April

Global Awareness- April

The internationally-minded IB student is a critical and creative thinker. They engage in global ideas and issues with humanity and compassion. The world can be unpredictable and challenging at times, but the IB student can break down problems and make ethical, reasoned and balanced arguments based continual development.-- ibo.org. For the month of April, engage in global based activities to better understand the world around us.

Reflection/Inquiry Question

What do you imagine the Earth will be like in 10 years? 20 years? 100 years?

Where can we find reliable information about the state of the planet?

How do personal values and cultural perspectives shape our understanding of the environment?

Know

Earth Day Network’s mission is to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide. Growing out of the first Earth Day, Earth Day Network is the world’s largest recruiter to the environmental movement, working with more than 50,000 partners in nearly 200 countries to build environmental democracy. More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world. They work through a combination of education, public policy, and consumer campaigns. The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, activated 20 million Americans from all walks of life and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement. The passage of the landmark Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and many other groundbreaking environmental laws soon followed. Twenty years later, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage.—www.earthday.org

Think/Communicate

Use an outline calculator (like the one developed by www.footprintnetwork.org) to estimate your lifestyle affects the planet. Make a collective list of the ways to reduce your community’s ecological pressure.