How do we incentivize sustainability? In previous articles, I have touched on various aspects of sustainable development. I have yet to mention economics, which is arguably one of the most important aspects of sustainable development. Ideally, developing countries would invest in more sustainable energy sources, understand- ing that while temporarily low supplies of energy may slow economic…
Individual action counts for something too As you probably know, February is Black History Month. For me, this means learning from the past, but also addressing what is happening in the present in regard to race. In some ways, we haven’t gotten very far in addressing racial issues in the United States since the civil…
Consider your gifts’ environmental effects It’s beginning to feel a lot like the holiday season: Thanksgiving is over, the Christmas concerts are in full swing, decorations are up, the hot cocoa is brewing, there is snow on the ground and break is right around the corner. Maybe you have even started to write your Christmas…
The recent news reports about race and college campuses, especially at the University of Missouri, have been absolutely unreal to read. I never thought I would read about people making swastikas out of human feces or hanging nooses around trees in 2015. It would be even more unreal for something like that to happen on…
Always intersecting An aspect of environmental sustainability that people often overlook is the link between environmental sustainability and issues relating to basic human rights. A general set of basic human rights can be found in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), a document that has served as a fundamental guide to international…
How Uniprint is striving to lower those numbers What do health education, nursing, and music theory composition majors have in common? Last year, they printed over 900 sheets of paper per person. Other majors are not far behind; psychology majors printed an average of 834 sheets, and elementary education majors printed 789 sheets. “I think…
As college students, it can be difficult to determine how our food is made and where it comes from. However, something to think about, something we Cobbers ought to take with us when we graduate, is that food production has an environmental impact — some foods far more than others. Given the increasing population and…
Ahh … If you’re like me, the changing of the leaves and the crisp air makes you incredibly happy to be alive. Yes, it’s fall and I bet you might be all about one of those pumpkin spice lattes, going to a pumpkin patch to buy some pumpkins or snuggling up to watch a scary…
One way to approach environmental activism is by utilizing systems thinking. Systems thinking is “the art and science of making reliable inferences about behavior by developing an increasingly deep understanding of underlying structure,” according to Barry Richmond, a late systems scientist for High Performance Systems, Inc., an IT Technology Solutions Provider. When one considers the…
Construction has started on a solar high tunnel greenhouse, which will extend the growing season long enough for classrooms to be involved with Concordia’s garden project, according to Ken Foster, the chair of President William Craft’s sustainability council. “The main purpose [of the tunnel] is to provide educational opportunities for students,” Foster said. “There is…