Aaron Carter
ENG 151
Mudd
March 17, 2011


Sustainablili-me

Meaning. That’s what this is all about for me, the pursuit of a meaningful existence. I think it goes without saying that our generation has the ability to be the most influential generation yet. The existence of the future is really up to us more than it has been for any previous generations. That for me is the meaningful existence I believe I am a part of. This pursuit of future comfort isn’t specific to just the US but really to any major country (technology wise). With all of the current and sure to come innovations in technology our generation has much more ability to influence the future of our world than anyone before us. That’s where sustainability comes in to all of this. It is my belief that it is up to us to implement sustainable practices or leave our future to suffer the consequences.

Our generation is really the luckiest and most privileged generation yet. We’ve come up with the modern rise of technology which as I see it, is the both the problem and the solution. We now have the ability to end our own existence with weapons, communicate with anyone anywhere, travel with ease, consume with ease and pretty much do anything we need to with much less effort that ever before. This is what’s causing our demise. We have become lost in the WHAT we are doing because it’s so easy and we’ve forgotten WHY we are doing it. We have forgotten that we need to think about how it’s impacting both our current state and our future. We go to the supermarket and buy all of our groceries because it’s easy, we remember what we’re there to get but we don’t think about why we’re at that particular store. Are they promoting what you like? Such as healthy foods, good wages for workers, good use of the revenue they generate. We know WHAT we want from our jobs but do most of us think about “why” we are doing them? That’s how it is with almost everything now a days, there are too many “what” I want, what I need, what I can use, what I can do, what the TV. says but there is a seriously lack of why and if you replace a “what” with a “why” you get a whole different picture. Sustainability is about “why” for me, and that is starting to spread to others with sustainable movements. Recently a “go green” movement has come to light, and I believe it’s our generations call to action. That’s not to say that we all have to “go green” but it is to say that this is the “kicker” that needs to be and will hopefully be that opens our eyes to the fact that if we don’t start using what we have in a sustainable manner, than everything we have achieved will hold no meaning, it will cease to exist. That’s what it’s all about for me and that’s what it needs to be about for you, your family, your school, your country. Whoever you are. We need to stop pushing twice as hard because we have twice the muscle, and start thinking about why and where we are pushing and how much to push. It is my opinion that we need to learn “how hard to push” (how much to use) if we are really trying to make a future for ourselves and our children and their children etc. That’s what sustainability has become to me, learning how to use what you have. Not learning how to exploit what we have.

When I first came to this class my idea of sustainability was entirely different. I thought of it as a much simpler thing. Like turning the sink off when I brush my teeth, or driving a more fuel efficient car, or grabbing less food at the dining hall. It was all about ways to just “use less”. Now I have what I believe to be a better understanding of the issue of sustainability. Now I see sustainability as more than “using less”. Now I see it as a more complicated process, you don’t start with “use less” it starts with why am I using this? Do I need to? What else could I use? And so on. This class has brought me from awareness of the fact that we need to do this, to the state of feeling that I HAVE to do this.

Today in our culture sustainability must become a top priority so that our culture can continue to exist. Sustainability is a “why” issue not a “what” issue to me now. I knew what it was, but now I know why it is, and why it needs to be continuously built upon and implemented into our everyday living. I now feel that I should live sustainably not do sustainable things every once in a while, and that is where we all need to be. That is what this is all about to me now; it’s the “meaning” I talked about. To make everyone else know WHY sustain, not just WHAT sustaining means. I believe if we do this people won’t need to be forced or lobbied or convinced that they need to be more sustainable, they will want to do it on their own. Self-sustaining sustainability.

Eco Event #7 ooo wind

I found this article on a site called:
This site is pretty sweet when it comes to "eco" events, news, developments, and ideas. So you might want to check it out.

The article or "press release" is titled "GE UNIT, UNIONBANCAL UNIT, BUY CALIFORNIA WIND FARM FIRST PHASE OF ONE OF LARGEST US WIND ENERGY PROJECTS STARTING OPERATIONS" which pretty much sum's up what the whole thing is about.

Basically GE decided to buy the first wind farm that it needs to begin a wind energy project. This project is planned to be a 3,000-megawatt project. When complete it will provide electricity for 1.4 California homes. This article was very interesting to me because it not only demonstrates our steps towards furthering our dependance on alternative energy but it also demonstrated a company's good faith in allowing for the sale of the company to allow the company (Terra-Gen) to continue to operate itself and aid in the generation of $6 billion for renewable energy invesments. I hope that GE continues on this path of its "commitment to ecoimagination".

Eco event #6 Little Japan, Big Trouble pt. 2

For the first part of my Japan posts I focused mainly on the actual Tsunami and the damage to the city. For the 2nd part I am going to focus soley on the nuclear problems coming from this happening.

Fukushima Dai-Ichi is an nuclear plant that has been severely affected by the tsunami that struck on March 11th. The tsunami has caused severe damage to 4 of the 6 nuclear reactors that Fukushima houses and today (march 17th) workers are trying everything they can to cool one of the dangerously overheated reactors. The tsunami has damaged the reactors so that the rod's in the reactors aren't staying cool causing the reactors to overheat and if they continue to do so it could result in a "complete meltdown" which would release dangerous amounts of radiation into sourounding areas. The article says that right now the dangeous levels are only on-site at the plant.

But.... What will be the long term affects of this radiation? What about short term? On the top of this article where i read about all of this "Physicist Michio Kaku tells msnbc's Richard Liu that cooling attempts like using helicopter drops to cool down the 700 tons of spent fuel at Japan's Fukushima reactor site won't be enough, that they would be better served with a 'Chernobyl' approach"

What's going to happen? I think the radiation might just cause zombies to come. What about you?

Eco Event #5 Big Trouble, Little Japan pt. 1

So i felt it necessary to split up whats going on in japan into two seperate posts because there are two very diffrent (but related) things that are happening/happened in Japan recently.

First off the Tsunami/Earthquake. Im sure we've all heard what happened, but just incase you live under a rock ~here~ is an article describing what took place on March 11th.

The Tsunami that struck Japan was caused by an 8.9/10 magnatude earthquake
(thats real bad) this is the 5th largest earthquake since 1900 and the largest in Japan for over 140 years. The city of Sendai was hit by two main tsunami waves, the first about 20ft high and the 2nd about 33ft high. The quake and tsunami have completely ravaged the cities it hit with flooding and physical damage. The death toll now is over 5,000 and there really isnt much hope for the affected places due to a new developing problem with the damage caused to the nuclear industries in the affected area.

The fact that this extremely modern and developed place has been hit by this tsunami is a big deal, alot of people will be out of work and the long term affects of this event are still unfolding. Will Tokyo return to its orginial splendor? How long will it take? What do you think?

Eco Event #4 Efficiency = More consumption?

I just read this article and it's somthing that I think is a great point that I have considered before and that i think should be more widley talked about. The article is basically proposing that becoming more efficient may just make us consume more. In the article the writer of the article bases this on the coal and computer industries.What I have thought all along and what this writer is saying is that in order for efficiency to work, we cant drive twice as much because now our car uses half the fuel, if we want efficiency to work we need to learn to control ourselves and do what we need to do, not everything we want to. This doesnt mean stay home! Dont go out! SAVEEEEEE. But it does mean that we need to stop being wasteful and start being EFFICIENT.

eco event #3 More dead animals?!?

MSN.com is my homepage, and today when i opened up the browser i saw a headline that said "Millions of dead Fish" and i was shocked, because this is now the 2nd time in like 2 or 3 months that a large group of animals has turned up dead and both events took place in the US.

HERE is a link to the article.

The article says that the scientists "tentatively" said that they all died of oxygen depravation. They said they must have all just swam into a pocket where there was no air and died. Is that even possible? couldnt they just swim back to where they could catch a breath? Can there even be just a patch of water off the coast of LA lacking oxygen? I think its very peculiar that twice now in a very short period of time TWO "rare but possible" large deaths of animals have occured with little to no explanation. Im not really sure what to make of it, and i really hope it doesnt continue. This is definetely not "natural selection" as the article suggests.

HEMP on Prezi