Beat a Dead Ant

Did you know that, by total mass, there are more ants on planet Earth than humans? Believe it!!!!! And did you know that  the impact of ants on the planet is significantly less than that of humans despite their greater number? Of course you did. Ants, while being very industrious and successful as far as animals go, are still very much Ants. They are simple creature and need, compared to humans, much less in the way of resources. A decent amount of ants can live off a blade of grass......can even one human do that? NO! Do we have toxins that are biodegradable? No. That would be awesome. But we don't. So then, why would the writers of Cradle to Cradle advocate a position where we return to a system that we become more like the Ants? It may indeed be more green and sustainable but it doesn't lend itself to the realm of possibility. We are a much more complex animal and thus require a much more complex lifestyle. not that we shouldn't try to change the way we live to become more green, but I am saying that reverting to "A Bug's Life" way of living isn't the best solution.

An analogy serves the purpose to view a situation through a new lens, to provide another perspective on a situation to potentially make it clearer. Comparing humans and ants does not suggest that we are on equal planes, but that we - as evolved humans - may be so smart we are dumb.  Even though, by total mass, ants outweigh humans, it only takes one moderately intelligent human to outsmart all of those ants.  However, if we humans are so infinitely more intelligent, then how can we not model the ants' lifestyle while maintaining our advances in society? Yes, we are more complex, we have more desires, we have lust, we have relationships, hate, critical thinking, and more that complicate our daily lives far past that of an ant, but with those complexities come our ability to form societies, governments, huge buildings, discover our origins, even the ability to find out that ants do outweigh us in regards to biomass, but yet, we still fail in our attempt to mimic the ants' ecological footprint. Therefore, I now pose the question, are we smarter than ants?

Intergenerational Remote Tyranny

Photo contributed via flickr, taken by Zoriah Soweto

It exists.

Written by Nabilah D., John L., Joel E., Garrett E.

Intergenerational remote tyranny is the ideology that our generation today is limiting and devastating the generations of the future. Without consideration of their actions, generations of people have left a world littered with garbage, pollution, starvation, and massive complications for the next generation to inherit. This horrendous action has been noted and observed by the multitudes, but the problem has yet to be resolved. Many individuals do not realize the greater impact their actions and behaviors have in relation to the environment, and to the future generation.

Not intentionally wishing harm, they nonetheless have contributed to a cycle of indifference to the consequences of their actions by littering and hacking away at mother nature while ignoring the resulting effects. For many, it is easier and less time consuming to merely throw your trash on the floor, your recyclables in the recycle bin. Productivity and efficiency is the way to go in our modern age: however, for the future generation, what way can they go but down? As can be seen in the novel Cradle to Cradle, this form of tyranny--of dominating and using all the resources, all the pleasures of this life, without consideration that the future generation needs many resources as well--cannot continue.

Crude Products

Most sane people would avoid drinking bleach due to its harmful nature; however, most people do not think twice about exposing themselves to harmful materials as they get dressed in the morning. Did you know that a typical polyester shirt contains toxic dyes and catalysts? My guess, would be no. This shirt can be referred to as a crude product. A crude product is a desired item designed for the needs and wants of a consumer; however, the product is not designed for human or ecological health and therefore, it is counter productive to the society. It is doing more bad then we initially might think. Since we do know this information, why do we continue to make such products? The reason comes down to green. And not green as in being environmentally efficient, but green as in money.

This picture was taken by Marc Falardeau.

For more information on the shirt making process click here.

A post created by group 3: Nici, Roxanne, Danielle, Theresa, Ganesh (Santa Clara Students) 

Toxins in Baby Toys

Okay we'll admit it, we are five college students who aren't planning on having kids for awhile but we still have our individual opinions on the toxic chemicals present in baby toys.  Some of us think that the level of chemicals in the toys is something that should be more of a concern, while others think its regulated enough already.

Those of us in favor of more regulation believe that even if these toxins aren't causing life threatening illnesses they can still manifest themselves as allergies or not feeling as good as you should.  Just because babies aren't dying from the toys that don't get recalled, doesn't mean there's not something wrong with them.  If a baby has the potential to live a full, long, healthy life and play with fun, non-toxic toys--then they should!

The rest of us think that while heavy levels of toxins in toys are a concern, producers already remove these play things from the market with recalls.  Even if all toys were regulated, and completely toxin free, in the world we live in babies will still encounter overwhelming amounts of toxins everyday.  Imagine your baby food processor that you use to make your child delicious, organic meals--chemicals from the machine can be mixed in with what you're consuming.  Children have been exposed to minimal amounts of these toxins that are now all over our communities, and have still been living enjoyable, full lives. We are examples of this.  When our generation was growing up, our products were not regulated nearly as much they are now.  We all turned out just fine, we all grew into 5 healthy kids who were smart enough to make it to a prestigious private university.

Think about it--baby or no baby--where do you stand?





a post by Chloe Bacon, Monica Chatterjee, Lindsey Bertolacci, Stephanie Moser, and Shane Hereford (Santa Clara University Students)

Welcome to the Upcycle Santa Clara Blog

Hello, this is a blog to document work from a writing class at Santa Clara University.  We are studying sustainability, and how rhetoric helps to shape our ecologies and environments.  You can look here for interesting information about how to upcycle your lifestyle.  Here are some sample blogs we think are really good models for our blog here:

DotEarth by Andrew Revkin
Grist
No Impact Man by Colin Beavan