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Water Is Life
Welcome Home - Our experience starts with a brief tour of the Universe emphasizing relationships, patterns, cycles, and systems in nature. As we return to the Earth we will explore mapping as a pattern-based system of understanding our relationship to our environment and see the historical development of map-making from ancient hand-drawn maps to modern satellite maps of the Earth. This will contextualize why Fuller set out to design his unique Dymaxion World Map, explain how he used the icosahedron, the geometric form that symbolized the element of water in the ancient world, to create one of the most accurate projections of the Earth, The Water Planet, and show how this new perspective of one island in one ocean is so important today.
Whole group activity– Participants will be invited to explore and orient themselves to this unique world map and working in groups, they will be challenged to label the continents and significant bodies of water with large interlocking puzzle pieces.
Global Village - Once we are oriented within our map we will begin to zoom in and investigate the human population that inhabits our “Spaceship Earth”. Understanding population dynamics and resource distribution is essential to creating sustainability, yet many people are overwhelmed and confused by huge numbers and raw statistical data. If we see the Earth’s population as a village of 100 people, then the percentages of ethnic, economic, educational, and health statistics are easier to grasp.
Whole group activity– As a group we will physically graph the human population distribution of our “world village” on the large Dymaxion world map using 100 foam blocks and discuss the implications of this profound visualization of humanity.
Water, Water, Every…Where? - Fuller was a systems thinker and addressed questions of resource management in a comprehensive way. He understood that we are interconnected as a species and that we need to work together, sharing resources so that all of humanity live successfully. Water unites us as one island, it comprises 2/3 of every living cell, and it is also a finite resource that is a basic human need. Our next short film (7 min.) will introduce water as a mysterious and miraculous system that sustains life on our planet and highlights the many ways that we as humans depend on this precious resource.
Whole Group Activity– As a group we will add dimension to our “world village” graph by exploring how we as humanity interact with water. On the large map we will physically graph which “villagers” have access to clean water (and how many do not). We will then create foam “bar graphs” depicting how many gallons each villager uses on a daily basis, discussing regional differences and implications. We will then investigate all the water in the world and what fraction is fresh and easily accessible, introducing the concept of “one well”. Creating these hands-on graphs allows participants to literally grasp these critical concepts and then to step back from the map and see the big picture.
We will conclude this session with a group discussion that will allow participants to share what they have learned and taken to heart. We will also take time to share ways that we as individuals and communities can use water more mindfully and how we can make a difference locally and globally. Fuller believed that he was an average person and that his life was an experiment in what one individual could do, in service to others. We challenge participants to ask themselves what Fuller constantly asked himself, “If the success or failure of this planet and of human beings depended on how I am and what I do…How would I be? What would I do?”
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