Supplemental Materials

Global Environmental Problems: Implications for U.S. Policy

Global Environmental Problems: Implications for U.S. Policy invites students to weigh the significance of global environmental problems in the formulation of U.S. foreign policy today. The unit traces the entry of climate change, water pollution, deforestation, biodiversity, and population pressures into the sphere of public policy.

Resources from the Choices Program

Scholars Online resources include interviews with scholars. These short, informative videos can be used in conjunction with student readings or with lessons that accompany each unit.

Online Lesson Plan—Global Environment: Considering U.S. Policy What should U.S. policy be concerning global environmental issues? This 2-day lesson plan from the Choices Program's Teaching with the News invites students to explore four divergent policy options on the question of U.S. global environmental policy and then to articulate their own views. This lesson is excerpted from Global Environmental Problems: Implications for U.S. Policy.

Web Links

Carbon Footprint Calculator
What size is your carbon footprint? This tool estimates household carbon footprint and shows how different lifestyle choices, household features, and new technologies affect this.

Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center
This site provides U.S. and world current and historical data on greenhouse gas emissions and their effects.

Energy Information Agency: Annual Energy Review
 This site provides current and historical U.S. data on energy production and use and their environmental effects.

EPA Global Warming Site
This site provides helpful background on a range of environmental issues.

Globalization 101
 Sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, this site provides resources for students on globalization issues.

Grist: Environmental News and Commentary

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
This site provides scientific, technical, and socio-economic data and analysis as well as reports on the IPCC meetings.

PBS - Nova
A PBS/Nova show about pollution’s effect on then sun. Includes timelines, links, and a teacher’s guide to the show.

POV Borders Environment
This is a PBS site that provides background on environment issues, discussions with professionals in various roles within the environmental field, links to a rich array of other resources, and a series of lesson plans on "earth, air, and water." The site map is particularly helpful.

The New York Times — A Series: The Energy Challenge
Articles in this series will periodically examine the ways in which the world is, and is not, moving toward a more energy efficient, environmentally benign future.

United Nations Environment Program
 This site provides current events updates, data, and links to all UN environment activities and meetings.

World Resources Institute
 This environmental think-tank offers analysis of events, explanations of trends, and extensive data.

Books

Bolch, Ben and Lyons, Harold. Apocalypse Not: Science, Economics, and Environmentalism (Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, 1993). 139 pages.

French, Hilary. Vanishing Borders: Protecting the Planet in an Age of Globalization (New York: W.W. Norton, 2000). 257 pages.

Goldfarb, Theodore D, ed. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Environmental Issues (Guilford, Connecticut: The Dushkin Publishing Group, 1995). 358 pages.

Huber, Peter. Hard Green. Saving the Environment from the Environmentalists: A Conservative Manifesto (New York: Basic Books, 2000). 224 pages.

Tal, Alon. Speaking of Earth: Environmental Speeches That Moved the World (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2006). 276 pages.

Watson, Robert T., John A., Dixon, Steven P. Hamburg, Anthony C. Janetos, and Richard H. Moss, Protecting Our Planet, Securing Our Future: Linkages Among Global Environmental Issues and Human Needs (United Nations Environment Program, U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, The World Bank, 1998). 95 pages.

NOTE: This is a selected list of resources focused on the topic of the curriculum unit, Global Environmental Problems: Implications for U.S. Policy. Additional resources will be added to this site as they become available.