literacy
20 New horizons: environmental and
sustainability sciences 525
Glossary 537
References 551
Index 626
Part VIII A framework for investigating
human–environment systems (HES)
16 The HES Postulates 407
17 The HES framework 453
Roland W. Scholz, Claudia R. Binder, and
Daniel J. Lang
18 Applying the HES framework 463
Roland W. Scholz, Claudia R. Binder,
Daniel J. Lang, Timo Smieszek, and
Michael Stauacher
19
Comparing the HES framework with

alternative approaches
509
Roland W. Scholz and Fridolin Brand
ix
Boxes
Part I Invention of the environment: origins,
transdisciplinarity, and theory of science
perspectives 1
1.1 The ability to read the environment:
Polynesian navigation 4
1.2 Correcting negative human
impacts: Ascension’s spring 5
1.3 Ignoring environmental collateral
damage:
British forests 7
1.4 What type of rationale underlies human
decisions? Models of man and rationality
9
1.5 The double environment: Ossianic dreams 11
2.1 Origins of a sustainable relationship with the
environment:
mining and brewing 17
2.2 The literacy of environmental system
vulnerability:
Einstein’s honeybees 18
2.3 Conflicting incentives on the macro and the
micro level:
population growth 20
2.4 Does unintended ecological suicide cause
societal collapse? Easter’s canoes and

Greenland’s sh
21
2.5 Knowledge integration as a means of
environmental literacy:
from disciplines to
cultures
23
2.6 An architecture of knowledge for
environmental literacy:
from case empathy to
propositional logic
25
3.1 What is part of me and what is part of the
environment? My pig heart valve
30
3.2 No human–environment
complementarity: Maya constructions of the
world
35
Part II History of mind of biological
knowledge 43
4.1 The difficulty of discriminating
between humans and animals in archaic
thinking: totemism 49
4.2 At the crossroads between naturalist and
magic impacts: ancient Egypt’s medical
knowledge
56
4.3 Mayans’ physical and symbolic treatments
of diseases:

“me’winik” or gallbladder
cancer?
57
4.4 How many types – and where do they come
from? Semen and genders
65
4.5 Emerging geology meets biology:
catastrophes, innite time, and
evolution
71
4.6 The dilemma of empiricism, religious
dogma, and theory:
Linné’s mule plants 76
4.7 Driving species to
adaptation:
Lamarckism 81
4.8 Frauds, sleights of hand or simplifications
in embryonic similarities? Evo-devo and
abortion
85
4.9 Too stupid to adapt: dodos and
kakapos
88
4.10 Climate variability: Dansgaard–Oeschger
events
89
4.11 Perceived environments: tick cybernetics 92
5.1 A continuum of sexes in plants and animals?
American Holly and Hollywood
98

5.2 From basic via applied research and public
experimentation:
Pasteur’s Quadrant 102

x
List of boxes
6.13 Correct perceptions but incorrect
judgments: group power 183
6.14 Signs of environmental
compliance: buttons 184
6.15 Resource dilemmas need social
solutions: Mongolian grassland 185
7.1 Why don’t we have coherent preferences?
Arrow’s cyclic triads
194
7.2 Not following expected value: the Allais
paradox
195
7.3 Emotions and cognition: anxiety-reducing
snails
199
7.4 Flashbulb memory, risk perception, and fatal
crashes:
the impacts of September 11 201
7.5 What drives cognitive performance?
Beyond savantism
203
7.6 Do values affect perception:
“le waldsterben”
208

7.7 Fuel efficiency in car purchase: Hummer’s
symbolic motives
210
Part IV Contributions of sociology 213
8.1 The myth of permanent population
growth:
pestilence and Old World
diseases
221
8.2 People, not experts, have brought the
toxification of nature and people to the
forefront:
what role should experts
take?
224
8.3 Resource scarcity drives societal and
ecological decline:
West Africa’s emptied
sea
228
9.1 Environmental injustice: landlls,
Chernobyl, and the north–south
problem
237
9.2 The environment as an input–output
system:
New York’s Fresh Kills waste
disposal
239
9.3 Humanization of the environment: the

home alone sh
247
5.3 The central dogma of molecular biology:
the protein as a sink? 105
5.4 Why should a mouse gene work in a fly?
Eys and Seys 107
5.5 Eating intelligence: memory transfer? 111
5.6 The immune system: the unsung hero 118
5.7 Understanding fundamentals of
ecosystems:
the ten principles of New
Ecology
124
5.8 Biodiversity and extinction: the rise and fall
of species
127
5.9 Sociobiological and eco-ethological
adaptation:
Tibet fraternal polyandry 131
Part III Contributions of psychology 135
6.1 Do aesthetics follow a natural law?
The golden section
140
6.2 The chemical and symbolic notion of
odor:
you stink 142
6.3 The wonder of crisp flowers:
the probabilistic nystagmus
147
6.4 Anticipating environmental information:

networking “Ferrari cones”
149
6.5 Behavior is a function of the person
and the environment:
eld theory 151
6.6 Coherent patterns of environmental
setting and behavior:
is this a church,
Mommy?
156
6.7 How do we order the world? Gestalts,
prototypes, and misgestalts
159
6.8 Stages of environmental literacy: the
invisible man
161
6.9 An intriguing complex concept: time 167
6.10 What means one million years? Nuclear
waste
168
6.11 When and why does environmental noise
harm? Trains and planes
174
6.12 Group decision schemes matter: the Bay of
Pigs fiasco
182
List of boxes
xi
14.3 Dynamic patterns in coupled HES: collective
irrigation management 354

14.4 Emerging systems: slime mold 362
14.5 The Prisoner’s Dilemma: strategies and the
emergence of cooperation 365
14.6 Social dilemmas: contributing to a land
reclamation system or not? 370
14.7 Interactive household and landscape
agents:
Vietnam deforestation 371
15.1 A transdisciplinary process needs
methods:
sustainable future of
industry
383
15.2 From parsons to Napoleon: variants of
mediation
387
15.3 Science, not only a matter of
universities:
building the Tower of
Babel
396
15.4 Academic–industrial transformation
of the world food production:
Haber– Bosch
398
Part VIII A framework for investigating human–
environment systems
405
16.1 The human animal is building
environments:

small huts and Las
Vegas
409
16.2 Level hierarchies in biological
systems:
controlled genes? 417
16.3 An impact of technological and societal
changes:
cosmopolitical institutions? 422
16.4 Parallel societies: Sinti, Roma, and Amish
people
423
16.5 Interfering interests between nations,
banks, and individuals:
green housing 428
16.6 The origins of feedback loops: Ktesibios’
water clock
435
16.7 Multiple feedback loops in complex
systems:
Forrester’s world model 438
16.8 Rebound effects in introducing ecoefficient
mobility systems:
Swissmetro 440
Part V Contributions of economics 255
10.1 Mercantilism’s collateral damage: changed
landscapes 261
10.2 Energy in economics: the curse of
coal 264
10.3 Incorporating transportation costs in

rents: Von Thünen circles 270
10.4 Economics as a kind of chess game: Nash
equilibria
275
10.5 Internalization of negative external
effects:
Pigovian taxes 277
10.6 Constructing new agents for improving
environmental quality:
Pareto optimality
arguments
278
11.1 No more endless plains: the end of cowboy
economics
282
11.2 Mineral reserves become larger if prices
rise:
Earth’s mineral resources economic
cycle
287
11.3 Cost–benefit analysis: a Faustian
bargain?
293
11.4 The second law of thermodynamics
and economic processes:
Ayres vs.
Daly
295
11.5 Cost, not physical availability,
matters:

unlimited solar energy? 298
Part VI Contributions of industrial ecology 305
12.1 Cycling drivers for recycling: GDR’s
SERO
311
13.1 A critical element of sustainable
agriculture:
phosphorus 322
13.2 Trading and auctioning pollution: acid
rain
331
Part VII Beyond disciplines and sciences 339
14.1 Climate impacts of the agrarian
society:
pest impacts? 343
14.2 Societal complexity, unsustainable
resources flows, and indebtedness:
the
western Roman Empire
345
xii
List of boxes
18.1 Different views on biomass energy
potential: biofuel 488
18.2 The technological view on bioethanol
production: T Fords 489
18.3 A neutral CO
2
balance means not
renewable: bioethanol boomerangs 492

18.4 Endocannibalism and inbreeding: kuru,
BSE, and vCJD 497
Part IX Perspectives for environmental
literacy 523
20.1 The HES framework in brief: a short
manual
530
16.9 Emerging environmental
awareness: nuclear eyewatch 441
16.10 Secondary feedback loop management in
agriculture: crop-eld rotation 442
16.11 Loops in technical systems: Three Mile
Island 447
16.12 Climate changes in an uncertain
world: sea level rise 449
16.13 Understanding the environmental
impacts of disasters: the Dust Bowl
phenomenon 450


xiii
Accidents can happen, oen when one least expects
them. On April 14, 2006, Dana, an escaped Doberman
pinscher, knocked me o my bicycle when I was
training for the forthcoming racing season. When
viewing my ght to recover from brain injury, it was
René Schwarzenbach, the Dean of the Department of
Environmental Sciences, ETH, who seized the chance.
Noticing that I was not yet prepared to struggle through
the daily research, teaching and transdisciplinary pro-

ject obligations of my institute, he suggested: “Now you
have more time than before. Stop writing papers and
write a comprehensive book on what you have elabor-
ated in the last two decades.” I took the challenge.
us, one could say that this book is a product of an
accident.
“You,” in this place, is denitely not only “I, myself.”
As it is with staged races in cycling, which I experi-
enced as a late competitive (hobby) racing cyclist, you
can only nish if you have an excellent team. A staged
race asks you to cope with a multitude of exigencies in
a wide range of proles, including at and mountain
stages. us you must have a strong team of specialists
and helpers for all situations, especially if the race has
20 stages. Sometimes, you even need people to push
you uphill!
However, preparing for a race is as important as
running it. e 20 chapters that this book oers for the
reader are the result of 29 “reader circle” exercises. I
consider these to be a kind of pre-race exercise, in which
the territory for each of the 20 chapters, or “stages,” of
the book was thoroughly scouted.
e very idea of writing this book emerged from
the insight that environmental and sustainability
sciences needed a “theory and resource book” that
supports coupled human–environment and transdis-
ciplinary research. Just before the bicycle accident, a
blueprint of this book took shape through my work
with Claudia R. Binder, Daniel J. Lang, and Michael
Stauacher and other former senior researchers from

my team.
Let us go back to the cycle race metaphor. Race
teams need coaches, proper training and workout part-
ners, and a dedicated technical sta.
I consider the reviewers of dierent track sections
to be my coaches and the members of the “reader circle”
to be my training partners.
In the biology part, which tendered some previ-
ously unknown terrain and steep heliclines, I needed
some more coaches. Here Peter Edwards, eo Koller,
Jukka Jokkela, Bo Samuelson, Beda Stadler, and Josef
Zeyer drilled me. Patricia Holm, Walter Schaner, and
Gottfried Schatz helped me in dicult parts of the
route. In psychology, Michael Siegrist and Paul Vlek,
and in sociology, Andreas Diekmann, Matthias Gross,
Gerhard Lenski, and Klaus Seeland were my coaches.
Economics again was a demanding section, and I want
to thank Catharina Bening, Stefanie Engel, Bernard
Lehmann, Markus Ohndorf, and John Tilton. In the
new terrains of industrial ecology, Volker Homann
and Reid Lifset, and in the modeling section, Andreas
Ernst and Wander Jager took the coaching job. My
special thanks go for Tim McDaniels, Cli Davidson,
and Anton J. M. Schoot Uiterkamp, and particularly
Charles Vlek, who meticulously challenged me in most
of the stages.
e team mates in the “reader circle” were Fridolin
Brand, omas Flüeler, Peter de Haan, Justus Gallati,
Bastien Girod, Fadri Gottschalk, Berit Junker, omas
Köllner, Daniel Lang, Quang Bao Le, Marco Morosini,

Siegmar Otto, Roman Seidl, Timo Smieszek, and
Michael Stauacher, who ran many or all legs of the
race with me. As one can see, the last stages of writing
the books’ contents, involved breaking new ground,
and I was grateful to nd among these team mates sev-
eral experienced external coaches and a team of inspir-
ing “co-racers.”
I was also fortunate that several PhD and masters
students dedicated some of their time and focus to
helping me nd the straightest and surest track for my
message. Here, this team of “junior cyclists” includes
Acknowledgments
xiv
Acknowledgments
Laura de Baan, Mónica Berger González, Yann Blumer,
Julia Brändle, Matthias Dhum, Rainer Gabriel, Martin
Hitziger, Grégoire Meylan, Corinne Moser, Matthias
Näf, Anja Peters, Alexander Scheidegger, Andy Spörri,
Anna Stamp, Saša Parađ, Evelina Trutnevyte, Andrea
Ulrich, Timo von Wirth, Stefan Zemp, and, in particu-
lar, Pius Krütli, who provided most signicant support
in the transdisciplinarity stage.
e technical sta included mechanics, masseurs,
and a procurement team. Here Sandro Bösch and
Rebecca Cors took on special roles. Sandro meticu-
lously tracked mountains of book material, which were
permanently upgraded to a whole text, and designed
the large numbers of gures. Rebecca was the kneader
of the text. She worked through all parts of the book as
a sparring partner, checking for cohesion and coher-

ence. She cooperated with Stefanie Keller, Erin Day,
and Devon Wemyss, who not only checked the English
but helped to improve the understandability of this
multidiscipline book.
As racers need many bottles of liquid to drink each
day, a writer of a book needs many resource books
each week. Here my thanks go to Ursula Müller and
her team, who acquired many, sometimes dicult to
nd, books, and to Robert Bügl, Silvia Cavelti, Marco
Huber, and Andrea Ziegler, who ensured that all the
bottles put into the reference list were properly pre-
pared. Cyclists of today need sophisticated electronic
equipment for keeping records and communicating
with other team mates, before and during the race. We
were fortunate to have team mate Andarge Aragai, who
provided just the right soware and hardware to keep
our work going around the clock.
Special thanks go to my personal assistant Maria
Rey. One of her main tasks before the bicycle accident
was to coordinate my ambitious cycling training
schedule with my full research and teaching agenda.
While this book introduced new and unexpected chal-
lenges here, she managed it with an agility and reliabil-
ity that makes her an invaluable part of the team, and
we learned that managing a multistage book writer is
even more dicult than managing the scheduling of an
ambitious hobby cyclist.
Dominic Lewis, from Cambridge University Press,
may be seen as a “tour-de-book-chef.” e team was
surprised as to how easy it was to communicate with

him and how patiently and clearly he responded to
special requests. It was most impressive to see how
Dominic’s technical (editorial) sta – Sarah Beanland,
Abigail Jones, and Megan Waddington – allowed for an
absolutely frictionless and satisfactory concourse.
Naturally, of utmost importance if you undertake
such a big project, is your home base. Writing such
a book changes one’s life and entails an intense two-
shi work week, which, in this case, endured over sev-
eral years. Here my wife Maya – to whom this book
is dedicated – has been the ultimate backup. She has
been a counterpart in many vivid discussions about
the book’s essential messages, and a wonderful helper
in the long course of recovering aer the bicycle
accident.
What began as an opportunity soon developed into
an obligation. ose who share the experience with me
and know what it means to write a challenging book
or to participate in a staged race would most certainly
agree that these trials oen become an obsession.
While I have many to thank for contributing to the
writing of the book who are not mentioned above, the
responsibility for its content, however, remains my
own.
xv
“Roland Scholz has written a visionary book that for
the rst time comprehensively approaches modern
sustainability challenges by recognizing the critical role
of integrated human, natural, and built domains in the
complex systems that characterize the Anthropocene.

It is an important step forward in our ability to under-
stand, and respond ethically and rationally to the
demands of environment, technology, and society in a
context of complexity that is increasingly beyond trad-
itional disciplinary and policy approaches for linking
theory and practice.”
Braden Allenby, Lincoln Professor of Engineering
and Ethics and Professor of Law, Department of Civil
and Environmental Engineering, Ira A. Fulton School
of Engineering, Arizona State University, USA
“Society has yet to make the ‘great transition’ toward
sustainability. We still increasingly appropriate the
world’s non-renewable resources, fail to safeguard eco-
system services on which civilization depends, and elect
irresponsible government leaders. What is the solu-
tion? In this brilliant work, Roland Scholz addresses
these issues head-on in a remarkably open and honest
exploration of human-environment systems. Scholz
argues that we need new knowledge and new science
to tackle these challenges: the ‘environment’ must be
redened as a co-evolving system coupled to human
systems. Furthermore, he demonstrates that interdis-
ciplinary research is not enough – we need transdisci-
plinary research to integrate our scientic knowledge
in a way that results in sustainable decision making. e
book is critically important in providing a roadmap to
begin the transition to a sustainable world; the reader
experiences an unforgettable journey toward eco-
logical literacy, achieving a sucient understanding of
human-environment interactions to manage the earth’s

biogeochemical cycling in a sustainable way. With over
7 billion people on the planet, it is a journey we have no
choice but to take. is is a must-read for anyone who
relies on planetary resources and ecosystem services.”
Cli Davidson, omas C. and Colleen L. Wilmot
Professor of Engineering and Director of the Center
for Sustainable Engineering, Center for Energy and
Environmental Systems and Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, Syracuse University,
USA
“Developing adequate solutions for human-environ-
mental problems requires both substantive expertise
and a deeply interdisciplinary perspective. Anyone
who doubts this assertion need spend but a few min-
utes reading almost any part of Roland W. Scholz’
monumental work on Environmental Literacy to have
their doubts erased. In addition to thoughtful theoret-
ical discussion they will nd case aer case of detailed
worked-out examples that illustrate both the complex-
ity, and the exciting intellectual challenges, that face
students and professionals working to create a better
and more sustainable world.”
M. Granger Morgan, Lord Chair Professor in
Engineering; Professor and Department Head,
Engineering and Public Policy; Professor, Electrical
and Computer Engineering and Heinz College,
Carnegie Mellon University, USA
“Half a century ago Rachel Carson published her book
Silent Spring. It marked not only the beginning of the
modern environmental movement but it also laid the

foundation for the strongly interdisciplinary eld
of environmental sciences. e eld emerged from a
range of contributing natural and social sciences dis-
ciplines. Over the years it was shaped and codied in
innumerable papers and books. Following the emer-
gence of the concept of sustainable development it
also further developed into specic disciplines like
sustainability science. Still one of the grand challenges
of any eld of science remained. No one had yet suc-
ceeded in creating an overarching synthesis of the eld.
at is until now. In his monumental magnum opus
Environmental Literacy Roland Scholz not only presents
International praise for Environmental Literacy
in Science and Society

xvi
International praise
human populations. Roland Scholz strongly pleads
for broad, multi- and interdisciplinary thinking about
human–environment interactions. In the author’s
view, human and environmental systems cannot be
separated. Rather, their interaction should be the cen-
tral topic of our visions, methodologies and strategies.
For natural scientists and technologists this requires
a basic familiarity with how human individuals and
societies function. For behavioral and social scien-
tists it demands a solid appreciation of specic envir-
onmental problem domains. By consequence, actual
policy-making should rest upon integrative team-
work. Scholz’s book provides for an inspiring boost

to our own environmental literacy, what it is and how
it historically developed. It’s a fruitful basis for exten-
sive student courses. And it may well serve as a refer-
ence book for scientists, policy-makers and other key
actors who want to improve and reect on sustainable
transitions.”
Charles Vlek, Professor of Environmental Psychology
and Decision Research, Department of Behavioural
and Social Sciences. University of Groningen, e
Netherlands
an outstanding in-depth analysis and splendid review
of the eld but he goes far beyond it. He also presents
a strategic framework to address the many challenges
we 21
st
-century humans are facing in our interactions
with the environment. Moreover he convincingly
shows the preconditions for using a framework for
eective and feasible strategic decision making and
action. It requires a good integrated knowledge of dis-
ciplines like biology, psychology, sociology, economics
and industrial ecology as well as a genuine understand-
ing of the transdisciplinary processes that characterize
human–environment systems. In conclusion, Scholz’s
book is both a sparkling sourcebook and an advanced
textbook for sustainability science. It is also the rst
successful attempt to produce a convincing theory of
coupled human-environment systems. And nally, it
presents a strategic framework for environmental deci-
sion making and action based on that theory.”

Ton Schoot Uiterkamp, Professor of Envir onmental
Sciences, Center for Energy and Envir onmental
Studies, University of Groningen, e Netherlands
“Collective environmental and social problems con-
stitute the dark side of increasing wealth for growing

xvii
Key questions
This book addresses three major questions:
Q1 Who invented the (concept of ) environment, why, when and in what manner?
Q2 What rationales do we find in different human systems and environmental systems,
and how do they interact?
Q3 Do we need a “disciplined (i.e. discipline-grounded) interdisciplinarity” in transdisciplinary
(i.e. theory–practice-based) processes to cope successfully with the challenging
environmental problems of the twenty-first century?
Preamble
Figures
ere are a few gures that represent essentials of this
book and which are referred to throughout the text.
ese gures are marked with an asterisk and can be
found separately on the foldout page at the end of the
book.


xviii
from the social-epistemic environment, which is his-
torically and culturally shaped?
When, why, and in what context are human systems •
concerned about the state, dynamics, potential,
and negative impacts of environmental states and

resources?
What drives human systems (such as individuals, •
groups, companies, and societies) to exploit, pro-
tect, or sustainably cope with the environment?
How can conicts and dilemmas between individ-•
ual and societal environmental behavior (i.e. inter-
ferences between the micro and the macro levels of
human systems) be explained?
What constitutes sound environmental literacy, •
sustainability learning, and sustainable behavior?
Preparing for map reading
Part I of this book consists of three chapters that illu-
minate why environmental literacy is of interest and
what it is. We dene dierent types of human and
environmental systems and explain how these systems
relate and interact. We further introduce some tools
(i.e. epistemological assumptions) that are helpful to
better understand what the reader will encounter in
the dierent stages of the journey.
From the origins to the future of
environmental literacy
To read our answers to the questions above, the reader
can continue in Parts II–VI on a journey from the his-
tory to the future of environmental literacy in science
and society. We introduce epistemological assump-
tions as prerequisites for coping better with the chal-
lenges of examining environmental literacy.
Aer this initial descent into the origins of envir-
onmental literacy, we wander through a handful of sci-
entic disciplines. ese stages of our journey will not

always be the most convenient ones. Depending on the
Overview: roadmap to environmental literacy
Natural and social environments are constantly
adapting to changing demands from human systems.
is particularly holds true as we see increasing
impacts on the natural environment and resources
from human systems. A key question is whether
societies and their subunits have sucient know-
ledge about the structure, dynamics, limits, and
potential of human–environmental systems to func-
tion and evolve in a sustainable manner. And what
role can science take to help in this venture? We deal
with these fundamental problems under the head-
ing of environmental literacy. “Environmental liter-
acy” means the capacity to perceive, appropriately
interpret, and value the specic state, dynamics,
and potential of the environmental system, as well
as to take appropriate action to maintain, restore,
or improve these states. is book elaborates what
knowledge and capabilities should be available in
science and society to develop suitable strategies for
coping with critical interactions of human systems
with environmental systems. is should ultim-
ately help to avoid the unintended and unpleasant
environmental rebound eects of human action, and
allow us to cope with conicting interests which may
hamper sustainable transitions.
Given these societal and scientific challenges,
this book is a source book for those interested in
the following questions related to environmental

literacy:
Why and when was the concept of the environment •
developed?
Do we have to redene the environment when •
facing that most processes in the material–bio-
physical layer of the Earth are aected by human
action?
How do various scientic disciplines deal with the •
interrelationship between human systems and the
environment?
How can we distinguish the material–biophysical •
environment, which includes the built environment,





Overview: roadmap to environmental literacy
xix
themselves to reduce environmental impacts result-
ing from production, business, and services. Here
we encounter some engineering methods that allow
the assessment of manmade environmental impacts.
But we also look at some special sites, such as eco-
industry parks, from which we can learn to better cope
with material ow. What is more, we see how indus-
trial ecology oers broad, long-term perspectives and
strategies for the future of environmental literacy. is
oers a global view that highlights the fundamental
changes that the landscape of human–environment

interaction has undergone in the past and also the new
structures and components that this landscape might
exhibit in the future.
Our journey could have taken another route with
dierent stops. Besides biology, we could also have
looked, for instance, at geology, and, instead of indus-
trial ecology, at civil and environmental engineer-
ing. Naturally, other disciplines, such as geography
or anthropology, could deserve their own chapter.
However, we think that the selected disciplines allow
the demonstration of why and when various types of
contributions to environmental literacy emerged in
academic disciplines.
e reader might ask why we are not visiting some
new, exotic and more exciting domains, such as envir-
onmental or sustainability sciences. ese two dis-
ciplines are the current home base of the author, and
scientists from these disciplines are the most likely to
use our roadmap to promote environmental literacy.
As key question 3 of the Preamble indicates, we explore
each discipline both for its unique knowledge and for
the value it can bring to investigations that involve
more than one discipline. We call this perspective,
common to environmental and sustainability sciences
work, “disciplined interdisciplinarity.”
Provisions for traveling beyond the
boundaries of disciplines and sciences
e rst part of the journey highlights how many issues
from dierent disciplines are indispensable to culti-
vate environmental literacy. But knowledge from lone

disciplines only takes us partway toward answers to
today’s environmental problems. In Part VII, this book
introduces three new perspectives that are required to
take us further.
e rst is that today’s environmental problems
cannot be managed without incorporating analysis of
human systems that aect many processes on all levels,
disciplinary background of the reader, he or she will
sometimes have to row upstream. We start with biol-
ogy, where we learn about the origins of human know-
ledge about organismic environments and about how
societies can successfully conserve and develop this
knowledge. We also explore those biological principles
that are of special interest for mastering sustainable
development. We make an excursion to the frontline of
research on microstructures, such as the cell, and the
immune system. Here we can discover how import-
ant the environment is for these systems and how
they process environmental information. A compara-
tive view of large-scale biological systems reveals that
they are strongly aected by human systems and miss
the essential self-regulating, homeostatic properties of
microstructures.
We then look to psychology to gain an under-
standing of the biophysical, social, and cognitive
foundations of human perception, decisions, and
behavior. e sections on psychology also provide
insight into the drivers of individuals and small
groups when interacting with the material and social
environment.

In the next stage, sociology, we focus on theories
that consider the natural environment and technol-
ogy as signicant factors of societal development. Just
as with psychology, we meet approaches that provide
insights into the drivers of societies in human–envi-
ronment interaction and that explain why and when
environmental issues raise concern. However, we will
learn that we can nd a material–biophysical layer in
many but not all sociological approaches. In some they
are hidden, in some they do not exist.
e last stage in looking at social sciences is eco-
nomics. Following our own curiosity we explore
the roles that material, biophysical, land and other
resources play from the view of classical and neoclas-
sical economics, and the types of goods that are dealt
with in this discipline. In new terrains of economics,
we will see that economists make highly controversial
assumptions about how one should deal with natural
resources and the material–biophysical environment.
Some seem to be reckless, whereas others seem overly
troubled about their future markets and companies.
We also learn that many ideas from other sciences have
invaded the new subelds of economics that deal with
the environment.
Next, we look at industrial ecology, a small but
steadily growing discipline investigating how com-
panies, industrial branches, and trade can reinvent


xx

Overview: roadmap to environmental literacy
subunits and superordinate systems. e latter can be
communities or societies.
An important point of the guidebook is that we have
to conceive HES as coupled, inextricably intertwined,
systems. However, the guidebook also explains that we
must rst have a thorough look at the environment, in
particular at the material–biophysical environment if
we want to understand what a specic HES looks like,
how it evolved and what future development might
take place. e HES are explained by a Postulate that
describes dierent types of feedback loops that may be
at work in HES.
We will see that the HES Postulates draw on what
we have learned when looking at the scientic dis-
ciplines in the rst part of the journey. Our knowl-
edge of social sciences, for example, will help us to
understand the interests and values that underlie the
rationale of human systems when interacting with the
environment.
Having become familiar with the individual
Postulates, we know how the Postulates relate to each
other and how they can work together during an inves-
tigation of an environmental issue. We put forth this
HES framework as a template for transdisciplinary
collaboration.
Four cases for demonstrating HES
literacy
Equipped with the HES framework, we are prepared
to take a closer look at the challenges and threats of

human–environment interactions. In Part VIII, we
make four excursions, each of them demonstrating the
improved environmental literacy gained by working
with the HES Postulates.
Trip 1 looks at epidemic and pandemic threats.
Using the HES Postulates we learn that the outbreak of
pandemics is shaped by more than the mechanisms of
viruses and bacteria. e type and severity of pandemics,
and the unexpected rebound eects that may result from
various pandemic management approaches, ask for an
examination of the behavioral, contact, and mobility
matrices of human systems. A look at micro and macro
structures and their interactions is needed here.
Trip 2 involves an excursion to Switzerland. We
scrutinize how transdisciplinary processes involv-
ing scientists and key agents, as well as people from
the region, are helping government and industry
to better adapt to market and environmental con-
straints. We learn that transdisciplinary processes are
from molecular up to global biogeochemical processes
of the material–biophysical environment. is asks for
redenition of the environment and the destination of
the journey. We will discuss a new goal for the second
stage of the journey, which includes an anthropocenic
redenition of the environment.
Second, environmental literacy requires an inte-
grated view of knowledge about the environment and
human–environment interactions. is requires new
techniques of making and processing pictures. We
will see how “integrated modeling” becomes a vital

means of extending environmental literacy and allows
a deeper understanding of what we have seen. is will
facilitate in taking an interdisciplinary view.
ird, we will notice that, in the rst stages, dis-
ciplinary scientists face limitations in acquiring all the
information about the environment. us, we, along
with these scientists, have to leave our travel route and
step into real-world cases to gain valuable additional
information from directly talking, interacting, col-
laborating with, and getting rst-hand information
from the people and human actors who are directly
experiencing, beneting from, and interacting with
the environment. is provides a completely new per-
spective, which we call transdisciplinarity. We will see
that the people incorporated in transdisciplinary proc-
esses benet from and appreciate these mutual learn-
ing processes.
Extending environmental literacy: the
human–environment systems
Postulates and the HES framework
Aer this intermediate stop and reorientation, we
explore new territory and the character of the jour-
ney changes. It will slightly resemble an excursion
into more complex domains. Instead of the environ-
ment, human–environment interactions become the
object and objective of the journey. It becomes di-
cult to keep track of our place, to gure out where to go
rst, and to know what we need to move toward these
new destinations. us we oer Part VIII as a guide-
book that outlines seven Postulates, or assumptions,

for investigating human–environment systems (HES).
is travel guide consists of seven Postulates, the HES
Postulates. e HES Postulates depict the constituents
of the HES world, how HES behave, how they can be
classied, and of what they are and are not aware. We
also examine the drivers of human systems and the
conicts that may exist between individual agents or




Overview: roadmap to environmental literacy
xxi
may also help to understand the structure, main sub-
ject matters and the storyline of this sourcebook.
Who should use this book?
e overview suggests that this book might be of
interest to those who are curious about how the
environment interacts with human systems and how
human systems, from the individual through groups,
organizations, companies, communities and society
to the whole human species, can become capable of
adequately adjusting and adapting to the continuously
changing and increasingly anthropocenically shaped
environment.
ese primary readers are researchers from the emer-
ging elds of environmental and sustainability sciences
who are interested in human-environment interactions
or systems. Clearly, it is also relevant to anthropologists,
human ecologists, geographers, and environmental

planners, or people working in the hyphenized elds of
sciences, such as environmental–psychology, -sociology,
or -economics. Readers will also no doubt include people
from the natural sciences, including ecology and those
working with the climate and atmosphere. e book will
also be of interest to those working in environmental
chemistry and those in dierent branches of engineering
sciences, such as industrial ecology, may learn from the
comprehensive, integrative, coupled system perspective
which looks at the constraints, feedback loops, and regu-
latory mechanisms of HES.
Environmental literacy is not only seen from an
academic learning perspective but is rather focused
here on what we call societal didactics. us, it should
contribute to societal learning about how to cope
with environmental challenges and provide access to
the rationale of human–environment interactions.
Further, this vision and the practice of transdis-
ciplinarity were motivators for writing the book.
However, as expressed in the Preamble, establishing
a thorough, discipline-grounded interdisciplinary
knowledge about HES, which favors transdiscipli-
nary processes that deal with the current and future
environmental challenges, is the very vision and
mission of this book.
useful to identify robust orientations to nd sustain-
able solutions.
Trip 3 looks at how HES manage basic supply serv-
ices. e jaunt takes us to Sweden, where we encoun-
ter unexpected limits to biofuel resources. Here we see

how proper identication of secondary feedback loops
is a key feature of sustainability learning.
Lastly, trip 4 provides profound insights into the
diculties that human systems and societies face when
making trade-os and protecting natural resources in
the anthropocenically formed environment. e case
we look at is the dilemma of establishing a recycling
management system for some minerals (i.e. phos-
phorus) when simultaneously aspiring to eliminate
and dispose of material matter (e.g. carcass meal and
bones), which includes high concentrations of the said
mineral but also dangerous pathogens.
Upon our return from these trips, we check whether
the guidebook and the HES framework have served as
an eective compass for environmental literacy as we
have dened it above. To do this we compare the HES
framework with alternative travel guides.
The vision on future environmental
literacy
e journey closes in Part IX by identifying key com-
ponents that may promote environmental literacy
(“Sustain–abilities”, see Chapter 20.4.1). ese are the
new elds of environmental and sustainability sciences
that cope with inextricably coupled HES. e HES
framework, based on disciplined interdisciplinarity,
allows a thorough investigation and understanding of
complex environmental problems. Transdisciplinarity
includes processes which use knowledge from theory
and practice to generate socially robust solutions for
sustainable development.

How to access the chapter overviews
Aer the novelist-like overview, the reader can best
gain access to the content of the book by reading the
sections “What to nd in this part” on the front pages of
all nine parts and of the 20 chapters. A closer look at the
roadmap and its extended legend on pages xxii–xxiii






xxii
Legend of the roadmap
e concept map shows how the ideas in this book
relate. e gures in the concept map come from
informational boxes that are sprinkled throughout
the book and tell stories from around the world,
both historic and contemporary, that illustrate our
message.
Our starting point is the question, “Who invent-
ed the environment?” Chapter 1 describes how
humans’ awareness of their impacts on the envir-
onment developed and when and why the concept of the
environment was invented. Chapter
2 provides a first def-
inition of environmental literacy and introduces the value
that transdisciplinarity can bring to how humans address
environmental issues. Chapter 3 introduces the concept of
environment based on an organismic, cell-based defin-

ition of the human individual and the complementarity of
material–biophysical and social-epistemic levels of human
and environmental systems. Here we describe the basic
ontological and epistemological assumptions that under-
lie our world view and thesis.
To discuss the issue, “What disciplines can and
can’t tell us,” we review contributions to environ-
mental literacy from five academic disciplines
–
biology, sociology, psychology, economics, and industrial
ecology – in Parts II through VI. Taking two
chapters
to cov-
er each discipline, we review the history of mind for each,
examining which aspects of human–environment interac-
tions were of interest during different time periods. We also
review key theories from each discipline and prospective
future perspectives that can inform environmental
literacy.
In Part VII, Chapters 14 and 15 describe the piv-
otal, integrating function of “managing inter-
faces to become literate.” We examine how
knowledge integration and transdisciplinarity help us to
decrease the complexity of environmental issues, which
warrant an “Anthropocenic redefinition of the environ-
ment in a coupled human–environment setting.”
We put forth seven Postulates, P1 to P7, to
organize the complexity of today’s environmen-
tal issues and related research.
The HES framework is a methodological schema

for employing the Postulates in an integrated
manner when investigating environmental
issues.
To give readers a feeling for the HES framework
in action, Chapter 18 presents four case studies.
Chapter 19 compares the HES framework with
alternative approaches and shows what added
value it can provide.
The last chapter presents “Perspectives for
future research in human–environment sys-
tems,” and links the coupled systems and the
transdisciplinary perspective (see bottom left of the
concept map and key question 3).



xxiii
Legend of the roadmap