Happy New Year 2025!

 Wishing you all the best for the new year. 

After all the changes in 2024, which is normal for every year, we expect more changes this year.

Let's work together to make these changes to be positive for our society.

One of the things that happened last year was the creation of The STEAM Hub 4 CISS. This is the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math Hub for Creativity, Innovation, Sustainability, and Stewardship (CISS).

For more information visit https://steam-hub.academy and subscribe to the blog at https://steam-hub.academy/blog/ so you'll get updates.

Pablo L. Peña's view on Population and Wealth

 Population and Wealth

Pablo L. Peña

Warner Pacific University

ENV-100A-TF4

October 18, 2022

Population and Wealth

For this week’s paper, we’re talking about population and its relation to wealth. There

are a few things we know to be true surrounding our current environmental crisis, 1) that

the formula for human impact on the environment can be summed using this formula: Impact =

Population x Affluence x Technology, 2) that there are so many people on the planet that we’re

dealing with the issue of the population within the law of large numbers (that is, that small rates of

growth still equal huge growth outputs due to the enormity of the starting balance), and 3) that as

affluence grows birth rates drop but individual impacts increase. Any viable solution to the

problems presented to address our environmental issues must at least tangentially address

population. However, it’s not necessary to talk directly about the population when talking about

environmental solutions.

As environmental writer David Roberts points out:

“When political movements or leaders adopt population control as a central

concern ... let’s just say it never goes well. In practice, where you find concern over

“population,” you very often find racism, xenophobia, or eugenics lurking in the wings.

It’s almost always, ahem, particular populations that need reducing.”

He recounts an anecdote from the Sierra Club where a group of members, funded by

outside donors, tried to take over the national organization. Their principal policy issue involved

supporting closed border policies because allowing immigration from poorer countries would

raise their standard of living and by extension increase their environmental impact. There are

moral and ethical issues with that viewpoint though, not the least of which is the fact that the

conditions on which many immigrants are fleeing to the United States over are issues the US

helped create in the first place. It also ignores the suffering that we’d essentially be condemning

these human beings to by simply turning them away simply so we can continue to live lives that

are opulent and unsustainable without regard of the externalized costs we’re asking others to

bear.

In the end, it is a moral and ethical imperative that we take care of our fellow brethren in

need. Money is a useful tool for organizing labor and resources in a society, but economics is a

made-up human concept, not an inherent quality of life on planet Earth. Good economics and

large bank balance sheets mean very little if there’s no clean air to breathe or water to drink. If

our land is too dead to sustain the life that feeds us. Part of any solution that ensures the

sustainability of our environment has to address the impact our large population has on the

planet, but it also must not explicitly choose winners and losers based on arbitrary factors like

socioeconomics or the geographical happenstance of one’s birth. Those are follies of eugenics.

It seems that ultimately those conversations are unnecessary. It is possible to address the

issue of the population without necessarily needing to ever talk about it. Focusing on issues of

education, especially for girls, is an example of an area where we can directly address the issue,

not mention a word of population control, and lead with equity and justice in the forefront.

Simply giving girls and women education, social and economic agency, and opportunities

naturally, lead to family planning and fewer generation-over-generation births. And the best part

is the solution leads from a position that aligns not only with the goal of addressing the issue, but

also lifts all boats rather than condemns those less fortunate than us to suffer for our privilege.

References

Cunningham, W; Cunningham, M. (2020) Principles of Environmental Science: Inquiry &

Application. (Ninth Edition) McGraw Hill Education

Roberts, D. (2018, November 29). I’m an environmental journalist, but I never write about

overpopulation. Here’s why. Vox. https://www.vox.com/energy-andenvironment/

2017/9/26/16356524/the-population-question

How to be an advocate for Climate justice

 We frequently hear that we can't do anything about climate change, that everything we can do is just for self-justification, a feel-good action that is completely irrelevant. Some say that recycling, carpooling, and other individual actions will never stop the severe degradation that humans have caused to the environment. All this is nonsense!

As the whole universe is made of individual atoms, atoms that come together in the form of molecules, molecules that join into substances, substances, that can make organs, and organs become organisms, the key is organization. The vast ocean is made of individual molecules, mostly H2O -water, and is a powerful source of energy and life.

 

Picture from Photos for Class (Creative Commons)

In the same way, we as individuals of this vast human race can organize in powerful forces of change and sources of new ideas and ideals.  Which is the reason for advocacy, over the centuries many have advocated for change in the search for a more just society. Advocates for women's rights, civil rights (including, of course, the end of slavery), nuclear disarmament, the list is huge and has made our world a better place. Now environmental activists are doing the same. We have recognized names like Bill McKibben creator of 350.org who has written extensively about the danger of increased anthropogenic CO2. There are many more authors, teachers, and researchers, some better know than others, but there are many more individuals working at their local level that are not fully recognized at least by the greater society. They are not seeking stardom in our society but only want to do their part. These are the heroes that we need to know about. 

Many religious organizations and individual churches are now getting on board. Some like the Evangelical Environmental Network have a long history as it was created more than 20 years ago. About one hundred organizations came together to form this coalition among them was Warner Pacific University, Jay Barber then president of Warner Pacific is one of the original signatories. At that time President Barber asked me to be the liaison to EEN and so I have been doing it for all these years. To know more about EEN click this link.

The Religious Society of Friends known as Quakers has a long history of advocacy, being one of the first religious organizations to advocate for the ending of slavery in the USA. Now they are an important part of the environmental justice movement. Stewardship has many aspects and one of them, which is critically important, is advocacy. This can be done in many ways, from writing letters to government officers and representatives, to active marching and sittings in government offices and corporations.

What do you think you can do? Or willing to do? Can you give economic support?

The first step is to be informed, and there are many ways to get information. You are taking the first step by reading this post. Get together with other like-minded friends, colleagues, and relatives and start talking about options.

Please write in the comments if you need more information.

Allicia Hull's Pros and Cons About Dams

 Dams are all used all over the world to help conserve and direct water. Dams are able to provide a resource too far away cities to provide help. Originally Dams were erected in order to help farmers tend to their crops. Dams also create reservoirs which can be used to separate water for consumption, bathing, and other uses. As Dams became more popular, engineers were able to draw power from the Dams to create power and move turbines.

The use of Dams can help create hydropower, distribute water to more cities, and conserve water to lower effects of droughts they are also costly and can hurt the environment. The effects that Dams have on the environment can harm more than do good. “Dams change the way river's function. They can trap sediment, burying rock riverbeds where fish spawn. Gravel, logs, and other important food and habitat features can also become trapped behind dams.” (N.d, 2005) Dams affect the natural currents in the water and the fish habitat. The cost of a Dam is antimoniacal as well, and the largest Dam in China cost thirty-one billion dollars to construct, this number does not include the upkeep and maintenance of the Dam. (Yue, 2016) By not using a Dam, there would need to be other ways to save water. By utilizing water conserving appliances and measuring how much water intake is happening we can easily decrease this.

There however are many benefits of having Dams around the world. Hydroelectric power is created from the water that is passed through a Dam. It can power cities and is considered clean renewable energy. (Miller, 2020) As of 2020 Hydroelectricity powers nineteen percent of the world's energy supply. Dams are also used to help farms that normally could not contain much moisture, helping the farm prosper. By utilizing a Dams reservoir during a drought, a farm can be watered helping those resources survive. Originally farming is the reason Dams were created, to help farmers and communities during a drought as well as provide water to people. Not only have Dams given water to people in need, but it has also created jobs for many countries.

Two Sides of an Issue Essay 3

While Dams cost a lot of money and homes are relocated in the place of a Dam, they do have a lot of benefits. Hydroelectricity helps the world on a larger scale than just water conservation. Since Dams can harm the earth, a good resource would be having more Embankment Dams across the world.” The embankment dam can be defined as a dam constructed from natural materials excavated or obtained nearby.” (Breeze, 2014) These can be made of Rock and help the irrigation and water conservation that can help others. Embankment Dams do have to be tended to and watched more closely as they can be flooded, but they are a natural resource that can be utilized at a lower cost.

Two Sides of an Issue Essay 4

References

Breeze, Paul 2014 Embankment, Dams https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/embankment-dams

Miller, Brandon 2020 17 Biggest Advantages and Disadvantages of Dams, https://greengarageblog.org/17-biggest-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-dams

N.d, 2019 Dams, https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/dams/

N.d , 2019 How Dams damage Rivers, https://www.americanrivers.org/threats-solutions/restoring-damaged-rivers/how-dams-damage-rivers/

Ma, Yue 2016 Three Gorges Dam, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Gorges_Dam

Sierra Combs' Take on Population and Technology

             The Earth’s population is growing at an alarming rate. The current population according to the United States Census Bureau, is over 7.7 billion people and counting (Bureau, 2021). It is projected to increase to over 8 billion by 2025 and reach 9 billion by 2040 (LeBlanc, 2021). Humans are the most widely distributed and manifestly have a greater global environmental impact than any other species (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2020). Given current circumstances, the population increase is outpacing the ability of our planet to support it.

            Technology has increased the carrying capacity for humans. The surge of world population growth began 200 years ago and was stimulated by industrial and scientific revolutions. Advancements made in agricultural productivity, engineering, information technology, commerce, medicine, sanitation, and other modern achievements have made it possible to support 1,000 times as many people per unit area as was possible 10,000 years ago. There are still concerns about whether limited supplies easily acquired natural resources and fossil fuels, or adverse consequences of their use will result in a crisis in food production, transportation, or some other critical factor in human society (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2020). 

The relationship involving overpopulation and the environmental impacts are interrelated and complex. Some of the key environmental issues associated with overpopulation include farming impacts, deforestation, eutrophication, freshwater scarcity, and global warming. The main economic issues associated with overpopulation are food, mineral, and food shortages, low per capita income, unemployment, social and economic insecurity, and increased pressure on environmental and land degradation (LeBlanc, 2021). The term conservation vs preservation is an appropriately used term in reference to overpopulation. Earth’s massive population has a major impact on the environment and must be checked in order to preserve the planets natural heritage. Conservation vs preservation both imply a level of protection. Conservationists aim to regulate human use and look for ways to enhance the economy at the same time. Preservationists aim to eliminate human use of the environments and preserve the life of all living beings. Conservation plays an essential role in limiting human practices to a sustainable level. Conservation promotes sustainability and responsible management of natural habitats and resources. Preservation serves as a way to maintain natural areas and addresses the concern of human encroachment on the environment.

Overpopulation and overconsumption are one of the most pressing ethical issues faced at this time. There are those that oppose coercive population restraint policies on ethical grounds. They believe that population control mechanisms degrade the value of human life and is morally unacceptable. Advocates for population control assert that it is necessary to combat global poverty and the continuing deterioration of the environment. Population raises important ethical issues regarding the balance between reproductive rights and environmental and social responsibility.   

There are many proactive solutions that can be taken to resolve the issues associated with overpopulation. One unique solution could be modeled after the Population and Community Development Association in Thailand. After recognizing rapid population growth in poor, rural areas, Mechai Viravaidya developed a way to spread information regarding family planning and population growth through humorous methods. The PDA hands out free condoms, sells t-shirts with safe sex messages, and pays farmers money to paint birth control ads on the sides of their water buffalo. By addressing the topic of birth control and family planning through humor, PDA has successfully made the issue less taboo. When PDA started in 1974, Thailand’s growth rate was 3.3 percent per year. In 15 years, the growth rate fell to 1.6 percent and contraceptive use among married couples increased from 15 to 70 percent (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2020). Some other ways to solve the overpopulation issue would be educating and empowering women and giving them easy, affordable access to reproductive health services. Educating ourselves and others about the negative impacts of overpopulation is crucial. Government incentives and tax should also be put into action. Individuals can also work to provide a solution. Reducing emissions, conserving water, saving energy, and consuming less are all simple solutions that can easily be adopted in an effort to reduce our environmental impact. From the time we wake up in the morning, we are making decisions that impact whether or not we are supporting sustainable lifestyles. Our personal actions may not seem like they make much of an impact short term, but it is important to realize that they do add up over time. Adopting sustainable practices and teaching our children about sustainability is important not only for our own future, but for our children and our children’s children. Our planet as well as future generations can all benefit from the sustainable practices we engage in today.

 It is an innate human desire to want to produce, but we are doing it at an excessive rate. It is imperative that we implement solutions that will clear paths forward to a more sustainable world where humans can share a habitat and resources with other species. Scarcity of our resources will only ensure suffering, war, and death.

References

Bureau, U. S. C. (2021, July 7). World population Day: July 11, 2021. The United States Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/stories/world-population-day.html.

Cunningham, W. P., & Cunningham, M. A. (2020). Principles of environmental science: Inquiry and applications (9th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.

LeBlanc, R. (2021, February 6). The environmental impacts of overpopulation. The Balance Small Business. https://www.thebalancesmb.com/how-overpopulation-impacts-the-environment-4172964#:~:text=2%EF%BB%BF%20Population%20is%20growing,to%20eutrophication%20and%20global%20warming. 

Mary Davis' Take on "China' One Child Policy"

         In 1978, the new Chairman Deng Xiaoping reversed many of the previous Chairman Mao’s policies, including discouraging large families. This was due to China’s population growth that would only continue and put a strain on their sparce resources. The most controversial policy Chairman Deng established was a one-child-per-family policy. While there were some exceptions for farmers and minorities, the punishment for forbidden children was severe and include forced abortions, sterilizations, and the extermination of infants. The government became concerned about the ‘birth dearth’- whether the population would continue to rise to keep the economy growing and society functioning. And so, in 2015, the policy was relaxed to allow two children to families. And although the one-child policy was terminated, birthrates have remained low. India did not have the same success as China with their form of population control - obligatory sterilization. Public outrage forced the government to turn over control to the individual states and their population is still expected to reach 1.7 billion by 2050 while China on the other hand, will reach zero population growth by 2030.

While the one-child policy sought to limit population growth so that the country and its populist could enjoy a higher quality of life, it raises the question regarding individual rights versus the collective rights. A society is created with the expectation of basic individual rights and freedoms independent of any government policies or regulations. With the government regulating reproductive rights, it viewed humans as a group with economic implications rather than individuals that made up that community. Of course, even with the policy in place, there were exceptions for rural areas where families needed extra hands in the fields or if the parent’s job was a hazardous one. Even with these exceptions, the atrocities carried out against women as the actual enforcement of the policy included job loss, abortions – either forced or used for sex-selection, child abandonment, infanticide and in 222 million cases, sterilization (Jian, 2013).                                                                                                       

Along with the savage acts of enforcement, there were other impacts of the policy. With the individual families choosing male children over females, a gender imbalance was created where now there are 30 million more men than women (NPR 2016). In addition to too many men, a lack of siblings and in future generations, a lack of aunts and uncles, leave a rapidly aging population with only one child to care for multiple elderly relatives. This is referred to as the 4-2-1 problem – 4 grandchildren, 2 parents and one child (Cunningham 2016).

With the estimated 40 million births that the one-child policy prevented, the imbalances to the country’s food supply and natural resources subsided. However, with the now smaller labor force, China may not be able to continue a successful economic growth. With this threat looming, the government has now taken the opposite stance and are focused on woman having more children to increase the country’s birthrate (Guardian 2019).

China still has the world's largest population and a responsibility to provide for its citizens and will therefore promote policies that they believe will help the community survive, whether it respects individual rights or not. As they have discovered, using the extreme policy of limiting the birthrate has created more and continuing issues. Rather than creating these policies that truly tend to disregard individual’s reproductive rights, the government should allow its citizens the opportunity to make their own choices regarding their family size. It all comes down to the basic fundamental that public policy needs to balance human rights and obligations to economic attainability.

REFERENCES

Cunningham, W. P., & Cunningham, M. A. (2013). Principles of environmental science: Inquiry & application. McGraw-Hill.

Guardian News and Media. (2019, March 2). Can China recover from its DISASTROUS one-child policy? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/02/china-population-control-two-child-policy.

Jian, M. (2013, May 22). China's brutal one-child policy. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/opinion/chinas-brutal-one-child-policy.html.

NPR. (2016, February 1). How China's one-child policy led to forced Abortions, 30 Million Bachelors. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2016/02/01/465124337/how-chinas-one-child-policy-led-to-forced-abortions-30-million-bachelors.

 

Tanya Burleson's Understanding of Our Planet

 By Tanya Burleson

Because environmental systems are interconnected, environmental science integrates several different fields to help explain our planet. A few of these are biology, geography, and economics. These fields, among others, give us logical explanations on how, when, and what was created and how it impacts our current world. Using the information discovered helps us make decisions on how we interact with the world around us.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, biology “helps us understand the living world and the ways its many species (including humans) function, evolve, and interact. Advances in medicine, agriculture, biotechnology, and many other areas of biology have brought improvements in the quality of life” (Rogers, Green, Joshi, 2019). Biology helps us understand our origin, and we evolved. Understanding how we evolved has led to the development of vaccines, medications, pet care, and so much more.

Geography, as explained by The National Geographic, “seeks to understand where things are found and why they are present in those places; how things that are located in the same or distant places influence one another over time; and why places and the people who live in them develop and change in particular ways” (National Geographic Society, 2012).

Using geography, you can map out disease infections to find its point of origin. Knowing the origin point of a disease allows us to isolate it and try to keep it from becoming a pandemic. Mapping first began in London, England, in 1854 during the cholera outbreak. “Dr. John Snow represented the deaths per household on a street map. Using the map, he was able to trace the source of the outbreak to a water pump on the corner of Broad Street and Cambridge Street. The geographic perspective helped identify the source of the problem (the water from a specific pump) and allowed people to avoid the disease (avoiding water from that pump)” (National Geographic Society, 2012).

Appalachian State University says that economics “helps people understand the world around them. It enables people to understand people, businesses, markets, and governments, and therefore better respond to the threats and opportunities that emerge when things change” (Appalachian State University, n.d.). Economics helps us understand our resources and how we use them.

An example of these three sciences working together is the COVID-19 pandemic. The CDC uses the mapping to track the outbreaks and found that COVID-19 originated in China. Scientists used biology to study the virus and determine where it originated from, either a bat or a lab. Economics helped to assess the impact of the pandemic on our society. Our government leaders were able to use all this information to make decisions to help slow the spread of the virus.

I believe we all play an essential part in keeping our planet healthy. In my lifetime, I have seen changes in our weather and our seasons. We have gone from snowy winters to icy ones. We have gone from mild summers to record heat. If we all recycled more, limited our waste, and drove less, it would help reduce some of the carbon gases in the air. If we give our atmosphere time to release or use the added carbon, the planet can start to heal itself.

References

Appalachian State University (n.d.). Why study Economics? Department of Economics. Appalachian State University. Retrieved from https://economics.appstate.edu/node/245

Cunningham, W.P. & Cunningham, M. A. (2020). Principles of environmental science: inquiring & application. McGraw-Hill Education. New York: NY

National Geographic Society. (2012). geography. National Geographic Society. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/geography/

Rogers, K., Green, E. R. & Joshi, S. H (2019). biology. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from  https://www.britannica.com/science/biology

 

Understanding Our Planet Paper

 By Adam K Eckard

            This is an essay on the nature and function of our planet and just how it can sustain life and how long this can go on. Just how we must learn how much damage humankind has done to this planet and just how it can be repaired. In other words what can we do as humans to repair our planet so that it doesn’t die taking us along with it.

            Environmental Science is an interdisciplinary science that incorporates the influences of many other sciences such as the physical, biological, and informational sciences to understand the effects of what humankind has done to the world that we live in; how we can repair it so that it is sustainable. It also studies how the natural world functions and how it has changed or evolved over the millennia.

            By gaining a better understanding of these sciences and their interdependence we can repair the planet if we work together. This includes the new economic powers such as India and especially China. We need to work together to solve these problems and the internet can make the sharing of information so much easier. The great advantage of the Information Science is that it combines the understanding of the ecology, biology, physics, chemistry, plant sciences, zoology, mineralogy, oceanology, limnology, soil science, geology, and physical science and atmospheric science. The better these are understood the more we can repair things like the ozone or come up with better way to produce power that are not so catastrophic. Such as Chernobyl or Fukushima.

            In environmental science ecologists study how plants and animals interact with each other. This includes biodiversity and complexity of the environments that make up the world that we live in. How the decline of the Great Barrier Reef affects the Eco structure and the living things that live in it. And hopefully how to fix it.

            This can include social sciences as well. The need for trained scientists in a broad range of fields has created a need for this as well. Having the proper people trained in these fields creates a need to better utilize them and to have a better trained cadre of supervisors and managers to accomplish this task. How to use the correct techniques and equipment to say repair creeks and streams in areas affected by over logging or severe forest fires. How to make a comprehensive land use plan to restore the Tillamook Forest in the Pacific Northwest. That forest has been ravaged by forest fires in 1933, 1939, 1945, and 1951. Also, in 2021 another large forest fire has been raging. To restore this forest, it would really take a very complicated plan that would take a millennium at least.

            As soon as we can get a better understanding of these sciences then we can create a truly sustainable energy grid that would emphasize more solar, and a less damaging footprint ecologically. Slowing the use of coal powered power plants. Or how to create a more natural ‘fish ladder’ so that salmon runs could be easier for the fish. This would be a major ecological and economical infrastructure for the nation and the world. Or a more efficient use of water around the world.

            This is a complicated subject not just scientifically but politically as well. To get the worlds scientists to work together might happen, but to get the worlds politicians to cooperate is a totally different matter. Political science has not been incorporated into the study of the environment yet. It is the opinion of this person that it should be, and soon.

References

Rinkesh. (2021) What is Environmental Science?

www.conserve-energy-future.com/what-is-environmental-science-and-its-components.php

Mid Summer

 Summers are hot, that is what summer is. The hottest period of the year. This year however we have experienced at the end of June, record-breaking hot weather in the Northwest of the USA. The phenomenon called a heat dome produced temperatures about 100 Fahrenheit, 38 Celcius to one day an extreme 116 F (47 C). Many people died caused by this heat. It got to national news. Click here to see CBS's great article about this with an explanation of why it happened. 

NPR photo showing cooling stations

The government at the state and city level acted immediately to help those who needed but the effort was insufficient and people died from the extreme heat. Cooling stations were set where people who didn't have air conditioning in their homes could come and stay. The need was overwhelming and now government officials are planning proactively for the next one that will happen for sure in the not-so-long distant time.

David Wallace-Welch's book "The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming is a good description of what we are witnessing now.

We don't have to wait for a long time to see the devastation that Climate Change and in particular Global Warming is having on our lives. At the same time, we are witnessing flooding and forest fires that are unprecedented.

The question now is what can we do? As individuals? As a community? 

I am an optimist and think that there are many things we can do, and the first one is to get educated in these matters, as for me the main problem we have is a lack of understanding of how nature works and how we humans are part of nature. Being educated on these issues is the first step to get organized and active. The good news is that we are not alone and we are not the initiators of the environmental movement. Many have come before us and many more are side by side with us in this endeavor.

So let us not be discouraged!

January 2021

 Even though today is December 21, 2020, I am focusing on the beginning of the year 2021. Without forgetting that we are in the midst of a pandemic, the Coronavirus (COVID 19) outbreak. There is no doubt that 2020 will be remembered for many reasons, some negative as the hundreds of thousands who have died because of the virus, the lost jobs, and the sacrifice that lockdown has imposed on families and friends. Even church gatherings have to be transformed. For my family in particular a major event, the wedding of our daughter had to be postponed. More difficult to see were the positive outcomes. Mainly because these will need long term progress to be fully understood. The ability to communicate through electronic means, the use of the Internet, has been a lesson that will produce fruitful outcomes for years to come. Innovative ways to continue with our human experience, from commerce to worship, through online concerts have experimented with mixed results but with an overall sense of the possibilities.

"99.366 Winter Solstice" by HelenHates Peas is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Regarding the environment, we have seen an increased awareness of the reality that the environment has been for many years abused. As cities in China were locked down air quality improved appreciably and urban wildlife increased. Almost everywhere around the world, big urban centers reported the same increase in wildlife and decrease in pollution; the environmental impact of lower human activity was without a doubt observed.

Now we are pondering about the ways in which we can go "back to normal' with the understanding the there will be a new normal. Not only the social disparity and injustice that is affecting our society have become unbearable, but the mechanisms for improving the standards of living have changed radically. 

The role of government has been, once again, analyzed through the lens of objectivity (scientifically based) and of the common good. "We are in this together" has become the crying motto of those working hard to stop the pandemic. Front line workers, physicians, nurses, personnel of hospital and other care facilities, and other services like fire and police departments have now been identified as "the" important people in our society. Many of us have recognized how they should benefit from a decent living wage, well beyond what is called "the minimum wage." Many of us have recognized that in order to achieve environmental restoration we need to address the social inequities ailing our society.

The questions we must ask are: 

What now? 

What is my role in this change? 

How can I prepare myself for the task ahead of me?

With whom will I work in this endeavor? 

What Bio-Region Are We Talking About?

Where are we?

It is, always, easy to forget when looking at where we are,  that we are here at this moment.
Normally we look at the geographic situation missing out the historical context. More so when we try to understand our bio -regional reality. It is true that there is a geographic reality that we must take into account, more so today when we witness climatic changes that affect us differently in different regions of the globe. While some are suffering drought, others are suffering floods, and so on.

But we must not forget that all these events are related, take for instance droughts and floods. Water is the common denominator here. How water is distributed over time around the Earth is a climatic phenomenon. About 2/3 of the surface of the Earth is covered by water depending on who you ask. Most of it is not potable, fresh, drinking water.
For more on the amounts visit the U.S. Geological Survey at the following link: https://water.usgs.gov/edu/earthhowmuch.html 

Life is intrinsically linked to water so understanding where water is, is critical for the understanding of our society. One of the most interesting tourist attractions is to travel on rivers that cross old cities in Europe, and elsewhere, where you see the historical development of those towns from the river up. In the PBS series Journey to Planet Earth a video documentary "Rivers of Destiny" makes the case for the importance of rivers in the development and sustainability of cultures around the life on the river backs. http://www.pbs.org/journeytoplanetearth/programs/rivers-destiny/. Without the river, there is no life!

Water knows no borders, even though sometimes it is the border between regions, states, or countries. Air, our atmosphere also knows no borders. Pollution of the atmosphere in one place can, and normally does, other areas. Sometimes the contamination can be felt miles and miles away from the source of contamination. Carbon dioxide produced in China will contribute to climate change in the whole world, like the one produced in the USA, Brasil, Japan, or any other part of the world. 

So we can at least think of two sources of common ground, two things that can contribute to the common good or lack of there off. Studies of the Bio-Region must include these two. water and air,  in order to see how we all are affected and how we all can contribute to the wellbeing or our society.

Business Solutions to Environmental Problems

But, before we start I have to share with you what the regulations are relative to your information.
This is what I got:

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So let's get going!

The USA government has released a report that mentions the huge cost of global climate change. So the question is: what are we supposed to do?

An organization of businessmen is proposing that the solution has to be market-oriented. Market-controlled and that it is through taxation that it can be managed. More information can be found at RepublicEn.org.

There is something coming back in this idea, the common good. Since the 70's a move towards more selfish solutions has been strengthened by the success of individual enterprises, even though the cost for the commons, the externalities, have been ignored. 

Cutting Corners and Externalizing Cost

Several times before I have blogged about how capitalists have a double standard. On the one hand, they don't want to pay taxes for the benefit of society, a society that sustains them. But on the other hand, they want society to pay when something goes wrong. They are always expecting the government, that is us, to bail them out when they make mistakes or even fraud. The example I have in mind is the disaster caused by mismanagement of a chemical plant in Texas that caused an environmental disaster when hurricane Harvey poured torrential rain over it. As you can read in the following article in The Guardian newspaper:
  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/01/harvey-shines-a-spotlight-on-a-high-risk-area-of-chemical-plants-in-texas

It was a disaster waiting to happen. Those responsible were aware of the danger but nevertheless opted for saving a few dollars, now we all have to pay. Proof of their negligence these officials were indicted for mismanagement as you can read here https://www.texastribune.org/2018/08/03/arkema-indictment-chemical-fire-hurricane-harvey/

This picture from Arkema Facebook page shows the extent of the flooding at the plant in Crosby TX.

Hurricanes are a common occurrence so how are we going to make those who are responsible for the safety of our society accountable when they neglect their duty.

Sense of Style

Reading Steven Pinker's book "The Sense of Style" helps one think about writing, have a look:
https://stevenpinker.com/publications/sense-style-thinking-persons-guide-writing-21st-century
A master of communication Pinker is clear in defining objectives and critical of the waste many authors create. We must be articulated when addressing an environmental issue, must be direct and clear without distractions or examples that are not relevant.

I am with Prof. Heidi Owsley writing a book titled "Earthkeeping" where we bring together the analysis of human nature and its relationship to how humans relate to their physical environment. We can not forget that the way one behaves relates directly to the way one thinks.

Another aspect of communicating is honesty. Are we communicating to inform? or are we communicating to convince? or are we communicating to mislead? There are ways one have to express an idea so the reader has to be involved in the process. Dave Levitan in his book "Not A Scientist" focus on the misleading tools and artifacts that people use to mislead. Mainly politicians that use this gimmicks for their political gain. http://www.davelevitan.com/not-a-scientist/ 
Natural science is a complex discipline and can be oversimplified both for good and for bad purposes.

One can talk about human evolution in general which is systematic or in particular which is selective. The systematic approach needs to take into account all particularities of its elements and that makes it complicated. For this approach to be effective the elements in the system have to be organized within categories, take for example an organism the categories would be organs and functions. Humans as organisms have organs (hearts, eyes, lungs, etc.) and functions such as senses (sight, smell, taste, etc.) and motions (grabbing,  locomotion, etc.) Individual organs can also be analyzed as systems when parts of it can be defined, this appears to be a fractal relationship appearing always in the universe.

An interesting philosophical proposition.

     

Externalizing Cost and the keystone pipeline

Keystone is in architecture the piece that hold a structure together. Metaphorically speaking is used to talk about the most important element of a system that maintains it working and holds it together, it could be a person in an organization or a species in an ecological system.

 It is in this way the the Keystone pipeline project between the USA and Canada becomes very important, not only economically, but most important politically.

So the question is why are so many people opposed to this project? And why it is so important for those involved in favor of the project?

Economically it makes sense to move resources to where they can exploited more efficiently. That means that if the raw oil extracted in Canada can be refined more efficiently in the Gulf Coast refineries then transporting it there is the thing to do. From the Gulf refineries these refined and processed petrochemicals can be exported to the rest of the world. They can also be transported to the rest of the USA if necessary.

So what is wrong with this picture? Why are so many people opposed? Aren't already lots of pipelines underground in the USA as we can see in this Wikipedia figure?

For one there is this thing about how are we using fossil fuels, and how are we adding green house gases into the atmosphere. Another is how are we supporting or not alternative technologies that are friendlier to the environment and accelerate economic growth?

It is sad that yesterday March 28, 2017 the US administration through executive orders rolled back provisions that regulated emissions from coal power plants and other environmental regulations. Now China is becoming a leader in power generation and transportation technologies such as electric cars that will conform the structure of future society. This structure is multinational, international, and global in character and there is nothing we can do to stop this trend. China on one hand and Russia in the other will tend to dominate markets based on their technological (China) and energy (Russia) resources. The pacific region dominated until now by the USA will shift its fulcrum to China and the Atlantic to Europe.

In the mean time who will pay for this? One thing is to allow free investment in energy like the Keystone pipeline, and another thing is who is going to pay for all the damage to the environment. It is ironic that the same day that the rollback of the environmental protection regulations was signed an oil spill in North Dakota near the Standing Rock indian reservation was detected. For more read here. This spill gives even more support to the demonstrators at the Standing Rock indian reservation that are afraid of the danger and damage their livelihood is facing.

Who will pay for these devastating incidents? We, of course, pay for them. This is how it has been, when ever there is a cost associated with pollution we tax payers foot the bill. The industries causing the damage get aways, sneaking out through the back door, with all the profits and gains.

This is what externalizing costs means. Internalizing gains and profits for the shareholders but making society (us) pay for all costs associated with the damaged environment. Is there anything we can do as a democratic society to change this?    

Earthkeeping

This week I learned that the class "HUM-212 Earthkeeping" that I co-teach with Prof. Heidi Owsley will not continue in the same format next year. It looks like it will change to a course focus more on "Environmental Ethics." This will change how I will be addressing my participation in the environmental movement and how I will be focusing more on the creation of an environmental professional program at Warner Pacific College. This new program will be prioritizing the science, mainly chemistry, as the need for stewardship with an technological foundation increases. So, with that in mind is how I am now focussing on the book that I have been writing.

There are many books on environmental studies that address issues related to the relationship between human activity and the state of the environment. Most are descriptive of the situation with statistics and quantification of natural resources as a function of the needs of the human population. Almost all of these books have a historical description of the changes that our societies have gone through and end with the ideas that are now in vogue for the future. Ideas based on technological and scientific discoveries such as increased efficiency in transportation and housing.

On the other hand many books have been written to describe the "human condition" from the philosophical to the psychological in order to explain behavior and to suggest ways in which human interact. Interactions that have a socio-economical implications and tangentially environmental. So there is a need for a bridging text. There is a need for a book that brings human nature and the natural world together. A text that explains the interconnectedness of human nature as a natural phenomena with the rest of the natural world, the physical world. Metaphorically using the pendulum to articulate the idea of balance, the idea of equilibrium, the idea of interconnectedness while at the same time exploring the notion of how a reality can be constructed based on empirical evidence through the scientific endeavor.

On the other hand, we have to address the issue of what makes us different as humans. What is in our humanity that makes us responsible and accountable for what is happening in nature. Acknowledging that there are natural phenomena like tectonic earthquakes that are not caused by human activity we have to understand how to prevent disasters in the face of a natural events. Even though it seems at times that humans are in control, we have to understand that the level of control generally is minuscule. The negative effects caused by human activities are over long periods of time -long term and require a deep understanding of the physical dynamics involved. There are no short term solutions that will fix the problem.

That will be one message in my new book.

A City In The Cloud

I have just find out that Microsoft is developing a system within its cloud to help city agencies to help their constituents. For an interactive demonstrations click here. These city agencies in general can be about education, health, transportation, utilities, safety, and in general anything that could have an impact on the life and well being of a city.

We are at this moment in our history going through dramatic and critical changes, maybe that is how it has been all along, but what is important is that this is our time, this is the moment that we can do something about it. There is nothing we can do about the past as the past is unchangeable, or the future as it is ahead of us. But we can make a future now based on what we do now, and that is in fact what we do all the time. Regardless of knowing how we are affecting the future, or the fact that we might no be intentional about some of the effects we are having in the future, we are modeling the future with our present actions. These ideas are of course redundant in some way but I wanted to be clear of how regardless of our actions we are affecting the future.

With this in mind let's think about education. We can't continue doing the same things in the same way as we have done for many-many years. But as we think about changes we must also think about what can't and will not change. "Human Nature" will never change, as long as we are humans we will have basic needs, and fundamental values that define us as humans. Values like freedom, justice, and respect for life are inherent in all cultures around the world. Even though the definition of these will in some respect depend on cultural context and connotation. Say freedom, in some cultures women ware costumes that cover them almost from head to toe, even though it appears that they are forced to do it, the cultural value insist that the reason behind that apparel is to free the women from male desire, or something like that.

Anyways, coming back to the idea of changing the way we do things related to education. It is clear that technology has induced a lot of changes, from the use of information that it is available online in many cases for free, to the hardware use in classroom and in online courses. So we have to stop, step back one step and evaluate what we are doing and how we are doing it. It seems to me that in most cases we are using these technologies reactive in response to the technological innovation and not proactively with a particular design, purposely with specific goals in mind, goals that have to be clearly assessed and evaluated.

The question I'm posting now relates to this intentional, proactive design of change in our education system. What are the processes that we need to define content in order to prioritize our goals?  

A World of Cities

As of March 2016, world's population is estimated about 7.4 billion. More than half, about 4 billion is believed to live in urban environments. Which makes "understanding" cities a high priority when dealing with environmental issues. "Understanding" in this context is much more than being able to describe their elements and functions with statistical analyses, architectural, and civil engineering descriptions. There must be in this analysis a comprehension of the human nature that energizes and intellectualize the integration of the urban context and this is what I mean by "understanding". There must be a deep connection between the long term effects and the short term actions taken when a city is planning development. The gradual even though in some cases brutal development based on policies generated by a non-informed government or pushed by economic interests that appear to be unstoppable that are sources of corruption have been the common around the world. But luckily there are also great examples of policies generated by good governance. In this essay I will focus more on these good examples.

In a recent article http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/berlin-fossil-fuels-divest_us_576bf316e4b08cbaeab18794  Kaufman from the Huffington Post writes about how Berlin is dis-investing in fossil fuels. This trend in the way we use investment to promote energy generation and use will have a strong impact in how we relate with the environment. Other examples refer to transportation where it is used to develop areas on top of the direct benefit brought by moving goods, and people. For example in Portland OR the MAX light rail system has been transporting a lot of people (part of a system that move more that 1.2 million people a month.) But as the light rail is connecting urban areas it is also creating new developments. A good example of this is the Orenco Station development. Planning for progress is key for a sustainable development of our society where communities live in peace.

The Commons

What do we own?

When we say we, are we talking about us citizens? Or are talking about us humans?

These questions are relevant when dealing with environmental issues because they frame our relationships within our world. That is why we talk about it in our Earthkeeping class.  We have been looking at Nietzsche's view of human nature and we talked about Hardin's view "The Tragedy of the Commons" in Louis and Paul Pojman's book "Environmental Ethics."

So first we have to analyze a few ideas about who we are as humans, what drives our actions, what stops us, how do we value our  relationships. All these philosophical questions are very difficult to answer. So here we should only try to set a basic framework about these in order to analyze what is happened to the commons.

When we think about humans we see that there is the self and the ego characterizing the individual. We are what we think we are! Thus, actions are driven by the needs set by each individual self or ego that can be from the basic survival needs (food) to the most sophisticated like recognition by others.

Thursday of last week (4/21/2016) our class went up to Mt. Tabor for what we call our "Nature Walk". One objective of this exercise is to talk about the interdependence between the city of Portland and the water reservoir that have now been decommissioned. This park is part of the commons next Warner Pacific College so we have a conversation about the need to participate in the upkeep of the park. The picture above shows students enjoying the view.

An example of how there is no way to disconnect what we do from other people's activities is what in economic terms is called "externalizing cost". When we learn about horrendous train accidents that are endangering American citizens, like the one in Tennessee we see how connected we are. To read more about the accident click here.

This time is not oil but a toxic organic compound called acrylonitrile that when burns can produce cyanide which is extremely toxic. And as we the other recent train accidents many people have been affected, this time about 5000 people have been displaced.

Again the question is who is going to be held accountable? Not only who is going to pay the cost of cleaning up, but the invaluable damage to the environment and more important to the lives of those who live near by. The norm is that when profits are made by these companies they are distributed to the owners stock brokers and fatten the bonuses of the CEOs. (BTW these CEOs are paid millions, Michael Ward CEO of CSX the train corporation in this accident made more than 10 million in 2014 according to Bloomberg, click here for the reference.)  But what happens when something like what happened in Tennessee happens, who pays?

We all know how strongly opposed are these corporation to taxation. We all know how, even in the face of huge profits, these multinational corporations get tax incentives and contribute very little to the well-being of the regions where they operate. But when a disaster like this one happens, not only the environment is damaged but the livelihood of the inhabitants is affected. 

As the ego is nurtured through growth one can see why these corporate giants are so egotistic. We see how they are so self-centered that they can't see what is around them. It looks like size matters. When a business is small and more dependent on the local/regional inhabitants, it looks like the know how to connect and see the need of protecting the commons. 

Is there a limit on size for these corporations that can make them aware of the interdependence and inter-connectivity of us all in this planet?      

Human All Too Human

The need for understanding human nature can go beyond a philosophical quest. Even though we need a philosophical understanding to frame the intricate relationships of humans. From the philological to the psychological this understanding of the human nature provides a reference that allow us to see how we can be better stewards of the environment.

This past weeks in our course Earthkeeping we had conversations around Harding's paper "The Tragedy of the Commons" trying to analyze why recently in our modern, western, capitalistic society properties that are based on communities appear to be neglected or that no one at the citizen level has the feeling of ownership. A case in point is the recent conflict in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and Forest where some armed protesters took the land violently and claimed that the land should be "returned to the rightful owners". These occupiers were not at all informed about who the owners are and who the owners were, for sure the local residents now have never been private owners of that land. And, the officers working for the federal government are in a way representatives of the United States citizenry.

This morning news from a terrorist attack in Brussels Belgium make us think about the nature of humans that are willing to die terrorizing people who are just going through their daily lives. What is it in their humanity that incites them to act in this way? The apparent motive is, according to what they claim, a fight for the liberation of their religion. But in closer analysis we can understand that these actions have nothing to do with religion. There is something deeper here!
Humans have a need for a sense of belonging, a sense of being together with their own kind. This sense sometimes implies a definition of the other, a separation between oneself and others that are in some way different. This can be accomplished by looking at color of skin, country of origin, or any other cultural difference. The reality is that there are many sources of these differences that historically have been used to separate, and make enemies of "the other."

As the news are describing what happened in Brussels, political characters are taking the opportunity to advance their agenda. From the ones that support stronger military actions and occupations, to those (a minority) who are calling for more "intelligence" to deal with the threat of terrorism. There are few who are calling for an understanding of the nature of these humans who are acting in a way that disrupts the positive progress of our society.

A question one may ask is: Why are the terrorists acting in a counter-cultural way?

Apparently, there is a lack of understanding of what the commons means. When people see how some industries are polluting the environment without regards for the common good. When people see that our planet is one and we all live in the same place, making pollution to become global even though it might be produced locally. When we see how a terrorist attack thousand of miles away from where you live is "not that far away." The idea and sense of "the commons" today has to change, we now have a technological infrastructure that allows immediate communication that brings us all together in a single humanity.

After all, we are all humans!