# Introduction

Welcom to the project Get a Grip!

The human race changes our planet rapidly. The impact of our daily consumption- and production behaviour has such a severe impact on the planet that some scientist believe we are now living in a new era called the Antropocene. After geological periods like the Pleistocene and the Holocene we have now entered a period in geological history where people (antropo) are changing the planet in an irreversible way.

The size scale of today's global environmental problems can give us a feeling that we are not able to have any influence on them. Local actions seem to have no impact on the global issues. The goal of the project 'Get a grip' is to build bridges between global thinking and local actions. By gaining insight in the effect of local actions on global processes like climate change, food supply, exhaustion recources, overfishing, biodiversity loss, migration etc. can be understood better. The project focuses on the consequenses that personal choices can have on global problems. For example: what is the relationship between eating a bag of Lays chips and the deforestation of tropical rainforest in Indonesia?

This project has been inspired by the goals of the organisation (International Year of Global Understanding): http://www.global-understanding.info/. “Sustainable development is a global challenge, but solving it requires transforming the local – the way each of us lives, consumes, and works.” said former ICSU President and Nobel Laureate Yuan-Tseh Lee.