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A FILM BY MATHIEU ROY & HAROLD CROOKS STUDY GUIDE STUDY GUIDE TABLE OF CONTENTS ABOUT THE FILM 3 THE IMpaCT OF PROGRESS ON OUR PLANET CLIMATE CHANGE 5 ABOUT THE BOOK 3 EXTREME WEATHER 5 ABOUT THIS GUIDE 3 EXTINCTION AND INVASIVE SPECIES 5 RECOMMENDED AGE LEVEL 3 ENVIRONMENTAL REFUGEES 5 DEFORESTATION 6 RECOMMENDED SUBJECT AREAS 3 GLOBALIZATION 6 TEACHING SURVIVING PROGRESS 4 GLOBALIZATION AND THE GLOBAL FOOD SYSTEM 6 DEFINING PROGRESS 4 GLOBALIZATION AND DEBT 6 THE MATERIALS ECONOMY: THE PROCESS OF PROGRESS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 6 • 7 EXTRACTION 4 MEDIA LITERACY 7 • 8 PRODUCTION 4 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES 8 • 9 DISTRIBUTION 4 CONSUMPTION 4 Who’S WHO IN SURVIVING PROGRESS 9 DISPOSAL 4 RESOURCES AND SUGGESTED READING 10 CREDITS 10 STUDY GUIDE “Like all creatures, humans have made their way in the world so far by trial Written by Canadian novelist and historian Ronald Wright in 2004, A Short and error; unlike other creatures, we have a presence so colossal that error History of Progress looks at the modern human predicament in light of the is a luxury we can no longer afford. The world has grown too small to forgive 10,000-year-long experiment with civilization. In it Wright concludes that, to us any big mistakes.” survive, human civilization needs to become environmentally sustainable, with specific reference to global warming and climate change. — Ronald Wright Many of the problems that Wright relates to our civilization’s potential demise, such as climate change, debt and labour conditions in developing countries, ABOUT THE FILM can be connected to the way we live—specifically, to our participation in capitalist economies. The materials economy can be broken down into five Surviving Progress parts—extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal— (Directed by Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks, 2011, 83 min 36 s) each of which has an impact on people and the planet. Surviving Progress presents the story of human advancement as awe-in- spiring and double-edged. It reveals the grave risk of running the “21st cen- tury’s software”—our know-how—on the ancient hardware of our primate ABOUT THIS GUIDE brain; hardware that has not been upgraded in 50,000 years. Through rich This educator’s guide was written to facilitate a meaningful discussion and imagery and an immersive soundtrack, filmmakers Mathieu Roy and Harold debate in the classroom surrounding the various topics and concepts pre- Crooks launch us on a journey of contemplation about our evolution from sented in Surviving Progress. The film raises many issues and concerns cave dwellers to space explorers. that will challenge students to think about the so-called progress of human civilization and the impact of their daily actions at a local and global level. Ronald Wright, whose bestselling book A Short History of Progress inspired The classroom activities are designed to encourage students to think and this film, argues that civilizations have been repeatedly destroyed by “progress speak critically about their daily choices and actions, and to take the discus- traps”—alluring technologies that serve immediate needs but ransom the sion outside the classroom, into their everyday lives. future. Interspersing stories from a Chinese car-driving club, a Wall Street insider who exposes an out-of-control, environmentally rapacious financial elite, and eco-cops defending a scorched Amazon, the film lays stark evidence before us. In the past, we could use up a region’s resources and RECOMMENDED Age LEVEL move on; if today’s global civilization collapses from overconsumption, that’s Surviving Progress is suitable for students aged 15 and up. It is recom- it. We have no backup planet. mended that educators preview the film and research-related terms prior to teaching the unit, as it deals with complex concepts and ideas. Surviving Progress presents us with thinkers who probe our primate past, our brains and our societies. Some amplify Wright’s urgent warning, while others have faith that the very doctrine of progress that has put us in jeop- ardy is also the key to our salvation. Theoretical physicist and cosmologist RECOMMENDED SUBJECT AREAS Stephen Hawking looks to homes on other planets. Biologist Craig Venter, This film can be integrated into the curriculum in the following subject areas whose team decoded the human genome, designs synthetic organisms he at the secondary and post-secondary level: hopes will create artificial food and fuel for all. Distinguished environmental scholar Vaclav Smil counters that five billion • Global Studies • Political Science “have-nots” aspire to an affluent lifestyle, and without limits on the energy • Social Studies • Human Rights and resource consumption of the “haves,” humanity faces certain catastrophe. Others—including primatologist Jane Goodall, author Margaret Atwood and • Geography • Anthropology activists from the Congo, Canada and the United States—place their hope in our ingenuity and moral evolution. • History • Business Surviving Progress leaves us with a challenge: to prove that making apes • Aboriginal Studies • Science smarter was not an evolutionary dead end. • Agriculture • Science and Society ABOUT THE BOOK • Environmental Studies • Philosophy • Economics • Technology Studies “We are running 21st-century software, our knowledge, on hardware that hasn’t been upgraded for 50,000 years, and this lies at the core of many of • International Development • Media Studies our problems.” — Ronald Wright 3 STUDY GUIDE Extraction refers to the processes by which we acquire the resources that TEACHING SURVIVING PROGRESS are used to make the things we buy—for example, fishing, mining and This section of the study guide was written to introduce educators to the larger cutting down trees. In many cases, extraction occurs in the developing world concepts, ideas and terms that are discussed in both the film and Ronald for consumption in First World countries. Examples include mining diamonds Wright’s book. The content has been broken down into three parts: Defining in Africa at the cost of many lives; or, as noted in the film, the deforestation of Progress, which discusses the main thesis of Wright’s book and the notion the Amazon rainforest—at an alarming rate—for raw materials or to create of a progress trap; The Materials Economy: The Process of Progress, an space for agriculture. examination of various destructive processes involved in human consump- Production refers to the processes by which extracted resources are turned tion; and finally , an analysis of the The Impact of Progress on Our Planet into goods. As is the case with resource extraction, production often happens implications of human progression and the consequences of our actions on in a different country than where the item will eventually be purchased, and the Earth. the country of production is often a poorer nation with weaker labour and If educators are considering teaching a comprehensive unit around this environmental laws. In many cases, toxic chemicals are used in manufactur- content, it is recommended that they utilize both the book and the film in ing processes and end up in the products themselves. This situation not only the classroom. means that workers in developing economies are exposed to toxins in the workplace, but also that buyers are exposed to a host of toxic chemicals in the products they use every day. Lipstick, for example, has been found to DEFINING PROGRESS contain lead, a potent neurotoxin that is not legally allowed in gasoline or paint in many countries.3 In A Short History of Progress, Ronald Wright argues that faith in progress has become an ideology, one taken for granted and whose flaws are no Distribution refers to everything that happens to a product between the longer considered. He proposes the idea of a progress trap (a notion he re- production stage and its arrival to a consumer, such as transportation and iterates in the film)—that is, a pattern of innovation that ultimately ends in sales. As with production, workers in this part of the economy tend to be a trap that puts humanity in jeopardy, as we are too successful for our own underpaid, which helps to keep distribution costs down. Just as the true good.1 Some examples of this are: hunting methods that are so efficient they cost of labour is not reflected in the price of an item, neither is the environ- result in the hunted animal becoming extinct; or weapon innovations that mental cost. In the film, David Suzuki acknowledges how the environment give humans the power to destroy the planet. is considered an “externality” in the economy: these costs are externalized, and the price of an item instead tends to be more reflective of what the Wright’s main thesis is that civilization has led to unsustainable population consumer will pay. growth and the concentration of wealth. It has made way for warfare, disease and social and gender inequality. Lastly, the direction of human civilization has Consumption refers to the facet of the materials economy in which prod- not even resulted in better health, as it has led to exchanging a varied diet of ucts—be they food, clothes, vacations or computers—are purchased by wild foods for a reliance on a few starchy crops. As the Irish Potato Famine consumers. It is the activity our culture is organized around and is constantly of the 1840s revealed, reliance on a few crops puts populations at risk of growing into new parts of our lives. A central principle of economics is that starvation if the crop fails. And, as populations grow beyond the bounds of their annual profit needs to exceed that of the previous year. In order to maintain food supply, the risk of starvation is real. While this risk may not be evident to a steady increase in profit, industry needs to create demand for products many Canadians, “most people, throughout most of time, have lived on the that we may or may not need.