Global Tipping Points

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Critically reflect on how different systems respond to human pressures, how they can recover, and longer term sustainability of our planet.
• Have an understanding of what a tipping point is, and how we can measure it, across a range of different contexts.
• Recognise what the term ‘Anthropocene’ means, and how it can be used in different contexts. Understand the details around the Great Acceleration.
• Confidently present (orally) a key set of ideas/arguments to illustrate your position within a wider debate.
• An ability to collate, identify and synthesise relevant materials across different debates, notably around societal collapse and our understanding of the Anthropocene.
• Identify key human impacts on global (and regional) systems through time, understanding their impacts at local, regional and global levels.

Topics covered will include:

Tipping points and chronological/geological overview

Human impacts through time (1). First human induced tipping points – megafaunal extinctions?

Human impacts through time (2). The first farmers: origins, spread and impact of agriculture – an early Anthropocene?

Human impacts through time (3). The first cities: urbanisation and collapse

The Anthropocene, Great Acceleration, and global tipping points & seminar preparation

Climate tipping points

SEMINARS – societal collapse, drivers, and recovery

SEMINARS – when did the Anthropocene start?

Biosphere tipping points

Socio-economic tipping points

Tipping points in Lakes

Synthesis – revision week

Teaching and learning methods

Students will engage in prescribed (and self-directed) reading around each major topic and undertake research which will form the baseline for seminars. Seminars will be group led, and students will be given time to prepare and then present on a topic within a set of wider debates, as collaborative peer learning tasks. Students will also be expected to engage in post session reading to consolidate your understanding.

Resources & Reading list

Journal Articles

Brovkin et al. (2021). Past abrupt changes, tipping points and cascading impacts in the Earth system. Nature Geoscience, 14, pp. 550-558.

Lenton (2011). Early warning of climate tipping points. Nature Climate Change, 1, pp. 201-209.

Biggs et al. (2018). The Regime Shifts Database: a framework for analyzing regime shifts in social-ecological systems.. Ecology and Society, 23: 9.

Steffen et al. (2011). The Anthropocene: From Global Change to Planetary Stewardship. Ambio, 40, pp. 739-761.

Montoya et al. (2018). Planetary Boundaries for Biodiversity: Implausible Science, Pernicious Policies. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 33, pp. 71-73.

Ruddiman (2007). The early anthropogenic hypothesis: challenges and responses. Reviews of Geophysics, 45, 2006RG000207.

Rockstrom et al. (2009). A safe operating space for humanity. Nature, 461, pp. 472-475.

Steffen et al. (2015). The trajectory of the Anthropocene: The Great Acceleration. The Anthropocene Review, 2, pp. 81-98.

Scheffer et al. (2012). Anticipating critical transitions. Science, 338, pp. 344-348.

Barnosky et al. (2012). Approaching a state shift in Earth’s biosphere. Nature, 486, pp. 52-58.

Lewis & Maslin (2015). Defining the Anthropocene. Nature, 519, pp. 171-180.

Textbooks

Roberts (2014). The Holocene: An Environmental History. Wiley Blackwell.

Diamond (2005). Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.. Viking Press.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External