Both rich and poor nations share a common interest in global environmental protection. However, some rich nations may not hold a similar interest in the eradication of poverty in poor nations, and therefore decline to accept the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) document containing the combined agendas of environmental protection with eradication of poverty.

Environmental Gap 4

• Maslow’s needs – Esteem
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) – 1. No poverty.

Eradication of Poverty
Following is the title page of the IPCC document declaring the 1.5° C target:
GLOBAL WARMING OF 1.5°C
An IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty (IPCC, 2018, p. 1).
​
To some, the use of the phrase “efforts to eradicate poverty” in the last line of the title signals a secondary agenda of economic redistribution in the global warming declaration, which dilutes the environmental protection message. Both rich and poor nations share a common interest in global environmental protection. However, some rich nations may not hold a similar interest in the eradication of poverty in poor nations, and therefore decline to accept the IPCC document containing the combined agendas. In addition, individual nations, either rich or poor, may consider externally mandated efforts to erase poverty within their ​sovereign boundaries as interference in their national affairs. This again dilutes the environmental protection message.

Environmental Gap 3

• Maslow’s needs - Physiological.
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) - 1. No poverty 2. Zero hunger

​
Forecast World Population
The current (December 2022) world population is in excess of 8 billion, with a UN forecast median of approximately 10.4 billion by the year 2100. The forecast 95% probabilistic range for 2100 is a high of approximately 12.4 billion and a low of approximately 8.9 billion persons (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs - Population Division, 2022). An alternative year 2100 population forecast is provided by Vollset et al. (2020) which includes a predicted value of 8.79 billion with a 95% Uncertainty Interval high of 11.8 billion and low of 6.83 billion. The lower forecast of Vollset et al. (2020) utilises a decreasing reproductive rate as a function of the number of years of education. This beneficial education-years relationship can serve as a reference tool in the design of birth reduction programs.

Please view full blog post below for Environmental Convergence Blog 04. 

Environmental Gap 2

• Maslow’s needs - Social.
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) - 10. Inequalities, 4. Education.

​
Worldwide, there is emerging evidence of the important role of Indigenous knowledge for climate change adaptation, and that it is necessary to consider different knowledge systems in climate change programs (Petzold, Andrews, Ford, Hedemann, & Postigo, 2020). In Australia, investigations have been initiated regarding how Indigenous knowledge systems might indicate a paradigm shift for the ethical and advanced design of new technologies. Accordingly, by exploring concepts in Indigenous science and its influence on contemporary scientists, including an embrace of traditional practices, implications of a hypothetical shift in autonomous systems in robotics and AI are investigated (Abdilla & Fitch, 2017). An analysis of the Indigenous experience of maritime travel in conjunction with the geological history over the past 50,000 years reveals a future scenario in which the risk of damaging sea level rise exists for both committed environmentalists and climate change deniers.

​This scenario provides the environmental adversaries with a common cause. The common challenge is for both parties to establish joint contingency plans for adaption to the possible serious sea level increase. This challenge is discussed in the following “Recommended action regarding environmental gap 2”. As an adjunct to the environmental cause, the Indigenous stories in this scenario serve to strengthen the social and historical significance of Indigenous society.

Gaps and inconsistencies in the current mainstream environmental discussion have been identified in the preceding EnviroConvergeBlog 01. These gaps potentially affect the optimism or pessimism that adults and students may feel for the future of the environment over the next twenty years. This Blog (EnviroConvergeBlog 02) expands on the first of these environmental gaps.

Environmental Gap 1

• Maslow’s needs - Safety.
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) - 13. Climate action.

​
The short-term global warming narrative
Climate researchers such as Mann (2012) use temperature proxy data to produce narratives covering the previous 2000 years. In this process, Mann relates that the warmest period on record was the second half of the 20th century, describing this phenomenon graphically as a hockey stick. This research is promoted as a wake-up call that humans are heating the planet, and that the Earth will suffer increasing impacts if action is not taken to reduce emissions. This is the conventional environmental narrative that humans are causing global temperature rise. This position is supported in the popular technical media by Ryan (2019), attributed to the University of Bern, when producing the following figure (Figure 3.4) “Global warming/cooling rates over the past 2,000 years.”

​The UN has defined seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are benchmark goals for demonstrating environmental achievement (UNOOSA, 2020). I have identified seven discussion gaps in the environmental debate and the lessons learnt from the environmental wins have been applied to these discussion gaps. Additionally, the affected SDG has been identified for each discussion gap in Table 3.1. The objective of detailed enquiry of each discussion gap is the achievement of convergence of the respective narrative in each discussion gap. Thus, I have initiated a mechanism for bridging the divide between the opposing parties in the contemporary environmental narrative. Accordingly, this mechanism is a catalyst for the mitigation of pessimism held by students and by the general community regarding the future of the environment.

Please view full blog post below for Environmental Convergence Blog 01. ​