Response #8: “The Need for Sustainability”

Although many people may not be interested in the natural world, encouraging students to explore nature as Peter McLean suggests in “The Need for Sustainability” is a great idea because it would educate people on the complex interrelationships in nature, it can help people to establish a personal connection with nature, and it can make people aware of the effect their actions have on the natural world.

In this day and age, it is easy to live one’s life without ever seeing the wilderness. A great many people may have no interest in nature, or any desire to study it.

However, encouraging students to explore nature can potentially have a great effect on our environment for the better. Before people will act to preserve nature, they must see some value in it. They also must perceive it as something real and tangible.

By involving students in the natural world it would help them to realize all of the complex interactions which allow it to survive. By extension, they may also come to realize how easily that balance can be upset.

Also, they may come to establish a more personal connection with nature. It would certainly become more difficult to think of it as something separate and abstract, and it may come to have personal value to them.

Finally, involving students in nature would help to make them aware of the effect that their actions have on it. Conversely they would be more aware of the effect that nature has on their lives, even when they are not living in it.

If we can help people to realize that they have a personal stake in the well-being of the natural world, then perhaps more people will do something to preserve it. The active study of nature is a great way to cultivate this.

Response #7: “Fast Food”

Although the car described in “Fast Food” by Mike Rosenwald is constructed largely from biodegradable food products, it is still not a very green vehicle because it is still going to produce a lot of greenhouse emissions, a lot of energy is probably expended in the production of the materials, and it is not fulfilling a productive role.

The car certainly sounds impressive enough when the author describes all the green components in its construction. Carrots, cashews, flax, and various recycled products all went into the creation of the vehicle. Additionally, it runs on the much touted biodiesel. Without a doubt these things will lower the demand on our less renewable resources if they are applied in a more widespread fashion.

Despite all of this, though, it is not really a green vehicle. It is definitely greener than the other vehicles of it’s type, but running your finger along a dusty shelf does not make the shelf clean.

One part of the problem is that biodiesel still produces greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, there is still debate on whether it is actually better for the environment.

Another part of the problem is in the energy expenditures require to convert all these food products into useful and structurally sound materials. Most of our power is still generated using combustion technologies which produce greenhouse emissions.

Finally, a third part of the problem is the reason for the racing car in the first place. It doesn’t matter how green the components are, or how renewable the fuel is. The car is still producing emissions and using resources for an activity which provides no useful returns, and can therefore be considered wasteful.

People tend to get excited about things that use green technologies, but until a way is found to both produce and power this vehicle without the use of combusted fuels, it can not be truly green.