Class Session II Name> ___________________________________

Well, you’re not the only person on earth who’s thinking about the state of the world. In fact, never before in the history of our little planet have so many people been thinking about this issue. One of the organizations that has been working on this issue is the United Nations. The second class period for this week involves going to the following website, reading the GEO project overview and answering the questions below. Print your answers out and bring them to class on Thursday, February 7, where they will be collected. Here’s the GEO website> http://www.unep.org/geo/geo_project.htm

1. When was the GEO project established? ________ 2. What is the “charge” or mission of the GEO Project?

3. How many GEO reports have been done?________ What is the most recent GEO report?________

Go back to the main GEO website (http://www.unep.org/geo/) and then click on GEO Year Book.

4. What does the GEO yearbook do?

One of the terms that appears throughout the UN website "sustainable development”. Have you ever heard of this term? If so, what do you think it means? If not, do a search on the web for the term sustainable development with whatever search engine. Pick a couple of sites and see if you can come up with a definition of the term. (Please DO NOT spend a lot of time searching the web for a definition. There is no right or wrong answer. This exercise is to merely familiarize you with the term).

5. In your own words, what is sustainable development?

Go to http://www.unep.org/geo/geo3/english/overview/020.htm. In this section you’ll see that the GEO process has taken a look ahead at the next 30 years and identified 4 “scenarios” that are likely to play out. Read through the scenarios and answer the following questions.

6. Which of the scenarios do you think is most operative today?

7. Which of the scenarios matches most closely your answer to the question you answered in class on Thursday - What kind of world do you want?

8. Which of the four scenarios do you feel will be the determining one over the next 30 years? Why or why not?

9. Is the future that you envision the same as is likely to happen? Why or why not?

A critical component of learning about the world we all live in is to look at cultures objectively. Sometimes we look at other groups of people and think their behavior may be odd or unusual. However, it may seem odd only from the perspective of how we live and we may have idea what is really going on. To look at cultures objectively, then requires that we strip away our own perceptions and beliefs. This can be a very difficult and humbling process. However, the rewards are great. As a starter to “peeling the onion” of our own culture, go to http://www.msu.edu/~jdowell/miner.html, and read the essay “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”. Answer the following questions.

10. Who are the Nacirema?

11. What are the ritual “shrines” found in the houses of the Nacirema?

12. What is the shrine “box” or “chest”?

13. What is the small font found below the “charm-box?”

14. What is the small bundle of “hog” hairs?

15. Who are the “holy-mouth men?”

16. What are the devices that Nacirema women use to “bake their heads?”

17. What is the “latipso?”

18. Who is the “listener”?

19. What are the ritual “fasts” that the Nacirema undertake?

Remember, print your answers out and bring them to class on Thursday, February 7