1. Earth Today Year 8 Summer 1

2. To have eyes that see. Brian Keenan was a journalist working in the Lebanon. He was abducted in Beirut and held hostage. He spent most of the time in a drab grey cell 6 feet by 4 feet. In the passage you are about to hear Keenan describes the sensations he felt as a bowl of fruit was pushed under his door. His eyes he says ‘were almost burned by the colours’ in front of him.

3. An Evil Cradling What is strange about his reaction? Why did he choose not to eat the orange? Have you ever been struck by the beauty of anything in nature before?

4. A Beautiful World Lesson 2

5. Chief Seattle How can we buy or sell the sky? How can you buy or sell the warmth of the land? This idea is strange to us. The freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water are not ours to sell, so how can anyone buy them? Every part of this earth is very, very special to my people. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The deer, the horse, the great eagle, they are our brothers.

6. To a white person, one piece of land is the same as another. White people take from the land what ever they need. The earth is not a brother, but an enemy. The white peoples greed will destroy the earth and leave only a desert. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to it, he does to himself… to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.

7. This we know the earth does not belong to us; we belong to the earth. All things are linked together. We are all part of one big family.

8. Targets Please copy into books. I will begin to show awareness of some of the consequences of the beliefs and values I hold about the world. I will be able express how I feel about the Earth and my responsibility towards it.

9. Task Read ‘A Beautiful world’. Answer questions 1b, 2a, 2b & 2c. Life Issues- pg. 78/9 Read Endangered Earth. Discuss questions verbally, start to produce work for a display about ‘Endangered Earth’. Life Issues- pg. 90/91. Homework = bring in materials for display entitled Endangered Earth (these could be leaflets, poetry, song lyrics, internet research, pictures etc.)