These were our conclusions for the core issues raised by some of the scientific articles we read for today.  For each article, we looked at:
- The fundamental nature of the problem
- The drivers, what is causing the problem to happen
- The things that are causing resistance to change, keeping us from solving the problem
- Possible interventions that could address the problem

Fishing:

Problem:
- Factory farming fish/overfishing the commons - depleting populations of most popular fish 
 - Cheap fossil fuels driving this
- By-catch
Drivers:
- World economies - people want to eat a lot of fish - esp. in first world
Resistance:
- Strong and powerful fishing industry/lobby in Western countries
Interventions:
- Putting market first not as adequate
- Security first - too unbalanced
- Policy first - change at governmental level
- Sustainability first: 
  - Cut back amount of fishing
  - Create marine parks
(but problematic for the economy)

Global freshwater resources
Problem:
- Failure to meet needs for water
Drivers:
- There's not clean freshwater where people live
- Solutions require large infrastructure and have environmental impacts
- Belief that water is an endless supply - inefficiency
- Conflicts over water
Resistance:
- Conflicts between groups
  - Laws of water allocation
- Natural issues that can't easily be changed
- Pollution and divergence of water sources
- Resistance to apparent environmental issues of dams, etc.
- Undervaluation 
- Power imbalance
Interventions:
- "Soft path" - social, economic, cultural implications taken into account
- Increase efficiency/conservation
[- How not always clear]
- Technology is available - but underused

Soil quality
Problem: 
- Loss of soil quality 
- Food security
Drivers:
- Pest and diseases
- Climate change/drought
- Nutrient run-off, erosion
- Political: conflict over land
Resistance:
- See problems
Interventions:
- Better management of soil
   - Biological conservation methods: eg. erosion rate
- Local investment

Human population
Problem:
- Exponential growth of population 
  -> contributes to all other environmental problems
  - pollution, political, economic, resource problems, food problems
- Imbalance between developed/developing
- Imbalance between young and old
Drivers:
- Medical advances - increased longevity
  - Catch-up between medical advances and accounting for how many kids to have
- Personal/individual choice - asking people to just not have kids is not so easy
- Cultural importance of large families (e.g. labor) 
Resistance:
- Division between developed and developing makes it harder to handle
  - Ones that can't handle it as much have more of a problem
- People don't necessarily feel this as a personal problem
- Gender issues, religious issues
Interventions
- Increases in education, gender equality, opportunities
 [But: what about cultural differences?  Do we need to make everyone "Western"?]