Image from Star Shadow Remote Observatory, New Mexico, USA
Horsehead Nebula, Orion's Belt
"Look deep into nature, then you will understand everything better." - Albert Einstein
Dear Artists,
You are creative problems solvers by design.
The reason you have been required to take this course is because you are attending one of the top 10 public Universities in the Nation. The environmental issues that have been presented to you will grow with intensity and this is no time to sit back and let others solve the problems for us, especially given our place in the world.
You are a part of an essential dialogue of the 21st Century.
You know the data- you have read the books (I hope), listened to the lectures, shared your ideas, and will hopefully continue to develop your own.
The "Green Movement" is the fastest growing and most essential movement in our history.
Innovative solutions combined with new modes of thinking, of reconstructing culture, will be the savior of our planetary crisis.
Let this be an open space for the imaginative-
Reflect on the change the education of this course has offered you.
11 comments:
This course has beyond doubt opened my eyes to the situations our country and our world are all facing together. Before this course, I may have been dimly aware of the way our food is grown, how global warming is changing the face of the planet, and the unbelievable changes we have inflicted on ecosystems across the world, but they all seemed like far-off distant problems that wouldn’t affect me for many many years, if at all. But since taking this course, I am more aware of the environment around me, and how every decision I make, no matter how small, has an affect on everything and everyone.
My eyes have also been opened to the destruction of our culture due to corporate brainwashing and fashionable brands. My whole life I have been content and unquestioning of the way things are, but not anymore. Now every time I see an ad on TV urging me to buy buy buy, I feel a deep sense of disgust. I’m also more apt to question the world around me. Why do I feel like sitting here watching TV for hours? Why do I keep eating frozen meals, even though I know they aren’t healthy? Now I feel compelled to turn off the TV and cook my own meals. Thanks to this class, I feel I can make informed decisions, and help change the world along the way.
I think can think of a fair many ways in which ADP III has altered my behavior on a superficial level: learning to eat something before class so my stomach doesn't make obscenely loud grumbles, how to manage multiple projects over extremely long periods of time, trying to retain some semblance of happiness after depressing statistics and images and facts...
But those are already fading memories of just another ADP class. There have been alterations to my self on a much deeper level, many that have reached me at my core and essence of existence, through the food I eat to the art I create. I realize that this class has made me a global citizen, a member of a world society. I'm not in the dark anymore about global issues, other cultures, crises, wars, famines, collapses. I don't have ignorance as an excuse to let things go by unnoticed. I have a global awareness of environmental issues faced in countries all over the world--locally, in the United States in Montana, in Australia, in China, in Africa, in the Amazon, etc. One of the greatest things I think this class has given me is a renewed relationship with nature, even something as small as a single tree. But it was an interaction where I fostered growth, and saw change, and spent time unencumbered by the accoutrements of my modern day existence.
If only I could tangibly measure the miles and miles of progress in my self-awareness! I know that at this point I am light years ahead of where I was a month ago, and further from two, three, four months ago by far. Cognizance about what I eat and where it comes from, about the life cycle of all of my personal belongings, who is making the clothes I wear, where my technology goes when it is obsolete.
With every lecture we were given knowledge, and therefore power to use or ignore that information. I've been handed the necessary tools and people and passion to make immediate changes in my life and in the lives of those around me. This class was a turning point--to accept the truth and make the necessary changes, or go back to a life unawares and unconcerned. And I know that I am choosing to make a difference.
I found it interesting when people complained that this class didn't have anything to do with art. While it did not directly teach us artistic techniques or processes or discuss or critique work, we saw ways to use a myriad of new materials, to incorporate nature into art, to harness people power and use pieces to protest or support something. But most of all, I think we learned how to see differently, how to appreciate even the most menial aspects of our life that we'd never given a second of thought to. And that new vision, that new way of seeing, is, in my opinion, the very essence of what art is.
The modification to my consumer behavior has drastically altered in the past three months. I feel as though my eyes have opened and I am much more aware of global issues and how they relate to me and I to them. I now pay attention to the labels on the clothing I wear; Not the brand but, rather, where it is made. I pay attention to food items and their ingredients, where they're from, its expiration date and so on. Recently I went shopping and found a shirt for five dollars that was made in China. Hesitantly and shamefully, I bought it. Previous to this course there would not have been an ounce of guilt in my body, there would be pride: "I'm a bargain shopper and got a sweet shirt for 5 bucks!" But now when I wear the shirt I wonder who made it, how much they were paid, how much time they spent, their working condition, age... I feel as though I am clothed in unhappiness and unfairness. It is a dilemma for me though. I'm the typical poor college student and all I want is a tee shirt. It seems simple but it isn't.
Conscious to what I am buying: yes. Disciplined to buy (or not buy) the right thing: ...I'm getting there. It is so easy to buy the three dollar gallon of milk as opposed to the six dollar gallon or the five dollar shirt rather than the twenty dollar shirt. I still consider myself "in training".
I do however feel a bit more like an activist attempting to enforce better eating habits on family members or even fellow grocery shoppers (although I don't think the grocery shoppers appreciate it much).
I am becoming a bit of a stickler when it comes to saving electricity and energy. My hair air dries more often, I use lower voltage energy saving light bulbs and rechargeable batteries, try to take shorter showers, and turn off any unnecessary light or electronic.
Maybe these are small steps, but I am adjusting. Change will not happen overnight, but making small personal changes, building up on those and helping bring awareness of global issues to others
is a start on fixing the world in which we live.
Sean Thompson
When all is said and done the only thing that we as people have is this planet and in order to really understand the impact that human population growth on Earth we must see where we stand in Earth’s history.
Earth: 4,500,000,000 years old
Life: 3,500,000,000 years old (we’re talking life here people. For 1 BILLION YEARS before this the only thing to talk to was a rock, molten or otherwise…
Humans: 150,000 years
The Earth is old and humans are young.
All the talk about limited resources on a global scale has only been around for the last 100 years of humanity. Which leads me to my next point: The Earth is small and humanity is potentially as large as time itself and though population growth can be slowed, it can never be stopped nor should it.
I feel that humans are not reliant on the planet we were originated on. We live in a universe not on a planet. The human mind can break all boundaries including those that hold us on earth. My answer to our problems as a species is to take to the stars!
Feeling too crowded in your future city? Then get up and move to Mars! Seems ridiculous right? But is it any more ridiculous then Europeans crossing the Atlantic to settle in the new world of North America? Not really. But it will take time to figure out how such a cold and far off place as another planet could be colonized. Until then we need to stay alive on the planet we have and avoid a collapse at all cost because if society collapses then so too does the technology and innovation that will one day save our species from themselves.
This course has made me think (and worry) more than any course I have taken in my college experience. The material covered in class, the readings, and even my own research has been most enlightening and inspiring to make a change. I cant help but be skeptical though, with regards to the future, humanity, and nature. I feel as though we have gone too far. Humanity has gone too long wearing our consumerist blindfolds, ignoring all of the consequences that are continually tapping us all on our shoulders. Is it possible, in this "biggest movement of all time" to revert the damage that has been done and sustainably support a rapidly growing population? I can't believe it is possible without great sacrifice. Something just has to give to put this planet back in order.
Maybe it is because I live in america, but it seems one of the biggest procrastinators or "foot draggers" in this environmental movement is consumer culture. Consumerism is relentless. Every one is just out to make a dollar, even if that means using green washing to sell products.
To me, to be green or sustainable is to stop. If we haven't built sustainable batteries, we should not use them. If disposable products such as plastic bags are filling landfills, stop making them and reuse existing. It is the pressure of our consumer culture however, that constantly encourages more. Buy Buy Buy. Purchasing most products that say they are green only perpetuates this endless cycle. Its just so frustrating. We need to break the chain.
This course has significantly changed the decisions I make as a consumer. In my case, Trumpy’s lectures specifically the ones on food and labeling schemes have made the greatest impart on my everyday life. I come from a household were my mother would never buy anything which had to insist it was good for you, for example Kraft Macaroni and Cheese insisting it was made with real cheese. Well I hope it would if it has cheese in its name, but considering the “cheese” is a bright orange colored powder I don’t actually expect it to. I have felt that I have always made fairly good decisions when choosing food with the least amount of processing if not none at all. To me the real sacrifice has been cutting back on my out of season and exotic fruit consumption. I adore honeydew, cantaloupe, limes, and not to mention papaya and mangos. I know can no longer in good conscious get excited when I see a halfway decent papaya in the fruit section. I now wake up Saturday mornings for the farmers market and make due with acorn squash and apples, and the occasional pear, crying only occasionally when I thinking about my family back home eating nopal or jicama.
This course has opened up my eyes on so many troubling issues surrounding my environment and my world this very day, which I had been completely blind to in the past, or maybe I was just simply naive or ignorant. However, now discussing all of these environment issues, I hope to continue to learn more and more about the troubles that are out there and what can or cannot affect me personally in the future, or what it is I am doing now that is affecting my world and my environment for the worse.
However, what does really upset me about the “green movement” is that I think that it is just another pop culture fad that is going around and eventually people will get tired of it or bored of it and come up with something new to follow and something new that is “the cool thing to do.” I think even thought “think green” is a very prominent part of American culture right now, that it is known and popular for the wrong reasons, and that the majority of people don’t really understand or know what it means or stands for or how important it truly is.
Being in this course definitely opened my eyes to the truth about our environment, but it also made me very well aware of the fact that most people have no clue how bad the shape of our environment is becoming and how quickly as well. If so many people are still unaware of the facts and the truth, then how can we possible make a big enough difference to try and save our environment or at least prolong the inevitable?
This course has made me want to become a part of the solution rather than the problem. I have become more aware of what I am consuming and throwing away. I had not realized what condition our world is in and how I was affecting the Earth. Lately I am constantly thinking of ways to help. So far I have not come up with any great epiphany's on saving the world; however, I have opened the eyes to others who have not taken this course. I have found myself talking about the things I have learned, mostly the information that I have been astounded and shocked about. I have no doubt shocked others. I am slowly starting to change, and slowly changing others.
There was a time when I wanted to give up on this green movement, but I didn't. I felt that it will not matter if just one person is changing. But I realized it is not just me and that I am responsible for helping others change. Because of this class I am more aware of what is going on and I feel a duty to tell others. It would not be right for me to hold this information and not share it. I realized that even though I have not yet come up with an amazing earth saving idea, just by networking and sharing the information I have learned makes a huge difference. It will allow others to change, and the power of a group will begin to form. By networking, new ideas will start to come into play, and I have hope for our society. I want to be able to raise a family in a healthy environment, and the way to do that is to change now.
Yikes, okay. Well, this course is a negative influence for a few reasons, and a very positive influence for many others. The negative: it is frustrating to sit in our class and hear about so many things that we are doing wrong as a human race, while at the same time being attached to finishing our education. It's an ironic situation. If we did not attend a class like this, we might not understand the problems we face quite to this degree. On the other hand, our education is what keeps us from going out and actually making a difference. The fun question is the one that is hackneyed by teachers everywhere: "Are we the difference?" So, the negative: I'd like to be out in the world doing something rather than subjecting myself to the dulling effects of seeing problem after problem listed and detailed in our lectures and our readings. Dulling, jading.
The positives: I've learned a lot. I feel that I more fully understand many of the issues that we face. I also am confident that I will have some positive impact on the world, because there is so much that needs impact. In fact, it gives me a "There's nowhere to go but up" attitude that I find somewhat humorous, and somewhat scary. Can we get further down? Yes.
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