Micro Responses - Lowering Our GHG Footprint

Session Four: Micro Responses – Lowering Our GHG Footprint

Essential Questions:

• What areas of our daily lives generate greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions?

• What can an individual do to reduce one’s greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint?

• What impacts does mass consumption have on the environment?

• What will be the future of mass consumption with GHG reductions?

• How does our current materials economy contribute to climate change?

• How will the current materials economy need to change to reduce GHG emissions?

Music: Ella Fitzgerald, "Give me the Simple Life" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHRlT8hefKw

Gathering:  A daily activity of mine that creates greenhouse gases is….

Rick’s rap

Video: “The Story of Stuff,” Annie Lenard, www.storyofstuff.org

            • debrief- Reflective Sentence Starter

            • pairs fact sheet conversation

Video: Interview with Colin and Jennifer Beavin, CBS News w/ Harry Smith, 10/5/09, YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlR8byU-ke4

Exercise: “The No Impact Experiment,” www.noimpactproject.org/experiment

            • person to person conversation

Closing: “ One thing that I do to reduce my carbon footprint is…”

Readings:

• Colin Beavan,  "Advice from an Accidental Activist," Yes! Magazine, 215/11 http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/can-animals-save-us/colin-beavan-advice-from-an-accidental-activist

• Annie Leonard, “10 Little and Big Things You Can Do,”  Yes! Magazine, www.storyofstuff.org

• “ No Impact Experiment,” noimpactproject.org/experiment (do not read - for class)

What’s the use of a fine house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?

                                                            Henry David Thoreau