Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
12/13/12
Honors 220B
Final Term Paper
Taking the class Honors 220 B: Environmental Sustainability, Media,
and the Propagation of Good Ideas has been an experience unlike any
other in my undergraduate career thus far. And Im not just saying that;
the experiential nature of the course, the different perspectives and
backgrounds of my fellow students, the enthusiasm and experience of the
professor, and the course content itself all contributed to the great
uniqueness and overall success of this course. The objectives and the
questions presented as part of the required material proved very valuable
for my education, especially in terms of pushing me to reconsider my own
ideas and to think outside the box.
At the start of this class, we as a group and as individuals had nine
main objectives, as designated in the course syllabus. While I believe that I
accomplished some in a greater capacity than others, I did accomplish
every single one. The first three objectives dealt with the scientific nature
of the course, which I thought from the start would be interesting
objectives to assess since this course was designed for non-science (or at
least non environmental science) majors. Our first objective was to gain an
understanding of the scientific processes we read about throughout the
past few months. I did this adequately, although since I am a self-declared
non science person, this was definitely the most difficult objective for me
from the start. However, in the end, I felt I understood all of the lectures
nice to see a topic like this getting attention from people my age. This
topic also corresponds well with another objective, which was to have a
deeper appreciation for the why of sustainable living. In other words,
what is the point of having an investment in the environmental
movement? After completing this course, I absolutely possess a more
significant understanding of the reasoning behind the popular adage
reduce, reuse, recycle, but I also understand that the environmental
movement goes far beyond those three sometimes-simplistic words.
The final three objectives addressed learning on a more personal
level. First, we hoped to enhance our lifelong learning skills. Because of
the experiential nature of this course, it was relatively easy to follow
through with this objective. I was constantly learning in new and different
ways, not just by taking notes in a classroom. We went on field trips and
asked questions of actual leaders in the community, we volunteered and
learned about sustainability in action, and we watched movies and had
guest lectures from experts in varying fields concerning the environment.
This class taught me more ways of learning than just the traditional one,
and this kind of active questioning and participation is a skill I will carry
with me to my classes in the future. Another objective was to practice our
leadership skills. This was most apparent during our classroom
presentations. I dont consider myself a very outgoing person, so outward
displays of leadership are usually very difficult for me, and this project was
good practice. I actually enjoyed it because we presented our facts but
then led a discussion afterward and got the whole class involved. Outside
of the classroom, I developed my leadership skills by talking to my
roommates and friends about our volunteer work and encouraging them to
do it too, either with the environment or any other cause they were
passionate about. Finally, one of the main goals we had as a class was to
increase our involvement in the community. As previously described, we
did this by touring and volunteering with local environmental agencies, as
well as by taking initiative and volunteering with an environmental-related
organization outside of the organized class field trips. Collectively, I am
very satisfied with my achievement of our nine learning objectives.
As a vehicle for completing the aforementioned objectives, we as a
class were faced with a number of questions in the syllabus, which
pertained to our understanding of the environmental movement at both a
global level and a personal one. One of the questions from the course
description that really captured my interest was the one asking why we
believe some communicators of ideas, but not others. This is a thoughtprovoking offshoot from my earlier discussion of social media and our class
presentations. One group taught us a lot about blogs they pointed out
that much of our perceived legitimacy of blog writers comes from whether
or not they earned a degree in a related or relevant field and if they are
currently an expert in the field based on their career. At the same time,
though, we often dont research blog or social media authors very
thoroughly; we accept what they have to say at face value and then
proceed to form our own opinions based on what this person presented as
fact. This is convenient, but it can also be problematic if we dont have
sufficient background information to form an educated opinion. More often
than not, retweets and posts of politically minded blogs end up
dissolving into fights via Facebook comments, wherein half the audience
types heated arguments in all caps and the other half kicks back with a
bag of popcorn. I dont generally think of the environmental movement as
being a particularly heated one, but recent legislation and strong opinions
about global warming and climate change have begun to bring this
movement to the forefront of the publics consciousness. Also, relying on
communicators from the world of social media is potentially dangerous
because we run the risk of feeling we have accomplished something when
we really havent contributed much at all. For example, the Kony 2012
movement that ran rampant on Facebook and Twitter for a couple of weeks
is now virtually nonexistent, without ever accomplishing the goal that so
many people professed commitment to.
However, this isnt to say that social media is entirely detrimental to
social movements, because it most certainly is not. Take the Haiti
earthquake from a few years back as an example. This was an enormous
environmental disaster that a few decades ago would not have gotten
nearly the amount of attention it did, simply because it wasnt always so
easy to communicate the need for help. Now, with the push of a button or
the click of a mouse, we can spread awareness, show our support, and
moving beyond good intentions to actually perform good works and make
a difference. This is something I explored in a couple reflections after our
Thursday field trips. In particular, I delved into this question in depth in my
Duwamish Greenbelt reflection. After volunteering on that day, I began to
wonder if volunteerism with environmental organizations experiences
huge dips in the colder months. From there, I pondered the thought that
when volunteering or giving our time seems too hard, we often either
make excuses or decide to donate small amounts of money instead. Dont
get me wrong here Im not trying to put down donations, because
money can be put to very good use by non-profit organizations. But too
often, people stop there and forget about where their money is actually
going. We become disengaged from the actual impact of our good deed
and are able to go home and take a guilt-free long shower while
congratulating ourselves and basking in that warm fuzzy feeling. However,
I dont mean this to sound depressing and pessimistic; to be sure, every
little thing we contribute to any charitable organization is going to do
some small bit of good. But the question to ask ourselves is whether or not
this is the type of help we want to be giving, and if it is having the impact
we think it is having on the surface.
This idea can also usefully be transmuted to a myriad of other social
movements. While researching this theme, I discovered a very applicable
book called Beyond Good Intentions by Tori Hogan. While this book is
primarily about overseas aid, the ideas and themes within it can, I think,
the first place. The environmental movement needs people speaking about
it and advertising for it, not just picking up after it.
The aforementioned methods of volunteerism and the suggested
methods of education and advocacy are what keep the environmental
movement thriving. And more than anything else, what made this class
effective was the experiential component of the course, when we put
these ideas into action. This was an extremely valuable addition to
traditional classroom lectures. The conjunction of a weekly classroom
session with a longer weekly experiential session contributed greatly to
my growth as a learner. Our weekly reflections, rather than being overly
sentimental or bothersome, presented us with an opportunity to
communicate our weekly newfound knowledge. I appreciated writing these
reflections because they made me think, really think, about the impact we
had made (or not made) on the environmental movement that week. It
also enabled me to do some further research if a particular topic we
discussed was especially interesting. For example, after my visit to the
Bertschi School, I decided to research the LEED certification process a bit
further, and then I found out that the University of Washington has
eighteen or so certified buildings and is in the process of building more. So
even though our university doesnt get the same publicity as schools
entirely devoted to sustainability like Bertschi, our carbon footprint is still
relatively small and we have made significant headway in the
environmental movement here on campus. Also, my visit to the Bertschi