Today was a mix of many different speakers from many fields including architecture, city planning, and more. I enjoyed hearing the speakers present about the cardboard seat challenge, which looked like a fun introduction to sustainable architecture. Then hearing that up to 50% of landfill waste is from construction was really shocking and I’m glad a student took the initiative to design something better! It was also neat to tour Cuba Street and the Town Square from a city council perspective to understand their efforts to “future-proof” the area to create a more sustainable environment. Specifically, the rain gardens were a nice way to add some green to the city and also absorb and use rainwater so it is not funneled out to sea.
Finally, I greatly enjoyed our speaker who brought up the “evil” plastic bags and other challenges in environmental science, specifically in regards to families and dwellings, but I found his research to bring up many challenges, yet without insight has to how to solve these challenges. In particular, farming of cattle creates a huge carbon footprint but it would be implausible to ban meat the way plastic bags have been banned because meat is simply a commodity even the most enthusiastic of Earth-lovers is unwilling to give up. Therefore, his closing statement was possibly the most impactful: we can think of our impact as each individual having a plot of land, and however we wish to use that land is our own choosing, but we must not encroach on others’ land. Thus, I take his presentation to say that simply being a human being on this Earth will involve waste; however, it is each person’s duty to reduce waste in the areas that they can and give up wasteful practices they are willing to do without in order to keep the planet that is our collective home healthy for generations to come.
