Is There Hope?

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Through our discussions and readings, we can all agree that corporations will do anything to maximize profit, even at the expense of the environment.  As Emily’s article pointed out, companies that try to utilize environmentally friendly techniques will only continue to do so if they are benefitting.

Nonetheless, about a month ago, an interesting article was published in the New York Times about the Cascade line of detergents.  Because of stricter regulations that were enforced in 17 states, detergent producers such as Cascade were forced to reduce the amount of phosphates from their products.  Users of these detergents were not very pleased with the results.  Check out the article: Cleaner for the Environment, Not for the Dishes.

Do you see this as a step that will generate more changes that will help the environment? Or do you ultimately think that corporate interests will prevail?

The answer to our problems???

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This article Powering the Planet With Solar Energy on the production of solar fuel was part of our assignment over break for my chemistry class.  I thought I’d share it with you guys as a more hopeful look at the future of our planet.  The conclusion of the article is especially thought provoking.

“We have an even grander vision. Some time in the future we will be able to put three components of our atmosphere — carbon dioxide, nitrogen and oxygen — along with sea water into solar reactors to make not only fuels, electricity and pure water, but polymers, food and almost everything else we need. We have been taking from nature since the beginning of time, consuming the oil, gas and coal given to us by thousands of millions of years of photosynthesis. This is the century in human history when we will start paying back with the capital generated through fundamental research in chemistry.”

What do you think of this idea of humans as producers as opposed to consumers? This seems to go against our natural niche in nature and as a result violates some major biological principles.  Do you think people will be open to the idea of scientific production of polymers that can be used to food? Is this idea any different than GMOs?

In Denial of Climate Change

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In this editorial, In Denial of Climate Change, we learn about a perspective that’s being taken by some Republican candidates.

The candidates are not simply rejecting solutions, like putting a price on carbon, though these, too, are demonized. They are re-running the strategy of denial perfected by Mr. Cheney a decade ago, repudiating years of peer-reviewed findings about global warming and creating an alternative reality in which climate change is a hoax or conspiracy.

This is a perspective that’s not uncommon among many people across the USA. I wonder, then, what we have to do to demonstrate that we, indeed, have affected — and continue to affect — Nature?

These elections (November) and this mediated hype without debate comes at a time when we’re witnessing the questioning  the “value,” “worth” and significance of the Humanities in colleges and universities.  For instance, there is a debate, ongoing, in Do Colleges Need French Departments.

In her response, Martha Naussbum argues that,

Cuts in the humanities are bad for business and bad for democracy. Even if a nation’s only goal were economic prosperity, the humanities supply essential ingredients for a healthy business culture.

Nations such as China and Singapore, which previously ignored the humanities, are now aggressively promoting them, because they have concluded that the cultivation of the imagination through the study of literature, film, and the other arts is essential to fostering creativity and innovation. They also have found that teaching critical thinking and argumentation (a skill associated with courses in philosophy) is essential in order to foster healthy debate inside a business world that might too easily become complacent or corrupt.

We in the U.S. are moving away from the humanities just at the time that our rivals are discovering their worth. But a healthy business culture is not all that life in America is about.

What might be the connections between Republican rejection of man-made climate change, the media hype without debate or dialog, and the willingness of citizens to accept the notion that climate change is happening — and has happened — outside our influence?

The Economy Beats the Environment Once Again

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Today I was looking around The Wall Street Journal online and I came across this article about Frito-Lay’s biodegradable packaging for Sun Chips. The article explained how the company’s switch from the standard, polluting food packaging to biodegradable, environmentally-friendly packaging has actually caused a great decrease in Sun Chip sales in the last eight months. Apparently, the newer, clean packaging is “noisy” and annoying to consumers, so they stopped buying and switched to a substitute good.

When I first heard of the biodegradable bag, I respected PepsiCo (the company that owns Frito-Lay) for coming up with this innovative idea, and hoped that the company would set an example for others – I thought that maybe this environmentally-friendly type of packaging would eventually become the norm. But after reading this article, I was disturbed to see how easily PepsiCo succumbed to economic pressures. While I first thought that PepsiCo might actually care about the environment, at the end of the day it seems that it still cares about capital and monetary gain most above anything else.

Here’s the link to the article: Sun Chips Bag to Lose Its Crunch

Offshore Wind Power

Here is a really cool article I found today on the cover of the NY Times. It is about the recent funding of offshore wind turbines 15-20 miles along the Atlantic seaboard. Potentially this project could help allow a majority of mid-Atlantic states be self-sufficent on renewable energies. This project is similar to the Cape Cod Wind Turbine Project yet these turbines would be relatively unseen by the naked eye. Actually, the Dad of one of the girls who lives in our hall  is a leader behind this project with Good Energies,a leading global investor in renewable energy and energy efficiency industries. Check it out.

Here is the article.

Offshore Wind Power Line Wins Backing

-Hig

What Democracy?

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Following our discussion on Thursday, defining terms — Democracy, Socialism, Communism, Capitalism and The Yankees — several parallel stories have appeared that suggest the struggle and the tension we discovered in our exercise, in our discussion.

Please examine these, carefully, and again per group (each group, except one, still is behind and has to do the Scott Page post), determine HOW these stories define Democracy/Capitalims/Us and HOW these stories parallel Empire of Illusion.

The first story is from Terry Gross’s Fresh Air, ” ‘Citizens United’ Ruling Opened Floodgates on Groups’ Ad Spending.”

The next 2 are not stories, but rather, commentaries.  First, Bob Herbert, writing for the New York Times, in Policy at its Worst, tells us that, “We can’t put the population to work, or get the kids through college, or raise the living standards of the middle class and the poor. We can’t rebuild the infrastructure or curb our destructive overreliance on fossil fuels.”

The next opinion, also from the Times, is by  Charles M. Blow, High Cost of Crime.  Here, Blow informs us that, “Our approach to this crime problem for more than two decades has been the mass incarceration of millions of Americans and the industrializing of our criminal justice system. Over the last 25 years, the prison population has quadrupled. This is a race to the bottom and a waste of human capital. A prosperous country cannot remain so by following this path.”  Take a look at how much a single murder costs — then ask yourself: why do we incarcerate more people than anyone else in the industrial world?

The last story, which parallels Hedges’ chapter, “The Illusion of Wisdom,” and written by the indefatigable Camille Paglia, was sent to me by Izzy Ocampo.  In “Revalorizing the Trades,” Paglia asks, “what if a student wants a different, less remunerative or status-oriented but more personally fulfilling career?”  She responds to her question, saying that, “There is little flexibility in American higher education to allow for alternative career tracks.”

In a moment, Paglia sounds a lot like Hedges:

Jobs, and the preparation of students for them, should be front and center in the thinking of educators. The idea that college is a contemplative realm of humanistic inquiry, removed from vulgar material needs, is nonsense. The humanities have been gutted by four decades of pretentious postmodernist theory and insular identity politics. They bear little relationship to the liberal arts of broad perspective and profound erudition that I was lucky enough to experience in college in the 1960s.

Examine each of the stories and the editorials, then discuss, online, how all this fits our notion of the struggle for democracy, our struggle for the truth?

Will the Environment Survive Peace in the Middle East?

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I attended the lecture given by Prof. Alon Tal of Ben Gurion University on Wednesday.

Below is the link to the recording of the lecture, and my notes from it.

Will the Environment Survive Peace in the Middle East

Professor Tal spoke about the prevalence of transboundary pollution, regional challenges in regards to resources, discussed the importance of environmental issues in peace talks. He is optimistic about the future of the region and emphasized the role of civil society and US involvement in peace talks.

Some (perhaps) Depressing Updates

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Panel Blasts Government On Gulf Oil Spill Response

October 7, 2010
A preliminary report released Wednesday by the federal commission investigating the BP oil spill blames the Obama administration for misrepresenting “the amount and fate of the oil” in the Gulf of Mexico.

Scientists and Soldiers Solve a Bee Mystery

October 6, 2010
Since 2006, 20 to 40 percent of the bee colonies in the United States alone have suffered “colony collapse.” Suspected culprits ranged from pesticides to genetically modified food.

Obama talks green, GOP talks freeze

October 2, 2010
Wind, solar and other clean energy technologies produce jobs and are essential for the country’s environment and economy, President Barack Obama said in promoting his administration’s efforts.

The president used his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, a month away from congressional elections, to charge Republicans with wanting to scrap incentives for such projects.

Scott Page on Leveraging Diversity

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As you find definitions for Democracy, Socialism, Capitalism and Communism, you will undoubtedly confront the notion of diversity — what is it, why is it important, how do ensure diversity since it’s apparently important for human evolution.

In all, as you define the above terms, you will be examining the characteristics of our society, particularly as we discuss Ecological Democracy.  Diversity shows up here, again.

Scott E. Page, who came to Midd last year, wrote The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies. (Read some of the book here)

I suggest that you find the time, either alone or in groups, to check out Scott’s lecture at the University of Virginia and follow his logic.  Regardless of what endeavor you choose in the future, thinking about how diversity works — and can work — will be extraordinarily useful. Of course, thinking about how we might be able to enable diversity to evolve in a healthy manner with Democracy — or whatever else we come up with as we contemplate our world — is extraordinarily important.

The Lecture: Leveraging Diversity

After watching the lecture, if, by group say, each group synthesizes and summarizes what you hear and then point to what you find important will be very useful; then if each person of each group adds and comments on what others are summarizing and saying, this will be useful too — and perhaps a model of what Page is talking about.