Food Waste (Final Report)

What is food waste? Food waste is food that is intended for human consumption but ends up being wasted or lost. This refers not only to food that consumers don't finish at restaurants or that is thrown out at home, but also raw materials and produce that are lost in the farming and harvesting stages during transportation and storage. By the mid-century mark, the world population will most likely hit 9 billion people. This means that global food production must increase by 70% to meet this demand. Surprisingly, Americans waste about 40 percent, or about 125 - 140 billion pounds of food each year. The food that is currently wasted in Europe can feed 200 million people, and the food that is wasted in Africa and Latin America could feed 300 million people. Yet, there are currently over 800 million people who are facing hunger, which is equivalent to 11% of the global population.

Food waste can also have a significant effect on the environment, global and national economies, food security, and nutrition. For example, food waste ends up wasting a quarter of our water supply in the form of uneaten food. This is equal to 172 billion dollars in wasted water. Wasting food contributes to 11 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions as well. The increasing demand for food also contributes to land degradation and deforestation, which, as a result, destroys our natural habitats and range of biodiversity, limiting the services that they provide to the Earth and disrupting entire ecosystems.

Where does most of our food go to waste? Our homes contribute to 43 percent of the total wasted food, and restaurants, grocery stores and food service companies contribute to 40 percent of our total wasted food. Half of all produce is thrown away in the United States because it is deemed too “ugly” to consume, which amounts to 60 million tons of fruits and vegetables being wasted every year. This explains why fruits and vegetables are the most commonly thrown out food. It seems we are stressing over the appearance of our product rather than its functionality. The rest of our food waste comes from farms and manufacturers, with farms accounting for 16 percent and factories accounting for 2 percent of total food waste. Surprisingly, the farming stage accounts for a good percentage of food loss in the global food supply chain. This is because farmers are driven by the socio-economic and market factors that shape the farming system, so they often overproduce, and food ends up being wasted.

There are many ways in which we can reduce our food waste. For one, we can always try to avoid buying too much. Taking trips to the grocery store more frequently throughout the week and meal prepping could be a solution instead of going once every 2 weeks and buying too much food, which could end up going bad.  We should also be more mindful when it comes to tossing out food that we may think has gone bad. More than 80 percent of Americans discard perfectly good food because they misunderstand food labels. Most people do not know the differences between “use by” and “best before” dates. Foods with “use by” dates must be eaten before the given date, but they won’t be at their best quality. You can also use vegetables that are wilting and use them in soups, smoothies, or baked dishes. Feeding hungry people and animals is another way we can reduce our food waste. Donating excess food to community sites or donating food scraps and waste to local farmers who can use them as animal feed, are some ways in which we can feed hungry people and animals. Planning meals for the week is an obvious one. This way, you know what you need for the week to cook meals. Finally, composting is a great way to reduce food waste. Food waste that is composted can be used to produce organic matter that is used to fertilize soil.

Food waste is one of the biggest environmental problems of our lifetime. It’s not just an issue that is prevalent in the rich, developed nations; it is occurring in all parts of our world. Food waste is something that can be reversed if we just learn to educate ourselves. Raising awareness and changing personal habits is the first step.

Here are some shocking facts about food waste:

-Taking in all resources to grow food, food waste uses up to 21% of freshwater, 19% of fertilizers. 18% of our croplands and 21% accounts for landfill volume.

-Food loss and waste accounts for approximately 4.4 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

-An area larger than China and 25 percent of the world’s freshwater supply is used to grow food that is never eaten.

-We rely too much in appearance, so sometimes crops are left unharvested and rot. 

-In the United States, organic waste is the largest emitter of methane gas, which is a greenhouse gas that has 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide.

-Breaking it down by food group that we waste and lose out on each year: 30 percent for cereals, 40-50 percent for root crops and fruits and vegetables, 20 percent for oil seed and meat and dairy and 35 percent for fish.

Food Waste Faqs. USDA. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2022, from https://www.usda.gov/foodwaste/faqs

Lai, O. (2022, October 14). What is food waste? Earth.Org. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from https://earth.org/what-is-food-waste/

Option 2 Final Paper (2-3 ideas from KSR and Hawken)- FINISHED

Environmental Ethics

Final Paper KSR/Hawken

Abby Moseley

11 November 2022

 

            In both Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future and Paul Hawken’s Regeneration, many ideas are set forth attempting to solve the climate crisis. Solutions ranging from planting kelp forests  to affecting a societal change in priorities, whether it be through law or suffering national disasters, readers get a new perspective on the multifaceted threat of climate change. In this essay, I will discuss the benefits of implementing a carbon coin/carbon tax, net-zero cities, and urban gardens. Individually, these solutions offer benefits in assisting with the climate crisis, however, if implemented altogether, they could quickly provide a stable and long-lasting foundation for sustainable living across the world.

            Though Robinson’s proposal of a carbon coin/carbon tax are technically two separate ideas, if implemented together, they have the potential to be ten times more effective than implementation of just one. The idea of the carbon coin is to essentially incentivize corporations, businesses, and individuals to sequester carbon. Whether it be through switching to renewable energy, working on carbon sequestering projects such as reforestation, or using public transport instead of a personal motor vehicle. The carbon tax is a progressive tax rate that can tax corporations, businesses, wealthy individuals, etc., for emitting carbon into the atmosphere. For example, a billionaire could be taxed at a higher rate for using a private jet than an average citizen could be taxed for using a commercial flight. The implementation of a carbon coin/carbon tax not only motivates the general public to think about their relationship with carbon, but also could bully wasteful corporations into either affecting sustainable change or closing due to eventual bankruptcy as a result of high carbon emissions. This method is also efficient for the top 1% as many of the wealthiest people in the world want to remain wealthy and will likely abide due to the progressive tax rate. Additionally, if the carbon tax was implemented, governments around the world would get an influx of money due to taxation and could use the new funds to achieve net-zero cities, develop better public transit, or redistribute among the masses to alleviate stress in poor/less developed areas.

Carbon tax (vid)

            Net-zero cities offer a multitude of benefits for both the public and the environment. A net-zero city is a city the produces sustainable energy equivalent to or exceeding the energy it consumes. This can be achieved through utilizing green architecture, urban gardens, either well developed public transport, electric transport, or walkable communities, etc. There are many benefits of living in a net-zero city, for example, assistance or a “buffer” to  harmful effects of a natural disaster. Just this year there was a hurricane in Florida that caused most residents to lose power/electricity aside from a small solar powered community. Despite some physical damage to homes, everyone still had access to internet which allowed them to track the progression of the storm, phones were still working, meaning they could get help if there was an emergency, and food lasted longer because refrigerators were still running. As the climate crisis gets worse, having these sustainable buffers between us and disaster could be a priceless investment. Furthermore, in net-zero cities, due to less carbon emissions, there is less air pollution which directly improves the physical health of the resident. The use of electric vehicles/transport or walkable communities decreases noise pollution which is directly related to high levels of stress and anxiety, meaning these mechanisms can also improve the mental health of the residents in a net-zero city. Implementing a carbon coin/tax in addition with creating the goal of reaching net-zero motivates the community and businesses to act fast, inherently confronts unsustainable corporations and businesses within the city and demands change, and provides funds that can be used to help the city achieve net-zero or alleviate stress in poor areas that cannot afford to get to net-zero by themselves.

https://carbonneutralcities.org/cities/copenhagen/ 

Copenhagen (vid)

            Urban farming and gardening is a mechanism that can be used in cities to help achieve net-zero as well as enrich small communities within the city. Urban gardens are often created in vacant lots, abandoned buildings, and on rooftops, allowing for a variety of benefits. Rooftop gardens are popular in big cities with densely packed building a few vacancies. Not only do they provide fresh and healthy food for the community, they also assist with increased temperatures in buildings and cities often caused by dark colored rooftops which attract sunlight. Likewise, they can also capture rainwater which eventually saves money of roof repairs and can be redistributed through irrigation. The presence of food and flowers in an otherwise concrete jungle attracts pollinators and hence helps with plant growth, seed dispersal, and germination. In cities that used to be more densely population and are now filled with vacant lots and buildings as well as deteriorating neighborhoods, such as Detroit, urban gardens have provided both relief from food deserts and unification of the community. In these areas, residents now have access to fresh and healthy food as well as the knowledge required to grow it. These techniques can be passed to future generations as children begin to develop a relationship with the food they eat. The use of urban gardens specifically in abandoned buildings can be used to address problems of homelessness and food insecurity. Homeless people would be able to move into the buildings where the gardens are located and could tend to the plants, prepare, or serve in a community cafeteria. If the urban garden was implemented in a city trying to achieve net-zero, the building could already be renovated to utilize renewable energy and either the community or government could pay for the renovation until it pays for itself. Additionally, if the community had small farm animals, the could ensure clean protein and animal byproducts versus store-bought, corporation-owned animal byproducts. In areas where vacant lots are the location for urban gardens, the increase in pollinators in the area could bring back local flora and fauna would eventually follow.

(Pictured: Urban Gardens in Detroit (vid))

            Ultimately these three ideas for mitigating the climate crisis work together from a large to small scale. Carbon coin/tax would be the largest scale, this could be international if everyone was committed to affecting sustainable change. Net-zero cities would be about medium scale, much smaller than international, however still a massive feat to undertake as some cities are dense and rigid like New York versus more easily adaptable such as some small rural town in Tennessee. However, if the carbon coin/tax was in place, individual and corporate interest in sustainability would spike and achieving net-zero would be easier due to decreased backlash. Urban gardens and farming are small scale, directly affecting the community. Many communities have already taken initiative to utilize urban gardens, though if a carbon coin/tax was implemented, large cities that need to enact change fast would likely use this mechanism as it has multifaceted benefits. Urban gardens cut carbon emissions due to not having to transport food, they replace food deserts with areas producing fresh, healthy food for the community, they attract pollinators which ensures successful germination and seed dispersal, and it forces the community to interact and slowly build itself out of a previously individualistic crowd. Ultimately, if all three of these mechanisms were implemented at the same time, we would see quick, efficient, and long-lasting changes in community, health, and carbon emissions.

The end is near

UPDATE: if you're not taking the exam you don't need to come to class.

It's the last day of class (unless some of us choose to meet on Zoom next week). Seems like only yesterday, though it's actually a year to the day, since I posted this:

LISTEN. Back from Thanksgiving, it's time to wrap things up and send the classes of Fall 2021 out to meet their uncertain futures. The usual last words apply, there really are no fortunes to be told. There definitely is advice to be given, however. Do stay curious, kids, do keep asking questions. And do keep in touch... (continues)

Closing thoughts on the last class date of the Fall semester include HDT’s sunny words at the end of Walden. A morning atmosphere, at any time of day, is tonic. Wake up. Do something. Don't stare too long or hard at the light that would put out your eyes… https://t.co/rEcoCL1sRv

— Phil Oliver (@OSOPHER) November 29, 2022

Wasted Space

 Lawns have become a staple of the American household, from suburbia to the country the idea of having a green weed-free yard is a prevalent part of a box it seems you must check to live up to the American dream. But is this notion without unfound concern? Some places due to the water-intensive nature of lawn grass have started to pay people to ditch it for other alternatives such as rock landscaping. "Southern California is paying $2 per square foot of grass pulled out" Which has happened a lot out west including watering bans for turf lawns during droughts, which have been particularly bad over the last few years.

 https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/19/us/california-drought-lawns

Not only is turf grass bad with water consumption it also is bad in terms of wasted space and fertilizer use. In the United States, turf grass occupies over 2% of the total land area a number higher than the land area corn covers. A number close to a million square miles. For many people especially in suburban areas, the competition to have the best-looking lawns are a feat that requires mass amounts of chemicals to keep the yard weed free and the desired type of grass growing. In this effort turf grass is also the number one user of fertilizer by land area. This type of fertilizing is even worse for the environment than even crops. As using fertilizer on grass is usually in areas close to roads, sidewalks, and other impervious materials that allow the fertilizer to escape often into storm drains and other water systems.

One of the biggest pollutants from lawn fertilizers is the pollutant phosphorus which is a number indicated in the middle of your normal fertilizer analysis numbers. Which followed by nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

“Excess nitrogen and phosphorus cause an overgrowth of algae in a short period of time, also called algae blooms. The overgrowth of algae consumes oxygen and blocks sunlight from underwater plants. When the algae eventually die, the oxygen in the water is consumed”

https://www.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/effects-dead-zones-and-harmful-algal-blooms#:~:text=Excess%20nitrogen%20and%20phosphorus%20cause,in%20the%20water%20is%20consumed.

 

Not only is the fertilizer a problem but having a monoculture of one type of plant, especially one that doesn’t flower can wreak havoc on pollinators such as butterflies who require nectar to survive. It also kills natural plant and animal species which are ripped out due to them being nothing but “weeds” even though they are important for pollinators and other animals to live.

 

Wasted Space

As mentioned earlier turf lawns take up vast amounts of space in America along with the destructive use of fertilizers, wastes a lot of valuable farming space. One statistic that might shock you is on only .44 acres of land a person can grow all the fruit and vegetable caloric needs for an entire year. If you were to grow even just a month’s worth of food, could you think about the number of trips you could save going to the grocery store? Not only this would reduce your carbon footprint involved in driving to the grocery store this would also lower the carbon footprint from huge trucks and boats that carry fruits and vegetables from other countries to the United States. One thing though that is a barrier to a lot of people, particularly in suburban areas which today is where most Americans live is regulations on simply growing your own food on your property. City codes along with rules in communities prevent anything other than grass to be grown and a neat short yard from being present on your property. For some, this could come even in a form of a civil misdemeanor for simply growing food on your own properties which racks up fines and potentially foreclosure if you don’t follow city ordinances. Only two states have passed right-to-garden laws to supersede city actions which often follow the lines of no structure over a certain amount of square feet on your property such as small greenhouses and other farming structures. For many, the laws are even more strict in neighborhoods with Homeowners associations, with there being no ability to even grow ground crops without being fined in even your backyard. These actions vastly hamper many Americans' ability to be food-stable. 

"In the spring of 2011, Julie Bass installed several raised beds in the front yard of her suburban property in Oak Park, Michigan. Bass quickly learned that her gardening efforts, intended to teach her kids about growing their own food, had provoked the ire of her city. Bass was cited with a civil misdemeanor for not planting “grass, shrubs, or other suitable live plant material.”

https://civileats.com/2022/08/20/two-states-right-to-garden-laws-local-food-community-nutrition-security-illinois-florida/

 

 

Being able to grow your own garden does more than even being able to reduce your carbon output it can also provide more food security. Places in Detroit where houses once stood groups have taken up and turned into urban gardens creating places that can grow food for the community garden and bring residents together to help the community as a whole and help create a sense of a common goal between people. These gardens have turned places nothing more than urban sprawl into local, low carbon emission, free sources of food for communities.

"Detroit, labeled a “food desert,” was a major motivation for Blunt to enter the agricultural field. “People deserve fresh food,” Blunt says, “I believe good nutrition can help people reach their potential.”

https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2019/11/05/food-community-detroit-garden-agriculture

 

 

Even though Detroit is a metropolis with a population of a million people Detroit has found the land to do this on, and I think these actions would be even easier to make happen here locally in Murfreesboro. So, what can we do? For one I think we can start off with the idea of using raised gardens in our backyards along with using planter pots to be able to grow small things of fruits and vegetables. One thing about raised gardens is the cost and labor of making one. I have made one myself for a landscaping client. It required first building the structure out of 2 x 10 x 20s which are pretty expensive pieces of lumber. Then it included the large effort of wheelbarrowing dirt from the road where I had delivered dirt to the backyard and then shoveling it back in. This might not be the most ideal because of the cost and labor but it’s a starting point for what we can do now. The next step I think we need to make is to petition city leaders and even landowners like homeowner associations to use land that isn’t being used for anything except decorative turf. Huge swaths of land currently dot Murfreesboro between the sprawls. Places like common areas in neighborhoods are prime places for community gardens. These places have intentionally been left alone to allow places for water to drain and can sometimes be as big as communities themselves. These areas would be great places to plant acres of crops that could sustain the communities they surround. And lastly, I think we need to petition cities to allow us to grow food crops normally in the ground like people do around the world. Many homes in Murfreesboro are on around at least a quarter-acre lot which would provide enough fruit and vegetables for someone for half a year. In many Eastern European homes, the idea of having a lawn is a foreign thing as for many of those homes they are simply fenced around to establish their property lines with their neighbors then the entire yard is planted with fruits and vegetables.

 

 

Americans have the resources to become more food stable on their own and protect the environment by increasing plant diversity. We just must make gardening more accessible and teach about the value of growing your own food.

Exam 2 audio review

UPDATE: if you're not taking the exam you don't need to come to class. 

Tuesday November 29 exam: audio review - LISTEN

The Exceptionally American Problem of Rising Roadway Deaths

An environmental issue, especially in light of our auto-centric infranstructure. …

Safety advocates and government officials lament that so many deaths are often tolerated in America as an unavoidable cost of mass mobility. But periodically, the illogic of that toll becomes clearer: Americans die in rising numbers even when they drive less. They die in rising numbers even as roads around the world grow safer. American foreign service officers leave war zones, only to die on roads around the nation's capital... nyt

Act robustly

The rates at which the planet is warming is unprecedented. And so it also gives earth scientists a very strong sense that the need for action has to be robust and quick, because the rates at which these things are happening are faster even than the very conservative estimates made by the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] already. Barbara Sherwood Lollar

https://c.im/@science_quotes/109421323045354852

Lethal dangers

The dangers of not thinking clearly are much greater now than ever before. It's not that there's something new in our way of thinking - it's that credulous and confused thinking can be much more lethal in ways it was never before. Carl Sagan

https://c.im/@science_quotes/109415183832855134

Climate Change from A to Z

E...The rapidly falling price of renewables makes it possible to imagine a not too distant future in which the U.S., indeed the world, generates all its electricity emissions-free. Already there are brief periods—on the order of minutes—when California can produce enough electricity from renewables to meet its demand. In Denmark, this happens for entire windy days. (It occurred two days in a row this past May.)

And, once it's possible to imagine a carbon-free grid, all sorts of other opportunities open up. Substitute electric motors for internal-combustion engines and cars, too, can run emissions-free. The same goes for trucks and buses, ferries and forklifts. Plug them in! Tear out boilers and replace them with heat pumps! Swap gas ranges for induction stoves! Electrify as much as possible. Ideally, electrify everything...

Elizabeth Kolbert https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/11/28/climate-change-from-a-to-z

Transcendence

"I have spent my life watching, not to see beyond the world, merely to see, great mystery, what is plainly before my eyes. I think the concept of transcendence is based on a misreading of creation. With all respect to heaven, the scene of the miracle is here, among us." 

https://c.im/@osopher/109410052978152108

Douglas Brinkley Would Like to Invite Thoreau to Dinner

The historian, whose new book is "Silent Spring Revolution," would also invite E.O. Wilson and Rachel Carson: "We could talk about the 11,000 bird species the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is helping to conserve in the face of climate change."

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/24/books/review/douglas-brinkley-by-the-book-interview.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Gary Wedgewood, November 25, 2022 (Native American Heritage Day)

Final Essay for:  Environmental Ethics - PHIL 3340, Fall 2022

Wilding:

In the 1970’s I remember debating in my dorm room with a fellow college student (whom we had nicknamed “Chatsworth”) about the importance of caring about the well-being of other people.  He was a pre-med student and I was a philosophy-religion and religious studies major.  At some point in the debate I suggested that it bothered me to think about the suffering of others and I used the word “integral”.  Chatsworth (which referred to his privileged background which stood in contrast to my origins in urban poverty) was gob smacked, insisted that there was no such word as integral, ended the debate, and stormed out of the room.  I always wondered if he ever became a medical professional charged with caring for other people.

So, when Paul Hawken used that word, integral, he got my full attention.  It occurred to me that I have always viewed the natural world as a living organism.  I guess my early experiences as a city boy visiting my grandparents farm and as a boy scout going camping awakened me to this view of the environment as an organism.

Hawken writes:  “Nature is not an “it” out there. It is us…. When we think about how to end the climate crisis, we rarely consider wildness as being integral… We damage our internal wildness when we take antibiotics, eat processed foods, or over sterilize our living environment… (similarly we can damage external wildness when we add chemicals, extract from it, and exploit it)…When we restore wildlife habitat, we restore resiliency, reproduction, viability, and evolution… Nature repairs quickly, elegantly, and abundantly when harm ceases.”  Hawken, Paul. Regeneration (p. 63). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

In 2018-21, as I watched the house we would retire to being constructed in a suburban community I recalled being shocked and sometimes sickened by the destruction of the natural environment and the waste associated with modern construction.  I salvaged bits of scrap wood and saved bricks, shingles, sheetrock, tile, grout, and a window for the day when I might need to repair my house in the future knowing that it is often impossible to get the exact same material of the same color for future repairs.  I made bird houses and Jenga games out of some of the wood during the Covid-19 shut down.  I made tomato stakes and provided tile and grout when an improperly constructed shower-drain needed repair.  I am now encouraging my HOA to maintain and expand the remaining wild and wetland on common properties and greenways in the community.  I am encouraged at seeing many homeowners growing small gardens in pots or raised beds.  I am noticing the remarkable amount of wildlife that has returned to our community after the destruction/construction phase has wound down.  We see hummingbirds, ducks, a variety of other birds, deer, fox, squirrels, rabbits, groundhogs, and a great variety of insects returning to our somewhat sterilized bit of land that was once forest and farm land.

Hawken writes: “In general, the more species living in an ecosystem, the higher its productivity and resilience. Such is the wonder of life… Population crashes and extinctions are the signs of an ecosystem unravelling…(About the transformation of Knepp Castle he quotes) Charlie and I embarked on the project out of an amateurish love for wildlife and because we would have lost an impossible amount of money if we had continued to farm. We had no idea how influential and multifaceted the project would become, attracting policy makers, farmers, landowners, conservation bodies, and other land-management NGOs, both British and foreign. We had no idea Knepp (Castle) would end up a focal point for today’s most pressing problems: climate change, soil restoration, food quality and security, crop pollination, carbon sequestration, water resources and purification, flood mitigation, animal welfare, and human health… if it can happen here, on our depleted patch of land in the over-developed, densely populated southeast of England, it can happen anywhere—if only we have the will to give it a try.” Hawken, Paul. Regeneration (p. 79). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

As a philosophy/religion student I have most enjoyed reading the original writings of philosophers and religious leaders, as opposed to reading books about their thinking, over the years.  Something William James suggested has stuck with me, when he spoke about how the views of a given thinker all go back to their temperament, a quality developed due to their upbringing, the environment they live in, and life experiences (good and bad).  When Montaigne almost died after a horse-riding accident it changed his temperament.  The temperament of James himself was affected by his emotional distress and suicidal thoughts over the years.  I think it would be accurate to say that the temperament we each have is a product of our environment and our experiences while living in that environment.

Hawken writes:  “For the last forty years I’ve had a quote from Gandhi pinned somewhere in my office through several moves. He said that “what we each do seems insignificant, but it is most important that we do it.” It can be something little and local, or maybe something big.”  Hawken, Paul. Regeneration (p. 93). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

However, how we have each been shaped by our environment, whatever temperament we have developed as a result, and how we currently think (philosophize and believe), ought to be translated into “what we each do” in our community and in the environment.  My brother two years younger than me spent his career working in research and development for the Dupont Chemical Company which no doubt contributed greatly to the destruction of the environment over the years.  This shaped his current temperament and he now is a strong advocated for the saving of the ecosystem who has installed solar at his home, drives electric or hybrid cars, and contributes his time both as an election worker and as an home energy auditor.  Truly, each of us can make a difference.

Land:

The bottom lands of my grandparent’s farm were never very rich farmland.  I remember a lot of clay and rocky soil.  However, the fact that the Ohio river occasionally flooded and deposited sediment on this land is probably why it is still production farm land to this day.  As I was growing up in Chicago, I spent many weekend camping with my boy scout troop in the forest preserves and state parks around Illinois.  We also, always had a vegetable garden in our small backyard.  Finally, in my high school, college, and seminary years, I spent my summers working and later as a live-in custodian and camp counselor for the Apache Day Camp, situated on ten acres in the suburbs of the city.  What I noticed in all of these places was the rich black loom soil that was two to four feet deep in this area that had once been scraped by glaciers.  It was pointed out to me at some point, that in building on this land, often the topsoil was removed and sold and only a thin layer of topsoil would be returned to support sod in the yards around whatever had been built on the sterilized and denuded land that remained.

Hawken writes:  “As plants and microbes flourished and perished, they deposited organic sediment. It was the beginning of the soil we know today, the nutrient-laden medium that sustains 80 percent of all life on land… In the past two thousand years—a fraction of geological time—cities, agriculture, and deforestation have dramatically altered the natural carbon cycle… When you gather a teaspoon of healthy soil, you have at hand one of the most complex living systems on earth… 15 million smallholder farmers and tens of thousands of farmers and ranchers are employing agricultural methods to reverse the loss of soil health, restore land, and bring agriculture and food back to life… George Washington Carver, who studied them scientifically and shared his knowledge, (became) the progenitor of regenerative agriculture in the United States in the early 1900s… About one-sixth of global greenhouse gas emissions arise from the farm sector… Soil is a community, not a commodity… In Oklahoma, for every pound of wheat produced conventionally, three pounds of soil are lost to erosion… A healthy farm must also provide habitat for birds, pollinators, predator insects, earthworms, and microbes, integrated together… soil health is plant health is human health… Our fruits and vegetables have significantly less nutrition than they did fifty years ago… Regenerative agriculture is at the heart of a regenerated society…”  Hawken, Paul. Regeneration (p. 95-99). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition…

One of the most encouraging things I learned in reading Regeneration was that in many cases wildlife returns and soil can begin regenerating if land is re-wilded and sustainable agriculture methods are used.  Certainly, in my lifetime, things cannot return to what they were when the land was wilderness and undisturbed, but each of us can do better with whatever parts of the environment we are entrusted to care for.  I will always remember a couple I got to know in my Seminary years who were farming a bit of land in a sustainable way.  One day, I asked them if they owned their land and the reply was “no, we are just taking care of it temporarily”.  In other words, in their view, the Creator would always “own” the land and we humans would always be mere temporary custodians as most indigenous people have always known.  It was very notable when we toured the Crazy Horse Monument in South Dakota near Mt. Rushmore last October, that our tour guide clearly expressed this view of ownership of the land.  At the same time, the project is blasting to bits a mountain to create a gigantic statue…hmm.  I guess some of the modern ways have even infiltrated the Lakota tribe.

 

The varieties of philosophy student experience (Thanks, Ed)

 

Ingrate (& misanthrope)

Earth Now Has 8 Billion Humans. This Man Wishes There Were None.

…It is unclear how many adherents are in Mr. Knight's group, or what the extent of its reach is. After being largely underground, the group took off in popularity when Mr. Knight created a website in 1996. Text-heavy yet breezy, the site includes quotes from the philosopher Schopenhauer and cartoons by the artist Nina Paley, as well as arguments against procreation and for adoption. It has been translated into some 30 languages and remains a haven for many...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/23/climate/voluntary-human-extinction.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Happy grateful-for-matter day

A holiday devoted to gratitude is gratifying, even if you're not always grateful to be in the company of every member of your extended family. The old Stoic Emperor reminds me every morning to "think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love." Or even just to tolerate, for a day or so.

It might sound like an odd thought at first, but shouldn't we be grateful for matter? 

As Teilhard de Chardin said, 

“Blessed be you, mighty matter, irresistible march of evolution, reality ever newborn; you who, by constantly shattering our mental categories, force us to go ever further and further in our pursuit of the truth.” 

And as William James said,

"To anyone who has ever looked on the face of a dead child or parent the mere fact that matter COULD have taken for a time that precious form, ought to make matter sacred ever after. It makes no difference what the PRINCIPLE of life may be, material or immaterial, matter at any rate co-operates, lends itself to all life's purposes. That beloved incarnation was among matter's possibilities." Pragmatism, Lecture III

And as Loyal Rue says, "it is appropriate that we feel grateful to matter..."

 

 Happy Thanksgiving!

An encouraging sign

Spotted in my neighborhood

Exam Study Guide

NOV 29 EXAM (covering questions posted since OCT 13-audio review)...

OR you can substitute for the exam (1) your posted review of Ministry for the Future and response to KSR's view from 2071*, or (2) a posted essay on what you consider the two or three best ideas in MF and Regeneration, or (3) a posted essay on the Sunrise Movement and whether you think the rising generation will adequately engage the climate crisis. Exam OPTION due DEC 2, along with final report BLOG POST complementing your presentation (but post an early draft if you'd like potentially constructive feedback).

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Exam questions drawn from texts referenced here with an asterisk*...

Regeneration-

*1. Should we be teaching manaakitanga? 116

*2. Is indigeneity compatible with cosmopolitanism? 117

3. Why do you think language diversity correlates with biodiversity? 118

*4. Might the 30 by 30 movement be a success even if it fails to achieve its stated objective? 119

5. Why haven't we heard more about Lake Chad and other scenes of rapid climate change? 121

6. What's your favorite part of Nemonte Nenquimo's letter? 122-3

*7. What would Wendell say about that soil core from Kentucky? 125

8. Were you taught in grade school that "human beings are meant to be a keystone species"? 126 What were you taught about our relation to the rest of living nature?

9. Is it a coincidence that extractive agriculture has been male-dominated? 129 In general, do you think women have a more community-oriented approach? (And if so, how do we account for the political success of so many women who evidently do not?)

10. Do you think the Soul Fire Farm project can be an effective model for cities across the nation, in ending "food apartheid"? 132

11. Are you surprised by the impact of clean cookstoves? 134 Should we all be moving toward cleaner electrical cookstoves? 

*12. Is it shocking that educating girls and women is still such a battle? 136-7 Is that finally going to change in most places around the world (considering, for instance, the present ferment in Iran)?

*13. Will you declare an ARK in your yard? 138f.

14. What does it mean to you to call the human component of work the most important? 143

15. Do we rely too heavily on the beneficence of philanthropists? 144f. Should we be against philanthropy when it supplants social responsibility more generally?

16. Can the divestment movement succeed?

1. Do you want or expect to live in a city, suburb, small town, or the rural countryside in the future? What has been your experience with urban living?

*2. COMMENT?: "What becomes of civilization... will be determined by what happens in urban and suburban environments." 149

3. COMMENT?: "Mayors are more effective than national or provincial leaders..." 

4. What do you think of PH's vision of what a regenerative city might look like? Do you hope or expect to live in one someday?

*5. Did you know that Socrates spoke of solar energy? 150

 

6. Is Copenhagen appealing to you? 151

 

7. Do you support gas bans and rooftop solar?

 

8. Have you ever lived in a truly "walkable" place?

*9. Is there any good reason not to embrace LBC? 153

 

10. Should rooftop gardens be a standard requirement in new urban construction? 157

 

*11. In light of the contribution of cities to culture (159), did Marx have a point when he referred to "the idiocy of rural life"? 

 

*12. What can be done to rescue cities (and their young inhabitants) from "environmental generational amnesia"? 160

 

*13. Will the promise of greater neighborliness and a sense of belonging to a community (163) persuade many to join the car-free movement, or at least scale back their dependence on driving?

 

14. How many amenities and necessities can you reach within 15 minutes on foot or bike? 164

 

*15. In view of the wisdom of carbon architecture and construction from biofibers (168), does it bother you that MTSU is so heavily invested in concrete?

*1. Do you think you have "lost your taste"? 171 Have you taken steps to regain it? Do you consume too much "junk"? Do you view eating as an ethical act?

 

*2. Do you do anything in particular at home to avoid or rectify food waste? 173

 

3. Have you begun deliberately to eat fewer processed substances and more plant-based alternatives? 175  

 

4. Have you localized your diet, to greater or lesser extent? Do you or will you patronize CSAs?

177

 

5. Should public schools be fast food-free? 179 Should MTSU get rid of, or at least improve the nutritional contents of, vending machines on campus?

 

*6. Does the Cobbs' story remind you of Wendell? 180

 

*7. Are you grateful for the decommodification of coffee, beer, and other products? 181 Are you boycotting any Big Commodity products?

 

8. How do you feel about ants and other insects? Do you use insecticides, biocides, weed killers etc.? Do you resent the failure of early education to impress upon every student the vital role they play in ecosystems?

*9. Do you think restoring the American chestnut is a good idea, without the frivolity or uncertainty of restoring extinct animal species? 187

 

*10. Was Oliver Burkeman right? 189

 

11. COMMENT?: "We must either let some eating habits go or let the planet go." 191 

*1. Given the current relative percentages of CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and energy derived from renewables, does this feel to you like "a momentous turning point in civilization"? 193

 

2. If "2% of the planet's wind would power all of civilization," would we be stupid and self-destructive NOT to move aggressively towards greater utilization of wind energy? 196

 

3. Can we "plug the leaks and close the loop" like Wildpoldsried" 200

 

*4. Considering how many more EVs are now in operation than just a decade ago, are you confident that transport via internal combustion is on its way out? 202

 

5. Do you have a heat pump? Shouldn't everyone? Should we be taxed to subsidize their installation? 205

 

*6. Were you aware of how wasteful cruise ships are? Will that keep you off of them? 209

 

7. Are you confident we can overcome the problematic issues invovled with lithium-ion batteries? 211

 

*8. Might the "extreme climate benefit" of microgrids also be a social benefit, enhancing the communal consciousness of those whose homes are thus connected? 213

*1. What will it take to produce a "corporate shift" that credibly addresses the climate crisis? 215

 

2. Revisiting this embarrassing question: how many of Michael Pollan's "foodlike substances" do you confess to enjoying? How many have you given up? How many will you give up? 217

 

3. Do you consciously factor the "true cost of junk food" into your eating choices? 218

 

*4. How far are we from "the food system of the future"? 219

 

5. If the US political system continues not to acknowledge universal healthcare as a "fundamental human right," do you expect that to precipitate an eventual and radical change in voters' attitudes and choices? 221

 

*6. Is it still a very tiny percentage of people who think "holistically about every facet of human well-being" or is that changing rapidly with the rising generation? Will or would that significantly impact our healthcare system, the pharmaceutical industry, and the perceived link between climate and health? 222

 

*7. Do you know where your bank invests your money? Will the Good Money model "fundamentally change the system of banking"? 225

 

8. Has the social media environment permanently crippled the prospects of mutualism as a corrective for human aggression? 227

1. Any concluding COMMENT on Paul Hawken's Regeneration, and the action steps indicated at the end?

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Ministry for the Future-

2. How does your view from 2071 compare to KSR's? 

 

3. Despite the disclaimer at the beginning of Ministry (hereafter referred to as MF), do you detect "any resenmblance to actual events, locales, or persons"?

 

4. Why do you think MF is dedicated to Fredric Jameson?

 

5. Is it plausible that the worst early impacts of climate change will come in India?

 

*6. Who is speaking, and why, in ch.2?

 

7. "That first global stocktake [in 2023] didn't go well..." Is this a safe prediction?

 

8. Will we have anything like the Subsidiary Body known as the Ministry for the Future as soon as 2025? Can we afford to wait much longer for it?

 

9. Should every member of the UN, and every head of state, and all students, be encouraged to read and discuss What We Owe the Future etc.?

What are your questions/comments on the book, its characters, its depiction of life in the relatively near future, etc.?

*Is the voluntary-exile scenario in chapter 14 something you can imagine ever having to experience yourself? 

*What will it take to successfully "redirect fossil fuel companies to do decarbonization projects" and transition permanently from extractive industry? 53

What are you prepared personally to give up, in order to end your own "nonessential buying of things that degrade the biosphere"? 55 How often, for instance, do you make impulse purchases online?

Do you agree that living "at adequacy" is healthier and happier than the pursuit of wealth? 57  Is the notion that society must incentivize greed a myth propagated self-interestedly by the wealthy?

*Is there enough energy, food, housing, clothing, healthcare, education etc. for all at present population levels? Should "enough" be a guaranteed human right? 58 

*Are "actor networks" real, with or without agency? 60

Does hope "have to reside in something like this: hope to do some good, no matter how fucked up you are"? 64

Do you, like Frank, feel a confused compulsion to do something? And do you think it's not impossible that one person might actually change things? 65

*How do we explain people in nations with rising inequality voting "for politicians who will increase their relative impoverishment"? Is monocausotaxophilia part of the explanation? 73

*Do we need to replace GDP? Or take the question of our collective health and stability "back out of the realm of quantification"? 76 

Do climate scientists need now to be more like politicians? 82

"Philosophy is very often proving we can't think to the bottom of things..." 88 So is philosophy a help or a hindrance, when confronting a climate disaster?

"You can hide but you can't run." 105 Are we already a maximum-surveillance society? Is privacy a quaint concept of the past? Is anyplace truly off-grid?

*What do you think of covert "black wing" operations? 109 Are they a threat to democracy, a lifesaver for civilization, or as prevalent as KSR implies? Are they the Insider mirror of ecoterrorism? Are they "uncatchable"?

*Are there really Tzadikim Nistarium, anonymous ordinary heroes who "keep the world from falling apart"? 118 How do we distinguish the righteous from the self-righteous?

 Does subglacial pumping sound likely to return ice-melt to its old speed? Or is it a silver bullet that fails to address the bigger problem? 121-2

Does periodizing remind you that things are always changing, or does it delude us into thinking that our present time is locked in? 123

Are you oddly-comforted by the thought that "we are all definitely always falling apart"? 124

*Would Wendell Berry agree that "a return to local knowledge and local ownership" leads to political power? 126 Do you?

*Are we wrong to discount future generations? 129-133

What do you think of the Children of Kali and their regard for "collateral damage" and "integrated pest management"? 136, 141

How close are we to recognizing that the cost of losing sea ice far outweighs the financial cost of avoiding it? 148

*Are public protest demonstrations just parties that don't change anything? 156 Are "representatve democracies" always sabotaged by wealth inequality ("the rich will fight it")?  156

Is the Davos World Economic Forum relevant to world events or just a distracting sideshow that has no significant influence on events? 159f.

*Do you think a "high middle class income" correlates with the greatest happiness? 163

*Has modern economic/technological efficiency become a bad thing? 165 Do most politicians concern themselves with how to "best arrange our lives together on this planet"? 166

Are "crazies" outnumbered 100-1? 168 Is there a "silent majority"? How effective can it be in securing social stability?

Is "society" real, or a conceptual abstraction? 169

Are economists and those who think like them trying "merely to make more money" and not trying to improve the system? 171

*Do we need a "carbon coin" to address "the tragedy of the time horizon"? 172

How can we lower the "discount rate"> 173

Can you explain blockchain and encryption (etc.) in simple but accurate terms?  177

Should California be a separate nation? 184 Or the Pacific Northwest? (See Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach...) 

*Are bankers "Non-democratic, answerable to no one"? 189

*How many watts do you think you use, if the average American uses 12,000? 196

Have you spent time in any truly walkable cities, where walking was "a form of entertainment"? 198

Is self-reliance "always a delusion"?

COMMENT?: "Only when things fall apart do you realize it can happen to you." 206

*How do you imagine the world might be different if we'd adopted Keynes's suggestion about bancors in 1944? 209

Do bankers and others in the private sector regard "saving the world [as] outside their purview"? 213

Was Marx or Hegel right about practice and theory? 216

*Should we stop, or at least sharply curtail, airflight and other fossil-burning transport? 228 Would that be a likely result of a Crash Day?

*Are "open source instruments that mimic the functions of all the big social media sites" (like Mastodon, for example) going to supplant Twitter and Facebook et al? 241

COMMENT?: "Simply talking was the strongest social media of all..." 247

*Would the six sectors and eleven policies mentioned on 251 suffice to end the climate crisis? 

Will enough young people change "all their behaviors" in time? 252

Do we need a new (old) religion? 255

*Are most economists "moral and practical idiots" trying to calculate "the monetary value of human civilization"? 264 Would $50 billion to prevent catastrophic sea-level rise be a "bargain"? 265

Is the LA flood scenario plausible? Is LA going to have to be replaced? 279 Does the rest of the world really despise "the dream factory"? 286

*Is "a whole new internet ecology" like YourLock, Internet 3.0, possible? 281

Is going to Mars a ridiculous "fantasy of escape"? 289

If the central banks didn't agree to fund an open-access "carbon coin," could something like YourLock make it happen? 291

Is Badim right about "assholes" and meliorists? 296

*Is narcissism a major problem in the world today? 298 (see "Instagram therapy...")

What would you call the "fever killing our glaciers"? 303

Is war in the future likely to be "invisible and online for the most part"? 313

Why does near-future Switzerland have seven presidents? 314

Is the global financial system so complex that even the people running it don't understand it? 315

*Is KSR endorsing the assassination of "the rentier class" ("the people who make money simply by owning something that others need...")? 321

Will blockchain technology really drive illegal tax dodges into non-existence? 333

*Was KSR prophetic in predicting "the triumphant return of the so-called Lula Left, now also called Clean Brazil"? 343

*Is growth "the world's current reigning religion"? 345 Can a planetary consciousness give rise to a new and better one? 358

Will it take a heatwave killing hundreds of thousands of Americans to correct the cognitive error of thinking that catastrophe only happens to other people? 349

*Does the developing nation "over the horizon of time" seem real to you? 352

*What are the realistic prospects for a "new internet...a new kind of citizen of the world. Gaia citizenship... Earth citizen...planetary civilization"? 358

*Have you read any of "E.O. Wilson's great books"? 364

Is "World Spirit, Zeitgeist" real (or just a Hegelian fantasy)? 377

*Is the Navy's pay differential policy a good model for the corporate world? 382-3

*If there are currently about 25 million refugees in the world, is KSR being extravagant to predict 140 million in the coming years? 396

*Will Americans ever "come around" to the idea of capping personal wealth at $50 million? 405

*Will Americans ever accept "public utility districts" that treat food, water, shelter, clothing, electricity, health care, and education as human rights? 409

*Will we ever give up our "obsession with speed" in travel? What do you think of people who never look out the window of a plane? 419

*Are you impressed by the project list in chapter 85?

Do you dream of turning suburbs into habitat? 440

*If a major CO2 drawdown ever occurs, will it be substantially due to reforestation and kelp in the ocean shallows? 445-6, 454

Will world citizenship ever be a thing? 468 Or at least a more cosmopolitan form of nationalism?

From the final sections of MF:

Is Environmentalism anti-humanist? 477

*Do we need a BCHMI? 479

*Why does Mary insist “there is no such thing as fate”? 496, 563

Will we ever come to regard other species as fellow citizens? 501

*“Whether life means anything or not, ___ is real.” 502

*Earth is a pale blue dot, but… 525

*The point of the global festival Mary calls Gaia Day (545) was to feel a vibe of harmony, evoke a planetary mind or ___, and possibly even usher in a new earth-centered religion. 537

*“We turned wolves into dogs and they turned us into ___.” 539