The Textbook
It provides an integrated, system-oriented introduction to the concepts, theories and issues surrounding the quest for a sustainable future for Planet Earth.Lectures & Tools
In this section we are collecting lectures and interactive tools that can be used for research and teaching.Featured Content
Other Educational Material, Narratives and Relevant Content
Fisheries: a history of technology and oil
The force of technology is illustrated with some numbers. Fishing power, defined as the product of number of ships and potential catch per ship, has globally increased sixfold between 1970 and 2005. There was a […]
Views of Nature and biodiversity
To every natural form, rock, fruit or flower,
Even the loose stones that cover the high-way,
I gave a moral life, I saw them feel,
Or link’d them to some feeling; the great mass
Lay bedded in a quickening […]
Identifying and measuring beliefs: two case-studies
An analysis of the outcomes of the World Value Survey (§4.2) over the period 1989-2004 has been used to identify popular support for the transition to a market economy in India and China (Migheli 2010). […]
Analogs and metaphors
In an abstract scientific sense, modelling is a coding process and creates a relation between a ‘natural’ and a ‘formal’ system (Figure 1a; Rosen 1985). As scientists refine existing and construct new theories, there may […]
Catastropic change in (eco)systems: case-studies
There are some empirical, illustrative case-studies in which catastrophic did happen. The first classical example is the interactive dynamics between the spruce budworm, its predators and the boreal forest in North America (Holling 1986; Meadows […]