Over the last few days I have been thinking a lot lately. My focus has been the election, our economy, the status of the world, creativity, my teaching, and how all of this is inextricably tied together. So nothing too deep. For the last few days my students and I have been examining globalization and it's effect upon the status of the world. We have had the opportunity to address the current economic crisis while learning about where we are going as a globe.
My students and I are looking at arguments by
Thomas Friedman,
Tom Palmer,
Fareed Zakaria, and
Noam Chomsky in order to piece together an understanding of globalization and it's impact. But tonight, as I quickly checked my updates on
Facebook, I found a site,
The Story of Stuff, posted by my boss,
Antonio Viva, that made me reconsider how I approached globalization.
I am in the process of writing a proposal for a workshop for our election festival. I was initially going to focus on the economic crisis and globalization. But after watching The Story of Stuff, I think it's vitally important that the focus should consider globalization's economic and environmental impact.
A book that gives some good insight into this problem is Thomas Friedman's new book,
Hot, Flat, and Crowded.
Friedman proposes that an ambitious national strategy—which he calls "Geo-Greenism"—is not only what we need to save the planet from overheating; it is what we need to make America healthier, richer, more innovative, more productive, and more secure.
As we look ahead to November 4th and beyond, think about what you can do to help reverse the negative impact we have had on this planet. We can turn our economy around AND reduce our carbon footprint, it is just going to take some creative thinking but it must be done.
