Global Environmental Issues

There has always been a struggle to balance the goals of economic development with the need to protect the environment. With world population growing and global climate change threatening to affect us all, never has that balance been more important. Today, the developed world uses much of the world's energy resources and contributes to the majority of global greenhouse gases. However, billions of people in the developing world crave the same material benefits, leading to fears of resource shortages and increased global warming. Students will learn about the positive and negative effects of industrialization, and how international efforts are attempting to manage economic development in order to protect the global environment.