Consumption and Ecological Footprint

Where Do Recyclable Materials Go?
Garbology Kids

This 40-page book will help children understand the importance of recycling to save natural resources, as well as how they can take action in their own communities.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Connections All Around: Me, My Food, and My Environment
• Humans & the Environment

Book  | ISBN 9780981243900 |  $

Teaching Resources
EarthCARE

EarthCARE's action-oriented, curriculum-aligned program focuses on energy conservation, waste reduction, and water conservation.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Connections All Around: Me, My Food, and My Environment
• Humans & the Environment

Curriculum  |  Free

Adventures with Bobby Bigfoot
Earth Day Network

Designed for elementary students, this footprint calculator shows how everyday choices impact the planet. Students discover their impact on the earth by selecting the choices that most represent their daily actions.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Connections All Around: Me, My Food, and My Environment
• Humans & the Environment

Interactive Technology  |  Free

MyGarbology
NatureBridge

Learn more about the science of waste with NatureBridge’s online interactive learning tool, MyGarbology.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Connections All Around: Me, My Food, and My Environment
• Humans & the Environment

Interactive Technology  |  Free

Loop Scoops
PBS Kids

Loop Scoops are short videos to get kids thinking about the stuff in their lives and what this stuff can do to the environment. Each scoop tells the story of something kids use or see everyday — a juice box, a magazine, an electronic gadget, a glass of juice, a pile of garbage.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Connections All Around: Me, My Food, and My Environment
• Humans & the Environment

Website  |  Free

The Life Cycle of Everyday Stuff
Mike Reese and Shirley Watt Ireton 
 
Using common products like the telephone, this lively 95-page book helps students learn about the flow of energy and matter through Earth’s system.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Watch Where You Step!
• Making Global Connections

Book  |  ISBN 9780873551878  |  $

Material World: A Global Family Portrait
Peter Menzel

In this 256-page book, award-winning photojournalist Peter Menzel brings together 16 of the world's leading photographers to create a visual portrait of life in 30 nations.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Let them Eat Cake!
• Now Hear This!
• Shop Till You Drop?
• Shopping Heats Up
• Watch Where You Step!

Book  |  ISBN  9780871564306  |  $

Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things
John C. Ryan and Alan Thein Durning 

This 88-page book follows a typical day in the life of a fictional, middle-class, North American girl, tracking her daily consumption patterns.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

•  Watch Where You Step!

Book  |  ISBN 9781886093041  |  $

MyGarbology
NatureBridge

Learn more about the science of waste with NatureBridge’s online interactive learning tool, MyGarbology.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Number Patterns: Waste & Recycling
• Number Theory: Consumption Choices
• Watch Where You Step!

Interactive Technology  |  Free

Carbon Counter
The Climate Trust 

Find out how much carbon dioxide you use through daily activities and how you can greatly reduce your carbon footprint on the planet.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• How Much Does Carbon Cost?
• Carbon Dioxide Trends
• The Carbon Link

Interactive Technology  |  Free

Good Stuff? - A Behind-the-Scenes Guide to the Things We Buy
The World Watch Institute

This online report contains tips, facts, and links to help you make more informed purchases that benefit your health and the environment.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Watch Where You Step!
• Making Global Connections

Online Report  |  Free

The Living Planet Report
World Wildlife Fund (WWF)

The Living Planet Report is WWF's periodic update on the state of the world's ecosystems. It describes the changing state of global biodiversity and the pressure on the biosphere arising from human consumption of natural resources.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Watch Where You Step!
• Connections All Around: Me, My Food, and My Environment
• Making Global Connections

Online Report  |  Free

Bag It
Global Footprint Network

Bag It's 45-minute educational cut focuses on the politics of bags, single-use disposables, waste and recycling and the health of our oceans. The 65-minute cut also includes an additional chapter on human health. Both versions are appropriate for kids in fourth grade and up.  

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Garbology
• Mapping the Impact
• It's a Dirty Job
• A System Redesign
• Environmental Issues and Solutions
• Thinking about Consumption

Video   |  $

The Ecological Footprint: Accounting for a Small Planet
Global Footprint Network

In this 30-minute documentary, Mathis Wackernagel introduces the Ecological Footprint and provides examples of how governments, communities, and businesses are using the Ecological Footprint to improve their ecological performance.  

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

•  Watch Where You Step!

Video  |  ISBN 1594582920  |  $

Global Warming: It's All About Carbon
Robert Krulwich 

These five short films explain the role of carbon in climate change in simple yet humorous ways. Topics range from "Making Carbon Bonds" to "What Do We Do?"

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

•  The Carbon Link

Online Video  |  Free

Climate Classroom
National Wildlife Federation 

The National Wildlife Federation's online Climate Classroom features resources such as their slideshow, "What's Up with Global Warming?"

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• The Carbon Link
• Greenhouse Gas Investigations 

Website  |  Free

Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic
John De Graaf 

This 288-page book uses the metaphor of a disease to tackle a serious subject: the damage done to our health, our families, our communities, and our environment by the obsessive quest for material gain. 

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Making Global Connections
• Watch Where You Step!
• Take a Step for Equity

Book  |  ISBN 9781576753576  |  $

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Jared Diamond

In this 592-page book, Jared Diamond examines how ancient and modern societies have collapsed due in large part to overconsumption of resources and population growth. 

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• When the Chips Are Down

Book  |  ISBN 9780143036555  |  $

The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World
Paul H. Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson 
 
This 384-page book uses vivid examples and personal stories to describe the values and lifestyles that make the "Cultural Creatives" subculture distinctive.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Watch Where You Step!
• Take a Step for Equity

Book  |  ISBN 0609604678  |  $

Hope: Human and Wild - True Stories of Living Lightly on the Earth
Bill McKibben

This 232-page book provides a vision for a sustainable society, in which wealth is measured less by material productivity or resource consumption and more by spiritual richness and the extent to which we live in harmony with the natural world.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Making Global Connections
• Watch Where You Step!
• Take a Step for Equity 

Book  |  ISBN 9781571313003  |  $

A New Green History of the World
Clive Ponting

Using the Roman empire as its central example, this 464-page book shows how overexpansion and the exhaustion of available natural resources have played key roles in the collapse of great cultures in human history.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Making Global Connections
• Watch Where You Step!
• Now Hear This!

Book  |  ISBN 9780143038986  |  $

Radical Simplicity: Small Footprints on a Finite Earth
Jim Merkel

This 288-page book guides readers to a personal sustainability goal, offering a process to monitor progress to a lifestyle that is equitable for all people, species, and generations.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Now Hear This!
• School Sustainability Audit

Book  |  ISBN 9780865714731  |  $

When Corporations Rule the World
David C Korten 
 
In this 385-page book, David Korten takes on the task of blaming large international corporations for many of the social and environmental problems confronting people all over the world.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Are You Buying This?

Book  |  ISBN 9781887208048  |  $

Carbon Footprint Calculator: What's My Carbon Footprint?
The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy's carbon calculator starts with an average carbon footprint and subtracts carbon dioxide emissions for actions that reduce emissions.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• What Size Is Your Footprint?
• It All Adds Up!

Interactive Technology  |  Free

The Good Stuff
The Story of Stuff Project

Every month, The Story of Stuff project will be releasing a new podcast, complete with inspiring stories, commentary from Annie Leonard, and ways for you to get involved in your own community.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Are You Buying This?!
• Mapping the Impact
• Garbology
• Livin' the Good Life?

Podcast |  Free

Affluenza
John de Graaf 

This 56-minute humorous documentary details the history and effects of consumption and a growing movement to live simply and consume less.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Livin' the Good Life?
• Are You Buying This?!

Video  |  UPC 1594581320  |  $

Bag It
Global Footprint Network

Bag It's 45-minute educational cut focuses on the politics of bags, single-use disposables, waste and recycling and the health of our oceans. The 65-minute cut also includes an additional chapter on human health. Both versions are appropriate for kids in fourth grade and up.  

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Garbology
• Mapping the Impact
• It's a Dirty Job
• A System Redesign
• Environmental Issues and Solutions
• Thinking about Consumption

Video   |  $

The Cost of Cool: Youth Consumption and the Environment
Michael Tobias

This 27-minute video, hosted by Alexandra Paul, shows teenagers grappling with what it takes to be "cool" and the environmental price we pay to have the most trendy stuff.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Making Global Connections
• Watch Where You Step!
• Take a Step for Equity

Video

Design for Product Life
Autodesk Sustainability Workshop

These four videos teach the basic strategies for optimizing a product’s life, including how to design and engineer products for durability, disassembly, recycling, repair and upgrade.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Buy, Use, Toss? A Closer Look at the Things We Buy
• Are You Buying This?!
• Livin' the Good Life?

Video  |  Free

Escape from Affleunza
John de Graaf

This 56-minute sequel to Affluenza is a humorous documentary on the history and effects of consumption and a growing movement to live simply and consume less. 

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Livin' the Good Life?
• Are You Buying This?!

Video  |  UPC 1594581339  |  $

Human Footprint
National Geographic

This 90-minute video National Geographic explores how much waste you will produce and the amount of fuel you'll consume during your lifetime.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Livin' the Good Life?
• Are You Buying This?!

Video  |  UPC 00727994752936  |  $

The Story of Electronics
The Story of Stuff Project

This 8-minute video asks why we throw away millions of tons of electronics every year, and what that means for the planet.

• Buy, Use, Toss? A Closer Look at the Things We Buy
• Livin' the Good Life?
• Are You Buying This?!

Video  |  Free

Advancing the Science of Sustainability
Global Footprint Network

Global Footprint Network supports a sustainable economy by advancing the Ecological Footprint, a measurement and management tool that makes the reality of planetary limits relevant to decision-makers around the world.

Links to resources containing related Facing the Future lessons:

• Now Hear This!
• Watch Where You Step!

Website  |  Free