Week 2: Critical Global Environmental Sustainability Challenges and Issues, Part 1

Introduction

During this two-part unit, students will gain knowledge of the far-reaching effects of climate change and pollution as they pertain to the world’s ecosystems, weather patterns, and food security.  Students will gain significant insight into the ever-evolving realm of global conferences and climate accords.  Through critical analysis of successes and failures, progress and decline, students will predict the next steps in tackling climate change and pollution on a global scale.

This Week, You Will Be Expected to:

  • Scrutinize and compare the history of conferences, declarations, and accords to address climate change, from the Tbilisi Declaration (1977) to the present day.
  • Add to your glossary of terms that you began in Wk. 1, based on new terms and new perspectives.

Questions to Consider Throughout this Week:

  1. What are the debates surrounding climate change? Is it a natural or an artificial phenomenon?  Is it human-made?
  2. How has the lingo surrounding climate change altered over time, and what, if any, effect has this had on global perspectives and actions? Who is creating and introducing this lingo?

Readings and Content

  1. Climate Change

Debates Surrounding Causes

    • Damico, J. S., Baildon, M., & Panos, A. (2018). Media literacy and climate change in a post-truth society. Journal of Media Literacy Education10(2), 11-32.

Effects: Changing Weather Patterns

Impact on Food Security

Effect on the Arctic

Effect on the Amazon

    • Compare the above to this review from 2006: Case, M. (2006, March). Climate change impacts in the Amazon: a review of scientific literature (World Wildlife Fund-WWF). In 8th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (pp. 20-31).
  1. Global Climate Conferences, Declarations, Accords 

Scan the following documents for topics of focus, conclusions, and for information you can find from introductions, summaries, and quotes. Read a section from each document that interests you:

Tbilisi, Russia, 1972  

Brundtland Commission/Report

UNCED (aka The Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

Additional Resources You May Find Useful

License

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Global EdD (taught doctorate) in Remote Pedagogy and Stewardship Copyright © by Kara Ghobhainn Smith; David D. Plain; Frank Rennie, Gareth Davies, UHI, Thu Le; Clinton Beckford, Loretta Sbrocca; and ShiJing Xu, Chenkai Chi, Yuhan Deng, University of Windsor, Canada is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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