Today, I was waiting for the train reading "Ecocities: Rebuilding Cities in Balance with Nature." I looked on the back and noticed that the publishing company was New Society Publishers. Underneath the publishing company's name, it says "Ancient forest friendly: printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper." It made me think of the various author's books I read (or have read) and their publishers. I never see them stating that they print on 100% post-consumer recycled paper. It makes me wonder what they would do, if anything, if I sent them each a letter asking them to consider printing on post-consumer recycled paper. I could even do research on the benefits and costs of using and printing on that kind of paper and send that, as well. What would they do? Would they even respond? Or would they just toss it in the garbage (or recycling bin)? Incremental Change. It's a way of thinking that is something I'm learning more and more about in this class.The awesome thing is that it isn't super difficult to do such things.
Today in class, Professor Goldsmith handed out a flyer for the University of Utah's Innovative Sustainability Symposium on February 21st, 2013. He asked us to tell him what stood out to us after reading over the flyer. I mentioned the bold phrase, "We are scared, yet not paralyzed." When asked why this phrase spoke to me, I mentioned that it is because of the things in the environment that are changing, or depleting negatively and it is frightening, however we are not going to just sit by and be frozen by them. I just really liked how optimistic it is to not focus on the gloom and doom, but through the awareness of it we are not going to be paralyzed or immobilized by it. We are going to take action to combat it and reverse the negative effects of the automobile, sprawl, and many other things. We are going to come up with solutions to the problem and one of the first steps to do this incremental change is the idea and action of this Innovation Symposium the University of Utah is having.
Another student responded to my response to the phrase, or the phrase itself...I'm not particularly sure. But more the less that is beside the point. She said she is NOT AFRAID at all. It doesn't scare her when she hears about climate change and the depletion of fresh water, etc. She knows we are going to get out of it. My thoughtful (not spoken) response was that I'm not scared, but I am aware of these negative changes. I don't cower down in fear. The only thing I fear is God, and I believe God is ultimately in control and He turns everything for the greater good, even things that threaten our every day lives. Ultimately the single phrase "We are scared, yet not paralyzed," is empowering to me. So often we are all caught up in the negatives in this environmental world where we are more and more attempting to "fix" the problems with "being green" and "sustainability." But we focus on the negatives everywhere: school shootings, what's wrong in a relationship, the damages of natural disasters, and other things. We can't be immobilized by these things and we ought to be aware of the good in life and take positive action. In my Design of the Built Environment class my teacher pointed out that as of of around 2008 we are in an ecological overshoot and our ecological footprint has been exceeded - the Earth's Biocapacity. Someone asked him a question about the negative aspects of that observation and his response was compelling. He said that he is not focused on the negative and has a very optimistic point of view on all of this and part of the purpose of this class (The Design of the Built Envrironment) is to observe how we can make positive change and do our part to resolvean issue he believes will ultimately sort itself out. It really gives me a new outlook, perspective, and perception on this whole sustainable thing.
We can influence change. We need to be optimistic.
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