January 1st - March 15th 1996
BLUE PRINT EARTH REPORT PAGE
Indu Varma
ivarma@nbnet.nb.ca
Tor Arne Richvoldsen
richvold@grida.no
Kidforums Blue
Print Report, by Tor Arne Richvoldsen
Some Wise Words Summing this
Up
OTHER BLUE PRINT
EARTH
PAGES
The topic was based on the ideas of Mrs. Indu Varma from Sacksville in
Canada. The two moderators, Indu and Tor Arne adjusted the project to be used in
Kidforum.
27 schools from 7 nations took part in Blue Print Earth.
More information and e-mail addresses to the participants can be found on the Kidforum Page of
People.
During the first part the students were to point out the most important problems our world is
facing today. The lists sent to Kidforum contained various important key-words like
pollution, natural disasters, crimes, drugs, forest destruction, and the extermination of
endangered animal species. The list is much longer.
You'll find a list of the "top 38" key-words on the Page of
Problems.
Many of these words are related to the everyday life of the students taking part. The most
frightening things are related to crime, drugs, guns, gangs and violence. These serious threats
are parts of daily life for a lot of people specially in the USA. This is not so much mentioned in
the lists sent from schools outside North America .
Other key-words were related to global issues like hole in the ozon layer, global warming,
population explosion and lack of natural resources. The destruction of rain forests was
another important issue. Personal matters related to family life were described - alcohol and
smoking were on our list. A few also spoke about media like movies and TV as a source of
"polluting our minds" and perhaps causing moral decay "Not enough people care" is a very
important key-word in our busy world.
Perhaps this is one of the most important in the list - we, you and I don't care about others
We hear about this on the news every day in one way or another about terrorists in killing
people in Israel or elsewhere
As they wrote from Deerfield Beach Middle School: "We need to stop these
problems before it's too late!"
Let's move on to the next part of the topic, the solutions to all this evil and misery.
Some interesting thoughts were described here.
Let's take a look at what was said about pollution:
These are all important issues we must develop.
What about violence, crime and drugs, then ?
This line from a letter from Hawaii shows us the way.
Aloha!
We hope our solutions can help ourselves choose the right thing to do.
The third part was the inventive one.
A large number of incredible inventions were designed by students at the different
schools.
Great ideas and fantastic gadgets were presented.
Each grade had $10.000 to spend choosing among the inventions. The auction didn't have
only one winner - it had a lot
Just make you pick among our inventions The list of bids is presented at the end of the
invention page.
Another important part of Blue Print Earth was the writing of the essay, GAIA.
Due to bad weather in large part of the USA, some schools didn't have the time to answer to
this part of the topic, but the essays that were sent to the Kidforum list can be found at the Page of
Essays
Some of the students chose to write their essay based on the list of problems which they had
sent to Kidforum list earlier. 6th graders at Eydehavn school approach the writing a little
different. Take the time to check it out .
I would like you to take some time and read the essays or just download the whole page and
print it. The Norwegian writer, Jostein Gaarder, is represented on the page. His short story,
GAIA, makes
you think...
(Jostein Gaarder is one of Norways most famous writers for the time being. His novel, Sofie's
Choice is translated into many languages and has sold in large numbers world wide)
I hope Blue Print Earth has set environmental issue on the schedule for a lot of our
participants. A lot of important problems have been pointed out.
When you read the different solutions suggested, you might think that some are difficult to
fulfil, perhaps even impossible.
Others might be essential for human life to exist in the future.
Through this project we have used our knowledge and imagination. These are important
"tools" in our strive to make our world a better place to live - the most important question of
all.
Kidforum hopefully will run this topic again next year.
So long,
Then we will try focusing on our environment, our GAIA once more.
Until then -
I hope you take care
of your family, friends and yourself - and of GAIA the best you can .
Tor Arne
How can one buy or sell the sky or the heath from the earth ?
The thought is unknown to us.
We don't possess the purity of the air or the glittering of the sea. How can you talk about buying this
from us ?
We just decide for our time.
The whole world is sacred to my people. Every shining needle on the trees, every sandy beach, the
mist of dark forests, every glade and all the buzzing insects are holy in my people's traditions and
consciousness.
The juice flowing in the trees is the red man's reminiscence.
We know that the white man doesn't understand our way of thinking.
For him every piece of land looks alike.
Because he is a stranger coming at night and steals from the land everything he needs.
The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has impoverished it, he moved on.
He leaves his for-father's graves, but that doesn't weigh down his conscience.
He plunders the earth from his children. His for-father's graves and his children's birthrights are
forgotten.
He treats his mother, earth, and his brother, the sky, as things to be bought, plundered and sold as
cattle or lustrous pearls.
His greed will one day swallow up the earth and leave it just like a desert.
The air is precious to red man.
Everything that is alive breathes in the same air - the animals, the trees and the man.
The white man doesn't seem to care about the air he breathes. Remember - the air is to us a dear
friend, that the air shares it's spirit with every living thing.
The wind which gave our for-fathers their first breath, also received their last sigh.
And the wind will also give our children the spirit of life.
What was man without the animals ?
If all the animals were gone, man would die of spiritual loneliness, because all that happens to the
animals, will also happen to man.
Everything is connected. All that happens with the earth also happens with the sons of the earth.
This we know: The earth doesn't belong to man - man belongs to the earth.
Everything is connected.
Man didn't weave life, he is just a tiny fibre in the loom. What we do to the loom, we do to
ourselves.
Just go on polluting your own bed and you'll drown in your own garbage.
When all the bisons are gone and all wild horses are tame and when all the mysterious forests are
stinking with people
Where are the wilderness ?
Gone.
Where are the eagles ?
Gone.
This is the end of life - and the start of survival.
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