The Earth provides for us. It gives us our food and our water. The
environment provides much more too. It provides all our comforts, wood for houses and heating, trees for shade, air to breathe. The list could go on. Can the Earth, however, continue to provide forever, or will what we use today for our own enjoyment result in future generations having to do without?
Everything we do today will affect what happens tomorrow. Every decision we make today will have consequences for the future. This is the essential message of sustainability. We do not want our decisions about how we use the Earth to have disastrous consequences for our children or grandchildren. And yet we in the developed world seem to find it difficult to take message to heart. We continue to pollute our air and our waterways at an alarming rate. Our cars and our industries belch out increasing amounts of greenhouse gases. These are the choices we are making today by consuming more and more. Do we as individuals or as a society stop to consider the consequences of our actions on future generations?
The Earth gives us messages. When sickness results from drinking water from a particular river, or if the fish are dying, it is telling us that we have not taken proper care of it. We need to care for the river so that it can provide for our needs. If the soil blows away during a windstorm, the message may be that too many trees and shrubs have been cleared from the land. We need to hear those messages and act otherwise it will be too late. The damage may be unable to be repaired. Difficult choices have to be made and this may mean that we have to sacrifice some of our comfortable lifestyle so that the Earth can continue to nurture us.
In the developing world the choices that need to be made can often be much more difficult. The choice of whether or not to cut down another tree and risk erosion of the topsoil may mean that you won't have firewood to cook your meal or to keep you warm. These sorts of decisions are the ones that you don't want to make as there is no good alternative, only a choice of the lesser of two evils. So does this mean that environmental disaster is inevitable? Ideally we should not put people in the position of having to make such a choice.
To find a solution we need to ask why a person may be put into the position of having to sacrifice topsoil for fuel. There are many possible answers. Perhaps too much land clearing for cash crops or overuse of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Intensive methods of farming often lead to land degradation. Again the message must be heard and changes made. In rural villages it is often a question of rediscovering traditional farming methods. After all, didn't their ancestors live in a more harmonious relationship with the land?
In the last twenty years the number of hungry people in the world has increased by 60 million. There is therefore all the more reason to get the balance right. People need to become self-sufficient into the future using sustainable techniques. Organic methods of fertilising and pest control offer the most hope for communities holding only small parcels of land. We are rediscovering ways to nurture the land and in its turn it is more able to nurture us.
ACTIVITIES:
Religion/H.S.I.E.
1. Go to the CAFOD site, www.cafod.org.uk
* Click on " schools" (left hand side)
* Click on "Factsheets"
* Choose "Environment" from the options box
* Answer the following:
a) What are the key environmental issues as listed on this factsheet?
b) List three of the causes of environmental degradation in the developing world.
c) Give some examples of environmental programs that CAFOD supports.
d) Why does CAFOD support these types of programs?
2. Return to the CAFOD home page.
Click on "schools" (left hand side) Scroll down until you find "sustainable future" and click on it. Choose one issue to research:
Running dry
Tree trauma
Western consumerism
Food for thought
Summarise the information. Highlight two interesting facts and share them with others in your class.
Scroll to the end of the page and click on Living with the forest. Read about the Svay Rieng villagers and answer the following:
a) What happened to the forest?
b) Why did it happen?
c) How has Santi Sena tried to change the situation?
d) How does Sau Sae summarise his relationship to the land?
e) How has the forest started to provide for the people again?
3. Go to http://globaled.ausaid.gov.au
Click on Secondary School Material
Click on Case Studies
Scroll down to Nepal
Click on Forestry/ reforestation, environment
Click on Case Study and read the material.
Return to the top and click on Student Activities
Complete the activities. [Note: there is a lot of material here]
Return to the Home Page and click on Secondary School Materials
Click on Resources then click on Other Resources
Scroll down and Email your order for a set of Water posters.
They are free!
4. Obtain a copy of the video: The Garden Planet from Catholic Earthcare. Visit their website: www.catholicearthcareoz.net
VISUAL ARTS
Design a poster to advertise Clean Up Australia day. Display them around the school.
MUSIC
Listen to the song Big Yellow Taxi. Explain the line: "You don't know what you've got til it's gone" referring to the environment.
ENGLISH
1. Make a list of all the things that the Earth provides for us. Compare your list with those around you.
2. Imagine that the Earth is a person. Imagine that you are the Earth. Write a journal entry describing some of the things that people have been doing to you and how you are feeling about it.
SCHOOL COMMUNITY
The SRC could organise and promote a Clean Up The Playground campaign and promote it at assembly. Organise it around Clean Up Australia day (3rd March).
PARISH/COMMUNITY GROUPS
* Refuse plastic shopping bags (Bangladesh has banned them! See OZSpirit September 2002 for details and more ideas)
* Recycle as much as you can. Start a compost heap
* Walk to the shop instead of driving at least once a week.
* Lobby your local Federal Member of Parliament urging the government to sign up to the Kyoto agreement on the reduction of Greenhouse emissions.
* Research your local plants. Visit a local Native Plants nursery and plant one (or more) Indigenous plant in your garden.
* Read Sandy's story in the Project Compassion material (week six) and find out how Caritas Australia supports sustainable agriculture projects. Go to www.caritas.org.au
