Module 9 Consumer education - APCEIU

Currently some trends appear positive: the growth in world population
is slowing, food production is still rising, the majority of people are
living longer and healthier lives, environmental quality in some regions
is improving. But it is impossible to ignore other trends which have the
potential to undermine these gains or even bring about catastrophic
collapse of local economies. They include the growing scarcity of fresh
water, loss of productive agricultural land and the downward spiral of
impoverishment affecting a significant minority of the world's
population. These threats are real and near-term; they already affect
millions of people.
Source: United Nations Commission for Sustainable Development (1997) Global Change
and Sustainable Development: Critical Trends, paragraph 14.
Listen as David Suzuki explains the human dependence on the resources provided by
nature and the problems being caused by the high rates of resource consumption in
the world.
These ideas were introduced in Module 1 through three exercises. This module builds
on the concepts developed in these exercises. Before moving on to the new activities ,
you might wish to review the key ideas developed in these exercises:
The analysis of a graph of world consumption patterns
A True-False quiz on global consumption patterns
An investigation of the 1998 Human Development Report on Sustainable
Consumption.
Q1: Identify the key ideas you learnt in the three exercises in the case study of
consumption in Module 1.
Q2: These ideas are introductory and, no doubt, give rise to a number of questions.
Brainstorm a list of the questions you would like to see answered in this module.
Compare your questions with the list of questions that guided the planning of this
module.
We return to these questions in the reflection activity at the end of this module.