Skip to 0 minutes and 6 seconds Should humans be considered an integral part of the natural environment, or are we somehow separate from nature? Much scientific research in both the social and natural sciences has been directed at trying to tease apart the relative roles of internal dynamics from external drivers, but it’s quite perplexing to make the division. Inevitably, there’s a bit of both. But the important point to recognize is that there doesn’t necessarily need to be a reason for everything. Sometimes, and probably quite a lot of the time, things just happen.
Skip to 0 minutes and 48 seconds I’m Professor Jon Lovett, Chair in Global Challenges at the University of Leeds. My role here is to guide you through this course. We start by exploring three basic principles– causality, internal dynamics versus external drivers, and the mathematics of human ecology. These principles will then be applied to a case study where we consider whether non-human animals and other natural objects have legal rights similar to those given to humans. We close the course with a discussion about the mathematics of natural dynamics, calling on experts from Natural England and Pennine Prospects, we consider the impact of land management on our natural environment. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and joining your discussions on the course.
