Q#2Choose your own Industrial Ecology inspired puzzle and think of 3 alternative explanations for it?

My puzzling question arises from the present phenomena (observations) about societies of third world order countries:

• Decreased local responsibility, demonstrated in some individual irresponsible practices, from all society generations demonstrated in these examples ;

   - Waste disposal by wrong practices like landfilling even, burning of wastes can take place in extremely poor communities,  

    - Vandalism.

  -Cutting forest trees  ''artificial deforestation'' in order to get cheap sources of firewood and energy.

  -Washing clothes in rivers, leading to their pollution

           -Consuming cheap non eco-friendly products.

•  The presence of some misconceptions in popular culture like, 'Environmental issues, pollution are those caused by industrial organizations ''factories'', and have nothing to do with wrong individual practices'

So my puzzling would be:

''Why do developing countries suffer from low environmental awareness at both an individual and a societal level? ''

Three possible explanations could be:

1. Low economy and increased poverty:  could be an outcome of  population explosion .As proposed by the famous ''Environmental Kuznets curve'' which suggests that environmental impact increases with decreased GDP.

2. Education:  absence of an appropriate standard of environmental education ; school education doesn't engage the process of increasing awareness among kids regarding wrong environmental practices, indifferent school administrations to integrating either curricular or extracurricular activities regarding environmental and sustainability issues

3.Political : corrupt governments and policy-makers  usually lack enough responsibility  in provision of appropriate public health, environmental services like resources management,….etc.

Q#1 What are your first impressions with the social science perspective on industrial Ecology ? and how do they relate with the earlier experiences with social sciences?

My first impressions, well… First off; I had an  absolute scientific background, during my undergraduate studies (Biology) ….so I consider the first meeting as the ''ultimate social science debut'' !!!! . I find it extremely appealing to get to learn about some social aspects  of sustainable development, however, I am still, uncertain if I could clearly grasp and distinguish between the social concepts like theory and assumption. 

To me , I think about social science as :

1.  A ''guideline- maker''  to how ''we''; that is every single member of the techno sphere should behave in order to attain sustainability in our societies on both, a national and international levels.
2.  In addition to developing theories, based on observations and conclusions regarding a certain phenomenon; justifying reasons of certain behaviors in a given society.