Choices for Sustainable Living DISCUSSION COURSE ON CHOICES FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVING 2 Copyright 2012, 2014, 2018, 2019 By Ecochallenge.org 107 SE Washington Street Portland, OR 97214 (503) 227-2807 [email protected] ecochallenge.org Requests for permission to reproduce any materials in this course book should be directed to Ecochallenge.org. See “Permissions” page for publication and copyright information; these cannot be reproduced without separate permission. Layout and Typography: Margaret Parker Cover Design: Lee Benson Curriculum Development and Editing: Lacy Cagle This publication was printed using 100 percent post-consumer waste, FSC certified recycled paper, and UV inks (voc-free), and is 100% process-chlorine free. This publication was produced using windmill-powered energy through Premier Press. ECOCHALLENGE.ORG 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABOUT ECOCHALLENGE.ORG ....................................................................................................5 ABOUT THIS CURRICULUM .......................................................................................................6 INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................................8 GUIDELINES ........................................................................................................................10 EVALUATION .......................................................................................................................13 SESSION ONE: A CALL TO SUSTAINABILITY ...................................................................................15 “Our View of Sustainability” by Felipe Ferreira ............................................................................. 17 “Culture Tree” by Zaretta Hammond. 20 “You Are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring” by Paul Hawken ................................................................23 “Our Home on Earth” by Winona LaDuke ....................................................................................25 Thoughts on Sustainability ...................................................................................................28 “Systems Thinking: A Necessary Perspective in our Changing World” by the Worldwatch Institute ....................29 A Systems Thinking Model: The Iceberg. 30 SESSION TWO: ECOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES ....................................................................................33 “You Can’t Do Just One Thing: A Conversation with Richard Heinberg” by Michael K. Stone ............................35 “Ecological Principles” by Michael K. Stone .................................................................................37 “The Anthropocene Epoch: Scientists Declare Dawn of Human-Influenced Age” by Damian Carrington. .38 The Four System Conditions of a Sustainable Society .....................................................................41 “The Refugee Crisis is a Sign of a Planet in Trouble” by David Korten .....................................................42 “The Earth Is Full” by Paul Gilding ............................................................................................43 “Too Many People, Too Much Consumption” by Paul Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich .........................................45 SESSION THREE: FOOD ..........................................................................................................48 “What’s Eating America” by Michael Pollan .................................................................................51 “Cutting Meat Consumption Can Make a Huge Dent in Climate Change” by Fiona Harvey ...............................................................................................................54 “Stalking the Vegetannual” by Barbara Kingsolver ..........................................................................56 Perspectives: Food Access ...................................................................................................59 “From Food Security to Food Sovereignty” by Antonio Roman-Alcalá ...................................................60 Growing Food, Growing Power. 62 “Beyond ‘Free’ or ‘Fair’ Trade: Mexican Farmers Go Local” by Mike Wold .................................................62 “We Can Feed the World with the Food We Waste” by Joanne Will .......................................................64 SESSION FOUR: WATER .........................................................................................................67 “Water is Life” by Osprey Orielle Lake. .69 “How Your Diet Contributes to Water Pollution” by Paul Greenberg ......................................................72 “Water and Climate Change” by the Union of Concerned Scientists ......................................................77 “The Oceans are Drowning in Plastic — And No One’s Paying Attention” by Dominique Mosbergen ...................78 “Ocean Acidification” by the Climate Reality Project .......................................................................82 “The Race to Save Florida’s Devastated Coral Reef from Global Warming” by Chris Mooney ...........................83 CHOICES FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVING Table of Contents 4 SESSION FIVE: COMMUNITY ...................................................................................................86 “This is What Democracy Looks Like” by Fred Kent .......................................................................88 “Six Foundations for Building Community Resilience” by Daniel Lerch ..................................................89 “The Urban Common Spaces that Show Us We Belong to Something Larger” by Sarah van Gelder ....................91 “Connecting the Lots” by Diana Budds, photography by Justin Fanti ......................................................92 “What it Looks Like When Communities Make Racial Justice a Priority” by Zeobia Jeffries and Araz Hachadourian .................................................................................96 “How to Turn Neighborhoods into Hubs of Resilience” by Taj James and Rosa González ................................97 SESSION SIX: TRANSPORTATION ..............................................................................................101 “Reimagining Our Streets as Places: From Transit Routes to Community Routes” by Annah MacKenzie .............103 “The Environmental Cost of Free 2-Day Shipping” by Andy Murdock ................................................... 106 Air Travel ......................................................................................................................107 “America’s ‘Worst Walking City’ Gets Back on Its Feet” by Jay Walljasper ............................................... 108 “Millennials in Transit” by Derek Prall. .111 “City Planners Respond to Demands for Better Neighborhood Mobility and Bicycling Infrastructure” by Araz Hachadourian .......................................................................................................113 Possibilities for Cars .........................................................................................................114 “Retrofitting Suburbia: Communities Innovate Their Way Out of Sprawl” by Erin Sagen ...............................115 SESSION SEVEN: CONSUMPTION & ECONOMY. .118 “Detroit Speech” by Robert F. Kennedy. 120 Beyond the GDP ..............................................................................................................121 “What Isn’t for Sale?” by Michael J. Sandel .................................................................................122 “Bringing People Back Into the Economy” by Vandana Shiva .............................................................125 Where Our Paychecks Go ....................................................................................................128 “Beyond Consumerism” by New Dream. 128 True Price Questions .........................................................................................................131 SESSION EIGHT: VISIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY ............................................................................. 133 “Neoliberalism Has Conned Us Into Fighting Climate Change as Individuals” by Martin Lukacs .......................135 ” Hope is What We Become in Action” by Fritjof Cabra and Frances Moore Lappé ......................................137 “Why Social Movements Need the Radical Imagination” by Alex Hhasnabish and Max Haiven ........................139 “Ecopolis Iowa City: Envisioning a Regenerative City in the Heartland” by Jeff Biggers ................................142 “It Was a Blighted City Block. But this Woman is Turning It Into a Solar-Powered Ecovillage” by Zenobia Jeffries ...........................................................................................................145 “Envisioning A Sustainable World” by Donella H. Meadows ...............................................................147 CALL TO ACTION ..................................................................................................................152 DONATION FORM .................................................................................................................155 PERMISSIONS ....................................................................................................................157 IntroductionTable of Contents ECOCHALLENGE.ORG 5 Our Vision. We believe in a better shared future, one with fresh air to breathe, clean water to drink, and a stable climate to live in. Our Model for Change. And