Sustainable Development

The Future We Really Want

COA Admin March 19, 2012 0 Comments

Over the course of our winter term, the Global Politics of Sustainable Development class at COA prepared for the Rio+20 Conference in June. As a final product of the course, the Rio class looked at the Zero-Order Draft, decided it was not the future we wanted, and set out to write a document that outlined what we actually wanted our future to look like. After weeks of research and negotiations...

An Additional Youth Statement on Water

COA Admin March 16, 2012 2 Comments

An Additional Youth Statement on Water March 16, 2012 Youth are the future decision makers of the world. We must be forward thinkers because we will inherit a planet shaped by the actions of today. We are innovative by nature, and we call upon those involved in water issues to listen to and engage with our perspective. We are youth, but we do not speak for all youth, and we issue this document...

Mid-week Stress Relief

COA Admin March 15, 2012 0 Comments

After a long Tuesday sitting in very tense debate sessions regarding private sector partnerships, Wednesday was the opposite. Our hostel knows a local guide who takes tourists into the nearby mountains to hike and talk about the local ecology of the area, and luckily Lisa found out about him and got him to give us a tour. The area is in the last stages of becoming Calanques National Park, and...

Thoughts on grammar at the World Water Forum

COA Admin March 15, 2012 2 Comments

Ken Cline I have developed an adjective-noun problem. I wrote in an earlier entry that “words matter.” I was thinking about that even more today. It wasn’t even because we have been discussing the wording of proposed statements late into the night or that I have been spending time with Rachel (for whom English grammar is a contact sport). No, I was just sitting in a presentation...

Outlining the Panels

COA Admin March 15, 2012 1 Comment

- Robin Owings As I sit in long meetings on water privatization, scarcity, and ethics, I have taken to documenting panelists (government officials, NGO heads, citizen leaders) with blind contour drawings. I look directly at the subjects and record them using a continuous line. Each line forms a caricature, reflecting the elements of those figures such as slouching shoulders, facial expressions,...