At any time this week, write JC an email saying how are you feeling having to study all these problems. It can get depressing. Are you upset? Keep me posted.
Read through the syllabus to gain an overview.
Read through the resources for lesson one.
Read Plan B Chapter 1, 2 and 3. Make notes as you wish.
Fact file assignment
Information is one of the key ingredients for social change. Information in the form of hard facts is powerful as it shows that your opinion is grounded in reality. When you can quote well-targeted facts it is helpful, persuasive and impressive. Lester Brown fills his book with pertinent facts, and it is one of Plan B’s strengths. For these reasons, as part of the course, students will compile a fact file. Pick out about 2 or 3 favorite facts from each chapter, type them up in your wiki fact file page and learn them. You can also use facts taken from your other research. Towards the end of the course we’ll have a closed book test on this, which will simply be to write out your 12 favorite facts from the course.
Tips on stating facts:
Think TIME and UNITS and SPACE
USELESS: They are going to reduce climate impact by 20%
USEFUL: The European Union has set a target to reduce CO2 emissions 20% by 2020 relative to 1990 levels.
Tip – as you read each chapter, have a pencil with you and write FACT by a good fact that you like. That way you can find your favorite facts easily later on.
Read through and try to understand / follow the resources for lesson two. Re-read the main points for the lesson in the assignment.
Research the following topics as they are potential challenges to global sustainability which are not really covered in Plan B: Genetically modified food, nuclear arms and war / terrorism, asteroids colliding with earth, disease pandemics.
Taking all your reading and research together move to the Executive Summary Assignment (below)
‘Executive Summary: Challenges to Global Sustainability.’ Give a balanced, professional, comprehensive view of ‘the big picture’ of issues you think are going to cause the humanity and the ecosphere big problems if we carry on with business as usual. You may have one central thesis or one underlying issue causing all the problems. That's fine. But you should spell out how that basic problem is playing out in terms of compromising sustainability - eg climate change. And you have to say what the outcomes of climate change will be - rising sea levels leading to land inundation meaning loss of crops and cities, rising temperature leading to reduced crop yields, loss of glaciers causing loss of summer irrigation water in India etc etc etc. Assume the executive is open to subtler issues of consciousness, spirituality etc.
The purposes of this assignment are:
To integrate and be able to express a summary of challenges to global sustainability.
To train students to arrange their thoughts in a professional, policy writer’s style
To polish technical writing skills
Assignment Requirements:
Minimum 1000 maximum 2000 words.
Don’t get onto solutions in this assignment. After this assignment it’s all solutions for the rest of the course.
This assignment should be written in essay form with correct sentences and spelling.
Use section titles to structure your essay; provide a section for each of the main challenges.
Start with a wholeness or general statement of the broad picture, then immediately follow with a section on what you mean by ‘Global Sustainability and what the paper is about.
Avoid rhetoric and present it as an objective assessment even though it will have elements of your personal opinions.
If you think something featured so far in the course is not important, better still mention it and explain why you think it’s no big deal.
See grading rubric at Appendix Two of the syllabus for an indication of what we are looking for in terms of your writing.
Here is a format guideline
Executive Summary: Challenges to Global Sustainability Purpose of this paper (include the purpose of the paper and your definition of global sustainability)
Summary (this is the wholeness statement. It’s often a good idea to write this last, but you put it here).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (After reading the above two sections the executive can decide whether to read on, do it later or chuck it!) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Subtitle of the most important challenge)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Subtitle of the second most important challenge)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Etc etc. Go through the challenges in descending order of importance. No conclusion paragraph needed, just the wholeness statement (above). That is your conclusion.
Week Two
Lesson two continued: Now we move onto the human level.
You will study the shifts in collective consciousness, mind-sets and political processes that are needed to take us from regarding our fellow humans and the ecosphere as expendable resources to treasuring them as entities with which we must live in harmony for mutual enrichment and evolution.
1. WatchCentury of the Self DVD's.
Write 250 to 300 words on this: "Are people like Bernays and A Freud partly responsible for diminished global sustainability in the 20th century?
Explain and discuss" (You looked at this a bit with Lakoff in How to Influence Policy)
2. Read:How to Win Campaigns Chapter 2. Chris Rose worked as a campaign manager for Greenpeace for many years. He is now an independent consultant. From the chapter see how these campaigners think about the human issue.
Write a set of bullet point notes - maybe one page, extracting the main points of information from this chapter.
Pay particular attention to pp 38 to 42.
3. Read: chapter one of 'Ecomind' which sets out the seven mind traps that eco people fall into. Skim the rest.
Written assignment: One by one, list the seven traps, explain them briefly, and then give your opinion whether you agree with them and how important they are in hampering global sustainability.
Write another paragraph critiquing Francis Moore-Lappe's 7 trap thesis. Has she has missed stuff out or missed the point altogether? Or do you think she has it all worked out?
WEEK TWO: Lesson 3
1. Review main points in syllabus and look at these themes.
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2. Study Dr Travis's study called Consciousness and Cognition. You don't have to understand the whole study. Pay particular attention to the abstract and the chart on page 416. Set out in 200 words what the finding of the study is.
4. Read all 'Kinship with all life' but with particular attention to chapters 16 and 19. You read a couple of chapters in 'How to influence policy' but it's a great read overall ad doesn't take long. Explain in about 300 words Boone's understanding and approach to living kinship with all life.
5. Watch the following four Maharishi tapes at the library. I'll have to sit with you for this. We'll go to the tape librarian, Dr Peter Freund, and ask to view the tape. I will contact him in advance to authorize this access. For each tape, write about 100 words on what the tape said and another 100 words on how it relates to creating global sustainability. You may need to watch a tape twice. I recommend you watch one then do the assignment, then go onto the next. If you like, for one or two of these tapes do a beautiful illustration of the points the tape is making and include with it a 50 to 75 word explanation of your intention. Scan it to pdf and upload to your work page for week two.
VC2 234 SCI and the Environment 12 mins
VC1 1216.5 Nature of Free Will 18 mins To assist with this tape please also study these main points relating to Free will and determinism
VC1 15.2 Love: Expansion of the heart and Refinement of the Physiology 18 mins
xxxx Growth Unlimited 6 mins
6. Write 300 words on 'Is the universe a machine that has leaned to think or a thought that has learned to make a machine.' You may find these two documents useful. But use all your SCI knowledge and reference sources.
7.Research project. The title of the Kirchenman book is: 'Cultivating an Ecological Conscience.' Please scan the book to get to the nux of his proposed method to cultivate an ecological conscience. Then write a briefing for me citing page references to explain his proposed method. He's a great guy but what does he have to offer that can really develop the 'ecological conscience?' I can't really specify the number of words needed. Say about 300. Just a summary.
8. Taking all this week's study together, and with your own understandings from elsewhere, write an 800 word essay on the following: "Is education for higher states of consciousness the fundamental solution to creating global sustainability."
‘Executive Summary: Challenges to Global Sustainability.’
Give a balanced, professional, comprehensive view of ‘the big picture’ of issues you think are going to cause the humanity and the ecosphere big problems if we carry on with business as usual. You may have one central thesis or one underlying issue causing all the problems. That's fine. But you should spell out how that basic problem is playing out in terms of compromising sustainability - eg climate change. And you have to say what the outcomes of climate change will be - rising sea levels leading to land inundation meaning loss of crops and cities, rising temperature leading to reduced crop yields, loss of glaciers causing loss of summer irrigation water in India etc etc etc. Assume the executive is open to subtler issues of consciousness, spirituality etc.
The purposes of this assignment are:
Assignment Requirements:
See grading rubric at Appendix Two of the syllabus for an indication of what we are looking for in terms of your writing.
Here is a format guideline
Executive Summary: Challenges to Global Sustainability
Purpose of this paper (include the purpose of the paper and your definition of global sustainability)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary (this is the wholeness statement. It’s often a good idea to write this last, but you put it here).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(After reading the above two sections the executive can decide whether to read on, do it later or chuck it!)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Subtitle of the most important challenge)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Subtitle of the second most important challenge)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Etc etc. Go through the challenges in descending order of importance.
No conclusion paragraph needed, just the wholeness statement (above). That is your conclusion.
Week Two
Lesson two continued: Now we move onto the human level.
You will study the shifts in collective consciousness, mind-sets and political processes that are needed to take us from regarding our fellow humans and the ecosphere as expendable resources to treasuring them as entities with which we must live in harmony for mutual enrichment and evolution.
1. Watch Century of the Self DVD's.
2. Read: How to Win Campaigns Chapter 2. Chris Rose worked as a campaign manager for Greenpeace for many years. He is now an independent consultant. From the chapter see how these campaigners think about the human issue.
3. Read: chapter one of 'Ecomind' which sets out the seven mind traps that eco people fall into. Skim the rest.
WEEK TWO: Lesson 3
1. Review main points in syllabus and look at these themes.
2. Study Dr Travis's study called Consciousness and Cognition. You don't have to understand the whole study. Pay particular attention to the abstract and the chart on page 416. Set out in 200 words what the finding of the study is.
3. Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam - learn this off by heart and be ready to explain it as per the pdf notes when we meet.
4. Read all 'Kinship with all life' but with particular attention to chapters 16 and 19. You read a couple of chapters in 'How to influence policy' but it's a great read overall ad doesn't take long. Explain in about 300 words Boone's understanding and approach to living kinship with all life.
5. Watch the following four Maharishi tapes at the library. I'll have to sit with you for this. We'll go to the tape librarian, Dr Peter Freund, and ask to view the tape. I will contact him in advance to authorize this access. For each tape, write about 100 words on what the tape said and another 100 words on how it relates to creating global sustainability. You may need to watch a tape twice. I recommend you watch one then do the assignment, then go onto the next. If you like, for one or two of these tapes do a beautiful illustration of the points the tape is making and include with it a 50 to 75 word explanation of your intention. Scan it to pdf and upload to your work page for week two.
6. Write 300 words on 'Is the universe a machine that has leaned to think or a thought that has learned to make a machine.' You may find these two documents useful. But use all your SCI knowledge and reference sources.
7. Research project. The title of the Kirchenman book is: 'Cultivating an Ecological Conscience.' Please scan the book to get to the nux of his proposed method to cultivate an ecological conscience. Then write a briefing for me citing page references to explain his proposed method. He's a great guy but what does he have to offer that can really develop the 'ecological conscience?' I can't really specify the number of words needed. Say about 300. Just a summary.
8. Taking all this week's study together, and with your own understandings from elsewhere, write an 800 word essay on the following: "Is education for higher states of consciousness the fundamental solution to creating global sustainability."