Looking Beyond

“At a cultural level, the how of sustainability is also a why. That is to say, the culture of sustainability situates us within sets of practices that foster meaning and purpose. The ethical and potentially religious foundations of a culture of sustainability are first investigated, followed by an examination of the crucial impact of aesthetic sensibilities and education. We conclude by assessing the role of creativity, examining how a resilient culture maintains its core values while adapting to a changing world” (Thiele 169).

Making any change, impact, or difference in the world possible requires people to come together and share a common goal or purpose. People that come together to enforce change must believe in the same things in at least one aspect. If people have different cultures and practice various beliefs, how are they supposed to unite with a common objective? Looking beyond beliefs and culture, society needs to realize that together we are the human race and to survive generation after generation, we should focus on doing good and making the world a better place. Each culture, when studied deeply, all have commonalities. If we can focus on these similarities, we can move toward sustainability.

How Change Happens

“acquisition of knowledge does not often or easily translate into changes in behavior”

Thiele, pg 189

I believe that this occurrence is the down fall to today’s society and tomorrow’s leaders. Just like the ‘166 Seconds to Sustainability’, we can make all the changes in the world to improve the environment’s wellbeing but that doesn’t mean future citizens will agree with them. For example adding more recycling bins to campus is great but we have recycling bins already. Walking around campus you’ll see bins and bins of recyclable objects carelessly thrown into the trash even though there is a recycling bin attached to the rubbish bin. We can change technology, our approach, the resources, and the application but nothing will get done until we change people’s minds. Today’s challenge is educating people about how their action create a chain of unintended consequences. We can not move forward until we educate those around us and tell them why they SHOULD care. 

The river is always flowing. With this known fact, movers and shakers of tomorrow need to know that everything in this world is in constant flux, or motion. Ideas, practices, mindsets change frequently and we must plan for that. Establishing a solution applicable to today’s people as well as future commoners, is the biggest challenge, yet it’s the only way to stop our down hill demise.

Signing Off

-Corina McBride

Science is Enough

“Sustainability is an adaptive art, in large part, because it is wedded in science. But science is not enough. Not withstanding it’s need for rigorous data gathering and analysis, the practice of sustainability entails moral commitment. It is grounded in ethical vision. Importantly, our moral commitments and ethical visions are not products of scientific inquiry.”
Theile pg. 171

The scientific discourse can and should be used to determine ethical sustainability issues. The problem with society now is that we don’t do this. Its already used in a way if you consider the how laws in our society are proposed and passed by public vote. I’m not saying ethics should only be discussed and changed in the ivory towers of the educated elite but just like the scientific community where anyone can propose their findings to see if it s deemed ethically sound. Science really should be the only way that laws and ethics are formed in our “free” society since there is a separation of church and state. How can you even begin to appease anyone when you take into account peoples supernatural beliefs when designing ethics for a society? Do you pick one religion or belief structure and go with that or do you make a conglomeration of set ethics based on the top 6 in the globe? This would be a very egotistical approach since all belief systems are equal in the fact that none of them can be scientifically proven or else they would be facts. The golden rule is a great idea and it can be argued that karma is very similar but do we really need to base this on supernatural beliefs and not on scientific agreement? If we continue allowing nonscientific discourse we will be doomed to an unprogressive society. This is accepting a normal system of society which is constantly evolving thus creating the need of an ever changing ethics debate. Science can answer anything in the natural world and most certainly will suffice for ethics if they are deliberated upon with logical understanding.

Carl

Culture over Technology?

“While sustainability will a require attentiveness to the impact of technology, many of the most pressing problems we face today do not have technological solutions.  They require cultural change.” – Thiele pg. 190

For some reason this quote caught my attention.  For many of the past blog posts i always preached that many changes in the environment need to be facilitated with technology.  Was I wrong?  i never necessarily looked at it from a cultural standpoint.  Many customs throughout cultures may not have the ability to be changed.  We look back to Gary Yourofsky when he showed a video of a goat being sacrificed during a religious ritual.  These religious customs may not disappear so how do we create change?  In many instances the cultural change that we seek may never be attainable because religious customs are among the hardest to change.

-Ryan Wolis

Does Knowledge Lead to Change?

“Studies consistently demonstrate that the acquisition of knowledge does not often or easily translate into changes in behavior. Even when opinions, attitudes, and values are transformed on account of knowledge gained, changes in behavior tend to lag far behind, if they follow at all. Indeed, increased learning may become a substitute for action rather than a catalyst for change. In such cases, the gaining of information becomes an end in itself rather than a means to reorient behavior. And since there is always more information to be gained, action can be endlessly deferred. Changing one’s mind is easier than changing one’s life, and often becomes a substitute for it.”

-Thiele, p. 187

This is one of the core realizations that I have come to during my time at school here. In the seemingly endless quest for knowledge, I have learned more facts, thought processes, calculations, trends, and issues than I can shake a stick at. Apart from the tangible operations of writing reports and calculating field-specific factors for my potential career, the rest of what I have learned has left me with an interesting feeling – a feeling that screams, “What now?”. In many cases, presentations, books, and lecturers bring to the light a serious and significant issue that needs to be addressed in our society, but they do not pose a solution. To me, this is part of why most members of society are willing to take in information, change their mindset, and then not do anything. I believe they are waiting for someone else to figure out what the right thing to do really is.

A New Story

“We are in trouble just now because we do not have a good story. We are in between stories. The old story, the account of how the world came to be and how we fit into it, is no longer effective. Yet we have not learned the new story…We need a story that will educate us, a story that will heal, guide, and discipline us.” Eco-theologian and Catholic priest, Thomas Berry pg. 172

It is especially intriguing to read this excerpt while noting the dual professions of the author. In my time studying sustainability, albeit brief, I have seldom come across the work of a person with a religious background in conjunction with a career in eco-theology. His view is one I had never considered; the crossing of both religion and the “new book” needed to address state of our world. It would be interesting to inquire further with Mr. Berry regarding his ideas. I wonder what story he believes we will need to find or create in order to sustain life on this planet. Will it be an educational program integrated in schools that will teach us, heal us, and guide us, or is this new story a profound spiritual journey we will learn through religion or within ourselves? -Claudia Bell

The Story of Sustainability

“The practice of sustainability might be thought of as just such a story. It provides a cultural narrative that can heal, guide, and discipline us.” (Thiele 172)

The concept that the pathway to a sustainable world is through a story is very interesting. In order to determine what each of us needs to do, we first must discover what story we are a part of. Only when we determine this, can our lives be meaningful. This ideology reminds me of the stories in Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. When asked to retell the world’s tale of origin, the student ends the story with the emergence of humans. Thomas Berry states that this is a bad mind set to be in, obviously. He believes that our society is in trouble because “we are in between stories.” The story does not and has not stopped when humans became present. This is very selfish of us to assume. The universe will continue on for much longer, but our minds do not stretch that far. We are between stories, and are in dire need of a new one that will educate us, and “heal, guide, and discipline us.” It also reminds me of the stories of the Takers vs. the Leavers. The Takers believe that the world belongs to them, and it is their right to take everything the world has to offer for their own benefit. Their existence ultimately ends in the complete degradation of the planet. The Leavers, on the other hand, believe that they belong to the world. They live within moral boundaries, and ecological limits. They believe in fairness and live as equal members of the delicate “web of life.” We must determine which story we are a part of, first. What do our duties and responsibilities include? What is our role within this story? And then, we are able to decide what must be done. Currently, I believe we are all involved in the story of the Takers. What must be done is to change our way of life to emulate a lifestyle more similar to the Leavers, the story of sustainability.

Olyvia Ciulla

What’s easier to sell than science?

“But science cannot instill the heart-felt dispositions that bring us to care for others and the world around us.” (Thiele 171)

I remember an amazing episode of the West Wing, a critically acclaimed television series about the West Wing of the White House, where the communications director for the president fought with several high level officials about his decision to write a heavy handed speech on drugs for the president. After several minutes of intense dialogue, the type of ping-pong conversation that only Aaron Sorkin could write, this conversation came out.

Communications Director
Drug addiction is a disease. It’s a… it’s… it’s a… medical problem. It
can be treated. This isn’t ideological. It’s science.

Staffer
It’s science to you.

Communications Director
[big sigh] Science is science to everybody, Al.

Deputy Cheif of Staff
[enters] What’d I miss?

President
Toby was just explaining to Al that science is science to everyone.

This class has done an excellent job of preparing its students to be members of a sustainable intellectual community. The struggled described by professor thiele surrounding science is more true than the liberal side of politics is often willing to accept. Science is not enough to convince individuals to change their behavior and if that is true what next? What’s our strategy to convince people with a more appealing argument than science? The problem that the West Wing and Proffessor Thiele presents is an underlying truth of complicated human systems. Even the most concrete science is ultimately ineffective in convincing the most essential stakeholders in every conversation.

-Stephen Paolini

Control Yourself

“Among other things, culture establishes sets of practices and traditions that orient us to three fundamental ideals: truth, beauty, and goodness.” Thiele 168

I believe that Thiele relates this idea of sustainability as a culture very well to the ideas previously discussed as sustainability being a societal change as opposed to just an idea that may take action with a few simple changes and steps. The idea and concept of sustainability is so far from what our society has developed that our fundamental values and characteristics that make us who we are must be changed in order to live more sustainably. Culture relates to such ideals of truth, beauty, and goodness – all of which can exist in a sustainable society. We do not need to live as hunter-gathers did, or the leavers; this idea of giving up every aspect of our current lives is not what it takes to live sustainably. Yes, some changes may enrage people at first and cause chaos and misunderstandings, but the fundamentals of sustainability lie in controversial ideals such as ecology over economy. Cultural roots and values need to be eco-oriented, not based on greed and status. Society needs to be reboooted to understand that we are not to rule over the land and nature but are to live in a symbiotic relationship in which introduce this drastically radical idea regarding resources and society: self-control.

Arielle Vanon

Re-education Through Society

Societies educate their young and reeducate their adults…. It entails gaining knowledge and skills so the natural and social world might be well navigated, carefully preserved, and beneficially transformed.- (Thiele, 189)

This is one core concepts we should take away from this class, and something Daniel Quinn reiterated plenty of times during his conversation. This is also something I believe Mr. Yourofksy should have spoke about as well. Education does not stop after high school, as we are always learning or observing new things. We as a people cannot be afraid to battle ignorance and help educate all ages and communities. Many people are not sustainable as they merely do not know any alternatives or are purposefully kept in the dark. Like Malcolm X once said, “Don’t be in such a hurry to condemn a person because he doesn’t do what you do, or think as you do or as fast. There was a time you didn’t know what you know today.”

I think that quote is perfect, because if we act complacent and don’t educate everyone we meet, then we are doing our society a great disservice. Remember to keep competing, collaborating, and co-evolving, as because we are now more educated, we are even more fit to be teachers to a new generation of pupils. And perhaps we can teach some old dogs new tricks along the way!