Cinco de Mayo: Reflection

From the readings, I now have a reinforced generalization of my personal insight into sustainable design. I must admit, that I too was "greenwashed" as Laura put it from time to time and still find myself falling into these "go green" traps that in reality do little to improve the sustainability of our planet. Certainly, I don't have a problem doing my part to improve the way I live here on this earth, but in the back of my mind I always know that without the conscious efforts and changes that must be made by a large majority, much larger than current sustainability adopters, my efforts will more or less be in vein and have virtually no impact on how we sustain life on earth. Perhaps I have known, just like the farmers and many others that sustainability is a real, beneficial, feasible thing. Maybe it's not tangible or fully achievable, but sustainable design, use, and overall ways of doing things can prove to be measurable and do exist in this world. The problem though as I somewhat knew but never expressed like these articles have in more detail, is how do we accomplish this seemingly impossible task of first of all informing that sustainable design is the right way to do things, and furthermore, how do we achieve a mass, acting response to this realization. Much like Freyfogle (200?) referred to racial equality in his article being similar to the problems we are facing with sustainability adoption, the mere thought of having it prior to it being mandated was excruciating the mass majority of citizens in this country. Even the legislators and governors, both north and south, were frightened by the idea of having nonsegregated water fountains, restaurants, let alone schools when the idea initially surfaced. Once it became mandated and adopted though, looking back, I find it hard to imagine life in the United States without racial equality. So maybe the problem, is just getting over this initial help of becoming sustainable, granted it seems more like a mountain than a hump at the moment. I don't think it should really take laws and policies to get the ball rolling in the right direction and actually push towards a mass adoption to treat our planet in a decent fashion, after all it is the living breath of our existence.

As a supporter, I certainly benefit from reading articles such as these and discussing the material. But for me, my beliefs are only re-itterated and if these articles only reach people who are already accepting the task of sustainable design, how much good are they really doing. And when topics surrounding sustainable design reach audiences outside of adopters, what affect does it have on them. Do they simply disregard it, does it anger or offend them, or does it even create the slightest spark or thought in the direction of sustainability in their life. Should we try and find a different manner in which to expose the general public or nay-sayers to the material, and will it do any good when we do. I hate to think it would be or need to be a culture shock for people to give a passing glance to sustainable design, but the term has been around for quite some time now and has yet to catch on as rapid as something so seemingly less-valuable such as American Idol.

I wouldn't say my thoughts have changed after reading these articles, but rather expanded and reinforced. I now have a background and can put into words, the thoughts that have long wandered in my mind. I never considered the agricultural side of sustainable design and how farmers have been utilizing sustainability for a time long before we even had a term or definition for what they were doing. I find it interesting that they chose a method or design for the way in which they lived off their land without knowing what they were actually doing and with little external force. Surely the methods yielded and produced better crop, which in term gave them a better lifestyle, but being able to do so in mostly a win-win relationship between human life and the earth, leads me to believe that adopting this across many other areas of our lifestyle is quite possible. And it's our motives for making the decisions we do that is standing in the way for furthering our sustainability. Whether this be economical, tradition, status symbol, regulation, laziness, etc., I think the motives are something we should initially look at and try to conquer or alter which will in-turn make sustaining more plausible.

Refer to end of second paragraph for questions that arose from readings.