Tag: Sustainability

The Coming Carbon Tsunami

December 31, 2021

Developing Countries Need a New Growth Model—Before It’s Too Late

Citizens of the world’s least developed countries have the same aspirations for economic prosperity as citizens of China, Germany, or the United States do. Those who argue that the only way to combat climate change is to reduce economic growth miss the fundamental unfairness of global economic development, which has left a third of the world’s population behind. Yet if developing countries follow the “grow first and clean up later” pattern established by the United States, western Europe, and East Asian countries, the consequences for the climate will be catastrophic.

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/world/2021-12-14/coming-carbon-tsunami

Related images from the NYTimes

Unit Plan: Fair Trade

August 12, 2021

This inquiry leads students through an investigation of fair trade. By investigating the compelling question “Is Fair Trade Fair?” students evaluate the rise of fair trade as it relates to several specialty industries; such as the coffee industry. The formative performance tasks build on knowledge and skills through the course of the inquiry and helps students obtain a foundational understanding of fair trade. Students also examine differences between fair and free trade, and finally analyze the costs of benefits of free trade. Students create an evidence-based argument about the overall fairness of fair trade.

http://c3teachers.org/inquiries/fair-trade/

How ‘Sustainable’ Development Ravaged the Congo Basin

August 12, 2021

Pygmies and wildlife coexisted for millennia—until conservation coupled with extractive industries arrived

In the pitch-black darkness, sitting on the forest floor with our bodies so close that we touch, we sing, each voice producing a different yodeled melody to create a densely overlapping harmony. As the hours pass, individual melodies melt into one another, and we begin to lose ourselves in the human and acoustic tapestry we have created. The intensity of the singing builds…

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-sustainable-development-ravaged-the-congo-basin/

Ecuador drills for oil on edge of pristine rainforest in Yasuni

August 11, 2021

Ecuador is the first country in the world to include the rights of nature in its constitution and until the Yasuni controversy it was considered one of the most environmentally-progressive countries. To reduce criticism, Correa promised that only 1/1000th of the area of the Yasuni park would be exploited and the best available technology would be used to reduce pollution.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/04/ecuador-drills-for-oil-on-edge-of-pristine-rainforest-in-yasuni