While the slow and lumbersome governmental beast ambles (hopefully) towards some type of climate-related legislation, there are plenty of people who aren’t willing to wait for the politicians. Bard students are entering Recyclemania season (more about that later). Sustainable Hudson Valley Organization is dashing about urging people to take up the “10% Challenge” (10% reduction in emissions by the end of 2010!). And right here in New York, people are building ecovillages-- intentional communities, created to resolve that perpetual dispute between man and nature.
Over Thanksgiving Break I paid a visit to the Ecovillage at Ithaca. I’m writing my Senior Project on ecovillages. Ever since I heard of them, I’ve been in love with the idea. And you know the usual fate of those starry-eyed idealists who fall in love with an idea. Their dream falls to pieces before their eyes; the people they idolize fall off their pedestals; their hearts and souls are brutally crushed on the harsh wheel of reality. So I got on the bus for Ithaca with some trepidation. Would the ecovillage (the REAL ecovillage, at last— after reading books about them for weeks!) be everything I dreamed it would be? Or would I meet only with disappointment?
I stumbled with my suitcase through the dark to the Common House. There I found the ecovillagers dining, and a plate set aside especially for me-- the most delicious vegetarian meal I had ever eaten! I was warmly invited to join a table, and sat down and listened to my heart’s content. The conversation was very much like it is at Bard College; wry humor, talk of social justice, a little good-natured teasing. They teased me for being “an anthropologist come to study them,” and joked that “maybe we should act weird or something,” so I would have something interesting to write down about them. The impression was very much that of ordinary people, mildly surprised and amused to find themselves at the center of all this fuss. “We have a nice shelf of all these theses people write about us,” one of the elderly gentleman laughed.
I had this little list of interview questions, stamped and approved by the Bard Institutional Research Board. One of the questions was, “What influence do you think the Global Ecovillage Movement will have on the future of the world?” A sweet lady named Graham (“like the cracker!”) had consented to be interviewed after I helped her spread mulch on her garden. When I came to that question she laughed and said, “Oh my goodness, I don’t know. I mean, I’m sure there are people in the ecovillage who are thinking about that. But I don’t think about that— I’d rather be out…. planting garlic or something, you know!”
I had a couple of tour guides over the weekend. There was a Cornell professor who talked on very impressively about solar panels and insulated homes and straw-bale housing and the economic efficiency of shared resources, arrays of facts and figures. The vanguard of the war on global warming, so to speak. The other guide was a longtime ecovillage resident named Jim who entertained himself during the tour by making off-putting jokes. Showing us the root cellar, he said, “This is where we lock up people we don’t like. Ah ha ha!” Then, wandering into the Common House’s Recreation Room, we stumbled upon a couple of normal-looking teenagers enjoying a foosball table. With a grand flourish (as if displaying a couple of savages clad in nothing but war paint and eagle feathers) Jim proclaimed, “There are the REAL ecovillagers! You can observe them in their Native Environment.” The teenagers were startled, their foosball game interrupted by a group of twenty people staring at them intently. Then, catching onto the joke, they started making loud monkey noises and jumping about. I snorted laughter into my hand as we excited the building.
Besides taking the tour, I also ate the Thanksgiving meal with the ecovillagers. A potluck of about fifty people crowded themselves into the Common House dining room. We began the meal by singing a song together, and then there was a “Grateful Ritual.” Everyone said a sentence about what they were grateful for, and lighted a little candle next to their plate. One golden-haired young child said he was grateful for, “All the love and smiles which inhabit this Earth,” and I just about died from the cuteness of it. A lady with a mischievous smile proclaimed, “I say this every year—I’m grateful for chocolate!” Most people were grateful for food and family. I found it all incredibly moving, but I admit that fifty people are rather a lot to listen to on a hungry afternoon. Towards the end one grumpy old man (who’s stomach must have been rumbling) stood up and said, “I’m grateful this Grateful Ritual will be over soon….”
It was so fun laughing and chatting with everyone. Imagine Kline cafeteria at Bard, only with people of all different ages and much better food. I exchanged stories with a retired old lady who had (like me) had traveled to Africa. And this cute kid told me about naming the fish in the local pond. “We named one of them Gold-y, and another fish we named Orange-y, and then one of the fish died and floated to the top, and Daddy named THAT fish Dead-y…..”
When we had all stuffed ourselves, a group of enthusiasts clamored for the musicians in the group to perform“Uncle Dave’s Grace,” apparently a Thanksgiving tradition there. I’ll give you some of the lyrics:
Thanksgiving day, Uncle Dave was our guest
He reads the Progressive, which makes him depressed.
We asked Uncle Dave if he’d like to say grace,
A dark desolation crept over his face
“Thanks,” he began as he gazed at his knife,
“To poor Mr. Turkey for living his life
All crowded and cramped in a great metal shed
Where life was a drag, then they cut off his head.”
“Thanks,” he went on, “for the grapes in my wine
Picked by sick women of seventy-nine
Scrambling all morning for bunch after bunch
Then brushing the pesticides off of their lunch.”
It goes on like that for nine or ten verses, everything from jungles cut down to make our chairs, to unrenewable fossil fuels heating our rooms, to mines that make silverware polluting rivers; the whole kaboodle. Feel free to Google it, but I won’t inflict it all on you here. I’ll just skip to the end.
Sighed Uncle Dave, “though there’s more to be told
The wine’s getting warm and the bird’s getting cold”
And with that he sat down as he mumbled again
“Thank you for everything, amen”
We felt so guilty when he was all through
It seemed there was one of two things we could do
Live without food, in the nude, in a cave,
Or next year have someone say grace besides Dave.
It was the first time I had heard that song. I was struck by how it combined a passion for social justice with an ironic sense of humor. As someone who tends to be a little bit overly zealous, I’m accustomed to people wincing when I show signs of launching into some rant. But this song made me feel compassion for the people who end up on the receiving end of my rants, so to speak. I can imagine the Grandma resting her head in her hands after Uncle Dave’s speech, thinking, “Good grief! I just wanted to have a nice family dinner…….. No one’s going to enjoy my cooking now….”
That song was very typical of Ecovillage at Ithaca in general. People clearly felt deeply about environmental and social justice. (The Bed ‘n Breakfast I stayed at was run by a woman who had started a nonprofit to help the 3rd world.) But they didn’t like making speeches. They didn’t take themselves too seriously. They knew how to laugh at themselves. I’m used to living among college students, some of whom take themselves very, very, seriously. But if you can’t see the humor of it all, you’re just like poor Uncle Dave: broadcasting doom, gloom, and destruction everywhere he goes.
The moral of the song is, don’t be like Uncle Dave!!! When people hear that kind of rhetoric, they get overwhelmed. They feel like their choices have narrowed to “living in a cave” or trying not to think about it. While the world boils because of global warming, and the genocides rampage unchecked, and the child workers in the factories in China make knicks and knacks for our greedy American appetites….. I’m sure you’ve all written some variation on that essay.
What if the world isn’t saved by the grand theories we write in our essays, but by the simple things? Simple things like planting garlic. Or planting a tree, or giving hugs, or dropping a can in the recycling bin. (Recyclemania! More to come in following blogs!) Surprisingly enough, you can save the world without being pretentious about it…….
I can blather about paradigm shifts and “alternative modes of living,” about “addressing society’s problems at a systemic level,” social fragmentation, and crass consumerism. But I’m sure you’ve all heard that all before. So I’m just going to keep it simple:
Ecovillage at Ithaca was pretty special. It wasn’t just a matter of chickens, or solar panels, or Community Supported Agriculture, even though those are all awesome things to have. I keep talking about how much the social atmosphere reminded me so much of Bard. See, there was a reason for that.
Bard is an amazing place because of the degree of community we enjoy here. Sometimes I have the feeling of being nestled in the center of a giant extended family. My friends are like my immediate family, but even the most distant Bard acquaintance is like a cousin-once-removed, whom I may, if I choose, address in a tone of friendly camaraderie.
I don’t like to think how many of us lose that after graduating. The naturally gregarious, perhaps, continue to maintain extended social groups, but I can’t keep count of the number of adults who have said to me, “College? Those were the best years of my life!” The idea that at the age of twenty one, I have already passed over the peak of my happiness, is horrifying to me. But I think the reason people remember college as a golden age is because of the friendships they formed there. Friendships which are no longer so easier to form, once you cannot meet people in the cafeteria and the dormitory.
The Ecovillage at Ithaca was founded to help the planet by sharing and using fewer resources. But the side-effect of sharing resources was a communal kind of living which did much to connect neighbor to neighbor. These people went on to become adults without giving up what I think of as the best part of college life.
As I waited for the taxi to take me away from Ecovillage at Ithaca, I listen to some woman hollering a conversation from one house to another. In an earlier era of American history, such a conversation would have been commonplace. I don’t know how commonplace such conversations are now. It went something like this:
“I grew a giant squash! I’m putting half of it in the Common House cooler for you to cook this evening, okay?”
“How do I coooook it!”
“I don’t know. Cut it up or something. Sprinkle salt and paper and broil it for a few minutes.”
“How many minutes?”
“How should I know? Until it looks done!”
(Another woman joining in) “I have some celery you can use.”
“What if I put the celery in a soup?”
“Squash soup! Mmmmmm delicious….. I can’t wait!”
I’m sure every Bard student wants to make her or his mark on the world. I really believe every one of you is going to go out there and do great deeds. But the great deeds won’t be what makes life worth living. What makes life worth living is the preciousness of everyday things. Like yummy squash soup.
So hold onto your sense of humor. Appreciate the everyday things. Work to make a difference in the world, sure, but seek out an environment where people love you and a state of mind where you love yourself. And that’s all I’ve got for today.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Saturday, November 14, 2009
350 Ways to Think About the Environment
On the first day of Introduction to Environmental and Urban Studies class, new faculty member Jennifer Berky had a real mob to contend with. About fifty students flooded into her classroom, some of them making loud proclamations to the effect that they would "die" if they did not get into her class. Although competition for popular courses is normal at Bard College, for students to display this much enthusiasm for a single course is unusual. Somehow, a large number of Bard students had decided that this topic was crucial for their future.
"The environmental movement has moved into pop culture suddenly, in a way nobody can ignore," said Lily Saporta-Tagiuri. Lily is a student doing a project on EUS curriculum design. The Bard program lets you concentrate in Environmental and Urban Studies, but EUS cannot be your primary major. Lily, who wishes she could major in EUS, is interested in strengthening the program. "No student should graduate from Bard College without knowing something about environmental issues," she says.
This makes me wonder, what if environmental awareness was a requirement for graduation? Bard already has a "Rethinking Difference," requirement, which has been the subject of much controversy. Basically, in order to graduate, a student must take a course that teaches about issues of discrimination and prejudice. College curriculum design can be a tool for enforcing awareness about certain political issues.
Professor Berky accepted as many people into her class as she possibly could, but there just wasn't room for everyone. This overwhelming surge of student interest shows a need to provide more courses in this subject. When I asked Lily why she thought students were so interested, her answer was deeply insightful. "People are scared! This is a really scary issue, especially for our age group-- this is our future! This is us! Every single one of us is going to have to deal with it.... In the sixties there was this upsurge of communes and sustainable farming and all these things, but it died out because there was no infrastructure to support it. Now people, serious businesspeople, are seeing the need to build that infrastructure. Especially with the economic crisis and fluctuating oil prices, people are scared about how unstable things are. And for a lot of people, sustainability equals stability."
Its important to mention though, that people aren't just scared-- they're also excited. I recently attended a "Green Drinks" event at the newly opened Rhinecliff Hotel. "Green Drinks" organizes social events where people who are interested in green issues can meet, have a drink or two, exchange business cards, and help one another suceed at their projects. There were over a hundred people of all ages at this event; it was overwhelming to see how many Hudson Valley residents were interested in sustainability. Everyone was kind and friendly and full of buoyant enthusiasm about their projects. I met someone who had just started a business growing vegetables in people's backyards. I met a mural artist who did nature paintings and told me, "Sustainability is all about love!!!" I met a "green collar accountant," a green architect, a publisher of a local sustainability magazine. It made me remember that words of politician Tom Mansfield (reported in my last blog) "These issues are taking hold in people's souls." More and more souls as time goes on. (If you're interested in attending the event next month, see http://www.greendrinks.org/index.php?country=USA&city=Hudson%20Valley.)
Students hope that EUS curriculum will focus on hands-on activities. "We need to learn to apply concepts to the real world," said Lily. Her idea was to have a class where people could work on semester-long projects to improve the ecofriendliness of Bard campus. For instance, the class could divide into small groups, and each group could pick a project: improving composting practices, fundraising for a hybrid shuttle, et. etc. Although Bard students care a lot about "saving the world", classwork consumes the majority of their energy. If sustainability action was part of a class, that would be a way of ensuring student commitment to projects. "If people don't have an outlet for their enthusiasm, it just goes to waste," says Lily.
Perhaps summer programs in Environmental and Urban Studies could help make the program more "hands-on." Bard already has a summer program in New Orleans, where students intern for NGOs by day, and take urban studies classes by night. Maybe this could become a field studies option for EUS concentrators in years to come. Stephen Tremaine, who organizes the New Orleans program, gave a presentation to the EUS class last Thursday.
"In the 50s, the mayor of New Orleans called it 'America's most interesting city,'" said Stephen. "A geographer has also called it, 'The impossible yet inevitable city.' " Impossible because of its location in the middle of a swamp. Inevitable, because of the economic benefits reaped from being on a major trade route.
Stephen showed the class a map of development over time. The settlement started in the high ground near the river, which was a little safer. But as time went on the development crept closer and closer to the low ground near the sea. A key event was the invention of a pumping system in 1905 by Albert Wood, to transform swamps into land. However, the swamps serve an ecological function, absorbing water and protecting the land from storm surge. Changing swamps into land disrupted the natural balance.
The lower income residents were more likely to live in flood-prone areas. Stephen said that demonstrated a "near-universal correlation between ecological vulnerability and economic vulnerability.... Even if they're in danger, they have nowhere else to go." When Katrina hit, the area of the city that was lower than sea level was just like a bowl that filled up with water. Even buildings with only two inches of water in the basement, could suffer damages from toxic mold which crept up sheetrock. The mold was 20,000 times more toxic than abestos. Many residents chose not to come back.
Stephen described a controversy where city officials had to decide whether to tear down 200,000 apartment's worth of low-income housing units. They were built in areas which were at high risk for flooding, and concentrated economic and social problems into a dangerous neighborhood. The people who lived there were scattered all over the USA because of Katrina. No one knew what percentage would come back. However, tearing down someone's home without asking their permission seems pretty unjust. Stephen asked the class, "What would you do if you were mayor?" and got a whole range of responses.
Stephen's presentation showed us how many disciplines can be involved in understanding a city. Right now Environmental Studies courses at Bard tend to focus on science; the biology of ecosystems, or the physics of climate change. Although science is vital, there are a range of other green-collar fields, that students are anxious to accquire skills in. People who dream of being green architects, or starting their own organic farms, or becoming environmental policy advocates in Washington, will benefit from knowing more than just science. The "environment" is a political and social as well as a scientific issue, so it demands an interdiscplinary approach.
The faculty are currently in the midst of discussions about how the EUS curriculum should be shaped. If you're interested in getting involved, share ideas with Kris Feder (teacher of the course "Ecological Economics") or attend the Open House on this Tuesday the 17th of November, 4-6 in the multipurpose room. Lily says, "Bard needs a full-fledged revolution, step by step, and the Environmental and Urban Studies class is the first priority..... every single person I talk to have has something to say about this issue. I have amazing conversations where people are really excited. It's like we're all working together on this huge thing...... its like we all know this wonderful secret, and we're working to spread the news."
Lily's statement captures beautifully a feeling people get when they join the Environmental Movement. If Bard can strengthen its EUS program, maybe more Bard students will become inspired to be a part of this "Green Surge."
Challenge: Read 350 pages of a book that shows you a novel perspective on an environmental issue.
"The environmental movement has moved into pop culture suddenly, in a way nobody can ignore," said Lily Saporta-Tagiuri. Lily is a student doing a project on EUS curriculum design. The Bard program lets you concentrate in Environmental and Urban Studies, but EUS cannot be your primary major. Lily, who wishes she could major in EUS, is interested in strengthening the program. "No student should graduate from Bard College without knowing something about environmental issues," she says.
This makes me wonder, what if environmental awareness was a requirement for graduation? Bard already has a "Rethinking Difference," requirement, which has been the subject of much controversy. Basically, in order to graduate, a student must take a course that teaches about issues of discrimination and prejudice. College curriculum design can be a tool for enforcing awareness about certain political issues.
Professor Berky accepted as many people into her class as she possibly could, but there just wasn't room for everyone. This overwhelming surge of student interest shows a need to provide more courses in this subject. When I asked Lily why she thought students were so interested, her answer was deeply insightful. "People are scared! This is a really scary issue, especially for our age group-- this is our future! This is us! Every single one of us is going to have to deal with it.... In the sixties there was this upsurge of communes and sustainable farming and all these things, but it died out because there was no infrastructure to support it. Now people, serious businesspeople, are seeing the need to build that infrastructure. Especially with the economic crisis and fluctuating oil prices, people are scared about how unstable things are. And for a lot of people, sustainability equals stability."
Its important to mention though, that people aren't just scared-- they're also excited. I recently attended a "Green Drinks" event at the newly opened Rhinecliff Hotel. "Green Drinks" organizes social events where people who are interested in green issues can meet, have a drink or two, exchange business cards, and help one another suceed at their projects. There were over a hundred people of all ages at this event; it was overwhelming to see how many Hudson Valley residents were interested in sustainability. Everyone was kind and friendly and full of buoyant enthusiasm about their projects. I met someone who had just started a business growing vegetables in people's backyards. I met a mural artist who did nature paintings and told me, "Sustainability is all about love!!!" I met a "green collar accountant," a green architect, a publisher of a local sustainability magazine. It made me remember that words of politician Tom Mansfield (reported in my last blog) "These issues are taking hold in people's souls." More and more souls as time goes on. (If you're interested in attending the event next month, see http://www.greendrinks.org/index.php?country=USA&city=Hudson%20Valley.)
Students hope that EUS curriculum will focus on hands-on activities. "We need to learn to apply concepts to the real world," said Lily. Her idea was to have a class where people could work on semester-long projects to improve the ecofriendliness of Bard campus. For instance, the class could divide into small groups, and each group could pick a project: improving composting practices, fundraising for a hybrid shuttle, et. etc. Although Bard students care a lot about "saving the world", classwork consumes the majority of their energy. If sustainability action was part of a class, that would be a way of ensuring student commitment to projects. "If people don't have an outlet for their enthusiasm, it just goes to waste," says Lily.
Perhaps summer programs in Environmental and Urban Studies could help make the program more "hands-on." Bard already has a summer program in New Orleans, where students intern for NGOs by day, and take urban studies classes by night. Maybe this could become a field studies option for EUS concentrators in years to come. Stephen Tremaine, who organizes the New Orleans program, gave a presentation to the EUS class last Thursday.
"In the 50s, the mayor of New Orleans called it 'America's most interesting city,'" said Stephen. "A geographer has also called it, 'The impossible yet inevitable city.' " Impossible because of its location in the middle of a swamp. Inevitable, because of the economic benefits reaped from being on a major trade route.
Stephen showed the class a map of development over time. The settlement started in the high ground near the river, which was a little safer. But as time went on the development crept closer and closer to the low ground near the sea. A key event was the invention of a pumping system in 1905 by Albert Wood, to transform swamps into land. However, the swamps serve an ecological function, absorbing water and protecting the land from storm surge. Changing swamps into land disrupted the natural balance.
The lower income residents were more likely to live in flood-prone areas. Stephen said that demonstrated a "near-universal correlation between ecological vulnerability and economic vulnerability.... Even if they're in danger, they have nowhere else to go." When Katrina hit, the area of the city that was lower than sea level was just like a bowl that filled up with water. Even buildings with only two inches of water in the basement, could suffer damages from toxic mold which crept up sheetrock. The mold was 20,000 times more toxic than abestos. Many residents chose not to come back.
Stephen described a controversy where city officials had to decide whether to tear down 200,000 apartment's worth of low-income housing units. They were built in areas which were at high risk for flooding, and concentrated economic and social problems into a dangerous neighborhood. The people who lived there were scattered all over the USA because of Katrina. No one knew what percentage would come back. However, tearing down someone's home without asking their permission seems pretty unjust. Stephen asked the class, "What would you do if you were mayor?" and got a whole range of responses.
Stephen's presentation showed us how many disciplines can be involved in understanding a city. Right now Environmental Studies courses at Bard tend to focus on science; the biology of ecosystems, or the physics of climate change. Although science is vital, there are a range of other green-collar fields, that students are anxious to accquire skills in. People who dream of being green architects, or starting their own organic farms, or becoming environmental policy advocates in Washington, will benefit from knowing more than just science. The "environment" is a political and social as well as a scientific issue, so it demands an interdiscplinary approach.
The faculty are currently in the midst of discussions about how the EUS curriculum should be shaped. If you're interested in getting involved, share ideas with Kris Feder (teacher of the course "Ecological Economics") or attend the Open House on this Tuesday the 17th of November, 4-6 in the multipurpose room. Lily says, "Bard needs a full-fledged revolution, step by step, and the Environmental and Urban Studies class is the first priority..... every single person I talk to have has something to say about this issue. I have amazing conversations where people are really excited. It's like we're all working together on this huge thing...... its like we all know this wonderful secret, and we're working to spread the news."
Lily's statement captures beautifully a feeling people get when they join the Environmental Movement. If Bard can strengthen its EUS program, maybe more Bard students will become inspired to be a part of this "Green Surge."
Challenge: Read 350 pages of a book that shows you a novel perspective on an environmental issue.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
350 Teach-In
The climate change Teach-In last Thursday presented a spectacular array of panelists; Bard professors of different disciplines, local politicians and activists, and even a student. The Multipurpose Room was full of people happily munching on slices of Pizza and brownies that had “350” written on them in powdered sugar. Although each member of the panel could probably have talked for hours, each struggled with a three minute and fifty second time limit.
Ebon Goldstein kicked off with a discussion of the costs of climate change. “We only need 1-3% of the GDP to address this,” he said. “It’s far less than what we spend on the military.” And then he came up with the memorable phrase, “We can do this. This isn’t about economics or technology. It’s a question of whether we have the political will.” Then physics professor Gidon Eshel shared some science with us, including graphs that correlated temperatures in Antartica with CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere.
Environmental and Urban Studies professor Jennifer Berky had a few words to say about the impact of sprawl. “60% of vehicle miles traveled are generated by sprawl,” she said. The way we build our infrastructure and communities, has a huge impact on the way we live and the emissions were produce. However, planning a better infrastructure can be politically complex, because local, county, state, and federal governments all have influence.
Next, Tom Mansfield from the Duchess County Legislative Board stepped up to the plate. “Its much easier to attack Global Warming from the use side than the produce side,” he said. “We could save a billion dollars in Duchess County from energy efficiency alone!” In other words, we don’t have to sit around and wait for them to install the windmills. We can buy energy-efficient applicances, insulate our buildings, turn off our computers, eliminate waste, and make a direct personal contribution to global warming that way.
Mr. Mansfield then went on to mention the "Green Jobs, Green New York," bill that New York State Senate passed on September 11th, 2009. This bill would provide funds to homeowners to retrofit their homes for energy efficiency. No sooner is the program born though, than it is under attack. In November they might vote to slash away the budget for Green Jobs. Mr. Mansfield strongly urged the audience to write to their senators in support of the bill so it can keep its money.
The charming Felicia Keesing was next in line, come from Bard's biology department to answer the question, "What effect will climate change have on the spread of infectious diseases?" "The scientific method is very clear about how we can answer this question," Professor Keesing told the audience. "First we need a good sample size, like maybe six earths." Six earths, shining green-and-blue, appeared on the Multipurpose Room's massive screen. Professor Keesing grinned at the room, then said, "Three of the earths can be a control group. The other three earths get global warming." She pressed a button, and three of the six earth images lit up with a sinister red glow. "Now we collect very detailed data from all six and compare them." She stopped and sighed dramatically. "Unfortunately, this experiment was canceled due to budgetary considerations." A large red X appeared across the scene, vetoing the experiment. "So we have other methods to study the effect of global warming on infectious diseases."
These methods including building computerized models, synthesizing the results of disparate studies, and even studying the changes in disease as you travel up a mountain (so as to view the same organisms at different temperatures.) “These studies overwhelmingly show that climate change increases disease,” Felicia Keesing wrapped up. “However, some people still say the results are inconclusive, because we cannot do that experiment with the six earths.” Politicians, particularly those that oppose action on climate change, like to make a big deal of scientific “uncertainty.” I appreciated Professor Keesing’s humorous presentation because it demonstrated the true nature of scientific "uncertainty."
Barbara Lukas, our beloved psych faculty member, was the next to take the microphone. Speaking in her calm, cool voice, she said, “They asked me to talk about the psychology of global warming. But I didn’t want to come here and talk about how we are all bad people. So, I’ve really thought about it, and I’ve come up with three images I think will help us understand the problem. Please take these images home with you. The first image is a bottle of ibuprofen. The second is a gently sloping road. The third image is a rolled-up lawn, the kind they use in landscaping.”
She then continued, “Intestinal bleeding from overuse of ibuprofen is a more common problem in this country than HIV. Did you know that?” She looked over the audience with a gentle, knowing smile. “Now that you know that, are you any less likely to take an ibuprofen when you need it?” I knew for certain I wasn’t going to give up MY ibuprofen, and the rest of the audience seemed to agree. Professor Lukas continued, “Now the lesson we draw from that is, ‘Information is necessary but not sufficient.’ For people to take action, they need information, but they also need some kind of personal motivation.”
She continued, “In my hometown, we had these roads with sharp right angles. There were lots of accidents. The way they solved the problem, was not by telling people to be better drivers, but by rebuilding the roads so that they gently sloped into a turn, and you could see the other drivers coming. If you want to fix a problem, scolding people is not the answer. You need to build the world in a way which makes it easy for people to do the right thing." I saw where she was going with that right away. I’m sure many people would sell their cars and use public transportation, if the transportation was convenient and easy to use. But we’re embedded in an infrastructure that makes cars the only convenient option.
Then came the last image, of the rolled-up lawn. “We hear a lot of talk about grassroots change. But when the lawn is rolled up, the grass roots cannot reach the soil and grow. So I would say that we need someone to unroll the lawn. Grassroots change is important, but we also need top-down change.” I struggled a bit with the complexity of this metaphor. What I think she meant was we need both social movements AND governmental policy that enables them.
Melissa Everett, a local activist who runs a Green Talent Pipeline, spoke next. “In these days we get an overwhelming onslaught of information,” she said. “We hear the world is ending, and what are we supposed to do about it? Change to fluorescent light bulbs and wait for the next generation to solve the problem. This doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
She then went to talk on enthusiastically about the “tremendous range of exciting and creative work,” there is available to someone who really wants to make a difference. Innovative solutions she mentioned ranged from “smart irrigation” to “recycling-based industries.” She also put in a word for the Sustainable Hudson Valley organization. SHV is currently working on a“10% challenge,” trying to achieve a 10% emissions reduction by 2010. This way we will be on track for 80% emissions reduction by 2050. They want a minimum of 10% of the people in Hudson Valley to get involved in the climate change campaigns. That way, they will build a leadership base for the transition into a clean energy economy.
Hannah Mitchell, a Bard student from the Environmental Collective, was next to speak to the audience. She had worked for GreenPeace and the Youth Environmental Movement and felt strongly about climate change issues. In high school, she started a club called “Going Green,” that made the high school start recycling, and helped get a Green Building Code passed in her town. “Don’t believe that my generation is apathetic,” she told the audience. She went on to say, “Global warming should not be a polarizing issue. It affects the whole world. My hometown will go underwater if it continues.”
She then gave us the formula she had invented for defeating apathy. “First, people need a personal connection to the issue. Then, they need an outlet for action. Together, these two things will defeat indifference."
She concluded by saying, “We have to tell Congress what we need and value,” and encouraged us to attend a rally in Poughkeepsie. I was impressed by Hannah’s rhetorical style and elegance. Although the youngest panel member, she seemed to be the most gifted at public speaking.
Robert McKeon, from the Town Council of Red Hook, spoke next. “I’m going to talk about an issue which is very near and dear to my heart: farmland protection,” he said. Mr. McKeon began his involvement in politics because he hated watching farms being paved over. Since then, he’s striven to protect farms in various way. He spoke with pride about our 1.5 mile apples. “At Bard you can eat apples that come from only a mile and a half away, when most people eat products that have traveled an average of 1500 miles!” he told us. He talked about a Green Jobs and Clean Energy initiative, where municipalities will finance weatherization and solar installations on homes. “Real change happens locally, so get involved locally,” he concluded.
Then they opened up to the audience for questions. I said, “This is a question for any panel member who cares to answer. Mr. Goldstein said this was about lack of political will. What do you think is the core reason for this lack of political will?”
Tom Mansfield was the first to speak up. “The answer is very simple. Money! The political system is controlled by people who benefit from the status quo, and its very difficult to break that gridlock. This is a hugely emotional issue, not one that is being rationally debated. It all comes down to: people are making money from the current state of affairs, and they’re not going to give it up without a fight.”
Felicia Keesing chimed in with an answer of her own. “Those of you who’ve taken math or computer science courses probably remember the Prisoner’s Dilemma. This is a scenario from game theory, where the one person who defects can gain an awful lot. In global politics, the USA has been the defecting prisoner for a long time now. It has been gaining economic strength and political clout from its refusal to address climate change, from letting down its neighbours. We need to join the global support network. The coal and oil interests are putting lots of dollars into the fight against the bill, so the grassroots should make their voices louder.”
“Also, I would say, if you want to help: take a science class! That way you can learn to fix the problem with technology, and offer a concrete alternative to replace the system we have. There’s a man named J. Craig Venter, a molecular biologist who does genome sequencing, who is try to make artificial organisms that will convert CO2 into energy. They will take in CO2 and spit out octane! The technological solution is shockingly close.”
One audience member raised her hand and scolded the panel organizers for only allowing each person 3 minutes and fifty seconds to speak, overlooking of course the fact that you can hardly expect Bard students to listen to more during midterms. She then shared her opinion, “We need to scare people…. although without depressing them. We need to time our guilt effectively."
This sparked a thought from Barbara Lukas. She mentioned ads which feature cute polar bears dying, and said “These do work psychologically.” But then she continued, “When you scare people , you need to have a solution available immediately. Perhaps not donating money but…. maybe you could put the polar bear above the recycling bin. We need to make things convenient. It may be difficult for the young generation to understand, but adults like convenience. They like doing what they are used to doing. And people need images of what they can do tomorrow, rather than abstract ethical ideas.”
Then a student asked the panel, “I used to hear a lot of encouragement to join politics if we wanted to do something about this. Nowadays its more like ‘join an NGO’ and I hardly ever hear ‘become a politician.’ Why do you think that is?”
The politician McKeon naturally responded with a “Please get involved in politics!” Tom Mansfield chipped in with, “What we desperately need in politics, is smarter people. I hope that’s not being too frank. People often accuse me of being too frank to be a good politician. But seriously, having well-educated people around really helps. And politics is suffering from a real brain drain. Being a politician can be pretty demoralizing, what with the media hurling insults at you. And our current system is designed to further the gridlock. This can only be swept through with social movements. It happened with abolition, it happened with suffrage, and it will happen again. These issues are taking hold in people’s souls.”
Talks concluded, audience and panel members gathered for a GIANT GROUP PHOTO in front of the 350 banner. A professional photographer snapped several shots to send to Washington. Photos of 350 events are being taken all over the world, to send to political leaders and convince them there is a real need for action. The visuals which show how many people are involved in this movement should be very compelling. And it was fun to awkwardly squeeze into the front of the Multipurpose Room with a hundred other people.
Photos taken, people milled around chatting, and someone unfurled a giant roll of paper. We dipped our feet in green paint and walked all over the paper, "To show Washington what kind of footprint we want to have: a GREEN one!" I smiled in sarcastic amusement when I imagined a politician unrolling our big awkward painty art project on his desk. Some people were reluctant to take off their shoes and get their feet gross. But there was a bucket of water with a lady sitting behind it, and she enthusiastically offered to wash and massage the feet of anyone who got their feet painty. Of course I was very excited to leave the footprint and took off my shoes right away, but my boyfriend was sort of grossed out by the whole concept. Finally he said, "I'm only leaving the footprint if you give me a big kiss." You see how you sometimes have to be very persuasive to get people to join your cause. ;-)
Challenge: Write to Washington! Tell them to make our country's footprint green!
Ebon Goldstein kicked off with a discussion of the costs of climate change. “We only need 1-3% of the GDP to address this,” he said. “It’s far less than what we spend on the military.” And then he came up with the memorable phrase, “We can do this. This isn’t about economics or technology. It’s a question of whether we have the political will.” Then physics professor Gidon Eshel shared some science with us, including graphs that correlated temperatures in Antartica with CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere.
Environmental and Urban Studies professor Jennifer Berky had a few words to say about the impact of sprawl. “60% of vehicle miles traveled are generated by sprawl,” she said. The way we build our infrastructure and communities, has a huge impact on the way we live and the emissions were produce. However, planning a better infrastructure can be politically complex, because local, county, state, and federal governments all have influence.
Next, Tom Mansfield from the Duchess County Legislative Board stepped up to the plate. “Its much easier to attack Global Warming from the use side than the produce side,” he said. “We could save a billion dollars in Duchess County from energy efficiency alone!” In other words, we don’t have to sit around and wait for them to install the windmills. We can buy energy-efficient applicances, insulate our buildings, turn off our computers, eliminate waste, and make a direct personal contribution to global warming that way.
Mr. Mansfield then went on to mention the "Green Jobs, Green New York," bill that New York State Senate passed on September 11th, 2009. This bill would provide funds to homeowners to retrofit their homes for energy efficiency. No sooner is the program born though, than it is under attack. In November they might vote to slash away the budget for Green Jobs. Mr. Mansfield strongly urged the audience to write to their senators in support of the bill so it can keep its money.
The charming Felicia Keesing was next in line, come from Bard's biology department to answer the question, "What effect will climate change have on the spread of infectious diseases?" "The scientific method is very clear about how we can answer this question," Professor Keesing told the audience. "First we need a good sample size, like maybe six earths." Six earths, shining green-and-blue, appeared on the Multipurpose Room's massive screen. Professor Keesing grinned at the room, then said, "Three of the earths can be a control group. The other three earths get global warming." She pressed a button, and three of the six earth images lit up with a sinister red glow. "Now we collect very detailed data from all six and compare them." She stopped and sighed dramatically. "Unfortunately, this experiment was canceled due to budgetary considerations." A large red X appeared across the scene, vetoing the experiment. "So we have other methods to study the effect of global warming on infectious diseases."
These methods including building computerized models, synthesizing the results of disparate studies, and even studying the changes in disease as you travel up a mountain (so as to view the same organisms at different temperatures.) “These studies overwhelmingly show that climate change increases disease,” Felicia Keesing wrapped up. “However, some people still say the results are inconclusive, because we cannot do that experiment with the six earths.” Politicians, particularly those that oppose action on climate change, like to make a big deal of scientific “uncertainty.” I appreciated Professor Keesing’s humorous presentation because it demonstrated the true nature of scientific "uncertainty."
Barbara Lukas, our beloved psych faculty member, was the next to take the microphone. Speaking in her calm, cool voice, she said, “They asked me to talk about the psychology of global warming. But I didn’t want to come here and talk about how we are all bad people. So, I’ve really thought about it, and I’ve come up with three images I think will help us understand the problem. Please take these images home with you. The first image is a bottle of ibuprofen. The second is a gently sloping road. The third image is a rolled-up lawn, the kind they use in landscaping.”
She then continued, “Intestinal bleeding from overuse of ibuprofen is a more common problem in this country than HIV. Did you know that?” She looked over the audience with a gentle, knowing smile. “Now that you know that, are you any less likely to take an ibuprofen when you need it?” I knew for certain I wasn’t going to give up MY ibuprofen, and the rest of the audience seemed to agree. Professor Lukas continued, “Now the lesson we draw from that is, ‘Information is necessary but not sufficient.’ For people to take action, they need information, but they also need some kind of personal motivation.”
She continued, “In my hometown, we had these roads with sharp right angles. There were lots of accidents. The way they solved the problem, was not by telling people to be better drivers, but by rebuilding the roads so that they gently sloped into a turn, and you could see the other drivers coming. If you want to fix a problem, scolding people is not the answer. You need to build the world in a way which makes it easy for people to do the right thing." I saw where she was going with that right away. I’m sure many people would sell their cars and use public transportation, if the transportation was convenient and easy to use. But we’re embedded in an infrastructure that makes cars the only convenient option.
Then came the last image, of the rolled-up lawn. “We hear a lot of talk about grassroots change. But when the lawn is rolled up, the grass roots cannot reach the soil and grow. So I would say that we need someone to unroll the lawn. Grassroots change is important, but we also need top-down change.” I struggled a bit with the complexity of this metaphor. What I think she meant was we need both social movements AND governmental policy that enables them.
Melissa Everett, a local activist who runs a Green Talent Pipeline, spoke next. “In these days we get an overwhelming onslaught of information,” she said. “We hear the world is ending, and what are we supposed to do about it? Change to fluorescent light bulbs and wait for the next generation to solve the problem. This doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
She then went to talk on enthusiastically about the “tremendous range of exciting and creative work,” there is available to someone who really wants to make a difference. Innovative solutions she mentioned ranged from “smart irrigation” to “recycling-based industries.” She also put in a word for the Sustainable Hudson Valley organization. SHV is currently working on a“10% challenge,” trying to achieve a 10% emissions reduction by 2010. This way we will be on track for 80% emissions reduction by 2050. They want a minimum of 10% of the people in Hudson Valley to get involved in the climate change campaigns. That way, they will build a leadership base for the transition into a clean energy economy.
Hannah Mitchell, a Bard student from the Environmental Collective, was next to speak to the audience. She had worked for GreenPeace and the Youth Environmental Movement and felt strongly about climate change issues. In high school, she started a club called “Going Green,” that made the high school start recycling, and helped get a Green Building Code passed in her town. “Don’t believe that my generation is apathetic,” she told the audience. She went on to say, “Global warming should not be a polarizing issue. It affects the whole world. My hometown will go underwater if it continues.”
She then gave us the formula she had invented for defeating apathy. “First, people need a personal connection to the issue. Then, they need an outlet for action. Together, these two things will defeat indifference."
She concluded by saying, “We have to tell Congress what we need and value,” and encouraged us to attend a rally in Poughkeepsie. I was impressed by Hannah’s rhetorical style and elegance. Although the youngest panel member, she seemed to be the most gifted at public speaking.
Robert McKeon, from the Town Council of Red Hook, spoke next. “I’m going to talk about an issue which is very near and dear to my heart: farmland protection,” he said. Mr. McKeon began his involvement in politics because he hated watching farms being paved over. Since then, he’s striven to protect farms in various way. He spoke with pride about our 1.5 mile apples. “At Bard you can eat apples that come from only a mile and a half away, when most people eat products that have traveled an average of 1500 miles!” he told us. He talked about a Green Jobs and Clean Energy initiative, where municipalities will finance weatherization and solar installations on homes. “Real change happens locally, so get involved locally,” he concluded.
Then they opened up to the audience for questions. I said, “This is a question for any panel member who cares to answer. Mr. Goldstein said this was about lack of political will. What do you think is the core reason for this lack of political will?”
Tom Mansfield was the first to speak up. “The answer is very simple. Money! The political system is controlled by people who benefit from the status quo, and its very difficult to break that gridlock. This is a hugely emotional issue, not one that is being rationally debated. It all comes down to: people are making money from the current state of affairs, and they’re not going to give it up without a fight.”
Felicia Keesing chimed in with an answer of her own. “Those of you who’ve taken math or computer science courses probably remember the Prisoner’s Dilemma. This is a scenario from game theory, where the one person who defects can gain an awful lot. In global politics, the USA has been the defecting prisoner for a long time now. It has been gaining economic strength and political clout from its refusal to address climate change, from letting down its neighbours. We need to join the global support network. The coal and oil interests are putting lots of dollars into the fight against the bill, so the grassroots should make their voices louder.”
“Also, I would say, if you want to help: take a science class! That way you can learn to fix the problem with technology, and offer a concrete alternative to replace the system we have. There’s a man named J. Craig Venter, a molecular biologist who does genome sequencing, who is try to make artificial organisms that will convert CO2 into energy. They will take in CO2 and spit out octane! The technological solution is shockingly close.”
One audience member raised her hand and scolded the panel organizers for only allowing each person 3 minutes and fifty seconds to speak, overlooking of course the fact that you can hardly expect Bard students to listen to more during midterms. She then shared her opinion, “We need to scare people…. although without depressing them. We need to time our guilt effectively."
This sparked a thought from Barbara Lukas. She mentioned ads which feature cute polar bears dying, and said “These do work psychologically.” But then she continued, “When you scare people , you need to have a solution available immediately. Perhaps not donating money but…. maybe you could put the polar bear above the recycling bin. We need to make things convenient. It may be difficult for the young generation to understand, but adults like convenience. They like doing what they are used to doing. And people need images of what they can do tomorrow, rather than abstract ethical ideas.”
Then a student asked the panel, “I used to hear a lot of encouragement to join politics if we wanted to do something about this. Nowadays its more like ‘join an NGO’ and I hardly ever hear ‘become a politician.’ Why do you think that is?”
The politician McKeon naturally responded with a “Please get involved in politics!” Tom Mansfield chipped in with, “What we desperately need in politics, is smarter people. I hope that’s not being too frank. People often accuse me of being too frank to be a good politician. But seriously, having well-educated people around really helps. And politics is suffering from a real brain drain. Being a politician can be pretty demoralizing, what with the media hurling insults at you. And our current system is designed to further the gridlock. This can only be swept through with social movements. It happened with abolition, it happened with suffrage, and it will happen again. These issues are taking hold in people’s souls.”
Talks concluded, audience and panel members gathered for a GIANT GROUP PHOTO in front of the 350 banner. A professional photographer snapped several shots to send to Washington. Photos of 350 events are being taken all over the world, to send to political leaders and convince them there is a real need for action. The visuals which show how many people are involved in this movement should be very compelling. And it was fun to awkwardly squeeze into the front of the Multipurpose Room with a hundred other people.
Photos taken, people milled around chatting, and someone unfurled a giant roll of paper. We dipped our feet in green paint and walked all over the paper, "To show Washington what kind of footprint we want to have: a GREEN one!" I smiled in sarcastic amusement when I imagined a politician unrolling our big awkward painty art project on his desk. Some people were reluctant to take off their shoes and get their feet gross. But there was a bucket of water with a lady sitting behind it, and she enthusiastically offered to wash and massage the feet of anyone who got their feet painty. Of course I was very excited to leave the footprint and took off my shoes right away, but my boyfriend was sort of grossed out by the whole concept. Finally he said, "I'm only leaving the footprint if you give me a big kiss." You see how you sometimes have to be very persuasive to get people to join your cause. ;-)
Challenge: Write to Washington! Tell them to make our country's footprint green!
Friday, October 23, 2009
(More than) 350 Thermoses Saving the World From Paper Cups
In a science fiction novel by Robert Heinlein, the main character puts on cheap flimsy clothes each morning, then shoves his clothes down the waste-disposal chute each evening. At first I found this idea kind of repulsive and decadent. “How can this guy afford to waste 365 suits of clothes a year?” I thought. But everyone in his civilization did the same. And when you think about it, it’s not so different from our habit of throwing away paper cups at every meal.
That’s why Kline Cafeteria is doing a Disposable-Free Week! The Environmental Collective set up a table by the entrance of the cafeteria. They asked people to sign a pledge never to use paper cups in Kline again. In return for the pledge, people were given free thermoses with the logo of Bard’s catering company on them. They could also help themselves to eco-friendly lightbulbs, cloth napkins, and stickers with the 350 logo. The EC tablers also encouraged Kline diners to attend a 350 Teach-In on Climate Change.
The thermoses were very popular. People lined up in large numbers to sign the pledge and receive their free prize. It was a triumph for disposable-free activism.
Nevertheless, there were a few bumps along the way. “I think the majority of people supported our effort,” said Kira, an Environmental Collective member. “The problem is, the minority which didn’t support the effort could be very vocal at times.” You see, paper products students were accustomed to using disappeared from the shelves of Kline during the week.
One charming young gentleman dramatically proclaimed that since he had no paper cup, he would throw his regular cup in the trash instead. But another guy remarked good-naturedly that Disposable-Free Week was helping him lose weight. He was in the habit of taking away paper cups of sugary cereal at the end of every meal, and now that habit was no longer practical.
The week was somewhat stressful for the Chartwells staff. One girl asked the Kline staffperson for a paper cup, and argued with him when he refused. But then another student asked for a paper cup and the staffperson caved in (maybe he didn’t have the energy for another debate.) The girl who had initially been denied a paper cup started screaming about unfair treatment.
As a result of this scene, paper cups were on the shelves during a brief period of Disposable-Free week. However, most of the time, the paper plates and dishes were not available. The Environmental Collective has high hopes for the possibility of phasing out paperware entirely.
The problem is, if people can’t take paper dishes out of the building, there will be problems with regular dishes being stolen. As every Bard student knows, Kline has many entrances and exits, so it is quite easy to carry ceramic plates and mugs out of the building. Sometimes people come to Kline five minutes before class and really need to grab something to go. Pressed for time, they take dishes and forget to return them. Obviously Chartwells Catering cannot afford to buy a new set of cutlery and tableware every week, so stolen dishes are a huge concern.
“We need to change people’s mindsets,” said Natalie from the Environmental Collective. Almost everyone at Bard College feels comfortable stealing from the cafeteria. Ethical students who would never dream of shoplifting, for example, see no problem stealing a free meal for a friend who is visiting them. And people help themselves to dishes as if they were public property.
The student handbook threatens dire fines and penalties for students who take Kline dishes out of the building. But the policy is pretty much unenforced. The issue is made even murkier by the “Kline dish return bins” which are in the trash area of some dorms. Although these bins are an effective way of getting the dishes back to Kline, they send mixed messages about proper behavior.
There’s a painting hanging in my parent’s living room that shows an old-fashioned scene from Holland. Everyone is merrily dancing about, and one portly gentleman prancing about in mustard-yellow breeches, has a spoon tucked into the ribbon tied around his hat. I remember asking as a child, “Why does he have a spoon in his hat? He looks ridiculous.”
My mom gravely told me, “In the olden days, not everyone had a spoon. Having spoons was a sign of wealth and prestige. So of course he wanted to display it. Also, if he wants to buy some soup, this spoon is nice and handy.” I have no idea whether this answer was true, or just something she said to shut me up. But it gives me an idea. Why doesn’t every student carry around their own personal set of tableware? Why stop at mugs? I’m not saying we need to wear hats with spoon, fork, and knife tucked into the brim (although it would be pretty cool if we did.) I’m just saying sometimes it’s fun to think outside the box.
Some people decorate their thermos mugs with stickers. Other thermos mugs have slogans of causes they support, or names of places they’ve been. A thermos can be a form of personal artistic expression— much like clothing can be. People get attached to thermoses the same way they get attached to favorite sweaters. When I read about the cheap disposable clothing in Heinlein’s sci-fi future, I wondered how people would express themselves through such clothing. Why, such clothing would be as impersonal and as devoid of sentimental value as Kleenex!
Speaking of Kleenex. In the books I read when I was a little girl, people would always sentimentally wave their hankerchiefs to say goodbye. If a girl liked a boy she would secretly slip him her hankerchief and he would wear it next to his heart while he jousted. In the book Little Women, the Beth character embroiders hankerchiefs with the word, “Mommy,” and her mother cries and says “I will treasure these hankerchiefs always.” And what do we have now? We have Kleenex. Who cares about Kleenex?
This culture of disposable consumer goods does more than hurt the environment. It deprives us of the chance to form emotional attachments to objects. When we switched from hankerchiefs to Kleenex, maybe we gained in hygiene, but we certainly lost an important part of our culture.
Perhaps the switch from paper cups to thermoses can be a cultural gain. Thermos-decorating can become the new art. Thermoses with provocative slogans can become starting points for conversations! I read a poem once where a boy sends a girl three roses. If she wants to marry him, she’s supposed to wear all three in the bosom of her gown. If she likes him a lot, she’s supposed to wear two, if she likes him a little, she’s supposed to wear one, and if she doesn’t like him at all she’s supposed to leave the roses at home. The flowers become a kind of secret language.
Well, we don’t wear roses in our bosoms so much anymore, but maybe stickers on thermoses could be a new kind of secret language. “Honey, if you love me, put these stickers on your tea thermos. When I see you in Kline at breakfast, I’ll be able to tell in a glance how much you feel for me.”
In a culture where everything can be thrown away, where’s the creativity? Where’s the self-expression? Where’s the ROMANCE?
Challenge: Attend a 350 event on Saturday, October 24th! It’s the International Day of 350 Action! Bard students should be informed that vehicles are leaving at 11:00 from the Kline parking lot, to attend a 350 March on the bridge.
That’s why Kline Cafeteria is doing a Disposable-Free Week! The Environmental Collective set up a table by the entrance of the cafeteria. They asked people to sign a pledge never to use paper cups in Kline again. In return for the pledge, people were given free thermoses with the logo of Bard’s catering company on them. They could also help themselves to eco-friendly lightbulbs, cloth napkins, and stickers with the 350 logo. The EC tablers also encouraged Kline diners to attend a 350 Teach-In on Climate Change.
The thermoses were very popular. People lined up in large numbers to sign the pledge and receive their free prize. It was a triumph for disposable-free activism.
Nevertheless, there were a few bumps along the way. “I think the majority of people supported our effort,” said Kira, an Environmental Collective member. “The problem is, the minority which didn’t support the effort could be very vocal at times.” You see, paper products students were accustomed to using disappeared from the shelves of Kline during the week.
One charming young gentleman dramatically proclaimed that since he had no paper cup, he would throw his regular cup in the trash instead. But another guy remarked good-naturedly that Disposable-Free Week was helping him lose weight. He was in the habit of taking away paper cups of sugary cereal at the end of every meal, and now that habit was no longer practical.
The week was somewhat stressful for the Chartwells staff. One girl asked the Kline staffperson for a paper cup, and argued with him when he refused. But then another student asked for a paper cup and the staffperson caved in (maybe he didn’t have the energy for another debate.) The girl who had initially been denied a paper cup started screaming about unfair treatment.
As a result of this scene, paper cups were on the shelves during a brief period of Disposable-Free week. However, most of the time, the paper plates and dishes were not available. The Environmental Collective has high hopes for the possibility of phasing out paperware entirely.
The problem is, if people can’t take paper dishes out of the building, there will be problems with regular dishes being stolen. As every Bard student knows, Kline has many entrances and exits, so it is quite easy to carry ceramic plates and mugs out of the building. Sometimes people come to Kline five minutes before class and really need to grab something to go. Pressed for time, they take dishes and forget to return them. Obviously Chartwells Catering cannot afford to buy a new set of cutlery and tableware every week, so stolen dishes are a huge concern.
“We need to change people’s mindsets,” said Natalie from the Environmental Collective. Almost everyone at Bard College feels comfortable stealing from the cafeteria. Ethical students who would never dream of shoplifting, for example, see no problem stealing a free meal for a friend who is visiting them. And people help themselves to dishes as if they were public property.
The student handbook threatens dire fines and penalties for students who take Kline dishes out of the building. But the policy is pretty much unenforced. The issue is made even murkier by the “Kline dish return bins” which are in the trash area of some dorms. Although these bins are an effective way of getting the dishes back to Kline, they send mixed messages about proper behavior.
There’s a painting hanging in my parent’s living room that shows an old-fashioned scene from Holland. Everyone is merrily dancing about, and one portly gentleman prancing about in mustard-yellow breeches, has a spoon tucked into the ribbon tied around his hat. I remember asking as a child, “Why does he have a spoon in his hat? He looks ridiculous.”
My mom gravely told me, “In the olden days, not everyone had a spoon. Having spoons was a sign of wealth and prestige. So of course he wanted to display it. Also, if he wants to buy some soup, this spoon is nice and handy.” I have no idea whether this answer was true, or just something she said to shut me up. But it gives me an idea. Why doesn’t every student carry around their own personal set of tableware? Why stop at mugs? I’m not saying we need to wear hats with spoon, fork, and knife tucked into the brim (although it would be pretty cool if we did.) I’m just saying sometimes it’s fun to think outside the box.
Some people decorate their thermos mugs with stickers. Other thermos mugs have slogans of causes they support, or names of places they’ve been. A thermos can be a form of personal artistic expression— much like clothing can be. People get attached to thermoses the same way they get attached to favorite sweaters. When I read about the cheap disposable clothing in Heinlein’s sci-fi future, I wondered how people would express themselves through such clothing. Why, such clothing would be as impersonal and as devoid of sentimental value as Kleenex!
Speaking of Kleenex. In the books I read when I was a little girl, people would always sentimentally wave their hankerchiefs to say goodbye. If a girl liked a boy she would secretly slip him her hankerchief and he would wear it next to his heart while he jousted. In the book Little Women, the Beth character embroiders hankerchiefs with the word, “Mommy,” and her mother cries and says “I will treasure these hankerchiefs always.” And what do we have now? We have Kleenex. Who cares about Kleenex?
This culture of disposable consumer goods does more than hurt the environment. It deprives us of the chance to form emotional attachments to objects. When we switched from hankerchiefs to Kleenex, maybe we gained in hygiene, but we certainly lost an important part of our culture.
Perhaps the switch from paper cups to thermoses can be a cultural gain. Thermos-decorating can become the new art. Thermoses with provocative slogans can become starting points for conversations! I read a poem once where a boy sends a girl three roses. If she wants to marry him, she’s supposed to wear all three in the bosom of her gown. If she likes him a lot, she’s supposed to wear two, if she likes him a little, she’s supposed to wear one, and if she doesn’t like him at all she’s supposed to leave the roses at home. The flowers become a kind of secret language.
Well, we don’t wear roses in our bosoms so much anymore, but maybe stickers on thermoses could be a new kind of secret language. “Honey, if you love me, put these stickers on your tea thermos. When I see you in Kline at breakfast, I’ll be able to tell in a glance how much you feel for me.”
In a culture where everything can be thrown away, where’s the creativity? Where’s the self-expression? Where’s the ROMANCE?
Challenge: Attend a 350 event on Saturday, October 24th! It’s the International Day of 350 Action! Bard students should be informed that vehicles are leaving at 11:00 from the Kline parking lot, to attend a 350 March on the bridge.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Who will build 350 Eco-friendly Skyscrapers?
So nowadays, it takes a lot more than a can of green paint to turn a house "green." I used to think green architecture meant "hobbit house" like the low-impact woodland home on this link: http://www.simondale.net/house/ Check the website out, it's a charming story. Mom camped out with the toddlers, while dad and grandad built the family homestead. I remember when I was a kid, my friends and I would build "houses" out of fallen branches we found; this seems like the durable adult version of that. And the house seems really beautiful and sturdy; and it looks organic, like it grew naturally out of the hillside.Another spin on green architecture is this guy in Texas who makes recycled houses out of thrown-away materials! http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20090907/news/909069957?Title=Home-recycled-home. He makes roofs out of old license plates, windows out of old see-through platters. His
original intention was to provide low-cost housing for the poor. But his homes are so wacky and wonderful that yuppies will pay high prices to live in them-- a little unforeseen consequence there. So if I want a "green" home, do I dig it out of the hillside? Do I build it out of recycled materials? Or...... do I rent a room in a Bob Fox skyscraper in Manhattan?
For those of you that think skyscrapers are the antithesis of green, think again. Bob Fox is a renowned green architect who designs corporate headquarters in New York. He uses the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System to ensure his skyscrapers are as eco-friendly as possible. "A LEED rating is basically the 'nutrition facts' for a building,' " Bob Fox explained in a talk he gave to Bard students last Thursday.
Most of his presentation focused on the Bank of America skyscraper he is building just now. The building has a high-tech air-conditioning system designed to save energy. If I haven't gotten my story garbled, it uses electricity during non-peak hours to make GIANT ICE CUBES in its core. Then the ice melts and flows through the "cooling" towers, giving people energy-efficient air-conditioning. It also has its own energy-saving cogeneration plant. The cement in the building has garbage mixed into it, which oddly enough makes the cement stronger (now I call that recycling.) They're going to plant a lovely roof-garden and have a tree/park area around the border of the building.
He really thought through every detail, right down to the waterless urinals with the biodegradable chem cartridges to eliminate odor. But there are other things you wouldn't expect, like the historic theater which has been restored and made part of the building. I've noticed that "preservation of cultural heritage" gets lumped in with environmentalism a lot of the time. Whether that connection is logical or not, its a fun twist to have a bank with theater performances on the first floor.
Also to get his LEED points he had to ensure the employees would be getting a lot of sunshine. Apparently they did a study once which showed kids who took tests in sunny rooms got 16% higher scores than kids in windowless rooms. So a big selling point for the building is the "higher productivity" that will apparently result from the sunny rooms, big windows, and fresh air. (Their advanced ventilation system filters out the majority of the pollutants from the street.)
"Forty million dollars is what it costs to put in these eco-friendly features," said Bob Fox. "But a 10% productivity increase means a 100 million dollar savings for the company in just the space of one year." Bob Fox is confident that people working in his pleasant buildings will be at least 10% more productive. "People say it feels better, working there," said Bob Fox. People even have knobs to personalize the temperature of their cubicles. My definition of "green" is broadening all the time-- apparently to be a green office space, you need to have a HAPPY work environment.
And even if the productivity increase doesn't come through, the building is still saving the company $3 million each year in its energy bills. Buildings are responsible for 43% of our carbon emissions, while transportation accoutns for 32% and industry creates a mere 25%. So why do we always pick on industry? It looks like green architecture might be the most important frontier of the War on Global Warming. Bob Fox mentioned some interesting global warming stats I hadn't heard before, such as the likelihood of 20% of Bangladesh disappearing under the water.
Take a guess at what you think the MOST important eco-friendly feature of the building is. The water system? The electric system? The roof garden? No! What matters most is the building's LOCATION-- smack-dab in the middle of one of the world's best public transportation systems. Most people, when they think "Green" probably imagine a little hut surrounded by friendly clusters of goats and pigs. But if you're pounding thirty miles of highway in your car to get to that hut, it isn't green at all. Richard Register wrote a book called "EcoCities," saying the best thing we could do for the environment is start living in really tall buildings close together. That way, the elevator replaces the car as the primary mode of transportation.
Admittedly, this Richard Register fellow is a little eccentric. He thinks we need to wage a "War on Cars." He put an old car in his front yard, removed the tires, chopped off the roof, filled it with soil and planted a vegetable garden in it. Then he put a license plate on it which said, "OBSOLETE." Then he put up a sign next to the vegetable car, explaining it was a monument for the first person to ever die in an automobile accident. Or to put it in his (slightly more loaded) language, "A monument to the opening battle of the Car Wars."
I know you're snickering at poor Richard right now, but when you think about it, the automobile casualties in a year probably equal if not exceed the people killed in 9/11. So why are we waging a "War on Terror," rather than building up public transportation infrastructure? That would save more lives. Even if we go with buses rather than trains or trolleys, that still means fewer vehicles on the road or more trained drivers.
Also to get his LEED points he had to ensure the employees would be getting a lot of sunshine. Apparently they did a study once which showed kids who took tests in sunny rooms got 16% higher scores than kids in windowless rooms. So a big selling point for the building is the "higher productivity" that will apparently result from the sunny rooms, big windows, and fresh air. (Their advanced ventilation system filters out the majority of the pollutants from the street.)
"Forty million dollars is what it costs to put in these eco-friendly features," said Bob Fox. "But a 10% productivity increase means a 100 million dollar savings for the company in just the space of one year." Bob Fox is confident that people working in his pleasant buildings will be at least 10% more productive. "People say it feels better, working there," said Bob Fox. People even have knobs to personalize the temperature of their cubicles. My definition of "green" is broadening all the time-- apparently to be a green office space, you need to have a HAPPY work environment.
And even if the productivity increase doesn't come through, the building is still saving the company $3 million each year in its energy bills. Buildings are responsible for 43% of our carbon emissions, while transportation accoutns for 32% and industry creates a mere 25%. So why do we always pick on industry? It looks like green architecture might be the most important frontier of the War on Global Warming. Bob Fox mentioned some interesting global warming stats I hadn't heard before, such as the likelihood of 20% of Bangladesh disappearing under the water.
Take a guess at what you think the MOST important eco-friendly feature of the building is. The water system? The electric system? The roof garden? No! What matters most is the building's LOCATION-- smack-dab in the middle of one of the world's best public transportation systems. Most people, when they think "Green" probably imagine a little hut surrounded by friendly clusters of goats and pigs. But if you're pounding thirty miles of highway in your car to get to that hut, it isn't green at all. Richard Register wrote a book called "EcoCities," saying the best thing we could do for the environment is start living in really tall buildings close together. That way, the elevator replaces the car as the primary mode of transportation.
Admittedly, this Richard Register fellow is a little eccentric. He thinks we need to wage a "War on Cars." He put an old car in his front yard, removed the tires, chopped off the roof, filled it with soil and planted a vegetable garden in it. Then he put a license plate on it which said, "OBSOLETE." Then he put up a sign next to the vegetable car, explaining it was a monument for the first person to ever die in an automobile accident. Or to put it in his (slightly more loaded) language, "A monument to the opening battle of the Car Wars."
I know you're snickering at poor Richard right now, but when you think about it, the automobile casualties in a year probably equal if not exceed the people killed in 9/11. So why are we waging a "War on Terror," rather than building up public transportation infrastructure? That would save more lives. Even if we go with buses rather than trains or trolleys, that still means fewer vehicles on the road or more trained drivers.
(Example of a "vegetable car")
Of course, maybe the most effective way to avoid cars is to design our lives so that everything we need is within walking distance. That is why Bob Fox is also a fan of "mixed-use" buildings. This means working, shopping, and living space all in the same building. If these different elements of life are all in the same area, that means less commuting. Not only that, but the building can be very energy-efficient, because the amount of electricity it uses stays more or less constant during the 24 hour cycle.
Some of the more flashy "eco-features" Bob Fox decided not to include. They thought about putting a windmill on top of the building, but they got dubious when they measured wind-speeds. Even that far up in the air of Manhattan, there's still not enough wind blowing to make the wind-mill cost effective. The same with solar cells. Even though they sound cool, they didn't make financial sense for this particular skyscraper.
Another nifty feature that got vetoed was the "bio-digester," an unbelievably cool gadget. You throw in your food scraps, and the suite of bugs and bacteria living in the biodigestor convert them into high-quality compost. Not only that, but the bugs produce methane in the process of digesting the food scraps. This methane is then used to make electricity! Now isn't that awesome! (When I heard that, I gaped and thought, 'I can power my TV off of bug farts?') Bob Fox wanted to put one of these in his building, but it was too big and there wasn't room. Now Laurie is wondering if we could have a bio-digestor at Bard; we certainly have enough food scraps from Kline. It sounds so wild, but apparently it works.
Another part of eco-friendly design is looking where construction wastes go. Their study on construction wastes revealed that most of it was wood. This was confusing because they were building steel and glass buildings! So where's the wood coming from? Turns out they use wooden palettes to wheel the construction materials onto the site. So they forced the construction workers to reuse the wooden palettes instead of tossing them out. At first the firm was unhappy at being forced to change their ways, but they brightened up when they realized the reuse was saving them money.
At this point in the story Bob Fox turns around, fixing us all in an intense stare. "NOTHING MAKES SOMEBODY GREENER THAN SAVING MONEY." Which is so true-- recycling, reuse, conservation, looking for ways to eliminate waste, are all cost-saving measures. This is why the rhetoric of the "expense" of saving the environment makes increasingly less and less sense.
Another project Bob Fox's firm worked on was remodeling the 33rd floor of the Empire State building. The firm asked him to create a space with the best LEED rating that would be possible in Empire State. They made bigger windows, increased the ceiling height, and added an efficient underfloor heating/cooling systems. They also put in reflectors so natural daylight could brighten more of the building. However the possibilities were more limited because they had to cope with what was already there. It is tough sometimes for the green architects to remodel these old buidlings.
Mr. Fox's sales pitch was very smooth. By the end of his talk I was wishing wistfully that I was a multimillionaire CEO so I could afford one of his products. :-P Ha ha. Firms like his are really on the cutting edge; membership in green architecture associations has been increasing exponentially lately, and "green" buildings have higher value in the real estate market. Bob Fox's work also fits into something called PlaNY--- the "Greater, Greener buildings for New York" plan. This PlanNYC is part of New York City Mayor Bloomberg's promise to bring CO2 emissions down 30% by 2030. Already 100,000 trees have been planted for PlanNYC-- so even though the plan is far from completed, its far from a pipe dream either. Eventually the plan will plant a million trees.
Challenge: Look around your home or dwelling space and find a way to make it more "green." Anything from putting a potted plant in the window, to installing insulation, to designating a special recycling area for your plastic bottles. A potted plant doesn't need to cost more than 350 cents.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Three Flipty (Pancakes)
Last Sunday, the usually sleepy kitchen of Village C dorm was a blaze of activity. Creamy bowls of batter blossomed on the table. The music of the sizzling griddle was punctuated by the percussion of chopping apples. The land flowed not with milk and honey, but with apple cider and maple syrup. At least ten people were cooking, and dozens more were eating. I hopefully sidled towards the table of bounty, snagging my own personal load of melt-in-the-mouth apple pancakes. Every time a new load slid off the griddle onto the plate, it was hailed by a triumphal cry. "That's 75 pancakes so far! Only 275 to go!"
"Are you really going to make 350 pancakes?" I asked a cook in dazed awe. "Yup," she said cheerfully, then adding with a modest blush, "Of course they're only small ones.” And the spatulas flipped away like mad. Murmurs of "Why 350?" went through the room. As the pancake count mounted, an assertive young gentleman emerged from the kitchen's fragrant fumes and took his "soapbox" in the common room. "Many of you may be wondering why 350 pancakes," he said. "This is part of a national campaign to raise awareness for a 350 ppm carbon dioxide commitment. Right now we're at 389 ppm, so there's still a long way to go. All over the United States, people are organizing events featuring the number 350, so at least the number will be in people's minds. So they'll be aware of the problem and our goal."
As a publicity event I would call Sunday's pancake breakfast a spectacular success. It can be difficult to get people to show up for lectures and such, but offer them a warm and delicious alternative to Kline cafeteria food and they're all over the place!!! Even the photo you see here of the pancake-eaters in formation before the 350 banner only represents about half the number of people who came.
"Are you really going to make 350 pancakes?" I asked a cook in dazed awe. "Yup," she said cheerfully, then adding with a modest blush, "Of course they're only small ones.” And the spatulas flipped away like mad. Murmurs of "Why 350?" went through the room. As the pancake count mounted, an assertive young gentleman emerged from the kitchen's fragrant fumes and took his "soapbox" in the common room. "Many of you may be wondering why 350 pancakes," he said. "This is part of a national campaign to raise awareness for a 350 ppm carbon dioxide commitment. Right now we're at 389 ppm, so there's still a long way to go. All over the United States, people are organizing events featuring the number 350, so at least the number will be in people's minds. So they'll be aware of the problem and our goal."
As a publicity event I would call Sunday's pancake breakfast a spectacular success. It can be difficult to get people to show up for lectures and such, but offer them a warm and delicious alternative to Kline cafeteria food and they're all over the place!!! Even the photo you see here of the pancake-eaters in formation before the 350 banner only represents about half the number of people who came.
So I started thinking, "Here's a nice segment of environmentally-minded Bard students. Time to do some research." So I started asking people, "Do you think Obama will succeed in passing climate change legislation?"Rachel burst out laughing and nearly dropped her pancake. "In magical wonderland, it would happen, but in reality.... people are stupid." she said. There was a chorus of groans of agreement.
I wandered the room in search of greater optimism. What does the lady who is frantically slicing apples think? She sighed and pondered long over her answer. "I hope so.... but I don't know," she said. "There's too much fear out there. People are afraid of losing things that matter to them.
"Obama has so much facing him at once," another student answered me. "With health care and everything else that's on his plate, will he be able to tackle the environment too?"
"Well," I asked my friend Josh, the jovial history major, "Do you think Obama can do it?"
Josh chortled. "Yes, and maybe after he gets done with that miracle, he will punch God."
Tom has a different take entirely. "Yes he will pass it," he told me. "By now, even the Republicans have accepted the fact that climate change exists."
But there's a difference between scientific consensus and political will. Repeating my question again to another group, I heard, "I don't know. I would like to say yes, but with everything else that's going on.... ..Obama's momentum since coming into office has slowed."
Well here I had a range of opinions. But before I hauled myself and my pancake-laden stomach away, I wanted a word with Ashfaque Kabir. Ash was an econ major with an interest in student government, so I thought he could give me a good thoughtful answer. Problem was, he had been on griddle duty and I feared to approach him for danger of being hit by a flying pancake.
But luckily he came out just then to deposit a new plateful and I pounced on him. "Ash," I asked, "Do you think Obama will succeed in passing climate change legislation?"
Ash pursed his lips. "I'm sceptical, but I hope so. However, there's the economy to consider. In a recession, will industry really want to take on extra costs?"
That seemed to be the clincher. People are losing jobs, people are afraid, people don't want more change. All of which spells bad news for the environment.
To get some really professional opinion on this issue, I went to a lecture by Rachel Cleetus from the Union of Concerned Scientists. Dr. Cleetus was the professional economist on a UCS team working on, "Blueprint for a Clean Energy Economy." The question they posed themselves was, "Without counting on any lucky breaks, can the USA mobilize to halt global warming at two degrees above normal?" Of course, in order to answer this question, the team had to make many assumptions; including assumptions about what level of international cooperation could be expected.
"This blueprint focuses on the USA's economy," said Dr. Rachel Cleetus. "On the international stage, there's been quite a bit of that 'You go first! No, you go first!' attitude slowing down negotiations. What people don't realize is, science says EVERYBODY has to go first."
She did a fast summary of global conditions analyzed by USC climate scientists. "Current carbon levels in the atmosphere are unique-- major coastal cities should worry about flooding--" that sort of thing. And then she launched into her economic blueprint. According to her, we need,
-- Cap and Trade Program
-- National Renewable Electricity Standard (a requirement for utilities to generate a minimum percentage of electricity from renewable sources.)
-- Energy Efficiency Standard for appliances and buildings.
-- Reduce vehicle miles travelled (perhaps through SmartGrowth plans)
-- Energy Efficiency programs for agriculture and industry...
-- And about ten other things, which scrolled down the screen faster than my rapidly cramping pen hand could record.
She looked at us and said proudly, "All these programs in combination would cut energy use by third. This helps us not only with global warming, but with many other things as well."
For starters, if people are using energy-efficient appliances and well-insulated homes, it saves them a substantial amount of money on their electricity bill. Businesses also could benefit from government-enforced efficiency standards. If you waste less energy, everyone saves money. So WHY WHY WHY is everyone convinced that fighting global warming is too costly?
I raised my hand and asked the nice economist, "If we can SAVE money by following your blueprint, why do we hear all these debates about the environment VS. the economy? Why do people think it's a choice between fixing one and fixing the other?"
Her answer was somewhat long and involuted, but it boiled down to this: People never consider the costliness of the status quo. Right now, we're spending a lot of money on the energy we waste. But we're used to doing that, so it doesn't bother us. But although habitual costs fade into the back of your mind, you notice any new costs right away. And putting the energy-efficient infrastructure in place is going to mean short-term costs for long-term gain.
"The classic example of market failure," she said, "Is tenant housing. If you would insulate the apartment, you would save so much money on the cost of heating the house. But the landlord doesn't want to do it, because those aren't his electricity bills. And the tenants won't pay for it, because they're only staying in their terrible apartment building for only a few months before moving on to something better." She thinks the government has a role in regulating this kind of market failure.
Since hearing all this from Dr. Cleetus, I've been turning the problem over and over in my mind. I think I have a humorous analogy which accurately represents the situation.
Suppose all the USA ate at one restaurant that charged by the plateful. However, all the plates in this restaurant are full of holes. For some reason the government cannot find the money to fix the holes in the plates. And there are so many plates, there is no doubt patching or replacing them all would require substantial investment.
However the problem with the holey plates is that food keeps dropping out the bottom of them. This is making the world a messier place, clearly. Shocked by the disgusting mess, the environmentalists have started running awareness campaigns about the need for a "clean economy." But the most obvious downside for the American consumer is that instead of buying one plate of food at each meal, they need to buy two or three platefuls of food. Because most of the food is leaking and dribbling out of the first plate, leaving them hungry.
However, the big restaurant has many powerful lobbyists in Washington. And when activists begin saying, "We need to have laws against these holey plates," there is a great uproar. The restaurant groans and moans and says it will put them out of business to fix that many plates. Think of all the poor waitresses who will go jobless! What will it do to the economy!
Although maybe we can't tell from a simple number like the GDP, there is more to a good economy than simply producing more. We also have to consider how we are using what we produce. Are we using it well or are we wasting it? We are less sensitive to electricity waste than we are to food waste because it less obvious. If someone was dropping their food all over the place we would laugh at them and call them stupid. Whereas, if we buy an energy-hogging, poorly designed appliance it's not like we can SEE all that precious electricity trickling away. It just vanishes invisibly, manifesting itself only as a hidden number on next month's utilities bill.
The trouble is, it has become far too easy to scare people with the word "Economy." Most Americans including me do not understand how the economy works. I have a chilling suspicion that even people with ten degrees in this subject do not really understand what's going on. And yet the economy can have a devastating impact on our lives, if managed improperly. It's so frightening that our jobs and lives depend on this great big thing we can neither control nor understand.
And so, people can take advantage of this fear very easily. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry with an agenda can run around saying, "If you do not do WHAT I WANT the Big Bad Economy will EAT you!" (And grind its bones to make your bread.....) And because nobody actually knows what is going on, Tom, Dick, and Harry can find people to believe them, no problem.
What's the moral then? Be careful what you believe? Once economists did a study about how people make the decision to purchase green products. There were these eco-friendly socks made with organic cotton by workers in good conditions. Then there were some ordinary socks. The economists doing the study tried selling both kinds of socks at the same price. They did not sell many eco-friendly socks because people did not believe they were actually organic. Then they tried increasing the price of the eco-friendly socks by quite a bit. Then suddenly they sold a LOT MORE eco-friendly socks, because the high price convinced people the eco-friendly tag on the socks was not lying.
The funny part is that these particular eco-friendly socks actually cost less to produce. But because of the psychology, they had to sell them at a high price. Sad, eh? People instinctively believe that virtue comes at a tough price. If anyone tells you that doing the right thing is cheaper and easier, you just laugh at them. Because for some reason we all believe we have to suffer to save the planet.
It’s not so much a question of suffering as that of overcoming inertia. Dr. Cleetus's clean energy blueprint does not count on cutting-edge technologies being invented. The blueprint is based on technologies and policies that we already know about. Most of the things she's suggesting have already been implemented on a small scale. We know they work. We just need to use them. "JUST GET STARTED," says Dr. Cleetus.
It’s going to take a lot more than 350 pancakes to flip us into a better future. Maybe it’s our minds we need to flip. Maybe the greatest obstacle to saving the planet is our belief that we can only save it through self-sacrifice. Maybe it doesn't take self-sacrifice. Maybe all it takes is a willingness to look beyond the status quo and embrace what works.
Challenge: Question 350 of your own assumptions about the way the world works.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
The Coming of the GreenMobile; 350 rides into an eco-friendly future
The good news is, Bard's share of the loot from Obama's Recovery Act, is half an eco-friendly diesel-hybrid Magnificently Green Shuttle Bus. Half a shuttle you say? HALF??? The front half or the back half? How will it move on only two wheels? Won't that let in the cold air?
Ah-ha-ha. In fact, Bard has been planning on purchasing a new shuttle bus for a long time. The problem is, the eco-friendly version costs slightly more than twice as much as the regular version. So the Head of the Environmental Resources Department hit up the federal government for some cash (by which I mean she wrote a successful grant) and they offered to pay half. So we can afford it! Yay! GreenMobile-- coming soon (whenever we wander out of our labryinthe of paperwork.)
The bad news is, nobody agrees on how to use the Greenmobile. Transportation issues have been controversial lately on campus. Its a battle of opinion between the on-campus and the off-campus students. On-campus students want to get from North to South Campus. But if the shuttle is loaded up with them, will there be room for people trying to make it to their apartments in neighboring towns?
We had problems last year with students not fitting onto packed buses and being left forlornly in the rain "We have to recognize the fact that we have limited resources," said Erin Canaan. So it was decided that the shuttle bus would be used exclusively for taking students to neighboring burgs Tivoli and Red Hook. The walk between North and South Campus, is after all, less than a mile.
But LO-- the plot thickens. I'm sure you've seen tiny conservatory students bent under the weight of their enormous musical instruments. (Okay, a violin isn't too bad, but a chello? A tuba?) They look like those ants who can lift ten times their own weight. And it's possible that such a student might have a class in the Fisher Perfoming Arts Center AND in Blum Music Hall. Walk a mile in five minutes? No way.
That's why Laurie Husted is looking into matching shuttle schedules with class schedules. But will this be enough to satisfy the enraged on-campus students? I was coming back from Red Hook with heavy bags of groceries for a party I was throwing for my friends. It was quite a shock to be booted off the bus at Kline. I hadn't been expecting to carry those groceries all the way home to North Campus, handles cutting into my hands. Although under ordinary circumstances I quite like walking and never take that shuttle trip.
Enough people have been irked by the elimination of the North Campus stop that a petition (about 80 signatures by now, says student secretary Chris Given) is circulating around asking to get the stop back. On the other hand, students who live off-campus are thrilled. Not only is the bus less crowded, fewer stops make it run more efficiently. An anonymous Tivoli-dwelling student said she was delighted with the change. Then she told me "not to use her name," because "she didn't want to get involved with this."
"It's difficult for us," said Ed Schmidt, head of the transportation department. "We get some emails from students saying they love the new shuttle schedule and thank you so much. Whereas we get emails from other students saying they hate the new schedule, and threatening to drive." I find this somewhat amusing. ("Arrange the schedule so it is exactly to my convenience! Otherwise, its global warming for you!") Its like holding the knife made of carbon dioxide fumes over our collective throats.
"We hear that more people are using cars," said Chris Given. Dean of Students Erin Canaan disagrees. "If the shuttle is running more often, and more efficiently," she says, "That means fewer Tivoli and Red Hook students are driving. We have to prioritize here. What's more important-- to prevent drives across campus, or to prevent drives between towns? 533 students live off-campus, 200 students live on North Campus." She continues, "If a student is walking from North to South Campus, that's safe-- even healthy. But if a student is walking three miles along the edge of the highway, it's not safe at all."
She also has this concept of "academic" and "non-academic" uses for the shuttle. The monday morning shuttle is "academic" because it is taking you from your house to your class. The friday night schedule is "non-academic" because it's taking you home from a party. But although Erin Canaan might prefer to maximize "academic uses" of the shuttle, she recognizes safety issues are also involved. One of the shuttle's key uses is to prevent drunk driving. In that way, the friday night run might be the most important of all.
"Sometimes they have really big parties in Tivoli," says Ed Schmidt. "The driver goes to Tivoli at 1AM Friday and finds a hundred people who just left a party to get on the bus. What's the solution?" With a little creative thinking, Ed Schmidt hit upon the idea of a "stealth shuttle." This sneaky little shuttle would make unscheduled stops to pick up extra people during peak times. Although its Batmanesque name is appealing, the logistics of this proposal might be a little tricky. Once the GreenMobile arrives, we'll have a second vehicle available, but the transportation department is chronically underfunded. How do we pay for the gas and driver? Erin Canaan points out, "We have to raise 20-30 million dollars a year just to keep the lights on in this place. Adding to the transportation budget means additional money, and where is that coming from?"
People are tossing around the idea of using a student driver. But Ed Schmidt is not happy with the idea. Students are not trained in crowd control, he says, and "should not be responsible for handling drunks. And also......" He pauses. He leans over the table, looks surreptiously from side to side, and practically whispers, "Please don't take offense at this. But I'm afraid students are not the most reliable people in the world." I laugh because it's true. Who shows up for work when they've got a final paper due?
Ed Schmidt the transportation director is quite a character. His enormous and colorful bulletin board features a sign which says, "I am here to serve. Not to observe," and another which says, "Lack of planning on YOUR part does not constitute an emergency on MY part." Which captures quite nicely the dual personality of transportation services here on campus. On the one hand, they are warm caring folks who want to help students and will make extra trips to prevent people from being stranded. On the other hand, they get impatient with students who are self-absorbed or whiny. "I think what students need most of all is a little patience," said Mr. Schmidt. "People say, I don't want to take the shuttle because it gets me there half an hour early. So what? Go to the library or something!"
"What people want from their shuttles is instant gratification," he continues glumly. "We can't please everybody all the time-- but we try. In the past, I've given the shuttle schedule to student government and said-- 'CHANGE IT! I'll do anything you want.' And they haven't changed it, aside from making the format easier to read."
On first hearing of the canceled shuttle stop, I wondered if my blog would be about Poor Stranded Students vs. Big Bad Administration. But the story just won't slant that way. I asked both Chris Given and Ben DiFabbio (Student Senate representative on the transportation committee) if the administration was sensitive to student needs. Both men instantly replied with the same word, "Definitely." I want to take a moment to whine about how HARD it is to be a muckraking journalist on Bard Campus. You go out looking for blood, and instead you find this big conversation where everyone is considering everyone else's needs. I wanted to write a sensational story of conflict and controversy, but the campus is too darn full of peace and love.
Even Ed Schmidt! I was getting up to leave when he said, "Before you go, let me show you something. In my wild hippie days I was on an album cover!" And he takes the album from its treasured spot, points out a wild bearded figure holding a "Peace on Earth" sign, and says, "That's me."
What it boils down to is, everyone's voice will be heard when we decide how to use the GreenMobile. Ben DiFabbio of Student Senate strongly urges you to watch out for the survey his committee will be sending out. The info about student's transportation needs will be presented to Erin Canaan in the October dialogue she is hosting. "Our main muscle is the surveys," Ben says. "That way we can really tell the administration what we want."
And by the way? Erin's meeting? Everyone is welcome. Really, if you are paying attention there is no way you will be left out. An Environmental and Urban Studies class recently went on a field trip to Kingston. They saw many beautiful locations including a beach with sailboats and a plentiful farmer's market. On returning, we heard them say, "Why does the shuttle go to the strip mall and not the farmer's market? For years I thought Kingston was a terrible place, just because the only place the shuttle ever took me was Target." Students who want different stops just need to get involved.
And who knows, you might win a prize! A 350 initiative by the Environmental Resources Department is giving out RAFFLE TICKETS to win 25 DOLLARS at our delicious local cafe. The lucky winners will be the passengers on the 350th shuttle ride. And who knows what shuttle ride that will be? Get involved in public transportation and reduce carbon emissions in our atmosphere. Then instead of a cup of noxious fumes, you'll be sipping a cup of delicious hot chocolate at the Taste Budds Cafe.
Challenge: Take 350 bus rides by next September.
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