Everyone, please select a midterm group presentation topic by Tuesday. If you have a topic preference in mind, post it and see if anyone wants to join you. Some of the ideas we floated in class: Food ethics and environmental impacts; Thoreau, & other environmental roots icons; "Earthships"; TED Talks; Climate misconceptions; Social media as a tool for environmental activism; ...
Ch 10
1. Why was the engagement of Bella Bella's students in opposition to the Northern Gateway pipeline a "big deal"?
2. What do extractive industries like Arch Coal not "get"?
3. How much water does it take to produce a barrel of tar sands oil?
4. Why do Chinese environmentalists "thank smog"?
5. What movement has the Sierra Club belatedly joined?
6. What are Transition Towns?
DQ
- Would it be futile or constructive to push for fossil fuel divestiture at MTSU? Would it be worthwhile to invite President McPhee to speak with us again about joining the Universtiy Presidents' climate initiative, ACUPCC, in support of a green campus?
- What are some local actions that might help in "expanding public spaces and nurturing civic involvement" in middle Tennessee?
- What did you hear in the first "debate" that encourages or discourages you?
He listened to Clinton. The high-pitched political oratory seemed almost to pain him. He’d long ago despaired of the process, and of its inadequacy to address what he deems the existential threats to our climate, our food and water supplies, and the survival of life on earth, in any recognizable form. After listening for a while, he said, “Nobody’s mentioning global warming. No one wants to deal with it.” As though on cue, Clinton said, “I believe climate change is real!” But then she moved on to other wedges: immigration, the minimum wage.
“That was her environmental message?” Chouinard said. “Oh, God.”
...The company laid off twenty per cent of its workforce, which no longer consisted mainly of friends and friends of friends. “It was hard,” Chouinard said. “I realized we were just growing for the sake of growing, which is bullshit.”
...Patagonia helped launch something called the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, a consortium of big retailers, like Walmart, Macy’s, and the Gap, which, among other things, is now devising a system to give a sustainability grade to every purchasable product. “But I’ve become cynical about whether we can have any influence,” Chouinard said. “Everyone’s just greenwashing. The revolution isn’t going to happen with corporations. The elephant in the room is growth. Growth is the culprit.”
...As Chouinard steered us through the sublime vistas of Montana, enumerating extinctions and threats, one felt not depressed—or even, as one often is, in the presence of ecological jeremiads, exasperated—but, rather, almost inexplicably exhilarated. Maybe it was the trench humor, the dark comedy of the climber in dire straits. Whenever Chouinard says, “We’re fucked,” he laughs.
“He’s one of the most pessimistic people I’ve ever known,” McGuane said. “And yet one of the most fun people to do things with.”
The optimism, when it comes, is in his accounts of tiny victories, rare as they may be, and his belief in the effort, if not the outcome. “We stopped a dam the other day,” he said, at one point, as we drove along the Madison. “In Alaska, on the Susitna River. We gave a grant of twenty-five thousand dollars to a filmmaker who was making a film called ‘Supersalmon.’ The film comes out, the guy shows it around, and the governor, just like that, he kills the dam. You don’t get many clear-cut victories like that. But sometimes all it takes is one person.”
Al Gore