"Eco-friendly" is everywhere!!

“Living lightly on the planet and reducing your environmental impact becomes, paradoxically, a consumer product growth industry. “
--Michael Maniates

Maniates claims that eco-friendly and green consumption is only helpful for the industry and we are encouraged to help them. Since it is eco awareness week (I think), I see a lot of eco- advertisements on TV, newspaper, city paper, and magazine articles. News anchors and even celebrities talks about being eco-friendly. What those usually tell us is that, what is good and what people should do or buy. We’ve learned Maniates perspective as a different view from these. Whether or not people who see the green advertisement take his view importantly, I think that his view should introduce to them and acknowledge. It seems like to me that many people believe that they are making contribute by doing what they were told with no doubt.

“Solutions to our bigger challenges are being found by those closest to the problem, applying their experience, values, and common sense; drawing in the expert or the authority as a partner, not as a superior.”
--Frances Moore Lappé and Anna Lappé

I think that this quotation can be applied to our situation today that we are facing to the issue of environment such as global warming. Global warming issue has been discussed but the United States and Australia has decided not to join the Kyoto Protocol, and the protocol itself has still many issues such as expensive costs. Some are already showing motivation to work on next protocol even the current one has just started to implement from this year. To deal with the global warming issue, I think that the quotation is giving good advice for all of us.

This blog is making me hungry

"Starvation is the characteristic of some people not having enough food to eat. It is not the characteristic of there not being enough food to eat." -Amartya Sen

As a student of international development, I have heard a lot of what Amartya Sen has to say of cultural issues, developmental issues and political issues, but I have never related his arguements to the environmental crisis we face. This quote actually serves as a testament to understand how the environment is not a mutually exclusive entity to everything we are studying and doing in this world. It is a large part of it. What we deem as top priorities like peace, and economic growth and immigration policies, etc, can all be related to environmental degradation and how that ties in. Sen's quote put into perspective what poor populations suffer as a result of the indifference more affluent societies have for the environment and the billions that inhabit it.

"China slaughters more pigs than any nation on Earth and of course a pig takes four pounds of corn to produce one pound of pork” - Bill McKibben

We all need to stop eating meat. That is what I got from this McKibben quote and our subsequent conversations in class. Granted, black vegetarians are few and far between, but I have considered how inefficient meat consumption is, not to mention how unsafe it can be (particularly after reading the Vegetable Industrial Complex). What we eat has huge impacts on the environment. I understand that now.

waste zero, before we do recycle

I think that this book is good for being aware of something that is really important but people care less which the authors talks about design (also, recycling is downcycling, eco-efficient is not really changing better.) I think that it is very important to know because, for instance, people believe that recycling is certainly good thing for the environment and may feel good about it but it seems to me that many people usually do not care to think how it is actually good for the environment. So many people will probably surprise when they hear the authors saying recycling is downcycling. Also, I like the idea of focusing on “waste zero.” I think that it sounds great as a goal for us to achieve, because wasting can be seen many places and it can be done so easily by anyone. Or recycling doesn’t even make sense if we are doing it without reducing waste. I think that the authors are making really good points.

Making Sense of Our Actions

I absolutely think that Cradle to Cradle is an excellent book. I think that it offers real insight into the environmental world without causing too much depression. Usually environmentalists propose a very negative view of what the world is going to turn into if humans continue what they are doing. I think that their idea is not too optimistic, but it is nice to hear some options that do not really involve killing off the human population.
I actually think that, especially for jobs that demand creativity and imagination from its employees, it is important to have windows to the outdoors. Sitting in a dark cubicle or office can actually impede the thought process of the human brain. It has been scientifically researched that exposure to the outside world while working inspires each workers' best. I loved the idea that they put out about the "outside" offices. It makes sense and, like the blog question we answered last time, it involves a meshing of humans and nature. I think that it is both important and a wonderful, inspired idea. If incentives were offered to all companies I think that they would view it as a feasible possibility.
I thought that when they talked about the three R's they were dead on when they explained that these things are only possible if the design and manufacturing of products that we consume are made to be recycled and made of materials that did not harm the environment after recycling. The Cradle to Grave idea that they present is very much the way the major industries and manufacturing companies are run today. Soon there will be no grave for the products and we will need to look for new places to put our wastes.
I also think that their idea about not just making things less bad, but completely change the way we do things. We can still live healthy and luxurious lives, just with a few changes starting with the materials used in manufacturing.
The beginning of the book was really intriguing and really made you sit down and realize that all of the things that environmentalists tell you are not really that scary if we do something about it. I loved the ideas that they proposed with designing for reuse and recycling. I think what they say makes a lot of sense and it is the first piece that I have read that did not make me want to crawl under the covers and get away from it all. They actually made it interesting and exciting to maybe get on board this new idea and to help it prosper. I believe in what they say.
It makes me happy that both writers were from different backgrounds and were able to bring practical ideas as to how to reshape the world in terms of environmental issues.

Hope and Inspiration

I thought McDonough and Braungart's book was one of the most refreshing pieces of literature and idea about dealing with environmental degradation and climate change. I appreciate these authors as two people who aren't "environmentalists" (architect and chemist) but care about the environment and what's happening. They have seen in their lives the pointlessness--and harmfulness--of cradle-to-grave products and instead of writing about a coming anarchy as resources are depleted and so forth, they offer hope. They don't just say, "we have to stop doing X, Y, and Z," they are already trying new and innovative ways to deal with the problems facing the planet today. What I liked most is their belief in 'eco-effectiveness' instead of 'eco-efficiency'.

Having said that, however, I can't imagine every corporation jumping on board to have open spaces and birds and sunshine inside of offices. I think that is a bit away from happening on a massive scale, as it would take pretty progressive thinking businessmen/CEO's to revamp their entire structures thusly. Unless it was the law that all buildings had to be eco-effective.

Which is ultimately the most effective way to get solar or wind power buildings and energy sources. McDonough and Braungart's ideas and hope for the future are great and inspiring, but I have a little bit of skepticism that those ideas will be enacted unless the federal government gets on board and also sees the hope and inspiration in eco-effectiveness instead of eco-effeciency.

Why do toys come in so much damn plastic?

I couldn’t help but recall Michael Maniates and his arguments while reading Cradle-to-Cradle. I thought their emphasis on human ingenuity, creativity and productivity was exactly what Maniates had in mind, when calling for greater action by individuals. What McDonough and Braunghart brought to light was how if we really put our minds into creating more "fitting-est" products, we could bring some stability to the havoc we've been wreaking. This havoc, of course, is the industrial revolution, our technosphere and "monstrous hybrids." The idea of people wearing hazardous waste on their feet in the form of shoes was a particularly good image to portray how much the little things have a huge impact on the environment. Furthermore, the argument of obsolescence and how manufacturers design products for the worst possible circumstances “as if nature is the enemy” particularly resonated with me because its true. My little brothers toys come packaged in plastic so tough, I need the jaws of life to open them. Is all that plastic REALLY necessary? I think that they have it right in outlining the ways in which cornucopian ideologies can help the planet. It may be somewhat idealistic, but there is already enough pessimism floating around when discussing the environment.

Humans and Nature

There is not one particular experience that I have had which I would call my "most enchanting/thrilling" experience in nature. However, my family has traditionally gone camping and hiking and backpacking regularly, in the several states in which we have lived, so I have been out in nature a good deal. Being out in nature gives one a much better appreciation for the world. It reveals what the world is like when it is untouched by man. These experiences helped me appreciate life outside of cities and are a part of what has fueled me to study how we change the environment.

I believe that nature is absolutely worth saving. After all, we as humans are a part of nature, though we have gone far above and beyond the normal level of interaction with the environment. There is also no telling what the world will be like if we don't protect nature. Will we even be able to survive? And if there is a massive species extinction, how much knowledge will we lose? We simply have no way of knowing, and that enough is reason to be careful about how we treat "nature."