Let the semester begin!
It's the night before the second to last semester of my Clarkson schooling, and Professor Bill Vitek gave a great speech at this year's Freshman Convocation. Unfortunately, I do not have the speech or quotes from it now, but I was assured that it will be available in some form and when it is, I will include portions of it here.
He spoke mainly of this generation's need to change our mindset and find new ways to survive on a planet that does not have infinite resources and that will not cradle our civilization indefinitely. To keep my thought's organized, I am going to list axioms in the reality that I believe in right now:
1. Our planet is finite. Need I say more that the photo of the earth from the moon?
2. Our civilization is putting a large amount of stress on the planet.
3. It is very likely that our civilization is putting too much stress on the planet.
4. At some point, the planet will be unable to sustain our civilizations, and natural and predictable feedback mechanisms are going to resist our civilization's growth and continued stresses.
5. Right now, we are at the apex of several unprecedented patterns. (eg. population, fossil fuel consumption, unnatural extinction)
6. The patterns are clear (yet still debatable) and there are right choices and wrong choices to make.
7. These choices are controlled by politics, as much as (or more so than) science.
8. The political arena is harsh, tricky, unforgiving, and corruptible.
9. This is the time to think, make decisions, and act upon them.
10. I am studying to be an environmental engineer, and therefore I have a vested interest (emotionally, morally, spiritually, economically, and physically) in making the right decisions, and acting upon the right axioms.
"If we are unable to steer the Juggernaut of our own prosperity, then surely there is an impotence in our vaunted Americanism that augurs ill for our future. The self-directed evolution of rational beings does not apply to us until we become collectively, and well as individually, rational and self-directing."
- Aldo Leopold, Wilderness as a Form of Land Use (1925)
He spoke mainly of this generation's need to change our mindset and find new ways to survive on a planet that does not have infinite resources and that will not cradle our civilization indefinitely. To keep my thought's organized, I am going to list axioms in the reality that I believe in right now:
1. Our planet is finite. Need I say more that the photo of the earth from the moon?
2. Our civilization is putting a large amount of stress on the planet.
3. It is very likely that our civilization is putting too much stress on the planet.
4. At some point, the planet will be unable to sustain our civilizations, and natural and predictable feedback mechanisms are going to resist our civilization's growth and continued stresses.
5. Right now, we are at the apex of several unprecedented patterns. (eg. population, fossil fuel consumption, unnatural extinction)
6. The patterns are clear (yet still debatable) and there are right choices and wrong choices to make.
7. These choices are controlled by politics, as much as (or more so than) science.
8. The political arena is harsh, tricky, unforgiving, and corruptible.
9. This is the time to think, make decisions, and act upon them.
10. I am studying to be an environmental engineer, and therefore I have a vested interest (emotionally, morally, spiritually, economically, and physically) in making the right decisions, and acting upon the right axioms.
"If we are unable to steer the Juggernaut of our own prosperity, then surely there is an impotence in our vaunted Americanism that augurs ill for our future. The self-directed evolution of rational beings does not apply to us until we become collectively, and well as individually, rational and self-directing."
- Aldo Leopold, Wilderness as a Form of Land Use (1925)
posted by Benjamin at 7:23 PM
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