Sustainability indicators
Big idea: A sustainability indicator is something you can measure to show how sustainable a place or activity is.
Track it over time → you can see if things are getting better or worse.
Common indicators
- Biodiversity — number and variety of species
- Pollution levels — in air, water and soil
- Human population size and growth rate
- Climate data — CO₂ levels and temperature
- Ecological, carbon and water footprints
Indicators work at any scale — a single school, a city, or the whole planet.
Citizen science: Ordinary people collect environmental data (e.g. counting birds, logging air quality on an app).
Strength: cheap and covers huge areas Limitation: data quality can vary.
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