More on what I have in mind
As I begin to type this, I'm watching the news program, BBC World, on my local public television station, seeing the images of New Orleans with the flooding after the levees had failed. All these people, all this damage. Yet in many respects an excellent example of why I'm working on this blog - the hope that people will learn to live within and work with the limitations of nature itself.
I don't mean to lessen this tragedy, but in many ways this could have been prevented, or at least minimized, with respect to damages and lives hurt/lost if people had not been living along the coast like they have with these cities. In a very simplistic way of looking this - this tragedy is the result of people ignoring the limits of nature. And the potential for flooding is not done - the rain that has also fallen north of there, in the Ohio River Valley, will have to drain as well - down the same Mississippi River that flows past New Orleans again. Another example of geographic connectedness.
To survive in a future without petroleum - in other words, within the renewable resources and carrying capacity of the Earth, including the local variations - means we must collectively and individually understand how nature works - understand that the sun is our ultimate (and only) renewable source of energy, from which comes our weather, climate, rain, water resources, trees, plants, animals, etc.
Most introductory physical geography courses start by teaching about the Sun, and its energy cycle. We look at how the composition of the atmosphere, and the tilt and daily/seasonal rotation of the Earth about the sun, affect the amount of this sunlight able to reach to the ground or be absorbed into the atmosphere. How this solar energy drives the water cycle in the atmosphere, on the ground, and in ocean circulation. How this energy and gravity combine to provides the forces that mold and shape the Earth's surface, or drive plate tectonic activity underground. How vegetative patterns respond to spatial variations in soil and climate. And so on.
All driven by the Sun. All limited by the Sun.
To ignore these forces and patterns is to ignore the very knowledge you need to successfully live on this Earth without needing to using artificial (and ultimately finite) resources such as petroleum or natural gas.
In other words, we need to relearn what centuries of people and societies knew before oil, and which we have conveniently now for over 50 years have carelessly chosen to ignore or forget.
In the short term I'd like to create a series of lectures (and their printed or online equivalents) that teach people about these subjects of environmental living. I imagine a series of potential lectures that one could give if they have only 15 minutes to speak on a subject, only an hour to speak on a subject, only a morning or afternoon at a workshop on a subject, or, with the luxury of time, over the length of a semester or entire weekend.
In other words, build the pieces of a new educational curriculum that will serve to prepare tomorrow's leaders and doers.
My goals are two fold: to prepare these lectures and course materials in order to provide such lessons myself, but also to publically share the lecture design, if not the course content itself, to the public domain so that all can benefit. Think of it as the "open source software" equivalent for environmental education. This blog will be where I intend to share ideas from and carrying on conversations; there will likely be at some point a separate distribution website created to house the actual content for access by others.
We will see how far I actually manage to get on this project. After all, my doing this is in addition to my having a regular full-time job and a family. So what gets accomplished is what I can do in evenings and weekends.
I look forward to sharing this project, and in getting feedback and suggestions from you, the reader who will benefit.
BBC World is done for the evening, and now I'm watching the News Hour by PBS Television. More on the hurricane damage due to Katrina. I wish the best for everyone down there and feel profound sorrow for the families who have lost loved ones and possessions. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
More to come....
I don't mean to lessen this tragedy, but in many ways this could have been prevented, or at least minimized, with respect to damages and lives hurt/lost if people had not been living along the coast like they have with these cities. In a very simplistic way of looking this - this tragedy is the result of people ignoring the limits of nature. And the potential for flooding is not done - the rain that has also fallen north of there, in the Ohio River Valley, will have to drain as well - down the same Mississippi River that flows past New Orleans again. Another example of geographic connectedness.
To survive in a future without petroleum - in other words, within the renewable resources and carrying capacity of the Earth, including the local variations - means we must collectively and individually understand how nature works - understand that the sun is our ultimate (and only) renewable source of energy, from which comes our weather, climate, rain, water resources, trees, plants, animals, etc.
Most introductory physical geography courses start by teaching about the Sun, and its energy cycle. We look at how the composition of the atmosphere, and the tilt and daily/seasonal rotation of the Earth about the sun, affect the amount of this sunlight able to reach to the ground or be absorbed into the atmosphere. How this solar energy drives the water cycle in the atmosphere, on the ground, and in ocean circulation. How this energy and gravity combine to provides the forces that mold and shape the Earth's surface, or drive plate tectonic activity underground. How vegetative patterns respond to spatial variations in soil and climate. And so on.
All driven by the Sun. All limited by the Sun.
To ignore these forces and patterns is to ignore the very knowledge you need to successfully live on this Earth without needing to using artificial (and ultimately finite) resources such as petroleum or natural gas.
In other words, we need to relearn what centuries of people and societies knew before oil, and which we have conveniently now for over 50 years have carelessly chosen to ignore or forget.
In the short term I'd like to create a series of lectures (and their printed or online equivalents) that teach people about these subjects of environmental living. I imagine a series of potential lectures that one could give if they have only 15 minutes to speak on a subject, only an hour to speak on a subject, only a morning or afternoon at a workshop on a subject, or, with the luxury of time, over the length of a semester or entire weekend.
In other words, build the pieces of a new educational curriculum that will serve to prepare tomorrow's leaders and doers.
My goals are two fold: to prepare these lectures and course materials in order to provide such lessons myself, but also to publically share the lecture design, if not the course content itself, to the public domain so that all can benefit. Think of it as the "open source software" equivalent for environmental education. This blog will be where I intend to share ideas from and carrying on conversations; there will likely be at some point a separate distribution website created to house the actual content for access by others.
We will see how far I actually manage to get on this project. After all, my doing this is in addition to my having a regular full-time job and a family. So what gets accomplished is what I can do in evenings and weekends.
I look forward to sharing this project, and in getting feedback and suggestions from you, the reader who will benefit.
BBC World is done for the evening, and now I'm watching the News Hour by PBS Television. More on the hurricane damage due to Katrina. I wish the best for everyone down there and feel profound sorrow for the families who have lost loved ones and possessions. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
More to come....
posted by Kevin Anderson K9IUA at 8:30 PM
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