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Arctic Pollution
By The Editors The Great White North is not in good shape. It’s one of the most vulnerable and fragile ecosystems of our planet and is contaminated with about everything: furans, cadmium, dioxins, chlordane, selenium, polychlorinated biphenyls, mercury, radioactive fallout. There are 8 countries that possess territories extending beyond the 66th Parallel: Canada, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, the United States (Alaska), Denmark (Greenland) and Iceland. It is estimated that about 4 million people live north of the Arctic Circle, Industrial development in the Arctic is leading to waste accumulation, especially in the vicinity of indigenous villages. However, this is not all. It’s a global problem, a problem of global pollution. Indeed, a…
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Clinton Global Initiative University: DREAMZone
By The Editors The Clinton Global Initiative University was launched in 2007 by President Clinton to develop a growing community of students on college campuses around the world – a community working to make the world a better place. Who are the students participating in this community? They are leaders – young leaders set to make a difference. They don’t just discuss global challenges – they come up with innovative ideas to solve the global challenges they discuss and then take real, concrete steps to implement those ideas. Students in this community develop their own Commitments to Action: a specific plan of action to address a selected challenge. Central to Commitments to Action is…
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Global Education
By The Editors In a previous post, I introduced the concept of global education as the education perspective expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The concept of global education is defined in more detail by the Global Education website as a set of five perspectives: 1) Interdependence and globalisation, 2) Identity and cultural diversity, 3) Social justice and human rights, 4) Peace building and conflict resolution, 5) Sustainable futures. The Global Education website, which illustrates all aspects of the Global Education Project, has been developed and is maintained by Education Services Australia, a national, not-for-profit company owned by all Australian education ministers. The five perspectives, detailed below, provide a framework for global education.…
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Toxic Hot Spots: A Global Health Threat
By The Editors Toxic Hot Spots are areas where the concentration of toxic substances, which may be present in water, soil or air, is significantly higher than background levels. In these areas, the risk of adverse health effects is elevated. Toxic hot spots are often located in the vicinity of landfills, car battery recycling sites, sewage treatment plants, refineries, tanneries, mines, and numerous other operations. Living nearby these sites may cause serious adverse affects, as for example cancer and retardation in children.. We usually think of infectious diseases as the major global health problem. However, a new study by Kevin Chatham-Stephens and collaborators, published this month in Environmental Health Perspectives, shows that living near a toxic hot spot may…
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The Plastic Footprint
By The Editors Plastic pollution is a major global threat. Plastics are durable, degrade very slowly and may persist in the environment for hundreds or even thousands of years, resulting in the increasing accumulation of plastic debris in our seas. The best solution to the problem would be to produce and consume less plastic. However, plastic production is on the rise. According to PlasticsEurope, worldwide plastics production rose to 280 million tonnes in 2011, representing around 4% increase from 2010, when 270 million tonnes of plastics were produced. From 2010 to 2016, global plastics consumption is expected to grow by an average of about 4 % each year. What to do then? The…
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“The Throwaway Society Cannot Be Contained – It Has Gone Global”
By The Editors The title of this post says it all, and it says it all through the words of Charles J. Moore, the oceanographer and racing boat captain that first discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. In the video below, a 2009 TED TALK, Captain Moore focuses on the growing, choking problem of plastic debris in our seas. You can visually see the harm caused to different life forms. The extent of this problem is enormous, and we’ll be talking more about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in posts soon to come. In the mean time, please watch this.
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Hungry Planet: What The World Eats
By The Editors Hungry Planet: What The World Eats, has been around for a few years, but the photography is still very appealing, the descriptions insightful and the topic up to date. Just looking at the pictures is a sure way to increase one’s awareness of different cultures. The book also includes excerpts from leading scientists, nutritionists and environmentalists. In true global spirit, Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio traveled to twenty-four countries and visited thirty families from all around the world to find out what people eat during the course of one week. The result of their work is 30 family profiles. Each family’s profile includes a detailed description of their weekly food purchases; photographs…
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Let’s Invent a Global Society – Lee Bollinger on Global Challenges
By The Editors In the video below, Lee C. Bollinger, President of Columbia University, and Chrystia Freeland, Thomson Reuters Consumer News Editor, discuss how Columbia University tackles the challenges of rapid global changes – the changes we have described in a previous post on the great acceleration, results of the events that define the space age and the information age. Lee Bollinger’s approach is matter-of-fact acceptance of the global changes we are undergoing – he describes well the uncertainty we’re facing these days and points out how much we don’t know – and especially how much it is that academic institutions don’t know. The solution is to be open and invent a…
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What is Global Competence?
By The Editors There are few definitions currently available to help understand what global competence is, or better, understand the current interpretations of the global competence concept. One of these definitions is: “Having an open mind while actively seeking to understand cultural norms and expectations of others, and leveraging this gained knowledge to interact, communicate and work effectively in diverse environments.” (William D. Hunter. Got global competency? International Educator, 2: 6-12, 2004) Another definition is: “Global Competence is the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to understand and act creatively and innovatively on issues of global significance.” (Council of Chief State School Officers’ EdSteps Project in partnership with the Asia Society Partnership for Global Learning, 2010)…
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The Great Acceleration
By The Editors Global changes characteristic of both Space Age and Information Age are defined by exponential increases in a variety of dimensions related to the human relationship with the natural world. Examples of these dimensions are human population growth, resource use, and economic activity. The scale and speed of these increases, clearly recognizable since the 1950’s, can be best approximated with exponential curves. The process that encompasses the global changes occurring in the Space and Information Ages is called “The Great Acceleration“. Below is a slideshow containing a series of graphs depicting the sharp acceleration in human activity since the 1950s and the impact of this acceleration on the Earth system. Great acceleration from International Geosphere-Biosphere…
