Note: Items in this page are updated as information is received and as time permits. If the reader knows about new pubs/tools that should be announced in this page, please write to the Editor.
1. Suggestions for Prayer, Study, and Action
SUGGESTIONS FOR PRAYER AND ACTION
Let us pray and work for an authentic communion of women and men:
For every woman who is tired of acting weak when she knows she is strong,
there is a man who is tired of acting strong when he feels vulnerable.
For every woman who is tired of acting dumb,
there is a man who is burdened with the constant expectation of 'knowing everything'.
For every woman who is tired of being called an 'emotional female',
there is a man who is denied the right to weep and be gentle.
For every woman who is called unfeminine when she competes
there is a man for whom competition is the only way to prove his masculinity.
For every woman who is tired of being a sex object,
there is a man who is tired of being a sex machine.
For every woman who feels tied down by children,
there is a man who is denied the full pleasure of shared parenting.
For every woman who is denied meaningful employment or equal pay,
there is a man who must bear full financial responsibility for another human being.
For every woman who was not taught the intricacies of an automobile,
there is a man who was not taught the satisfaction of cooking.
For every woman who takes a step towards her own liberation,
there is a man who finds the way to freedom has been made a little easier.
KEEPING THE PROMISE:
A forward-looking review to promote an agreed action agenda
to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015
Report of the Secretary-General, dated 12 February 2010
Nearly two years after the economic meltdown joblessness and foreclosures are still endemic, Wall Street executives are once again getting massive bonuses, and there doesn’t seem to be the will in Washington to make desperately needed fundamental changes to the economy. Change will have to come from below. Agenda for a New Economy is the handbook for that revolution.
In this revised and updated edition Korten offers more in-depth advice on how to mount a grassroots campaign to bring about an economy based on locally owned, community oriented “living enterprises” whose success is measured as much by their positive impact on people and the environment as by their positive balance sheet.
"Eleventh graders in Bangladesh exchange video interviews with 10th graders in Georgia. High schoolers in Illinois learn Japanese, Hebrew, Latin, Spanish, French, and German using online discussions with counterparts from many different countries. Students from around the world research endangered animal species from their areas and publish their findings to a shared website. Connecting globally through advances in Internet technology, including Web 2.0 tools, can now be a reality for any student in any classroom. As our local communities reflect more of the world’s diversity, students need to be prepared to communicate with and relate to individuals from different countries and cultures.
"Integrating global education into standards-based lessons allows students to connect personally with their peers across geographical boundaries, expand their knowledge and awareness of the world, and increase their interest and curiosity in what they are learning. Global Education is a guide to get you started. It provides an introduction to global networks such as iEarn, Global Schoolhouse, and ePals; an overview of Web 2.0 tools that support global learning, such as wikis, blogs, and podcasts; and hundreds of Web resources. No matter the grade level or subject area, Global Education’s numerous examples, case studies, and lesson plans will provide you with ideas and inspiration for bringing your students the world." From the book site (used with permission)
Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production - Priority Products and Materials
Sustainable Consumption & Production Branch United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), June 2010
The environmental and health sciences have brought important insights into the connection of environmental pressures and ecosystem damages. Well-known assessments show that habitat change, the overexploitation of renewable resources, climate change, and particulate matter emissions are amongst the most important environmental problems. Biodiversity losses and ill health have been estimated and evaluated.
This report focuses not on the effects of environmental pressure, but on its causes. It describes pressures as resulting from economic activities. These activities are pursued for a purpose, to satisfy consumption. Environmental pressures are commonly tied to the extraction and transformation of materials and energy. This report investigates the productionmaterials- consumption nexus.
The relative importance of industries, consumption categories and materials varies across the world, as our assessment shows. This assessment offers a detailed problem description and analysis of the causation of environmental pressures and hence provides knowledge required for reducing environmental impacts. It tells you where improvements are necessary, but it does not tell you what changes are required and how much they will contribute to improvements.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION: The Guidebook
SECTION 1: SETTING THE CONTEXT
The Guidebook’s Philosophy
How and why was the Guidebook developed?
What is Sustainable Development?
Why is Sustainable Development so Difficult to Teach?
SECTION 2: INTRODUCING THE EARTH CHARTER
What is the Earth Charter?
The Main Principles of the Earth Charter
The Educational Potential of the Earth Charter
SECTION 3: GETTING STARTED
Using the Earth Charter in your Teaching
Working with Earth Charter Adaptations for Children
An Earth Charter Adaptation for Children
Your Classroom
SECTION 4: EDUCATING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Living Cases
Developing Perspectives, Knowledge and Skills
Designing Learning Activities Using the Earth Charter
Sample Lesson Plan
Educational Tools for All
APPENDIX A – The Earth Charter
APPENDIX B – Glossary of Key Terms
APPENDIX C – Frequently Asked Questions
Fatemah Haghighatjoo, Islamic Feminist Scholar. The following biographical note is excerpted from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy web site at the University of Massachusetts-Boston:
"Dr. Haghighatjoo is a leading proponent of human rights and women’s rights in Iran. Dr. Haghighatjoo served in the Iranian Parliament from 2000-2004 and was the first to resign when the anti-reform Guardian Council banned more than 2000 reformist candidates from the 7th Parliamentary election. She was president of the Student Movement Caucus and a deputy of the Mosharekat Caucus in the 6th Parliament as well as a member of the political bureau of the Mosharekat party in Iran. More recently, Dr. Haghighatjoo has held several academic posts in the United States: Assistant Professor In-Resident at the University of Connecticut, Fellow in the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and Visiting Scholar at the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Haghighatjoo earned her Ph.D. in Counseling from Tarbiat Moalem University, served as a Professor at the National University of Iran, and authored Search for Truth (2002). She has served as Vice President of the Psychology and Counseling Organization in Iran. She was honored as a Young Global Leader Nominee 2005 by the World Economic Forum."
It should be noted that Islamic female leadership in religious matters is nothing new.
The following poem, attributed to Sufi saint Rabia al-Adawiyya, dates back to the 8th century CE.
In my soul there is a temple,
A shrine, a mosque, a church
Where I kneel.
Prayer should bring us
To an altar
Where no walls or names exist.
In my soul there is a temple,
A shrine, a mosque, a church
That dissolve, that
Dissolve in God.
Sufi saint Rabia al-Adawiyya
Basra, Iraq, ca. 717-801 CE
The World Survey on the Role of Women in Development is the flagship publication of the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women. The theme for the World Survey in 2009 is "Women’s control over economic resources and access to financial resources, including microfinance."
Point of contact: UN Division for the Advancement of Women, daw@un.org.
Human Development Report 2010
"Rethinking Human Development"
From the UNDP HDR 2010 web page:
"Human development is about putting people at the centre of development. It is about people realizing their potential, increasing their choices and enjoying the freedom to lead lives they value. Since 1990, annual Human Development Reports have explored challenges including poverty, gender, democracy, human rights, cultural liberty, globalization, water scarcity, climate change, and mobility.
"The 2010 report will seek to articulate an agenda for change to underpin a New Human Development Deal that can significantly advance development thinking and policies. It will incorporate thinking from academia and the policy world as well as new research to be commissioned or undertaken by the Human Development Report Office. It will place significant emphasis on the knowledge that comes from developing countries and regions, in particular that garnered through the national and regional human development reports. This emphasis reflects the belief that placing people at the center of development also implies putting people at the center of the generation of knowledge about development, and that this is best achieved by understanding how communities and local actors understand the practice of development."
The Great Transition Initiative, by the Tellus Institute, may offer the most comprehensive/integrated scenarios of the sustainable development process at the regional and global levels. The reader is invited to explore these links:
Colours: Though not in order, these rainbow colours blend naturally without any conflict with humans. The five figures symbolise the human race. Single eyes symbolise the need for the human race to refocus on the need for each other.
Hands: Two hands are better than one; fingers work together without conflicting.
The seed and plant: The human race has one origin and source.
The lines from the plant: The entire human race has the same red blood.
Feet with the ball: This symbolises the world cup.
The road and horizon: This achieves unity in purpose and is a journey to the horizon that will not be achieved in a day, but will be a gradual process.
The Millennium Village Simulation (MV Sim), developed by the Columbia University's Center for New Media Teaching & Learning (CCNMTL) and the Columbia Earth Institute, is very appealing because it supports learning about pursuing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) under conditions of extreme poverty in Africa.
According to the MV Sim web site, "the MV Sim (short for Millennium Village Simulation) was created as a teaching tool to help students appreciate the complexity of meeting the MDGs in a rural African setting, and to experience the interdisciplinary nature of sustainable development. The MV Sim does not strive to be a perfect replica of a real village; indeed, many of Africa's challenges (such as HIV/AIDS) are not present in the simulation. Instead, the MV Sim purposefully incorporates only a select set of issues to make it a manageable educational tool that models challenges cutting across the disciplines of agronomy, public health, environmental science, and economics."
The tool is freely accessible on the web, and an excellent tutorial is available and embedded below. Just click on the arrow to get started. While taking the tutorial, clicking on the four outgoing arrows (next to last in the bottom tool bar) switches to full screen mode.
Click here to register and give it a try. The simulation entails making periodic decisions about work and consumption of basic necessities by a poor familiy. After the family succeeds in sustainable living, the simulation allows for participation in sustainability decisions for the entire village. During a given simulation run, the user is given periodic reports on sustainability status for the family and village based on previous decisions, including graphs of the decisions made over time. Help text is available at each step. In addition, links are provided to access maps and other online sources of sustainable development information.
7. Visualizations of the Sustainable Development Process
GLOBALIS
An interactive world atlas with country statistics related to sustainable development. Globalis aims to create an understanding for similarities and differences in human societies, as well as how we influence life on the planet. Click on the map to visit the Globalis interactive map:
The World Resources Forum (WRF) is an independent, international platform for debate on global resource consumption issues, advocating innovation for resource productivity. The WRF is building a bridge from the natural sciences and engineering to economics. It aims to equip political decision makers to identify realistic policy options for sustainable growth. Visit the web sites of the sponsors, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research and the Donella Meadows Sustainability Institute.
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