TODAY'S WORLD
We find ourselves today in a strange world, a world of beauty and destruction, a world of plenty and scarcity, a world of optimism and pessimism. We may wish it different; but here we are. Historically we can understand how we came to conduct our human adventure as we do. That is, we can trace historically how it happened, even why the decisions were made as they were. But we are still left with the question of how a intelligent, clever species would threaten its own existence. Such a condition has not arisen in the history of Earth. To be sure many species have become extinct. In fact, far more have become extinct than live today. But none can be accused of plotting its own demise, that is, except Homo sapiens, modern human.
So obviously this course is about the bad news. We don't like bad news; but we have to learn it in order to understand the current situation and how it came to be so that we can creatively extract ourselves from it. In particular, if we are to redirect our culture we have to understand some of the particulars of the bad news. not too many particulars, but enough so that we understand the foundational causes.
In this course we will concentrate on three very real and imminent dangers: peak oil, climate change, and economic instability. Of course, we understand full well that other major challenges also loom large: the current mass extinction, top soil loss, growing scarcity of water, war (especially the threat of nuclear war), and others. These we will discuss in passing. We mean them no disrespect. It is just a question of time. Perhaps we will return to them later.
Extra Resources for Course (in order of priority)
Richard Heinberg, Peak Everything: Waking up to the Century of Declines, New Societies, 2007.
Thomas Berry, The Sacred Universe (especially chapter 12), Columbia University Press, 2009.
Edward O. Wilson, The Future of Life, Vintage Books, 2002.
Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Viking, 2005.
David Korten, When Corporations Rule the World, Kumarian Press, 2001.
Jeffrey M. Smith, Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating, Yes! Books, 2003.
If you are interested in developing this material for children, email Jean at jeanledwards AT gmail.com
For (a lot) more resources check out the Genesis Farm Earth Literacy Resource list.