3/23: Particular Problems and Solutions (cont.): Aquatic Biodiversity, Extinction, Soil, Agriculture, and Food

READINGS:

• Textbook, Ch. 11;
• Great Pacific Plastic Garbage Patch
• Textbook, Ch. 12

Word Count: 1117

Many counterarguments to environmentalist efforts go a little something like “that would cost too much to implement”, “increased regulations would hurt small business”, or “the world economy would crash”. On a case by case basis these arguments may be correct; however, in many cases the better phrase would be “this isn’t profitable in the short-term”. This nearsighted view is particularly tangible when examining food production and more specifically aquaculture. Industrialized agriculture is environmentally and economically unstable due to topsoil erosion, desertification, soil salinization, climate change, and a reduction in biodiversity which are all products of quarter over quarter human profitability goals. Ocean’s are suffering a similar fate with 50% of coral reefs having been destroyed from coastal development, overfishing, pollution, rising ocean temperatures, and ocean acidification; in other words, human activities that did not factor in potential future repercussions. While there are many arguments to be made about the more subjective ethics of environmentalism, there are concrete capitalistic reasons for altering our land and ocean-based food production that can be seen within our lifetimes.  Therefore, ignoring ethos and morality, there is an overarching, long-term financial argument for environmental initiatives when pertaining to aquatic biodiversity and food production.

      71% of the earth’s surface is covered in saltwater, yet we have explored less than 5% of it and some go as far to say that we know more about space then our own oceans. Similar to its drier counterpart, aquatic life is an interconnected web of species interactions in delicate balance with one another. These webs require a level of homeostasis and routine that humans’ have directly impacted and in many cases have destroyed. Following the acronym HIPPCO, oceans, rivers, and wetlands are suffering from widespread habitat destruction, invasive species, population growth, pollution, climate change, and overfishing due to human activity. This involvement is in direct contention with human needs as ocean biodiversity and wellbeing is paramount for several reasons including: 850 million jobs in fishing and tourism rely on oceans; 40% of people get 15-20% of animal protein/nutrients from seafood; oceans generate more than half the oxygen we breathe; oceans help slow atmospheric warming and climate change (absorb 25% CO2 from human activities); oceans absorb 90% of excess heat we add to the atmosphere; and finally oceans also provide natural barriers such as coral reefs, mangrove forests, and sea grass beds reduce the impacts from tsunamis and major storms. These six reasons provide a plethora of economic motives to enact aquatic protections as ocean and human interests are aligned.

A fishprint is the area of ocean needed to sustain the fish consumption of an average person, a nation, or the world based on the weight of fish they consume annually. Currently, the worldwide fishprint is at unsustainable levels with 87% of the world’s commercial fisheries having been fully exploited or overfished. While some fishing regulation has been introduced including an act passed in 1990 that has reduced accidental sea turtle death by commercial vessels by 90%, there is far more legislation needed to be passed and funded in order to ensure aquatic life remains at sustainable levels for years to come. If we continue to harvest our oceans in this manner under the pretense of short-term profits, then the majority of staple wild-caught seafood populations will crash putting fisherman out of business and causing aquatic tourism to plummet. By not enforcing legislation to protect wetlands and coral reefs, property damages and insurance costs due to heightened storms will far outweigh the slight economic implications of the former. If we want to protect jobs, ensure adequate food supplies for our population, and maintain economic stability, solutions must be enacted to prevent and restore damages to our aquatic systems through initiatives like marine reserves. The current fishing subsidies to prop up and encourage exploitation by commercial fishing is costing the United States government 50 billion dollars a year not to mention their efforts to fix the effects of invasive species due to a lack of regulation. When taking into account the time value of money, putting environmental protections in place now will save on costs and actually help the future economy, therefore making our current reasons for avoiding legislation baseless.

      Technological advances including irrigation, synthetic fertilizers, and synthetic pesticides have increased the amount and efficiency of our food supply, but economically speaking are only beneficial for short-term gains and are not systematically advantageous. In the past, most farmers employed traditional subsistence agriculture which produces enough crops for a farm family’s survival with little left over to sell or store as a reserve for hard times. However, beginning with the green revolution in 1950 large corporations began with developing and planting monocultures of selectively bred or genetically engineered high-yield varieties of a crop (usually rice, wheat, corn). This in turn produced high yields using large inputs of water, synthetic inorganic fertilizers, and pesticides which also increased the number of crops grown per year on a plot of land. While this made it possible to feed a growing population it created unsustainable farming practices that degrade soil quality due to excessive irrigation and stripping of nutrients. While these practices in combination with government encouragement and subsidies have allowed Americans to spend the lowest percentage of disposable income on food out of any other country, our food prices do not reflect the actual environmental cost of their production. Current industrial farming practices have created a vicious cycle of becoming increasingly reliant on pesticides, fertilizers, and antibiotics that deliver diminishing returns year after year making the future of food production highly volatile and unsustainable. This coupled with the fact that food production is expected to drop 10% for every 1 degree due to climate change puts our current system on a precipitous slope. Economic and logical reasoning indicates that production cannot increase infinitely even with the creation of new technology as we exhaust our current natural resources. While in the short-term company’s are making hefty profits, market outlook depends on stability and confidence which is something that we are lacking when facing widespread environmental degradation.

      The Great Pacific Plastic Garbage patch segment about the film Albatross, is a heart-wrenching and poignant message about the impact of single use plastics in our environment and on individual lives. It puts into perspective the consequences of a single bottle cap and how such a small human action can result in death and destruction. While this should be enough to convince people to change our views and actions toward nature, many in the business world still look to the bottom line instead so here it is: continuing to degrade and decimate our land and aquatic life for industry will result in economic collapse if things do not change.

3/30: Particular Problems and Solutions (cont.): Food & Soil

• In-class film: “Symphony of Soil,” 64 mins. (1 wk rental on Vimeo & Amazon, instant viewing available on Netflix; youtube, subtitles)
• In-class film: “Food Inc.,” 94 mins. (Amazon Instant Viewing) or if too many students have seen it, one of the films below

Word Count: 1090

In our current society there is a rapidly widening gulf between assumed and actual industrial processes that purposefully leaves many consumers benighted to human and environmental rights violations. While we tout ourselves as being a part of a science driven and enlightened age of widespread data sharing, there remains huge discrepancies in our knowledge of how everyday life is possible. As seen in the two documentaries and/or think pieces Symphony of Soil and Food Inc., corporations and governments are taking advantage of this oversight by degrading our soil and creating an unsustainable food industry while using subsidies and monopolies to reinforce these behaviors. Although technological advancement has been key to supporting our exponentially growing population, the previously untested long-term effects of these systems are now putting a strain on future possibilities. To improve our food production, there must be a reversal in mindset from reliance on innovative modern solutions to practices already demonstrated in nature having been refined over decades of evolution for efficiency and longevity.

Even though it is an ever-present construct, our knowledge of soil as a living ecosystem is both misunderstood and quickly being destroyed. Soil is made of three main components, rock, dead plants (organic material) and sand which together are responsible for the vast varieties of soil that enclose our globe. Soil is made from glacial sediment, river overflow, blown in by wind, and exposed rock with prairie grass, otherwise known as mollisol, being widely accepted as the most productive of all. However, despite being aware of all the different types, 70 to 80% of organisms living within the soil have yet to be identified with many not fully realizing that soil is a living ecosystem, not just the base of one. Soil has given life to human empires with civilization beginning on fertile riverbanks and it has also been our demise when plowing degraded soil quality to cause civilization collapse from lack of food.

The latter is unfortunately all too real as the green revolution developed and planted monocultures of selectively bred or genetically engineered high-yield varieties of a crop (usually rice, wheat, corn), produced high yields using large inputs of water, synthetic inorganic fertilizers, and pesticides, and increased the number of crops grown per year on a plot of land. This was all possible due to nitrogen fertilizer which was developed during World War II and allowed plant life to overcome their previous “shortcomings”. Unfortunately it also came with other consequences including a change in soil composition and an increased dependence on pesticides and fossil fuels to handle the increased harvests. This overfertilization and increased use of nitrogen creates exponentially smaller returns as the fertilizer use grows causing more environmental issues such as dead zones. 60% of ecological systems on earth are about to collapse making the widespread recognition of the damaging effects and lackluster returns of modern farming more important than ever.

This idea is made even more poignant in that large quantities of fertilizer and pesticides are actually not necessary to grow food at current levels. The law of return states that the best way to retain and enhance the capacity of life within soil is to return the same nutrients that were taken back into the soil. Through a variety of biomimicry techniques such as polycultures, cover crops, composting, and drip irrigation organic farmers are able to produce at the same quantities or even higher in times of drought than industry farmers. They also reduce nitrogen leaching by 70% and produce more nutritious produce making the switch seem like an obvious solution especially with rising temperatures creating more droughts all over the world.

Looking beyond soil into the history of American industrialized farming tells a sobering story of over-consumptive capitalistic tendencies with government agencies turning a blind eye. The individual, or rather group of individual, that acted as a catalyst for the entire industry is McDonald’s whose small menu of staple items changed America’s diet into the beef and corn reliant monstrosity that it is today. Now, instead of a wholesome subsistence farmer, three to four company’s including Tyson have a pseudo monopoly keeping farmers in debt and “slaves to the system” (Food Inc.). While food in America seems cheap and readily available, the prices do not reflect the actual costs of production. Not only do government subsidies encourage farmers to overproduce, they also put other countries’ farmers out of business with deceptively low prices, thus ensuring a stream of illegal immigrants to use as an inexpensive and oftentimes expendable workforce. To top off this nasty conglomeration, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that seeds represent copyrighted materials and are thus legal to patent, causing farmers to become dependent on one seed manufacturer that discourages biodiversity or old school farming techniques.

Despite their proclamations of efficiency and safety, industrial food production has become overly reliant on high tech fixes rather than trying to fix the system itself. This has not only led to the soil degradation as examined above, but also increased rates of disease-ridden and contaminated food. In a ridiculous, yet destructive cause and effect sequence, industrial meat factories feed government subsidized corn to cow which in turn cause e-coli to manifest and spread due to the crowded and unsanitary conditions. Because processing plants are also becoming larger food is not only becoming more contaminated, but more quickly contaminated as the germs are spread across the entire facility. Regulatory industries are getting less powerful due to a lack of funding, giving these contaminants free reign to wreak havoc on the American public without government intervention.

The message found within these two documentaries cause and effect cycles is that modern problems are not solved, but rather made worse with modern solutions. Instead of using our technological advances to make cleaner and more nutritious food with long-term sustainability, industrial food production has created complex interwoven processes that are Stone-Age like in their inability to meet basic needs. Behind the McDonald’s dollar menu is decades of soil degradation, animal abuse, and e-coli ridden food that acts as a sufficient counter-argument for those believing our modern age is without scruples. While I do not propose returning entirely to the sustainable farming practices of our early ancestor within the Fertile Crescent, the food industry needs to take a more careful look at their bottom line and recognize that long-term returns are more profitable than transient short-term gains. Organic and sustainable farming practices may seem to be archaic, but in that age is decades of natural experiments and evolution to determine the best methods of productivity.

4/6: Particular Problems and Solutions (cont.): Hazards, Waste, Human Health

READINGS:

• Textbook, Ch. 17
• Optional (Principle of Chemical Cycling): Body Pollution; Chemical Creep: How Toxic Chemicals Are Sneaking Into Your Food, And Your Body; President’s Cancer Panel Report 2009: Environmental Causes; Case Study—Breast Cancer: Prevention or Cure? Why Is Breast Cancer Awareness/Cure Run By Major Chemical Companies?
• Textbook, Ch. 21.
• Optional (Principle of Chemical Cycling): The Story of Stuff; Garbage—The Revolution Starts at Home; No Impact Man: A Year Without Toilet Paper; Ewaste

Word Count: 1098

Some things are truly out of human control whether it be disease or natural disaster; our job is to not only try to minimize the detrimental effects of these natural events but look into the long-term consequences of our own actions and how they impact overall human and environmental health. As citizens, we rely on our government to have our collective interests at heart with the paramount of those arguably being safety. However, in the fields of waste management, chemical contamination, and widespread pollution, we as a collective and our body of legislators have fallen short in providing adequate protection, particularly for minority groups. It is imperative that we learn from past mistakes and take a long-term outlook when implementing widespread processes or risk the health and environmental concerns that we face today.

            In 1900, infectious disease was the leading cause of death in the world having killed more people than all our wars combined. Fortunately, this number has dropped significantly since 1950 due to better health care, vaccines, and antibiotics. From vaccines alone the worldwide deaths dropped from 35% to 16% between 1970 and 2015 and the number of children younger than 5 who died from infectious diseases dropped from 12 to 4.9 million. While this is a momentous development modern medicine is being faced with a new challenge: antibiotic resistance. Every major disease-causing bacterium has now developed strains that resist at least one of the roughly 200 antibiotics in use and that number is growing. Two million U.S. citizens that get infections every year that cannot be treated with any known antibiotics and the number is steadily increasing. This is particularly relevant because of the impact climate change will have on major infectious disease statistics. With a warming climate, some diseases, particularly those spread by mosquitos and other insects, will be able to spread more easily from tropical to temperate areas (southern to northern hemisphere). About 44% of the world’s population currently live in areas where malaria is prevalent, but as the climate warms this disease will spread north increasing that percentage and hence malaria’s potential victim pool. While malaria and other infectious diseases are beyond our control until modern medicine can cure it, it is our duty as citizens to mitigate the effects of climate change to avoid this fate.

            This topic is thrown into sharp relief by the coronavirus pandemic that was able to spread so easily because of our increased inter-continent interaction. The book also noted that Scientists estimate that throughout history, more than half of all infectious diseases were originally transmitted to humans from wild or domesticated animals which is studied in a practice called ecological medicine. With quarantine still in effect, coronavirus has shown the devastating impact widespread disease can have on our daily lives and routines.

            Although diseases were not originally created by humans, the toxic chemicals that have become omnipresent as everyday use are. Toxic chemicals are split into three groups: carcinogens, mutagens, and teratogens. All three of subgroups are commonplace within households and industry with only 2% of chemicals in commercial use having been adequately tested.         Toxicologists also struggle with determining how chemicals may interact and potentially heighten one another when performing tests all of which lead to incomplete experimental results. Instead of using the precautionary principle and put the burden on companies to show chemicals are safe, government agencies must prove they are specifically dangerous at great expense and limited success. Because of this, according to the EPA 1 in 12 women of childbearing age in the United States has enough mercury in their blood to harm a developing fetus. Furthermore 70% of all the PCB’s ever made are still in the environment due to a lack of long-term testing and regulation of chemicals before they enter mass manufacturing. Even more concerning is that infants and young children are more susceptible to the effects of toxic substances than adults are because they consume more air/food/water per unit of body weight, are exposed to more dust/soil, and have less well-developed immune systems. Besides the impact on humans, these chemicals are also at risk due to biological magnification, the concept that animals who eat higher on the food chain are more susceptible to the effects of fat-soluble toxic chemicals because they slowly build up in their systems overtime. This is seen in particular in carnivorous fish with long lifespans like tuna, who in many cases contain a toxic level of mercury buildup. Although companies’ use elaborate marketing routines to try and convince us otherwise, both citizens and our governments advocate for more rigorous testing of commonplace chemicals to better protect ourselves, our children, and our environment.

            Waste represents another issue that modern lifestyles have made into an environmental and health concern. In nature, wherever humans are not dominant there is essentially no waste because of natural processing systems. On the other hand, the U.S. (surprise, surprise) leads the world in total production of industrial and municipal solid waste as well as solid waste per person. Some of this waste, particularly e-waste is shipped to China, India, and other Asian/African countries for processing because labor is cheap and environmental regulations are limited which presents an elitist and morally questionable situation. However, understanding the difference between waste management and waste production is key to reducing the hazardous waste both within our country and others. By following the process, reduce, reuse, recycle/compost, incinerate, and bury in that order we could eliminate 80% of solid waste produced. Six other strategies for reducing resource use, waste, and pollution are:      1. change industrial processes to eliminate or reduce harmful chemicals 2. redesign manufacturing processes and products to use less materials and energy 3. develop products that are easy to repair, reuse, re-manufacture, compost or recycle 4. establish cradle to cradle responsibility laws 5. eliminate or reduce unnecessary packaging 6. fee-per-bag solid waste collection systems. As Albert Einstein said, “A clever person solves a problem, a wise person avoids it” and this idea holds true for waste reduction. Despite having quite a few necessary laws in place the lack of funding due to government lobbying and corrupt interests has impaired the U.S.’s ability to safely ensure the public against hazardous waste and chemicals. While there are various pros and cons to both recycling, incineration, and other waste disposal methods, our current waste system is literally spilling over our borders. Without instituting and funding regulation, we are wasting finite resources and putting our health and the environment at risk which should be incentive enough to enact change in our communities and at a federal level.

4/20: Particular Problems and Solutions (cont.): Water

READINGS:

• Textbook, Ch. 13
• Textbook, Ch 20;
• Photographic Art: Midway: Message From the Gyre (Plastics in the Oceans); Great Pacific Plastic Garbage Patch
• Calculate your Water Footprint and report it in your blog

Access to fresh water is meant to be an inalienable right, but our mismanagement of this precious resource has created a global health, economic, national & global security, and environmental issue. Only .024% of the world’s water is available freshwater and while the hydrologic cycle makes it a semi-renewable resource, we are using it up at unsustainable levels. During the last century, the human population tripled, global water withdrawals increased sevenfold, and per capita withdrawals quadrupled. The major uses of water in the United States right now are cooling of electric power plants, irrigation, public water supplies, industry, and livestock production. Many of these uses are known as virtual water, or water that is not directly consumed but is used to produce food and other products. Much of this water comes from aquifers like the Ogallala Aquifer. Unfortunately, these ground water source are being pumped out, mostly to irrigate crops, at a rate greater than the rate of natural recharge from rainfall and snowmelt. In the case of the Ogallala Aquifer, the ground water is being pumped out 10 to 40 times faster than the slow natural recharge rate. This is not necessarily due to human need, but as a byproduct of government subsidies which have led to inefficient use and inaccurate pricing of water-intensive crops such as rice, cotton, almonds, alfalfa, and corn. For example, one hamburger actually represents 630 gallons of water which is not accurately reflected in the dollar menu pricing. Unknowingly the average American consumes 300 gallons of California water every week by eating foods produced in that state because of the discrepancies in actual vs. subsidized pricing. With available fresh water supplies in high demand and more than 30 countries now facing stress from freshwater scarcity, Desalinization is becoming increasingly popular. This is the process of removing dissolved salts from ocean or brackish water to increase the supply of freshwater, but it is expensive and create a non-usable byproduct that must be disposed of safely or risk harming surrounding ecosystems.

            Not only is our freshwater supply running dry from overuse, this valuable natural capital is being heavily polluted. Water pollution is any change in water quality that can harm living organisms or make the water unfit for human uses and can be from point (single source) or non-point (larger and more dispersed sources). Agricultural activities are the leading cause of water pollution with the most common pollutant being sediment. The largest source of oil pollution doesn’t come from spills, but urban and industrial land runoff which receive far less media attention. The three other major sources are pesticides, bacteria from livestock/food processing facilities, and mining which all disrupt the natural hydrologic cycle and affect ground water supplies. Groundwater is a major supplier of water for human use, yet it is very susceptible to pollution. For example, groundwater provides 70% of Chinese drinking water; however, 90% of it is polluted with chemicals such as toxic heavy metals, organic solvents, nitrates, etc. Eutrophication is another major pollution issue in which the natural nutrients within a body of water are enriched. This causes so called “dead zones” in which algae grow in excessive quantities due to extra nitrates then use up all the oxygen in the surrounding water while decomposing. This causes fish to abandon the area due to lack of oxygen while crustaceans and other sea life drown. This can be prevented by banning/limiting phosphates in household cleaning agents as well as employing soil conservation and land use-control to prevent nutrient runoff. However, eutrophication and water pollution in general are becoming increasingly prevalent even though there are several important reasons that oceans represent a vital part of our environment including: recycle planet’s freshwater through the water cycle, affect weather/climate, help regulate earth’s temperature and absorb emitted CO2. Despite this reasoning, the garbage patches within the ocean now cover a total area larger than all of earth’s land area.

4/20: Particular Problems and Solutions (cont.): Water

READINGS:

• Textbook, Ch. 13
• Textbook, Ch 20;
• Photographic Art: Midway: Message From the Gyre (Plastics in the Oceans); Great Pacific Plastic Garbage Patch
• Calculate your Water Footprint and report it in your blog

Word Count: 1105

We take many facets of our society for granted in a way that has run contrary to sustainability principles. From where our trash actually ends up to where our food comes from to the dwindling availability of fresh water, there are so many parts of our daily lives that are both vital and misunderstood. Understanding not only our individual effects on the world but also that our industries is the first step in taking long-term and widespread actions to improve our environment.

Access to fresh water is meant to be an inalienable right, but our mismanagement of this precious resource has created a global health, economic, national & global security, and environmental issue. Only .024% of the world’s water is available freshwater and while the hydrologic cycle makes it a semi-renewable resource, we are using it up at unsustainable levels. During the last century, the human population tripled, global water withdrawals increased sevenfold, and per capita withdrawals quadrupled. The major uses of water in the United States right now are cooling of electric power plants, irrigation, public water supplies, industry, and livestock production. Many of these uses are known as virtual water, or water that is not directly consumed but is used to produce food and other products. Much of this water comes from aquifers like the Ogallala Aquifer. Unfortunately, these ground water source are being pumped out, mostly to irrigate crops, at a rate greater than the rate of natural recharge from rainfall and snowmelt. In the case of the Ogallala Aquifer, the ground water is being pumped out 10 to 40 times faster than the slow natural recharge rate. This is not necessarily due to human need, but as a byproduct of government subsidies which have led to inefficient use and inaccurate pricing of water-intensive crops such as rice, cotton, almonds, alfalfa, and corn. For example, one hamburger actually represents 630 gallons of water which is not accurately reflected in the dollar menu pricing. Unknowingly the average American consumes 300 gallons of California water every week by eating foods produced in that state because of the discrepancies in actual vs. subsidized pricing. With available fresh water supplies in high demand and more than 30 countries now facing stress from freshwater scarcity, Desalinization is becoming increasingly popular. This is the process of removing dissolved salts from ocean or brackish water to increase the supply of freshwater, but it is expensive and create a non-usable byproduct that must be disposed of safely or risk harming surrounding ecosystems.

            Not only is our freshwater supply running dry from overuse, this valuable natural capital is being heavily polluted. Water pollution is any change in water quality that can harm living organisms or make the water unfit for human uses and can be from point (single source) or non-point (larger and more dispersed sources). Agricultural activities are the leading cause of water pollution with the most common pollutant being sediment. The largest source of oil pollution doesn’t come from spills, but urban and industrial land runoff which receive far less media attention. The three other major sources are pesticides, bacteria from livestock/food processing facilities, and mining which all disrupt the natural hydrologic cycle and affect ground water supplies. Groundwater is a major supplier of water for human use, yet it is very susceptible to pollution. For example, groundwater provides 70% of Chinese drinking water; however, 90% of it is polluted with chemicals such as toxic heavy metals, organic solvents, nitrates, etc. Eutrophication is another major pollution issue in which the natural nutrients within a body of water are enriched. This causes so called “dead zones” in which algae grow in excessive quantities due to extra nitrates then use up all the oxygen in the surrounding water while decomposing. This causes fish to abandon the area due to lack of oxygen while crustaceans and other sea life drown. This can be prevented by banning/limiting phosphates in household cleaning agents as well as employing soil conservation and land use-control to prevent nutrient runoff. However, eutrophication and water pollution in general are becoming increasingly prevalent even though there are several important reasons that oceans represent a vital part of our environment including: recycle planet’s freshwater through the water cycle, affect weather/climate, help regulate earth’s temperature and absorb emitted CO2. Despite this reasoning, the garbage patches within the ocean now cover a total area larger than all of earth’s land area. It has become more and more important for individuals to recognize our dependence our earth’s ecosystems, especially the ocean and how even choosing between a plastic or reusable bag can enact change.

            This message is most poignantly described through the photographic art by Albatross, which shows dead Albatross birds with the large piles of ingested plastic that killed them. In these birds are everyday items from bottle caps, to straws, to bits of plastic bags, and zip ties – all of which contributed to putting this species on the brink of extinction. As hard as it is, it is integral to look at the artwork and understand how each bit of plastic represents an individual action the led to destroy a living thing. We are not alone on this planet and can no longer turn a blind eye to the devastating impacts our daily routines cause. This kind of education is demonstrated through the Personal Water Footprint Calculator which takes into effect a variety of lifestyle factors and informs you about your personal water use. Mine was 595 m³ based on my country of origin, gender, diet, and gross yearly income. While I am currently vegetarian, I tested how much my score would increase by if I ate more meat and got 794.6 m³ – practically 200 m³ more. While many are not in the financial position to change their diet for the better of the environment, this change speaks volumes to how much an individual can either improve or deteriorate the environment with one lifestyle change.

Both fresh and salt-water pollution and overuse are fast becoming major issues in the near future for humanity, especially because in many cases the damages are irreparable. By over tapping ground water, polluting the water we do have with pesticides and harmful chemicals as well as dumping trash in our oceans that kill a variety of marine creatures both industry and individuals are contributing to widespread planet degradation. Dissemination of knowledge is the best course of action to help people make the right lifestyle and business choices when it comes to environmental health. Unknowingly we have brought our planet to the brink of collapse, and only by understanding this can we set it right.

4/27: Futures of Climate Change

READINGS:

• Lewis and Maslin – Human Planet

Word Count: 1115

Lewis and Maslin’s, Human Planet provided a driving message about the future for environmentalism while citing a variety of readings and sources that we had previously discussed in this course. They begin the discussion by articulating the three potential options for earth: “continued development of the consumer capitalist mode of living towards greater complexity; a collapse, or a new mode of living”. In other words, we can continue to rely on technological advances to stave off human collapse, actually collapse despite these efforts, or institute new routines and legislation that allow us to live in harmony with our environment. Making this choice has become inevitable as everything from technology to population is now increasing at exponential rate and putting exponentially more pressure on our planet. As stated by the Pentagon, climate change is a threat multiplier in that problems we may have already had such as food production issues or natural disasters will become far worse due to its effects. From rising sea levels to ocean acidification to increased spread of disease climate change represents a daunting array of issues that oftentimes seem insurmountable. However, Lewis and Maslin argue that a new mode of living is possible based on how we already handle our current issues in the form of positive feedback loops. While our present positive feedback loops are rooted in the supply and demand nature of capitalism, there is the possibility for them to drive fundamental change as well toward something akin to a degrowth or homeostatic economy. As discussed earlier in the course, the growth tendencies of capitalism run completely opposite to the stable cycles found in nature. Even from an economic perspective it is impossible not to realize that something cannot increase infinitely forever when there is a finite amount of resources to work with. While this seemed impossible when the population was in the hundreds of thousands, 7.6 billion people has tested this concept and created a situation in which we are on the brink of radical change or complete destruction. Therefore, many suggest tackling climate change with a lifestyle change with the idea of steady state economics, or an economy made up of a constant stock of physical wealth (capital) and a constant population size. Lewis and Maslin see this lifestyle as possible through Universal Basic Income (UBI) in which every person would receive a stipend to take care of all their basic needs such as food, shelter, and healthcare. The chapter provided evidence that not only would UBI be successful in improving people’s quality of lives but decreasing our degradation of the planet. They also focused on the idea of freedom in that UBI would grant people the freedom to not be forced to take jobs in corrupt industries in order to care for their families. They used the example of an oil rig worker who is forced to continue working in what they know to be an environmentally damaging profession under the obligation of having to survive and pay for their family. With UBI the oil rig worker would be able to safely quit their job and find another one more in line with their personal morals without fear of economic backlash. While this idea of freedom to work made sense, I found in interesting how freedom is subjectively brought up by both sides of the climate change debate. On the environmentalist side, they want the freedom for their children and grandchildren to grow up on a healthy planet and have access to food and fresh water. Contrary to this, those on the anti-environmentalist side believe that freedom is rooted in their ability to continue to drill for oil without interference from another. Though these examples do not represent the entire spectrum of arguments rooted in the idea of freedom, I found it interesting how both could take the word and use it to mean completely contradictory ideals. Along these same lines, Lewis and Maslin also suggested that keeping the internet as a free space as well would be key in instituting a lifestyle change for the benefit of our planet. This idea seemed somewhat contradictory in the era of fake news where semi-censoring the internet for accurate content might be able to bridge political divides and have more informed policy decisions from citizens. While I don’t pretend to fully understand the intricacies of a free internet debate, I do know that many sites downplay or fully negate the effects of climate change misleading many people, including family members, about this topic.

            A section that was shocking and highly disappointing for me was the lackluster Paris Accord goals. Although this agreement is certainly a step in the right direction for worldwide environmental collaboration, Human Planet articulated their actual shortcomings in a way that I wish we had been able to touch on more within this course. The Paris Accords do not actually mean stopping fossil fuel emissions, but rather intend to meet their goal by taking excess carbon dioxide out of the environment through capture and storage techniques as well as BECCS. While I understand the positive news that surrounded the agreement and subsequent anger that the United States bowed out, I was disappointed that the rest of the world were not trying to more radical goals more akin to the UN sustainable development goals.

            Human Planet also discusses a familiar concept within our course: The Anthropocene or the epoch where the human component of the Earth is large enough to effect how it functions. While it could be seen as an accomplishment in some circles that we have finally entered the geologic time scale going back millennia, it would have been a far better accomplishment had we somehow affected the world for good rather than as a force of destruction. In the advent of the Athropocene, no one can content that humans do not have power; however, it was used in the past it is still possible for humans to use that power for good. For humans to survive there must be a massive restructuring of our lives to better match natural systems. Our planet requires a net of interconnected species relations remaining in delicate balance to achieve harmony. As we come closer to finalizing the Anthropocene as an epoch, it is vital to analyze what caused collapse in the past and how we can best avoid that in our future. Much of human behavior is based on greed and resource hoarding, but their remains in us a deep sense of empathy and solidarity as well. These values must be drawn upon, not just by a few, but by all for our lives to be fully restructured and to allow our planet begin healing.

Self-Grade Assessment:

In the spirit of candor, this class has not gone particularly well for me. As a Gabelli student I am unaccustomed to this kind of extreme workload that comes from just one class and therefore the timeliness of my work has not been where I would have liked it to be. This is not meant to be a whiny or complaintive essay, but as a first semester environmental studies minor this class has almost triple the workload of every other course in my schedule combined. That being said, my study habits in the beginning of the year took a little time to adjust meaning that several of my blog posts were late; however, in the past month I have altered my schedule to better facilitate quality work delivered on time. Hopefully this midterm is a representation of the kind of work you expect and that will be delivered throughout the remaining part of the semester. Because of all the previously stated reasons I believe my current grade should be a B-, but by the end of the semester I hope to have turned that around to at least a B+. While my delivered material hasn’t necessarily been up to par, I would like to think that my class contributions and participation have counted in my favor towards an overall grade boost. I have definitely learned more in this class than any other I have taken in college thus far, but the breadth of learning required each week has certainly been difficult while taking a full course load and working. Thank you for your understanding and hopefully lenient grading policy!

Practicum Check-In:

For this semester practicum I chose a Fordham Social Innovation Collaboratory project assisting SASB with their company sustainability analytics. SASB stands for the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board which is a nonprofit organization that seeks to develop and disseminate sustainability accounting standards using both social, environmental, and governance measures. It was founded in July 2011 by Jean Rogers and has been a partner of Fordham since 2015, with its annual conference being held every year at Lincoln center. For this project we focused analyzing a variety of company financials including 10Ks and other SEC disclosers as well as sustainability reports in order to determine if a particular company has met SASBs sustainability standards. The company I have been assigned is Delta, which being an airlines company is held accountable for: Greenhouse Gases, Labor Practices, Competitive Behavior, Accident & Safety Management as well as many other activity metrics. SASB determines which metrics are necessary based on a company’s industry making each sustainability disclose more tailored to a company’s specific needs. So far I have met with my team for about two hours every week to first learn about SASB, how to collect and rate the data, as well as actually perform the necessary task. While many company’s have sustainability reports with easily digestible information, others make it necessary to dig through 10K financials in order to get a holistic view of their overall SEG (social, environmental, and governance) practices. This project has been a great way to combine both my Finance and Environmental Studies degree in a way that is actually beneficial for a company attempting to make sustainability reporting a mainstream concept for the financial world.

Blog Post 1:

1/27: ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS, THEIR CAUSES, & SUSTAINABILITY

Textbook Chapter 1

Ecological Footprint Quiz

UN Earth Summit + Scientist’s Warning

UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

Word Count: 1117

When confronted with this broad array of information on the current state of the environment, “overwhelm” is probably the most accurate summation. From the dire warnings from the UN to the dry condemnation of Miller and Spoolmans text, it is difficult not to become apathetic towards the sheer scale of managing climate change. While having more information and data about a subject is usually the best way to form a comprehensive and effective plan, the variety of problems and serious nature of the issue often make gathering more material a mental roadblock. I myself too often tend towards demoralization when confronted with climate change due to the seemingly negligible impact of the individual.

            However, wallowing in the mistakes of the past, present (but hopefully not future) concerning the environment does not help anything. The amount of material available, while disheartening in its enormity, also represents a shift in international focus towards the issue at hand. The fact that there are now classes and even textbooks on environmental studies promises a more educated generation willing to rectify the atrocities committed against nature. Therefore the focus of this paper and the theme for the rest of the semester is to take in and understand each fact, statistic and anecdote as one step towards a greater solution, rather than succumbing to pessimism.

            On this subject, chapter 1 of Miller and Spoolman’s textbook was very definition heavy and focused on the anthropogenic impact on the environment. As a finance major I appreciated their concern over the business side of climate change by bringing up concepts such as natural capital degradation as well as climate changes affect on GDP. The chapter overall was a good introduction to the present issue of climate change as well as the terminology associated with the study of it. Although not a main issue featured in the chapter, the figures for per capita ecological impact for various countries were very interesting in the case of both Kuwait and Denmark, the former most likely due to my lack of knowledge about the country and the latter due to its widely publicized environmental initiatives and socialist government. The concept of IPAT or Impact = Population x Affluence x Technology was also new to me and I appreciated it being featured in chapter 1 rather than as a later side note. Oftentimes environmental issues are seen as global issues and while their effects are felt internationally, it is key to remember the major perpetrators are isolated in a few high-production countries. The textbook also featured an entire section on poverty as people with lower income are often affected disproportionately.

            The 1992 UN Earth Summit was an interesting snapshot into climate change issues from a 90s perspective. In the article they break down the issues into six environmental categories: the atmosphere, water resources, oceans, soil, forests, and living species (with an additional population category). While these same issues still exist today, it is interesting to note the difference in length between this article and the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment which recognizes over 16 categories with far more in-depth detail. There are several major concepts missing from the 1992 Earth Summit article including carbon-dioxide levels, ocean trash, and plastics/micro-plastics. Although the general idea has remained the same, the progression of climate change thought throughout the past 20 years has become more specific and also switched focused towards arguably more pressing issues. Tackling the idea of “climate change” is made far more difficult by the plethora of differing and separate issues that comprise it. Because issues range from deforestation to freshwater pollution, it affects a variety of different industries and therefore makes it both financially and conceptually problematic to address. The main section I found of note from this article is “Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course… Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about (1992 UN Earth Summit Page 1). It is frustrating to see that scientists have been calling for the reversal or alteration of our current practices for decades as an urgent problem and yet it seems that we have exacerbated rather than taken action to prevent our current issues. Although this is a bold, generalized statement that undermines the massive effort does by environmentalists all over the world, it partially holds true in terms of political policy and widespread acceptance.

            Being from Seattle, I would like to think of myself as a fairly green individual; however, taking the Ecological Footprint Quiz was sufficiently humbling. Although I do the usual sustainability-friendly behaviors including composting, limiting electricity and water usage, buying only thrifted clothes, avoiding single-use plastics etc. my score was 2.9 Earths. There were many factors in the quiz that never even occurred to me including the square footage, building materials, and type of living arrangement that I resided in. While this certainly makes a huge difference I never thought to examine the environmental impact of my apartment (especially in NYC where you are lucky to find a minimally cockroach infested place to live at all). While I am not currently in the financial position to think about something like building materials, it is an important to remember that there are less trendy and sexy ways for individuals to be environmentally friendly that can often have a bigger impact.

Questions:

How does the spiritual aspect/disconnect relate to environmentalism and should it be made more prevalent in the media?

8. What are the basics beliefs of your environmental world?

Blog Post 2:

2/3 How Ecosystems and Their Services Work

Textbook Chapters 2-5, 7-8

The History of Life and Humans on Earth

Wolf As Keystone Species

Word Count: 1108

Nature is a series of interconnected systems constantly in flux that is reliant on maintaining fragile balance between the interplay of different species and net potential resources. From the relationship between wolves and rivers to sea otters and kelp forests nature’s continued existence is dependent on maintaining equilibrium with each living organism playing a key role in the survival of another. Unfortunately, human activity has severely disrupted this delicate balance and because of nature’s interrelated nature has had more far-reaching and serious effects than even scientist’s can fully understand. Our growing population has put intense strain on environmental capabilities and renewability from altering the water cycle, marine systems, and pushing planetary boundaries beyond what it can handle. Whether advertently or inadvertently we have also set the human race up for failure as our technological advancements and complex food supply systems are reliant on the health of the surrounding natural environments. With more and more individuals moving to cities and a growing sense of environmental disconnect, we often forget that our survival is just as closely tied to our planet’s ecosystems as it once was when we were hunter gatherers. We need to not only reestablish this connection with nature, but also reframe our understanding of its both its equipoise and our role in reestablishing this balance.  

Chapter 3 details four main planetary boundaries that we have overstretched: 1. disruption of the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles 2. biodiversity loss 3. land system changes 4. climate change. While the latter has been the buzzword for environmental action calls the past few years, each of these issues represent a pressing need for advocation, legislation and an ultimate shift in how we view our relationship with the earth. Afterall, the rest of the world can get along without us, but we can’t get along without them.

Chapter 2, Science, Matter and Systems focused on understanding the scientific method, the shortcomings of scientists, and the science behind energy. The scientific method is “a research process in which scientists identify a problem for study, gather relevant data, propose a hypothesis that explains the data, gather data to test the hypothesis, and modify the hypothesis as needed” (Miller & Spoolman, 31). The result of this method are scientific theories, which are dissimilar from the colloquial definition of theory as they represent extensively tested and supported ideas not simple proposals. While this methodology has allowed a plethora of technological and medicinal advancements, there are several limitations to scientific practice that specifically make pressing environmental issues difficult to convey. The limitations include: Scientists do not use the word “proof”; Scientific discovery and dissertation is always subject to some sort of bias; And the natural world involves many interconnected variables that make ascertaining a single causation nearly impossible. Addressing the former, not using the world proof and instead employing the phrase “overwhelming evidence indicates a higher [or lower] chance of…”. In the case of climate change, this leaves room for doubt among many staunch disbelievers who may take this wiggle-room as evidence that it does not exist. Bias is a self-explanatory issue in which scientists may stretch their research or conduct experiments in a way that is not entirely objective. Finally, as discussed in the introduction, nature is reliant on the harmonious or non-harmonious balance between species to maintain its overall health. Unfortunately, this means that accountability for environmental damages is difficult to both prove and litigate oftentimes allowing companies and governments to get away with defying regulation. The final focus of this chapter is on energy, specifically the laws of thermodynamics and conservation. Pertaining to sustainability the second law of thermodynamics states that when energy is converted from one form to another it becomes a lower-quality i.e. less useable energy. 84% of energy created in the United States is wasted, 43% unnecessarily. While discussions about cutting back on energy are certainly productive for environmental advocates, improving energy efficiency is also an important topic especially within the U.S.

Chapter 3 moved away from scientific methodology and chemistry towards the intricacies of biological ecosystems. The earth has four main systems: the atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere. Life is reliant on the one-way flow of high-quality energy from the sun, the cycling of nutrients, and gravity. If any one of those elements is disrupted than life on earth would cease to exist as we know it, particularly the cycle of nutrients as humans have the ability to impact this element far more so than the other two. Despite being a plant-lover (but sub-par caretaker) I had no idea that it can take hundreds to thousands of years to form 1 inch of topsoil and even longer should this cycle be interrupted. Furthermore, not all environments are created equal and are judged based on net primary productivity (NPP), the rate at which producers use photosynthesis to produce and store energy minus the rate at which they use some of this stored chemical energy through respiration. The importance of the water cycle was also a key part of this chapter particularly human’s detrimental impact on it by: withdrawing fresh water from sources that cannot replace it quickly enough; clearing vegetation from land for agriculture/cities which increases water runoff; draining and filling wetlands which serve as flood control. While the current state of the environment is already overwhelming with its plethora of issues, the water table needs to be another primary concern.

Chapter 4 and 5 examined the importance of biodiversity and balance within the natural world. There is a constant struggle in implementing environmental regulation that consider both the needs of humans and nature. Many do not understand the importance of saving plants and animals from extinction, particularly if it puts stressors on struggling communities; however, biodiversity is necessary as a source of food, medicine, building materials, and fuel. As seen by the video about reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone National Park, certain keystone species are vital in maintaining both the health and even geography of the land. If lost, food supplies, potential medical breakthroughs, and energy sources could be affected to the detriment of not just the surrounding communities but as a chain reaction all over the world. Extinction rates are currently rising due to the loss, fragmentation, or degradation of habitats due to human activity. History shows that despite our higher intelligence, humans are not exempt from population controls as seen by the Bubonic plague and Irish potato famine. Biodiversity needs to be internationally recognized as not just fodder for longer nature documentaries, but as key to our own survival as well.

Chapter 7 and 8 focus on how climate shapes our ecosystems as well as the effects of humans on marine life. An important distinction is between weather, the set of short-term atmospheric conditions and climate which is the general pattern of atmospheric conditions in a given area over decades. Earth’s major biomes result in differences in climate although unfortunately, over 60% of the worlds major terrestrial ecosystems are being degraded or used unsustainably. Furthermore over 50% of coral reefs have been destroyed or degraded with the potential for 20-30% more in the next 20 years. Marine systems face major threats from coastal development, runoff of pollutants, overfishing, destruction of bottom ocean habitat by trawlers, and the spread of invasive species facilitated by humans. Although we often think of them as non-sentient, oceans provide more than half the air we breathe and are vital for life on earth to continue.

Life is an intricate balancing act and human behavior has almost tilted the scale too far to ever recover.

Blog Post 3:   

2/10: Human History & Sustainability

Disciplinary Perspective: Environmental History

READ:

• On Planetary Environmental History: Big History; Time Chart Planet Earth; The Anthropocene; Collapse: How Societies Chose to Fail or Succeed
• On US Environmental History: US Environmental History 1; US Environmental History 2

Word Count: 1132

This week’s articles were especially broad in both differing subject matter and timeframe covering everything from Big History to Jared Diamond’s Collapse. Despite their breadth of interest, there are three key lessons we can learn from the environmental history of the universe, the earth and the United States respectively: 1. Perspective Matters 2. Human Beings are not exempt from the concept of extinction 3. Do not discount the environmental efforts from the past just because they didn’t completely solve the problem. Analyzing these three lessons in the context of the readings will provide a better understanding of the relationship between Human History and Sustainability.

By definition, History does not seem like an alterable concept; events that happened in the past are stationary and unchanging, making them seem objective and unbiased. While this is certainly true for the idea of history, the execution of teaching history is a far more controversial and potentially biased practice. This is exemplified in a movement credited towards David Christian known as Big History. Christian believed that the general study of history was inadequate due to its limited scope and anthropological focus. Big History seeks to reframe history by viewing the beginning as the Big Bang rather than the emergence of modern/recorded human history. It resists specialization and searches for universal patterns and trends as well as integrates studies of the cosmos, Earth, life, and humanity using empirical evidence to explore cause and effect relationships. When the focus of history is how humankind fits within the universe rather than just human accomplishment, we can better understand our symbiotic rather then controlling relationship with nature and the earth. Although it seems simple, this change of perspective is a powerful tool for the environmentalist movement in getting younger generations to live in harmony with earth and its inhabitants rather than seek to exploit them. The growing emphasis on perspective is also seen within the article on the Anthropocene, a proposed geological epoch (time frame) coinciding with significant human impacts on the earth’s geology and ecosystems. This impact is seen through a variety of indicators: Massive species and biodiversity loss, dramatic increase in carbon in the atmosphere, and radionuclides that will last millions of years. While the new name for the epoch has yet to be officialized, it is already in common vernacular for the scientific community making its acceptance only a matter of time. The start date itself is being significantly debated and for good reason as the epoch’s conception is vital for its public perception: the glory years of human achievement and industry or the day that we headed towards extinction. The often-repeated phrase, “history is written by the victors” (attributed to Winston Churchill) is very apt in this discussion as it speaks volumes to the power perspective has on historical education and its ability to reframe our view of environmentalism. ­­

When discussing the extinction of animal species, we often forget the despite our higher intelligence human populations are not exempt from that fate. This idea is summed up, albeit rather crudely, by Jared Diamond (historical generalization extraordinaire) in his book Collapse: How Societies Chose To Fail or Succeed. Although some of sources are questionable if not downright refuted, Diamond identifies “five factors that contribute to collapse: climate change, hostile neighbors, collapse of essential trading partners, environmental problems, and the society’s response to the foregoing four factors” (Wikipedia). Regardless of certain shortcomings, Diamond’s main idea is that the environmental problems we face today have led to the collapse of societies in the past due particularly due to overpopulation is a sound analysis. Especially with the exponential growth of science and technology in the last century, it is an important reminder that humanity is not invincible especially when faced with external environmental pressures. Extinction is an idea also well-rooted in American history, particularly with discovery and subsequent drop of the Nuclear Bomb on Japan. Never before had humanity so completely altered not only Hiroshima and Nagasaki but the whole world as nuclear fallout will now coat every forest, river, and city across the globe for millions of years to come. In Steven Stoll’s US Environmentalism since 1945, the author traces the environmentalist movements rise in the wake of World War II as a philosophical and political movement protesting industrial production’s role in ecological instability. After experiencing the devastation humanity could now wrought, environmentalists sought to “redefine human society itself as a subset of the global environment” (Stoll, 2) to better understand our place in the world ecosystem. The Cold War that followed emphasized the newfound fragility of human existence; that we had created something that could cause the entire human race to go extinct with the push of a button ushered in an era of greater understanding to our imperiled future.

Another key lesson found in U.S. Environmental history is the idea of not discounting the environmental efforts from the past just because they didn’t completely solve the problem. When reading both Steven Stoll’s article and chronology of key events, there were so many environmental victories that from my perspective do not receive enough credit from modern day environmentalists such as “1951 The Nature Conservancy was founded and by 2000 has 900,000 members and has protected ten million acres” (Stoll, 156). While there is certainly enough bad news to go around regarding political apathy towards climate change and pro-environmentalism measures, U.S. history is still filled with amazing events of both individuals and government agreeing to make nature a priority. From Rachel Carson’s silent spring to Congress passing the Air Pollution Control Act that was a precursor to all subsequent clean-air legislation there is much to be learned from the past about how to market and enact change. While I understand the both the world and the United State’s reaction to environmental measures leaves much to be desired, only focusing on our historical failures will not do as much good as focusing on our historical victories. Though our political climate is currently oscillated towards indifference and even hostility towards proposed pro-environmental policies, the change in mindset from the 1930s to 1940s shows that a complete philosophical shift is possible. Being a part of a generation that literally suffers from climate change depression, hearing more about positive events from the past rather than just looking at the looming hockey stick graph would both encourage and revitalize the environmental movement fueling it with hope rather than fear.

Question: Do you believe the Anthropocene will be classified as beginning with the industrial revolution, dropping of the first nuclear bomb or something else?

Blog Post 4:

2/17: Philosophical Worldviews, Education, Ethics & Sustainability

Disciplinary Perspective: Environmental Philosophy and Ethics

Textbook, Ch. 25: “Philosophical Worldviews and Ethics”

Environmental Justice Movement (intragenerational human justice);

Duties to Future Generations (intergenerational human justice);

Leopold’s Land Ethic (inter-specific justice)

Childhood Development, Education and Nature: Biophilia;

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder;

No Child Left Inside Movement #1;

No Child Left Inside Movement #2

Environmental Citizenship

David Orr, What Is Education For? Greening the College Curriculum♠

“Earthlings: Make the Connection,”

“Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic For Our Time,”

Word Count: 1124

          As touched upon in last week’s blog post, the idea of perspective is powerful, especially as it relates in an environmental context. One’s philosophical world view generated from years of experience and education is the driving force behind either action or inaction. It’s easy to blame past generations for the climate crisis as immoral and selfish drivers of industry, but in many ways they too were victims of poor planning and ignorance. The unintended consequences of urbanization and industrialization is a disconnect between people and their natural environment which has led to consumptive economic policy and practices that were created not out of callousness, but a benighted state. Therefore, when discussing legal, political, or practical issues regarding the environment perspective is key to which subsequent action plan or desired solution is decided upon.

            Chapter 25 explains the variety of worldviews one can have concerning the environment and the potential effects arising from their different definitions of sustainability. First and foremost is the human-centered worldview which includes planetary management, no-problem, free-market, and spaceship earth schools of thought all of which have an anthropocentric view of human’s role on Earth. The stewardship worldview which is often adopted by large faith institutions is that humans have an ethical responsibility as managers to save the earth. Then, there is the environmental wisdom worldview in which we are a part of the community of life and subject to its laws. In theory I fall under environmental wisdom, but unfortunately in practice I am closer to the stewardship worldview as many of my actions undertaken to keep up with modern society do not promote a harmonious relationship with all life. The differences in these views seem more philosophical than applicable; however, they speak volumes in terms of environmental decision making. For example, someone with a free-market school of thought believes that the market will automatically correct itself to deal with environmental pressures and therefore not take steps to preserve biodiversity in the way that someone who has an environmental wisdom worldview does. There is also the idea of environmental literacy which includes these three tenants: 1. natural capital matters because it supports earth’s life and our economies 2. our ecological footprints are immense and expanding rapidly   3. we should not exceed the earth’s planetary boundaries or tipping points. No matter your worldview, accepting and understanding these three principles is a necessity if change is to be enacted.

               There is also a range of philosophies and or movements associated with environmentalism not mentioned in the overarching list above. This includes Environmental Justice which addresses a range of issues combining the concerns of social justice and environmentalism focusing on how environmental benefits and burdens are distributed across populations. It is a fusion of human rights being affected by environmental issues such as a disproportionate amount of toxic waste dumps being placed next to predominately African American communities. Intergenerational Justice on the other hand is the idea of justice between generations and refers to the set of obligations the members of one generation may owe to people of other generations, past or future. This comes into question with the phrase “protecting our world for generations to come” which brings up the somewhat Devil’s Advocate question of “do we have to?”. Finally, in this little hodge-podge list is Leopold’s Land Ethic which directs all members of the world community including soil, water, plants, animals and humans to treat each other with respect for the mutual benefit of all. This idea was coined by Aldo Leopold who believed that the relationships between people and land are intertwined; in other words, care for people cannot be separated from care for the land. All these perspectives and subsequent movements associated with them deal with the intersection of morality and environmentalism as uniquely expressed by each individual.

While sometimes perspective is due to innate factors, more often it has to do with the type and material of education someone receives. Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv was the first book to bring together a growing body of research that direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development as well as general physical and mental health. This spurred the No Child Left Inside Act of 2008 which proposed, among other things, appropriations to alter education systems to include mandatory exposure to nature. This movement was especially significant as it showed the impact of one writer on the entire United States school system in an unprecedented acceptance of biophilia (an innately emotional affliction of human beings to other living organisms). David Orr best sums up the impact of education by debunking six myths that are deeply ingrained within the system: 1. Ignorance is a solvable problem 2. With enough knowledge and technology we can manage planet Earth 3. knowledge is increasing and by implication human goodness            4. we can adequately restore that which we have dismantled    5. the purpose of education is that of giving you the means for upward mobility and success 6. our culture represents the pinnacle of human achievement. Although these come into direct conflict with the human-centered views up above, Orr’s explanation of the shortcomings of our education was both insightful and well-founded. We (and this is a overarching generalization not meant to encompass everyone’s experience) have been taught that through the acquisition and utilization of knowledge humans will be able control and manipulate the natural environment to our benefit in a way that has been disproved over and over again. Shifting our perspective towards a symbiotic view of our relationship with the natural world is the only way that environmental issues will be taken seriously and true change enacted.

Question: In chapter 25 there is the quote: “only 5-10% of people must be convinced that the change must take place and then act to bring about such change”. Do you believe this and if so how close do you think we are for climate change awareness and action?

Blog Post 5:

2/24: Economics, Politics, Law, & Sustainability

Disciplinary Perspectives: Environmental Economics, Environmental Politics, Environmental Law

• Textbook Ch. 23
• Value of the World’s Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital;
• Sustainable Business
• Textbook Ch. 24
• Consumer or Citizen?
• Environmental Law

Word Count: 1126

Money and power have been the two dominant drivers for practically all of civilization. However, they necessitate a natural world to extract wealth from and to have control over; therefore, making sustainability the deciding factor for both business and politics moving into the future. While big corporations have long been the enemy of campaigning environmentalists everywhere, they also represent an opportunity to radically shift from consumerism to environmentalism on an unprecedented scale and time frame through innovation and competition. Although often seen as the enemy, using the combination of both economic and political policy is arguably the best way to combat environmental issues within our current systems and without destabilizing livelihoods.

Because of growing realization and acceptance, businesses are now putting greater emphasis on environmentally sustainable economic development. As explained in Chapter 23, markets usually work well in the efficient production and distribution of private goods, but struggle with public services because the market fails to assign monetary value to environmental protections such as old growth forests. While ecological economists believe replacing existing systems is necessary in order to switch from a growth to a steady-state economy (all resources are recycled or reused continuous and there are essentially no waste and no inputs of new resources as seen in nature), environmental economists prefer the approach of altering existing systems to best tackle environmental issues. Using concepts such as negative discount rates for natural resources, marginal cost for determining optimum levels of pollution cleanup, and cost-benefit analysis of environmentally friendly business practices are all methods in which finance and sustainability can overlap. One such connection is determining the Value of the World’s Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital whose goals are: make the range of potential values of the services of ecosystems more apparent; establish at least a first approximation of the relative magnitude of global ecosystem services; set up a framework for their further analysis; point out those areas most in need of additional research; and (5) stimulate additional research and debate. They accomplish this by using a variety of financial technique to categorize, analyze, and quantify biospheres in terms of market value. While this analysis is somewhat limited due to leaving out many categories of service and value distortions due to market misalignment, it represents an effort from economists to recognize the true value of environmental resources. The market has always viewed natural resources on a surface level so by valuing ecosystems for their intricate biodiversity and contributions to stabilizing the natural world there will hopefully be some deterrence for companies from destroying the valuable investment. Besides economist and economic theory contributions there is a growing contingent of sustainable or green business – an enterprise that has minimal or no negative impact on the global or local environment, community, society or economy. There are Four Criteria that must be met for a company to be classified as a sustainable business: It incorporates principles of sustainability into each of its business decisions; It supplies environmentally friendly products or services that replaces demand for nongreen products and/or services; It is greener than traditional competition; It has made an enduring commitment to environmental principles in its business operations. In other words, it is a business that “meets the needs of the present [world] without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Sustainable Business, Wikipedia). These business not only have the environmentally moral high ground, but also increased economic performance as a result according to many studies. Henry Ford, whom I am distantly related to, was actually a pioneer of sustainable business by experimenting with plant based fuels, upcycling, and structural hemp composites (which was a lot more heartening to hear than his KKK ties). Both potential scarcity of resources and genuine concern have pushed the financial community towards sustainability as is reflected in more comprehensive analysis and environmentally focused corporate structure.

While some of the financial sector is headed towards sustainability, there remains corporations willfully ignorant and apathetic towards their destructive nature. As stated in Chapter 24, Government can act as a brake on environmentally harmful business enterprise that thrives on change and innovation. Political policy has the ability to not only steer business in the right direction, but curb environmentally dangerous practices before they begin. By adhering to the triple bottom line, the balance of economic, environmental, and social needs when making policy decisions, both the legislative and judicial branches of government can create environmentally friendly procedure and therefore a better world for us all. The four different types of environmental regulation, potential federal projects; pollution level; species, resources and ecosystems; and new substance safety are vital to evaluate as national and economic security are intertwined with environmental security. Environmental Law is a collective term that encompasses all of these different types of regulations to better protect the environment. Although controversial due to ongoing scientific debate, the challenges of identifying one key cause of environmental degradation for purposes of litigation, and difficulty of determining adequate compensation within our current system of law, Environmental Law has had many successes including the Clean Water Act and creation of the National Environmental Policy Act. The movements mission statement is “The right to development must be fulfilled so as to equitably meet developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations” (Environmental Law, Wikipedia) The idea of Environmental Law highlights the dedication of sustainability advocates trying to work within the current system in order to create a better one. While their efforts have not been entirely successful, environmental law is responsible for pushing for much needed policy change and a mindset shift towards the necessity of environmental protections.

Consumer or Citizen by Ernest Partridge offered an intriguing ideological argument in an unfortunate and far too-quotation heavy manner (6 unnecessary uses within 1 paragraph). His argument that America is becoming more like a corporation is interesting especially with the availability of information on constitutions and marketing tactics; however, I would argue that this utopian vision of every voter understanding every issue flawed. Not every citizen has the time, education, or desire to read “well-informed arguments based on confirmable evidence and logical inference” and may have only been so in the past because voting was restricted to educated, land-owning white men. This article read almost like a satire and made me seriously questions the PHD qualifications of the author.

Question: Is it wrong that political campaigns use marketing tactics to attract voters and is there anything/should we do anything to fix it?

Blog Post 6:

3/2: Population, Consumption & Sustainability

Disciplinary Perspectives: Environmental Sociology/Demographics

Textbook, Ch. 6

World Population Clock;

U.S. Population Clock;

World Death Rate Clock;

The Impossible Hamster–What’s Wrong With Endless Population & Consumption Growth;

The Good Life and Ecosystem Services;

Center for a New American Dream;

Steady State Economy;

Degrowth Movement.

Photographic Art: American Consumerism Self-Portrait; Portraits of Global Mass Culture

Textbook Ch. 22;

Case Study: NYC Sustainability Plan, “PlaNYC”;

Transition Towns Movement

Word Count:  1102

Our current system is unable to adequately ensure a continuation of human life on earth. While technological innovation may be able to slow the issue, it can only do so much for a growth driven society. Realizing and accepting this concept is the only way future generations will be able to maintain a standard of living that is sustainable for the long-term despite the effects of entropy. This viewpoint does not imply change on a mass scale should occur tomorrow, next week, or even next year. Capitalism and capitalist practices have existed since the Ancient World and have been nearly omnipresent since the sixteenth century (Encyclopedia Britannica). Arguably, it has been the most successful economic and social system in our history; however, human success is far removed from planetary success. Our survival depends on a widespread and staggered approach to rethinking both growth and the idea of sustainable. Therefore, this week’s focus is how the growing population necessitates better urban and suburban planning as well as a change in consumption capitalist economics.

            Overpopulation is a key focus for climate change advocates as the growing population results in growing environmental stressors. According to Chapter 6, there was 88 million new people just in 2015, 98% of which were added to the world’s developing countries. While technology has overall improved quality of life, technological advancements have allowed humans to overcome factors that limit the growth of every other population. These limits occur for a reason, and our surpassing them puts human life on the precipice of an unprecedented collapse due to ecological erosion. Fortunately, there are three solutions to the overpopulation crisis: economic development, empowerment of women, and promotion of family planning; however, these are all easier said than done. As of when this sentence was written, the world population was at 7,633,848,670 people and rapidly growing while our death rate, even at 1.8 people per second, was far behind. These statistics were put into perspective by the fun, yet morbid video of the Impossible Hamster. Although absolutely adorable, the hamster was a good reminder that nothing can increase infinitely without consequences, despite unfounded beliefs by politicians and economists. This video reminded me of the YA book, City of Ember who tackled a similar finite supplies will not last forever issue, even if it once seemed infinite (while throwing in a nice young love story arc for good measure). Another example of quantifying mind-numbing statistics is through the Portraits of Global Mass Culture and Photographic Art: American Consumerism Self-Portrait, both by Chris Jordan. These works of art were not only good marketing for the sustainability movement as a whole, but also showed the need to bring together various disciplines such as science and art in order to bring awareness and tackle the issue. Overpopulation is a particularly contentious issue because of the ethical concerns associated with rapid population curbing. While bringing awareness to the issue is certainly important, the best moral way to address it actually hinges improving quality of life for people around the world, a problem we have been unfortunately struggling with for the better part of modernity.

            The ratio and practice of urban, suburban, and rural population planning needs to change if sustainable practices are to be effectively implemented. More than 50% of the world’s people lives in urban and surrounding suburban areas. While growing city populations have increased access to better working and housing conditions including better sanitation, clean public water, expanded medical care, as well as helped to protect biodiversity, they have also let to a plethora of other problems including urban sprawl. This concept refers to the growth of low-density development on the edges of cities and towns which destroys forests, wetlands, prime cropland, and increases greenhouse gas emissions due to increased reliance on automobiles. There are several proposed solutions including new urbanism and transition towns. New urbanism, also know as old villageism is using cluster/mixed use development to encourage self-sufficient communities near cities i.e. creating organized and low-emission urban sprawl. Transition towns refer to grassroot community projects initially created by Rob Hopkins that aim to increase self-sufficiency to reduce the potential effects of peak oil, climate destruction, and economic instability. While these new living situations are promising, refining current cities is also beneficial as seen by PlaNYC in which Mayor Bloomberg released a strategic plan to prepare the city for the influx of one million more residents. The plan’s three major components – 2/3 of which were achieved – included preparing for a sharp rise in population, updating city infrastructure, and reducing carbon emissions. Urban planning is an often-underutilized climate change combatant as changing where we live could make almost as big of a difference as how we live.

            Reconstructing our entire economic system may sounds feasible on paper, but while this overhaul is necessary in the long run, it is nigh-impossible to conceive within our lifetime. In our current society money is inextricably tied with happiness in an exhaustive push to grow, grow, grow (The Good Life and Ecosystem Services). This mentality puts an unsustainable strain on earth’s resources and has created the Degrowth Movement, a political, economic, and social movement based on ecological economics, anti-consumerist and anticapitalistic ideas (Degrowth Movement Wikipedia). Their three goals are to: reduce the environmental impact of human activity, redistribute income and wealth both within and between countries, and promote the transition from a materialistic to a convivial and participatory society. This idea is similar to the Steady State Economy theory in which the economy does not grow over the course of time thus preventing resource exhaustion. They propose three more stringent government regulations including complete equitable wealth distribution, controlling population with reproduction licenses, and stabilizing the level of capital by restricting the economy (Steady State Economy Wikipedia). The Center for the New American Dream proposes another set of solutions for our current unsustainable growth patterns by reducing worktime and raising the number of employees per business. While this video was outdated (2011) and did not anticipate an economic rebound from 2008, their core idea that American work life is flawed is an important point to both conversations about mental health and environmentalism. While scientifically it is easy to understand that earth’s resources will not last forever, putting restraints on the economy, people’s living situation, and rights to reproduce lead into ethically ambiguous territory about personal freedoms versus the greater good. While changes are certainly necessary, they must be gradual, non-elitist and culturally sensitive if they are to succeed.

Questions:

1. Do you think Americans will ever willingly change their population distribution i.e. urban sprawl?
2. How do the ideas of freedom and liberty for all both pertain to and potentially limit climate change initiatives?

Blog Post 7:

3/9: SUSTAINING ECOSYSTEM SERVICES: Particular Environmental Problems & Sustainability Solutions – Approaches to Biodiversity Loss and Extinction

Textbook, Ch. 9;

World Wildlife Populations Down 50% in Last 40 Years

Textbook, Ch.10

WATCH: Film: E.O. Wilson, “The Future of Life,” 47 mins., or E.O. Wilson, “Setting Aside Half the World for the Rest of Life” (50 mins.) and “Rewilding Countryside Movement” (3 mins.) or “Rewilding Movement” (50 mins.)

Word Count: 1116

One of the irreparable consequences to current human behavior is widespread biodiversity loss and extinction. Species everywhere are falling prey to deforestation to pesticide use to light pollution on an unprecedented scale. In our quest to conquer and manipulate nature we are disrupted both intentionally and unintentionally the delicate balance required for ecosystems to survive. After one understands the necessity of biodiversity, employing an equitable and widespread solution is imperative in order to save our planet from a fast approaching tipping point.

            According to Chapter 9, Sustaining Biodiversity: Saving Species and Ecosystem Services there is the concept of background extinction rate or the rate as which natural extinction occurs without unforeseen external (human) factors. Currently the background extinction rate is expected to rise 10,000 times the current rate during this century due to human activities, leading people to call it the 6^th mass extinction. There are several reasons behind the precipitous drop including: habitat destruction, degradation, and fragmentation, invasive (nonnative) species, population growth and increasing use of resources, pollution, climate change, and overexploitation. However, extinction rates are not equal everywhere with the LPI (living planet index) disproportionately dropping in freshwater systems by 76% and in low income countries by 58% as opposed to their counterparts (39% and 18% respectively). This inequality in terms of struggling biodiversity makes an overarching solution more complicated as human needs cannot be overlooked when deciding how to proceed. Especially in developing countries, creating laws that prohibit the use of resources could actually cause more issues as many rely on the products of biodiversity in order to care for their families. Similar to last week’s post which had to do with population’s affects on the environment, there are a plethora of interconnecting sub-problems that make inflexible decrees both unjust and unlikely to succeed. However, there are four major reasons why humans should have an interest in preventing extinction: 1. Biodiversity provides vital ecosystem services that keep us alive 2. Many species contribute to economic services 3. Extinction can hinder speciation 4. Species have a right to exist regardless of usefulness. Even if you do not believe in every element on this list, just one is enough to prove that biodiversity is key to continued human survival and therefore making it a necessary focus. According to the London Zoological Society and the World Wildlife Federation, global wildlife populations declined by 50% in the last 40 years. Therefore “given the pace and scale of change, we can no longer exclude the possibility of reaching critical tipping points that could abruptly and irreversibly change living conditions of earth.

            Biodiversity is reliant on the specific ecosystem it inhabits, making the protection of forests indispensable when discussing solutions. As Chapter 10 so eloquently included in a quote by E.O. Wilson, “”Destroying a rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal”. Forests are vital in producing oxygen, purifying water, reducing runoff and flooding, stabilizing atmospheric temperatures and climate, as well as storing and removing CO2. Unfortunately, up to 60% of the wood consumed in the United States is wasted unnecessarily and almost half of the world’s old growth forests have been cut down in favor of industry. Because of this, many are proposing the Ecosystem Approach which includes: Map the world’s terrestrial ecosystems, their inventory of species, and services provided; Differentiate between resilient and fragile ecosystems; protect the most endangered ecosystems and their species with an emphasis on plant biodiversity; restore degraded ecosystems; and make bio-diversity friendly financial incentives. The theory of this approach is amazing, but its capital and lobbying intensive nature is far less so. If world governments or perhaps even private institutions committed to surveying and protecting fragile ecosystems our planet would be a far more sustainable and arguably cost-efficient place but making this a legislative priority seems highly unlikely. Without addressing issues such as poverty, population growth, urbanization, and resource use, ecosystem services will continue to decline making this plan an ever-increasing necessity.

            George Monbiot has a different approach to saving biodiversity and preventing ecological erosion of ecosystems known as “rewilding”. Without giving exact figures, he and many others interested in this method advocate for the mass restoration of ecosystems through a change in governmental policy and a shift in the human perspective towards nature. Using a scathing critique of current British agriculture policy as an example, he explains how incentive based tax law has allowed the continuation of unproductive sheep herding therefore causing widespread land degradation to an extreme seen nowhere else in Europe. Not only has there been little to no research done on past British ecological and biodiversity that has limited restoration efforts, the government itself is rewarding keeping the land in a state of ruin for little to no purpose. Restoring this underutilized land to ecological success acts as a powerful means of protecting both the atmosphere and its internal biodiversity, thus killing (or rather saving) two birds with one stone. Turning unproductive agricultural land back to its original state through incentive-based programs will “replace our silent spring with a raucous summer”.

            E.O. Wilson is not only extensively quoted by the textbook but is also one of the world’s foremost biologists specializing in myrmecology, the study of ants. In a presentation given about his most recent book, Setting Aside Half the World for the Rest of Life, he proposes a plan to save our Earth by devoting half its surface to nature. Wilson believes that the situation is too large to be piecemeal and therefore needs a drastic solution to commensurate the magnitude of the problem. When discussing biodiversity, large animals and star species are only one part of the biosphere, we need to consider the millions of invertebrate and microorganisms that build the foundation of life. Furthermore, he believes the biosphere does not belong to us, and critiques anthropocenists, people who believe that the human species can be saved solely through engineering and technology. Wilson’s idea is an interesting one and would certainly work in terms of protecting biodiversity if implemented properly, but the hard and fast 50% makes it difficult for me to entirely sympathize. Both him and George Monbiot are advocating for the renaturalization of our biospheres, but Monbiot focuses on places that can enact this without severely damaging people’s livelihoods while Wilson makes no such distinction. 50% is a good lofty goal, however caveats are always necessary when people’s lives are at stake. While a solution is definitely imperative, I disagree that a piecemeal solution is not effective not because the theory or science is wrong, but because it does not seem to take into account the diverse politics and cultures across the globe with which this mission is improbable.

Questions: Do you think E.O. Wilson’s 50% of land dedicated to nature idea could be implemented by an institution like the UN or do you think the world is too fragmented for it to be plausible?

• Textbook, Ch. 6
• World Population Clock;
• U.S. Population Clock;
• World Death Rate Clock;
• The Impossible Hamster–What’s Wrong With Endless Population & Consumption Growth;
• The Good Life and Ecosystem Services;
• Center for a New American Dream;
• Steady State Economy;
• Degrowth Movement.
• Photographic Art: American Consumerism Self-Portrait; Portraits of Global Mass Culture
•  Textbook Ch. 22;
• Case Study: NYC Sustainability Plan, “PlaNYC”;
• Transition Towns Movement

Word Count: 1080

Our current system is unable to adequately ensure a continuation of human life on earth. While technological innovation may be able to slow the issue, it can only do so much for a growth driven society. Realizing and accepting this concept is the only way future generations will be able to maintain a standard of living that is sustainable for the long-term despite the effects of entropy. This viewpoint does not imply change on a mass scale should occur tomorrow, next week, or even next year. Capitalism and capitalist practices have existed since the Ancient World and have been nearly omnipresent since the sixteenth century (Encyclopedia Britannica). Arguably, it has been the most successful economic and social system in our history; however, human success is far removed from planetary success. Our survival depends on a widespread and staggered approach to rethinking both growth and the idea of sustainable. Therefore, this week’s focus is how the growing population necessitates better urban and suburban planning as well as a change in consumption capitalist economics.

            Overpopulation is a key focus for climate change advocates as the growing population results in growing environmental stressors. According to Chapter 6, there was 88 million new people just in 2015, 98% of which were added to the world’s developing countries. While technology has overall improved quality of life, technological advancements have allowed humans to overcome factors that limit the growth of every other population. These limits occur for a reason, and our surpassing them puts human life on the precipice of an unprecedented collapse due to ecological erosion. Fortunately, there are three solutions to the overpopulation crisis: economic development, empowerment of women, and promotion of family planning; however, these are all easier said than done. As of when this sentence was written, the world population was at 7,633,848,670 people and rapidly growing while our death rate, even at 1.8 people per second, was far behind. These statistics were put into perspective by the fun, yet morbid video of the Impossible Hamster. Although absolutely adorable, the hamster was a good reminder that nothing can increase infinitely without consequences, despite unfounded beliefs by politicians and economists. This video reminded me of the YA book, City of Ember who tackled a similar finite supplies will not last forever issue, even if it once seemed infinite (while throwing in a nice young love story arc for good measure). Another example of quantifying mind-numbing statistics is through the Portraits of Global Mass Culture and Photographic Art: American Consumerism Self-Portrait, both by Chris Jordan. These works of art were not only good marketing for the sustainability movement as a whole, but also showed the need to bring together various disciplines such as science and art in order to bring awareness and tackle the issue. Overpopulation is a particularly contentious issue because of the ethical concerns associated with rapid population curbing. While bringing awareness to the issue is certainly important, the best moral way to address it actually hinges improving quality of life for people around the world, a problem we have been unfortunately struggling with for the better part of modernity.

            The ratio and practice of urban, suburban, and rural population planning needs to change if sustainable practices are to be effectively implemented. More than 50% of the world’s people lives in urban and surrounding suburban areas. While growing city populations have increased access to better working and housing conditions including better sanitation, clean public water, expanded medical care, as well as helped to protect biodiversity, they have also let to a plethora of other problems including urban sprawl. This concept refers to the growth of low-density development on the edges of cities and towns which destroys forests, wetlands, prime cropland, and increases greenhouse gas emissions due to increased reliance on automobiles. There are several proposed solutions including new urbanism and transition towns. New urbanism, also know as old villageism is using cluster/mixed use development to encourage self-sufficient communities near cities i.e. creating organized and low-emission urban sprawl. Transition towns refer to grassroot community projects initially created by Rob Hopkins that aim to increase self-sufficiency to reduce the potential effects of peak oil, climate destruction, and economic instability. While these new living situations are promising, refining current cities is also beneficial as seen by PlaNYC in which Mayor Bloomberg released a strategic plan to prepare the city for the influx of one million more residents. The plan’s three major components – 2/3 of which were achieved – included preparing for a sharp rise in population, updating city infrastructure, and reducing carbon emissions. Urban planning is an often-underutilized climate change combatant as changing where we live could make almost as big of a difference as how we live.

            Reconstructing our entire economic system may sounds feasible on paper, but while this overhaul is necessary in the long run, it is nigh-impossible to conceive within our lifetime. In our current society money is inextricably tied with happiness in an exhaustive push to grow, grow, grow (The Good Life and Ecosystem Services). This mentality puts an unsustainable strain on earth’s resources and has created the Degrowth Movement, a political, economic, and social movement based on ecological economics, anti-consumerist and anticapitalistic ideas (Degrowth Movement Wikipedia). Their three goals are to: reduce the environmental impact of human activity, redistribute income and wealth both within and between countries, and promote the transition from a materialistic to a convivial and participatory society. This idea is similar to the Steady State Economy theory in which the economy does not grow over the course of time thus preventing resource exhaustion. They propose three more stringent government regulations including complete equitable wealth distribution, controlling population with reproduction licenses, and stabilizing the level of capital by restricting the economy (Steady State Economy Wikipedia). The Center for the New American Dream proposes another set of solutions for our current unsustainable growth patterns by reducing worktime and raising the number of employees per business. While this video was outdated (2011) and did not anticipate an economic rebound from 2008, their core idea that American work life is flawed is an important point to both conversations about mental health and environmentalism. While scientifically it is easy to understand that earth’s resources will not last forever, putting restraints on the economy, people’s living situation, and rights to reproduce lead into ethically ambiguous territory about personal freedoms versus the greater good. While changes are certainly necessary, they must be gradual, non-elitist and culturally sensitive if they are to succeed.

Questions:

1. Do you think Americans will ever willingly change their population distribution i.e. urban sprawl?
2. How do the ideas of freedom and liberty for all both pertain to and potentially limit climate change initiatives?

• Textbook Ch. 23
• Value of the World’s Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital;
• Sustainable Business
• Textbook Ch. 24
• Consumer or Citizen?
• Environmental Law

Word Count: 1077

There is a Pinterest quote that continuously floats around my feed (probably because I saved that one pin with an artsy gal holding a reusable bag): “Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want” (Anna Lappe). To the chagrin of many, capitalism runs this country and is involved in almost every single one of our day to day decisions. While big corporations have long been the enemy of campaigning environmentalists everywhere, they also represent an opportunity to radically shift from consumerism to environmentalism on an unprecedented scale and time frame through innovation and competition. Although often seen as the enemy, using the combination of both economic and political policy is arguably the best way to combat environmental issues within our current systems and without destabilizing livelihoods.

Because of growing realization and acceptance, businesses are now putting greater emphasis on environmentally sustainable economic development. As explained in Chapter 23, markets usually work well in the efficient production and distribution of private goods, but struggle with public services because the market fails to assign monetary value to environmental protections such as old growth forests. While ecological economists believe replacing existing systems is necessary in order to switch from a growth to a steady-state economy (all resources are recycled or reused continuous and there are essentially no waste and no inputs of new resources as seen in nature), environmental economists prefer the approach of altering existing systems to best tackle environmental issues. Using concepts such as negative discount rates for natural resources, marginal cost for determining optimum levels of pollution cleanup, and cost-benefit analysis of environmentally friendly business practices are all methods in which finance and sustainability can overlap. One such connection is determining the Value of the World’s Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital whose goals are: make the range of potential values of the services of ecosystems more apparent; establish at least a first approximation of the relative magnitude of global ecosystem services; set up a framework for their further analysis; point out those areas most in need of additional research; and (5) stimulate additional research and debate. They accomplish this by using a variety of financial technique to categorize, analyze, and quantify biospheres in terms of market value. While this analysis is somewhat limited due to leaving out many categories of service and value distortions due to market misalignment, it represents an effort from economists to recognize the true value of environmental resources. The market has always viewed natural resources on a surface level so by valuing ecosystems for their intricate biodiversity and contributions to stabilizing the natural world there will hopefully be some deterrence for companies from destroying the valuable investment. Besides economist and economic theory contributions there is a growing contingent of sustainable or green business – an enterprise that has minimal or no negative impact on the global or local environment, community, society or economy. There are Four Criteria that must be met for a company to be classified as a sustainable business: It incorporates principles of sustainability into each of its business decisions; It supplies environmentally friendly products or services that replaces demand for nongreen products and/or services; It is greener than traditional competition; It has made an enduring commitment to environmental principles in its business operations. In other words, it is a business that “meets the needs of the present [world] without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Sustainable Business, Wikipedia). These business not only have the environmentally moral high ground, but also increased economic performance as a result according to many studies. Henry Ford, whom I am distantly related to, was actually a pioneer of sustainable business by experimenting with plant based fuels, upcycling, and structural hemp composites (which was a lot more heartening to hear than his KKK ties). Both potential scarcity of resources and genuine concern have pushed the financial community towards sustainability as is reflected in more comprehensive analysis and environmentally focused corporate structure.

While some of the financial sector is headed towards sustainability, there remains corporations willfully ignorant and apathetic towards their destructive nature. As stated in Chapter 24, Government can act as a brake on environmentally harmful business enterprise that thrives on change and innovation. Political policy has the ability to not only steer business in the right direction, but curb environmentally dangerous practices before they begin. By adhering to the triple bottom line, the balance of economic, environmental, and social needs when making policy decisions, both the legislative and judicial branches of government can create environmentally friendly procedure and therefore a better world for us all. The four different types of environmental regulation, potential federal projects; pollution level; species, resources and ecosystems; and new substance safety are vital to evaluate as national and economic security are intertwined with environmental security. Environmental Law is a collective term that encompasses all of these different types of regulations to better protect the environment. Although controversial due to ongoing scientific debate, the challenges of identifying one key cause of environmental degradation for purposes of litigation, and difficulty of determining adequate compensation within our current system of law, Environmental Law has had many successes including the Clean Water Act and creation of the National Environmental Policy Act. The movements mission statement is “The right to development must be fulfilled so as to equitably meet developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations” (Environmental Law, Wikipedia) The idea of Environmental Law highlights the dedication of sustainability advocates trying to work within the current system in order to create a better one. While their efforts have not been entirely successful, environmental law is responsible for pushing for much needed policy change and a mindset shift towards the necessity of environmental protections.

Consumer or Citizen by Ernest Partridge offered an intriguing ideological argument in an unfortunate and far too-quotation heavy manner (6 unnecessary uses within 1 paragraph). His argument that America is becoming more like a corporation is interesting especially with the availability of information on constitutions and marketing tactics; however, I would argue that this utopian vision of every voter understanding every issue flawed. Not every citizen has the time, education, or desire to read “well-informed arguments based on confirmable evidence and logical inference” and may have only been so in the past because voting was restricted to educated, land-owning white men. This article read almost like a satire and made me seriously questions the PHD qualifications of the author.

Question: Is it wrong that political campaigns use marketing tactics to attract voters and is there anything/should we do anything to fix it?

• Textbook, Ch. 25: “Philosophical Worldviews and Ethics”
• Environmental Justice Movement (intragenerational human justice);
• Duties to Future Generations (intergenerational human justice);
• Leopold’s Land Ethic (inter-specific justice)
• Childhood Development, Education and Nature: Biophilia;
• Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder;
• No Child Left Inside Movement #1;
• No Child Left Inside Movement #2
• Environmental Citizenship
• David Orr, What Is Education For? Greening the College Curriculum

• On Planetary Environmental History: Big History; Time Chart Planet Earth; The Anthropocene; Collapse: How Societies Chose to Fail or Succeed
• On US Environmental History: US Environmental History 1; US Environmental History 2

Word Count: 1066

This week’s articles were especially broad in both differing subject matter and timeframe covering everything from Big History to Jared Diamond’s Collapse. Despite their breadth of interest, there are three key lessons we can learn from the environmental history of the universe, the earth and the United States respectively: 1. Perspective Matters 2. Human Beings are not exempt from the concept of extinction 3. Do not discount the environmental efforts from the past just because they didn’t completely solve the problem. Analyzing these three lessons in the context of the readings will provide a better understanding of the relationship between Human History and Sustainability.

By definition, History does not seem like an alterable concept; events that happened in the past are stationary and unchanging, making them seem objective and unbiased. While this is certainly true for the idea of history, the execution of teaching history is a far more controversial and potentially biased practice. This is exemplified in a movement credited towards David Christian known as Big History. Christian believed that the general study of history was inadequate due to its limited scope and anthropological focus. Big History seeks to reframe history by viewing the beginning as the Big Bang rather than the emergence of modern/recorded human history. It resists specialization and searches for universal patterns and trends as well as integrates studies of the cosmos, Earth, life, and humanity using empirical evidence to explore cause and effect relationships. When the focus of history is how humankind fits within the universe rather than just human accomplishment, we can better understand our symbiotic rather then controlling relationship with nature and the earth. Although it seems simple, this change of perspective is a powerful tool for the environmentalist movement in getting younger generations to live in harmony with earth and its inhabitants rather than seek to exploit them. The growing emphasis on perspective is also seen within the article on the Anthropocene, a proposed geological epoch (time frame) coinciding with significant human impacts on the earth’s geology and ecosystems. This impact is seen through a variety of indicators: Massive species and biodiversity loss, dramatic increase in carbon in the atmosphere, and radionuclides that will last millions of years. While the new name for the epoch has yet to be officialized, it is already in common vernacular for the scientific community making its acceptance only a matter of time. The start date itself is being significantly debated and for good reason as the epoch’s conception is vital for its public perception: the glory years of human achievement and industry or the day that we headed towards extinction. The often-repeated phrase, “history is written by the victors” (attributed to Winston Churchill) is very apt in this discussion as it speaks volumes to the power perspective has on historical education and its ability to reframe our view of environmentalism.

When discussing the extinction of animal species, we often forget the despite our higher intelligence human populations are not exempt from that fate. This idea is summed up, albeit rather crudely, by Jared Diamond (historical generalization extraordinaire) in his book Collapse: How Societies Chose To Fail or Succeed. Although some of sources are questionable if not downright refuted, Diamond identifies “five factors that contribute to collapse: climate change, hostile neighbors, collapse of essential trading partners, environmental problems, and the society’s response to the foregoing four factors” (Wikipedia). Regardless of certain shortcomings, Diamond’s main idea is that the environmental problems we face today have led to the collapse of societies in the past due particularly due to overpopulation is a sound analysis. Especially with the exponential growth of science and technology in the last century, it is an important reminder that humanity is not invincible especially when faced with external environmental pressures. Extinction is an idea also well-rooted in American history, particularly with discovery and subsequent drop of the Nuclear Bomb on Japan. Never before had humanity so completely altered not only Hiroshima and Nagasaki but the whole world as nuclear fallout will now coat every forest, river, and city across the globe for millions of years to come. In Steven Stoll’s US Environmentalism since 1945, the author traces the environmentalist movements rise in the wake of World War II as a philosophical and political movement protesting industrial production’s role in ecological instability. After experiencing the devastation humanity could now wrought, environmentalists sought to “redefine human society itself as a subset of the global environment” (Stoll, 2) to better understand our place in the world ecosystem. The Cold War that followed emphasized the newfound fragility of human existence; that we had created something that could cause the entire human race to go extinct with the push of a button ushered in an era of greater understanding to our imperiled future.

Another key lesson found in U.S. Environmental history is the idea of not discounting the environmental efforts from the past just because they didn’t completely solve the problem. When reading both Steven Stoll’s article and chronology of key events, there were so many environmental victories that from my perspective do not receive enough credit from modern day environmentalists such as “1951 The Nature Conservancy was founded and by 2000 has 900,000 members and has protected ten million acres” (Stoll, 156). While there is certainly enough bad news to go around regarding political apathy towards climate change and pro-environmentalism measures, U.S. history is still filled with amazing events of both individuals and government agreeing to make nature a priority. From Rachel Carson’s silent spring to Congress passing the Air Pollution Control Act that was a precursor to all subsequent clean-air legislation there is much to be learned from the past about how to market and enact change. While I understand the both the world and the United State’s reaction to environmental measures leaves much to be desired, only focusing on our historical failures will not do as much good as focusing on our historical victories. Though our political climate is currently oscillated towards indifference and even hostility towards proposed pro-environmental policies, the change in mindset from the 1930s to 1940s shows that a complete philosophical shift is possible. Being a part of a generation that literally suffers from climate change depression, hearing more about positive events from the past rather than just looking at the looming hockey stick graph would both encourage and revitalize the environmental movement fueling it with hope rather than fear.

Question: Do you believe the Anthropocene will be classified as beginning with the industrial revolution, dropping of the first nuclear bomb or something else?

Word Count: 1228

Nature is a series of interconnected, ever-changing systems that is reliant on maintaining fragile balance between the interplay of different species and net potential resources. From the relationship between wolves and rivers to sea otters and kelp forests, nature’s continued existence is dependent on maintaining equilibrium with each living organism playing a key role in the survival of another. Unfortunately, human activity has severely disrupted this delicate balance and because of nature’s interrelated nature has had more far-reaching and serious effects than even scientist’s can fully understand. Our growing population has put intense strain on environmental capabilities and it’s renewability from altering the water cycle and marine systems, as well as pushing planetary boundaries beyond what it can handle. Whether advertently or inadvertently we have also set ourselves up for failure as technological advancements and complex food supply systems are reliant on the health of the surrounding natural environments. With more and more individuals moving to cities and a growing sense of environmental disconnect, we often forget that our survival is just as closely tied to our planet’s ecosystems as it once was when we were hunter gatherers. Chapter 3 details four main planetary boundaries that we have overstretched: 1. disruption of the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles 2. biodiversity loss 3. land system changes 4. climate change. While the latter has been the buzzword for environmental action calls the past few years, each of these issues represent a pressing need for advocation, legislation and an ultimate shift in how we view our relationship with the earth. After all, the rest of the world can get along without us, but we can’t get along without them.

Chapter 2, Science, Matter and Systems focuses on understanding the scientific method, the shortcomings of scientists, and the science behind energy. The scientific method is “a research process in which scientists identify a problem for study, gather relevant data, propose a hypothesis that explains the data, gather data to test the hypothesis, and modify the hypothesis as needed” (Miller & Spoolman, 31). The result of this method are scientific theories, which are dissimilar from the colloquial definition of theory as they represent extensively tested and supported ideas not simple proposals. While this methodology has allowed a plethora of technological and medicinal advancements, there are several limitations to scientific practice that specifically make pressing environmental issues difficult to convey. The limitations include: scientists do not use the word “proof”; scientific discovery and dissertation is always subject to some sort of bias; and the natural world involves many interconnected variables that make ascertaining a single causation nearly impossible. Addressing the former, not using the world proof and instead employing the phrase “overwhelming evidence indicates a higher [or lower] chance of…” leaves room for doubt among many staunch disbelievers who may take this wiggle-room as evidence that it does not exist. Bias is a self-explanatory issue in which scientists may stretch their research or conduct experiments in a way that is not entirely objective. Finally, as discussed in the introduction, nature is reliant on the harmonious or non-harmonious balance between species to maintain its overall health. Unfortunately, this means that accountability for environmental damages is difficult to both prove and litigate which oftentimes allows companies and governments to get away with defying regulation. The final focus of this chapter is on energy, specifically the laws of thermodynamics and conservation. Pertaining to sustainability the second law of thermodynamics states that when energy is converted from one form to another it becomes a lower-quality i.e. less useable energy. 84% of energy created in the United States is wasted, 43% unnecessarily. While discussions about cutting back on energy are certainly productive for environmental advocates, improving energy efficiency is also an important topic.

Chapter 3 moved away from scientific methodology and chemistry towards the intricacies of biological ecosystems. The earth has four main systems: the atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere. Life is reliant on the one-way flow of high-quality energy from the sun, the cycling of nutrients, and gravity. If any one of those elements is disrupted than life on earth would cease to exist as we know it, particularly the cycle of nutrients as humans have the ability to impact this element far more so than the other two. Despite being a plant-lover (but sub-par caretaker) I had no idea that it can take hundreds to thousands of years to form 1 inch of topsoil and even longer should this cycle be interrupted. Furthermore, not all environments are created equal and are judged based on net primary productivity (NPP), the rate at which producers use photosynthesis to produce and store energy minus the rate at which they use some of this stored chemical energy through respiration. The importance of the water cycle was also a key part of this chapter particularly human’s detrimental impact on it by: withdrawing fresh water from sources that cannot replace it quickly enough; clearing vegetation from land for agriculture/cities which increases water runoff; draining and filling wetlands which serve as flood control. While the current state of the environment is already overwhelming with its plethora of issues, the water table needs to be another primary concern.

Chapter 4 and 5 examined the importance of biodiversity and balance within the natural world. There is a constant struggle in implementing environmental regulation that consider both the needs of humans and nature. Many do not understand the importance of saving plants and animals from extinction, particularly if it puts stressors on struggling communities; however, biodiversity is necessary as a source of food, medicine, building materials, and fuel. As seen by the video about reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone National Park, certain keystone species are vital in maintaining both the health and even geography of the land. If lost, food supplies, potential medical breakthroughs, and energy sources could be affected to the detriment of not just the surrounding communities but as a chain reaction all over the world. Extinction rates are currently rising due to the loss, fragmentation, or degradation of habitats due to human activity. History shows that despite our higher intelligence, humans are not exempt from population controls as seen by the Bubonic plague and Irish potato famine. Biodiversity needs to be internationally recognized as not just fodder for longer nature documentaries, but as key to our own survival as well.

Chapter 7 and 8 focus on how climate shapes our ecosystems as well as the effects of humans on marine life. An important distinction is between weather, the set of short-term atmospheric conditions and climate which is the general pattern of atmospheric conditions in a given area over decades. Earth’s major biomes result in differences in climate although unfortunately, over 60% of the worlds major terrestrial ecosystems are being degraded or used unsustainably. Furthermore over 50% of coral reefs have been destroyed or degraded with the potential for 20-30% more in the next 20 years. Marine systems face major threats from coastal development, runoff of pollutants, overfishing, destruction of bottom ocean habitat by trawlers, and the spread of invasive species facilitated by humans. Although we often think of them as non-sentient, oceans provide more than half the air we breathe and are vital for life on earth to continue.

Life is an intricate balancing act and human behavior has almost tilted the scale too far to ever recover.

Questions: 1. How would you explain the importance of biodiversity to someone with an anthropocentric belief system? 2. What can you do to help local ecosystems?

Sources:

MILLER, G. TYLER., and SCOTT E. SPOOLMAN. LIVING IN THE ENVIRONMENT. CENGAGE LEARNING, 2020.