Week+3

** 22nd September 2011 **
 * Week 3 **

** XCLINIC | THE STORY OF BOTTLED WATER | HOW STUFF IS MADE **

** 1. ** ** Review the web site, the XClinic at [] ** ** What is the goal of the XClinic for impatients? ** The XClinic is meant as a means of attaining short-term goals on a case-by-case basis for concerned citizens. Those who visit the clinic with issues that they would like resolved immediately are known as ‘impatients’ and together with the XClinic they perform small acts of ecological conservation and health protection. XClinic is a way to circumvent bureaucracy and slow legislation and raise concern for contemporary problems that are not being tackled.

** 2. ** ** According to the TedX video about Natalie Jeremijenko, “The Art of the Eco Mindshift” at [] describe her philosophy as a ‘design activist’. ** ** Write two full paragraphs on her position as an activist and scientist in relation to her design methodology. ** Natalie Jeremijenko being a scientist tries to incorporate biological experiments into her activist campaign against unhealthy, unsustainable practices. Equipped with the knowledge of both production possibilities and materials and their effects, as well as possible opposition from lobbyists and governments, she is in position to educate unaware people of the impending healthy crisis as well provide solutions that can be carried out by individuals. Typically her activist interventions incorporate animals and interactive environments strongly tied with nature and the human response to it.

Some of her projects include conversations with birds, messaging fishes, creating natural heating systems using airflows, and reversing carbon emissions. Her concern lies mostly with the rising rate of health problems, primarily diabetes, cancer in older people, childhood obesity and hormone disruption. Her understanding of the long-term, physical side effects drives her interventions and the nature of their communication. Through the study of tadpoles and their growth, she encourages people to take a look at the way polluted water degenerates our cells and our health. She bridges the gap between sustainable production practices and health concerns that most people do not believe are directly related.

** 3. ** ** Review How Stuff is Made at [] **** and the online FAQs it has for the student submissions at []  **** of objects. ** ** Do you think that you would be able to participate in this project by having access to manufacturers? ** ** Do you foresee any problems with a visual essay? ** ** Please let me know by email through wiki of your response to this question. ** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">I think this project is possible with certain cooperative organizations and manufacturers, but there will be limitations. At the very least a tour of the production facility is possible, but obtaining exact facts and figures about raw materials and distribution as well as supply details might be tricky. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">A visual essay is perhaps the best way to explain a manufacturing cycle and indeed it is a universally readable format. I think it would increase interactivity and participation in the process of understanding how things work and manufacturing cycles better.

<span style="color: #0086ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 9pt;">**5.** <span style="color: #0086ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 9pt;">**The central debate regarding water is water a commodity to be bought, sold and privatized, like Coca Cola or is it a human right?** <span style="color: #0086ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 9pt;">**What does the movie “Blue Gold: The Water Wars” posit in this regard?** <span style="color: #0086ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 9pt;">**This question will become central to our society in the next twenty years.**

<span style="color: #0086ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">** 6. ** <span style="color: #0086ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">** Write a one-paragraph biography of Maude Barlow. ** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Maude Barlow is a Canadian author and activist and is the National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, a citizens advocacy organization. She also works internationally for the human right to water and co-founded the Blue Planet Project. She has also served as a Senior Advisor on Water to t he 63rd president of the United Nations General Assembly. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Her work is testament of her understanding that water is a human need and right, and she fights the privatization and limited availability of water. She has a number of books that she has written on the subject and co-authored.

<span style="color: #0086ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">** 7. ** <span style="color: #0086ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">** What UN Resolution did Maude Barlow work on to have passed in relation to water? Why is this resolution so monumental? **