•Sustainability challenges require both specialized and integrative approaches.•Domination of specialism and reductionism calls for emphasis on comprehensiveness.•The GHH framework can be used as a ...tool to add comprehensiveness in education.•The framework consists of three dimensions: generalism, holism, and holarchism.•The dialectical approach combines comprehensive and differentiative approaches.
Sustainability challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, poverty and rapid urbanization are complex and strongly interrelated. In order to successfully deal with these challenges, we need comprehensive approaches that integrate knowledge from multiple disciplines and perspectives and emphasize interconnections. In short, they aid in observing matters in a wider perspective without losing an understanding of the details. In order to teach and learn a comprehensive approach, we need to better understand what comprehensive thinking actually is. In this paper, we present a conceptual framework for a comprehensive approach, termed the GHH framework. The framework comprises three dimensions: generalism, holism, and holarchism. It contributes to the academic community’s understanding of comprehensive thinking and it can be used for integrating comprehensive thinking into education. Also, practical examples of the application of the framework in university teaching are presented. We argue that an ideal approach to sustainability challenges and complexity in general is a balanced, dialectical combination of comprehensive and differentiative approaches. The current dominance of specialization, or the differentiative approach, in university education calls for a stronger emphasis on comprehensive thinking skills. Comprehensiveness should not be considered as a flawed approach, but should instead be considered as important an aspect in education as specialized and differentiative skills.
This article compares the development of transport and energy use with a focus on carbon dioxide (CO
2) emissions in the EU15 countries between 1960 and 2000, and separately by each individual EU ...country between 1970 and 2000. Based on a review on the literature,
immaterialisation can be defined as the reduction of energy intensity and transport intensity;
dematerialisation can be defined as the reduction in carbon intensity of energy production and the carbon intensity of transport;
decarbonisation can be defined as the reduction in (total and transport) carbon intensity of the whole economy. Although there is a clear pattern of reduction in energy intensity of the economy and carbon intensity of energy production, a similar pattern cannot be found in transport. Neither the transport intensity of the economy nor the carbon intensity of transport has been reduced. In particular, freight transport intensity has grown between 1985 and 2000. Data presented by country have shown even more variation. The EU15 countries were aggregated into six groups by cluster analysis to establish the different patterns on each of the three measures. It is concluded that the EU15 countries will have problems in achieving the EU White Paper target of decoupling transport growth from economic growth and the Kyoto target of reducing total CO
2 emissions by 8% from the 1990 level between 2008 and 2012. However, there are some weak signals suggesting a more sustainable passenger transport system.
Atomic absorption analyses were performed on plants growing in the catchment areas of an acidified lake (Hauklampi) and a non-acidified lake (Kurkijärvi) lying near each other in an uncultivated, ...uninhabited area in Espoo, S Finland. The material comprised 14 species of the Fungi, 7 Lichenes, 11 Musci, 5 Pteridophyta, 2 Gymnospermae and 25 Angiospermae. In spruce and pine, the contents of metals other than zinc were 2—3 times as high as the roughly natural levels measured in Lapland. The contents of mercury in the plants did not differ between the two study areas, but aluminium, zinc and cadmium clearly tended to have higher contents in the more acidic surroundings of Lake Hauklampi and iron in the surroundings of the nonacidified Lake Kurkijärvi. Many Rosaceae showed higher cadmium contents in the more alkaline catchment area of Kurkijärvi. Plants that appeared to be specially sensitive indicators were the rock moss Ceratodon purpureus for iron, the fungus Rozites caperata for cadmium and possibly Anemone nemorosa for the springtime movements of aluminium.
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