Shifting Baselines
Bilal Ahmed 42052 Synthesis paper 4.2 Shifting baselines
Shifting baselines is a term used to describe or measure the change in a system keeping a reference point. This reference point is also known as a baseline which is usually taken from the past. The baseline can be any time period. It can be older than 50 years or 200 years from now depending on the situation and the availability of certain data, information and accurate statistics. “Shifting baselines are the chronic, slow, hard-to-notice changes in things, from the disappearance of birds and frogs in the countryside to the increased drive time from L. A. to San Diego. If your ideal weight used to be 60 kg and now it 's 72, your baseline as well as your waistline has shifted” (Olson, 2002). Shifting Baselines is a term that was put forward in 1995 by Daniel Pauly (Olson 2002) which refers to a moment in our lives when we become unaware of the changes that are taking place around us and we lose track of the past reference points. This theory of shifting baselines syndrome (SBS) is being applied in different parts of scientific research department since then, to try to find out what our world looked like in the past and how can we reshape it in the coming future. It is most commonly used by marine biologists who examine and observe the changes taking place under the oceans. The industrial pollution, human waste, overfishing and the environmental degradation are causing destructive changes to our oceans as there is evidence for disappearance of certain fish species like flatfish, black sea bass and also a huge reduction in the remaining ones. The dead coral reefs of Jamaica and sudden rise in the number of useless species like jellyfish and bacteria are enough to ensure that the ecosystems of our oceans are unhealthy. The problem is that when the new generation observes this nature for the first time, they think that it is normal without knowing the situation of the past. Mostly
Shifting baselines is a term used to describe or measure the change in a system keeping a reference point. This reference point is also known as a baseline which is usually taken from the past. The baseline can be any time period. It can be older than 50 years or 200 years from now depending on the situation and the availability of certain data, information and accurate statistics. “Shifting baselines are the chronic, slow, hard-to-notice changes in things, from the disappearance of birds and frogs in the countryside to the increased drive time from L. A. to San Diego. If your ideal weight used to be 60 kg and now it 's 72, your baseline as well as your waistline has shifted” (Olson, 2002). Shifting Baselines is a term that was put forward in 1995 by Daniel Pauly (Olson 2002) which refers to a moment in our lives when we become unaware of the changes that are taking place around us and we lose track of the past reference points. This theory of shifting baselines syndrome (SBS) is being applied in different parts of scientific research department since then, to try to find out what our world looked like in the past and how can we reshape it in the coming future. It is most commonly used by marine biologists who examine and observe the changes taking place under the oceans. The industrial pollution, human waste, overfishing and the environmental degradation are causing destructive changes to our oceans as there is evidence for disappearance of certain fish species like flatfish, black sea bass and also a huge reduction in the remaining ones. The dead coral reefs of Jamaica and sudden rise in the number of useless species like jellyfish and bacteria are enough to ensure that the ecosystems of our oceans are unhealthy. The problem is that when the new generation observes this nature for the first time, they think that it is normal without knowing the situation of the past. Mostly
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