NCEA Level 3 Education for Sustainability flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Brundtland definition

The 1987 report Our Common Future defined sustainable development as meeting present needs without compromising future generations' ability to meet theirs, linking environment and development concerns.

Three pillars model

A framework treating environmental, social and economic sustainability as parallel dimensions that must each be satisfied for an outcome to count as sustainable.

Nested sustainability model

A model placing the economy inside society and society inside the environment, showing that economic activity depends on and is bounded by social and ecological systems.

Mātauranga Māori

The body of knowledge, values and practices developed by Māori over generations, including environmental observation and tikanga; it is a distinct knowledge system requiring respectful, permitted use.

Kaitiakitanga

Guardianship obligations held by tangata whenua toward land, water and living things, understood as an intergenerational responsibility rather than a property right.

Carrying capacity

The maximum population or level of use an ecosystem can sustain indefinitely without degrading the processes that support it, such as soil formation or water supply.

Ecological overshoot

The condition where demand on renewable resources exceeds the biosphere's capacity to regenerate them, measured by comparing ecological footprint with available biocapacity.

Reinforcing feedback loop

A causal loop in which a change in one variable causes further change in the same direction, amplifying growth or decline until limited by another factor.

Balancing feedback loop

A causal loop that counteracts change and tends to hold a system near a set point, such as predator numbers falling when prey becomes scarce.

Leverage point

A place in a system where a small intervention produces disproportionate change, often found in information flows, rules or the goals of the system.

Intergenerational equity

Fairness in the distribution of benefits and burdens between present and future people, used to justify limits on resource depletion and long-lived pollution.

Intragenerational equity

Fairness among people alive now, including differences in exposure to pollution and access to resources between richer and poorer communities and countries.

Precautionary approach

A decision rule stating that serious or irreversible harm should not be delayed by lack of full certainty, so protective action is taken while evidence is still developing.

Wicked problem

An issue with no definitive formulation, contested values and no final test of a solution, so responses must be negotiated rather than simply calculated.

Action competence

The combination of knowledge, commitment, vision and practical skills that enables a person to take informed, self-directed action on sustainability issues.

Education for the environment

An orientation that goes beyond learning about or in nature, engaging students in values inquiry and action aimed at improving environmental conditions.

Place-based education

Learning that uses the local catchment, community and landscape as its context and source of data, connecting abstract sustainability concepts to specific places.

Student-led action project

A planned intervention on a real issue, with a stated baseline, indicators and monitoring, so that the claimed impact can be evidenced and reflected on.

Greenwashing

Marketing or reporting that presents an organisation as environmentally responsible using unverifiable or selective claims, misleading audiences about actual environmental performance.

Sustainable Development Goals

Seventeen non-binding global goals adopted in 2015 with 169 targets to be met by 2030, covering poverty, health, education, environment and institutions.

Planetary boundaries

Nine Earth-system processes with proposed safe operating thresholds; several, including climate change and biosphere integrity, are assessed as already transgressed.

Te Mana o te Wai

A freshwater framework giving first priority to the health of the water, second to human health needs, and only then to other consumptive uses.

Resource Management Act 1991

New Zealand's principal law governing use of land, air and water, requiring sustainable management and consideration of Treaty of Waitangi principles.

Emissions Trading Scheme

A market instrument that caps total greenhouse gas emissions and requires emitters to surrender tradable units, creating a price on emissions.

Circular economy

A design approach that eliminates waste and pollution, keeps materials in use through repair and remanufacture, and regenerates natural systems.

Linear economy

The take-make-dispose pattern in which materials are extracted, used briefly and discarded, driving resource depletion and waste accumulation.

Biodiversity loss drivers

In New Zealand, introduced predators, habitat fragmentation and land-use change are the main causes of decline in native species populations.

Adaptation versus mitigation

Mitigation reduces the causes of climate change by cutting emissions; adaptation reduces vulnerability to impacts that are already locked in.

Life cycle assessment

A method that quantifies environmental impacts of a product or service from raw material extraction through production, use and disposal.

Indicator and baseline

A measurable variable used to track change over time, paired with an initial measurement taken before an intervention so that change can be attributed.

Treaty of Waitangi partnership

The principle requiring Māori and the Crown to share decision-making authority; in resource decisions it means early engagement and genuine influence, not late consultation.

Values-based controversy

A dispute rooted in differing ethical positions rather than missing facts, so resolution requires debate about values rather than more data alone.

Systems thinking

An approach that examines interconnections, feedback and boundaries rather than isolated parts, used to explain why sustainability problems persist despite local fixes.