Resilient Economic Growth Lessons from Dubai & Environmental Sustainability: Reflections

What Lesson Can Be Learned From The Experience Of Dubai In Terms Of Advising Other Cities On Resilient Economic Growth?

What Struck Me Most About The Readings, Discussions, And Activities This Week?

What Puzzles Me, Or Causes Concern? What Specific Questions Are Raised?

What Connections Can i Make Between The Week’s Content And My Own Life Experiences, Prior Knowledge, And Professional Practices?

Am i Implicated In Or Affected By The Issues Raised? Which Ones? What Feelings Of Resistance Do i Experience, And Why?

What Have i Learned About My Own Values, Attitudes, Beliefs And Assumptions?

What Implications Does This Have For My Personal Life And Professional Practices?

Which Three Of The Nine Planetary Boundaries Are Of Greatest Concern To You, Either In Your Location Or In Your Occupation? Explain The Reasons For Your Choice. Comments

What struck me most about the topic is that, people do not care about the impact of their actions on the environment. Thus, it is my belief that there is a swift requirement of a novel paradigm which will help in combining the consistent development of human community with the management of the earth system.

Through my knowledge and experience I have understood that there is too much pollution in the surrounding which leads to increase the risk of the biosphere integrity. The green zone and the ozone layer are collapsing. There is an urgent need for an approach that will help to manage the earth system.

The impact of the human’s action on the atmosphere is not only affecting me, but also other people. It is causing the death of several flora and fauna and ozone layer has become diminished due to which UV rays are entering the earth system. The feeling of resistance which I feel is guilt, because I am also a part of the same population whose actions are harming the atmosphere.

Through this class session, I have come to an understanding that till now I have been a part of the same population with whom I have been harming the earth system. But now I should take step in undoing it.

Due to this, the air, earth, water and the whole nature is slowly getting destroyed. Thus, be it my personal space or professional, I am drinking the same water and the same air, which is contaminated and slowly it causing several diseases in me and to other living things.

Answers:

Climate change, ozone depletion, and freshwater use are the three planetary boundaries which are of greatest concern to me. Since this are the major boundaries which helps in sustainability of the person. Nowadays, since ozone is depleting, that is why the UV is getting highly emitted into the earth surface which is causing cancer.

Human are now in a serious danger of global warming and ecological crisis involving the change in the climate, acidification of the ocean, and consistent extinction of species. Even though the ecological crisis have stimulated several regions of human community to reconsider necessary conventions and embrace more ecological frames of reference, though many humans have disputably not yet shifted to a ominously more ecological viewpoint. The novel boundary was developed for the phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) gases only, though the researchers have now proposed a more generic planetary boundary (PB) approach to incorporate human effect on biogeochemical flows in general. In reaction to this crisis, Macy has formed an adult changing learning procedure called the ‘‘Work that Reconnects’’ (WTR) which accomplishes to shift the people from expressive defensiveness or paralysis to an attitude marked by an accurate, active hope that helps to inspire action. Through a four-step procedure retaining meditations, collaborative activities, and intangible understandings, the WTR aids applicants to practice, recognize, and comprehend their emotional reaction to the state of the world. Along with emotional activities, the WTR utilizes the perceptions to widen a sense of relation, strengthen empathy, and arouse creative intellectual. A diversity of interactive activities and meditations utilize the perception to relate with past, future, or other-than human beings. Perceptions and imaginations help us to see the world from the eye of others, enabling us to see the reality from various perspectives. The ability to recognize and understand with others is important to develop a “capability to watch one embedded in the biosphere.”

References

Hathaway, M.D., 2017. Activating Hope in the Midst of Crisis: Emotions, Transformative Learning, and “The Work that Reconnects”. Journal of Transformative Education, 15(4), pp.296-314.

Kahn, L.H., Kaplan, B., Monath, T., Woodall, J. and Conti, L., 2014. A manifesto for planetary health. The Lancet, 383(9927), p.1459.

Lang, T. and Rayner, G., 2012. Ecological public health: the 21st century’s big idea? An essay by Tim Lang and Geof Rayner. Bmj, 345, p.e5466.

Steffen, W., Richardson, K., Rockström, J., Cornell, S.E., Fetzer, I., Bennett, E.M., Biggs, R., Carpenter, S.R., De Vries, W., De Wit, C.A. and Folke, C., 2015. Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet. Science, 347(6223), p.1259855.