JAN 25. Discussion Leadership/Documentation
Team: Catherine Shen, Kaylee White, Crystal Lin
Cameron Tonkinwise’s lecture today covered when humans started to become somewhat aware of the impact they have on natural systems, the history of how sustainability came to be, understanding how sustainability was developed, and how there is a need for a new discipline to transition from the current status to sustainable societies.
1598. People wiped out an entire species, the Dodo bird. However, this isn’t a new human tendency as indigenous people have been wiping out species for the longest time.
How did we get worried about wildlife, conservation?
1890. First National Park was established with federal funding for the purposes of rejuvenating workforce, to increase their productivity. Systems are the ones that gave land value, and those values get adopted back into the home.
1952. The Cuyahoga River was so polluted from industrial waste that it caught on fire 13 times. It wasn’t until 17 years later at 1969 that people became more Eco-aware. It stemmed from a social change in mindset happening around the same time.
- Other pollutants: B.P. spill zone, bacon industry waste, hydraulic fracking for shale gas
1950s-1960s. Suburbanism. Massive shift from farms or cities to this concept of ownership of land. White people fleeing diversification in the dense cities. People have to borrow to own, which in turn means you are in debt and you have to work to pay for it.
Post World War II Counter Culture
1960.
- Waste-Makers
- Silent Spring (on DDT)
- Perfection of Nature
- Technological transfer with intermediate technology so that people could be accelerated to the same level of democratic commerce/consumerism.
- Sputnik became the 1st time anyone ever saw the earth.
- History of Sustainable Design
1972. Acid Rain
1973. Energy Crisis. USA backed Israel and Arab States withheld oil. Nixon mandating lower energy usage to the country marks the birth of sustainable design.
1974. Lifeboat Ethics: the Case Against Helping the Poor
1979–2010. Antarctic Ozone Hole
What is sustainability?
- Measuring the needs currently and future, and measures the gap between the two (for impact on future generations’ ability to meet those needs)
- Agenda 21
1987. Cleaner Production, Design for the Environment
1992. ISO Environmental Management Standard
1992. US EPA Design for the environment
1998. Factor Four
2002. Cradle to Cradle
2009. Time to Eat the Dog?
2013. The Upcycle
Rebound effects from cutting use in one thing just reaffirms more consumption elsewhere. While it is suggested that the idea of use and ownership don’t have to be coupled together. The lecture ends leading to the notion and implementation of eco-efficient sharing economies.
