Returning to Nature

This week's reading in Nature's Operating Instructions provided me with new hope that a sustainable future is not only possible, it is going to happen. Part 1 of this collection of essays reminds us that the answers to the sustainability problems are already being answered in other natural systems. People such as John Todd are already mimicking nature's systems and applying their concepts to human issues. For example, the Eco-machine created in South Burlington uses a small aquatic ecosystem to purify water. Janine Benyus also illustrates in her writings about biomimicry that many other organisms already employ efficient systems that not only enable their survival but contribute to their environment. I loved her story of the hummingbird, which is an elegant example of an efficient, sustainable being. She explains how the tiny bird can fly across 600 miles of open ocean on 2.1 grams of fuel having already pollinated up to 1000 blossoms per day (p.6)!

In all of the readings for this course I have seen a repetition of two main themes: first to reinvent how we look at problems, and second to turn waste into food. At first the idea of sustainability seemed to be a problem for bureaucrats and scientists. New laws would be passed to regulate toxic emissions and unsustainable practices, and I would do my part by buying new energy efficient light bulbs and buying products made from recycled materials. I completely bought into the idea that "less is more" and that reducing was the key to sustainability. Now I realize that the real goal can be more than just being "less bad" as William McDonough would say, and in fact rebuild in a way that contributes to the environment.

Other natural systems are living proof that waste can equal food. What are we humans waiting for? I agree with Benyus that experts in unrelated disciplines such as engineering and biology should come together and look at sustainability problems together. The solutions are there for us to find, but we have to ask different questions and look at the problems in untraditional ways. After all, we are part of nature and must therefore work with it and not against it.

Farm for Your Life

The NCGA, or National Corn Growers Association, has a rather compelling website. They state the many valuable and viable attributes of corn, it's uses and how it can move us into a new ideal. "...A reliable supplier of food, feed, fiber and fuel for the United States and the world marletplace." Ethanol, a renewable fuel derived from corn, already stands to produce 11.5 billion gallons annually.* Amazing! Domestic jobs, no more foreign fuel, a resurgence in farms! The NCGA is fully motivated to relax our dependance on foreign fuels and diversify and accumulate domestic jobs....what could be better? The incredible, edible corn.
As a country, we utilize corn in almost every product we use from day to day. It is very vital to our society...more than we realize. Maybe it's time to rethink...
According to Wessels, "large industrial farms produce(s) a limited number of crops -- low diversity -- and consume(s) great quantities of petroleum..." (p 79). This is not necessarily a turn towards the future that I think we as society should be looking for. As a culture, unhealthy, filler foods consumer us, products and materials overwhelm us. Providing a large part of these, corn may be to thank, or not.
Again referencing Wessels, farms were once deverse, offering many crops and options for farmers to explore. Agribusiness has changed how farms fuction and who controls them. As lobbyists and policy makers push for business, a way of life held in the highest regard in our country has been diminished under their control. If we attempt to take government out of farms, they will suffer. Less funding could destroy them completely. What should be done? What can we do to regress our alliance...to corn?

*www.NCGA.com

Too Little, too late?

I certainly hope not. The readings brought a few very interesting points up that cause me to be fearful of the future for the human race. For instance, the key to survival of anything on our planet is truly species richness. As discussed by Wessels, this is dependent on a few very key factors:

- stable physical environment
- the amount of physical structure in an ecosystem
- an ecosystem that finds the balance of species levels of competition

Well, the species of homo sapiens could be in a world of trouble if we don't find some equilibrium. The Earth as we all know is ever changing and evolving, with natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, and the recent destruction in Haiti. We've proved humans are resilient, but natural disasters are like death and taxes... they're going to happen. Yet we create our own destruction by means of polluting, not recycling and re-using, then force war upon one another. Our own ecosystem is actually being destroyed at an unrecoverable unsustainable rate. There is no question about it, we as humans want to ever increase our status among ourselves in our environment, but at what cost? "...real progress will be attained only if we develop a socioeconomic model that fosters diversity and energy conservation and achieves a dynamic equilibrium in which the amount of materials and energy consumed annually remains the same and can be supported by the biosphere. " - (Wessels, 97-98)
McDonough summarizes that an ant, small and seemingly harmless has a more effective and sustainable lifestyle and has for millions of years, (as it nourishes plants, animals, and soil...) whereas human in a little more than a century have brought decline to nearly every ecosystem on the planet. I worry that if drastic measures are not taken into consideration by both law enforcement and the individual, what chance of sustaining does the human race truly stand? That to me is a notion of a truly sad nature.
"Do Whatever you can, no matter how inconvenient, to limit your 'consumption.'" (McDonough, 6)

"Cradle to Cradle" and the Toxins Inside of It

Upon picking up the book “Cradle to Cradle”, one can’t help but notice that this book is different from others. The pages have a different weight, texture, sheen, even smell (I had to check). The introduction of the book explains that it is not printed on paper but on plastic resins. This enables the book to be waterproof, durable, and recyclable. Are books like these more sustainable? The authors believe that a tree “is not a fitting resource to use in producing so humble and transient a substance as paper.” Will we be better off with plastic books, or will this be a problem in the future?

The authors, William McDonough and Michael Braungart talk about off gassing and the presence of toxins in many items we come into contact with everyday. I am familiar with this because of research I completed when shopping for my first mattress. When people shop for mattress most think about size and firmness. Many fail to realize the amount of toxic substances in the foam and covering. These toxins are released by off gassing and are inhaled by the people sleeping on said mattress. Now one can avoid this problem by buying a mattress from a company like Hastens which uses all organic products like horsehair, cotton, and wool, but this comes at a price. A Hastens bed costs anywhere from $4,500 to $60,000. That being said, I am currently breathing in toxins every night.

The reading from last class dealt with GDP and how it wasn’t a good indicator of economic growth as it accounted for all growth either positive or negative. We can’t honestly look at an increase in revenue from a mattress plant and an increase in revenue from a cancer center and call it progress. If we look at the mattress example, we can see just how expensive it is to be environmentally friendly. We have to look at these costs and ask ourselves “What is the best choice for the long term?”. Too frequently we forget to think about the long term effects of our choices. Someone may be ok with buying a pair of shoes dyed with heavy metals, but would they buy them for their children?

What Can I Do? Humble Yourself Before Mother, Earth.

It took me a a fair amount of time with my own thoughts, friends, and a quick look outside for me to decide this was a course I decided would be incredibly important to take. It actually reminded me of high school when you are told you need to take Health & Fitness, and you sit there and think to yourself, "I'm healthy enough, I'm plenty active... I must be fit too." Then you get down to the "nitty gritty" information, and it turns out to be the kind of stuff (however awkward) that you carry with you for the rest of your life! Not only the ideas and practices you've been taught, but the ideas you've formulated on your own as well. Similarly, I pondered as I was seeking out coursework for my Associates in Business, all you hear about is the declining state of health in which our globe suffers. I thought, "What Can I do?" It is very true that "the Earth's regenerative capacity can no longer keep up with our demands... We're no longer living off the annual interest provided by the Earth's bounty... and eroding the planets natural capital," (Suzuki) and if we continue in this manner we've polluted the Earth past the point of recovery, so what can I do? What can any of us do...?

Through searching the Internet Machine a bit, I found a link that we could all spend 2 minutes on, as it is both helpful to our current issues and in laymen terms as it was created for children. http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?s=11247975&clienttype=printable
I do affirm following these little steps, in the early stages of a concerted effort to begin to change our lifestyles, we can in fact attempt more invasive ideas such as "cradle-to-cradle" and electric cars. We all need to humble ourselves a bit, for an easier transition to occur. As we all had to crawl before we could walk and if we can subscribe to the idea that maybe we can make a difference, we're already heading in the right direction. "The effect of one person bringing his or her own bag to the the supermarket may seem inconsequential in the global context, a tiny drop in the bucket. But if we all brought our own bags, the total impact would be enormous, in the same way that enough drops can fill a bucket." (Suzuki)

Keep Diversity Alive

Its just one of those days, where I sit down to write and just continuously draw blanks. So i was flipping through the syllabus and saw a couple questions from a week or two ago, the reading questions running down the side of the page. These questions are pretty simply asked but evoked more thought than just about anything else today, so I am going to answer one to the best of my ability.

The question is, "Explain whether you think genetic engineering enhances or diminishes biodiversity?"

I say that genetic engineering diminishes biodiversity, this is because its like putting survival of the fittest on fast forward. As far as i can tell, genetic engineering is taking all the qualities (for example) of the plant species that you want and enhancing them and sometimes also removing the characteristics that are not desired. Ultimately, you skip the natural reproduction stage, creating an organism that is designed the way we see fit and taking it out of mother natures hands.
Finally you end up with a species that blooms early, flowers later and survives colder weather, than you take that one seed and reproduce it a million times and plant an entire field of the same plant, genetic copies of each other, same as the one in the row to the right and to the left. These plants are so similar to one another even rite down to the genetic make up, this is the opposite of biodiversity.
There is nothing diverse about this at all, these plants would not even continue to grow this way if humans were not around to continue to plant them, at this point they are ridiculously unnatural. Biodiversity is there to fill in the gaps, when one species climate changes only the one that can stand the heat, or most times the opposite, will stick around and continue to survive on this planet, this is why we need the differences, if everything were the same we would all have the same weaknesses as well. I say keep the diversity alive and well.

David Suzuki asks us what you can do He discusses voting for people, who are ecologically literate,telling us that we can “speak up” or speak out on the topic. We need become agents of change using the tools of the day like videos on the internet, writing in our own blogs, or creating a web site. We can take action and become volunteers in green organizations or volunteering as agents of change, writing letters to the powers that be. It’s all about getting the word out!!! Companies that do not follow the new sustainability models we are creating need our attention the best kind of attention we can give them is to Boycott Them. I believe that a boycott is a way to cast a powerful message not only to a company, but the rest a world that we as consumers will not stand for these unethical policies any longer. So often people’s attitude is “let’s not make waves”, but I say when we make waves, more people take notice and without waves, others will not notice the changes on the surface of the water of our culture... The more we speak out against environmental injustice, and the more we bring attention to companies that aren’t considering sustainability and the earth first, then to hell with them! The best way to get rid of that kind of ignorance is not buying their goods. It seems to make good sense, to purchase goods and services from companies who model cradle to cradle and cradle to grave environmental philosophies. These are companies who have taken the time and made the investment, they are real stake holders in an emerging sustainable model.

Suzuki also makes mention of choosing a green career. He mentions that it’s clear that the scope and scale of environmental challenge is so large that whatever skills that you possess, there’s certainly environmental work available. And on that topic I was listening to a radio interview a few days ago on vpr.
Here is the link to the interview: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121380416&ft=1&f=1006

It seems these two guys Eben Bayer with classmate Gavin McIntyre invented Greensulate insulation and Ecocradle packaging — both made from mushrooms. Bayer came up with the idea as a student at Rensselaer Polytechnic in New York and developed it. Now the two have a company called Ecovative Design. Fascinating discovery they made working together to come up with sustainable models for use in today’s marketplace. It's an amazing story. The insulation is completely green and compostable and it’s also fireproof. Read the interview its pretty cool.

Suzuki’ list of “Ten Policies” is a great Laundry list or “to-Do” list of ideas that can really make a difference. Let’s say we could use this list aas a model for change so when we are having conversations with friends and family, buying goods and services in the marketplace or attending civic or cultural functions we could put our list to work. We could take the time to do a little research into each of the ten categories and implement our findings in the way we think about the earth and use these as “imperatives in how we communicate with others.
So taking my own advice I decided to look into Suzuki’s point #9 on ecological literacy, (which by the way was my platform last week concerning changes in the educational system of our country as way to implement real sustainability) He mentions the Educational document from Australia titled “Educating for a Sustainable Future:A National Environmental Education Statement for Australian Schools”. And because we have almost instant access to information these days it took me approximately .27 seconds to locate on my favorite browser.
Well this PDF is just a jewel, a real visionary like approach to changing Australia’s’ educational system to make all the stakeholders more ecologically literate. As Suzuki mentions that reading and writing are simply not enough any more. If one is to be literate in our new paradigm, one need be aware about where our drinking water comes from, where there garbage goes, and how climate change really works.The Australian document puts responsibility for these emerging issues of global importance where they belong, at the feet of administrators, teachers, parents and students. The goals of the report are “Environmental education for sustainability involves approaches to teaching and learning that integrate goals for conservation, social justice, cultural diversity, appropriate development and democracy into a vision and a mission of personal and social change. This involves developing the kinds of civic values and skills that empower all citizens to be leaders in the transition to a sustainable future” imagine an educational system whose goal is to develop different values and skill sets that make sustainability a priority. It sounds like a wonderful idea to me. Literacy is one of the greatest gifts we can bestow upon our culture. Once awakened to the urgency of these issues, it will be much easier to create more systemic leverage in much less time

Here is the Website for the Paper: http://www.environment.gov.au/education/publications/sustainable-future.html

DK