The End

I came into this course with certain preconceived notions of environmentalists and their movement. Because of the militant, aggressive attitude that I had previously encountered with environmentalists, I was quite apprehensive about the class and any discussions that would take place. Any support I have for the environmental movement has been eaten away by the condescending treatment by the movement’s supporters – often, they do more harm to their movement than they know. However, contrary to my low expectations at the beginning of the semester, I ended up really enjoying the class. Despite being in the minority for most discussions (with my decidedly market liberal approach in a fairly social green class), I did not feel completely ostracized by the professor or the class as in previous cases. Rather, I felt that my points were acknowledged, and sometimes, even taken into consideration in their search for environmental solutions. Because of this attitude shift, I actually enjoyed learning about the environment and started to care more about finding a solution for the problems that it faces. The class showed me that there are more problems than just climate change, and that there have been successes in the past – so we should have hope for the future, if we can continue the efforts of environmentalists before us. In the end, I will take away a better understanding of the current environmental situation and the different environmental camps that are all lobbying for separate solutions to these problems. Also, and what I think might be more important, is that I will be taking away a kinder outlook on environmentalists and the movement as whole. As we learned in class, meaningful change stems from a fundamental shift in attitudes, so this class was a turning point for my relationship with environmentalism. I enjoyed my time in the class, and learned a lot that I can take with me into my future.

Towards the end...

This was my first time taking an environmental course, and I have learned a lot from it. Before taking the course, I had some knowledge about the environment today, but it was just too broad and general. Throughout the course, I've learned that the environmental problems that we face today is actually a lot complicated than I thought. I would say, most of the factors, such as poverty, innovation, and pollution, that exist in the world do affect the environment, and they are the causes of the environmental problems. I also learned that there are several thinkings towards solving the environmental problems--Market Liberals, Institutionalists, Bioenvironmentalists, and Social Greens. After knowing these concepts, I am favored of both Market Liberals and Social Greens because economy (technology) is capable of solving some of the environmental problems that we face. This is because it is essential that we have enough capitals to implement whatever the project is. In order to do so, we need our economy to keep enhacing. I agree with Social Greens to some extent because we definitely need to value our planet because if we keep on harming the environment, we will lose natural resources. As a result, our economy will fall down. Even worse, it will threaten human security, such as diseases, due to pollution and the climate change. I've learned so many from this course, and everything that I learned was new to me, so I was always engaged to the class. I will definitely take some environmental course when I get back to Japan. Thank you so much for the wonderful class!

Infiltrating Industry

The most interesting section of Cradle to Cradle for me was the section in which William McDonough and Michael Braungart describe their work with Ford Motor Company to redesign their Rouge plant to be eco-efficient.McDonough and other environmental architects (David Orr, etc.) are known for their work on college campuses, but it is hardly surprising that colleges (bastions of liberal, forward-thinking professors and students) would be engaged in next wave of environmentalism. What is more surprising is that not only a company, but a company that produces a product so harmful to the environment as cars, would be interested in making their oldest plant eco-efficient.

What is especially interesting about the case of Ford is that even for the automobile industry, the company is not known for being environmentally proactive. Like other American car companies, Ford scrapes by, producing cars that barely meet CAFE standards (although this has changed slightly since the most recent recession). It is encouraging that this company could adopt eco-efficiency in their building design, if only for one plant.

What is needed is a revolution in industry so that more companies adopt this model on a wide scale. Why has the Rouge plant not been more widely advertised? Why is this not pushed in every single commercial? An adoption of eco-efficiency in construction would lead to a healthier, happier workplace for so many Americans.

Kudos to Ford for giving this a try. If only this could expand into other factories and into their design aesthetic. They've seen how eco-efficiency works for them, it's time for them to share the wealth and design eco-efficient cars for the rest of us.

Cradle to Cradle

While reading the book Cradle to Cradle the concept that struck me the most was the idea of upcycling. Growing up I have always been taught that recycling was good for the environment. That one should not throw away a water bottle or piece of computer paper that might be used for paper, but recycle them instead. In fact, the whole idea of recycling is one that everyone has heard before and is one of the major points that is countered in the book Cradle to Cradle. The authors William McDonough and Michael Braungart argue that instead of making products with recycling an end result of the product, we should design things with their future use in mind. They counter recycling by raising the point that once an item is recycled it a item until it is no longer useful, in which case it gets thrown out and still finds its way to a land field. The only purpose of recycling the item was to delay the step of it reaching the land field.
The same is said of recycling a water bottle or pieces of paper, yes it does save some of the original product but the inputs that have to be put into the original item to get it to the state of renewal is sometimes more harmful and takes more energy that the benefits of recycling it is not even worth it. And that is where the idea of upcycling comes in the authors’ purpose designing products with the idea of the future use of the product in mind. They not only state their claims in the book they also designed the book with that in mind. I am still not entirely sure what the book is made out of, but I do know that if I were to recycle the book, which is water proof, the ink on the pages can be stripe off with hot water and the cover too. The book does not have to go through an elaborate dismantling and remodeling stage like most other books that might be recycled. And because of this, this book is lessening the inputs that have to go into it to the recycling process or upcycling process, I should say. The book can also be made in to other things that are worth more than the book is now.
The whole concept of the designing things that can be reused for something in the future instead of making the product for now and then deciding what to do with it when it is thrown out is a novel idea. I not only loved reading the book, but also enjoyed the fact that the book was water proof and could be used in multiple ways. In fact throughout the week, I would walk up to people and ask them to hold the book for me, they were at first shocked at how much the book weighed and then where amazed at the fact the book was water proof. This experiment was probably one of my favorite. I was also shocked to see how many of my friends were in to the concept of making things with the items future in mind.

Cradle to Cradle: Easy, Reinforcing, and Engaging Reading

I found the book titled, Cradle to Cradle, by  William McDonough and Michael Braungart, to be insightful and a great general view of the environmental challenges that exist. For someone with a vague knowledge of this subject, this would be a perfect book that would expose the reader with an accurate overview of current environmental issues ranging from the history of environmental movement to air pollution. The very material of the book, made from plastic resins and inorganic fillers, is already making a statement of environmental conciousness.

As I read, I encountered many environmental issues that McDonough and  Braungart explained of which I already had a strong knowledge of, thus for me it was an easy, reinforcing, and engaging reading. Yet there were also many arguments that were raised by both authors that expanded my knowledge of the issue and made me think more about certain points I had not analyzed before. Especially in one chapter, they went through the Four R's, also known as reduce, reuse, recycle and regulate. For them, actions with good intentions such as reusing and recycling products became additional environmental problems. For example, in many places where sewage sludge is recycled and used as fertilizer, it carried many harmful chemicals due to the current design and treatment of the sewage systems. Also, I learned the term, downcycling, meaning that the recycling of certain products reduces the quality of the material over time. Thus a product such as soda cans, which are made from aluminum, when melted for recycling results in a weaker and less useful product. I agree with their argument that we sometimes automatically believe that by recycling we are making eco-friendly choices, yet in reality our choices and actions can become an additional burden on the environment. Overall the authors presented a variety of issues, and raised many questions with relevant data that placed them in a good track in their attempt to explain an overview of the current environmental challenges.

"Cradle to Cradle" Reaction

I am actually really enjoying “Cradle to Cradle,” because it is one of the most hopeful books that we have read this semester – while still maintaining a feeling of realistic action. McDonough and Braungart posit that the actual conflict doesn’t have to be between economic growth and environmentalism, but rather, between environmentalism and the natural instinct to get ahead and take advantage of an expanding market. The authors argue for the transition to green commerce, and basically start to lay out the steps that a business should take to start being sustainable (but not losing their edge in the market). I think that McDonough and Braungart are absolutely on the right track, because they recognize that it is impossible to empower the environmental movement without the support of businesses. They are the backbone of this society, and therefore, cannot be ignored as many environmentalists are wont to do. Likewise, I genuinely appreciate the realistic approaches that the authors are offering. Personally, I think their suggestions are attainable because they are still acknowledging business’ need to make a profit. It is struggling to address two very different camps, and I think it is doing an admirable (and unprecedented) job.

Cradle to Cradle

Cradle to Cradle introduces the transformation of human-centered activity to the environmental-centered activity. They have lists of things that people could do in order to improve the environment. They also proposes "upcycling"--making used materials more valueable--instead of "downcycling"--what we are doing right now. I think that the book contains a lot of good points. However, at the same time, I also think that they did not include the explanation of well-designed strategies that illustrates the process of these proposals. In other words, they did not state clearly that "how are they going to do these?" Thus, it seems to me that the proposal is a utopian concept. However, I still feel that the proposal is do-able under such high-technology. They need more interpretation, variation, and experimentation to improve.