from The Open University
Alternatively you can skip the navigation by pressing 'Enter'.
Get Started menu item
What's On menu item
TV
-
Wednesday 22nd May
- 9:00pm, BBC Two, Bankers - Episode 3
- 9:00pm, BBC Two, Bankers
- 11:05pm, BBC One (North East and Cumbria Only, 955 on Sky), Living with Poverty - The Queen of North Shields
- 11:05pm, BBC One (Yorks and Lincs only, 957 on Sky), Living with Poverty - Peas and pay packets
- 11:05pm, BBC One London, East, North East & Cumbria and Yorkshire & Lincolnshire, Living with Poverty
- 11:05pm, BBC One (London only, 954 on Sky), Living with Poverty - Mind the gap
- 11:05pm, BBC One (Cambridgeshire, East only, 962 on Sky), Living with Poverty - Country kids
- Thursday 23rd May
Radio
- Wednesday 22nd May
- Friday 24th May
- Sunday 26th May
-
Wednesday 22nd May
Understanding the environment: Problems with the way we think
There is increasing recognition that the reductionist mindset that is currently dominating...
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.
By the end of this unit you should be able to:
- develop verbal, visual and mathematical models that explore your personal ecology and quality of life;
- reflect on the implications of using such models to inform your thoughts and actions.
- Duration: 12 hours
- Published on: Wednesday 27th July 2011
- Level: Intermediate
- Posted under: Environmental Studies
Understanding the environment: problems with the way we think
Introduction

This unit will facilitate your exploration of a viable way of life by identifying actions that individuals can take to reduce environmental impacts while sustaining community well-being. You will be required to develop a worked example of how to go about doing this based on your own experience. In particular, you will explore how identifying a balance between reducing environmental impacts and sustaining community well-being should be an ongoing learning process.
This unit is from our archive and is an adapted extract from Understanding systems: making sense of complexity (T214) which is no longer taught by The Open University. If you want to study formally with us, you may wish to explore other courses we offer in this subject area [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .
Archive content
This is an extract from an Open University course which is no longer available to new students. If you found this interesting you could explore more free Environmental Studies course units or view the range of currently available OU Environmental Studies courses.
Other pages You might like

Try: Introducing environmental decision...
Many of the decisions we make have implications for our environment, particularly those...

Study: Energy and sustainability
Can nuclear power, carbon capture and storage or renewable energy sources provide...

Try: Understanding the environment: Flows...
There is increasing recognition that the reductionist mindset that is currently...

Study: Environmental management 1
Why is environmental management vital for our sustainability? What kind of environmental...

Try: Nature matters: Systems thinking and...
This unit explores conceptual tools for assisting our thinking and deliberation on what...

Study: Environment
This course introduces a wide range of environmental concerns, exploring and debating our...

Try: Nature matters in conversation
This unit focuses on the substance of environmental responsibility – what matters. The...

Try: Water for life
Atoms, elements and molecules are the building blocks of everything that makes up our...

Try: Understanding the environment: Thinking...
There is increasing recognition that the reductionist mindset that is currently...

Try: Urban and rural waste in China
Dealing with waste is an introduction to the waste practices and waste management...

Try: Understanding the environment:...
There is increasing recognition that the reductionist mindset that is currently...

Try: Microbes – friend or foe?
Microbes often get a bad name. Whilst some of them do cause disease, others play vital...
Comments
Be the first to post a comment
Copyright & revisions
Copyright information
- Creative-Commons: The Open University is proud to release this free course under a Creative Commons licence. However, any third-party materials featured within it are used with permission and are not ours to give away. These materials are not subject to the Creative Commons licence. See terms and conditions. Full details can be found in the Acknowledgements section.
Feeds
If you enjoyed this, why not follow a feed to find out when we have new things like it? Choose an RSS feed from the list below. (Don't know what to do with RSS feeds?)
Remember, you can also make your own, personal feed by combining tags from around OpenLearn.
- Latest OpenLearn pages
- Latest pages from OpenLearn - Environmental Studies
- Latest pages tagged Reductionism
- Latest pages tagged Quality Of Life Indices
- Latest pages tagged CharityWise
- Latest pages tagged Reductionist Thinking
- Latest pages tagged GEESOER
- Latest pages tagged Resource Depletion
- Latest pages tagged Attribute
- Latest pages tagged Systems Thinking
- Latest pages tagged Capitalis
- Latest pages tagged The End Of Nature
- Latest pages tagged Closed System Experiments
- Latest pages tagged UKOER
- Latest pages tagged Ecological Interdependence
- Latest pages tagged Ecological Sustainability
- Latest pages tagged Flows Of Energy
- Latest pages tagged Indicators Of Human Resource Use
- Latest pages tagged Matter And Information
- Latest pages tagged Measuring System Status
- Latest pages tagged Model
- Latest pages tagged Object
- Latest pages tagged Open Systems
- Latest pages tagged Extinction
- Latest pages tagged Survival Of The Fittest
- Latest pages tagged Performance And Viability
- Latest comments on this page
Alternative Formats
Tags, Ratings and Social Bookmarking
Page Tags
Sign in or create a free account to add tags to your personal tag cloud using:
- AttributeAdd this tagRemove this tag
- CapitalisAdd this tagRemove this tag
- CharityWiseAdd this tagRemove this tag
- Closed System ExperimentsAdd this tagRemove this tag
- Ecological InterdependenceAdd this tagRemove this tag
- Ecological SustainabilityAdd this tagRemove this tag
- ExtinctionAdd this tagRemove this tag
- Flows Of EnergyAdd this tagRemove this tag
- GEESOERAdd this tagRemove this tag
- Indicators Of Human Resource UseAdd this tagRemove this tag
- Matter And InformationAdd this tagRemove this tag
- Measuring System StatusAdd this tagRemove this tag
- ModelAdd this tagRemove this tag
- ObjectAdd this tagRemove this tag
- Open SystemsAdd this tagRemove this tag
- Performance And ViabilityAdd this tagRemove this tag
- Quality Of Life IndicesAdd this tagRemove this tag
- ReductionismAdd this tagRemove this tag
- Reductionist ThinkingAdd this tagRemove this tag
- Resource DepletionAdd this tagRemove this tag
- Survival Of The FittestAdd this tagRemove this tag
- Systems ThinkingAdd this tagRemove this tag
- The End Of NatureAdd this tagRemove this tag
- UKOERAdd this tagRemove this tag
Have you tried our free courses?
Free stuff to your door
Living with Poverty
OU TV & Radio
-
Secrets Of Our Living Planet: Magical ForestEden
Thursday 11:00 -
Secrets Of Our Living Planet: Magical ForestEden
Thursday 15:00 -
Secrets Of Our Living Planet: Magical ForestEden
Thursday 20:00 -
Secrets Of Our Living Planet: Magical ForestEden
Friday 0:01 -
Timewatch: Last Day of WW1BBC Four
Friday 0:05
Views
Votes
Comments
Tags
- climate change (373)
- business (277)
- diaries (194)
- bottom line (169)
- food (168)
- Rough Science (162)
- BBC Two (145)
- internet (145)
- BBC Radio 4 (140)
- BBC (133)
- Scotland (121)
- points for debate (120)
- listings (120)
- Bang goes the Theory (116)
- children (116)
- Creative Climate (116)
- English Civil War (115)
- astronomy (108)
- Thinking Allowed (105)
- religion (98)
- marketing (94)
- 20th century (94)
- Charles I (93)
- communication (92)
- evolution (91)
- sustainability (89)
- research (88)
- architecture (85)
- energy (83)
- Charles Darwin (78)
OpenLearn Links
Copyrighted imageCredit: Background image Lucian Milasan | Dreamstime.com 

