Name: __________________________________

Date: ________________________
Class: _______________

IB ESS

1.1 Environmental
Value Systems
Significant Ideas:
Historical events, among other influences, affect the development of environmental value
systems and environmental movements.
There is a wide spectrum of environmental value systems each with their own premises and
applications.

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What is an EVS
1. Define “Environmental Value System”
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2. Look at the systems diagram for an EVS. Add any additional inputs and outputs that you can
think of.
(Hints: think about what things influence a person’s knowledge and opinions on the
environment.)

education opinions of
friends

A person’s environmental
values

decision to
recycle waste

3. Define the following value systems

Ecocentric
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Anthropocentric
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Technocentric
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4. Summarise the viewpoint of the following types of people
Cornucopians
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Environmental Managers
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Deep ecologists
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 Ecocentrists Anthropocentrists Technocentrists

______________________________ ______________________________ It’s not a major problem. Species

______________________________ ______________________________ are going extinct because of
______________________________ ______________________________ pollutants, deforestation etc. but

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______________________________ ______________________________ these activities are the result of
economic development and this is
______________________________ ______________________________
perhaps more important that
______________________________ ______________________________ conserving some species
Why is this
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a
problem?
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largely a consequence of human activities.

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Change our lifestyle: we need to
use fewer harmful chemicals, stop ______________________________ ______________________________
burning fossil fuels etc. We need to ______________________________ ______________________________
accept having fewer luxuries in ______________________________ ______________________________
order to stop polluting the
______________________________ ______________________________
environment and destroying
What natural habitats. ______________________________ ______________________________
should we ______________________________ ______________________________
do about ______________________________ ______________________________
it? ______________________________ ______________________________
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5. Complete the table to summarise the possible viewpoints of the following types of people.

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The rate of extinctions world-wide is currently very high; the number of species going extinct is
currently a lot more than it has been through most of geological time. This high extinction rate is

______________________________ ______________________________

4
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6. Choose two of the above environmental value systems and evaluate their implications for the
situation stated.
This is a good opportunity to practice the “section B” (from paper 2) essay marking criteria.
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Historical Influences on EVSs

1. Draw a timeline to mark some of the major events in history that have influenced
environmental value systems. As a minimum, you must include the following (but you are
encouraged to add others):
The agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, the green revolution,
founding of Greenpeace, Carson’s “Silent Spring” published, at least two major
environmental disasters

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What is your EVS?

1. What is your environmental value system? Justify your opinion using examples of
environmental systems.
Note: You may have a combination of different viewpoints, this is fine. There is no wrong answer when
giving your opinion but you do need to be able to justify it.
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