#debate article

[gryphon9]

WOLVES

October 29, 2010 by Australian reporter Kirsty Bennett

http://www.abc.net.au/res/libraries/cinerama2/cineramaEmbed.swf?version=2.0

From feature films to fairy tales wolves haven’t got the best reputation.

And they’re not too popular with farmers in some parts of the US either.

For years the wolves were hunted and killed but now they’re protected.

Kirsty checked out why that’s got some farmers…

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[missfitta]

Läs mitt senaste inlägg om H&M's Plus Size idioti pls.

[lovelylayladylay]

Being Nature

Hello there everyone! A while ago I published an article here about sustainable development and open space technology for a course I just finished at Uppsala University. The following is another debate article written by my classmate and friend, Magda; she talks similarly about sustainability, but also Sweden, humans in nature and some other lovely things. So if you're interested, please have a look...

Not many people around me say that the meaning of life is to consume vast amounts of commercial shit, designed to find its way to the nearest landfill within 12 months time, nor is the meaning of life to pollute and degrade our environment with such staggering perserverance that there will be close to no environment left at the end. But this is what we, we Westerners, we Swedes, do. We pollute the shit out of the environment, and we adhere to fashion magazines were they totems of spiritual completeness. At the same time, most people say that the meaning of life is love, family and friendship.

I want us Swedes to stop comparing Sweden to other countries in order to make us look better. Stop looking to the United States, Germany, Canada or China. When I was a teenager, I was cross with my parents for giving me curfews. Whenever I told my parents that my friends’ parents did not give them curfews, my parents would just say “We don’t care. You are our child, and you will be home at 10 pm. It is as simple as that. It doesn’t matter what Elin’s parents are saying. 10 pm”. At the time, I thought life was unfair but I had a lot of respect for my parents so I did as they said. Today I appreciate the curfews my parents gave me. Not only was it good for me to come home early, but my parents showed a great deal of backbone denying this demanding teen to do whatever her friends were doing. They taught me that we all have personal responsibility for our actions, and you do not need to crumble under the weight of “what everybody else does”. (Unless it is a good thing).

Through University I am involved in a project directed towards school children, 10 and 11 years of age. The purpose of this project is to introduce sustainable development to these school kids and hopefully encourage them to actively reflect on the choices they make in their daily life.  Some of them have already done this in school, but we figured we might as well help the schools a bit. We believe our project to be important. However, I wish we could conduct a project more in line with the thoughts of David Suzuki or Neil Evernden. We can keep on promoting less consumption, public transport and organic food (like we do in our project), but we must get to the root of the problem. I believe that the root of the problem is humans vain belief that we are somehow different from nature, above nature, separate from nature. If we really want to do sustainable development, we must step away from this unethical, blasphemous, dualistic notion of human as separated from nature. We are nature. But I fear that we are not there yet, society is not ready to rediscover our spiritual connectedness to nature, our place in nature, our identity as nature. Or are we?

And I wonder: why do we (you, me, society, school etc.) keep on telling children and anyone who is looking for the meaning of life, that the meaning of life is family, love and friendship, at the same time as we communicate that the way to get there is through consumption and pollution (often through the devastating management of nature)? With our project, we make an attempt at introducing the notion of a good lifestyle that is free from overconsumption and environmental degradation, but I feel we are fighting an uphill battle. However, research shows that money and stuff cannot buy you lasting happiness. “...A widely noted fact about human nature – that once our basic material needs are comfortably met, more consumption tends to make little difference to our well-being.” (The Happy Planet Index 2.0, 2009) I need food, shelter, security, love, friendship, companionship. I need to express my identity and find recognition in others’. However, I live in a society where my identity is increasingly understood in terms of how much and what I consume, as well as how much money I make. I call for a new source of identity, or really that we rediscover our ancient source of identity – nature, kinship, family, love. The environmentalist David Suzuki’s book The Sacred Balance is a beautiful reminder of human kinds humble positition in the web of life (2007). “We are made from the Earth, we breathe it in every breath we take, we drink it and eat it, and we share the same spark that animates the whole planet. Our stories tell us this, so does our science” (Suzuki 2007, p.265).

Alan AtKisson argues that “...for a sustainable solution to be adopted , it has to be seen as so much better than what people are already doing that it outweighs whatever additional time, trouble and money are required to make the change” (AtKisson 2011, p.179). I fear that AtKisson is correct, and that implies that we have a problem. The modern conception of humans as separated from nature is toxic, and difficult to modify – we need a paradigm shift. And that can take time, and I fear we do not have too much time. My friends want to spend time in nature, they do not want to be nature. But in order to do sustainable development, we must recognise that things that are immeasurable, like being nature, are important too (Meadows 2001). We must speak up for what is important, and difficult, and immeasurable. My plan is now to think of how I can encourage people to rediscover their place in nature. To spend time in nature is seldom enough. What can a school do to teach a fifth grader about connectedness to Earth? What can society do? Why are we trying so hard to keep us separated from nature?

[lovelylayladylay]

If you are interested in sustainable development...

This following is a debate type article I wrote for my sustainable development/project management and communication class. After writing, we were asked to publish it somewhere so I thought, why not Tumblr? I usually don't write a lot on this blog or even give a lot of personal opinions so please do not feel obligated to read. It's no work of genius, but if you have any interest in Open Space Technology (it sounds like something to do with NASA but I promise it's not) or sustainability in general, you may like to consider my incredibly brief thoughts...

I am currently working on a project for sustainable development with a group of 4 other people where we have written a children’s story about the possible future human kind will face if we continue to use our planet’s natural resources at such a fast and irresponsible rate. The plot follows a couple of Swedish (I am studying abroad at Uppsala University, Sweden though originally from California, USA) 11 year olds who happen upon a girl the same age but from the future; she persuades them to come with her in a time machine to see our world as a deteriorated ecosystem, destroyed by crippling consumer habits and struggling to meet the needs of the population. In the next couple of weeks, my group will take this story to 3 different 5th grade classrooms to get their review and lead a workshop about what sustainable development means and how sustainability habits can fit into their lifestyle.

I have also recently finished reading Wave Rider: Leadership for High Performance in a Self-Organizing World by Owen Harrison. In the book, Harrison searches for a clear definition of a High Performing System of people, giving various real-life example projects along the way such as the invention of the Post-It and the numerous conventions he has held himself for companies hoping to increase the productivity among their employees. In general, the conclusion is that one must be open to whatever the world has to offer, that the best way to discover a great idea is to throw and the rule book and see where the metaphorical wave will take you. The author has also developed this thinking into an actual method called Open Space Technology, based on the notion that structure must not exist in a high performing system because it inhibits discovery and possible success. 

The key principles of Open Space Technology: whoever comes is the right people, whatever happens is the only thing that could have, whenever it starts is the right time, and when it’s over it’s over, are an interesting set of “rules” to place on a group of professionals. Personally, I find it rather idealistic and a bit romantic to put this process into words because I think the entire nature of good team is just that—it comes naturally to those involved and cannot be defined in any way, and it happens every day. The personality of a “wave rider” is a groovy dude who goes with the flow and is willing to wait and see what life has to offer, which is great! But some people just aren’t like that, some people like to make lists, make plans and color code them by level of importance before placing them on an excel spreadsheet—also great! I consider myself to be pretty easy going, but a whole group of people with the same slow, laid back attitude are not likely to get much done. All kinds of characters are needed to create the most successful group.

Going back to the beginning of the article and my work with sustainable development, I think Open Space Technology is a great way to work with environmental issues. Nature is complex and the people who have the knowledge to help protect it and save humanity’s future come from all different types of sciences, political powers, and geographic backgrounds. We’re not going to take this method to the 5th graders because kids tend to need a little more organization to stay on track. Maturity is needed to best utilize Harrison’s technique. So why can’t our mature world leaders try to ride the wave towards sustainability? Maybe they have tried, maybe there are more pressing matters. But how will we be able to discuss anything without some place to do it? Earth matters and Earth is happening right now.

[emelienilsson-blog-blog]

I'm supposed to write a debate article in my Swedish class. I find it far more amusing to be on tumblr.