Thematic Texts: The Quest for a Sustainable World

The global environmental crisis and the size of our world population are hard for our minds to fathom. The world population reached an unimaginable 8 billion in November 2022, and the world continues to experience a worsening climate crisis with little progress toward reversing it. Resources like clean water and food seem to be dwindling as the human population grows and the environment suffers. How can we live in balance with the world? How can we make choices that lead to more equitable access to resources? How can we show a collective responsibility to the earth and to each other?

The texts in this section address the search for sustainability in the world. They include not only articles but also an infographic text and a comic. The following texts will give you the opportunity to explore the issue of environmental sustainability while also developing your reading and writing practices.

• 41: US Climate Risks Are Rising – A Scientist Looks at the Dangers Her Children Will Have to Adapt to, from Wildfires to Water Scarcity
• 42: Cohousing Is Empowering People to Fight Back against a Global Housing Crisis
• 43: I Spoke to ‘Minimalists’ to Find out Why They Are Giving up Their Personal Possessions
• 44: Growing Up in a Kenyan Slum Taught Me the Real Value of Stuff
• 45: Energy, Housing, Food, Water: What’s a Fair Share? (infographic)
• 46: Enough Is Enough (comic)

Each chapter includes a process to preview the text, read it interactively, reflect on the content and your reading process, summarize it, respond to it, and extend your work with ideas presented in the text.

The readings are followed by a chapter of activities to help you make connections among the content of texts and the techniques used by the writers and artists.