If you were asked to design a Green Living Course what topics would you cover?

Question

Imagine you were asked to design a course about Green Living for GCSE standard what topics do you think are essential?

Answer 1

Youd need to think of recycling, alternative enrgy,  conservation of land, water, and air.  The topics of air, water, and land pollution.  How to reverse pollution.  Prevention of Global Warming.  A plan of how the world can overcome the epidemic of using up our resources and the long last affect on the earth. Id reccommened looking at the book Plab B 2.0 by Lester R. Brown!  This would be such a good resource.  I took an Environmental class with it.  I learned a lot from it!

Answer 2

you could have Al Gore fly in on his private jet and then take his limo to the class and teach everybody they should live green

Answer 3

There are the technological bits to be covered like water management, composting etc; but more important is understanding & values http://www.greatturningtimes.org

Creativity, Art and Nature  eg work of andy goldsworthy

Sustainable Food Production eg organic,  agroforestry



Holistic Science eg Gaia & chaos theory; eg Joanna Macy http://www.joannamacy.net

Traditional sustainable cultutes & ethnobotany eg Learning from Ladakh http://www.isec.org.uk; Eden project Cornwall

Ecological Psychological Studies, Mythology, Spirit and the Land , eg process work http://www.rspopuk.com/

Sustainable Technologies – trip to CAT Machynlleth and stay in lodges to monitor resource use http://www.cat.org.uk

Community and the Environment  - how local comunity relates to built & natural environment - write an engaging article for local newspaper.

Develop a community project, like veg box scheme, community allotment...

Reading list:

Gaia – A new look at life on earth. James Lovelock 1995 version

The Ages of Gaia – A biography of our living Earth. James Lovelock 1988

Is the Solar System stable, Carl Murray, the New Scientist guide to chaos, ISBN 0-14-014571-0

Silent Spring, rachel Carson. ISBN 0-14-027371-9

Poems & Epigrams, Goete, translated by Michael Hamburger, ISBN 0 85646 100 8

Sustaining the harvest. John Thompson & Fiona Hinchcliffe. People & the Planet Vol. 7 No.1

Environmental Evolution – effects of the origin and evolution of life on planet Earth. Edited by Lynn Margulis and Lorraine Olendzenski. ISBN 0-262-13273-7

Permaculture in a Nutshell. Patrick Whitefield

Environmental Evolution – effects of the origin and evolution of life on planet Earth. Edited by Lynn Margulis and Lorraine Olendzenski. ISBN 0-262-13273-7

Introduction to Permaculture. Bill Mollison & Reny Mia Slay. 1991

Landscape & memory Simon Schama 1995 ISBN 0 00 215897 3 ;

Landscape Planning an Environmental Impact Design Tom Turner 1998 ISBN 1-85728-321-X;

Microclimatic Landscape Design R Brown & T. Gillespie 1995 ISBN 0-471-05667-7;

The Green Imperative Victor Papanek 1995 ISBN 0-500-27846-6;

Greening the built Environment. M Smith, J Whitelegg & N Williams. 1998 ISBN 1 85383 403 3

The Lens of Deep Ecology – a systems approach to deep ecology and despairwork. By Chris Johnstone1994, publisher The Oakwood Trust, London

Thinking Like a Mountain – Towards a council of all beings. John Seed, Joanna Macy, Pat Fleming, Arne Naess ISBN 0-96571-132-1

Environmental Psychology. Tony Cassidy. ISBN 0-86377-481-4

Green Psychology – transforming our relationship to the Earth. Ralph Metzner. ISBN 0-89281-798-4

Tao te ching, Lao Tsu,

Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age. Joanna Macy ISBN 0-86571-031-7

World as lover, world as self. Joanna Macy 1991, ASBN 0-938-77-27-9

Answer 4

I would think that the following points are important:

1) Alternative energy sources, i.e. solar.

2) The business aspect, i.e. cost vs. efficiency.

3) Affects/Effects on the Environment, i.e. how much it reduces global warming.

4) Affects/Effects on People's Health, i.e. does it reduce health problems.

Answer 5

i would include topic like balance in nature, impact of population on environment, agriculture,utilization of resources,environmental concerns, overutlization of resource,pollution,disasrters,human resource,and last but not hte least the role osf individueals community and government.

Answer 6

Improving your environment at work and home by having a live potted plant in every room could be a good starting point.

"Common indoor plants may provide a valuable weapon in the fight against rising levels of indoor air pollution. Those plants in your office or home are not only decorative, but NASA scientists are finding them to be surprisingly useful in absorbing potentially harmful gases and cleaning the air inside modern buildings.

"Combining nature with technology can increase the effectiveness of plants in removing air pollutants," he said. "A living air cleaner is created by combining activated carbon and a fan with a potted plant. The roots of the plant grow right in the carbon and slowly degrade the chemicals absorbed there," Wolverton explains.

NASA research has consistently shown that living, green and flowering plants can remove several toxic chemicals from the air in building interiors. You can use plants in your home or office to improve the quality of the air to make it a more pleasant place to live and work - where people feel better, perform better, any enjoy life more."