As
the human race has ventured into a new century,
conversations and news reports are peppered with
references to our fragile and endangered planet.
The earth is five billion years old, and over the
eons it has endured bombardment by meteors, abrupt
shifts in its magnetic fields, dramatic
realignment of its land masses, and the advance
and retreat of massive ice mountains that reshaped
its surface. Life, too, has proved resilient: In
the more than three and a half billion years first
forms of life emerged, biological species have
come and gone, but life has persisted without
interruption. In fact, no matter what we humans
do, it is unlikely that we could suppress the
chemical forces that drive the earth system.
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Although
we cannot completely disrupt the earth system, we
do affect it significantly as we use energy and
emit pollutants in our quest to provide food,
shelter, and a host of other products for the
world's growing population. We release chemicals
that gnaw holes in the ozone shield that protects
us from harmful ultraviolet radiation, and we burn
fuels that emit heat - trapping gases that may
build up in the atmosphere. Our ever expanding
numbers overtax the agricultural potential of the
land. Tropical forests that are home for millions
of biological species are cleared for agriculture,
grazing, and logging. Raw materials are drawn from
the earth to stoke the engines of the growing
world economy, and we treat the atmosphere, land,
and waters as receptacles for the wastes generated
as we consume energy and goods in our everyday
lives.
It
is in this context that The Global Open University has
been established at Kampala, Uganda under the provisions
of the Universities and other Tertiary
Institutions Act, 2001 of the Government
of Uganda.
with a view to providing proper
education and training to the accomplished
individuals, enabling them to guide the human race
living in a historic transitional period of
burgeoning awareness of the conflict between human
activities and environmental constraints,
preparing to venture into a new century and a new
millennium and to finally help save the fragile
and endangered planet with the natural resources
already overtaxed. The contents of the programmes
and the teaching methodology will enable the
successful participants in developing a neological
and neocratic approach to governance for reducing
the toll the world citizenry have exacted in
supporting daily life and the ever growing
problems on the earth exerting profound pressures
on the Mother Earth and the surrounding
Environment.
The
full time, the part time as well as the distance
learning Programmes conducted by The Global Open University,
Uganda will go a long way in preparing
a competent cadre of young professionals for
catering to the growing needs of business,
industry and government.
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