Agenda 21 Program Courses

by Dr. Vlasta Molak President ,GAIA UNLIMITED, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio; tel. 513/521-9321; fax. 513/521-9321; E-mail: DrMolak@email.com; President, AGENDA 21 PROGRAM, Croatia-USA-Israel

Note: Most of AGENDA 21 courses are advanced courses, which require as prerequisites basic courses in natural and social sciences. Those courses will be provided in conjunction with other Universities convenient to learners locations.

CORE COURSES

C.1. Introduction to Agenda 21. A general overview of the Program of Action for Sustainable development as stated and agreed upon in Rio De Janeiro at the Earth Summit meeting, will be taught. Document issued by the UN called AGENDA 21 will serve as a textbook for this course.

C.2. Sustainable Development. Sustainable development, which is defined as integrated strategies that would halt and reverse the negative impact of human behavior on physical environment and allow for livable environment for future generations on Earth will be explained in detail and how it affects western civilization.

C.3. How Toxic is Toxic? This is a primer in toxicology, which is a necessary prerequisite in understanding risk analysis of chemical pollution. Basic principles of toxicology will be taught in contexts of everyday examples of hazardous chemicals that we deal with. (this course is a prerequisite for C.3).

C.4. Foods we Eat and our Health. (dr. Vlasta Molak and invited guests) Numerous epidemiological and laboratory studies demonstrate strong link between our food intake and health. Those studies will be presented and evaluated, and guidelines that could help health improvement will be stated. (in addition to basic science courses, the prerequisite is C.2).

C.5. Health, Nutrition and Environmentalism. While the correlation between and food intake and health has been clearly demonstrated, often its impact on the environmental health is not obvious. Meat production is extremely environmentally costly. It takes 10 lbs grain to produce 1 lb. beef and 5,000 of water. Such a depletion of resources indicates that vegetarians may be at least as important to achieve sustainable development as other measures dealing with other consumption and industrial development. (prerequisite for this course is C.3)

C.6. Environmental Problems of the World: North, South and East. General overview of the state of the environment around the world will be given. at global forums, such as UN often there is a perceived battle between North (developed countries) and South (underdeveloped countries) about causes of environmental degradation. North blames it on pollution and dirty technology and south blames it on North for wanton consumption and exploitation of South's resources. In addition with the fall of communism, East emerges as a new category, where there is low consumption but also low population growth, however, the technology has a tremendous impact. Data will be presented that demonstrate that the causes of environmental degradation vary with region and different solutions are necessary for their solution, depending on the type of cause.

C.7. Hierarchy Method for Optimal Decision Making. (An Expert System) A computerized expert system has been developed by our company, GAIA UNLIMITED, Inc., to help in managing complex and often multiple goals of an organization or program. The system can be run on a small personal computer). We will demonstrate the theoretical background of our system, and its application in your working environments, and how our system can help you to make more consistent decisions compatible with your interests and the interests of other people in your organization.

C.8. Politics and Internet. (Dr. Vlasta Molak, GAIA UNLIMITED, inc.) Global communication, which is possible with development of penetration of Internet connections in almost every part of the world, could be used to develop truly democratic systems by giving individuals power to act and let their actions be known around the world. Examples of beneficial uses of Internet in combating injustice in the world will be demonstrated.

C.9. Approach to Environmental and Development Planning. The fall of communism has demonstrated that centralized planning did not work. However, a flexible strategic planning in an organization to keep up with new market demands is necessary for the health and long-term survival of your company. We will demonstrate how goal based long and short-term planning can be incorporated into management of your organization.

C.10. Fundamentals of Risk Analysis. Risk analysis is a body of methods develop to assess the probability of an adverse effect of a chemical, process, technology or natural events to human health and environment. There are several types of risk analysis which are applied to different areas of human endeavor. This course will give a general overview of the risk analysis field and give examples of its applications in a real life.

C.11. Risk Management in a New World Order. This course will teach the basics of both environmental and economic risk analysis in evaluating organizational problems, and demonstrate how such analysis can be applied in making better management decisions which would decrease overall risks for the organization. A more flexible management strategies will be taught that could ensure organizational survival in the new world order.

C.12. Environmental Monitoring. In order to perform risk analysis one has to evaluate exposure assessment. Different methods are used of sample environmental media. The course will give an overview of those methods and indicate how the sampling could be used in exposure assessment.

C.13. Making water fit to drink. Water is the basis of al life on Earth. In the West, we have successfully (and sometimes less so) dealt with the availability of drinking water. The course will teach how this was achieved and how this water quality can be maintained and achieved in other parts of the world.

C.14. Managing our rivers for enjoyment and profit. The course will demonstrate the economic advantages of keeping our rivers clean and useful for multiple uses, rather than allowing pollution from industrial plants or run-off from feedlots an other factory farming enterprises.

C.15. Introduction to Energy. Life on runs on energy that is ultimately derived from son. industrial societies use tremendous amounts of energy, that is mostly derived from non-sustainable fossil fuels, the course will give an overview of energy use and the necessary steps for decreasing our addiction to fossil fuels.

C.16. Sustainable economics. The kind of economics that takes into account the intrinsic value of bio-systems rather than assuming that it is valuable only when destroyed This course will present new models in economics that more accurately reflect the complex world and human behavior in the market place.

C.17. Risk Perception and Risk Communication. Most of the decisions by the federal agencies are in response to public pressure. Public, however is reacting to the perception of risk, which is not necessarily correlated to the magnitude of risk. Psychometric methods have indicated that the perceived risk is grater if it is unknown, catastrophic and involuntary. The course will give an overview of the field of risk perception and how one can communicate risk better.

C.18. Pollution Prevention in Engineering. Pollution prevention at the source is an ultimate solution to the pollution caused by the industrial production. Not only is pollution prevention the way to go to decrease and eliminate hazardous waste and emissions of pollutants to the air and water, but it also saves money on row materials and thus increases profits. The course will give an overview of the pollution prevention field and compare it to other ways of industrial management.

C.19. Ecological Risk Analysis. This course will teach on how one can evaluate effects of various environmental stressor on ecosystems. Just like human health risk analysis, ecological risk analysis evaluates the health of the environment, a complex process with many unknowns. The course will teach how this methods can be applying in evaluations and also what are the limitations of the method.

C.20. Sustainable industrial design. Design of material products that will make them reusable and recyclable, so that we eliminate and (or drastically reduce) the waste after the usefulness of the product has been exhausted.

C.21. Behavior of systems under extreme conditions

C.22. Composting

C.23. Recycling

C.24. Evironmental leadership for the rural communities

C.25. Forestry Program

C.26. Transporting people and gods around the world

C.27. Urban sprawl and infrastructure of modern society

C.28. Living off the grid

C.29. Earth Charter and similar global documents

BUSINESS AND ENVIRONMENT

BE.1. Business and Environmental Protection. Last decade has demonstrated that the old paradigm "if it is good for environment, it is bad for business", does not apply any more, and that the new paradigm "Better business with better environmental management" is necessary to be introduced in order to make companies more competitive on the global market. This course will emphasize pollution prevention as a most sensible way to increase efficiency in production, and thus profits.

BE.2. Enterpreneurship. Doing business via Internet may be the whole new trend in enterpreneurship in 21 century. Information that previously was very costly to obtain and only large corporations could afford it is now available to anyone with modem and Internet access. With the rise of Internet, the whole new group of entrepreneurs is possible.

BE.3. Consultation Management for Government and Business. This is a course designed for managers in governmental and business organizations to promote better decision making compatible with optimal achievement of goals and missions of those organizations. A democratically structured consultation management maximizes profits by engaging the work force consciously and fully into achieving those goals. In addition, consultation management may uncover goals and purposes that are not apparent, or introduce new goals that will improve overall functioning and achievements of the organization. At our course, we will present examples from Czech organizations where our consultation management will improve overall functioning or the organization. Also, we will have exercises based on the problems that you bring to us. If you want your organization to work more efficiently and achieve more satisfying working environment for both managers and workers, this course is for you.

BE.4. Protecting Humanity and Its Environment, while Making Larger Profits. New paradigm, Better Business with Better Environment, has been gradually replacing the paradigm in which pollution has been inevitable result of business development. Worldwide, more knowledgeable and enlightened companies are realizing that it pays to run an environmentally clean company, because "pollution is resources distributed in wrong places" and by improving efficiency one can at the same time decrease pollution and make bigger profits. Our course will teach you how to transform pollution into profits by reexamining your industrial production flow and gradual redesign of materials flow in your production plant. Same principles will also be applied to governmental organizations that deal with their own waste and a need to regulate pollution in the production plants.

BE.5. Internet Surfing for Pleasure and Business. While having the world information at one's fingertips may be an exhilarating experience, an unsuspected novice can get lost and drowned in the sea of information. Our course will help devise a framework for a serious Internet surfer to help them keep the virtual reality in perspective and not detract form real reality.

BE.6. Sustainable Reconstruction and Development. AGENDA 21 originated at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 1992, and presents a blueprint for development of humanity in the 21st century agreed upon by a majority of countries on Earth. The major theme of AGENDA 21 is the concept of sustainable development, which is defined as integrated strategies that would halt and reverse the negative impact of human behavior on physical environment and allow for livable environment for future generations on Earth. With the fall of communism and rebuilding of industrial base and infrastructure in Eastern Europe, there is an opportunity to apply the principles of sustainable development into current reconstruction and development of former communist countries. Our course will examine the principles of sustainable development and how they can be applied in developing countries both on macro and micro scale.

BE.7. Introduction to Eco-tourism. Tourism has become a major source of income, especially in many places where industry had not yet make the scenery ugly. Often , the tourism brings in hordes of people who pollute and make the environment degraded by introducing cars noise and fumes, garbage and building of ugly huge hotels to accommodate the traffic. The course will teach how a different type of tourism can be build where the tourists will live more in harmony with the surroundings and leave more money and smaller "ecological footprint" than the ordinary tourists.

BE.8. Sustainable Hotel Industry. The hotels do not necessarily have to look like industrial towns high-rises of eastern Europe and can be designed to blend into the environment. Also, those places can be designed to accommodate eco-tourists in a most sustainable way by clever use of cooling and heating devices and energy conservation measures for electricity, water and other flows of materials.

BE.9. Better business WITH better environment. This course will demonstrate that the pollution is economically wasteful and that devising pollution prevention measures make the entire business operation more profitable, since the profits are not thrown out with the garbage.

BE.10. GNP: a measure and missmeasure. According to some environmental organizations and many economists, the gross national product is truly gross, because it mis-measures the quality of life. Environmental degradation and disasters are often calculated as a positive GNP contribution, since they create "economic activities" that show up positive in the GNP equations. This course will teach about fallacies of using GNP in the governmental reports as a measure of economic well-being and the country’s "progress". Some possible solutions of replacing GNP as a measure of country’ progress and development status will be offered.

INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM

I.1. Comparative Risk Analysis. Comparative risk analysis has been recently an extremely important topic in the United States because of the realization that our resources are limited and often used to address minute problems (from the human or ecological health point of view) rather than addressing issues of potentially far greater adverse impact. Risk perception, rather than risk analysis has been driving the efforts by the US EPA and other agency. Therefore in last two years, the comparative risk analysis concept has emerged as an approach which, ideally, would rank the problems according to some rational criteria and using well established risk analysis methods. This course will teach its participants the essentials of performing technical risk analysis, the difference between risk perception and risk numbers and the possible ways of merging the technical risk analysis issues with the community values issues.

I.2. Environmental regulation in the US. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring book in early 60ies has triggered an environmental movement in USA that resulted in formation of Environmental Protection Agency, FDA, OSHA and others also led to passage of environmental laws that have helped in preventing further degradation of our natural heritage. Current anti environmental law climate in the US may revert this trend. The course will give a general overview of the environmental laws and regulations as applied in the US and possible consequences if the new congress has its way in dismantling environmental regulations.

I.3. State of the Environment in Eastern Europe. With a fall of communism it became apparent that those countries were living on a big lie. Although environmental and occupational laws were on the books even stricter that their western counterpart, the laws were ignored as were many others. Rule of law was not practiced under the rule o communism. As a consequence, environmental degradation of Eastern Europe is tremendous and not yet fully understood. This course will give an overview and point out to the hot spots of environmental disasters in the Eastern Europe.

I.4. Environmental laws in CIS: Past and Present. Although many strict environmental laws were on the books there were no mechanisms to enforce them and environment was relegated to the bottom of priority list. Now, new laws are passed. However the impact of those laws in the absence of checks and balances and within a rather chaotic situation in CIS is unclear. The lecturer who has participated in writing some of those new laws will give a general overview of the situation in CIS and how it affects environmental management.

I.5. Community Right-to-Know laws. After 1984 Bhopal accident in which >3500 were killed by poisonous gas, produced by a pesticide plant, an awareness was created that community should be protected from possible adverse effects of chemicals produced in their midst. Subsequently congress passed the law (1986), which gives communities right to know what kinds of chemicals are produced, used, stored and released in the manufacturing plants across America. The law has had tremendous impact on how companies do their business and has spurred rapid clean up and pollution prevention by the industries. The course will give an overview of the law, and point out how it could be used for improvement of environmental management both by industry and by environmentalists and state and local governments

I.6. Environmental management for municipal decision makers. (city managers, councils, mayors). This course will give an overview of type of local decision maker daily activities, and how they affect the environmental well-being of the community in which they function. The conventionally separate departmental decisions about housing, transport, permits, sewers, industrial development etc. will be evaluated for their potential to effect the environmental quality. The principles of sustainable development will be explained and applied in guiding the municipal decision making.

I.7 International Institutions and sustainable development. This course will evaluate current international organizations and their possible role in promotion of sustainable development.

I.8. Eastern Europe current affairs and a possibility of WWIII. The power vacuum left after the fall of communism has left space for chaos, which we are witnessing now in many parts of former communist world. War in former Yugoslavia, war in Chechnia, numerous other smaller conflict point out the dangerous trends that may lead to wwIII if not properly handled. The course will attempt to analysis current trends and connect them with historical examples which led to world conflagrations.

I.9. Financing reconstruction and development by International Banking Institutions. International institution such as International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, United Nations development Program and others have been involved in financing of reconstruction and development. This course will evaluate the quality of that involvement’s and what could be done to introduce the concepts of sustainable development into the workings of those institutions.

I.10. The Economics of war. Wars are profitable for many segments of the society, especially if the war is conducted outside the country in which those people live. The accounting will be presented on how wars are profitable and to whom, and how the rules can be devised to make them less profitable and thus decrease the destruction brought about the wars.

I.11. Is democracy an antidote to wars? The general belief is that if all the countries of the world became democratic, there would be no need for wars , since all the disputes would be resolved using democratic means of conflict resolution and negotiating the outcomes. This course will examine the history of such a belief and evaluate the likelihood of achieving such a state of the world affairs.