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Nicola Andreij Rieg

Nicola Andreij Rieg

My name is Nicola and currently I'm working as a language instructor. I'm planning to do an MA in the UK next year and I am using this platform to gather as much knowledge as possible on the topic.

Location Seoul, South Korea

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Activity

  • This was actually an initiative by Hubbub. And it's a really good example of insight. What the article above doesn't mention is that the disposal container was installed in an area of many pubs, bars, clubs in London. Getting (semi) drunk people who are partying to avoid littering is really difficult, they don't care about information why smoking/littering is...

  • The projects of the UK Charity https://www.hubbub.org.uk/ tick many of the items on the list above, very interesting what they do.

  • Hello I'm Nicola. I work at the University of Surrey, UK, delivering programmes with a focus on sustainability and sustainable behaviours.

  • A good example that comes to my mind is the use of pesticides in industrial agriculture. Pesticides are used, then pests get resistant, and in turn more/more aggresive pesticides are applied. Pests get resistant again, and voila, positive feedback loop. Consequences are that the soil gets degraded, water gets polluted and animal and human health suffers.

  • Maybe you could describe the human body as a system, and different parts sending continuously feedback to the brain, which then reacts to it. For instance, body temperature is rising, we start to sweat etc.

  • If I'm not wrong the course started yesterday, so you should be able to catch up - I just started a this afternoon. You can access this course until 1 April, so I guess that gives you plenty of time.

  • It is quite difficult to answer if social systems exist in an objective way or whether they are subjective constructs.

    I'd say that they are subjective constructs, probably there is some objective reality, but for humans to know it would be rather difficult.

    In research, to reduce subjectivity, the most important things is to know what your own...

  • Very good comment, totally agree.

  • I think this sounds like a good working definition for now, but as mentioned by JK before, many systems are nested in other systems, or two systems interact by sharing certain kind of components.

    I'm not sure if that is a good example, but I was thinking about the water-food-energy nexus.

    Each of these three part is a huge system in its own with an even...

  • I think the transport sector has many good examples. In 1997, the city of Hasselt in Belgium made their public transport free of charge in order to decrease the use of cars. However, an unintended consequence was that people who formerly commuted by bike or were walking also started using the buses. Use of public transport rose so much that they had to...

  • What do you hope to get out of this course?
    + Since I'm currently studying a Masters in environmental science at Leeds, I would like to complement my studies in order to get further insight in to many of the environmental problems (+wicked problems).

    What policy problems can be addressed through Systems Thinking and Complexity?

    + Many of the current...

  • Interesting video - immediately raising some questions:

    How does a system change when you change it's purpose? And how does that affect the other components of the system?

    Is the train system's purpose still transporting people? Or is it maximising financial gains for its owners (Privatisaion of British rail 1997)?

    Same goes for the hospitals (maybe...

  • I'm currently studying climate change impacts and adaptation and expanding my knowledge on weather phenomena will hopefully help me to better determine how climate change affects weather, particularly extreme weather events.

  • I normally just take a look outside the window. Since I live in England, I almost always carry a small umbrella. At this time it is wet almost everyday, so I wouldn't go out without waterproof shoes. Same when I go hiking to the lake or peak district or the moors, the probability that it will rain at some time is so high that I just prepare for any case.

  • The city of Vienna, Austria has a very interesting housing program:

    https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr_edge_featd_article_011314.html

  • Thanks for the input and the interesting article, Brendan. Although I was familiar with the two different concepts, I've never heard describing them in terms of locusts and honeybees, a very fitting analogy.

    Denise, I agree with you, nevertheless for some people, especially less affluent citizens, it can be really hard or close to impossible to become...

  • In don't know very much about the city I'm currently living in and I have to obtain more information on that.

    In the meanwhile here an article about the last President of Uruguay, a person who, in my opinion, fulfills all the criteria of ethical leadership.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-31679475

  • Or we use that superhero power to elect people like Donald Trump, who is personified ethic and lawfulness.

    Regarding Syria, I doubt that it was the Syrian people who by themselves tried to demote Assad. The tragedy that is happening in Syria is not easy to analyse from the outside, especially because western media is extremely biased.

    Just in case your...

  • I guess we really have to be very aware of our doing and thinking in order to perceive when we experience cognitive dissonance.

    In his Book 'What we think about when we try not to think about global warming' Per Espen Stoknes describes the 4 main strategies of the brain when dealing with cognitive dissonance. He uses the example of smokers, because the...

  • I agree with you to a certain extent, but the findings of the Chilcot Report actually state something different and show that to a large part it was also his personal responsibility.
    (+ As a high executive, he is responsible for choosing people who work well and give him the right data. As the boss, he is responsible for the actions of his employees, that's...

  • I don't know about other regions in the world, but in America it happens a lot the democratically elected leaders are somehow sacked in putsch like manner over small matters. Fernando Lugo in Paraguay, Manuel Zelaya in Honduras, Dilma Rousseff in Brasil just to name a few recent cases.

  • The last mayor of Bogota, Gustavo Petro, was one of those few politicians who made progressive politics for the less fortunate. For instance, he subsidised water for the poorest citizens, made mobile health centers available for homeless and drug addicts etc.

    Of course he was not liked very much by the elite and the right wing politicians.
    In 2012 he...

  • I like the reasons that Professor Byrne provides but I slightly disagree in the first point

    "The city lacked ethical leadership, as local officials sought to benefit themselves at the expense of their community, and did not establish ethical organisational values."

    I don't think that it is necessarily the task of the local officials to establish ethical...

  • I don't really understand your comment, could you elaborate?

  • As Lorna said before, it is difficult to judge other social contexts, especially if we don't know enough about the culture we are supposed to judge.

    I also would like to suggest, like some do in their comments below (and contrary to Transparency International's CPI), to see corruption in a broader sense.

    Here is a nice article describing some flaws of...

  • Regarding Uber or AirBNB, I've never used either, but I'd say that AirBNB was started with a good intention but is being misused in many cities with negative effects like distorting the local housing markets.

  • Very interesting topic. Regarding the convenience stores, I think this is highly complicated and embedded in so much other issues, and as mentioned in the article it really depends on the context of culture and city. Where I currently live, there are no convenience stores, but when I was living in Seoul I could find one at every corner.

    How does this relate...

  • I don't know very much about the city I live in right now, but there is a good example of corruption when I was still living in Bogota, Colombia.

    To sum it up in a few words, a group of congressmen and officials of the department of urban planning were handing out public contracts for constructions in the transportation sector to a certain company that in...

  • It is interesting to see how the brain deals with cognitive dissonance. In this case, it could add extra cognitions like "we're having this new environmental strategy, therefore we can continue with those festivals".

    It's the same as "I switched all my light bulbs to LED, I don't need to have a bad conscience about that weekend trip to Barcelona by...

  • In theory, both, ethics in process and outcome are very important, but reality is often more complicated.

    I think that a big problem we're currently facing in western societies is that decision makers often put goals over process. If I don't care about the ethics of the process, I can have quicker and less expensive solutions to certain problems. But this...

  • Nicola Andreij Rieg made a comment

    Hello All,

    At the moment I live in Karlsruhe, Germany. What I really love about this city is that there are a lot of green spaces, public parks, a lot of trees, rivers and places to spent time outside in summer. There are also a lot of bike lanes, so you can get around by bicycle quiet comfortably.

    I cannot really say what I'm concerned about, but what I...

  • I'm going to study a Master's in Environment and Development this year and I want to gather as much knowledge as possible on the different subtopics.
    I also read the book "The Sixth Extinction" written by Elizabeth Kolbert a couple of months ago and it was really interesting, so I hope I can learn more about the scientific aspect of extinctions, especially...

  • At a very basic level I'd say minerals, dead and living organisms.

  • Hi, my name is Nicola. I'm going to do a master's in environment and development this year and I want to gather as much knowledge as possible on related topics.

  • Yes, that's what I meant with "environment". This year we're moving to England so the language spoken outside home will be different.

  • I'd say that all of these activities/skill sets would fit in the category of young learner (2-5), some of them even before that age.

  • I definitely agree with Joanna, engaging children through playing is extremely important, as is repetition.
    We're educating our son bilingual, he is two years and 6 months old now, and in his strong language (learning with mom, her family and environment) he can express a lot of thoughts, wishes etc.
    His weak language is less developed since I and a few...

  • There are already some very good comments below answering the question. For all those who have some time I recommend reading "the language instinct" by Steven Pinker. Easy to read and very interesting.

  • I'm a language trainer (high school and university) and father to a 2-year-old. I'm fascinated by the way children learn language and I want to learn more about it.

  • Nicola Andreij Rieg made a comment

    Hi, I'm Nicola and I'm generally interested in languages.

  • Hey Morien, thank you for the explanation. I understood your assignment in another way. Putting it like this, it seems definitively a good idea to follow.

  • Excellent video, nothing much left to say. I just have bought the book and look forward to reading it.

  • I would suggest, if you take Per Stoknes by the word, maybe for now it would not even be necessary to create wast knowledge about climate change, especially regarding people who have to worry about every day life, income, health etc.

    Please correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understood you have a lot of problems related to pollution in Morocco and Nigeria....

  • You're making a very good point here. Regarding your questions, I think there is no 'manual' to adress these problems, it rather depends on the context and the person you're dealing with. Sometimes it can help to ask a set of questions and make this person question his own attitude, but again this works with some people in some contexts.

  • When I reflect on my leadership starting points, maybe that was when I actively began working to help other people as a teenager. Back then of course I didn't think about it as some kind of leadership. I gave voluntary language classes to asylum seekers and organised football matches and other events, it just seemed something normal to me.

    After years of...

  • A wicked problem actually implies that there is no solution (at least when using the definition of Keith Grint). All that we can do is to mitigate, ameliorate and adapt.

  • I think we could apply here the theory on tame and wicked problems (I learned that in another course, Climate Change Leadership).

    While a ban on neonicotinoids would represent an elegant solution to a tame problem, the extinction of bees seems to be rather a wicked problem that requires a clumsy...

  • A very informative and intelligently written article with the author making reasonable and comprehensible points. I read a little bit into Lynn Dicks' blog and other articles she wrote and she seems to be a very qualified, well informed, unbiased but also concerned scientist.

    That is even more refreshing, since most of the debate, similar to the debate on...

  • Here is a video of a member of the HALO trust removing a landmine:

    http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/colombia/article76787692.html

    And here a short summary on the topic (in spanish):

    http://www.acnur.org/t3/uploads/media/COI_1699.pdf

  • In Colombia, the armed conflict between government and the FARC is, at least officially, over. A few days ago a new peace deal was signed. In addition, it seems like the other remaining guerilla, the ELN is looking to negotiate with the government as well. That would theoretically end an armed conflict that lasted over 50 years, killed hundred of thousands and...

  • It is very interesting to hear about the so called 'Public trust doctrine'.

    I was especially surprised that the Supreme Court of California sided with David Gaines on the case of Mono Lake, since there is has been a lawsuit against Nestle in drought hit California this year. They have been extracting water from the San Bernardino National Forest for years...

  • To those excusing big oil and gas corporations by saying "we're all responsible" and "demand creates supply" etc. please consider the following:

    There is a phenomenon called induced demand. Big fossil fuel companies and their lobby have been working continuously to create some kind of institutional matrix in which the average consumer has a hard time to...

  • So I've read through many comments, and while I fully agree with some and to certain extent with others, I can read a lot of terms like "playing the blame game", "not necessary pointing fingers" and "counterproductive".

    But, the facts are very clear, developed countries, their companies and industry, their politicians and citizens have, historically seen,...

  • Lukman, don't get me wrong, but I just need to correct you here.

    1. You say, the rate at which the richest burn fossil fuels may be similar to the rate the poorest engage in bush-burning.

    That is, with all respect, nonsense.

    The IPPC stated in 2014 that around 11% of GHG emission come from deforestation, while 65% come from fossil fuels, other 22%...

  • What opportunities and challenges might result from changes towards a ‘spaceman’ economy?
    - I think one of the biggest opportunities is to preserve the spaceship earth for another couple of centuries and in the process bring all its inhabitants closer together.
    - One of the biggest challenges is the transformation of consumer oriented societies towards more...

  • I'm not an expert, so I'm careful when expressing my opinion on this issue.

    What I can say is that, from all reports and books I read on climate change, when geoengineering was mentioned, it was often dismissed as a pseudo-solution with a lot of risks and uncertainties.

    So maybe the debate should not be if geoengineering can be the solution, because as...

  • I googled "climate change and water", closed my eyes, scrolled down and hit a random picture. I got a cartoon of two bear-like animals, one of them standing in the desert, sweating and suffering from thirst, the other standing in the rain and wearing diving goggles and a snorkel.

    So my thoughts were: if we get more intense rainfall in some areas, and a...

  • 3. As Karen said in her talk some steps before, I think a change in the political sphere is very important, because at the moment in many places they don't facilitate but constrain changes. So for instance a carbon tax would be important to reduce emissions and push renewables, on the other hand that would make it possible to reduce income tax especially for...

  • 1a. Maybe I would include one more goal in order to improve animal rights, prohibit animal testing, crack down on poaching and phase out factory farming.
    1b. Since all the goals are connected, I think all of them are in some way important. If I had to chose the most important ones, it would be 1, 4, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17.

    2. It is the year...

  • John, I understand your doubts, but I disagree with your conclusions.

    1. I agree that the agenda sounds extremely ambitious and it is very unlikely to achieve all the goals or even make significant progress in some of them. But in my view, the point of the SDGs is to provide a framework, to name the most pressuring problems and encourage states to combat...

  • Yes, CC is complex and unique, but we have to be careful to not overstate its complexity, and there are similar events in the past that we could learn from, for instance the downfall of the Mayan empire, where we have a mixture between internal dynamics (overpopulation, decadence, bad government) and external drivers (severe drought).

    So I'd say CC is an...

  • I appreciate your fervor, but I think since 99% or more of the people taking this course agree with you, there is no need to "yell" at them.
    Regarding your last point, I seriously hope to find an answer on how to solve this problem in this course, since in Europe there are also many misinformed people.

  • In my opinion, there are two big difference between the problem of climate change and the black death:

    1. Regarding the rational discounting that occurs and pushes responses into the future: Climate change has been occurring slowly (at least until now), e.g. the emissions from the past 50 years are going to be felt in the next 50 year etc.
    Since there are...

  • First of all thanks for mentioning David Mackay's book, I just downloaded it and started reading the first chapter, seems like as very good read.

    An idea to indirectly force people to use less fossil fuels and more renewables is to introduce a carbon tax.

    https://www.carbontax.org

    When people start using less fossils and more renewables, this would...

  • 1. Currently I'm located in South Korea, there are few cases reported. A pattern could be that under the last president (a former CEO of Hyundai engineering and construction) pushed to build several large infrastructure projects which were accompanied by corruption scandals, cost huge amount of tax payer money, damaged the environment and didn't meet their...

  • No deadline. As I know, none of the courses in futurelearn has a deadline. Since this one is part of a programme, I guess you have to finish it before the final step (essay) starts.

  • Thank you for your input, Jon. I highly appreciate that you actively engage in the conversation. I think it has really motivated a lot of learners on this programme and with so many people contributing, the comments section has become a valuable part of the course.

    When it comes to intensive livestock farming, in my opinion we don't need much innovation,...

  • You make a good point, Jon. As far as I know, many people in Europe and others regions have become much more sensitive when it comes to animal rights. Who would be able to slaughter a pig or a cow with his own hands nowadays? Or remember the public outcry when Cecil the lion was shot last year.

    Cheryl, I don't think - or maybe I don't want to believe - that...

  • Great link. Thanks!

  • So there are some very interesting points made in the comments below.

    What I really liked was Cheryl's comment, saying that the rights of animals are more like restrictions on humans. So, for instance, the right of elephants to live would be a restriction on humans to not kill them or destroy their habitat. That also shows that rights are placed exclusively...

  • Great reflection on a very interesting week! Many thanks to Rob and Jon and all people contributing to this course.

  • What changes have you noticed in your area that could be attributed to climate change? Are there alternative explanations?

    - In the end of last year and beginning of this year vast parts of Colombia have been hit by a severe drought. This was due to the El Niño phenomenon, but the drought started much earlier and was stronger than in the past decades.

    I...

  • Intuition can be great in everyday life challenges, but when it comes to scientific research, we need to be very careful.

    When statistical analysis based on sound data and sources is contrary to our intuition, then, even reluctantly, we have to accept the results and change our views.

  • I think the point Jon is making that, if you exclude factors like disease or violent death, a human with the right nutrition can live around 70 years long.

    The article in the see also section explains very well how child mortality can blur the statistics about life expectancy.

    Regarding dogs, it is still unknown why larger dogs age faster than smaller...

  • Two thoughts that came to my mind when reading your comment.
    1. Computers may be better when it comes to storing data then humans, they're also extremely helpful for learning, but (maybe I'm biased because I'm a teacher) when it comes to teaching I dare to say that they will never be able to replace humans. Teaching and learning is so much more than a mere...

  • Regarding Simon Kuznets theory about equality and the Environmental Kuznets Curve, I couldn't disagree more. A look to the USA and the relation between GDP per capita (which is one of the highest in the world), wealth distribution (Gini is around 0.8 I think) and CO2 emission (among the highest in total and per capita) should be enough to prove him wrong.

  • I heard about the Pareto Principle before, and in my opinion it really - and astonishingly - seems to stand up to scrutiny.

    I googled wealth distribution for some countries over the globe and also the average of the whole world (the so called Champagne-Glass distribution), and it really does roughly follow the principle. The principle also applies to other...

  • In my opinion, the documentary 'before the flood' gives a great example. It combines cientific data and a look into the future with shocking pictures and the narrative that climate change is happening right now, affecting people in many parts of the world.

  • It is the first time that I have heard about 'slow violence' and I think it is a great concept. But a problem with climate change is, that it is not only difficult to present it in the news, it is also abstract because people can't really process slow moving threats. There is a great Guardian article explaining...

  • I couldn't open your link but I just guess that you were referring to the recently released documentary movie "before the flood"

    I think this link will work
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=codqzJ4onGc

  • I have read about the anthropocene and I knew about certain statistics mentioned in the graph of the great acceleration, but it is great to have a look at the broader picture enriched with numbers and facts.
    I'm really starting to enjoy this course.

  • Great comment. TINA is still widely used in politics to justify certain (often unpopular) actions. Actually it was used so much by politicians, especially Angela Merkel in Germany, that it was elected the "worst word of the year" in 2010.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Un-word_of_the_year

  • As for a sudden change, last year and beginning of this year vast parts of Colombia have been hit by a severe drought. This was due to the El Niño phenomenon, but the drought started much earlier and was stronger than in the past decades.

    I also experienced slower changes, when I was a child living in Germany in the nineties, I remember the times I used to...

  • A very nice and easy to understand explanation. I think the Paris Agreement is definitively important as a framework which can help countries with the energy transition. It is incredibly hard to get 194 nations to agree on a topic, even if it is such an important one as climate change. So the consensus based approach makes sense.

    Anyhow, in order to reach...

  • Hi, I'm Nicola, I have a BA in applied in linguistics and I'm a language trainer. After having worked several years in the sector, I have decided to change careers, so next year I want to do a masters in environmental sustainability.
    I love working with people, but I even love it more to be outside in nature.

    Gifts: I would say that I'm good at connecting...

  • Why are the inter-relationships in ecosystems like woodlands so complex?
    - I'd guess because there can be different, but interconnected ecosystems on different height levels, from the very roots of a tree to the canopy.

    What can food chains tell us about the ecosystems that exist in a particular woodland area?
    - I think they can help to picture how the...

  • I can't really come up with a case of population fluctuation only due to internal dynamics, but of several where internal dynamics made a system vulnerable to external drivers.

    An example would be the Irish Potato Famine. In the beginning of the 19th century, one third or so of the Irish population relied solely on the potato for a broad range of reasons,...

  • I agree with Gordon, but there is also another key reason for the 6th extinction: Humans with their modern methods of travel introduce continuously, sometimes willingly, sometimes not, new species into ecosystems, often with fatal results. Climate change, poaching, modern agriculture are other drivers.
    If you are interested, there is actually a great book...

  • A very nice and motivating introduction.

  • I like the very last sentence in the video, because I think it shows why the climax theory appears so logical and clear to us. Seems like the old Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy. People like to control nature, especially in western culture. Proof can be found by looking at predominant agriculture systems. In addition, Clements definitively has some good...

  • A very interesting talk on a very interesting topic. It took me some time but I also read the text in the 'see also' section.

    I specially liked the policy by Natural England. They give a monetary value to the ecosystem not only by calculating service like CO2 capture or flood protection, but also benefits on human health and wellbeing. Facing a nationwide...

  • 1. How does the tide change the nature of a rock pool ecosystem?
    - The tide connects the rock pool with the ocean, brings new organisms in and takes others out. In addition, depending on the depth of the rock pool, there may be no water during low tide.

    2. How can this be extrapolated and applied to other ecosystems with variable physical environments?
    -...

  • So in the end, instead of loosening the rules, the US decided to tighten the rules for everyone:

    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/03/160325-dolphin-safe-tuna-label-mexico-world-trade-organization/

  • In the last years it seems that humanity has done its best to fulfill Malthus' prophecy, maybe on a little different way than he thought. What I'm referring to is that there would be enough food and resources for all the 7,5 billion people living on earth, but while some (developed nations) consume way too much, others (developing nations) are left with...

  • If you want to stop believing and start knowing more about actual facts, I recommend you the book "the age of sustainable development" from jeffrey D Sachs. It is easy to read and covers most of the challenges we face this century, including population, climate change etc.

  • I'm sorry but I disagree with you on every single point.

    1. We're not well on the way to the second scenario - if the world continues with BAU, that means a continiung rapid economic growth and few gains in energy efficiency+use of fossil fuels, we will have blown GHG equivalent to more than 60 billion tons of CO2 in the atmosphere by 2040, which will take...

  • In Colombia there are 56 protected areas, 46 of these are national parks. These areas are owned by the state, but the proprietor is a government organisation called 'parques naturales colombia'. This agency employs people to manage the parks, so they would be claimants/authorised users (is there any difference?). If you want to visit one of those parks to...

  • Developed countries are far of being free from corruption. It is true that developed countries score better in the CPI, but most of those countries are strongly affected by so-called institutionalised corruption (e. g. politicians getting highly paid jobs in private companies after public service) which is not included in the CPI.

    In addition, just because...

  • I think if we ask the question "To what extent do we own nature?" first of all it is important to get the terms clear. The Cambridge Dictionary defines 'nature' as:

    "all the animals, plants, rocks, etc. in the world and all the features, forces, and processes that happen or exist independently of people, such as the weather, the sea, mountains, the...

  • I agree with Brendan. Individual or community, how is it possible to own a living organism or natural phenomena? Can we make it rain? Can we command a bee to pollinate a certain flower?

    Augustin, maybe you and I have a different concept of ownership or nature, please explain how you define these terms. I wrote a definition in another comment above.

    In...