http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/harringtontw/2218451
1. Education:
It is impossible to enact any sort of change in the world if no one understands what you are trying to change. In order to create a world where Sustainable Development is a reality instead of an ideal people have to know what Sustainable Development really is and its many benefits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8c-F-ljEeM The Wombat Youtube video
http://www.storyofstuff.org/ Annie Leonard home page
2. Personal Activism:
Every single person who steps in to make a difference counts. Whether protesting an international corporation that dumps toxic waste into the ocean or a local business that doesn’t recycle every little step helps. More important than resisting a single entity is pushing for policy change and that takes a large movement with many people at its back.
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/4801/ Derrick Jensen “Forget Shorter Showers”
Battle in Seattle
3. Corporate accountability:
Corporations across the world are destroying our environment. It was once thought that the earth would act as an infinite dumping ground for our waste, but corporations have pushed our planet far beyond its limits. They have created rivers that catch fire and trash floes in the oceans so large that they extend to the horizon. Corporate accountability means that we make corporations pay for their pollution and even clean up after themselves.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/interview-with-judy-bonds Judy Bonds “Mountain Memories”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCGTD5Bn1m0&list=PLFA50FBC214A6CE87&index=4&feature=plpp_video The Corporation [4/23] Externalities
4. Governmental responsibility to the people:
Does our government really do what is best for its citizens? Or does it do what is best for whoever has the most money? I think the answers to those questions are fairly obvious. We need a government that does what is best for the people it supposedly represents. A government responsible to its constituents would not continue to allow things like clear cutting, water pollution, and coal burning.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2011/10/03/141014592/denmark-taxes-butter-and-fat-but-will-it-work April Fulton “Denmark Taxes Butter And Fat, But Will It Work?”
http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/news-beyond-myth-objectivity Jay Davis “Beyond the Myth of Objectivity”
5. Economic reform-crash course:
One of the biggest problems with our country is our economic system. Our system is designed to continuously grow even though this has been proven impossible. At some point the planet will run out of fossil fuels and the type of heavy metals that are used in industrial production, but our we expect our economy to continue to grow when this happens? This seems fairly idiotic, but many economic “experts” continue to lobby for more economic growth. All they are accomplishing is increasing the rate at which we destroy our world.
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/5502 Eric Zencey “Theses on Sustainable Development” number five
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/299/ Wendell Berry “The Idea of a Local Economy”
6. Dollar voting:
One of the simplest ways to make a difference is to buy more sustainable products. If everyone stopped buying feedlot beef tomorrow then feedlots would close almost immediately. The idea here is to buy better food in an effort to support it and to cut the profits of companies that are based on animal cruelty, companies who clip chickens beaks and don’t let cows even move until they are ready to be slaughtered.
Joel Salaltin “Declare Your Independence”
7. Understanding Media:
The majority of mainstream media is owned by only five or six companies. These companies can control what gets aired on the news and can support specific political positions and views. Most of, if not all, their stories are poorly represented and biased. Media can no longer be trusted to give us accurate information on current events and political debates. It has to be analyzed for bias one sidedness.
http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/10ben_e/10b04_e.htm Please analyze this source for bias.
8. Investing in the future:
Instead of harvesting coal from the mountains of Appalachia, why don’t we build a network of wind turbines on them that will provide steady power and jobs to our nation for hundreds of years? Investing in the future is simple and fairly easy, but gets shut down by companies that are acting on short term goals. Our country needs to become more self sufficient and the best way to do that is to fund alternative energy research and development.
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/4809/ Erik Reece “Hell Yeah, We Want Windmills”
9. Environmental Protection:
I find this one fairly obvious. Our consumer lifestyles are destroying the environment quite rapidly. We throw our trash in gigantic piles on the ground, blow up mountains to mine coal, and clear cut thousands of acres to create farmland and harvest timber. We need to find some way to halt and reverse the destruction that is all around us. Our planet can only continue to support life if we protect and heal it.
10. Redefining success:
It is fairly clear what the average American associates with success. We tend to focus on making money so that we can buy a nice house and raise a family in comfort. By focusing on monetary success we often forget about our actual happiness. Every person should eventually create their own definition of success instead of accepting what society has told us is successful. The United States is one of the wealthiest nations in the world, but its people are often considered some of the least happy. Redefining success is important because it helps slow down our frantic consumerism.
http://www.altruists.org/static/files/Buddhist%20Economics.htm E.F. Schumacher “Buddhist Economics”
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/new-livelihoods/less-work-more-living Juliet Schor “Less Work, More Living”
