Ethics on Sustainable Living: Credo

Paul Fischer

12/3/2015

Dr. Amy Seidl

Ethics on Sustainable Living: Credo

One concern which was raised that I was not aware had been appropriately raised is that global cooling periods occur with greater regularity than were previously known. This indicates that the machinery developed during the industrial age does have a place and time, but for the health of the planet, and the animals and plants living on it, the time is not now. It becomes necessary to develop these resources and the machinery and infrastructure which accompany them without using them, a feat far more difficult than simply banning them. It also brings the concept that a response to human development in the form of increasingly radical temperature fluctuations could also result in a colder future, for me once believed to be only in the realm of fantastical fiction.

I entered the class with newly acquired knowledge about the effects of lead on human health, that it caused 50% of American heart attacks in the latter part of the last century and lowered the national IQ significantly. That one of the main sources of exposure is from stormwater runoff was new information for me. There is a responsibility to mitigate damage from stormwater runoff in anycase, this costs many states, and our own, a great amount of money, and has a great effect on human health. In lab I was able to see the plans to change Burlington in order to make it more friendly to people who live here, or do not want a car and may walk in the rain.

Finally I had exposure to methodologies of activism which I did not know existed in the manner before. The advice to paint it, chart it, and act on it are useful towards making any substantial change or action in our community and on a greater scale as well. That means, firstly, to identify or publicize an issue using non-violent demonstrations or through newspapers and publications. Necessity then arises to to use non-governmental organizations or other methods of exerting influence to write or create political change and action. At the end, the action is the adoption of the method, practice, or belief being proposed, whether this is to adopt new systems of operation, to simply tolerate another’s belief system, or to embrace the use of a different system in conjunction within your own.

I have nonviolently faced animals that were not appropriate for human interaction, I believe there needs to be a system of communication between nature and humans because I understand the consequences of a breakdown of this system of communication. As a small child, with this animal much larger than me, I can remember after this incident the look of regret, pain, even compassion in the eyes of the animal; perhaps a pup would not have been damaged by the behavior. In the same manner, a community or individual that is not ready to face the challenges of sustainability which is allowed to overdevelop can and will inflict irreparable harm on ecosystems, geographic wonders, and even (or rather, most probably) the air and water upon which the community and perhaps others rely. By then, human concern will be too late.

Sometimes fires come from natural causes, and other times they are manmade, but the reality is that no matter the source, they must be confronted. This class shows not only the state of man today, and the manner in which it has left earth in a precarious situation, but also gives keys to changing that impact, and ensuring it will become or remain a positive one. It is possible that society is changing the Earth in a positive manner, in fact it is certain in some ways. Those manners of change must be reinforced, the stagnant methods of destruction must be used to learn from, though sometimes to do this the reciprocal statement must first be executed.

Finally, there can be no doubt that we now face a crisis which is unmatched and unforeseen since the time of atmospheric nuclear weapons testing. A human is not a large mammal by biological definition, but according to lecture consumes as much energy as a 30-ton prehistoric animal. Maybe those beasts served a place in the ice age, but today, just as the dinosaurs had to evolve into birds, it may be necessary for human social and technological structures to evolve as well, into structures which make full use and application of the renewable technologies, sustainable lifestyles, and programs such as LEED and passivhaus which allow current cultural or technological consumption patterns to continue, but at a minute fraction the cost in terms of energy costs.