principles of sustainability

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January 26, 2013 by Caity Stuart

Reflection helps us to revert knowledge into understanding and eventually into wisdom.  – Tom Wessels

So ended class today. After 8 hours of our first class session, our professor encouraged us to reflect sooner rather than later on some of the topics we discussed in class. Following a discussion we had on the global population rate that has spiked within the last 100 years, we were encouraged to write about our reactions as environmentalists to that costly change. We were then encouraged to follow up by answering how this issue will empower us in return? How will we approach this to be agents of change in this world?

Here is my rough response to the prompt:

I had seen it before. I had seen charts like the one we saw in class today explaining the various trends in population coupled by the eventual spike in global population hovering around the industrial revolution. I had seen charts like this in middle school, in high school, college, in the self-chosen non-fiction books on sustainability. Heck, I could have drawn that graph myself without looking at any statistics. I know that the human population has morphed it’s way to a size never before imaginable.

And yet the hastily drawn dry-erase board graph still grabbed me today.

I tend to be an emotional person. And I’m glad that I am. I have learned that is through my emotions that my passions and interests find strength, energy, and hope. I am thankful that I encourage myself to fully feel joy as well as despair. Thus it is at times such as today in class that I once again become emotionally involved with the shared content.

I find it challenging when faced with stark realities such as the dramatically increase in global population not to feel a sense of dread, fear, and disappointment. I typically liken our resolve for sustainability to that of climbing a mountain. We initially choose to climb a mountain because of many reasons. It is a challenge. It is a beautiful journey, including the hike up and down as well as the view at the summit. There is satisfaction in moving, in being active. There is a unique connectedness with an ecosystem not many people inhabit. On the flip side, it could be the only route between points A and B. The list could go one for why people choose to climb a mountain.

Sustainability is like climbing a mountain in which there is certainly a lot of ground to cover in making sustainability possible and it isn’t necessarily the easiest life path to follow. In fact, like climbing a mountain, there are many times when I stop in the journey, lift my head up from staring at the path, catch my breathe and catch a glimpse of what looks to be an eventual summit. I look behind me to where I once was, what I left behind, yearning for just a moment to be back, frustrated for just a moment at my current situation. It is at those moments where I have my self-doubts, where I panic a little and fear begins to barter for space in my psyche. But it is at those same moments that I re-learn to look around me, to enjoy the journey I am, that I have chosen, and that all that is asked of my is to take one step at a time. Then the goal changes from solely reaching the summit to connecting ever more with my current surroundings and asking myself what I can give at this very moment. In this crepuscular hour between monumental choices once made and choices that will need to come, what I can I contribute to the process? Certainly staring at the population graph depicting what has previously been done in this world can be depressing. But like climbing the mountain, when realizing where we’ve already come from, the beauty that surrounds us and that beauty that once could be, my pack of supplies goes right back around my shoulders with a new spring in my step to guide me forward.

Metaphors aside, what does this mean for me now? A couple of things come to mind. First, I realize that the process I have gone through to get to the mental state I am in was not an easy one. Many people in this world have not and/or do not want to acknowledge the crushing facts of climate change and subsequently the hope that can follow. I believe that in order for hope to be fully abounding, for it to be at full strength, one must truly come to terms with the issue in question, in this case climate change. While confronting depressing situations can certainly be scary and potentially destructive, they by no means have to be if dealt with appropriately. If sustainability is all about being in right relationship, I find it imperative to create those comfortable, welcoming relationships with others to allow them the first step in empowerment to grieve. To grieve the life they thought they would have, the despair of what could be, the hazzy unclear future that is luring around the corner, whatever they need to grieve. Once constructively they have purged that grief from their system, there is now space for hope to resound. For many cultures this manifests itself first in the wake of survival. But through tenacity and ingenuity, comes a realization that we indeed can combat this issue. Through these issues comes empowerment. As an individual I want to be a person in whatever communities I will be in who can be that “grief counselor” and then that “cheerleader” for everyone along the journey.

It is then through this cycle that I in turn become more empowered, more encouraged to keep moving. Like on the mountain when I would stop, take a breath, perhaps sit down and sip from my water bottle and gaze at and thus connect with the surrounding ecosystem, it is then when I connect with others on my journey. It is through these relationships where I so look forward to inspiring others to seek empowerment that the cycle of that education propels me to keep climbing higher, to learn more so that I may give more.