This unit is designed to help high schools students to explore the relationship between U.S. foreign policy and the global environment. At the core of the unit is a framework of four distinct options that allows students to consider a range of alternatives for U.S. policy toward global environmental problems. Using this framework, students are compelled to ponder a wide variety of considerations that enter into the discussion of U.S. policy on this critical international issue. Background readings, written with the complexities of the debate on the environment in mind, are included. Part I briefly explains the causes and effects of the leading global environmental problems, while Part II discusses the environmental agenda of the international community and examines the connection between energy policy and the environment. The unit includes a five-day lesson plan and student activities. The lesson plan begins by introducing students to the policy dimension of recent findings about ozone depletion, then engages them in a role play based on the June 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. After weighing environmental issues in a global context, students evaluate U.S. options in the course of a two-day simulation. Finally, students apply what they have learned in developing their own option for U.S. policy. (DB)