Spring/Summer 2001 Volume 4, no. 2 Sustainable Communities Review Merging Traditional Concerns for the Environment with the Social and Cultural Aspects of Community Life Sustainable Communities Review Editor Stanley R. Ingman Associate Editor Associate Editor Hiram Friedsam Carl Ekstrom Editorial Board Thomas P. Benjamin—Environment Alliance for Senior Involvement, Catlett Virginia; Richard Bad Moccasin—Mni Sose Intertribal Water Rights Coalition, Inc., Rapid City, South Dakota; Ricarda Buch—Contraste, Berlin, Germany; Baird Callicott—Department of Philosophy & Religion Studies, University of North Texax; Donald Conroy—North American Coalition on Religion & Ecology, Washington, D.C.; Susanne Elsen—University of Trier, Germany; J. Rex Enoch—Heifer Project International, Perryville, Arkansas; Martin Jaeckel—Healthy Neighborhoods Program, Uni- versity of North Texas; Claude Johnson—Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada; Alejandro Juarez— Graduate Student, Ude Guadalajara, Mexico; Joyce Kramer—University of Minnesota, Duluth, Minnesota; Thomas LaPoint—Institute of Applied Sciences, University of North Texas; Constance Mahoney—Sonoma State University, Sonoma, California; Thomas J. Marchione—U.S. Agency for International Development, Washington, D.C.; Guilliermo Martin—Architect, ITESO, Guadalajara, Mexico; Gerald Nehman—Environmental Institute for Technology Transfer, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas; Eunice Noell—Center of Design for an Aging Society, Portland, Oregon; Diana Ortego—Architect, Ude Guadalajara, Barca, Mexico; Xiaomei Pei—Beijing, China; V. J. Pillai— Department of Social Work, University of Texas, Arlington, Texas; Daniel G. Rodeheaver—Department of Sociology, University of North Texas; Daniel Schneider—External Sponsor, Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute for Technology; Sheldon Steinhauser—Department of Sociology, Metropolitan State College of Denver, Denver, Colorado; Ray Toledo—Department of Psychology, University of North Texas; Mathis Wackernagel—Indicators Program, Redefining Progress, San Francisco, California; Isidor Wallimann—School of Social Work, Basel, Switzer- land; Scott D. Wright—Gerontology Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. Sustainable Communities Review (ISSN 1094-835X) merges traditional concerns for the environment with the social and cultural aspects of community life. The Review seeks to broaden the traditional focus of sustainable development to include other dimensions of community life that promote sustainability, such as empowerment, education, enterprise, and environment. The Review features cutting edge thinking in a reader-friendly style. We welcome articles, commentar- ies, and news about ways to engage all citizens in sustaining quality community life and healthy environments to be submitted for consideration for publication. Subscriptions are $10 per year for individuals and $25 per year for institu- tions. Send check or money order, made out to Center for Public Service/UNT, to University of North Texas, Center for Public Service, Sustainable Communities Review, P.O. Box 310919, Denton, Texas 76203-0919. Back issues of the Review can be accessed at www.unt.edu/untcps/agingpubs.htm. The publisher, the University of North Texas, and the spon- sors assume no responsibility for any statements of fact or opinion expressed in the published papers or advertisments. Contents The Sustainability Workout: A Workshop Mathis Wackernagel 44 Volume 4, no. 2 Landcare Australia Jos Webber 45 Cultivating Sustainability in Cuba Claude Johnson and Joyce Kramer 1 News Living with Nature: Lessons Building Sustainable Communities from Two Indigenous Cultures in Mexico 15 Kwadwo Konadu-Agyemang 7 Volunteerism by the Elderly 46 Sustainable Development: Elements for Discussion News from EASI 47 Jaime Morales Hernández 16 Center for Environmental Economic Studies and Research 48 Casting a Glance at Life in Chiapas: An Essay Recent Progress: Sustainable Communities Ana Romero 23 Network in Mexico 61 Sustainable Guadalajara: Water—Quality & Quantity Reviews on the Decline? Stanley R. Ingman, Veronique Ingman, Corporate Greening and Guillermo Martin 25 Voluntary Initiatives: The New Politics of Sustainable Development, Water, and Tourism: Corporate Greening The Case of Mazamitla, Mexico by Robert B. Gibson Bobette Brasfield 33 P. H. Wichern 49 Eco-efficiency: The Business Link to Sustainable What Others Are Saying Development by Livo DeSimone & Frank Popoff Green Warriors: UNT Scientists Battle Terry Clower 50 To Save the Environment Kelley Reese 41 Working with NGOs Having a Heat Wave— Acts of Balance: Profits, People and Place A Public Health Issue by Grant Copeland EASI—The Mercury’s Rising 42 Carl Ekstrom 51 Galveston Goes Green The Virtuous Spiral James M. Stevenson 43 by Alan Fowler John Murdock 52 Better Mousetraps Environmental Policy Making Restoring the Earth: Visionary Solutions Environmental Politics and Policy From the Bioneers by Walter A. Rosenbaum by Kenny Ausubel Carl D. Ekstrom 56 Tami Cordell 53 Across the Great Divide: Explorations Regenerative Design in Collaborative Conservation for Sustainable Development and the American West by John Tillman Lyle edited by Philip Brick, et al Mitty C. Plummer 53 Land in the American West: Private Claims and the Common Good Making Environmental Decisions edited by William G. Robbins & James C. Foster Scott D. Wright 56 Making Better Environmental Decisions: An Alternative Risk Assessment A Sociological Perspective by Mary O’Brien Claude Johnson 54 Sociopolitical Ecology: Human Systems and Ecological Fields City-Region 2020: Integrated Planning by Frederick Bates for a Sustainable Environment Lisa Zottarelli 57 by Joe Ravetz Charldean Newell 55 References 58 Stan Ingman and a group of workers on a field trip to fix a roof at a house in the mountains above Dos Aguas in Mexico. Copyright © 2001 Center for Public Service Printed on recycled paper with soy-based ink. Article Claude D. Johnson is Professor of Engineering at Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. Joyce M. Kramer is a professor in the Master of Social Work Program at the University of Minnesota in Duluth. Of Omaha heritage, she specializes in macro-level policy affecting the health and well-being of indigenous and Third World peoples (especially women and children) around the globe. Cultivating Sustainability in Cuba Claude D. Johnson and Joyce M. Kramer rom a sustainability perspective, Cuba is now Historical Events Leading to the Current Situation Fconducting the most important experiment that the Beginning with the Spanish occupation of the Island, “modern world” has ever known. Although this was not Cuba’s history has been fraught with conflict, conquerors, totally a matter of choice, Cuba’s experiment in sustain- and colonists. The invaders came with the same objective, able agriculture will be of utmost importance to all the and that was to exploit. Following the War of Indepen- fossil energy guzzling agricultural systems around the dence and the creation of the United States, around world, particularly the North American system, which is 1783, Cuba replaced the British colony of Jamaica as the the most energy intensive and non-sustainable. principal supplier of sugar to the United States. Even then, The Cuban experiment was brought on by two main letters written by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams factors: the United States’ economic embargo on Cuba considered the advisability of the United States taking since 1961 and the collapse of trading relations with the Cuba from Spain. By the 1820s, Cuba had become the Soviet Bloc in 1990. During the intervening years, Cuban world’s largest producer of sugar, and by 1880 Cuba’s agriculture evolved into a large-scale, monoculture of sugar production accounted for one-third of the world’s sugar cane that was very dependent on petroleum, total. The slave-owning planters expelled small farmers commercial fertilizers, and pesticides. With the collapse of from their lands and cleared the island’s cedar, ebony, and trading with the Soviet Bloc, imports of fertilizer dropped mahogany forests. Over half of the sugar was sold to the by 77%, pesticides by 60%, and petroleum for agriculture U.S., which had become Cuba’s largest trading partner. by 50%. In addition, Cuba was heavily dependent on Repeated efforts were made by the United States to imported hybrid seeds, machinery, and even food to the purchase Cuba from Spain, but the offers were refused. extent that about 57% of the calories in the Cuban diet On February 24, 1895, a rebellion against Spain was came from imports. Then, this all changed when food initiated by Jose Marti and Antonio Maceo. In 1898, off imports declined by more than 50% (Rosset and Ben- the coast of Cuba in a still unexplained event, the Ameri- jamin, 1994). When these changes occurred, Cuba had can battleship Maine mysteriously exploded. This pro- little choice but to make a drastic transition toward a vided the United States with an excuse to become more sustainable agriculture and food production system. Continued p. 2 ——Sustainable Communities Review — 1 Johnson and Kramer (continued) severed diplomatic relations with Cuba. This was fol- involved; the United States immediately declared war on lowed in April, 1961, by the infamous U.S. CIA orches- Spain. However, in the U.S. declaration of the Spanish- trated “Bay of Pigs Invasion,” when a mercenary army of American War, an amendment was introduced by Senator over 800 people was defeated by Cuba in 72