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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…
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The Space Age
By The Editors On October 4, 1957, the 184-pound Sputnik 1 was successfully launched by the Soviet Union and entered Earth’s orbit. Sputnik 1 was the world’s first artificial satellite, only 56 centimeters (22 inches) in diameter, orbiting the Earth in 96 minutes. Its launch ushered in what is now called the “Space Age“, a new era characterized by a variety of political, scientific and technological achievements accompanied by very rapid changes with profound societal implications. During the 1960s, the Space Age led to an environmental revolution. Indeed, the Space Age has been pivotal in shaping how we perceive our planet. Marina Benjamin, author of “Rocket Dreams: How the Space Age Shaped Our Vision of…
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The Schwarzman Scholars Program: Focus on China
By The Editors The $300 million “Schwarzman Scholars at Tsinghua University” program, jointly founded by Tsinghua University in Beijing and Stephen Schwarzman, was launched on April 21 and will emulate the famous Rhodes Scholarship program, the oldest and most celebrated international fellowship in the world. The launch ceremony was held at Tsinghua University. Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama both sent congratulatory letters. Starting in June 2016, every year for the next 50 years, 200 students from all around the world will receive the scholarship for a one-year master’s program at Tsinghua University in public policy, international relations, economics, business or engineering. During the scholarship year, Schwarzman scholars will travel around China and will meet Chinese…
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The Global Environmental Impact of Clothes Production
By The Editors Sandblasting is not all. Textile factories use dyes that have a huge environmental and human health impact. In this video, you can see a dye-blue river in China. You can also see Indian children with grey hair – one of the effects of pesticides used in cotton fields. Follow a T-shirt journey around the globe: The T-shirt may travel through three continents to go from cotton balls to wearable fashion.
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Climate Change Arguments? Use Flowchart Help!
By The Editors James West, the Climate Desk Producer at Mother Jones, has developed an entertaining and scientifically correct flowchart – actually a cheat sheet – to help everyone win every climate argument. Go to his page: You’ll find many more topics clearly explained with brilliant flow charts. In the mean time, we’ll wait for the answer to “So what do we do then?” in the future follow-up to his climate change cheat sheet.
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Global Shortage of Baby Formula
By The Editors Chinese families — aware of the dangers posed by baby formula contaminated with melamine and other harmful substances — prefer to buy brands produced and sold in other countries. That is, if they can afford it. Many can. The increasing demand from Chinese families has resulted in the current global shortages and subsequent imposed limits on purchases. In January, the New Zealand Food Safety Authority started to investigate the online trade in China of Kiwi-made baby formula. At about the same time, Woolworths – a chain of Australian supermarkets – limited sales of all baby formula to four tins per transaction. And, in February, the Hong Kong’s government set limits…
