Global Change Seminar "It's Your Move!"
Group Exercise

Forced Choice Ranking - Global Problems

          Distribute copies of this exercise, and take a few minutes for each person, individually, to do the ranking as described below. When you've finished, use the Talking Stick and go round the group sharing your responses. Then spend some time discussing why each person chose what they chose and what struck each one about the exercise.

1. Consider the global problems identified in the following step and then rank them. Give a "1" to the world's most pressing problem, a "2" as the next most pressing problem. etc. While they all seem to be problems, many are of equal weight and are inter-related. Nonetheless, there is something to be learned from forcing a ranking. To do the ranking, compare each choice against all the others by pairs.
   
2. _____ overpopulation
   _____ access to clean water and sanitation
   _____ pollution
   _____ diseases (AIDS, etc.)
   _____ racism
   _____ ignorance
   _____ fundamentalism
   _____ climate change
   _____ failed governance
   _____ consumerism/materialism
   _____ malnutrition and hunger
   _____ energy
   _____ corruption
   _____ nuclear proliferation
   _____ destruction of the environment and habitat/species loss
   _____ globalization of commerce
   _____ terrorism and armed conflict
   _____ poverty
   
   
   

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   Discussion Questions
   
   

   • What are the primary criteria or values that drove your internal ranking process?
   • What surprised you most about the way other people did the ranking?