Spring Break
Sustainability not a sure thing
Evan Pajer
Issue date: 11/6/09 Section: News
Debra Rowe, a professor of sustainable energy and behavioral sciences at Oakland Community College in Michigan, said in a speech Thursday night that the only way to ensure a sustainable future for the planet is through radical changes in education, the economy and government. The lecture, sponsored by EcoHouse, showed students what they can do to protect the future of the planet.
Rowe began her speech with her definition of sustainability, taken from a 1987 UN conference on the environment. Rowe defines sustainability as "the ability to meet present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs." Rowe said that sustainability is not entirely about the environment and climate change, but is also about changing popular perceptions and the way people live.
She called the current economy a "skewed marketplace," where subsidies for coal power outweigh those for renewable energy and energy efficiency. Yet, she claims, investing money in "green" projects like weatherizing homes can give as much as a 20 percent return on the money spent. The reason no one invests in sustainability, Rowe said, is because "change is uncomfortable." People would rather be "comfortable and dysfunctional" than go outside their comfort zone to make real change happen. She said the country's current system has an "economically sick future" that will cause human suffering and environmental destruction.
Rowe said that the only way to make change happen is to change the educational curriculum to add instruction on personal relationships, which she said were the number one indicator of human happiness and the only way to get people to become "change agents." She suggested that sustainability should be a required part of every college degree, much like the current system in several European countries. Students have a lot of power, Rowe said, citing incidents such as the Nike boycott in the mid-90s, where college students boycotted Nike shoes until the company ceased using sweatshop labor in third-world countries to supply them with shoes. The boycott was largely a success, she said, causing Nike and other shoe companies to mostly cease their use of sweatshops.
Rowe began her speech with her definition of sustainability, taken from a 1987 UN conference on the environment. Rowe defines sustainability as "the ability to meet present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs." Rowe said that sustainability is not entirely about the environment and climate change, but is also about changing popular perceptions and the way people live.
She called the current economy a "skewed marketplace," where subsidies for coal power outweigh those for renewable energy and energy efficiency. Yet, she claims, investing money in "green" projects like weatherizing homes can give as much as a 20 percent return on the money spent. The reason no one invests in sustainability, Rowe said, is because "change is uncomfortable." People would rather be "comfortable and dysfunctional" than go outside their comfort zone to make real change happen. She said the country's current system has an "economically sick future" that will cause human suffering and environmental destruction.
Rowe said that the only way to make change happen is to change the educational curriculum to add instruction on personal relationships, which she said were the number one indicator of human happiness and the only way to get people to become "change agents." She suggested that sustainability should be a required part of every college degree, much like the current system in several European countries. Students have a lot of power, Rowe said, citing incidents such as the Nike boycott in the mid-90s, where college students boycotted Nike shoes until the company ceased using sweatshop labor in third-world countries to supply them with shoes. The boycott was largely a success, she said, causing Nike and other shoe companies to mostly cease their use of sweatshops.
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