Sustainability within a global environmental change context

This chapter summarises the key human drivers of environmental change, degradation and biodiversity loss – an essential context for sustainability education. The environment provides people with tangible (food, materials) and intangible (culture, recreation, wellbeing) benefits, often referred to as ecosystem services. Ecosystem services are produced by very complex, interconnected and nested systems of interactions between humans and all living things, their surrounding environment and climate. Many human activities disrupt these systems, driving unwanted and widespread change in the environment. These activities are commonly referred to as drivers, and their impact can be direct or indirect. Indirect drivers include diffuse phenomena in our society, such as human values, population, consumption, the economy, governance and science and technology. Direct drivers act directly on the environment and include climate change driven by greenhouse gas emissions, land and sea use, pollution, over-exploitation and invasive species. Direct and indirect drivers undermine the integrity and functioning of biodiversity and ecosystems. Knowledge of these direct and indirect drivers, and the consequences, must form a cornerstone in sustainability education, regardless of discipline. For human societies, declines in ecosystem functionality may be experienced as extreme weather, reduced access to food security, safe living environments, fresh water or clean air. Not all people and places are affected equally, however. More affluent people and communities around the world tend to benefit from use of the environment, while those less affluent bear the brunt of the negative impacts. Understanding the complexity of the environment, and the severity of our impact on it, is essential to underpinning sustainability education and securing a viable future.