[Draft syllabus] Theme 2 - sustainable development

Following on my brief comments on Theme 1, also in this respect, I advise to first work through Consumption, Production and derived from there, resourcing, ownership, scarcity, etc. Although each aspect touched on in this draft is of value, the course should not miss out on students' understanding of the essentials of our economic system. the impossible balance of People, Planet, Profit, the power structures of industry and (their entanglement with) Politics. Here lies an excellent opportunity to enhance this upper grades' education with Inquiry- and Problem Based Learning.

I caution not to swiftly step to judgments, values, commanding or laying an opinion on students, for example with regard to Globalisation. Nor should the misconception be underlined that a new economy will arise from start-ups.
Notions of de-coupling and Circular should be left with the students themselves as long as possible - unleash them through debate.

I think it'd be interesting to add something related to data analysis (datasets available, interpretation...). Not sure if in this unit or in another, or if it is already included. And change the title "Ecological issues", a bit vague.

in point 2 Theories and economic models : I will add the "donught economy" wich is a new concept that gathers clima, wellbeing, circularity, wealth and biodiversity and the boundaries of the planet. Also it affects the concept of growth

I think it would be useful to explore the data being gathered on how well countries are performing in terms of the Global Goals and for instance the country dashboards at https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/profiles and the interactive map at https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/map
It should also be possible for students to present their own ideas and suggestions using for instance ArcGIS StoryMaps and for schools to access the ESRI GIS Schools initiative in Europe https://www.esri.com/en-us/school-program-europe/overview

I am still wondering if Growth Domestic Product should be taken into account in sustainable development part and theme social dimensions... Even very high GDP does not help with all social dimension aspects of sustainability. If we look at the countries in the EU - percentage of people suffering from depression is growing and one of the highest- is in the richest European countries. What bring some serious doubts ...if we - here in Europe live in sustainable social way. I am curious about the additional indices that are supposed to be covered in this part of syllabus. Case studies from different countries could be introduced here: for example what is wrong with social sustainable pillar in Somalia, Bangladesh, Poland or USA, what are the obstacles to make situation better?Is GDP major driver of change? How can people accept environmental polices having troubles with access to basic needs or rights? How about cultural social change for example in Japan where old people are abandoned? Why do French farmers commit suicides? Looking at concrete case studies will help students to consider different aspects of story - sometimes with our Western point of view - we think we know much better while we should also learn from the South how to sustain our needs and social bonds and connection with nature. Positive case studies should be presented here about this concept of decoupling - and from different economically developed countries; we have a tendency to think that our ideas about circular economy is Western discovery and panacea for unsustainable way of living. While it is practicing for decades by people from Africa and Asia - where ordinary people and cooperatives try to recycle almost everything - (extreme example but still showing some mechanism - Zabbaleen people from Egypt or one little example from Cote d'Ivoire https://colibaafrica.com/ ...) . Here I would also add more aspects with gender equality, access to school case studies (https://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/school-resources-and-learnin… ). I know that GDP is strictly connected with standards of living , but some evidences show that money will not fix up all social problems...what worse- sometimes they worsen some aspects of demographic problems (why do we have in the EU ageing population??)

Hello! I would like to suggest to draw students attention within this course on understanding that Sustainable Development is connected to Green Computing, too. As a part of this course students can be introduced with the Green Computing as a leap in mitigating environmental pollution and the impacts of climate change. This is conected with The DigComp framework, Safety: 4.4 Protecting the environment. To be aware of the environmental impact of digital technologies and their use.

Hi!
I would propose to be included in the course notions on the environmental footprint of products and how these are generated along their life cycle and the impacts caused by our consumption and what can we do to reduce these. Despite related to SDG 12 Sustainable production and consumption; the impacts generated by our consumption contribute to other SDGs.
We have just published a book to raise awareness of youth on how impacts of products are generated along their life cycle (most typically we hear about carbon footprint, but many other impacts are relevant) and how our choices are important to reduce our environmental footprint.
Link to the book: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC130685

The book points out for a calculator we developed where one can calculate the impacts of their consumption.

The EU green deal policies foresee the development of labelling for products to be based on life cycle assessment and it is crucial to introduce these concepts in early education.

I think we should add a few topics to this taxonomy.

The Limits to Growth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth

Degrowth
https://uncensorednews.us/degrowth/categories

Financial capitalism
https://uncensorednews.us/financial-capitalism/categories

Ecocide
https://uncensorednews.us/ecocide/categories

Regenerative Agriculture
https://uncensorednews.us/regenerative-agriculture

Planting Water
https://uncensorednews.us/planting-water/

Wetlands
https://uncensorednews.us/wetlands/categories

Outsourcing Emissions
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/apr/14/outsourced-emissions

What strikes me in almost all the analyses on sustainability is the exclusive, all-encompassing emphasis on the use of non-polluting energy sources that do not contribute to the greenhouse effect.
One aspect that is systematically left aside concerns the consequences that any mechanism of energy production, in the end, leads to an energy input into the environment.

Only the use (direct or indirect) of that part of the solar energy that would still be captured within the biosphere would avoid this side effect.

Another aspect on which it would be worthwhile to carry out an accurate quantitative analysis is related to the effectiveness of the policies of replacing non-energy efficient equipment with modern and higher "energy class" devices or tools.
In each specific situation, the environmental costs of the production of new devices and of the disposal of old ones would be assessed.
Not always the "renewal of devices" produces a virtuous net effect from the point of view of the overall impact on the environment.

Maybe we should also introduce sustainable reporting practical approach? For instance - one year or one semester attempt to set up the some SDGs targets for class/ level/ section/ school and then try to achieve those goals at the same time giving the chance to create framework for a report that could be presented in front of school stakeholders and community. This is kind of practice combine with entrepreneurship.
After this training - it would be great if students could have a chance to look at some case studies from enterprises to see professional report and actions.

Some issues that may be worth adding:

2. Theories and economic models:

- New approaches of transformative economics, e.g. post-growth, doughnut economics, well-being economics, regenerative economics,
- different dimensions of sustainability and embeddedness of economy in society and planet, « wedding cake » model of SDGs,
- externalities,
- connecting economics to physics

3. Social dimensions

- Transgenerational justice

4. Ecological issues:

- Country overshoot days,
- historic responsibility for climate change and nature destruction, North-South (neo-colonial) imbalances in resource overuse
- Imbalances in per capita emissions and ecological footprint by income percentiles