A. Reflect on environmental impacts on the world on our class blog: https://worldissues120blog.wordpress.com/

 B. Read and answer questions about indigenous issues from around the world including the current situation and loss of languages and culture:

 1.   How does the United Nations define Indigenous people? http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/5session_factsheet1.pdf

2.       Give an example of an indigenous culture from another continent that you never heard about before today and explain one thing about their culture that is worth saving. http://www.nativeplanet.org/indigenous/ethnicdiversity/indigenous_data.shtml (This link only refers to three continents - you can also look elsewhere)

3.       Give some statistics that exemplify the some issues that indigenous people face around the world. http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/topic/statistics/tags/indigenous_peoples

4.       Give your educated understanding of why indigenous people face such high levels of poverty, lack of education and loss of culture.  http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/5session_factsheet1.pdf

5.       List some endangered languages with the names of the countries and continents they are on. 

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/endangered-languages/faq-on-endangered-languages/  or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_endangered_languages_in_Canada

6.       Give some examples of success stories for re-building lost languages and cultures. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7964016.stm

7.       Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-XozG0RSCoConsider this opinion “For linguists like Claude Hagege, languages are not simply a collection of words. They are living, breathing organisms holding the connections and associations that define a culture. When a language becomes extinct, the culture in which it lived is lost too.”  

And also this opposing opinion “The utility of a single global language, spoken by everyone as their mother tongue, would surely outweigh any loss of cultural heritage. The proliferation of Scots Gaelic bilingual signs in areas without Gaelic speakers (Aberdeenshire?!) is eccentric to say the least. Let languages die their natural deaths -there are plenty left.” Danny McShane Aberdeen. 

Explain your opinion on whether it is important to preserve dying languages instead of speaking one common language (there are a lot of differing opinions in the comments under this article – it may help you to decide which side of the issue you are on).  http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8311000/8311069.stm