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18 comments:
Awesome.
It is indeed awesome.
It's the opposite of notsome.
Lindsay Bienick
ADP 3: Response #1
Ashley Lieber, Sec 005
Listening in on Monday’s lecture I came to the conclusion that most Americans are blind to the fact that we are some of the world’s largest consumers. We are only 305 million out of 6.7 billion, yet we consume 25% of the Earth’s global energy. Looking at statistics such as this shocked me. I knew, at least, that we consumed a lot, but I had not realized our affect on the earth to be so tragic. So why and how have we come to this? While, I do not know this answer entirely, I found Professor Trumpey’s statement that the U.S. is under pressure to consume due to media was an immense part of it. We are force-feed by the media this idea of being an individual, and as Professor Trumpey said, “when is this individualism taken to far?” We want our own clothes, own car, own house, own everything. Thus I feel a circle is created: advertising by the media leads to demand which leads to supply which in turn leads to more advertising to sell the supply. This vicious circle has lead Americans to consume more and more, such as up to 6 million barrels of oil per year, and 1,200 gallons per person. As characterized by Kalle Lasn in Culture Jam, cycles like this are caused by media pollution. Media pollution affects us in many different ways, whether through television, radio, newspaper, even other people, it is constantly surrounding us telling us where to channel our money. Reading Lasn opened my eyes to the affects that the media has on me as an individual. I constantly want to consume more not because I need to, but because I am told to. This leads to the common misconception American’s have between the word “want” and “need.” For example, I “want” the new iPhone with Internet because: a) it is the newest edition to Apple, and Apple is “cool”, b) touch phones are in, c) I want to access the Internet at all times to check email, facebook, and the weather, and d) because other people have one. Clearly, I do not need this phone, but in reality, American’s find consider these wants as needs, and therefore will buy this phone.
So now I wonder, what happens when the media pollution stops, or is taken away? Will Americans all together begin to consume less because they don’t have access to knowing what new trends or fads are out there or aren’t told what to spend their money on? A solution such as this doesn’t seem plausible. Therefore, the idea of “cradle to cradle” rather than “cradle to grave” comes into play. If we educate ourselves to ignor the idea of needless consumption and move to the idea of reusing and recycling, rather than contributing to a landfill, we are taking one step further down the path to sustainability. But first we must look at the lack of information we currently know about the environment. As seen in Wednesday’s lecture, American’s are becoming less and less aware and educated about nature and the Earth itself. When Professor Trumpey read off the statistics for what our class did and did not know, I could not help but to feel ashamed. He opened my eyes to the importance of the things I never bothered to pay attention to before, such as my water source, where my garbage goes, and what a clear-cut forest is. It also amazed me to learn that 82% of kids’ free time today is spent in front of the T.V. or on the computer. How can we expect this generation of children to know half as much as our class did when they don’t even take the time to learn their own outdoor surroundings? I believe that if we work to discover and educate ourselves and our children about our environment more we can become aware of our effects. Once this happens we can begin to establish a system like that of the “cradle to cradle” to prevent future harm.
Kelsie Kaufman
ADP III: Response 1
Sec. 005
After hearing piles of statistics from Professor Trumpey, the Jensen article, Culture Jam, and countless other surrounding sources, I can’t help but to feel not only highly overwhelmed by the current state of crisis our world is in, but rather discouraged and helpless as well. With 6.7 billion earth murderers running around, its hard to feel optimistic about the future of our earth. From all the statistics, numbers, birth rates, death rates, HIV positive rates, Ozone depletion rates, CO2 output rates, etc. it sounds like we’re past the point of no return. Why did we start caring about our earth so late in the game? What does it take to get people to not simply be aware of such urgent issues, but to act upon whatever concern may be brewing in their minds? In such a self centered nation like ours, people with the power to make a change in this world (and I don’t mean just those with money or business titles, I mean every last one of us) have to be personally inconvenienced in order to stand up and say, “This is enough, we need to stop (insert concern here).” And that’s what needs to change. At the current rate our earth is suffering, we can’t only care when we are personally effected. Unlike Jensen, I don’t feel as though most of us are out to destroy the earth, we just don’t care enough to start making any changes. Sitting in a comfortable living room watching a huge TV, most of us will emit a sympathetic “Aw...” at images of starving African children, but only a small portion of us will do something about it. But here is where thoughts become contradicting...
Just giving money to those in need is only going to help in the short term, and in the current state of our earth, we need to be pulling for the long term. Giving money will only help until the money runs out, and those who are deprived are back at square one. When nations like the United States are only giving out handouts to countries in need, those countries will eventually just sit back and wait for aid, instead of making any steps to becoming self sufficient and helping themselves. In order to make a long term and successful difference in starving nations, we need to give them the tools they need to begin farming their land again so they can start providing for themselves. We need to give them the valuable skills they need to grow their own food and produce what they need to survive. Maybe this sounds too harsh, but I believe helping a starving country to become self sufficient is far more valuable than short term relief.
During the class lecture on Wednesday, we were momentarily sidetracked by one student’s assertion that our best attempts to save the environment are only delaying its destruction by a few decades. This mirrors Derrick Jensen’s claim in “Beyond Hope:” we’re fucked. While Jensen believes we can escape our fate and make a difference, our class is not entirely convinced. We discussed that even though hybrid cars are being manufactured, the difference they will make is marginal; current models only get around ten to fifteen miles per gallon more than a fuel-efficient gas-powered vehicle. Trying to retain some hope, students brought up ways to conserve existing fossil fuels, and what other forms of fuel would be best to consume next.
Corn was discussed at length. It was also mentioned several times in Michael Pollan’s “This Steer’s Life,” but in a different context: enormous amounts of the grain are used to feed livestock. This actually makes the animals sick, as they are not accustomed to eating it in the wild. A “cornfed” cow is also much higher in saturated fat than a grass-fed cow. If we used more corn for fuel and less to feed our livestock, the livestock would lead healthier lives, we wouldn’t ingest so much fat, and we wouldn’t have to rely so heavily on fossil fuels. It seems to be a win-win situation.
Pollan discussed that corn is inexpensive as a feed ingredient (which explains why it is included so often); on the other hand, Professor Trumpey explained how expensive it would be as a primary ingredient in fuel. Taking this into consideration, maybe we’ll still use it to feed our livestock for quite some time. We need to realize, though, that corn isn’t produced as widely as it used to be—as stated in the lecture, only 2% of the current American population is responsible for farming. If this number steadily declines, will we have enough corn in the future to use it for the greater good?
Probably not. We’re probably, you know, fucked.
—Eleanor Schmitt
Art & Design Perspectives
Section 5 (Ashley Lieber)
Erica Mouns
Blog for 9/16/08
Sec 005
These first few class lectures have shown how we as humans and as individuals impact the planet. Usually I don’t think about how my every day activities will affect the world and the environment. The environment is connected to almost everything in our lives. Many technological advances that we have created are mirrored after environment or animals. We, like animals, use the Earths resources to create our homes and we borrow from nature to build our way of life.
In the past, the resources that were available sustained people’s presence on Earth. However, in recent years the population growth has outweighed the resources available. Population growth is now in a vertical spike that will probably not even out until the population reaches 10 billion. This means that the 4 billion more people (than are alive now) will need their own resources for survival. What if we run out before then? Will we be able to find new things to live off of? Will our way of life be over?
If everyone lived their lives like I did then we would need 5.5 Earths. My carbon footprint shows that I need to improve my life style to being more “green”. But how can I do that? Using electronics that save energy and unplugging my appliances are things that will help, but are those small things enough? Americans and other powerful countries need to change their lives dramatically to make a powerful impact on the environment. It amazes me that some people in third world countries live on less than $2 a day. That makes me think about what I buy and use in my life that are essential and what I could do with out. Oil has become one of the most important resources that we take from the planet. But what will happen when it is gone? We have scientists working to find alternative fuels but will it ever be used across the world for a reasonable price? And how eco-friendly will those alternatives be? It is also important to focus on what will help third world cultures to improve life today. The design of wheal barrows to help women carry water back to their villages will change their lives greatly. It is small designs like that, which are most important for right now while we continue to think about the future.
This lecture was the first time that I had heard that the Great Lakes consist of 20% of the fresh water in the world. How many people in the world do not have access to fresh water? Improving water standards through out the world would improve health care and life expectancies. What percentage of the fresh water in the Great Lakes is used throughout the world and what percentage is used only in the surrounding states? Water treatment plants may be a more economical way of providing fresh water, rather than transporting the water from a fresh water source.
The Jensen article focused on the meaning of “hope” and if it is necessary to live your life with hope. I disagree with Jensen, I feel that if there is nothing to hope for then there is nothing to live for. We have to hope that eventually things will be better than it is today. “Hoping” may be an inactive state, but the act of doing something to achieve what you hope for makes it active.
Alyssa Ackerman ADP III
The last few lectures have focused mostly on what we will be covering through the semester, as well as beginning to increase our awareness of the affects our actions have on the rest of the world. We discussed the correlation between the increased demand for cell phones and the decreased population of gorillas in the Congo. We each calculated our carbon and ecological footprint, which I thought was a great assignment, for it has become extremely easy, in this day and age, to dismiss the idea that our every day routine could negatively effect the planet and other people, worldwide. Everyone gets caught up with the here and now, and with all the resources we have at our fingertips, it becomes impossible to even imagine what living on 50 cents a day (a large part of India’s population) could even look like, and many of us would rather not burden ourselves with such disturbing, depressing images. We continue living our leisurely lives, ignoring the negative effects our actions have on others, paying little attention to the energy and goods we consume, either because we are uneducated on the matter, or because we simply do not want to face it.
We discussed issues involved with increased oil prices, hybrids, and ethanol. Regarding ethanol, I am extremely hesitant about using our food supply to create fuel. With poverty already prevalent in the modern world, one must question his/her priorities, morals, and attitude towards the rest of the world. Another question, prevalent among my thoughts, is that of public transportation, and the lack there of within the United States. In few other countries, is it considered the “norm” for each adult and young adult to own (or even have access to) an individual vehicle. Public transportation in the form of a taxi, a bus system, a subway system, etc, exist and are used worldwide, so why, even under so much pressure from the increased gas prices, has there been no significant push for such systems in the modern United States?
The lack of public transportation, as well as the neglect of taking responsibility for our actions and the negative effects they may have on other human beings worldwide, are simply two issues I feel need further questioning and explanation. Why should we run unused water down the drain brushing our teeth, while statistics describe disturbing facts about the lack of access to clean water to a large amount of the world? How can we drive four blocks down the road to high school, instead of walk, while others will never buy, let alone ride in a vehicle of any sort? Why and how can we allow ourselves to continue living this privileged life knowing that others are in much worse condition, and knowing that it is unlikely they will ever share the joys and luxuries we experience daily? Ignorance? Neglect to face the facts? Fear of personal sacrifices that must be made in order to help these realities? What can change these attitudes?
Rachel Less
ADP III: Response 1
Sec. 005
While going over the results of the surveys that we took before class, I thought the results were not surprising. However, I have to disagree with some of Professor Trumpey’s commentary on the answers. Professor Trumpey pointed out the fact that most of us can name ten stores at our local mall, yet cannot name ten native plants. I think this question is a little twisted in the sense that not every plant you see outside is native, and although someone may be able to name every plant outside, they may not be able to say which are native to that region. Does this still mean they are not aware of and connected to nature? I would say not. First of all, climate growing zones are much more prominent a factor in determining wildlife that you can find outside. Just because something is not native to Michigan does not mean it does not grow well; that’s the entire point of growing zones. Secondly, when going to the mall, you are constantly exposed to words and logos of that store. We have no choice but to know stores, even if never having walked in one. It is this repetition of visual words that let you associate the name with it’s visual identity. If we were to walk outside and see a bunch of labels on every tree, we would know which was which. “Well you could always ask,” you say, which is true, but firstly, there is no specific need to differentiate every single living plant from one another (and the ones that are necessary, everyone knows – for example, poison ivy.) Secondly, even when asking you’re only being exposed once to the plant visual/name correlation and most times multiple association is needed to commit that association in one’s mind.
As for the rest of the lecture, Prof. Trumpey keeps stating how Americans put out more CO2 than the rest of the world, yet he has never addressed/discussed the big elephant in the room: how America does not have mass transit/a public transportation system. Obviously this is the cause for much of the extra CO2 that we are emitting. Since there is really no easy or cheap (or even plausible) way to fix this problem, we can’t exactly be blamed. Look around where you live (unless it’s obviously a very densely populated city), how many of the streets even have sidewalks or are made for mass transportation? How much of America’s climate allows for people to walk everywhere? Honestly, the answer is very little. I would much rather take public transportation, but that unfortunately is not an option where I live. I am all for it, but unfortunately the cost and energy it would take to build a system for all of America is impossible. We are too big. Our cities were made far apart from each other with room for expansion – directly opposite of European cities. The nearest place to buy groceries at my house is 10 minutes away by car (and there are only a few areas with sidewalk, otherwise you’d have to be walking on a busy road) and I live in a populated city. What about those who live in the country? My cousins live in North Carolina and they have to travel 40 minutes by car to go grocery shopping. Ethanol won’t work for reasons stated in the lecture, and too many people are still buying gas-guzzling/foreign cars. We could do like Central London does and make the drivers who have large CO2-omiting cars pay extra? Maybe that would force people to switch to greener cars?
Obviously there’s a lot that still can be done to fix our CO2 emissions, but much of it (particularly transportation wise) is out of our control because that’s just how America is built. People can’t stop going places or the economy would totally and completely collapse beyond repair. I, of course, agree with the message that Prof. Trumpey is trying to convey, but I feel his take on the situation is very impractical and not plausible for the actual situation and position of America within its context of itself and the world.
Tae Hyung Kim
ADP 3: Response 1
Section 5- Ashley Lieber
The lecture on Monday started off with a statistical data of the global population of 67 billion; the United States constitutes 5% of the total population while being a leading nation of carbon emission. In fact, the US emits approximately 18~20 tons of CO2 per person per year. This value is extremely high compared to other developing nations such as China and India that emit 3~1 ton of CO2 per person per year. It can be observed that the US has the highest consumption level among all nations. As Culture Jam by Kalle Lasn explains, our mind is under constant media influence: hype, and over 12 billion display ads are being created in North American alone! Our unconscious perception of commercials (since they have become an integral part of our life) leads to high expenditure of goods and contribute to higher carbon emission. To respond to this supply and demand, we create more goods, which require more energy, known as oil, and our demand has far exceeded the capacity- resulting in 1200 gallons of oils per person per year. Many nations have been going after the United States for its economic development, which is now proving it as a failure since it has been focused too much on development rather than on environment. What is more shocking is that China and India are undergoing rapid economic development and may create more environmental issues such as global warming. More measures need to be taken in order to reduce the environmental impacts from global economic development. Now is a right time to take actions against these issues, and people need to be more aware of their surrounding nature that might get damaged as a result of ignorance. However, one must realize that this “green” movement should not be turned into a brand and become commercial.
Dylan Caple
ADP III
Response #1
11.15.08
Professor Trumpey says that this course’s purpose is not to make us students feel guilty. Perhaps he would not need to make this disclaimer were that not one of the main effects it has had upon me thus far. I know that the information presented in these biweekly lectures is being presented in a purely factual context. I have also seen many of these facts and figures before, so I am sure I am not as shocked as some of my classmates might be. All of this does not change the fact that I do feel no insignificant amount of guilt, simply for having been born and raised in, and indelibly imprinted with the consumer culture of, the great United States of America, where personal liberties and the right to a vaguely defined “pursuit of happiness” take overwhelming precedence over the concerns of other less fortunate nations and, indeed, of the Earth itself.
It seems to me that those who are more than marginally aware that our country is ignoring its responsibilities as a global super-power are in the minority. Out of those, only a portion actually believe it is a problem, and an even smaller subset still are motivated enough to put aside their cushy American lifestyle (or modify it in some way) in order to actually do something to change the situation.
I feel ashamed to admit that I am one of those who are too accustomed to my standard of living to willingly lower it by any truly substantial amount. I have a deep respect and admiration for those people who are doing everything they can to lower their environmental impact, to reduce the size of their carbon footprint, to live “green”, or whatever you should care to call it.
For my own part, I believe I can help through advocacy by way of art & design. Hypocritical though I may be if I maintain my decadent-by-global-standards lifestyle, I regret that this paltry gesture is all I think my willpower may allow me to make.
Indeed, there is a large part of me that wants to remain willfully ignorant, as so many Americans are. With the knowledge of the small extent to which I am willing to sacrifice myself for the sake of the planet, I’d rather not know exactly how quickly we’re making said rocky spheroid inhabitable for ourselves. As the sayings go: “Ignorance is bliss.” “What you don’t know can’t hurt you.” Not to mention “The customer is always right.” In this case, it appears as though the American customer believes the latter phrase to be a basic truth of the universe, and the rest of the world be damned.
Rachel McGuffin
Enviornment and Technology are the two most important factors in human life, and it seems the most overlooked. As a society we have become complacent with our easy lifestyle. We no longer see our extravagant lifestyle as a luxury, we have come to expect it. The most surprising factor of this equation is the lack of awareness to our current situation. I think its fair to say the average American has no idea how much gas we burn as a country or how our everyday staple items are destroying the global economy. Why would we? We’re not suffering. Yet. The mass of society has no reason to trace the history of every consumable item we come in contact, being that we perceive no imminent threat. That is the biggest problem, this undeniable and immeasurable unawareness. Lectured has unveiled our eyes to the most atrocious of out greed-crimes. From the energy crisis to American’s over-consumption of foods ( do not forget our exploiting other countries’ resources like Coltan and cheap labor) its hard to say where one should start to clean up this mess.
A high percentage of America is well educated. That’s obvious to boot. So in addition to changing out personal life styles, it simply follows that the quickest way to start reverting our damages is awareness. We’re not stupid, we know we consume more that our fair share, but its hard to comprehend how much of the fair share we overhaul. Carbon footprints are a good start, its easy to comprehend that if you are using more than one earth’s worth of resources then you are consuming to much. The gap lies in the actual testing and the getting people to realize they should know what they intake and output. It is my opinion that this job lies with the artists. Who better to bridge the gap? Books and articles provide good information, but what provokes a person to search for it? Pieces of art such as “The Meatrix” are closer to the mark, but rely only on word of mouth. Public art, commercials, and newscasts are the best ways to reach many people the quickest. It is our job to use the ironies of our lifestyle and our ability to create visual representations to reach the human psyche in ways a pamphlet cannot. Yes, it has been tried but the facts are piling up and the scales have not tipped but collapsed. There is more hope today than ten years ago. Greater technology gives a greater chance at changing our cycle
It seems simple to me that if more people know the terrible conditions of the meat industry and the irreversible effects of global warming they’d be more likely to do something about it. Of course not everyone sees this way. Some people feel entitled to their larger portion and bent on taking a chunk out of our world. It would then make sense to place certain regulations on a family’s consumption. It might inhibit some of our ‘freedoms’ but in a generation after us there may be no more freedoms to take liberty of. Should freedom be so defined as I take whatever I want even at the expense of someone else? I think not. I’m pretty sure it is against the constitution. There’s no straight-line-point-A-to-point-B way to figure this out. Its clear I don’t have the silver bullet no one else can find. But there is a start. Each person to the same cause is a chart. I am now aware and I can act on it in two ways: changing my life and making a change in another’s life by making them aware.
Rachel McGuffin
Jayme Rosenstock
ADP response
Many eye-opening facts were brought to my attention in these lectures and assignments. I have realized more and more how fortunate we are as a country and how many additional resources that we have that are not offered in other countries. A statistic that I found very shocking was that China emits 3 tons of carbon dioxide per person per year. India emits 1 ton of carbon dioxide per person per year. But the United States emits a whopping 18 tons of carbon dioxide per person per year. Honestly, I do not realize how much 18 tons is, but I feel that overall we are selfish and do not understand how much we are using. When will we realize that our atmosphere cannot handle all of this unnecessary carbon dioxide?
I do agree that our culture is under a lot of pressure to maintain a lifestyle of using a lot of resources. As Professor Trumpey stated we are only 5% of the world’s population but we use about 25 % of the world’s resources. That’s 20% of resources that we are “stealing” from other small third-world countries. A reason for that could be that we do like to compare ourselves to others. Also, our culture is telling us what to buy and what to do, which tells us who we are. We always have that mentality to be “keeping up with the Joneses” and have competition with others in who can have the fastest cars and who can have the largest houses and who can have the most clothes. We should put all of our energy that we use in having the most up-to-date gadgets and focus it on being more knowledgeable about other countries.
It is a sad that we really do not know much about the rest of the world. We need to be aware and alert. There are many cultures that we have very limited information about because we do not take the time to care. Do many people know that other people live on less than 2 dollars a day? I spent a week in Nogales, Mexico (which is right on the border between Arizona and Mexico) learning about their culture. During my time I had to make a meal on the budget of a factory workers. My lunch consisted of a taco with beans, rice and tomato. It made me realize that I have so many choices in choosing what I would want for a lunch and where I was staying these people literally only have one option for a lunch because with the salary that they have, it is difficult to have a large meal.
An important point that I need to think about it what I can we all do to save the environment because I take a lot of simple things like clean water, electricity and heat for granted. Because some people do not have access to any one of these items that I just mentioned. We have to make a change now because do you know how long we will have this Earth?
In my opinion, one of the biggest problems with the human species is the fact that humans tend to be ignorant, knowingly. When it comes to the environment, the majority of people really could care less about what goes on. In the United States, everyone is so hyped up with getting the latest merchandise that being "in fashion" has become a way of life. And this is at the expense of our rapidly depleting natural resources. Our culture has pressured us into being greedy, wasteful creatures, and nobody will do anything about it.
We may gasp at a picture of a mountain gorilla’s head upon a plate that is sitting disturbingly comfortably next to a pile of bananas, but guess what? A head will still be on that same plate, next to a new pile of bananas, because more than half of us will have bought a new music player, digital camera, game console, or computer by the end of this year. That’s right, coltan isn’t only used in cellular phones—many popular electronics all use it! We love our cellular phones and computers, but oh, who bothered to find out what our beloved machines are made of?
As for Derrick Jensen’s “Beyond Hope,” I’m going to play devil’s advocate and say that I was truly moved by Jensen’s article. Our discussion group may have misunderstood Jensen, believing him to be claiming that we should not have hope at all. I do not think that’s the case. Jensen merely states that we must avoid false hopes. Hoping that the global environmental situation will improve? Hoping you’ve studied hard enough for the next exam? Hoping that you’ll be rich? Hoping that you’ve made a good impression on others? Why is there a need to hope for these things when you can do something about it yourself? Start spreading awareness regarding our environment. Study some more for the exam. Stop spending and start saving. Be sensitive to each person’s reactions. With our heads in the clouds, we’ll never be able to see the earth. And once we see the world for what it is, we will learn of things that make us uncomfortable and begin to fight with a passion that we never knew existed. Jensen’s article was not depressing in the least.
-Louise C.
Carolyn Nowak Response 1
It's been a guilt-ridden week for me. That's my general reaction to this kind of information. "Hey carolyn, did you know that cellphone you're so permanently attached to killed some gorillas half a world over?" But it's not the real kind of guilt, it's not tangible. I've never been to Africa. As far as I know the whole continent is a practical joke people have been playing on me since birth. Don't worry, I don't think of it that way. I have faith that it's a real place and is definitely in some major turmoil, but the disconnect between it and me is huge. My family, though open-minded, would never vacation in such a place. We're much too pale and cowardly.
That was a huge digression, but what I'm trying to say is that as guilty as I'm supposed to feel about killing the planet, it will never be real guilt until I actually see someone murder a gorilla, turn its corpse over and pull out a cellphone from underneath it. I'm way too desensitized. I've been hearing about terrible things happening since I became aware of the world beyond my hometown. I grew up in the midwest, where crises are rare. More specifically, I grew up in Holland, Michigan, and to give you an idea of the kind of dire situations I've experienced there, a few years ago when some sick anarchist mowed down a bunch of the city's apparently extremely valuable tulips, a manhunt encompassed the entire city and the front page of the paper was occupied by little else for perhaps two weeks.
More digression. I, apparently, in one way or another, am responsible for expelling something like 7.68 tons of carbon every year. Looking at this number, I sigh, thinking, "what an oblique concept," and then I go on to feel more strangely artificial guilt. Learning that people in other, perhaps "less developed" countries use much less than I do comes at no surprise. From birth I was educated by my shining culture-box, AKA basic cable. My curriculum involved things like "how to give people money so they can give you things that will make people like you". It's a lesson on capitalism. But hey, don't think I blame the boob tube, we make our own choices. I've fought with myself my whole life, trying to keep myself from buying things I don't need. But wait a minute, I didn't do that because I'm afraid of using too many resources, I did that because I was afraid of using too much of my limited supply of cash. If you ask me about it I'll probably say the other thing, though, because it's becoming hipper and hipper to be earth-conscious. Maybe that's the only way Americans are really going to change their over-consumptive habits-if we make it look really, really good. Let's get the guy who does the new Burger King commercials to make some commercials that are quirky and witty and about recycling.
I'm verging towards extremely frenetic cynicism here, accelerated by my lack of sleep and surplus of caffeine. Trumpey seems like a cool guy, you know. I like that he brought up Dubai. I don't think he had the same reaction that I did to its extravagance. He was talking about how much oil we use, so much that it's funding this fucking like.. wackadoo neo-Sodom tourism pit of money-spending. I didn't even think about the oil bit. I just thought, "What the crap, aren't there better things to spend money on than fake islands?". In which case, I suppose I actually do care about proper distribution of resources.
Maggie Baczewski
ADP III: Discussion
Section 005
Beyond Hope completely changed the way I think of the word ‘hope’. I used to associate hope with optimism. To me hope was something that everyone used to help himself with depression. Before hope was such an innocent thing that made us good and human.
Now that I have seen the light I realize hope is the reason why nothing changes. When we hope that something will change, we are waiting for someone or something else to do all the work for us. We believe in a higher power because we like to think something is going to take care of our problems. Doing the work for us.
The surveys we filled out on the first day prove how dependant we are on others. Most people don’t know where his drinking water comes from or where his trash goes. When we turn the shower faucet we don’t pray that water will come out because we are so used to the rest of the world taking care of things for us. We don’t hope that other people will take care of us we expect it. The same thing goes for all of our waste. It’s placed on a curb or washed down the drain where the responsibility is placed in another person’s hands. Every person is dependant on another human being. It is what makes the world go around.
It’s great that everyone works together to maintain our standard of living but we also need to be aware. The population should be educated on the who, what, when, where and how. We need to know where our resources come from and care about the affect our actions have on other living things.
Marcia Kosin
Lectures 9/8-9/10
After doing the carbon and ecological foot printing I was very upset with how much waste I was producing, and frustrated at the same time; because I am living life the way I was taught. I have a car, but I take the bus to school everyday. I have five roommates and we pay all of our utilities so we are constantly turning lights off, recycling, and taking fast showers. But being an American means I waste more than anyone else in the world and I don’t understand why we are raised to live so wasteful. I am not a crazy environmentalist, but I do care about the earth and I want to help make it a better place. I really enjoyed reading Beyond Hope, by Derrick Jensen; I feel he makes a good point by implying that if hope didn’t exist we could take saving the world into our own hands and actually be the people making things happen than rather asking god to fix what we have done wrong. I do believe in hope, but I found this point amusing because hope in this context is meaning, “things are bad” and are going to continue to be bad until some powerful thing called hope helps us out.
I grew up on a small farm 80 miles north of Ann Arbor. I already know all about corn and soybeans and tractors running on diesel, and how many times a tractor drives up and back over hundreds even thousands of acres each spring and fall. All of the land around my house has been cleared and used as fields for around 100 years I think. Farmers have to plough, drag, plant, spray, fertilize, spray for weeds again then harvest in the fall. Yeah that’s a lot of oil along with many hard hours of work. Farming has been in my family a long time. I grew up on 200 acres of land, I spent a lot of time out side, and I appreciate nature and home. Ann Arbor isn’t that much of a city compared to New York City, but it was a big change for me. I definitely know I put fewer miles on my car now here in Ann Arbor; I would drive 12 miles one way to school back home. I know there is an energy crisis, but I have never been in a class that really showed me how bad some of the things we do are. I am curious more than scared to so what will come of it all.
Samuel Hanson
ADP 3
Lecture Response
September 12th
We like things big. Really big. As an American citizen, on average I am the number one consumer in the world. This could be because of my SUV, or my weekly trips to Wal-Mart Super-Center, but is that really the problem? Because if I stop driving my suburban, then the chances are good that I will drive a Prius instead, and here in lies a large problem with American consumerism. From the lectures this past week I realized an underlying theme, that we are trying to “go green” by consuming more. People are so unwilling to change their way of life that instead of investing more money in a green public transport system, they would rather keep their own lifestyle and get a slightly more fuel-efficient car. People are changing and buying the latest and greatest in fuel and quality instead of just stopping. So how can this be solved? We got a small taste of it this summer when oil prices soared well above 4 dollars a gallon. Bikes were locked to every street post and the paths were crowded, so it seems like everyone has their price.
The media and companies have caught on, and are driving the “go green” idea. It’s as simple as putting it in their advertisements that there new product was made with the finest green organic material and the consumers feel good about themselves. I equate this to the facebook group. By joining a group for a selected cause, hurricane relief for example, they feel good for helping the stranded people on top of their flooded houses. The idea that they played their small part stops them from actually doing anything about it. This is similar to the paper we read on hope. It puts it in someone else’s hands while you sit by idly watching, hoping that something gets done.
Another lecture note that interested me was the less than 2% remaining farmers in the U.S. This means that our food supply is in the hands of a minute fraction of the population. This paired with the idea of using ethanol as an alternate fuel source makes me nervous and sweaty. We would, in essence, put a main food source and fuel in the hands of <2% of the population. Because this is such a small percent one of two things would have to happen; either one of the two commodities would fall short or there would have to be an extreme rise in the amount of production of the base commodity; for example corn. Another reason to be hesitant about ethanol rests on the food aspect. With many countries still living in poverty around the world, in rural as well as slum areas, it is one less crop to help solve food shortages. With people living on less than a dollar a day it is important to continue producing a cheap food supply such as rice and corn to distribute.
In conclusion of this weeks blog, I would sum up the lectures by saying that there are a lot of problems in the world, but there is still hope (yeah I read the article, word choice is intentional) for the world. So to end with a huge generic statement, we all have to work together to start seeing a positive change in the world.
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