On Monday, November 19th, Professor Kleiss came into our class to discuss ANT maps. From here we made a rough draft attempting to create a map that included all the actors. We found this to be a very challenging task. Linking everything back to our main focus, Solid Waste, i feel as though we tried to include to many individual things into our map. It may possibly be easier to group certain actions together to clean up the map to make it easier to view. With so many individual pieces to waste it may not be necessary to include every single one. Perhaps writing out all the different actors before connecting them may help us going forward. Overall we may need to find more sources pertaining to other developed countries management of solid waste to compare it to that of Chile. Additionally more data on Chile’s economic status and scholarly articles on how developed it is an a nation as well as what level of that is in line with the rest of the world may be needed for context. Our group has done a good job gathering situated information on Chile and specifically Santiago but we may need some more resources on other places. We also may need to look at waste to energy on a larger scale as it seems to be a major theme in waste management techniques.
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Over the past series of labs we looked at the capitalocene. This is a way of looking at the world through a lense of human altercation. The capitalocene places human interaction and altercation upon the idea of the economy fueling those decisions. Because of this the Kuznets Curve is one way to hypothesis the impact that this has on the economy. According to the theory, countries that are going through development will become less environmentally efficient until they are developed then they will start becoming more environmentally friendly again. In our newest set of labs we have split into teams that are sorted by country. Our country is Chile. Chile is the only country in South America that is considered developed. The development is dependent on its GDP as well as its life expectancy and quality of life. Chile also has a specific environmental problem it has encountered, solid waste. Because of the growth as a nation the cities are also going. Santiago alone makes up 40% of Chile's population. Before the growth sprouted in the country there was not a waste problem in urban areas. Since then there has become issues. Using the Kuznets Curve it may be interesting to see if the waste issues are improving while the country becomes more developed. For this reason we have created the Wasteocene as our next topic for lab. In a situated context this is going to be looking at humans impact on waste as a nation, in this case Chile becomes more industrialized. From our research so far one of the issues that may be occurring is the issue of recycling. This applies to both food, plastics, cardboards, etc. This type of waste should have a fairly easy way to fix itself. This could be done through education, laws, or even just awareness possibly. The landfill waste may be harder to come by. Something such as food waste may also be a new issue for a developing country since many poorer countries do not have excess food. Perhaps issues such as these will get better with time (although it is an issue still in a country like the United States). The other solid waste gets sent to landfills for sure. One way to deal with this is waste to energy systems. This take the waste converting them into energy. While this is a good energy source there may be microplastic released polluting the air quality. This too may not be a good trade off. Information from ENVS 160 would lead me to suggest a top down solution to the waste management issues these countries face. Many authors suggest that people will abuse the gaps in the laws and continue harming the environment until laws are put into place and upheld. This could also be part of the reason why pollution goes up in a time of economic growth such as the Kuznets Curve may suggest. Continuing into the next section of labs, my group will be looking further into how such problems have been handled in other places and how Chile should proceed forward. Each fall the ENVS department hosts a symposium surrounding engagement across borders of a singular discipline. This year we were lucky enough to have guest speaker Daryl Davis come to campus. As a black man who was welcomed to KKK rallies he was a very powerful speaker surrounding change. Suggesting that most change comes from personal accounts and in many instances the members of these racist organizations had felt alienated and never known any difference, Davis was able to convince many to leave many different racist groups. The form of engagement he found most influential was a simple conversation.
When asked about environmental engagement Davis did not have too much to go off of but still suggests types of engagement that have worked in past situations. One way he thought may be a good way to approach environmental issues would be to educate people younger and focus on the young growing generation. Recently in researching my concentration, Extreme Sports impact on a Sustainable Future, I came across one organization that was doing similar things to what Davis suggested. Protect Our Winters, POW, is an organization fighting climate change stemming from a love of winter sport. Their rides alliance filled with over 60 industry pros contains a section of engagement in local schools. As they look to engage “the youth one school at a time,” POW targets younger generations in hopes of promoting change. One of the reasons Davis gave for peoples racist behavior was in part due to their upbringing and knowing no other way. Some ‘facts’ Davis heard were not in fact true yet these people took them as truth. Entering in this stage of a child's upbringing may be a crucial step to broaden their views and recognize that our earth is changing rapidly. POW does this using their own formula, “Show the kids some epic skiing and riding footage, show them that we as professional athletes are passionate about fighting climate change, and they get stoked to help out.” This is a piece of engagement that I was lucky enough to have experienced as a child, but I am aware not everyone got to. I could watch the same footage over and over again until I would be able to tell you every trick in the movie. This over time led to cleaning and helping maintaining historical trails in the backcountry. Once again this is a technique Davis employed both due to the conversation created as well as targeting youth. Since the youth may not have their minds made up about controversial topics it makes it easier to shift focus and open them up to new ideas and possibilities. POW is able to target the coming generation in hope of engaging and promoting future engagement. POW is able to do this through extreme sport engagement. Since these types of sports are so dependent upon a healthy environment it becomes crucial to work towards solutions. In their organization I see some similar methods that Davis employed and discussed at the symposium used to promote environmental engagement. “Engaging the Youth One School at a Time.” POW, April 18, 2016. https://protectourwinters.org/engaging-the-youth-one-school-at-a-time/. |
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December 2018
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