Notes

1. Thesis (concentrated): The necessity for economic growth in our Capitalist world system is inherently leading to increased global warming (amongst other environmental catastrophes), which has devastating effects on human and planetary well-being.
2. Establish the causal linkage of capitalism on global warming
Drivers → Pressures
3. Explain how this leads to our current state
4. Describe the impact of global warming on humans
5. Response of global societies to both capitalism induced global warming
Realization that they are intertwined very deeply
6. Conclusion: the linkage between these two concepts must be realized in order to develop holistic solutions to global warming


Driving Forces
A ‘driving force’ is a need. Examples of primary driving forces for an individual are the need for shelter, food and water, while examples of secondary driving forces are the need for mobility, entertainment and culture. For an industrial sector a driving force could be the need to be profitable and to produce at low costs, while for a nation a driving force could be the need to keep unemployment levels low. In a macroeconomic context, production or consumption processes are structured according to economic sectors (e.g. agriculture, energy, industry, transport, households).
- Population (number, age structure, education levels, political stability)
- Transport (persons, goods; road, water, air, off-road)
- Energy use (energy factors per type of activity, fuel types, technology)
- Power plants (types of plants, age structure, fuel types)
- Industry (types of plants, age structure, resource types)
- Refineries/Mining (types of plant/minings, age structure)
- Agriculture (number of animals, types of crops, stables, fertilisers)
- Landfills (type, age)
- Sewage systems (types)
- Non-industrial sectors
- Land use

Pressures
Driving forces lead to human activities such as transportation or food production, i.e. result in meeting a need. These human activities exert 'pressures' on the environment, as a result of production or consumption processes, which can be divided into three main types: (i) excessive use of environmental resources, (ii) changes in land use, and (iii) emissions (of chemicals, waste, radiation, noise) to air, water and soil.
- Use of resources
- Emissions (per driving force for numerous compounds)
- direct emissions to air, water and soil
- indirect emissions to air, water and soil
- Production of waste
- Production of noise
- Radiation
- Vibration
- Hazards (risks)

States
As a result of pressures, the ‘state’ of the environment is affected; that is, the quality of the various environmental compartments (air, water, soil, etc.) in relation to the functions that these compartments fulfil. The ‘state of the environment’ is thus the combination of the physical, chemical and biological conditions.
- Air quality (national, regional, local, urban, etc.)
- Water quality (rivers, lakes, seas, coastal zones, groundwater)
- Soil quality (national, local, natural areas, agricultural areas)
- Ecosystems (biodiversity, vegetation, soil organisms, water organisms)
- Humans (health)
- Soil use

Impacts
The changes in the physical, chemical or biological state of the environment determine the quality of ecosystems and the welfare of human beings. In other words changes in the state may have environmental or economic ‘impacts’ on the functioning of ecosystems, their lifesupporting abilities, and ultimately on human health and on the economic and social performance of society.

Responses
A ‘response’ by society or policy makers is the result of an undesired impact and can affect any part of the chain between driving forces and impacts. An example of a response related to driving forces is a policy to change mode of transportation, e.g from private (cars) to public (trains), while an example of a response related to pressures is a regulation concerning permissible SO2 levels in flue gases. Figure 2 depicts the complete DPSIR framework. In addition to defining the components of DPSIR, it is useful to describe the various cause-effect relationships (because it is often difficult to attribute ecosystem changes unambiguously to human pressures). NERI3 has proposed a methodology in which environmental problems are defined and structured in such a way that a clear relationship to pressures emerges. This often uses physical or chemical state indicators as the target variable, while the associated changes in biological state variables are treated as derived effects. A similar argument can be presented for the causal links between the driving forces (i.e. the basic socio-economic development of the different sectors of society) and the environmental pressures in terms of emissions, resource use and land use.