Blog Post #14

"What surprised you about the process of Environmental
Policy? Do you think that the U.S. Senate should have ratified the Kyoto Protocol?
Why or why not. Why do you think creating and implementing environmental policy
is so difficult locally, nationally, and internationally? Should communities and
local government do more on a local level to create environmental policy? What
environmental issues would you like to see addressed by policy makers?"

I was not really surprised by the readings - I've had a geology class that went pretty in detail about global environemental policy and the stopping points during my freshman year.  I am surprised, I guess, that under a new presidential administration and almost 4 years later, the environment has still not become much more of a priority in the international arena, or at least enough to bring all the global powers together.

 I do think that the U.S. should have signed the protocol with ratifications.  The articles talked about anticipated growth in the U.S. at 3% per year being directly in conflict with reducing emissions because this meant an increase of 12%.  However, could there not have been any other way to make promises to curb emissions?  I think that just a promise to invest in green technologies that would later reduce these emissions would have been a fair thing to include rather than blanket promises to reduce emissions.  What I am proposing, I guess, is a shift in focus from "what can be done right now" to "what can we do right now that can improve us in the future" - and this may not even be the near future in this sense.  For example, investments in green technology, let's say wind turbine projects, may not return energy savings until years down the road. At the same time, how can we promise to reduce emissions on a year to year basis?  This I think was more the issue that the U.S. faced than anything because it's the underlying issue to their political conflicts with the developing nations.  Changing the terms of the protocol to take into account more realistic and fair measures of accountability for the states would have eased us into signing the protocol, I think. Signing it with such measures would have been an important step to overcome the barrier of simply joining international powers.  According to the articles, it took European nations 3 years to get together the resources for the conference.  With the U.S. being such an important player, backing out of these negotiations means maybe years until the other developed countries could muster up the same or more resources to reconsider envienvironmental concerns on a global level.

Blog Post #13

"What do you think of ecofemisnism before you read, and after? Did you have any strong reactions? What do forms of dominance do you see in the world around you?"

Well I honestly had no idea what ecofeminism was in contrast to other forms of feminism before the readings. The closest understanding I could come to has to do with my study abroad experience in Chile. I had a class in which we studied native civilizations to Chile, and we learned a lot about a certain culture that was actually matriarchal to begin with. That later changed, but before the women were the ones that built certain tales, or myths, surrounding their culture to explain their right to power in their society. Beyond that experience, I would not have thought that ecofeminism was as its most basic definition a study of the understanding of how everything interrelates and the place of nature and women within that web.

I've gained some neat insights from the readings. In the Spretnak reading, she talks about the roots of ecofeminism, and of these I found a few most interesting, and some of the other readings elaborate on them: creation-centered spirituality and ecofeminism as it relates to nature, and more specifically agriculture. The logic in connecting God's (or whatever Creator or Creators) creation of the Earth, to our covenant to defend and protect that Earth, and then to the folly of creating the "myths" that uphold a masculine-centered society that are by no means natural to this creation of God or whomever makes a lot of sense to me. It's a wonderful realization of what is real and what is not. The sun and the oceans are real, but what rules by which we run our societies are not necessarily, and that encompasses the rules that interrelate us. The article about agriculture and India from Huffington post was also something I did not expect to be a part of ecofeminism, but opened my eyes a bit to the breadth of the topic.

Blog Post #12

Would you join the Green Party or not?  What aspects of green values do you believe should be ideally incorporated into a "green" party?  Do these align, do you think, with the Green Party? Also, are the Earth First! activists justified in their actions? 
(Optional extra question for fun: If you were to run for political office with the Green Party/your ideal "green" party, who would you seek out to be your celebrity endorser and why?)

After going in depth with our game and presentation into the Green Party Platform, I think that I would join the Green Party.  And I do think that the Green Party is a good representation of the green values as we have learned them in class.

I agree with a lot of the issues that they are bringing to the table, and I think a lot of other Americans would as well if they were to read more into the specific issues they support. Some of the positions and solutions might be controversial, however, in their implementation (e.g. a living wage or a call for disarmament), and many of these would also be sticking points for me as well unless I were to see more in terms of actual implementation.  On face value, I absolutely align with their 10 Key Values of the Green Party and the four pillars to their platform: Democracy, Social Justice, Ecological Sustainability, and Economic Justice and Sustainability. Particularly, I strongly support electoral reform.  I took AP Government in high school my senior year and learned back then what a complicated topic this is an the myriad obstacles there are to reform. I honestly do not believe that either party in power really does want reform for threat of multiparty power. Some other positions and solutions that the Green Party offers that I most like include their emphasis on businesses not being considered people by the law, their support of the arts to build community, and the creation of job banks and training programs offered by the government to stimulate jobs and incorporate everyone into our local economies.

On the other hand, there are elements of Green Democracy that I do not agree with from the readings. For example, progressive taxes are not the solution in my mind...this is inherently against green values in that different professions should have equal compensation in the first place.  I do not believe that taking away from those who have and giving to those who do not is applied in the right sense with this part of the platform.  I think there must be another solution; for example, raising significantly the wages of all workers and leveling the playing field.  At the same time, I also think you would have to lower the cost of education for the fields that require much more.  As well, I do not think that the Earth First!ers solution is a representation of green democracy either. Their actions are wasting resources, and I think that there are better ways - if longer and more challenging - to go about change.

Blog Post #11

1.       What religion were you raised with and how does that affect your view of spiritual ecology?

2.       What are your opinions on the Gaia Hypothesis? Do you agree or disagree?

3.       Do you believe we live in a hyper-masculine culture? If so, how do you see it changing?

 

So to begin a context for my discussion of spiritual ecology, I should explain that I really do like using the term "spiritual" rather than "religious".  I was not raised with a specific religion - my family did go to a Methodist church for a few years before my brother and I had too many Sunday morning soccer games.  My dad was raised Catholic, but chose not to raise his family that way.  The main spiritual direction I got from my family was that we believed in "God" - whoever or whatever that was to us - and that we should be "good" people in our lives.  This has most affected me in the way that I first talked about: I have spiritual tendencies and am not tied to a particular religion.  Secondly, I have done the best to keep my mind open and respectful towards the spirituality of others while building my own.  For me, I do consider Nature to be a huge aspect of my spirituality...whatever "God" I believe in, I think it has something to do with that ubiquitous force of the Earth, and that whatever is responsible for creating humanity also creating this wonderful world of biodiversity, and we are intended to help govern each other in a mutual "progress".

 The Gaia hypothesis seems interesting to further the end that we are subject to Nature - a part of it and dependent upon it as well as it being dependent upon us.  I think it is most useful to provide just a broader context of thinking...we are living under specific cconditions, and what does it mean for those conditions to be perfect enough to support life as we know it?

In regards to a hyper-masculine culture, I can see a future where this changes, and I don't think that it is dependent upon first becoming posthumanist and postmodern.  As the social norms are changing, I think that people will begin to question what they were taught - does it represent the way I live my life, is it respectful of the people that I care about in my life (women, etc)...?

Blog Post #10

Social ecology is a study of humanity in the context of nature, as a natural, collaborative part of it as opposed to the conventional institutionalized view of humans and nature as opposing forces in the world. It has to do with what is natural and what is not within our society - what did we invent or build within our society that does not have to exist that way? I thought it was very interesting to note that our society has kept this line of thinking since it's peak in Victorian times, and I definitely see this connection in literature: Frankenstein, Moby Dick, writings of the Bronte sisters, etc. As well, it is obvious that our economy functions in the same manner, against rather than with nature, using human ingenuity for unsubstantiated reasoning and efforts put towards "growth".

To answer the blog question, the unnatural hierarchies that exist in today's society, to give a few examples, are between children an adults and between nations.

The children and adults example I've always found intriguing. We are born into submission as children, but who is to say that children can't teach adults some great lessons if left with more freedom to do so by authority to govern their own thoughts and activities? The other example is in regards to the inequality of different nations - what keeps the first world nations, including the U.S., in power? Without delving into history, it is clear that current social institutions fuel this arrangement.

Blog #6

"What are your reactions to your GTP reading?  What are your preliminary ideas for leading a class meeting focused on this topic?"

I definitely found the readings interesting, but they are not so much what I expected to read in relation to green democracy.  They did, however, span a gambit of political thought - the more conservative Green Party views to the more radical monkeywrench ideology and somewhere in between with the reading on social and environmental justice.  I am having trouble connecting all of the readings under a common message, but I think that the main message could be giving all people as well as the environment power of representation.  The readings seem to identify that there are specific representations missing in our current political system: the environment is not given enough defense from the depletion of its resources, certain races and classes suffer from more pollution than others, and basic freedoms and peacekeeping are not fairly defended for all nations and peoples.

My preliminary ideas for our class would include doing an interactive debate. It would be neat to divide up the class into legislative bodies for the environment, for the classes and races facing social injustice, for business, for the U.S. government, for Palestine, etc, so that all the stakeholders in these issues could be examined and the class could actively see the conflicts of interests.  I also could bring in a few cases from my business curriculum regarding the "race to the bottom": companies chasing lowest-cost production abroad.  These cases and others highlight the export-oriented business development that the Green Party is against; however, they also highlight the devastation to companies' brands when the public becomes aware of this action and how this strategy is becoming obsolete in business.  As well, export-oriented economies are not always bad if they build industry and social provisions for a nation.  I have a good case with Intel in Costa Rica about this that I would like to share.

Blog #5

"...write a blog entry outlining the goals and specific characteristics of a green learning community.  How would you know one if you saw one?"

Drawing from the readings so far on an introduction to green values and green pedagogy and political thought, I think that the overarching goal of a green community would be to serve as a model and a springboard for the development of more green communities. David Orr's project at Oberlin College in Ohio seems to strive for just that, creating a space in academia "to serve as genuine anchor institutions" to create models that can be mimicked in the rest of society. I think that the Learning Center for Sustainable Futures here at USC is really functioning with that purpose as well.  Orr's project takes the green community further, I think, in pushing so strongly to incorporate the entire community and make it function as one system, which I would like to identify as the second goal to a green community.  This means that the sustainable facilities and services must extend out to the community, including food systems and waste treatment as the article talks about. I think that small, local farms are specifically a huge part of this because a green community means that it would be self-sustaining, and thus function on a local scale. The final overarching goal that I see in the text is the focus on the "learning" aspect to the green learning community: the students and teachers have mutual respect built into their relationship and the student is more free to explore what he/she wishes to learn.  The learning style is more open and less directed.

Blog #4

Introduction to Green Values: "What do you think of 'green values'? Which ones do you most believe in? What surprised you the most about the readings?"

I have come across green values several times before in my interactions with the learning center, so most values were familiar to me, and some just lost in the back of my mind since first being introduced to them.  This is not necessarily to say that I don't already live by a lot of the green values in my own life, or at least attempt to fit them into the often rigid social norms that constitute conventional values. As a business major, although I believe that non-hierarchical, participatory governance is the way to manage our society, in the business world, it is all-too-common to be subjected to a power-hungry, hierarchical environment that does not allow for such open dialogue.  I think that more than likely, a "green" sort of environment will be implemented into the political arena first before it ever reaches the business world, even given the proliferation of "green" initiatives in corporate social responsibility today.  As well, I related to the value of deep ecology.  The way I think is often back to the source when it comes to questioning the way we live, and I believe that it should be in harmony with nature.  When I was in high school for example, I decided not to pursue studying architecture in college for fear that I was contributing more to new building and construction that I did not think would always be necessary, just an addition to human growth at the suffering of the environment or depletion of natural resources.

A value that actually most surprised me was the social wage - intended to pay everyone in society for any productive work including in the domestic sphere.  However, the roots of my surprise were not in the value itself as related to "green" thinking, but my own response and previous thoughts on this value.  I realize that I highly and outspokenly value any positive contribution to society and think that it should be -- if not monetarily -- somehow rewarded in some quantifiable way.  But I also realize that I have been inconsistent with this in my lifetime.  I used to denounce the value of a parent staying at home to raise children, thinking that "paying your dues" to society was limited to working  in the economy and earning money to support the family.  I think that was narrow-minded of me, and it's fascinating at this age to be enlightened by my own contradictions in values (I sure there could be many more, but this is just one learning example today).

Blog #2

I've been asked to write a little bit about myself and my academic and career goals...

I am a senior at USC in the Honors College and International Business and Global Supply Chain and Operations Management programs with a Spanish Minor.  I've had so many great opportunities and experiences throughout my college career...I studied abroad in Vina del Mar, Chile; I interned for the Boeing Company as well as for the Green Quad Learning Center for Sustainable Futures; I am heavily involved in my business fraternity Delta Sigma Pi; I instruct group exercise classes at Strom; I've been a Resident Mentor...the list goes on and I'm just so glad to have had such a wonderful time here.

I came to USC from around 500 miles away in Mason, Ohio.  I was born and raised in the Cincinnati area.  I attended William Mason High School.  Growing up, I had a strong focus on my academics knowing that it would get me far in life.  This work ethic with school and jobs has paid off for me - I have a job lined up after graduation that is as close to my dream job as possible for now.  I will be working in a consulting position for government and non-profits, which means for me that I will be making a huge difference and have the chance to work specifically for certain causes I value.  The environment, education reform, and animal rights are some of the most important for me.  Looking further into the future, I want to own my own business one day.  I also want to get re-involved in college campus initiatives such as the Learning Center.  I think students as grassroots voices are the real start of change, and I want to continue to be a part of that.

That's all for now!

Blog #1

What I want to get out of this class is an expanded, clarified view of what it means to be green.  I'm one of those people that are often personally taxed by the daily choices and just the way of modern life in the first world that does not add up to be environmentally sustainable.  Take the choice to get a coffee for dine-in or to-go, for example.  That decision means potentially using wasteful Styrofoam of plastic for the convenience of your morning coffee.  But is it really our decision in the first place to skip out on the waste and make the planet more "green"?  What about the coffee shop's decision to buy the materials in the first place - won't they just use them on someone else?  These kind of situations reveal to me that the problem is much bigger than to be solved by our individual actions.  The solution must lie in society, in culture, in values as deeply rooted as freedom is to the American spirit.  And through  what forum do we demonstrate our civic values?  Through politics.  And that is precisely why I want to explore the topics of this course, to learn more about the history of green values in political thought and it's progress, discrepancies, counterarguments, and current place in our political atmosphere today.  I want to be able to defend my arguments for my personal political opinions about the way our world should functions against proponents for mass consumerism, free market economics, and a world free of regulations...all arguments that I believe take us away from a "green" society in many senses of the word. From my internship at the learning center and former residency in the GLC, I am familiar with the term "green" as more than environmental sustainability - it denotes an entire paradigm with specific social values, a manner in which to live our lives.  So, to sum it up, I'm excited to begin refreshing my memory and expanding my interaction with these values.