What is Life? (PSP)

“the condition that distinguishes animals, plants, and other organisms from inorganic or inanimate matter, characterized by continuous metabolic activity and the capacity for functions such as growth, development, reproduction, adaptation to the environment, and response to stimulation; (also) the activities and phenomena by which this is manifested.”

Deer under the trampoline, Ponderosa Pines oozing clear sap, white-caps on the lake, ospreys flying above seeking out prey in the reeds and grasses below, the blue sky, the clouds drifting overhead, the sun peering over the Eastern mountain tops, shadows clinging to the crags of rock, the city in the distant valley to the north. These are things that describe what you can see from my house. To me this picture is alive and overall, life is inspiring. When I look at nature, I see everything that contributes to its beauty, the rocks, streams, plants, animals, weather, everything. Components such as water, light, rocks and soil are abiotic factors but they play an important role to the lives of those who are living such as the surrounding plants and animals. Lichens need rocks as a foundation and begin to break it down to eventually form soil. Once soil is formed, seeds can be dispersed and over time, can grow into seedlings then fully-grown plants. As this occurs, more and more organism move into the area, relying on the resources previously established there. The point I’m trying to make is that “living” organisms are interdependent. On a holistic level, all components of life are directly dependent on abiotic factors such as sun, rain or soil. Ultimately, the definition above restricts life to certain components I listed: the deer, trees, ospreys, reeds, grasses et cetera. Despite the important role water, light and soil plays in the lives of these organisms, they are not defined as living but can be characterized as living in the sense that they make such a large contribution to the existence of life itself. These abiotic factors are in principle, ingredients for life.

A Car-Dominated World (PSP)

Currently, our entire planet is infested.

The automobile has taken over every piece of land in the world. This beast has adapted to every climate, terrain and weather type. It has become tolerant to its environment through the innovation of progressive man.

Unfortunately, the car has become almost entirely integrated into not only or social structure but also our economic and environmental sectors as well. Socially, we rely on cars to move us from place to place quickly and efficiently. What kind of costs does this have though? Individually, the costs are not very high despite the costs of the car itself, maintenance and fuel. Economically, these machines are in first place. They have created a demand for oil that supersedes that of food and water in Westernized societies. This neoliberal viewpoint is unsustainable. This leads to the environmental impact cars have. Not only are cars burning fossil fuels thus releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, increasing the global temperature but the infrastructure or habitat required by these vehicles are immense. Cars are an invasive species and destroy local ecological habitat. The establishment of roads and highways create rifts in ecosystems, cutting off ecological pathways and reducing the amount of resources available to local vegetation and wildlife. Not only are cars affecting the environment at a local level but have massive impacts in different parts of the world. The Alberta Tar Sands are a good example of what happens when cars have infiltrated our minds, causing us to value their convenience rather than look at what the costs are. The environmental destruction due to the extraction of oil sands is tragic. The operation has resulted in the degradation of the local water table, the destruction of the boreal forest and thus the destruction of many species’ habitats.

Cars have wormed their way into our lives and continue to strive to be at the top of the economic, social and ecological food chain. It’s our responsibility to re-think and re-evaluate what’s important to us. The creation of the car was in fact, our doing. It can also be our undoing. Let’s make a change for the better and think on a holistic level. 

Post-Course: Personal Sustainability Definition (PSP)

Sustainability: Holistic level thinking; taking into consideration each individual system and ultimately each network that are interconnected with the primary action. These systems must remain intact while maintaining other interdependent systems. Sustainability can be divided into 3 categories or pillars: Environment, Economy and Society. Each one of these components MUST be accommodated for if one is affected by an action. At a universal level, each action must benefit or not affect the economy, environmental stability or social standing if it is part of an intimate network of interdependent variables.

Climate Change and Health Module Feedback (PSP)

I like the layout of the front page of the NextGenU.org website. It contains all the information I need to know regarding what the website is aiming to do, showing frequently asked questions and contact information et cetera. The font and colours are all appropriate. One thing that is missing from the front page though would be, as we talked about in class, people. It would be nice to show a picture or even better, a slide show of occasionally updated pictures that represent the values and goals of NextGenU. This would spruce up the front page, creating a more welcoming atmosphere to the viewer.

When I click on the course, Emergency Medicine, my initial response to the Course Home Page was “meh”. It would be cool to see a more elaborate layout with the criteria at the top so the viewer or student can see clearly what is required of them. I like how there is a list of glossary terms used for “Vocabulary Games”. One thing that I would definitely improve would be the speaker when you click on the audio symbol and the voice asks you for feedback as one of the first students of NextGenU. It would be nice to hear a real human being talking rather than a “Microsoft” voice. This would integrate the student more thoughtfully into the program, allowing them to connect with people rather than an automaton. Personally, I'd rather talk to someone than hear an automatic voice recording (especially if it's not human). On the other hand, it’s nice to see the figure of the teacher on the right-hand side of the page but it would be better if it were a picture of a real person. Overall, this first page is not bad; it just needs a few improvements.

YES! Module 1! I see a picture of people! As a viewer, I immediately looked at this image. Well done. I also like how there isn’t an overwhelming amount of information on the page, this is important to maintaining the interest of the student. I would like to see the title, “Module 1: Patient Care”, stand out with a more interesting font choice and colour scheme.

For the Competencies, it’s really nice to see a Learning Objectives section. I know, as a student, that these sections are very important to my future understanding of the material. I also love to see the continuity of the images that relate to the individual page. Overall, these Competency sections and Modules can be improved based on the prior paragraph.

Ultimately, this website looks promising. I like the layout and format of the site because it seems compatible with one’s basic technological skill. The only major advice I would have for the site would be to showcase that this is a new and modern university! Look at UBC and how we showcase our university through the beautiful surroundings on campus as well as the human interactions and academic excellence. NextGenU can take this into consideration, allowing the site to welcome scholars all over the world in a universally pleasing way.

A Tree - Poetry Slam (PSP)

A Tree

Mighty giant fallen

            To the forest floor.

Thick gnarled roots

            Clutching at rocks

                        Holding them close, seeking

                                    Security from the earth;

                                                The earth from when its first food came.

Cradled in the bosom of loving Mother Earth.

Lying now its full length stretched,

In pain of death.

Sap, clear and fragrant,

Oozing from broken branches with piney needles,

                        Taking in the sun,

                        Towering over all other living things.

A resting place for birds,

A shelter for the deer.

The stories it could tell of the grass beyond the montains,

Of sparkling rivers coursing their riches to the sea.

And of the coming of progressive man.

In not so many years this mind excelled.

The building of machinery was but,

A simple task. 

Soon the creeping crawling monster,

Wended its way,

Heeding not where it trod,

Caring not for little things,

Making straight for the prize.

The heavenly, stately, irreplaceable tree.

Community Engagement Piece - Letter to the Editor (PSP)

Vancouver Observer: Letter to the Editor – Soft Plastics Recycling

Vancouver Greenest City 2020? Expand our recycling programs.

We all know the three Rs: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. From an early age in Vancouver we are taught to put plastic bottles in the recycling bin and not in the garbage can. And yet, our ability to actually participate in such recycling programs when we enter the workplace, or the post secondary setting, or even  try to get involved at home, is limited by the availability and the accessibility of recycling programs and infrastructure for residents of this city. A huge part of being green, after all, is about convenience.

Currently, there are two types of recycling programs available for Vancouver city residents: the blue box recycling program and the apartment recycling program. Neither of these accepts plastic bags or plastic films which are also known as “soft plastics.” This is despite the fact that there are facilities which will recycle these products, such as West Coast Recycling located in Richmond.

Why not? Why are consumers who want to recycle these products required to hold onto them and then bring them to the available facilities, which are often out of the way? Is that feasible for the majority of Vancouver residents? Probably not.

What we need are available recycling programs for Vancouver city residents that are convenient. Until we create such programs, it is highly unlikely that the majority of Vancouver will keep, wash and drop off their soft plastics at depots completely out of their way. We should start by creating soft plastics recycling programs so families can get involved from their homes. From there, businesses and post-secondary institutions could get involved as well.

Is Vancouver going to be the greenest city by 2020? Only time will tell, but a good start is to make it more convenient for the people of this city to participate and get involved in reducing our foot print; start with our recycling programs.

Sincerely,

Jordan, Kristina and Nicole

Creative PSP Assignment #4 - Social Movement

In response to the YouTube video: "Counterfeit Gods" 

            The aim of this creative reflection is to raise awareness about how there is no political or social will in our society to generate effective change. The goal isn’t necessarily trying to rally all video gamers together to initiate that change but is a symbol of the problem itself.

           

            Personally, if I were to go about rallying a large group of people it would be difficult but possible. The key to gaining the support of others is to speak out for something that they believe is true and is worth fighting over. What I’m trying to say is that since people lack that willingness to initiate change, it is in the hands of those who contain that passion and eagerness to unite the people. This is illustrated in the last frame of the comic where Keller realizes that if he is to inspire a willingness to change, he must mobilize the people by giving them the tools necessary to carrying that change out.

            Ultimately, this can be done. Through community programs it happens all the time at a small level; now we have to look at the global. How can we inspire willingness in others to stand up with their neighbours and solve the Earth’s problems? It takes one person with a little bit of courage and heart. An example of someone that “rallied the masses” would be Craig Kielburger. When he was young he saw in the newspaper an article reporting how a child labourer stood up for himself and was killed because if it. Craig saw this as completely unfair and wrong so he talked about it in class that day and asked if any of his classmates would want to help make a difference. Several peers raised their hands and that was the birth of one of the largest youth movements in the world: Free the Children. This goes to show that through a small action and a lot of effort, one can have a large impact on those around them, creating change.

Creative PSP Assignment #3 - Shit: A Dramatic Realism

            The first time I watched the YouTube video about how so many people live in such unsanitary conditions my first response was to recoil in disgust. My second response was to empathize and imagine what it would be like to have to use the river or local fields as a place to “do my business”. But watching this video involved no use of euphemisms. None at all. These people are struggling to survive and are, in our Westernized eyes, sacrificing not only dignity but precious resources that could be utilized for water or food. The tragic piece of information that would contest my prior sentence would be to acknowledge the fact that these people DO utilize their fields and crops and rivers for food and water. They are literally eating out of their toilet.

            Why do these people have to go in the rivers and fields? It just makes me think about how upsidedown and backwards our world really is (as Kurt elaborately and passionately made clear to us) and ultimately inspires me to raise awareness about issues like these. But honestly what else can I do? Does raising awareness genuinely create change in these foreign countries? Does our knowledge of the issue really give these people a toilet? Fundamentally, awareness comes with action but in our society, if it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind. How can we change this mentality? How can we see these tragic and backwards issues as if it were happening to us? Can we honestly absorb passion through a television or computer screen or do we actually have to see what’s happening for ourselves to ultimately pursuade ourselves something needs to be done? Just some thoughts.

            In our Westernized society, we are blessed with a sewage system but is it really something we should be continuing to be thankful for or should we step up and critically analyze what we're doing. Right now, we're defecating in our water. How can we change that? One option that comes to my mind is in the application of compostable toilets. If our society initiated the transition to an infrastructure that houses compostable toilets, it would be easier to take that application and use it in places that lack a toilet system. Overall, we need to look at the issues in the world and use them to create a system that works for everyone. Using a cyclical process that harnesses human waste would be most efficient. The best way to come up with an idea for this would be to look at nature and figure out a way to copy it; it's simply bio-mimicry. The ultimate result would be a system that requires little labour or perhaps is self-maintained.

Creative PSP Assignment #2 - Shipbreaking in Bangladesh

        This picture is in response to the pictures of the shipbreaking practices in Bangladesh. To me, it represents quite a few things. First of all, the line of Bangladeshi people hauling a rope, pulling a ship on to shore. This line not only represents the perverse levels of hard labour that these people continually suffer through but also the fact that they have banded together to aid one another. This idea reflects that the world can work in harmony with one another, despite the hardships we face.

        This ties into the next aim of my drawing which is in relation to the smudging. I smudged the graphite to acknowledge the dirty and harsh conditions that the Bangladeshi people work and live in. It is a muddy, cruel and environmentally unstable community exposing toxic chemicals such as arsenic into not only the physical environment but into the physical systems of each person working on these sites.

        Finally, this ties into my last goal for the drawing. I intentionally crumpled part of the paper to represent political corruption. Most of the ships that are dumped on the beaches of Bangladesh originate from Western societies, particularly the United States. How can the US allow their ships to be deconstructed in this manner? There is a point where politics have to step in and stand up for the good of the people and the environment rather than for the good of the economy. It is hypocritical to allow such practices to occur elsewhere in the world when it is not permitted in the host's country. Just because it is out of sight, does not mean that it can or should be out of mind.

Food Systems Mind Map - Big Industrial Buyers (PSP)

Technology Mindmap - A Generation of the iPhone (PSP)

Food Concept Map - Growth of an Organic Tomato (PSP)

My Personal Sustainability Pathway (PSP)