Goal
Students learn the range of possible human responses to global environmental change.

Learning Outcomes
After completing the exercises associated with this set of activities, students should:

• know the range of potential human responses to environmental change;
• recognize the complexities in creating an international response to global change;
• have a basic understanding of the distinctions between North-South and developed-developing countries’ positions and their importance in responding to environmental change;
• recognize the value of “visions” in creating a sustainable future; and
• understand how decisions made today in response to global change will have impacts on future generations.

Activity 4.1:  Conflicting Priorities: The Environment-Development Debate	-- Critical text reading, question formulation, and class discussion
Activity 4.2:  Time Capsule	-- Letter writing to relative in 2100 defending response to climate change
Activity 4.3:  Future Worlds, Visions, and Film	-- Analysis of representations of future world(s) in film
Activity 4.4:  Visions of Our Common Future	-- Written or artistic expression of a future sustainable world

 
Suggested Readings
The following readings accompany the activities for this unit.  Choose those readings most appropriate for the activities you select and those most adequate for the skill level of your students.

• Background Information to Unit 4 (all students should read)
• Haas, P., M. Levy, and E. Parson.  1992.  Appraising the Earth Summit.  Environment 34 (8): 6-11, 26-33.
• IPCC.  1996b. Climate change 1995:  Impacts, adaptations, and mitigation of climate change.  R. Watson, M. Zinyowera, R. Moss, and D. Dokken, eds.  New York:  Cambridge University Press, selected chapters.
• Liverman, D.  1990.  Vulnerability to global environmental change.  In R. Kasperson, K. Dow, D. Golding, and J. Kasperson, eds.  Understanding global environmental change:  The contributions of risk analysis and management.  Worcester, MA:  Clark University.
• Pallemaerts, M.  1994.  International environmental law from Stockholm to Rio:  Back to the future?  In P. Sands, ed. Greening international law. New York:  The New Press, Chapter 1.
• Schneider, S.  1993.  Degrees of certainty.  National Geographic Research and Exploration 9 (2): 173-190.
• Schnoor, J.  1993.  The Rio Earth Summit:  What does it mean?  Environmental Science and Technology 27 (1): 18-22.
• Stern, P; O. Young, and D. Druckman, eds.  1992.  Global environmental change:  Understanding the human dimensions.  Washington:  National Academy Press, Chapter 4:  Human Consequences and Responses.
• United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).  1997.  Policy responses and directions.  In Global environment outlook.  New York, NY:  Oxford University Press, pp. 129-142.

Goals
Students become familiar with international responses to global environmental change.

Skills

• critical thinking
• key-point and issue identification
• listening skills
• speaking

• Student Worksheet 4.1
• Suggested readings:  Haas, Levy, and Parson (1992), Schnoor (1993), and Pallemaerts (1994)

Tasks
As homework, students read three articles regarding UN initiatives to protect the environment, including the 1972 Stockholm initiative, the 1987 Brundtland Report, and the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.  After reading the articles, students prepare written responses to the questions on the student worksheet and bring them to class on the assigned day.  Students must also write 2 or 3 additional questions of their own and bring them for the class discussion.  Students must have the assignment completed and must give their written responses to the instructor as the “ticket” to participate in the day’s discussion.  Students without written responses will not be allowed to participate.  Participation in the day’s discussion should be an exercise in which students earn credit for participation.

In class, ask students to form a circle.  In a small classroom, have students arrange desks in a circular pattern.  Select one student to begin.  The student will have a limited time period to present a few thoughts that arose during her/his readings of the homework and then arrive at a question to pose to the next student.  That student then will have the same amount of time to consider the question, think aloud, and lead into another question.  This continues around the class until all have participated.  The process allows students to articulate what they do or do not understand in a spontaneous way and allows the class to work through the readings together.  Students shouldn’t use their scripted questions because their question should flow from the one that precedes them.  The  process through which the discussion evolves is just as interesting as the questions considered.  Students should not be given more than 4-5 minutes to speak.  This will have to be adjusted based on the size of the class.  One important rule is that no student is allowed to speak until it is his/her turn.  This prevents interruption and encourages active listening.
 
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Activity 4.2:  Time Capsule

 

Goals
Students consider the possible responses to an environmental change like global warming, select a response, and defend it to a relative alive in the year 2100.

Skills

• essay writing
• definition of values
• support and justification of personal decision

• Student Worksheet 4.2

Tasks
Each student writes a two-page letter to a descendant to be placed into a time capsule and opened in the year 2100.  Students must choose an appropriate response to global warming (i.e., “we need more research, so we should wait” or “we should immediately reduce CO₂ emissions worldwide”) and defend that decision to their relatives, who in 2100, will be experiencing the effects of our decisions today.  Students should make links back to the “mitigate, adjust, block, adapt or anticipate” options presented in the readings.  You may choose to have students share their letters with the class and to discuss the various perspectives in the class.
 
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Activity 4.3:  Future Worlds, Visions, and Film

 

Goals
Students become aware of how images of the future in film, books, news reports, and other media affect their own visions of the future.

Skills

• film comprehension
• interpretation of information
• critical discussion of movie

• Student Worksheet 4.3
• A film such as Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Waterworld, Dune, 2010, Soylent Green, or others of this genre.

Tasks
Choose a film that depicts the world sometime in the future and select a 10-15 minute clip from the film that illustrates this future well.  If time permits, you can show multiple clips from different movies or even show one entire film.  Students then break into groups of 2 or 3 and answer and discuss the questions on the Student Worksheet.  All of the films suggested above should be available at a local movie rental store or through interlibrary loan.
 
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Activity 4.4:  Visions of Our Common Future

 

Goals
Students envision the world they would like to see for their children or grandchildren and present their vision in a creative way.

Skills

• creative writing
• futures thinking
• envisioning

• Student Worksheet 4.4

Tasks
In this activity, students are “allowed the luxury of dreaming.”  Students will prepare a written essay in which they describe the world they would like to see in the year 2050.  Instructors should allow students to be as creative as they want to be on this exercise.  Students may opt to use drawings, paintings, photos, or other creative media to as an alternative to the written assignment.  The instructor may choose to have students present their visions to the class and/or use the visions to initiate a class discussion about the actions that need to be taken now to create the worlds they have envisioned.

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