🌋
Introduction & Learning
Objectives
Evaluation Test 1
WEEK WEEK 1
Module 1
Introduction & Learning Objectives
Natural capital
What is natural capital?
Natural capital refers to the planet’s stocks of water, land, air, and
renewable and non-renewable resources
Oldest life-form: Stromatolites
Stromatolites are mineralised microbial communities, formed from
cyanobacteria or also called blue-green algae.
Formed over thousands of years as the cyanobacteria trap detritus and
sediment, forming large living rafts known as microbial mats.
The cyanobacteria also secrete calcium carbonate, which causes the mats to
mineralise, forming rock-like structures.
Introduction & Learning Objectives 1
, One Ocean - Episode 1: Birth of an Ocean
How many major extinctions happened over the past 540 million years?
5 major extinctions in history.
What is thought to have caused most of these extinctions?
99.9% of species are now extinct.
According to Professor Ward, extinction was cause by a tiny bacteria.
Bacteria that is anaerobic.
The bacteria could have cause the ocean to lose all of its oxygen.
Describe the process of how was life "switched off".
Warm water get green microbes that produces hydrogen solphide. Hit the
top and rises into the sky.
Breaking down sulfur.
This caused one of the five major extinctions.
Introduction & Learning Objectives 2
, Oxygen is created by the current of the water as it moves between poles
and temperatures. When the water becomes stagnant or less temperature
there is less oxygen creating the oxygen-less bacteria
Conclusions
Oceans, land and atmosphere are interlinked.
Ocean holds key to life.
It is a complex system that supports life.
Human actions are leading to changes in the ocean chemistry, physics,
and biology.
These changes are ecological, social and economic implications.
The past sheds light on what some of those changes might bring.
Introduction & Learning Objectives 3
, 🗞
Wicked Problems
Evaluation Test 1
WEEK WEEK 2
Wicked Problems
💡 Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and
well informed just to be able to understand them.
Many environmental issues, including ocean threats, are complex. Understanding
the complexity of these issues is the first step in being able to manage the
problems and search for solutions. In this week's module we will focus on such
problems (i.e., wicked problems) and learn to identify root causes of these
problems to ultimately propose solutions.
Characteristics of Wicked Problems
💡 Australian Public Service Commission 2012 document.
The term ‘wicked’ in this context is used as to describe an issue highly
resistant to resolution.
Wicked problems are difficult to clearly define: The nature and extent of
the problem depends on who has been asked, that is, different
stakeholders have different versions of what the problem is.
Wicked Problems 1
Introduction & Learning
Objectives
Evaluation Test 1
WEEK WEEK 1
Module 1
Introduction & Learning Objectives
Natural capital
What is natural capital?
Natural capital refers to the planet’s stocks of water, land, air, and
renewable and non-renewable resources
Oldest life-form: Stromatolites
Stromatolites are mineralised microbial communities, formed from
cyanobacteria or also called blue-green algae.
Formed over thousands of years as the cyanobacteria trap detritus and
sediment, forming large living rafts known as microbial mats.
The cyanobacteria also secrete calcium carbonate, which causes the mats to
mineralise, forming rock-like structures.
Introduction & Learning Objectives 1
, One Ocean - Episode 1: Birth of an Ocean
How many major extinctions happened over the past 540 million years?
5 major extinctions in history.
What is thought to have caused most of these extinctions?
99.9% of species are now extinct.
According to Professor Ward, extinction was cause by a tiny bacteria.
Bacteria that is anaerobic.
The bacteria could have cause the ocean to lose all of its oxygen.
Describe the process of how was life "switched off".
Warm water get green microbes that produces hydrogen solphide. Hit the
top and rises into the sky.
Breaking down sulfur.
This caused one of the five major extinctions.
Introduction & Learning Objectives 2
, Oxygen is created by the current of the water as it moves between poles
and temperatures. When the water becomes stagnant or less temperature
there is less oxygen creating the oxygen-less bacteria
Conclusions
Oceans, land and atmosphere are interlinked.
Ocean holds key to life.
It is a complex system that supports life.
Human actions are leading to changes in the ocean chemistry, physics,
and biology.
These changes are ecological, social and economic implications.
The past sheds light on what some of those changes might bring.
Introduction & Learning Objectives 3
, 🗞
Wicked Problems
Evaluation Test 1
WEEK WEEK 2
Wicked Problems
💡 Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and
well informed just to be able to understand them.
Many environmental issues, including ocean threats, are complex. Understanding
the complexity of these issues is the first step in being able to manage the
problems and search for solutions. In this week's module we will focus on such
problems (i.e., wicked problems) and learn to identify root causes of these
problems to ultimately propose solutions.
Characteristics of Wicked Problems
💡 Australian Public Service Commission 2012 document.
The term ‘wicked’ in this context is used as to describe an issue highly
resistant to resolution.
Wicked problems are difficult to clearly define: The nature and extent of
the problem depends on who has been asked, that is, different
stakeholders have different versions of what the problem is.
Wicked Problems 1
