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The Promise and Perils of the Synbio Revolution

Erik Peterson, CSIS Senior Advisor, asked Josette Sheeran, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)

Victims of a warming world may be caught in a bureaucratic limbo unless things are done to ease-and better still, pre-empt-their travails

Tim Berners-Lee (2010) Short talk about collaborating on the web with "open" data. People from around the world using open data available on-line for making changes. Great graphics

Good for Information

The United Nations expects it to reach 6.8 billion\nin July 2009.

* Running time: 20 minutes * From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. It exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever. Description directly from http://www.storyofstuff.com/ web site, from which the animation can be played directly * Rating: Excellent; used in class as an example of a systems perspective; related to "resource management" and "economic integration"

* Running Time: 1:46 * Aired: November 2008 * Description: This was a project created by a student in a 7 Revs class at CSU Fresno. In this "save the world" project students were asked to spend at least 5- hours enacting change related to one of the problems discussed in the course. It is an animated short film about the evils of plastics bags. * Rating: Excellent * 7-Revolutions: Resources, Technology, Introduction

* Running Time: 9:59 * Description: This program discusses the current problem of declining primate population around the world. This heart-wrenching program drives home the importance of the threat facing great apes and monkeys. * Rating: Very Good * 7-Revolutions Section: Resources.

Global Issues is one in a series of over 65 volumes, each designed to provide convenient, inexpensive access to a wide range of current articles from some of the most respected magazines, newspapers, and journals published today. Global Issues are updated on a regular basis through a continuous monitoring of over 300 periodical sources. The articles selected are authored by prominent scholars, researchers, and commentators writing for a general audience. The Annual Editions volumes have a number of common organizational features designed to make them particularly useful in the classroom: a general introduction; an annotated table of contents; a topic guide; an annotated listing of selected World Wide Web sites; and a brief overview for each section. Each volume also offers an online Instructor's Resource Guide with testing materials.

* Released March 2007 * Running time: 110 minutes * Based on the 1993 novel by P.D. James, the movie is a cautionary tale of potential things to come. Set in the crisis-ravaged future of 2027, humanity has become infertile, immigration is a crime, refugees are caged like animals, and the world has been torn apart by nuclear fallout, rampant terrorism, and political rebellion.

* Released June, 2004 * Running time: 120 minutes * Description: This documentary discusses how countries such as, Africa, India and Japan are facing different problems related to their current and changing population demographics. It provides a number of good graphics (population pyramids) and statistics, but also relates these issues to individual, very personal, stores. The film discusses birth control and women's rights in India, how HIV/AIDS in Africa has resulted in tragic cases that change the role of extended Draft 78 families, and how modernization has caused dramatically decreased fertility rates in Japan. * PBS.org has a great interactive site dealing with this issue: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/worldbalance/ * Rating: Excellent * 7-Revolutions Section: Population

* Released January 2008 * Running time: 60 minutes * Description: The entire 60 minute video of "On Our Watch," which addresses the humanitarian crisis in Darfur that has been labeled the first genocide of the 21st century, can be accessed at the following web site: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darfur/view/main.html This video examines the emerging crisis in Darfur beginning in 2003 and continues to examine the dynamics of this complex situation as a UN official presses the world to act, the United Nations makes numerous ineffective efforts to intervene, and flickers of hope emerge in 2007. This powerful and informative video is supported by web links to additional information about the crisis in Darfur. (DVD also available for $30 from web site at http://www.shoppbs.org/) * Rating: excellent ; used selected sections in class, related to conflict revolution

* Released April 2007 * Running time: Eleven 50 minute episodes * According to multiple reviews, this is THE best nature and wildlife series ever made. The film covers the world's different habitats in 50 minute pieces, including mountains, caves, and desserts, ending with a three-part discussion of sustainability and the current environmental threats that our world faces. This series is not to be missed by anyone interested in natural resources, the environment, sustainability, and the future of our planet.

* DVD available April 2009 * Running time: 80 minutes * Description: Through the eyes of former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, I.O.U.S.A. daringly examines the history and rapid growth of the U.S. national debt and the effects that it will have on U.S. citizens and the world. A thirty minute version of the movie can be seen online at http://www.iousathemovie.com/.