The Sustainability Reader:
A Work Still in Progress

For my senior project, I combined a whole load of activities, and I called them prongs. I started out with the first semester and prong working with Jim Farrell on a Sustainability Reader. I would begin with this a general reader as a broad exploration in sustainability and then combine it with a more focused look at place with my second semester senior project, Place-Based Sustainability.

The reader would introduce categories of sustainability and suggested readings to understand the issues more in depth. Yet, this proved to be more difficult than I had thought. I wanted so desperately to read everything on every topic so that I could pick and provide the best readings for each topic, and then I wanted the most appropriate tone in my introductions. I wanted it to be personal enough where people would want to continue reading the reader. I often times find myself falling asleep to the horrible facts of the destruction of our earth, and I shouldn't be, yet when ideas are so broad and make no personal connection it is hard for me to understand implications on all levels.

In the end, I had trouble writing this the perfect way that I wanted. I was trying to be a mixture of David Orr and Barbara Kingsolver in a semester. I was stuck on having the essays the way I wanted them, and as a result, only 2-3 of those essays were completed. I have drafts and drafts of the other 10 or so, yet they are not complete.

But again, this process to a final project has introduced me to many new authors and ways of writing. I was extremely frustrated to let this project go, I thought it would flow so well with my second project, but I did learn so much from writing techniques to handling frustration, to what is interesting for a reader. I have taken what I have learned from the CIS department, and realized that this Sustainability Reader is a life project, and I can let this project go, for now, for my own personal sustainability. I have included My first and second outlines to show my initial ideas concerning the sustainability reader and how they evolved over the semester.

Sustainability Reader:

An Overview/Outline

(First Outline)

I want this “book” to present a big question, and answer it in a big way in the end. This needs to be a book that can enlighten both people interested in an introduction in sustainability as well as people who are decently familiar with some aspects. This needs to be a holistic approach to sustainability with an emphasis on place. My general argument needs to not be easily refuted, I can do this by telling a story because a story can't be refuted. In the introduction I would like to focus on sustainability as an end through place. Possibly using Wes Jackson's ideology of using natural systems as a model for life, or mimicry of the natural world for our social worldview. I could possibly present the question of “How are human beings natural?” or “How can culture be natural?” Possibly delve into the fact that self-interestedness is or isn't natural and connect that to consumerism and how humans are not made to be in a commercial, materialistic system such as we have today.

I would also like to place extra quotes to each topic, poetry and hopefully art, to make this an all-encompassing experience of sustainability.

Intro: criteria -Nature as a model (Wes Jackson)

-The audience should be anybody interested in sustainability (not too technical)

-Local terms (thinking about place, and the importance of sustainability within place. More local efforts of sustainability are often easier and a community builder.)

-Incorporates long-term thinking

1. Definition Of sustainability

2. Place –Alan Thein Durning-“This Place on Earth; Home and the Practice of Permanence” Chapter 1-Place

3. Economics/business –Herman Daly?? “Five Policy Recommendations for a Sustainable Economy” from “Sustainable Planet: Solutions for the Twenty-first Century”

Community

4. Agric/food-Wendell Berry? “ The Unsettling of America Culture and Agriculture” or Wes Jackson “Becoming Native to this Place” Or Marty Strange? Or Dana and Laura Jackson?

5. Spirituality I need help on this

6. Observation-Descriptive nature writing of place? Such as Ed Abbey-“Desert Solitaire” or possibly a Barbara Kingsolver? Do I need this??

7. Water Do I need this??

8. Technology

9. Transportation-Alan Durning on cars?

10. Materialism

11. Globalization

12. Development Do I need this??

13. Ethics and Philosophy Do I need this??

14. Politics- “Sustainability, Political Judgement and Citizenship; Connecting Green Politics and Democracy” John Barry (too technical?)

15. Education-David Orr on Education? Or Stephen Sterling?

16. Organizations and movements

17. Family and sex Do I need this??

18. Personal sustainability

19. Wilderness

Art- I want to place just a few pieces, should I talk about them, or just have them there?

Poetry- I would like to do the same thing with this as with the art.

Revised list:

Intro

1. Definition Of sustainability

Intro: Because the reader is based on sustainability, it is necessary to define sustainability and the confusions between different definitions.

Ideas for Quotes:

--Bruntland commission

--My CIS definition

--Connect to local and place

--Sheri

--Google search sustainability

--Quotes

--History? Timeline-Env. Timeline or sustainability timeline?

Sustainable Development:

“…voices in the debate about paradigms are searching for a postmodern, ecological alternative that is more adequate and creative—and which gives us a basis for action. This is where we need to ground sustainable education” p.51 Stephen Sterling Sustainable Education; Re-visioning Learning and Change. 2001. Green Books Ltd Devon.

“Sustainability is the ability of a system to sustain itself in a relation to its environment” p.54

“Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable—to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The concept of sustainable development does imply limits—not absolute limits but limitations imposed by the present state of technology and social organization on environmental resources and by the ability of the biosphere to absorb the effects of human activities. But technology and social organization can be both managed and improved to make way for a new era of economic growth. The commission believes that widespread poverty is no longer inevitable. Poverty is not only an evil in itself, but sustainable development requires meeting the basic needs of all and extending to all theopportunity to fulfil their aspirations for a better life. A world in which poverty is endemic will always be prone to ecological and other catastrophes.

Meeting essential needs equires not only a new era of economic growth for nations in which the majority are poor, but an assurance that those poor get their fair share of the resources required to sustain that growth. Such equity would be aided by political systems that secure effective citizen participation in decision making and by greater democracy in international decision making.

Sustainable global development requires that those who are more affluent adopt life-styles within the plant's ecological means—in their use of energy, for example. Further, rapidly growing populations can increase the pressure on resources and slow any rise in living standards; thus sustainable development can only be pursued if population size and growth are in harmony with the changing productive potential of the ecosystem.

Yet in the end, sustainable development is not a fixed state of harmony, but rather a process of change in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development, and institutional change are made consistent with future as well as present needs. We do not pretend that the process is easy or straightforward. Painful choices have to be made. Thus, in the final analysis, sustainable development must rest on political will.”

--From One Earth to One world…Our Common Future p.8-9

Possible Readings:

1. “The problem of Sustainability” Ch1-“Two Meanings of Sustainability” Ch. 2—Ecological literacy

2. “Sustainability: Rhetoric or Reality?”—David Munro-Sustainable World

3. “The Goals of Sustainable Development include a harmonization of Economic and Environmental Goals”—Econ reading

4. “Sustaining Sustainability: Lessons from Ramapo College Michael R. Edelstein

2. Place

Intro: I want to focus on a few selected quotes about place. My realizations of sustainability through place, how it makes sense to me on a local level, perhaps even more can be done on a local level then nationally. Define a feeling of place to me, and convey an understanding of place. Compare place now to that of the past. How place has popped up into my everyday vocabulary and just makes plane sense.

Ideas for Quotes:

--David Orr

--Allen Durning

--Gruchow

--Barbara Kingsolver

--Ed Abbey

--Steinbeck

--Orion

--Rooted in the land??

Possible Readings:

1.  Alan Thein Durning-“This Place on Earth; Home and the Practice of Permanence” Chapter 1-Place

2. “Does Community have a value?-a Reply” Carol D. Esbjornson

3. “Dwelling: Making Peace with Space and Place” Deborah Tall

4. “An approach to Local Engagement” –Reclaiming the Commons, Brian Donahue

5.  “Work in Place of Place” Gary Snyder, The Practice of the Wild

6. “Discovering One's Own Place” Paul Gruchow, Grass roots

3. Economics/business

Intro: Explain the problems with our economy, the exclusion of externalities, define externalities. My problem with economics, not being able to understand economics much because of my seemingly small connection. I can find a connection to place and to food, but to economics, I have no education in such a path, the class I took lead me into loops, terminology is not accessable to people who don't follow the economic standpoint of today. How I am part of an economy which seems to be ruling our country in terms of supply and demand, large corporations, and advertisement, and therefore it is important to me that I understand what is lacking, and how our country finds value in products; in the ends and not in the means. There is no value placed on natural resources, such as soil, and biodiversity lost in conventional agriculture, and because of this it makes it easy for people to ignore their impacts. We also don't value our time, or even our families anymore, perhaps placing a value on such topics will bring the importance of our environment and our involvement in our place.

Possible Readings:

1. Herman Daly?? “Five Policy Recommendations for a Sustainable Economy” from “Sustainable Planet: Solutions for the Twenty-first Century”

Community

2. Wendell Berry, Home Economics, “Two Economies”

3. “The Idea of Local Economy” Wendell Berry, In the Presence of Fear

4. Agric/food

Intro:

Ideas for Quotes:

--Gene Bakko

--Wendell Berry

--Wes Jackson-Dana Jackson

--Marty Strange

--Dave Legvold

--Hayes Atkins

--Steve Simmons --- Agroecology course from U of M

Experiences to reflect on:

--Austria

--Ecuador

--Working with Dave

--Working on garden this summer

--Agroecology course

--Land institute

--Paper written for Bakko

Possible Readings:

1.  Wendell Berry? “ The Unsettling of America Culture and Agriculture”

2. Wes Jackson “Becoming Native to this Place” Or Marty Strange?

3. Or Dana and Laura Jackson?

4. “Coming into the Foodshed” Jack Kloppenburg, jr, John Henderickson, and G.W. Stevenson

5. “The Transfiguration of Bread” Paul Gruchow, Grass Roots

6.“Putting Tomatoes By” Paul Gruchow, Grass Roots

5. Spirituality I need help on this

Intro:

Ideas for Quotes: Talk to David, Larry Rassmussen sp?

Possible Readings:

1.“Christianity and the Survival of Creation” Wendell Berry Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community

6. Technology

Intro:

Possible Quotes:

--Sustainable planet?

--Green Technology

--Links to various technologies and options

--William mcdunnough—sp?

--Hyper cars…

Possible Readings:

1. “Technology innovation and env. Progress” -JohnT. Preston-Thinking Ecologically

7. Transportation

Intro: Why cars are important in this reader…Because of the loss of place that we have incurred from using cars, which transform our cities. Allen does a great job of this. Also mention how cars brought about the debate on wilderness, and how griding the entire US has made an environmental travesty on our world, creating not only a necessity for mass transit which has predominantly failed with a few exceptions here in the us, but also makes us dependant on foreign oil.

Possible Readings:

1. Alan Durning on cars in “This Place on Earth”

2. “Coexisting with the car”-Emil Frankel –Thinking Ecologically

8. Materialism

Intro: Materialism connects with economics and globalization really well, I will probably put the three together and near politics. However, consumerism is another problem well in addition to cars that our country has. Predominant environmentalists have argued for some time that the problem with environmental awareness and sustainability has to do with the north/south debate, meaning the southern hemisphere has an overpopulation problem, and the north has an overwhelming consumption problem, and if both sides would curb their problems, we could perhaps reach some sort of balance. So we need to start doing our part. This is the section where people can really start doing things on a personal, individual level. Shopping consciously is like voting. Every time you buy something you are, in a sense, voting. With companies looking predominantly on supply and demand, if the consumer becomes educated and won't stand for certain unenvironmental products and socially irresponsible products, the demand will change. People buy things everyday. We can be more resourceful, and in terms of place, we can think of buying locally, supporting a local economy. Think of Judy Wicks here.

Possible Readings:

1. “The Ecology of Giving and Consuming”-David Orr-The Nature of Design

9. Globalization

Intro: Globalization is said to have both its positive and negative points. I would like to discuss a few of each. Supporters of green democracy and sustainability often claim that decentralization is better than centralized in terms of government, just like place-based education, placed-based government, economies, etc. Why should we buy tomatoes from Chile, when we can grow them here? The loss of culture is alarming, however the appreciation and education of other cultures is amazing. The sharing of information and technology is also a plus. So how do we handle such problems? How do we globalize in a sustainable way?

Possible Readings:

1. “Coping with Ecological Globalization”-Hilary French State of the World 2000, Ed. Lester Brown Et. Al. (New York: Norton 2000). 184-202

2. “Globalization, Trade and Interdependence” Elizabeth Dowdeswell and Steve Charnovitz—Thinking Ecologically

3. “Globalization: Threat or Salvation?” Paul Streeten

10. Politics

Intro: Politics and democracy are a huge portion of our American heritage. We need to be entertaining the ideas of Green Democracy. I would like to go through some terminology, some theory behind both democracy and green democracy. Should we have constitutional amendments which focus on the environment? What are the rules of a sustainable government? Because of the heavy influence that politics has on its way of organizing people, it is important to think in terms of green politics. Both on how we could implement green politics, what we can do now in terms of locally versus nationally, and what current thoughts are on the topic now.

Ideas for Quotes:

•  Ralph Nadar

•  Paul Wellstone

Possible Readings:

1. “Sustainability, Political Judgment and Citizenship; Connecting Green Politics and Democracy” John Barry (too technical?)

11. Education

Intro: needs to focus on place-based education, environmental education. May talk about both secondary education as well as k-12. I would like to touch upon the loss of trust, parent connection, teacher motivation with current education striving to include bureaucracy and conforming to certain standards as well as certain rights and wrongs. Use my experience of SES, CIS, Campus Ecology, This American Life, the Chicago School district example, and examples from Todd Carlson and Brad Johnson, who set up SES and the ethics behind it.

Possible Readings:

1. “What is Education For?”-Earth in Mind

12. Organizations and movements

Intro: Sustainability is only a more recent part of a greater Environmental movement. Perhaps I would like to create a simple timeline of environmental awareness, acts, laws, both internationally and nationally, to show trends of thinking and an overall process. But organizations are an important part of this movement. Discussion of place effecting certain leaps in the environmental activism realm could be interesting, as well as an actual account of student organizations, etc.

Ideas for Quotes:

1. Env. Mov. Timeline? –Anthony Lott

Possible Readings:

1. “Conflicts of Global Ecology: Env. Activism in a Period of Global Reach” Vandana Shiva- Alternatives 19 1994 195-207

2.“Student Orgs”—Julian Keniry and Brian Trelstad—The Campus and Env. Responsibility

13. Personal sustainability

Intro: The sustainability movement is usually directed or thought of as purely environmental, or having to do with place, or renewable energies, etc, but not often enough do we think of it in terms of body, or person. People interested in devoting a portion or all of their life to the movement need to also take a step back from time to time to recognize their bodies own needs. This personal sustainability can be understood by connecting your body to your place and environment. Connecting back to economy, if our economy today would emphasize a value in personal sustainability and time for the understanding of ourselves and the needs of our bodies in terms of relaxation, positioning, the food and digestion we participate in, the air we breath, and the way our emotions play into our everyday lives, then perhaps we would begin to understand the value of our everyday lives and needs.

Possible Readings:

1. “Underlying Patterns and Perception” “Day 5: Earth” Understanding place requires both a microscopic and macroscopic perspective.

2. “Connections” “Day 26: Connections” We understand the connections between body and earth through experience.”

3. “Connections” “Day 27: Motion and Emotion” We track emotions in the body through sensation

4. “Connections” “Day 29: Art and the Environment” As we feel, we care.

5. “Connections” “Day 31: Embracing Place” As we imagine earth as body, we can no longer remain separate.

14. Wilderness

Intro: Wilderness is a huge part of sustainability, both viewing it from biocentric and anthropocentric terms. We need to preserve wilderness in order to preserve essential biodiversity and to understand natural processes and in possibly learning from such processes and converting our lives in such a way that we model our natural models. People may also want to preserve wilderness because of how wilderness defines their place or home and the way wilderness and nature can be a spiritual sanctuary, perhaps relating both to religion and personal sustainability.

Ideas for Quotes:

1. “The words nature, wild, and wilderness” Gary Snyder, The Etiquette of freedom

Possible Readings:

1. “The Great Wilderness Debate, Again”—David Orr—The Nature of Design

2. “The Necessity of Wild Places” Paul Gruchow

3. “Sustainability and Wilderness” Reed F. Noss

4.   “Preserving Wilderness” Wendell Berry, Home Economics

Conclusion

Art- I want to place just a few pieces, should I talk about them, or just have them there?

Poetry- I would like to do the same thing with this as with the art.

Some things to think about:

I want to put page numbers by each reason, I need to stick to the above criteria. I need to get the last few books from the library, read and establish the essays, and write the introductions to each. I need to continue to think of place and sustainability. I need to keep my eyes open for quotes, poetry and art. I really need help with the Spirituality section and perhaps the Technology section, and I need to get my copy of The Unsettling of America from Willie. I am thinking of having two readings for at least half of the topics, although some are short, I think it should be fine. I need to E-mail SES teachers.

Sustainability Reader: Second Revised Outline

1. Intro(make a connection between sustainability and all of the topics and the necessity of having sustainability in part of ones vocabulary.
2. Sustainability(two working drafts)

-There won't be any readings on this, this is only to establish a definition of sorts for the continued conversation…

1. Place (I have three working drafts)

-Debrah Tall, Dwelling: Making Peace with Space and Place, In Rooted in the Land

-Gruchow-Discovering one's Place

-Scott Russel Sanders- Staying Put

1. Food (essay is Done)

Alan Durning -Stuff

Toby Hemingway-Gia's Garden on permaculture

Wendell Berry the Pleasures of Eating

1. Education(two or three working drafts)

-David Orr

-Stephen Sterling-quotes and a diagram or two

1. Politics(two working drafts)

-David Orr—four challenges in sustainability? Or another essay?

-Sheri Breen article from class introducing green theory on politics, essentially giving more vocabulary…

1. Energy/transportation?(two working drafts)

-Alan Durning on Cars (so I want this to be Car in the City, or the chapter he has in This Place on Earth?)

-Article or the whole magazine: Yes! Magazine, Issue #31

1. Economics(I have never tried to tackle this one yet, it scares me)

-Herman Daly-from Sustainable Planet

-one more?

1. Materialism(this one is done)

-Nature of Design- David Orr, the Ecology of Giving and Consuming

-need one more! Possibly the Values essay from class…

1. Personal Sustainability(I have two working drafts)—I already need to add two quotes that sherry s. said the past few days to me…

-Earth and Body –3 chapters, but stress the whole book

1. Conclusion(to tie things up, establish some found connections between each topics and essentially what I hope readers will take with them. Do I want to talk about place-based sustainability, is this a place-based reader rather than just a sustainability reader? It might be fun to have a theme, but I would only discuss it in the intro and conclusion… that way it can be applied to any place…

Then I want to list some other resources for people to read on