Welcome to the Cross-Cultural Rhetoric
Environmental Summit!
Khabarovsk State Academy
of Economics and Law,
Russia

Stanford University, USA
Professor Olga Kovbasyuko, Professor Carolyn Ross, and their students
February 12/13, 2009
Focus on Global Environmental Issues
Environmental Education & Recreation
Environmental Ethics & Values
Sustainable Lifestyles: Living “Green”
Environmental Technologies
Environmental Policy, Politics,& Activism
Environmental Justice
Goals of Today’s Workshop:
• To exchange perspectives on global
environmental threats
• To engage in intercultural problem-solving
• To ground students’ thinking about their
specific research topics in international and
global contexts
Your Team’s Task Today
GROUPS A-F (15 minutes each):
1. Stanford students present:
 Summarize blog topic of the group
 Identify the relationship to their individual topics
 Restate questions posted on the blog
2. KSAEL students respond:
 Kick off question-answer dialogue
 Address questions posted on blog
3. Group dialogue:
 For the rest of the time, the group continues an open
exchange of question/answer
 Raise additional questions for fruitful dialogue
Group A: Environmental Education & Recreation
Questions to explore:
What kinds of environmental education have you guys taken part in? Have you
been on outdoors field trips, to museums, done special programs, etc.? Or, what
have the other sources of environmental education in your lives been? Have you
learned from parents or mentors?
Do you think that your country is doing enough with environmental regulation?
What kinds of educational or recreational programs does the government
support?
Can you take courses in environmental subjects? Such as environmental law or
environmental politics? If so, what do you learn in these courses, and do you
think that information is useful for you in your everyday lives?
Group B: Environmental Ethics & Values
Questions to explore:
In Aldo Leopold's The Land Ethic, Leopold suggests that our obligation to
preserve the diversity of nature is not merely an economic one dealing with
property but a moral and ethical one. How would you describe the relationship
between nature and yourself? Is it one of equal stature, or is there a dominant
partner?
What do you think of the notion of "restoring" a piece of land back to the
wilderness it once was? Is it unreasonable to take land away from people in order
to turn it into a "preserve"? Or do we have a natural obligation to the
environment to reduce the amount of destruction we impose on it?
If an end is ever to be found for rising sea levels, increases in hurricane intensity,
and habitat destruction on a global scale, to what extent do individual human
beings have a responsibility to stop driving? Is this a societal problem that must
be solved on a more international or national scale, or should an end to pollution
start from the ground up?
In America, the group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is
radical group of animal rights activists who might disagree with any sort of
wildlife management. I have three questions that relate to wildlife management
and values. 1. How big are animal rights groups in Russia? 2. How popular is
hunting in Russia? Do any of you hunt? 3. Does Russia have any sort of National
Park or protected land system?
Group C: Environmental Technologies
Questions to explore:
In Russia or in Khabarovsk, how common are “green” buildings, like the one
Rachel mentions in our blog, buildings that are aimed at conserving resources?
Have you been to any?
Do you use recycled water in Khabarovsk or at KSAEL? If so, what do you use it
for, where does it come from, and how is it treated?
In nanotechnology used in the manufacture of everyday products in Russia? Do
people in the general population know that many common products -- ones that
they likely use -- contain nanoparticles?
Group D: Sustainable Lifestyles: Green Living
Questions to explore:
Do you feel that most people know where they get meat from?
Do you know about the sustainability of the meat industries in Russia?
Are there a lot of vegetarians in Russians who abstain for environmental reasons?
Group E: Environmental Policy, Politics, & Activism
Questions to explore:
Are youth in your city taking an active role in conserving the planet? If so how?
What can be done to make recycling truly “green” and sustainable, bearing in
mind social and economic constraints?
Is waste of any kind (electronic, medical, etc.) considered a problem in Russia as
a whole and in Khabarovsk especially?
Group F: Environmental Justice
Questions to explore:
Can you list any environmental injustices that are occurring in Russia that are
directly or indirectly impacting your quality of life?
What sustainable behaviors (e.g. in food choices, recycling, composting, using
fluorescent lights, etc.) do you engage in or not, and why?
How does political or policy change happen where you live?
What kind of groups or organizations are there that are devoted to environmental
causes?