How does out youth feel?

 I decided to do something a bit different for this blog post. I substitute teach as a part-time job to help my community that has a shortage of teachers due to Covid 19. I decided to ask my eighth-grade class how they think the future of the climate is going in their eyes and how they felt about the issue.  My class is a small class of 11 students and at first, no one wanted to share their thoughts. However, one shy student in the back of my class kept looking at me as if they needed to say something near and dear. She finally blurted out a statement regarding the Paris accord and how she felt so ashamed of her country that our leader would withdraw from the agreement. I was extremely shocked that a student knew what the Paris accord was but more shocked by how passionately she talked about it. She spoke as though her thoughts were totally her own and not her parents or her friends. Her comment about the accord jumpstarted a classwide discussion regarding climate change. When this discussion occurred I listened carefully to weed out thoughts that resembled a parental opinion and asked them to practice sharing how they truly felt and not how their parents felt. After I offered them this type of thinking a classwide uproar of thoughts regarding climate change happened. They brought up specific issues like straw waste, and plastic 6pack Gatorade ring holders not being disposed of properly affecting the environment. It however was interesting to me that the students did not group this type of waste as a total but rather thought of the waste in the water to do specific things to oceans and marine life in them. For example, they only associated straws going up inside of shark noses, and the plastic drink rings putting turtles in half nelsons in stead of looking at the whole picture of what plastic does to our earth.  After I told the students to group improper waste all together they began to see the bigger picture of how all of these things stacked up therefore severely affecting the environment. perhaps it was the thought of losing near and dear marine life to a child or maybe perhaps we should give our youth more credit in their ability to show empathy to their environment and to each other's opinions and values.

What Is Home To You?

 What is home? May seem like a basic question, however many people seem to have questioned this for a long time. Some say home is where the heart is. Others are more literal in stating the town they grew up in. I used to think I was one of those more literal people, but the older I get, and now that I have stumbled across this question, I am not so sure anymore. 

I have always dreamed of getting out of Nashville (even though I decided to go to a school 3 miles from my house). Not because I don’t like it, but because I know that life is short and I want to see everything I can while I have the chance. Part of me picked the career field I am headed towards because I knew I would be able to do it from anywhere in the world. However, on the other hand, part of me has always liked the idea of finding that one perfect place and staying there for as long as possible. I think that came from a place of having moved houses and schools a lot as a kid.

At this point in time, I think it is possible to do a little of both. While I am still young and not tied down to any one place, I would like to “see where the wind takes me”. Then perhaps when I am older and maybe have a family, stopping somewhere doesn't sound like such a bad idea. 

Weekly Activity:

• Commented on Kathryn’s Post

• Commented on Carolin’s Post

• This Post

Grand Total: 40

We have to clean up the Green-energy industries

 

Naomi in her book “On Fire the Burning Case for the Green New Deal” she talks touches on term she coined called green colonialism.  In that she is talking about how conservation efforts around the world are kicking out native populations while installing state protected nature reservations or parks, without even asking the indigenous people about it.  The Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science did an article about this and what they came up with for why this is so widespread is because there is no centralized program on how to do or set a protected area.  In their article Conservation Science says that only 85% said that conservation should do no harm, while another 40 % that it was an acceptable practice to displace people in order to set up a protected area these abuses have also prompted countries like the US pull funding for major conservation organizations as well which could be seen as a major blow to the industry.  Of course, in their article Conservation Science also talks about alternatives to setting up state protected areas including education, corporate collaboration, and more nature-based tourism.  In my opinion though it would be much easier to just protect the indigenous people along with the land they inhabit.  Then there is the human-rights abuses being done by the Green-Energy industry that are usually associated with oil and gas industries, and with a whopping 197 allegations of human rights abuses according to the Bloomberg which is not good.  In most business, one of the more imperative things a company has to do is to stand out from its competition which the green energy industry is not doing well.  According to an article written by Kate Hodel and posted by The Guardian most of these instances of abuses comes from the companies supply-chains, and in her article Kate urges the green energy industry to clean up these supply-chains quickly as demand could rise as high 900% by 2050 as the Global population switches to low-carbon technologies to combat rising heat levels.

I have also commented on Kathryn McCanless and Heather Faulkner's posts and I should have 30 points by now.

Can We Kill Two Birds With One Stone?

Do you agree that war, poverty, racism, and the climate crisis, and their remedies, are interconnected?

Yes, I absolutely think that war, poverty, racism, and the climate crisis are interconnected, particularly when it comes to their remedies. By now, most people probably think of war, poverty, and racism as at least somewhat related. For instance, war often causes/worsens or is caused by instability in a region, much of the time including poverty. Additionally, racism has historically and presently economically disenfranchised various groups of people, and caused countless acts of violence. I could go on, as there are many connections that can be drawn between war, poverty, and racism. 

Because of these connections, solving one of these issues can help solve the others. For example, improving healthcare, education, and access to basic needs such as food, shelter, and water, can help to stabilize and empower an impoverished community, which then helps prevent corrupt or violent leadership from taking over—thus decreasing the likelihood of war. (By the way, if anyone is interested in remote volunteering opportunities using US politics to address global poverty, check out The Borgen Project). 

Now, I think that the connection between the climate crisis and war, poverty, and racism, isn't quite as obvious right away. I think this is because we haven't quite reached that point where our lives are directly affected by climate change—yet. The truth is, we won't for quite some time. The people who will suffer from the bulk of climate change consequences first are those who are already suffering now. That's where the connection is. For example, should climate change cause a global famine, impoverished regions will be the first to run out of food. The US and other wealthy nations will likely have the resources to hang on to what we need, at least for a longer period of time. During that period of time, widespread hunger would likely increase acts of violence and sparring between countries for resources. Even within our own country, those who are at lower socioeconomic levels would be hit long before the wealthiest ever would. Because racism has caused a lot of economic disadvantages for communities of color, as we saw with COVID, these communities would likely feel the effects of a global famine much worse and first. 

Clearly, these issues are interconnected. While war, poverty, racism, and climate change, deserve to be examined individually and given enough attention on their own, I think it is unfortunate that politicians treat them as if they aren't related to one another. The good news is that because the problems feed into each other, so will the solutions. Keeping this perspective, I think, is a good way to be more efficient in how we approach these issues. 

--

Weekly Summary:

11/5—Posted this Blog!

11/2—Comment on “Questions Nov 2-4”

11/2—Comment on “Questions Nov 2-4”

Grand Total: 52

Being a good ancestor (continued)

Wales is a small but progressive country, the only country in the world to have legislated to protect the interests of future generations, the only country to have appointed someone independent to oversee this. Across the world, our systems of government, of politics, of economics have tended to act in the short term. And often, the decisions that are taken discount the interests of future generations and the planet. But in Wales, we're trying to change that by passing a law which requires not just our government but all of our main public institutions to demonstrate how they're acting for the long-term and how the decisions they take don't harm the interests of those yet to be born. And so as a mum of five and the world's only future generations commissioner, I want to share with you today some of the lessons we've learned about how we're trying to leave the world better than we found it... (transcript)

Sophie Howe is the world's only future generations commissioner, a new kind of government official tasked with advocating for the interests of generations to come and holding public institutions accountable for delivering long-term change. She describes some of the people-focused policies she's helped implement in Wales, aimed at cutting carbon emissions, increasing sustainability and promoting well-being as a national goal. TED

A better map

Good morning! If you only look at one map today, make it this one. This is what red/blue states really look like. Land doesn't vote. People do. #ElectionResults2020 https://t.co/dfpl4N2MLq
(https://twitter.com/raykwong/status/1324330586215911426?s=02)

What a huge difference a small difference makes

Apart from electoral consequences, I can't stop thinking about the huge difference in What It Means About America a rather small difference in the vote makes. If only 4% of us had voted differently, making the popular vote 54%-44% instead of the actual 50%-48%, imagine your mood.
(https://twitter.com/KBAndersen/status/1324042963278876680?s=02)

Weird

Weird development! It looks possible that the candidate with the most votes may win the presidency this time!
(https://twitter.com/billmckibben/status/1324063728640446466?s=02)

Finding a Homeplace - You Can Go Home Again

I can validate the wisdom of Wendell Berry’s theme of finding a homeplace, of “stopping somewhere” and putting down roots. I grew up in Shelbyville, with close ties to my father’s family in Nashville. I could not wait to get out of there. Small town life was not for me, I wanted to live in the big city. I could not understand why all my friends did not feel the same way. When I graduated from high school in 1963, the last place on earth that I would go to college was MTSU. Everybody went to MTSU. It was like continuing in high school, and it was only 30 miles away. (BTW, I am very happy to be going to MTSU now, along with my two adult sons.) I went to Florida State for a miserable year, and then, homesick, returned to UT. After that, I shook the dust of Shelbyville off my feet. I did live in the city; Tampa, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Miami. And then, 20 years ago something strange happened. I came home.  And I discovered something important, something I had never realized. I discovered that there is real value to my self-concept and my sense of a well-lived life in being connected to a place and a community and a history. An old friend said to me when I had first come home, "you know, Ed, I've been all over the world, and seen beautiful places and wonderful things, but for day-in, day-out living, you can't beat the rolling hills of middle Tennessee." I am happier because I have a homeplace. Plants need roots to flourish.

Weekly Participation Summary

11/03 This post

11/01 Comment on Wendell Berry   

11/03 Comment on Kathryn’s post

Week Eleven Point Total – 5

Eleven Week Cumulative Point Total – 55

Greta calls out the Shell game

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Zoom recordings, October

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Wendell Berry

LISTEN. We had a nice weekend up on Monteagle Mountain, amid the turning and rustling leaves. It would have been nice to suspend time there a little longer, to postpone whatever's about to happen tomorrow (and tomorrow and tomorrow) and get a little more perspective on these strange days. Stop the merry-go-round etc. But time marches on, the sun is up again, there are votes still to cast and count and lessons to learn.

I spent some time on the mountain with Wendell Berry, whose steadiness and sanity are tonic. Why don't people like him run for president? Could have something to do with their steadiness and sanity.

The rare interview he did with Bill Moyers a few years ago, featuring film footage of Berry and friends occupying the Kentucky governor's office to protest mountaintop removal and other environmental atrocities, is a delight and an inspiration. "We don't have a right to ask whether we're going to succeed or not. The only thing we have a right to ask is, what's the right thing to do?"

In his 2016 talk at Johns Hopkins Berry said "the concept of limitlessness is a fantasy, and so is the notion that we can have limitless economic growth. The concepts of enough and plenty have been replaced with 'all you can get' and 'all you can make.'"

His advice to settle in somewhere and really understand what it means to have and love a home-place, to set a worthy example and contribute to the expansion of the meaning of home for those who follow us , is golden.

From the latest collection of Berry's essays, The World-Ending Fire:

“Our understandable wish to preserve the planet must somehow be reduced to the scale of our competence-that is to wish to preserve all of its humble households and neighborhoods.”“Our human and earthly limits, properly understood, are not confinements but rather inducements to formal elaboration and elegance, to fullness of relationship and meaning.” GBks

The Library of America has also issued two compendious editions of his nonfiction.

And of course there are all those novels and poems and short stories.

There's also a bio called Wendell Berry and the Given Life, with a foreword from Bill McKibben. Berry is religious in a way I am not, but I think his form of spirituality is not restrictive. Pantheists, humanists, and naturalists (among others) can all agree that we're "creatures" whether we affirm a creator or not.

We have room for another text or two in Environmental Ethics, before the Fall semester concludes. If the class is up for it, we could all use a little more steadiness and sanity. Send more Wendell Berry. (Chuck too.)

GBS's "splendid torch"

 This guy had some thoughts on subjects we've recently discussed...

It was on this day in 1950 that Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw (books by this author) died, at the age of 94. But it was not old age that he succumbed to, nor disease — the nonagenarian fell off a ladder while pruning trees in his garden and died later from complications of his injury.

Shaw outlived most of his friends, among them many literary luminaries, but he did not seem particularly sentimental about this. Once, he was asked whether he missed any of his contemporaries, and he responded, “No, I miss only the man I was.” And he once proclaimed, “Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed.”

While he was still alive, devoted fans wanted to start a Shaw society to promote his ideas. He was adamantly against the whole thing, writing the people who contacted him about it.

But he sort of gave up resistance, and a Shaw society was founded in 1941, on his 85th birthday. The effort was led by a Jewish refugee from Germany. Shaw wrote: “Go ahead, but don’t bother me about it. I am old, deaf, and dotty. In short, a Has Been.” The Shaw society is still going strong; it gathers one Friday evening a month at the Actors Centre in London’s Soho for lectures and readings of his plays. During the pandemic, they have been meeting on Zoom.

George Bernard Shaw said: “What is life but a series of inspired follies? The difficulty is to find them to do. Never lose a chance: it doesn’t come every day.”

And he said: “I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. Life is no “brief candle” for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”

Writer's Almanac

GND & GOP

A growing number of Republican politicians are suddenly talking about climate change. Some of them have even introduced climate policy. https://t.co/92W4Hczg6H
(https://twitter.com/grist/status/1323095487248015362?s=02)

• At what point in the next decade should we decide that it's too late to "change our behavior"? 109

I do not think we should ever decide that it is too late to change our behavior. I think if there is only a small amount of people that are still fighting and can inspire others to do the same, we still have a chance.

I think giving up is not really an option in this case anyway, it is not sufficient to just sit back and wait for us to destroy the planet. There is still a chance that we will be able to save the planet or at least make it survive just a little bit longer. In the next decade, I think the ignorance of countries' leaders will continue, it will take more than that to really get everyone on board with this, but eventually the importance and the generations to come will have a great impact on this topic as well. The Greta’s and other environmentalist start early and will be able to make change soon.

Agreed, a decade is still long and if we do not make significant chances to our overall lifestyle and laws right now, we will probably not be able to make a big impact anymore in 10 years. I do believe though, that there will also be more technological advancement, that can help make environmental-friendly projects and process more efficient and affordably and therefore, more attractive to people. I think the key is, to obviously get more people to truly care about the environment and for the people that do not want to change their mind, to make things SO attractive that they want to choose the environmentally friendly version. There will never be an agreement from everyone, so I think we should use that to our advantage and just make the best choice for the environment, the best choice for the company/customer/human there is. Whatever field of work or part of life it is, I think there is always room for improvement. 

 

 

 

Total Points 55, notes in the comments

Tweet from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC)

The thing about Republicans putting four popular women of color on their ads across the country & acting as though they're running against us everywhere is... people kinda like what we fight for: healthcare, housing, climate, & justice for all. 💜

https://t.co/Qp8XEchhlm https://t.co/fS5u0CeubB
(https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1322966381961351170?s=02)