GLOBAL GOALS REPORT

Student A
I&S
Global Goals Report
Global Goals Report Student A, I&S, E8A

INTRODUCTION

In September 2000, the United Nations (UN), agreed to 8 Millennium Development Goals. These
goals were put in place in order to make the world a better place for all its citizens. These goals will
eradicate extreme global poverty, hunger, and inequalities and every child on this planet will have
access to primary education. In the year 2000, 8 Millennium Development Goals were developed.
These goals targeted 8 key areas that needed to improve.
The 8 Millennium Development Goals were:

1. Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty

2. Achieve Universal Primary Education
3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
4. Reduce Child Mortality
5. Improve Maternal Health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability
8. Develop a Global Partnership for Development

Each of these goals achieved something in the 15 years that it

was in place. For example, Goal #1 almost halved the number of people living with less than $1.25 a
day. Goal #2 was just missed. 2015 saw an enrolment rate of 91%, so close to the goals 100% target.
One of Goal #7 targets was even achieved in 2010, 5 years ahead of schedule. This was done by
giving 2.6 billion people access to clean, piped water. These 8 goals were assessed in 2015 and 17
new Global Goals were established in 2015 based on the data and statistics of the Millennium
Development Goals. Once these goals are achieved in 2030 they will have an enormous impact on
the world. The world will be cleaner, kinder, more sustainable and extremely developed. These goals
will make the world a better place for our future generations. When comparing the Global Goals to
the Millennium Development Goals I found it simple to see that the Global Goals are much more
specific and in-depth while the Millennium Development Goals cover the worlds problems in a
much wider range.
The Global Goals are:

1. No Poverty 10. Reduce Inequalities

2. Zero Hunger 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
3. Good Health and Well-being 12. Responsible Consumption and Production
4. Quality Education 13. Climate Action
5. Gender Equality 14. Life below Water
6. Clean Water and Sanitation 15. Life on Land
7. Clean and Affordable Energy 16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
8. Decent Work and Economic Growth 17. Partnership for the Goals
9. Industry, Innovation and
Infrastructure

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In this report, I will be mostly focusing

on Global Goal 15, Life on Land. I will
describe this goal along with the
different actions that I have taken to
help the UN achieve this goal. I also
took part in the GESS Sustainability
Week. During this week both GESS
campuses focused around the 17 Global
Goals and what can be done to achieve
them. I will describe and reflect on my
experiences of this week. (See page 7).
Overall, with this report, I hope to
create awareness about the 17 Global
Goals. Specifically, Global Goal 15 Life
on Land. I also want to teach people
that anyone can take some form of
action, no matter how small, to help achieve
these 17 goals. Because one small action can be the start of something that grows bigger and bigger
and eventually can change the world.

1. GLOBAL GOAL 15 Life on Land

2.1 What is the goal trying to achieve?

As the name gives away Global Goal #15 is all about life on land. Its main goal is;
Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably
manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and
halt biodiversity loss. So, goal #15 is all about stopping deforestation and biodiversity
loss in its tracks, preserving all the Earths eco-systems, and halting desertification (the
process of fertile land turning into desert) and degradation (the process of fertile land
becoming infertile). Annually, between 3.5 and 7 billion trees are cut down.
IntactForests.org did an investigation and found that the most common reason for
cutting trees is timber harvesting. Agricultural expansion and wildfires follow in second
and third. Mass deforestation has seriously dangerous consequences. Biodiversity loss is one of
them. Forests are the home for many animals and plants alike some of which are unknown to
humans. Destroying what they have called home for centuries can lead to their extinction. For
example, Indonesian forests cover just one percent of the Earths land surface yet are home to 10%
of the worlds known plants species, 12% of mammal species these include the endangered
orangutan as well as the Sumatran tigers and rhinos and 17% of the worlds known bird species. If
these forests are destroyed then these animals will have nowhere to go. In Indonesia, a common
and simple way to clear densely forested areas is to burn them. This is very dangerous for the
animals that live within these forests especially because the fires spread rapidly. If Global Goal #15 is
achieved it would stop these unnecessary, dangerous and sometimes even illegal fires. Deforestation

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in Indonesia is only one of the many problems that Life on Land is trying to achieve. Desertification
and degradation are also big problems that Global Goal #15 is trying to solve.

2.2 What sub-targets make up the Global Goal Life on Land?

Global Goal #15 has a total of 12 sub-targets. Some of these targets have a specific year that they
need to be achieved by (2020 or 2030) while others are very general goals that should be achieved
as soon as possible and before 2030. Examples of some of the targets of Global Goal #15 are: By
2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater
ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains and drylands, in line with
obligations under international agreements. As well as By 2030, combat desertification, restore
degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to
achieve a land-degradation-neutral world. The complete list of all the targets of Global Goal #15
along with all the other goals and their targets can be found on www.globalgoals.org. Most of them
outline how Global Goal #15 should protect the Earths different ecosystems and all the plant animal
species in them. It is very noticeable that these targets are very detailed and are filled with
information. In total, the 17 Global Goals have 169 targets like the ones above. Every one of these
targets along will help our world become a better place. Not just for us but for our future
generations as well.

2.3 Related Millennium Development Goal

Each of the 17 Global Goals is somehow connected to one are more of the 8 Millennium
Development Goals (SDG). For example, Goal 10 Gender Equality is connected to SDG 3 Promote
Gender Equality and Empower Women because they both clearly state that both genders, men and
women, should be treated equally. One gender shall not be better, more important, then the other.
Life on Land is all about protected the Earth. So is MDG, Ensure Environmental Sustainability. Both
these goals are very closely related and were both put in place to keep our Earth and its
environment clean and healthy.

2. BACKGROUND ON ISSUES
Global goal #15 was put in place to save our environment. There are many things that are happening
everywhere around the world today that is affecting our environment in bad ways. One of these
problems are the forest fires in Indonesia, as explained above. But these fires are not the only things
that are increasing biodiversity loss.

2.1 What are the problems that caused GG #15 to be put in place?
The biggest problems that our environment is facing to are:

1. Pollution (Air, land/soil and water)

2. Climate Change & Global Warming

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3. Deforestation
4. Overpopulation
5. Biodiversity Loss
6. Littering and Landfills
7. Natural Disasters

2.2 What statistics are there for these problems?

Biodiversity loss is a very big problem in our world. An investigation into biodiversity loss was done
in 2011. Scientists estimate that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct
every 24 hours. (huffingtonpost.com) This is really bad news as most of these animals and plants are
virtually unknown to humans. Every 24 hours animals and plants that we dont even know about are
disappearing from the face of the Earth. This, to me, is absolutely horrible. Yes, organisations like
WWF are doing their best to stop the extinction of animals that we know about but what about
those animals that are already so close to extinction that we dont even know about them?

Climate Change and Global Warming are also very environmentally destructive. Climate change is
warming up our planet can causing droughts that are lasting longer and are hotter than ever before.
Hot, long-lasting droughts mean that a lot of plants and crops cant grow because there isnt enough
moisture for them. When crops start to die the people, usually entire communities, who depend on
these crops as a source of food and or income will become poor and hungry. In places such as West
Africa, there has been a drought going on for years. The UN has declared that some parts of Somalia
are dealing with extreme famine. This means that are least 1 in 3 children are severely malnourished
and are very close to dying of hunger. The raging wars and daily gunfights across Somalia arent
helping them either. But the UN is doing everything in their power to help. Thanks to the UN 1,841
refugees had access to basic health facilities at the end of 2015.

3. TAKING ACTION

3.1 What action can I take?
As part of this unit, we were told to take some sort of action that would help the UN achieve goal 15.
As Goal 15 focuses of clean lands everywhere, picking up litter is a
major action that helps the world become cleaner and
healthier. Bianca and I found many litter-picking organisations
around Singapore. This is very promising as these
organisations are keeping Singapore clean and healthy for its
residents. If every single country in the entire world had
organisations that clean up litter like we have here in
Singapore then litter wouldnt even be a problem.
The first action that we took towards achieving our global goal
was a litter pick up event at Cashew MRT which the
organisation Keep clean, Singapore organised. Cashew MRT
next to a public park so Keep Clean, Singapore knew it was
very important to keep this park clean for the public. We spent

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one hour on a Saturday morning (Saturday 13th May)

cleaning the park and sidewalks around the MRT. There
were some teachers and students from GESS there as
well as some local Singaporean people who either had
heard of the event or were part of Keep Clean, Singapore.
In total, I think that there were around 20 people that
morning. Together we filled 9 garbage bags with rubbish
as well as a couple of recycling bags filled recyclable
materials. We found that the most rubbish along the
sidewalk. There were a lot of burnt cigarette stumps and small pieces of plastic wrapping. There
were also a lot of used tissues and bottle caps. Most of the bottle caps looked like they had been
there awhile as they were covered in layers of dirt. The park was really clean. This was probably
because it is cleaned often by caretakers. Even though it was quite clean we, again found a lot of
cigarette stumps and bottle caps. We even found a bike tire. Once we reached the end point and
everyone had arrived we took a group picture. Only then did I
realise that the foreign minister of Singapore had also joined us
today. I was really surprised that a minister would even think
about making time to join a local litter clean up.

Overall that day was really rewarding, especially seeing how

much rubbish we found in just one morning. This is why we
decided to join Keep Clean, Singapore again the weekend after
our first action, at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. This event was a
lot more organised. Firstly, we even day to sign up before the day
so that the organisers would know how many people were going to come. Due to communication
issues, we were There were also many more people. So many people in fact that we were split into
two different groups. Our group was sent into the Reserve. We were all given long trash pickers but
we barely used them. I think I picked up maybe 3 pieces of trash throughout the entire morning. This
is very promising as it means that the Reserve is very, very clean.
In the Reserve, we were sent up the main path until we were
about halfway to the summit. Because there were also elderly
people in our group we didnt go up all the way to the summit.
The path was quite steep so walking all the way to the summit
would have been too hard for some of our group members.
Once we reached the half way point we made our way back
down again but this time we took the stairs that ran alongside
the main path. Again, there was barely any rubbish what-so-
ever. Even though it felt like I was there for nothing I was very
happy that there was almost no rubbish. Clean parks are so
much better for the public and the environment then dirty,
disgusting parks. Once we reached our starting point again we were greeted by the smiling faces of
the organisers of the event. They were so happy that school students joined them as they thought it
was very important that the younger not just to older generation knew that it was important to keep
our environment clean. We were even rewarded with a goodie bag with fresh foods and bottled
water. We all had an amazing time that morning. There may have been less rubbish to pick up
compared to our first action but the smiles of the organisers were so rewarding for us. We are very
happy and proud that we went that morning.

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We went to Boat Quay for our third group action. On car-free Sunday, May 28th, we joined Keep
Clean, Singapore for another litter picking event. This event was by far
the most organised. Again, there were too many people so we split into
two groups. One would go along the river while the other would search
the side streets by the river for rubbish. Even though we had received e-
tickets from the organisers we were, once again, not on the list. But after
some on-the-spot registration, the four of us were put in group two.
Before we left the organisers of the event showed us some pictures of
rubbish that was found in the river. There were a lot of pictures of fish,
as well as other marine creature, caught in plastic bags. These animals
choked on the plastic and eventually died. While I looked at these
pictures I was very disheartened and I could not explain why someone
would just throw their plastic bags and other rubbish into the river like that. After our briefing, we
were sent off. At first, we walked along the road looking through the bushes for rubbish. In the
bushes, we found a lot of cigarette stumps. This was really saddening
as there were enough rubbish bins around the area for the smokers to
put their leftover stumps into. But they just didnt seem to care, they
just threw them into the bushes because it was easier than walking a
couple of extra steps to the rubbish bin. Another sad thing was that
most of those cigarette stumps looked as if they had been lying
around for a while. This would mean that the area doesnt get cleaned
up often enough. Slowly, we started making our way around into the
alleys. There were a lot of bars and restaurants around. Leftover
plates and bottles were everywhere. Our group leader explained to us
that these bars and restaurants had been open very late last night. This
was why the empty bottles and other rubbish was still lying around. He told us that the owners of
the bars and restaurants usually only start tidying the place up in the late afternoon. By then most of
the rubbish will already have been blown into the nearby river. This is why our job here is very
important, he said. We made our way through the deserted streets picking up beer bottle after beer
bottle. Once we crossed the river the area was visibly cleaner. This was probably because the
cleaners obviously would spend more time cleaning the well-used public walkway compared to the
almost always deserted side street. The walkway also went along the front of the Singapore
Parliament building, more reason to keep that area clean. We walked all the way to the National
Museum, which was where we were told to stop. We had completed our route and done our job. It
was a hot day but we did manage to find 16.82kg of general waste along with 11.2kg of recyclable
waste. And this was only in a small area for an hour or so. I cant even begin to imagine how much
rubbish we would have found if we had worked a little longer and had searched a bigger area.

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As our final group action, we made booklets out of recycled/unwanted paper. We (Nicole, Bianca,
Nienke and I) searched the entire school for scrap and unwanted paper. We took all the paper from
the library and even asked some of our teachers for theirs. Two papers were then stuck to together
so that the blank side was facing outwards. There was a line ruled through the middle (horizontally
and vertically) then cut. These were what would make up the pages of our
booklets. The pages were put into piles of 10 and were hole-punched in one
corner. We used string to bind the pages together. On the cover of some of
the booklets pictures relating to Global Goal #12 and #15. We gave away
these booklets at our stands during Sustainability Action Week.
At the Junior Campus, the booklets were very popular and everyone wanted
to take one. We quickly ran out of the booklets with already drawn covers.
Nicole and Nienke even were drawing covers while running their stall
because everyone wanted them. After the Junior Campus event, we had
almost no booklets left and the school had no more scrap paper left either.
We had to take scrap paper from home to make new booklets. Luckily Mr
Soeldner also had some past assessments and worksheets that we could
use.
At the main campus, the booklets were also very popular, especially with
the students from grade 6. Sadly, the older students werent really interested
in them.

Plastic has been a big problem around the world. Especially when it is not disposed correctly and is
left around. Plastic takes a very long time to degrade or deteriorate. On average a plastic bottle
takes about 450 years to biodegrade. Some bottles even take 1000 years before being fully
degraded! This is a very long time, which is why I decided to use plastic bottles for something else
after they had been thrown out. I searched the glass and plastic bottle bin and found plastic bottle
after plastic bottle. I found that the bottom of the plastic bottles were great pots. I found this an
amazing idea for something that we could hand out to students and teacher alike during
Sustainability Week. After cutting up all the bottles I realised that the tops could also be used for
pots. More specifically, hanging pots. While cutting more ideas came to me about how I could use as
much as the plastic bottles as possible. In total, I made 41 pencil holders, vases as well as hanging
and standing pots. Almost everything was gone after we came back from the Junior Campus
(explained further below). I made even more for our stand at the Main Campus and most of these
were also gone by the end of the day. I had used plants and soil from my garden to put into the pots
because I had too many plants and not enough nutrients in the soil. If I hadnt taken these plants out
of the garden most of them would have died. I am very happy that I decided to put my time and
effect into the making of the pots because if I hadnt then the plastic bottles would have ended up in
the landfill and left there for at least 400 years.

All five of these actions which I took to help the world achieve Global Goal #15 were very interesting
to do. Anyone could take action by joining organisations like Keep Clean, Singapore at their events.
The thing with Keep Clean, Singapore is that they only organise events like the three litter pickings I
attended in the month of May. It is annual but only for one month a year. I think that Keep Clean,
Singapore should organise events year-round. And make sure visit the really dirty places, like Boat
Quay, multiple times. By doing this they would make sure that Singapore stays as clean as it can.
Because cleaning up a couple of different locations for only one month a year does clean things up a
bit, temporarily, but it isnt enough to make sure that Singapore stays clean, permanently.

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3.2 Sustainability Action Week

On the 31st of May, the entire grade 8 of the Euro-sec took a bus
to the GESS Junior Campus. We were all in groups depending on
which Global Goal we were taking action for. Each group set up a
stand to show and inform the grade 5 students about each of our
goals. I had taken my plastic bottle pots with plants in them with
me because I wanted to hand them out to the grade 5 students. I
figured that if they could take something from my stand home
that was related to Global Goal #15 then they would remember
what I talked to them about. Handing out the plants made the
stand more interesting and grabbed their attention. Bianca and I
also had the idea of letting people plant their own sunflowers.
The weekend before, Bianca bought sunflower seeds and soil
and, to save us from needing to buy more pots, cupcake
holders/wrappers. Once holes had been poked into the bottom
they were perfect pots for the new sunflower seeds. Two seeds
were planted on Sunday and we found that, with the right care,
the sunflower grew really quickly. Stems and leaves were already
sprouting and growing before the end of the week. With some
posters which were printed and laminated (so they could be used
again next year), our stand looked very interesting. The grade 5s
loved planting their own sunflowers and choosing which plant pot they wanted to take home. I
found it really nice to see how engaged they were. They really wanted to know about our goal and
why we were doing all of these things related to plants. The pictures on the right were taken the day
we were at the Junior Campus.

On June the second we, once again, ran a stand about

our Global Goal. This time we were in the Forum at
the Main Campus. Because it was during lunch time it
was a lot harder to get students to come to our stand.
They were all too busy having lunch. Teachers and
parents were enthusiastic about our stand though.
They were definitely impressed that we had put so
much effort into our stand. Between the two different
events at the junior and main campus, Bianca found
some foods with different labels on it. These labels
were of different sustainable and safe food and
packaging organisations. The plastic bottle pots and
sunflower planting definitely werent as popular as
they were at the junior campus but when people did
come to the stand they seemed more interested in what
we wanted to talk to them about. The booklets were still
very popular though. Again, the ones with the ready-made covers were taken very quickly while the
blank ones werent interesting for the people who came to our stand. At the Main Campus, a lot
more people came to our stand. They were very impressed by what we had done. This was very
great for us to hear. On the right, you can see us at our Main Campus stand.

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3.3 Reflecting on my experiences

Overall, I found this unit very interesting. Especially that we had to take some sort of action to help
Singapore achieve our Global Goal. In total, I took 5 actions, 3 of which were events organised by
council organisations. The other 2 were actions that my friends and I thought of ourselves. I really
liked doing these actions as you could see what kind of change that you were making. I felt very
proud to take part of the 3 different litter picking organisations. The organisers were very happy
with our help and that made it all worthwhile.
Sustainability Action Week was also a very fun and worthwhile experience. We taught a lot of
students, parents and teachers about our goal and what they can do the achieve Global Goal #15. I
felt very pleased when people came to our stand and planted a sunflower or took one of my plants. I
was very nice to see how excited the students were, especially the grade five students. They couldnt
wait to take their plants home and look after them themselves. All the time that I put into the
making of the pots was definitely worth it.

CONCLUSION
The UN has implemented the 17 Global Goals for various reasons. One way that Global Goal #15
could be achieved is by raising awareness. Telling people about what is happening to our
environment could be the first step to people taking some sort of action to make our environment
healthier, cleaner and more sustainable for us but also for future generations. We shouldnt just
keep the Earth clean and healthy for us but also for the people who will come after us. Our children
and their children, everyone who comes after them deserve a clean and healthy environment just as
much as we do.
As mentioned above, awareness is an easy way to achieve all 17 Global Goals. This could be done by
making sure that all school children learn about the Global Goals like grade 8 has this year. Thanks to
this unit I have learned a lot of new things. I have also taken 5 forms of action. If I didnt know about
the Global Goals I would not have done this. I will now also put more thought into what I buy and
throw away because I know what kind of impact it can have on the environment. If all around the
world students learnt about the Global Goals then the UN and the world would be one step closer to
achieving all 17 Global Goals.

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Works Cited

Donovan Travis. "UN Environment Programme: 200 Species Extinct Every Day, Unlike Anything
Since Dinosaurs Disappeared 65 Million Years Ago." The Huffington Post.
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GG #15: Life on Land. Digital image. Government Office on Sweden. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 June
2017. <http://www.government.se/government-policy/the-global-goals-and-the-2030-
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"Global Focus: Somalia." UNHCR. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 June 2017.

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"Goal 15: Life on Land." The Global Goals. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 June 2017.
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"Goal 15: Protecting Life on Land." Global Citizen. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 June 2017.
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"How Long Does It Take a Plastic Bottle to Biodegrade?" Educational Articles and Tips from
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"How Many Species Are We Losing?" WWF. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 June 2017.
<http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/biodiversity/biodiversity/>.

"How Many Trees Are but down Each Year?" The Understory. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 June 2017.
<https://www.ran.org/how_many_trees_are_cut_down_every_year>.

"Intact Forest Landscapes." Intact Forest Landscape. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 June 2017.
<http://www.intactforests.org/>.

Millennium Development Goals. Digital image. Global Concerns Classroom. N.p., n.d. Web. 05
June 2017. <http://gcc.concernusa.org/water/learn-flash-sustainable-development-
goals/>.

Mongabay. "Why Are Rainforests Being Destroyed?" Mongabay.com. N.p., 24 June 2004. Web.
02 June 2017. <http://kids.mongabay.com/elementary/501.html>.

"The Global Goals." The Global Goals. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2017.
<http://www.globalgoals.org/>.

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The 17 Global Goals. Digital image. Global Citizen. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 June 2017.
<https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/campaign/global-goals/>.

Red 'Take Action' button. Digital image. MSBA. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 June 2017.
<http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Welcome-to-the-2017-Legislative-
Session.html?soid=1115286852988&aid=A4seQQ5jLzY>.

"What Are Top 25 Environmental Concerns?" Conserve Energy Future. N.p., 24 Dec. 2016.
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concerns.php>.

"What Are They?" UN Millennium Project | About the MDGs. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2017.
<http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/goals/>.

Pictures:

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