MDG 7 - Ensure Environmental Sustainability

MDG 7 worksheet

 

Troy Arthur Gilbert is the students' guide through this study.  Mr. Gilbert’s life has been deeply impacted by issues surrounding Millennium Development Goal 7. 

December: Youth are introduced to a real life, personal story related to their focus MDG. This first episode provides background information on the featured story-teller and his/her community.

    December teacher & student guide   

 

 

 

 

 

 

January: Youth learn about the ‘climax’ incident in the featured personal story.

   January teacher & student guide

February: Youth connect the issues discussed in the personal story to a larger context.

  February teacher & student guide       Concept Map 1       Concept Map 2

March: Youth hear from the featured story-teller on solutions and to their focus MDG an they learn why the story-teller has hope for the future.

 March teacher & student guide

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Student Work

Frijoles Magicos of Lima, Peru

 

1. The Rimac River and the Pacific Ocean are close to San Juan – but they’re not that close.

2. On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is very polluted and 10 is crystal clear, the Rimac River gets a 3 and the Pacific Ocean in Lima gets a 5.

3. Our drinking water comes from the Rimac River. It’s clean and then comes to us through Sedapal, the local water company.

4. The main landforms are many desert hills made up of a lot of dirt and sand. We estimate that there are about 60 hills that make up San Juan (although we’re not really sure!). There are also lots of valleys spreading out at the bottom of the hills.

5. There is A LOT of pollution of the land in San Juan. There is trash and litter all over our neighborhood, but the most trash is around the electric powerlines and towers. Community members that live nearby dump their trash there and people from other places throw out their trash too when they walk or drive by.

6. There is also A LOT of air pollution in San Juan and Lima. The air is hazy and in certain areas, it’s almost black. The air is polluted because of all of the mototaxis, cars, vans and buses. It’s also polluted since people burn their trash and because of the factories near our houses. People have a lot of health problems because of pollution – bronchitis, asthma and eye irritation.

7. In general, we think that of the 60 hills, the equivalent of about a quarter of them have some type of plants… not very many. When people are going to build homes or other things, they destroy plants. When plants don’t grow, people just throw the plants away. People don’t know how to take care of plants – and they also trample them, steal them and pull them out of the ground.

We have different plants from other parts of Peru – from the Jungle and from the Mountains. It’s hard for them to grow well in Lima, but with lots of care and water, some do. More plants always help since they provide more oxygen and more variety.

8. In Peru, we have a lot of different species. We thought of a few… The Peruvian naked dog used to be in danger of extinction, but people have tried to bring it back. These dogs are still rare, but you see more of them. The gallito de las rocas (cock of the rocks) is rare and threatened. And the vicuña, which is from the camelid family, is smaller and thinner than llamas and alpacas. It also has very fine wool, which is the reason why it’s in danger of extinction in its wild state.

9. There are people that treat animals well and animals that treat people well… but there are also many that don’t. A lot of people mistreat their dogs (we have a lot of dogs in our community!). Some people hit them or poison them. Others send them off to the circus or to pig farms near where we live. In the case of dogs, some of them bite people.

10.  It depends on the business. Most of them contaminate a huge amount. Just a few of them work to preserve nature, but usually after they get in trouble.

11. We interact with nature in different ways:

              * Lorenza – I have ducks, fish and cats in my house

              * Carlos – I see plants when I walk around my neighborhood and I water the plants in my house

              * Patricia – I have a rabbit, hamster, cat, dog, iguana and parrot in my house

              * Rocio – I have lots of plants in my house and I also try to recycle – and get others to recycle – to conserve the environment

              * Elizabeth – I also try to recycle at home

              * Juan Diego – I help to water the plants in my house and to not contribute to contamination

              * Oscar – I have a huge tree in my house and lots of plants – and there are also some plants in the park nearby

12. Sustainability means maintaining nature for future generations. We need to maintain a balance between ourselves and the environment.

 

 Here’s  a small illustration of some of the things we talked about, made by one of the participants  …

 

Medford High School Roots & Shoots of Medford, Massachusetts, USA

What are the streams, rivers, lakes, or oceans that pass through/have a connection with your community?  

Mystic Lakes, Mystic River, Wrights Pond, Spot Pond, Quarter-Mile Pond, a variety of streams which run through the community and the Fells woods  

Rate your waterways on a scale of 1-10 (10 being crystal clear, 1 being very polluted).   4.5

Where does your drinking water come from?
The Quabbin Reservoir  

What are the main landforms in your area?   Mystic River, the "Heights", Fells Woods; meadows and fords (hence the city's name Medford)  

Are there any sources/signs of pollution in the community? Is litter a problem?   Yes! The Mystic River is quite polluted and their is a general lack of recycling and respect for the environment in our community.  

Have you noticed air pollution in your area? Does the air ever appear hazy or do you have trouble breathing? Many people in our area have asthma, which could be due to air pollution, but based on what we know about other cities the air pollution in Boston is comparatively low, though certainly not nonexistant.  

Are the plants in your community affected at all by human or animal activity? How? Is this effect positive or negative?   Humans have a positive impact on animals through the creation of animal shelters and through projects such as our Giving Tree which aim to help provide for unfortunate animals. However, there are also plenty of negative effects. Many animals, such as squirrels, end up as roadkill as a result of human activity and many others lose their habitats due to construction. Humans also have caused our river to be highly polluted and waste valuable natural resources by not recycling.  

Are there any non-native plant species that humans have brought to the community? Are these plants helping or harming the environment?   Yes, milkweed, for example is found in abundance by the Mystic River where it is killing off many other native species of plants because none of its natural predators are present.  

Are there any rare, threatened, or endangered animals or plants in your community?  Our group is not aware of any specific endangered species within the community.  

How do animals and humans in your community interact? Is it positive or negative?
Humans have a positive effect on animals through efforts to better their habitats and reverse damage imposed by humans, such as river clean-ups, and through animal shelters. However, humans also introduce, sometimes unknowingly, dangerous non-native species and also ruin animal habitats through construction.  

How do business/industry and the environment interact in your community? Positive or negative? Symbiotic or abusive? Many businesses in the community do not think much about their environmental impact and abuse our natural resources. Dunkin Donuts is a prime example. Other companies, however, aim to give back to the environment or reduce their impact, such a green dry cleaners found within our city.  

In your everyday life how do you interact with nature? How would you characterize this interaction?   A lot of people are far too busy to spend much time in nature and their only experience with the outdoors is often the distance between their house and their car. However, every day our actions have an impact on the environment. For example, long showers wastefully use up our water supply.  

What does sustainability mean?
Sustainability means having a symbiotic relationship with the environment and reducing your impact on it to either a very small or nonexistant level. Sustainability means living in harmony with nature and treating it with great respect.    

What do you feel is the environmental sustainability of your community? Is there still work to be done? Why/why not?  We could, of course, always improve upon our sustainability, but we are happy to see that sustainability and general environmental awareness are on the rise. Before, our sustainability was truly deplorable, but now we are on the right track. Energy use is one major issue where much work could be done, especially in getting people in the community to use energy efficient lightbulbs and reduce their water usage.  

How could you achieve Millenium Development Goal 7? What could you do to improve the environmental sustainability of your community?   Sustainable Business Award Raise awareness/Earth Week Plant Trees (Roots & Shoots Rebirth the Earth campaign)  

Can you think of a project for MDG 7?
Sustainable Business Award/ Tree planting (potentially plant trees at a ceremony in honor of the recepient)  

Perfect Youth Group of Arusha, Tanzania

Are there sources/signs of pollution in your Community?

 

Have you Noticed air pollution in your area?

Does your Community have any specific environmental problems? Do they have an economic impact on your Community and its people?

-The specific Environmental problems in our community is: Improper Sanitations.

  The Economic Impact on our community is: Eruption of diseases such as Cholera which lead to loose those skilled people who die with such diseases, so that’s reducing capabilities on work which lead to economy depression.

 

REFLECT

I think the environmental sustainability in our community is to create a proper sanitation system an make people out of endanger their health.

-Yes still there is a great work to do in order to solve this issue, because if it will not be solved now it will erupt larger and make the problem bigger.

ACT

 We should make sure that we demonstrate on this issue, because we people of law class we the one who are most affected with the situation. So that we could be able to show up the world that we can are mostly effected.

 -The project which we can do is “CLEANING ACTIVITIES AND BUILIDING VOLUNTEERISM” where by we can be able to work closer with other organization to build up the project.

 

CLICK HERE for more student thoughts on MDG 7