Contents
Imprint 2
Einleitung 3
Dear children, dear adults,
dear politicians of the world, 5
The Classroom 7
Madness, Insanity! 9
Key culprits behind the destruction of our planet:
fossil fuels coal, oil, natural gas 13
The Nuclear Age and Its Waste Problem 18
Garbage, Garbage and More Garbage 19
The Super Wealthy and What Their Character Tells Us 21
Of Hunters and Gatherers or Bears and Berries 23
Modern Slavery versus “The 2,000 Watt Society” 25
It’s Too Much for Our Brains to Handle 32
Nobody can avoid physics – it’s truly ‘univers-all’ 34
A Lesson in Physics: Power vs. Energy 36
Thank Goodness for Chemistry! 38
Geography Ought to do the Trick 40
Power Creates Murderous Monsters 41
Democracy 42
Easter Island (according to Jared Diamond, Collapse) 43
Maybe Religions Will Help Us 46
“Without Music, 48
Languages 49
Headlines from 11/19/2018 (purely coincidental) 51
Hope Dies Last 52
2020 Vision 53
Hymn to our Earth
(adapted from the music of Barclay James Harvest: Hymn, Text, B.I.), translated from German 54
Appendix 56
Literature 58
Imprint
All rights of distribution, also through movies, radio and television, photomechanical reproduction, sound carrier, electronic medium and reprinting in excerpts are reserved.
© 2020 novum publishing
ISBN print edition: 978-1-64268-084-3
ISBN e-book: 978-1-64268-085-0
Cover images: © Puchan | Dreamstime.com
Coverdesign, Layout & Type: novum publishing
Images:
Image 2, Image 8: Rfischia | Dreamstime.com,
all other illustrations: Beat Inderbitzin
www.novumpublishing.com
Einleitung
Martin 5, Katrin 4, Adrian 7, Eva 5, on the Bunderspitz
Earth rise viewed from the moon
Dear children, dear adults,
dear politicians of the world,
I am writing this curriculum out of desperation, as a father of three children, as a grandfather of four grandchildren, and as a secondary school teacher with nearly forty years of teaching experience. After spending more than six decades on this beautiful planet, I wonder, “What are we leaving for the generations to come?” Nuclear waste, a climate out of control, mountain landscapes without glaciers, immeasurable environmental damage, filthy and empty oceans, deforested old-growth forests, polluted air, and landscapes covered in concrete! (WWF report from 10/30/2018)
As astronauts (e.g. Alexander Gerst, WWF, YouTube) have confirmed, there is only one earth to be found far and wide. Viewed from the moon, the planet Earth disappears behind the thumb of an outstretched hand (Jim Lovell, Apollo 8,13). If an alien species were to watch from 400 km above the planet as we wage war against each other, burning down the primary forest and polluting the air, they would come to the conclusion that there is no intelligent life on this planet, because its inhabitants are destroying the very basis of their own existence. We, as intelligent and highly civilized adults, mercilessly exploit this planet and our children and grandchildren are the ones on the losing end. We high-tech people are brutally heating up the earth, so much that all glaciers worldwide will soon be melting away.
Here is the fantastic picture of the rising Earth taken from the moon (Earthrise, Apollo 8). Even children in kindergarten are captivated by the moon documentary “In the Shadow of the Moon”. We need to clearly communicate to every child in this world just how fragile and unique our planet is! This is the only way to make them aware of the fact that we must protect this precious jewel of ours.
This is why every child in the world has to know!
•There is only one Earth.
•Currently, the industrial nations need between 3 (CH) and 8 (Qatar) earths, amounting to a worldwide total of 1.7 (WWF 30/10/2018) and 2 by 2050. In this way, they are robbing raw materials from future generations (Footprint, Earth Overshoot Day).
•The way of life in civilized, highly developed nations is destroying the very foundation of life for future generations, both through the exploitation of resources and global warming.
•Every advanced civilization has been destroyed: Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, Easter Island, etc. (Collapse, by Jared Diamond); this phenomenon used to happen regionally, now it’s at a global level!
•Parents don’t even think about the future of their children; they live by the principle “devil may care” Therefore, from now on, it’s the children who must educate their parents!
•“Cheap” (also: “greed is great”) always means current consumption at the expense of other people and the environment (movie “We Feed the World”)
•We can (still) save the planet, but we must hurry! We must shift as quickly as possible away from fossil fuels towards hydrogen and a 2000-watt society.
The Classroom
All students wear school uniforms because they are practical, do not distract from the lessons and convey a sense of unity. This also prevents children in camouflage clothing from running around like child soldiers and feeling as if they are something special. The stress of having to wear clothes from known fashion labels is also a thing of the past, just as ugly skulls bringing death and depravity into the classroom instead of happiness and life.
The basic cultural techniques of mathematics, reading and writing are incredibly important for children to learn so that they are able to understand how life works. By studying subjects about people and the world around us, the child will learn how to marvel and understand that we are responsible for our planet. Using tangible examples, they learn all about the earth’s exploitation, namely, where, who and how it is taking place. The bigger picture is fully revealed, showing the causes and effects and ultimately how refugee flows occur. The collective strides we have made towards saving our planet hang on one wall, and the current environmental disasters on the other.
Suggestions regarding how to help the planet recover are discussed in a multidisciplinary way and the lessons are repeated once again at home. New expressions of our existence, such as food waste, carbon footprint, peak oil, fuel cell, true-cost pricing, and Earth Overshoot Day, are basically discussed and then shared with parents at home.
The students realize that the very foundation of their existence is at stake because adults are destroying our earth, and that they must save Planet Earth by bringing about a rigorous change in the way their parents and grandparents live.
They also learn that their bodies are a miracle of nature, which they must use and protect. It is up to the committed, highly motivated teacher to determine just how the children should learn these things. Naturally, it is important that the knowledge is always up-to-date and that the focus is placed on the suffering of the planet.
