The U.S. Botanic Garden has come up with a fun, creative way to teach people about sustainability. It’s an exhibit called “One Planet — Ours!” and it includes 43 globe sculptures, each created by a different person or group — and each representing one tenet of sustainability.
I visited the Botanic Garden recently and if you’re in D.C., you should, too. It’s a quaint, fragrant oasis of rose bushes and other flowers and trees on a corner of the National Mall in front of the Capitol building. All the plants are labeled so you can learn what they are.
The globes are placed throughout the main gardens, near the Botanic Garden conservatory, and across the street in Bartholdi Park. The exhibit also includes a “green garage” with a green roof; a small display of solar panels (from the Department of Energy) that generates 211 watts of power — enough to run the nine compact flourescent light bulbs on it; and there’s also a “Sustainable Schoolyard.”
Each globe makes its point in a different way. Some draw you in with beautiful designs; one is covered with plastic bottles and toys, to illustrate the need for all of us to reduce our consumption of such things. Another is covered with small windmills to represent wind power. Others illustrate how to green your home, conserve water or drive smartly. View my photos of about half of the globes.
All, however, draw on the “blue marble” image of a small, fragile world seen from afar. Our planet — the only one in the universe known to harbor life — is fragile, small, finite. We should take care of it.
One of the exhibit’s signs said it best: “The 22nd century begins 92 years from now. Three more generations will be born. The way we choose to live, eat, commute, work, play, garden and shop has consequences. What shall we demand of ourselves and each other?”
Demand sustainability.
Anyone in the Washington Metro area might like to know about the free Family Days associated with this exhibit. They feature activies for the whole family The theme for August 16 is Eat Locally! and will showcase the many many benefits of using locally produced food whenever possible. On Sept. 27, the theme is “Thrive–Grow Natives.” Family Days run 10 to 4:30 on both days.
The globes will be sold following the summer exhibition to benefit Earth Day Network’s efforts to “green” schools. Before they go to their permanent homes, some of the globes will be on display around the Washington, DC metro area, in the manner of the famous Elephants and Donkeys. Earth Day Network has been greening schools across the country, installing green roofs and solar panels, green walls and energy efficient lighting, and even gardens and greenhouses, as well as promoting healthy food, safer cleaning products, and better recreational facilities. Green, sustainable schools have been shown to increase attendance, lessen allergies, and improve test scores. For more information, visit http://www.earthday.net.
I keep hearing the buzzword “sustainability”. I have never been able to get a complete definition. It sounds to me like a warm and fuzzy idea we can all talk about while avoiding reality. Like many cults, there is some truth woven into the dogma, but not enough to base any system on.
I think the Industrial Revolution gave mankind the most “sustainable” lifestyle yet. It is a long way from perfect, but is the best we have ever come up with. One problem is the word perfect. What might be perfect to me would horify someone else.
It’s not a buzzword, it’s a legitimate, credible concept. The EPA defines sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (see http://www.epa.gov/Sustainability/)
That means, in part, that we mindfully manage natural resources and the global ecosystem, which provide the foundation for the global economy.
There’s a new field of sustainable economics which is exploring ways to bring the global economy into balance with the global ecosystem. (See Worldwatch’s ‘State of the World 2008: Innovations for a Sustainable Economy’, http://www.worldwatch.org/stateoftheworld)
I would not call sustainability a cult, either. It’s a logical concept that recognizes that future generations will reap what we sow; thus it is important to consider our how actions will affect our children.
Society is built on sustainability, whether we call it that or not. Farmers rotate their crops and some years leave some fields fallow, so they don’t wear out the land and can ensure production for the long term. The best corporations try to sustain their profits and place in the market. Parents work to support their children and sustain their families for the long term.
The Industrial Revolution certainly did build up western societies and has provided us a certain amount of sustainability. But it had its flaws, which were discarded or remedied. We don’t allow child labor anymore, for example, and we have worker protections for safety and workers’ rights. We’ve put limits on factory pollution for the common good, to protect our common environment and our health, because it’s better for us and it’s sustainable.
Parts of our current economy are not sustainable; there are limits. We’ll run out of oil one day, for example, so it behooves us to find alternative, sustainable sources of energy before that day comes. That’s just common sense.
Excellent reply Dan. If anything could be considered a “cult”, it is the mindset of immature fanatics who hang on every word of Rand and Hayek. It is they who prefer to deny reality by believing that human society can function “sustainably” if populated by self-absorbed individuals without concern for the health of the whole system. Almost nothing any of us do in this world does not affect someone or something else. We don’t live in a fanatsy world of the “rugged” dis-affected individual…not with close to 7 billion of us. The infantile and and disingenuous dogma of Grover Norguist’s “just leave us alone” is impossible to achieve.