Endless Battle

last year in the United States there was over five million tires purchased. Less than three million can be accounted for. Today, United States only recycles ten percent of their tires. fifty percent are land filled, and the other forty percent are incinerated for electricity. The State of Vermont has on average, two hundred thousand tires stock piled each day. These humongous tire piles we have in California, Ohio, and Pennsylvania are a disgrace. In august of 99, there was a massive fire at a Ohio tire recycling facility. They had roughly twenty million tires in mountain form. Arson's set one of the piles ablaze as a joke, the fire spread to several other piles. The fire lasted five days, it burned five million tires. The harmful gasses and deep black smoke was released into our atmosphere. Reporters claim that the smoke was carried by the wind to nearly sixty miles away. The total clean up cost was more than thirty million dollars and endless effects on our country, good and bad. Had our government taken a stronger stand on landfill safety, this would have never happened. Not only does stockpiling pose as a fire hazard, it also pose as a disease breading ground. Recycling tires make for a profitable industry. I my eyes there should be a real controlled recycling facility in every state and stockpiling should be bane.

The book Cradle to Cradle is a bit difficult to get through. However, I found the last part of the book to be full of information that I had never heard of before. I found it comforting to see a giant corporation like (Ford motor corporation) finally take action and responsibility for environmental degradation that they have inflicted on an area through years of operation. Instead of abandoning the site this company has chosen to find alternative ways of cleanup. By doing this they have opened up new jobs in different fields of expertise. They are also allowing their employees to voice their own personal opinion and ideas on the matter of making the factory more suitable for the environment in which it exists. Collaboration of many is the way the Ford motor company has had success in the early stages of the so called "Green Revolution." The process that they have gone through has revitalized their factory" The Rouge" the biggest manufacturing plant in the world. I cannot imagine walking away from this facility only to find a new area and start all over again. Leaving behind an area not even suitable for indigenous flora and fauna. As I mentioned before this company has not abandoned this site like many companies do over and over again. Not just in the continental United States either. This happens on the global level. I find the problem to be disturbing as I am sure it is to most people.I feel the lack of knowledge is part of the problem. Information like this seems to get swept under the mat and disregarded as unimportant. It's not enticing news such as, an earthquake in China, or the presidential campaign, or the divorce between Madonna and her former husband. The fact is it really is important. Some of it may be ground breaking in the seemingly endless pursuit of sustainability. What if the public were to find out about these innovations that Ford has come up with to return the factory site back to the way it was before there was a River Rouge factory? Is it possible that more information to the public may sway the way they think and how they conduct their daily life to move closer to sustainability and embrace the Green Revolution? I think if this had made headline news the movement toward renewable and clean energy sources would be instilled in everyones mind. This might even bring noticeable awareness to the federal government so they would act on it and do something about it rather then offer up the same ideas to put a band aid fix on old technology. I agree with many of the ideas in this book. I honestly feel that these innovations should be easier for the public to notice them. Instead of a small section of the news paper that may be located in the back maybe it could take up a large section on the front page. bottom line quick easy access to the information because I had no idea what Ford has done to this point until I read this book.

Not so Cradle-to-Cradle

Cradle-to-Cradle has been, by far, the hardest environmental book I have read since I started getting interested in the topic a couple years ago.  This is kind of strange because I had chosen one of the Authors for a presentation, thinking this might be one of my favorite books.  Before even starting the book itself, I had started my research on William McDonough.  The man is very smart, with really creative ideas for sustainable architecture.  However, when starting the research, I didn't really see his ideas as too "out there" to understand.  This book, though, really kind of turns me off to moving toward sustainability and doing things to help the environment.  In just the beginning of the book, I felt as though the authors were attacking everything I have done to try to help out. Though I understand some of the things we have been doing aren't necessarily right, I still believe it is better than just sitting around doing nothing.  It is difficult to even really talk about this book, because its just frustrating to me. The authors make very good points about why being less bad is no good, but the way they try to get that message across just doesn't work for me.  It makes me wonder if other people reading this book might think we are doomed as well.  

The authors really bash those for recycling, in my opinion, and it makes me feel guilty for doing it now.  I don't think that is a good method of trying to help the environment, because many people might just feel that we have done so little and its not worth it to even try that little bit.  There are some major things we need to focus on, such as the topic of efficiency as the authors pointed out.  I got the impression that efficiency is almost a bad thing, but I believe we are just confused, more so, about what efficiency should really mean.  

Cradle-to-Cradle is a great in the sense that it is able to point out what we still really need to work on how to be more sustainable, but I just can't agree with the ways they try to convey their message.  After reading this book, I mostly feel guilty for what I have been trying to do to help the environment, and I feel more depressed about change happening since we are apparently just digging ourselves deeper into a non-sustainable world, as the authors point out. 

The points in this book are pretty great, and important for the public to realize, but I think the authors need to take a different approach in getting those points across to the reader.

"Good leads people toward living spirit and compassionate action. Evil leads people away from life, away from spirit, away from kind and wise action, towards fear, confusion, and emotional and physical violence. A strange form of evil has infected the soul of humanity in the twentieth century, and it bears the name nihilism. Nihilism is the belief that all existence is meaningless and there is no possibility of truth. Nihilism is the hopeless darkness of the spiritually blind. Nihilism blinds us to the interdependence of all beings and concern for their common good. Nihilism leads to greed and sexual predation, and in corporate boardrooms can lead to rape of the environment. Nihilism leads to transgressive and criminal behavior, cynically disregarding the possibility of loving-kindness and heroic action. Nihilism is the attitude of egoic paranoia and amorality that makes murder justifiable. And nihilism has become one of the premier attitudes displayed in popular culture" Alex Grey in The Mission of Art

This quote is not in an environmental book but holds true for our situation on our planet. It is undeniable that our food sources and our shelter here on earth are the most precious things we have. We are inextricably entwined with our planet having our spiritual and physical needs met from the energy flowing through Earth and our awareness of this relationship is what has kept our species going. Through industrialization we have lost this connection in only a few generations. We have turned our back on a relationship that we have forged for thousands of years. Instead of living in nature we now try to control it. Over-population has driven us to the point of unsustainability through lack of natural food sources and loss of shelter. Questionable agricultural and industrial practices have poisoned the earth, air and water, our food supply is tainted, and our children are not even being educated on these problems. They grow up thinking that fast and processed food is the status quo. Who are these monsters who knowingly and selfishly feed the population this garbage. Do they not care themselves, for their children, their children's children, and everyone else on this planet. Has greed trumped all other human qualities?

These nihilistic evildoers have no consideration of our health or the environment. They hold no consideration of the well being of others or themselves. They willingly feed people poison and will continue to do so as long as they are profiting. How can we possibly trust these people to produce food, the very life energy that all beings require when they don't even care about the food they are feeding their own children. The bottom line is that you cant trust people in this world of industrial agriculture. No one is going to look out for what you are consuming or the toxicity of your environment, and in fact will go to great length inorder hide the truth. This is not a isolated problem this is affecting virtually every single American, and in the bigger picture the whole world. Everyone expects food to be safe and clean because well its food. But this couldn't be further from the truth. Care about what you are eating because no one else will.

The Test of Human "Creation"

Of all the materials we have read thus far concerning sustainability, renewability and recyclability, I feel the best ideas are down-to-earth in their complexity, literally. When it comes to creating items for human consumption, industry must begin asking itself, does this thing pass the same test Mother Nature requires of natural organisms. For me, the old saying “reinventing the wheel” comes to mind. Mother Nature has already invented the test and strategy humankind needs to ensure we sustain ourselves and our natural resources. And I’m not just talking about Biomimicry, although I find this science exciting and believe it will play a useful role in the future of sustainable science, I’m talking about a new common sense approach to “creation.”

Imagine a world where waste isn’t waste; a world where items renew themselves because they were created to do so. There is no need to wait for some complex invention that will make this world a reality. All we need to do is change how we choose to invent things. Specifically, we as a society must change our applications regarding the manufacturing of goods. In Cradle to Cradle, William McDonough and Michael Braungart compel us as a society to examine how we manufacture things, they urge to, “…leave aside the old model of product-and-waste, and its dour of offspring.” From cars to blenders, society must give human creations the same rigorist standard of sustainability that Mother Nature gives biological organisms. In nature, a successful organism comes from nature and returns itself completely once its life cycle is complete. In fact, it gives itself so another organism and a new cycle of create can begin anew. This ultimately creates a net positive effect. Now imagine a world that the same could be said about human creations.