Virtual Orientation Page

Welcome to the Greece '97 Virtual Orientation site! Here we met each other and worked together over the internet to understand the issues of the International Conference on Environment and Society, December 8-12, 1997! In the future we will work over the internet to continue learning about sustainability issues and finding creative ways to make these issues relevant to young people across the world.

This program is a long distance learning initiative. The members of our team live in all different parts of Canada and the world. Some of us traveled to or lived in Greece, others have already met, while some of us will only ever meet through discussion forums, emails and live web chats. More and more members are joining the team. It is up to all of us to make this initiative exciting, fun and productive. We look forward to new members from all over the world, joining our team.

How does this work? Activities and learning modules are listed below. Your research and reports will be posted on the web at TG Magazine in Toronto, at http://www.tgmag.ca.

Once you have finished your projects for the week, please post them in the discussion forum.

The Discussion Forum (instructions): This is a place for you to post your work, your questions or your comments about other team member's articles, comments and research.

To Start...

Biography: "I statement" write your own biography. In 250 words or less, tell us about yourself - who you are, where you live, your interests, pet-peeves, basically, any cool thing you want others to know about you! Please post your biography in the discussion forum.

Why should young people care about sustainability?: This is the central question we need to explore. In a few paragraphs, convince a cynical youth why he/she should care. Be creative. Please post your views in the discussion forum.

Then...

Articles: Newsletter and Web site Articles: Each person can write a story based on any one of the following themes:

1. Best Practices in Your Community - what is happening in your community, highlight a project or initiative that is working toward sustainable development.
2. Human Rights - how do trade decisions affect human rights. Whose responsibility is it? As citizens of the world do we have a right to police other countries?
3. Economics: - where does money come from to support sustainable initiatives...you might want to look at how much High Income Countries give funding to other countries...when things get tight in Canada do we restrict our funding?
4. What is sustainability?
5. Activism- when looking at issues like racism, environment and human rights...whose responsibility is it to bring about change...government / educations systems / individuals?
6. Consumption - ie. stats on garbage, consumption habits of individuals, companies etc.
7. Homelessness - this is not just a big city issue
8. Depleting Natural Resources - Desertification, deleting forests, decrease in fresh water supply...when this all disappears, where do we go
9. Indonesian Forests- just one of many hot topics right now involving the environment and political issues.

Please post your articles or comments in the discussion forum.