I'll admit that the data and material we have seen can be a bit of a downer. What we humans have we done to the planet, intentionally and unintentionally, has inevitably caused some major ecosystem disruption and irreversible change.
Is this all bad though? Can we "fix" it? Create a cleaner and more eco-friendly world?
What about The Green Revolution?
We are at the dawn of what some are calling the largest revolution on the planet. There are more people waging for change than ever. We don't have to live in a dirty dystopian future! What gives you hope about our future here on planet earth? What have you learned, seen, experienced, that has made you take action is some way, however small... however big...?
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Image from Fritz Lang's 1927 silent, 'Metropolis'
Bill McKibben, Activist, researcher, and author of the National Bestseller 'Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future' and creator of 350.org, refers to himself as "a professional bummer outer", though his bestseller is anything but. A must read.
What is dystopia?
Top 50 Dystopian Movies of All Time
Alexis Newton
ReplyDeleteWeekly Statement #9
I definitely do not like the thought of living in a dystopian future, for me, or any future generation. I know that most other people wouldn’t like the thought of it either. Through taking this class, I have realized more about the fact that our world seems to be headed on a downward slope. The economy, pollution, population growth; It sometimes just seems like everything is contributing to the earth’s eventual crash.
At the same time, throughout this course I have been exposed to many things that give me hope abut the future. Because of this awareness that I have now been exposed to, it makes me want to raise awareness among more and more people. I have also now been paying attention more to all of the people that ARE trying to make change or raise more awareness. All it took to make me care about the state of our earth was education about what is truly going on now. Because when you take away all of the opinions, the truth is, we really are heading in a bad direction, and we do need to do something about it. Knowing this makes me want to make a change. And maybe once I branch out to more people, they will feel the same way. Then the cycle can continue, until everyone realizes that we can’t just keep doing the same thing over and over.
It’s like a machine that is continuously running; it can go on for a while, but eventually parts are going to start breaking off and malfunctioning. If we just ignore the gradual falling apart of our machine that is earth, it will eventually just break down. This means that we need to focus on one part at a time, and just work on fixing all the broken parts until we see change.
Yesterday, my TMP class was able to listen to Scott Hocking discuss and show some of his work. I was reminded a lot of this presentation when reading this blog entry. Once particular photograph that Scott showed, was one of a road that had cracked and seemed to be falling apart. Between the cracks in the road were lines of grass and plant life. All around the road was grass and plants. Scott told us that this used to be a neighborhood with houses, not even 10 years before the photograph had been taken. This photograph definitely gave me a sense of hope. That even though we have polluted our earth so much, we can still change and try to fix it. Once we help the earth in a certain way, I feel like the earth can start to heal and repair itself.
Weekly Statement #9
ReplyDelete11/23/09
This semester I started taking a course on Russian History. The reason I took it is because I wanted to venture out and try something different than my usual art course, but the prime reason was because of how little I know about Russia. History classes are generalized by most as a way of teaching and analyzing what happened. As students we assume to listen and follow to what the professor teaches us, but we should always take what we hear with a grain of salt. My Russian professor has openly admitted to us that we should take what he says lightly, because regardless of the fact that he has been researching and teaching Russian history for nearly 30 years we should be still be susipious. Gathering facts is difficult because we can never tell which source is true. With a source such as the Internet, it’s easy to post whatever you want in your own opinion or words. One thing my professor had mentioned was that the History channel is notorious for recycling clips from the Holocaust and uses them to illustrate Stalin’s Great Purges. Culture Jam is a book that tells it like it is and while there are multiple parts that are a little far left for me in explanation, sometimes that might be the best way to speak the truth about a subject. The one thing that bothers me is how American culture tends to hide the truth, especially in schools when it comes to subjects like health class. We are extreme censors of many things, including important subjects like sexual health or American history to either glorify or silence a subject. The problem with this method is that youth can become “corrupted” and have to go through the process of undoing and relearning the truth as it is. Because of this, the time spent on relearning the truth might become such a huge shock that they may go into denial and not allow themselves to accept the truth. The other issue might be that they are willing to accept it, but learned it much too late and have to detoxify their mind and body in order to start their recovery. It's as if we are being lied to and thus it's very frustrating.
Weekly Statement Ten
ReplyDeleteBlack Friday
Black Friday is “holiday” in American society in which stores have massive sales on products that should be lower priced anyway. Men, women, teenagers and children participate in this one-day a year event and consume, consume, consume. People wake up at the wee hours of the morning and wait eagerly outside for stores to open. When doors open at stores at 4 or 5 a.m in the morning, customers flood in and rummage like maniacs through stores in order to get the best deal on products that have lower prices than usual although the products true value is much lower than what people pay for them. There have been stories of riots, human stampedes and violence breaking out in stores during Black Friday events caused by crazed consumers willing to act out of their ordinary character in order to purchase goods. I have experienced Black Friday as both a consumer and as a worker. My senior year of high school I worked at the Disney Store inside of Twelve Oaks mall. In order to prepare for Black Friday I had to get to work at 9 pm and work until around 3 a.m in the morning working on stocking the store, changing signs, posters and products. The next shift of workers got in while I was leaving and worked to open the store at 5 a.m. I returned to work at 1 p.m and worked a regular shift until early nighttime. Throughout the day we had “team meetings” reassigning shifts, duties and keeping moral up. Customers were like animals that needed to be tamed. Angry parents yelled at employees when they couldn’t find the correct size sweatshirt for their child or when a toy was out of stock. By the end of the day the store was a complete mess, toys and clothing littered the floors. It was a weird experience being on the other side consumption as a weird, tiring experience. As a child my mom and I would participate in Black Friday sales only two or three times. It was much too overwhelming for our calm personalities. It is upsetting that there is a day where Americans are expected to shop and consume as much as possible. If there is a day of consumption there should be a popularized day for recycling! Sure, there is Earth Day and Buy Nothing Day but events are usually unimportant or not popularized. There were complaints on Buy Nothing Days made by people who claimed that the day was “un-American” and “anti-capitalist”. People were angry and confused and took it as a threat to consumer society. Earth Day should be everyday and everybody should always be conscious of their effects on society and do nice things like plant trees and love nature!
Weekly Statement Eleven
ReplyDeleteDystopia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0yQunhOaU0
Idiocracy Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8zNsUTWsOc
CostCo
I have a seen a dozen of so of the films mentioned on the site that lists the 50 best film examples of a dystopia. While a majority of those movies would be considered science fiction or fantasy, they really represent a future projection of what may come if society does not change the path we are on in the present day. In the movie Gattaca, humans are able to breed perfect children through genetically altering DNA before birth. A social divide occurs between people who were born untouched, or naturally and people who were created by science. In the movie Minority Report advertising and means of identification becomes uncomfortably personal. Humans eyes are scanned everywhere they go in order for them to be tracked at all times. Although these ideas seem far off and futuristic, they actually exist today but to a different extent.
Through stem cell research people are able to regrow and duplicate living organisms. Science has been able to altar the DNA of living organisms like vegetables or GMO plants. People can “chip” their children and pets in order to know where they are at all times. There are also microchips being placed into people in order to keep tabs at bars and clubs that store. Credit card numbers and identification of an individual. I feel like a perfect example of a Dystopia is the movie “Idiocracy”. I have included a link to the trailer and a short scene from the movie. I highly recommend the movie not only as a comedy but as a tool for learning and a social commentary. In the movie the future society is highly uneducated, consumption and idiotic culture becomes the basis of the society.
Doctors wear smocks with advertisements all over them and buildings are covered top to bottom with billboards and other forms of advertisements.
There is a famine/ drought because people stopped educating themselves in farming and understanding nature. There are massive garbage problems, corrupt government, over population and very little education. These are all problems that we face in currently and there has been little work done to find solutions. The movie exemplifies what could possibly happen if the problems continue to be neglected.
Weekly Response 10
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely much easier to see our planet becoming a dystopia, than to recognize the small glimmers of hope. This class seems to have put an emphasis on the destruction our planet is currently enduring. I do believe that, eventually if not already, “green” will become the new “black”. Once going green fully becomes the “hip” or “it” thing, people will take this progress to the next level and take action. The responsibility definitely lies in our youth, which is unfortunate because we are not the generation that has caused this disastrous situation. I say this because of a series of conversations I had with my parents over break. They see these movements towards a Green Revolution as some unrealistic liberal agenda, of which they would not be supportive of in the least. Because of the Baby Boomer generation, whom are all middle-upper class conservatives, they are probably holding back the progression towards a green revolution somehow.
I do not see environmental problems and solutions as a political issue. Everyone has contributed to our current situation and thus everyone needs to take responsibility and recognize the changes that need to be made to our every day practices.
Weekly Statement 10
ReplyDeleteThe other day in discussion we were talking about how we as humans have to learn from our own mistakes. Sam was talking about how we got so involved in the industrial revolution that we did not stop to think about the consequences. I think it has taken us a while to realize what we have done to our planet, but that period was our experimentation. Now that we take a step back and look at what we have done we can see areas where we can make changes.
I think that there are many things that we can do to make our world cleaner. The speaker at last Thursdays Penny Stamps lecture, Stewart Brand, discussed some of these changes. Most of the ideas that he presented involved a great deal of science and testing before they could actually be put to use. With the new discoveries that we make to help make our world greener, we have to not only make the product of those discoveries green, but also the process. I think that it is these inventions discovered during the green revolution will be what keep us from living in a “dirty dystopia.” According to dictionary.com dystopia means “a society characterized by human miser, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding.”
For my outreach project I went to J.S. Vig Project Green on Hoover and Keech. The goal of this company is to help other companies and industries use greener building methods. This was very inspiring because it shows how there are people who are already making large steps to make our world a greener place. This influenced me because I saw that these green applications are more focused on large businesses, but how they can also be put to use in the average home. I think that people need to be aware of the products that they can buy and install in their new homes, or newly remodeled homes so that more people can take the step to a greener world.
I think that the largest steps that we can take are those that get everyone involved. Things like making our homes greener and our everyday practices are what will make the greatest contribution to our planet. Something that I have noticed over the past couple of years is that more and more people are beginning to ride their bikes to work. Although it is difficult in larger cities and in areas where the climate does not permit this, in Ann Arbor it is easy for most people to ride their bicycles to work.
Weekly Statement #11
ReplyDeleteWhat gives me hope that there can be a better future for us than the terrifying “dystopia” is that I am seeing the issue of global climate change being talked about almost everywhere I go. And if it is not specifically global climate change that is mentioned, it has something to do about recycling, or reducing consumption of energy, or reusing bags at the grocery store. I see “green” signs and advertisements and suggestions on TV so much more now. So much, that I don’t think anyone can escape being bombarded by the messages. This shows that we, as a country, have realized the importance of this issue and we are trying to make as many people aware of it as possible. After reading a section about “Climate Foresight” in the “World Changing” text, I found out that many officials in cities all over the United States have taken hold the Kyoto goal about energy reduction. This brings a lot of hope to see people implementing these restrictions of energy. Also, I believe the world as a whole is becoming more and more educated on many different issues. We realize now the importance of educating people in developing countries, especially women, about health. I think when more education is received, this can have a huge outcome and can reinforce the idea that education is key to this problem.
From this class, I have learned that spreading the word on global climate change and reducing our energy consumption is extremely important. Since the beginning of this class, I have shared certain facts that I have learned in class to many of my friends and family. I have also shared things that I have found on my own such as the information I found about my clothes and the fact that I have way too many clothes, along with information about Energy Works Michigan, the organization that I researched for my project. When I go to the grocery store, and my friend and I are picking out produce, I suggest that we get things that have less packaging. I have also told my friends about the goal I have to only buy clothing made in the United States for a year. I think that telling family and friends about the things that I am doing to help the environment will influence them to do something environmentally friendly too. Even suggesting small things in daily conversation will probably have somewhat of an impact on their decisions later.
Some of the things in class that have had the biggest impact on my decisions for being more environmentally friendly have been suggestions of small things that I can do to help, such as using a reusable water bottle or thermos, reducing the amount of meat I consume, and buying more locally produced items. Global climate change is a huge issue that is very complex, but when you break it down into small acts that people can do to help save this planet, it doesn’t seem like something too daunting to accomplish. When you get that thought out of your head that “the planet it doomed and there is nothing we can do” and replace it with encouragement and suggestions of acts that anyone can do, I believe it really gives people a lot more hope for the future.
Other things that have really caught my attention and made me think hard about the topic range from the amount of advertisements on television and what they contain, to how out of hand our agricultural practices have gotten with the use of pesticides and other harmful substances used to enhance the produce, to how much energy goes into different products that we buy everyday. There has been a wide variety of very interesting information that I have learned throughout the semester and most of it has given me a totally different view of myself as a consumer and of the whole world’s consumers.
Weekly Statement #10
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to feel as though my generation is actually going to make an impact like we are planned to do. The reason I say this is because as I look around me, I do not see much change in the direction of becoming more “Green”. If anything, I see a complete opposite change. I see more technology being created, more people disconnecting with one another, more people diverging from minimalism and closer to consumption overload. However, I believe that my generation is the most to actually be affected by our unknowledgeable elders. During the industrial revolution, humans did not realize their impact on our world, the expanded vertically and horizontally with out thinking of the consequences of their actions. Now we are paying for their mistakes. CO2 is at an all time high, consumption and greenhouse gases are effecting our earth in a very negative way, and ridiculous thoughts are being thrown around on how to prevent worsening to occur. However, I can’t help but have a negative outlook because me personally, I am surrounded by my peers who do not care about the environment, who simply use, and throw away. Our stuff that we buy usually is thrown away within 6 months. We go through all this trouble to produce and make money so we can buy nice things, then we simply through them away and where are they going to go? We are loosing space on earth. America itself is not full of unlimited resources, and I think that people forget that. I have a friend who literally tells me that she hates nature… how can you hate nature? With out trees and that “green stuff,” as she calls it, she would not be breathing right now. It is ignorance like this that is in my generation that makes me feel negatively about us being “the dawn of what some are calling the largest revolution on the planet”. I feel as though that is a lot of pressure to be placing on people. EVERYONE has made this mess, so I feel as though it should be EVERYONE’S responsibility to help clean it up.
Weekly Statement #12
ReplyDeleteI recently went to the Botanical Garden in St. Louis Missouri, and noticed some very interesting things. It is weird to me after being in this class to be more conscience of my surroundings and the beauty of the natural world. I feel that before this class I was like everyone else and took advantage of the earth as a thriving natural place, and simply looked to get from place to place with out a thought as to what the world and mostly our impact actually looks like. The Botanical Garden was a bizarre place to me because there were so many people there, some older with loved ones, some middle aged with their families and friends, and some my age out on a date. This recreational event of going to view the beauty of nature and paying to do so I feel like is kind of contradictory of what the point is. We go to these places to view natural beauty, sometimes to see the exotic plants that are not native to our area, and to learn information about the earth, but we are surrounded by it, and yet we don’t notice. It is kind of sad that this has become a sort of day activity to keep children busy. There were little boys and girls running around all over the place, touching plants, playing games, being kids; curious. Yet parents now are more cautious about letting their kids out to actually experience their surroundings where the live because we have pushed ourselves out to suburbia where cars drive past, and neighborhoods are no longer natural but manmade. When I was younger, we did not have a grass backyard, but a forest, with a stream. I had a random time in my life when I was outside everyday (Not usual, and that phase died quick). I have an 11 year old sister, and all I see her do it play video games, or go on the computer or her cell phone, or DS… all of these technologies that have captivated the youth of our world, and have made them not want to go outside unless forced to do so at such a place like the Botanical Gardens for a day. It’s really sad that we have consumed all of these technologies to keep children and ourselves busy, and along the way have begun to decay true knowledge of our earth
I would agree that sometimes this class becomes so heavy that I think, “What is the point of even trying to change?” But I think that the images of children growing up in slums, working in mines is balanced with images of artists making it their life’s work to bring attention to the way we live and the way we treat our environment.
ReplyDeleteI think that these ideas of environmental destruction, low standards of living, and our country being consumed by consumerism are daunting. I think they are daunting to us because none of them can be saved or changed with a quick fix. I think our society I used to things being able to be fixed fast; with the new technology we have or the new medicines we have. We are used to rapid change and solutions to our problems. However, these problems do not have easy solutions and quick fixes. These problems take planning, community organization, effort, and years to show results.
I think the fact that we have a class devoted to these environment and culture issues is a step in the right direction. This gives me confidence and hope that we are taking steps in the right direction, starting with educating the public. Once people are able to see problems, they are able to fix them. Environment issues are quickly gaining popularity. The media is taking hold of these issues. Environmental destruction and healthy living have not just become problems for those people involved in those fields. Everyone is affected by these issues, and slowly, I am seeing everyone getting involved in trying to solve them.
Samantha Levy
ReplyDeleteWeekly Statement 13
Leaving off my last statement (on here, statement 11) in such a negative way made me think of what you said when we were talking about Collapse. Everything is so depressing; the facts are depressing. Looking at all the numbers, graphs and charts can put our impact into a small table that shows how radically our environment has changed over time.
The light at the end of the tunnel seems to be that we aren’t so environmentally ignorant any more. One of your posts talks about the Green Revolution. I’ve been told that more people are enrolled in college than ever before. As far as I know, most people are required to take some form of environmental class that brings light to any of the subjects we’ve discussed in ADP III. If that many people are learning about our negative impact, someone has to be affected. Someone has to have the desire to take action out of all of the educated population. Even TV is telling me to go outside and save the environment. Planet Earth makes me want to go save the polar bears myself. I think we have a lot to look forward to. Many things will change as we become more and more knowledgeable about how we can fix what we have done.
I’ve thought about this since I’ve gotten to college: why didn’t I know about this stuff before? I don’t understand why high schools aren’t teaching students about the environment. I didn’t know that we eat more meat per day than some people eat in a year. I knew that coral reefs supported biodiversity but I didn’t know that we were killing them. I don’t think that college has to be the starting point for environmental education. If we are going to be a part of the Green Revolution, I think we should start early. If the youth is the future, we should make it a green youth.