Earth's population just passed the 8 billion mark and is still growing rapidly. Is this sustainable? If not, what is the most effective way to slow down population growth? Present your group's view on achieving sustainability. Firstly, define sustainable existence on earth in terms of population size, resource consumption and the resultant threats such as climate change, water shortages, famine, ecological footprint, social justice and the arguments between the rich and poor countries which hinders the effective implementation of COP-measures. Then propose a few urgent steps that need to be taken to achieve sustainability. If there are different or conflicting views on this issue in your group, present all views. When formulating your view/s, include the following topics that you have dealt with in this module (number the topics accordingly in your assignment): a. Scientific paradigms: How would the concept of sustainability be researched within different scientific paradigms? (In other words, what research questions would Popper, Kuhn \& Latour respectively probably have asked if they had to address this issue?). Write a paragraph of not more than 300 words on each of the scientific paradigms. b. Systems thinking (the big picture) - "Systems thinking is an approach to integration that is based on the belief that the component parts of a system will act differently when isolated from the system's environment or other parts of the system. ... Systems thinking is particularly useful in addressing complex or wicked problem situations." (learningforsustainability. net s systemsthinking). How can systems thinking add value to achieve sustainability? (In other words - what is the big picture that need to be considered in research to "cover all bases"?). Address this in no more than 500 words. c. Inter-disciplinary thinking - try to address the issue from the view of various disciplines. Which disciplines should be included to successfully achieve sustainability? To demonstrate your understanding of multidisciplinary thinking, compile a list of questions that in your opinion need to be researched within the different disciplines to shed more light on this issue.