Report Card, Part 7 – Sustainability Advocates

Sustainability Advocates: Now we’ll grade the folks who have attempted to lead the charge toward sustainability, the conveners and teachers of the class, as it were, including ourselves. A for effort, but a sub-par C for effectiveness, the one that counts. This group only accepts work it deems appropriate, stumbles through some of its assignments, and often attempts to blame other students when things go wrong. This is no way to behave. A standout when it comes to understanding the real issues, they (we) need to work harder on how to share this knowledge effectively with all the others in the class.

The course will go on. We have confidence that students (and faculty) can turn things around. Some have suggested we re-name the course “Survival Tactics”. Could be too extreme. We’ll see.

This question remains. Where exactly do we send the report card?

Ralph

P.S. Do you disagree with my assessments? What grades would YOU give the various institutions I’ve rated? What do you think each needs to do to improve its grade?

Report Card, Part 6 – The Media

Media: No grade.  This student shows serious interest at times but only displays enthusiasm when the material relates to other subjects it likes.  It appears Media never actually signed up for the course; they’re only auditing.  Sooner or later, though, this course is going to be a permanent requirement, and then there’ll be no getting away from sustainability.  The Media need to get this into their head and stop distracting themselves and the other students.

Next (and final): Sustainability Advocates

Ralph

Report Card, Part 5 – Health Care

Health Care: Our most frustrating student. It shows brilliance at times but keeps putting obstacles in its own way. For all its apparent smarts, Medicine in this country dozed off in class and missed this inescapable fact: we cannot maintain true health in people if we keep sickening the planet’s major life-support systems. Band-aids are a good idea, but prevention is a better one. A stunning reluctance to deal with this fundamental understanding earns this student a D.

BTW, this grade applies to alternative medicine as well as the conventional sort.

Next: the Media

Ralph

Report Card, Part 4 – Organized Religion

Religion: Star of the class so far.  Excellent understanding and articulation of the issues and some demonstrations of leadership among other students.  But we can only award a C+ due to inconsistency and failure to turn in all the homework (i.e. spotty follow-up on what they’ve learned).  Compared to this, how do you think your individual congregation is performing

Next: health care

Ralph

Report Card, Part 3 – Business

Big Business: This student transferred into the class in mid-term poorly-prepared, ill-motivated, and full of elaborate excuses (“The dog ate our recycling barrels.”).  We’re going to give this bunch a D for now and recommend lots of tutoring.  We think there’s great potential here.  They engage in lots of noisy, counter-productive playground antics, and we hope this energy transforms into serious interest, and soon.

Next: Religion

Ralph

Report Card, Part 2: Education

Public Education: Americans are still in the grips of a consumption addiction.  We’ve set up our educational institutions so they turn out, if you’ll pardon a borrowed expression, “well-educated consumers”, and we graduate millions each year prepared for a work life devoted to extending, even deepening that addiction.  Why is it most of us recognize countless corporate logos but cannot name even five native bird or plant species?  We give the whole system a D+. They get some things right but have a long, long way to go.

Lawrence Township Public Schools, on the other hand, get a special citation ( extra credit?) for gumption and foresight.  Lawrence Township will be the first community in the state to have solar energy powering every school in the district, thanks to the school board’s courage in putting the issue before the public in a bond issue vote (and winning).  The roofs of our schools will now become literal learning labs on sustainability, climate change, and energy policy.  Could be a real turning point.

Next: Business

Sustainability Report Card, Part 1

In the grand scheme of things, the fight to become a sustainable community (or region, or nation) has just begun. Here’s part 1 of my “report card” on sustainability. This is me passing out grades. It’s a take on major institutions and their support for a sustainable way of life.

August may seem an odd time to pass out grades, but when it comes to sustainability, there’s no spring break or summer vacation. To learn our take on how major institutions in America (and some in Lawrence) have fared lately, read on.

Sometimes it seems like we’ve been at this sustainability thing a long time. Congress passed major environmental legislation way back during the Nixon administration. And news of acid rain, rainforest destruction, spotted owls, snail darters, and Love Canal all seem like memories from a bygone era. The thing about our ecology is that it doesn’t go away. It cannot be relegated to anybody’s storage closet of history. As news, it’s not only a current and unfolding story, it’s the backdrop for every other story.

Government: The federal administration gets an F. True, they’re supposed to monitor air quality, water quality, and species endangerment. But all of the nation’s major environmental strategies have been subject to unproductive politics in ways that deeply disrupt other students in the class. This puts all of us in jeopardy, and there’s no excuse for it. This student looks to have excellent potential, but please, no more in-class naps. Locally, it’s a better story. Township administration moves deliberately but almost all of their moves lately have been in the right direction. We’ll hold off on a formal grade for now and encourage continued study and plenty of “class participation”.

Next: Education

My Olympic “Boycott”

I’m boycotting the Olympics, and it hurts.

It’s not really a boycott, actually; it’s more like a personal news black-out. I refuse to pay any attention to the whole shebang. I won’t read any news stories about it, and I’ll walk away from the TV and radio bulletins about who won what.

It hurts because, as a former high school and college quarter-miler/half-miler, I find few things more beautiful in sports to watch than an Olympic 800-meter final. Speed, tactics, beauty, drama — so cool.

The Olympics, however, have become a showcase heavily programmed to promote the commercial agenda of a bunch of unsustainable global corporations. The games themselves seem to have devolved into an incidental backdrop. It’s the Superbowl (“Weren’t those commercials great?”) on a worldwide stage, and until those organizations get serious about thinking in a “Natural Step” sustainability framework, I don’t want to support them, even tacitly.

Call me a — what, stick-in-the-mud? Over-zealous tree-hugger? Silly, doomsday hand-wringer? Maybe, but we are running out of time.

Ralph

More on Education…

You’ve probably seen the bumper sticker: “If You Can Read This, Thank a Teacher”. I like it. Education as a process is remarkable, and remarkably human. We can teach each other everything from math to manners. We can make it concrete and specific or open and exploratory. We have classroom lectures and outdoor experiments. Almost everyone has something they can teach, and practically everybody learns something new every day.

At least we know this is possible. So let’s have faith in this world of possibilities, our own self-created world of possibilities and take full advantage of it as we address the challenge of sustainability.

So what do we have to do educate about ecological sustainability?  I think, here in Lawrence, we need to focus on home first. Specifically energy and food. “Heat and eat” if you like, though the energy category also covers the way you cool, clean, and get around. Yes, start at home.  Learn how by teaching your children.

We interrupt this ramble for a shameless boast: yesterday I went to the post office, the bank, and the eye doctor, and I also attended three meetings, one at home, one at TCNJ, and one at the Lawrnce Nature Center. I covered it all on my bicycle (except for the meeting at home, of course) and logged a total of 19+ miles. My car never left the driveway. What did I learn? It’s so much more fun this way, and I have to change shirts a little more often.

I also came to believe that to make changes in our lives, we need to deliberately place ourselves in new circumstances. We must experiment and run risks.  We must be willing, even eager to do things without any assurance of success.  We must.

And here’s one more thought about risk. By choosing a bike as transport yesterday, the risk was not so much that I’d violate social norms (e.g. showing up at meetings in shorts and arriving in places all sweaty and breathless. The risk was that I might not find the courage to do it again once I see how people react to me.

My education continues.

Ralph