Since yesterday, I've been attending a four-day conference at California State University–Chico called "This Way To Sustainability III." Unfortunately, I didn't see Parts I and II, so hopefully I won't be lost watching Part III. I've been told that in this conference, Rocky Balboa takes on both Clubber Lang AND climate change! Should be a real nail-biter.
I started the day off on the right path by riding my bike to the university. Then, like a good environmentalist, I managed to find a way to recycle my old student ID and get into the conference for only $10. It feels so good to recycle. The staff at the check-in table handed me a goodie bag filled with environmentally-friendly items, such as a note pad made from surplus Sierra Nevada beer labels, a packet of organic California poppy seeds, and ANOTHER compact fluorescent lightbulb from PG&E. Even the goodie bag itself was a goodie—it was a ChicoBag, which is a special nylon bag sold locally here to replace the use of plastic bags in grocery stores. The good thing about a ChicoBag is that it's very compact and can be scrunched into its own tiny bag and stored in a purse or a pocket. Right off the bat, this conference was looking promising.
I sat in on five seminars yesterday tackling a wide range of sustainable topics. I first heard from a goat farmer who talked about how he monitored his finances to make sure his business remained both sustainable and profitable. I then heard from a consultant who was speaking on "Sustainability 101: Sustainability for Dummies." Ah, finally something on my level. One of the important lessons I learned from the presenter was that there always seems to be a system of pluses and minuses with anything you do in environmentalism. For example, remember the wonderful, reusable ChicoBag that I just mentioned in the previous paragraph? Turns out, the bag is made in China and not locally like I had thought, and the outside of the bag has lead paint on it. Not exactly the green bag I had originally envisioned. And the spiffy energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulb I just received? Turns out that with all the mercury it contains, it's more environmentally hazardous than its incandescent predecessor. Talk about major blows to my environmental psyche.
I also heard from an accountant who discussed the process he goes through in performing an environmental audit. He mentioned how most businesses think adding solar panels will help them save money, when there's many less glamorous options—like upgrading a company's cooling system—that can actually create bigger savings for a company. A woman at NASA then taught us some of the methods that she uses to implement sustainability in businesses (and as an aside, she showed us a cool 3D model of the Earth's land surfaces that puts Google Maps to shame. You can download the viewer at the NASA World Wind site). I then attended a presentation by an architecture firm that discussed green architecture practices being used on buildings at Chico State.
The day ended with a keynote address from the rock star of sustainability, David Orr. He is the leading authority figure on all things sustainable (you can see him appear in the film The 11th Hour), and all his groupies came out by the masses to hear him speak. He gave a very depressing "gloom and doom" presentation on the state of climate change and how the polarization of the two political parties is partly to blame for our current situation. He ended it with a message of hope that we can still fix things, but I was already looking for a razor blade to put me out of my misery. The environmental issues that we'll be facing in the near future are going to be difficult. Like David Orr stated, we've got to look down the barrel of the gun and finally do something about it, or it'll be too late.
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