This chapter emphasizes the respect we must have for diversity. I liked this point because the ways things are today, everything has become too commercialized. The example they brought up in the book was referring to a manufacturer who decided to rethink the way they make their detergent since not every consumer used the product the same. In most cases the soap was put in a washing machine, however the women in India washed their clothes by hand on large rocks thus introducing the harsh chemicals of the detergent to both their hands and the environment. So instead of following the “one size fits all” idea that we have all become accustomed too, these manufacturers need to start look at products on a smaller scale- every region of the world is unique in of itself and therefore calls for its own special needs. This unique diversity then becomes the foundation of all new ideas. By learning more about the native species, companies can find ways to use these species so that the environment still accepts them after use. For instance the book talks about doing away with Styrofoam packaging by creating a design made entirely of rice stalks and then encouraging people to throw their trash on the ground when finished so it can decompose and give something back to the soil.
The other way we must respect diversity is by finding this multiplicity in our products. The French reuse jam pots as drinking glasses. Something as simple as this needs to be modified in more products. Mankind has come a long way in regards to evolution, so now it is time to step back and rethink the way things are. This chapter lets us know that we have enough knowledge create or improve anything we want, but this time around products need to be more eco-efficient instead of bigger faster stronger. It’s time for a new revolution.
The other way we must respect diversity is by finding this multiplicity in our products. The French reuse jam pots as drinking glasses. Something as simple as this needs to be modified in more products. Mankind has come a long way in regards to evolution, so now it is time to step back and rethink the way things are. This chapter lets us know that we have enough knowledge create or improve anything we want, but this time around products need to be more eco-efficient instead of bigger faster stronger. It’s time for a new revolution.
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Chapter five was really insightful for me. The Ecology/Equity/Economy pyramid is mainly what I am referring to. I find it interesting that the French reuse jam pots for drinking glasses. In my household my family and I reuse cardboard boxes to make different as a drawer divider so my clothing drawers could have separate compartments.
My favorite quote that stuck out to me in this chapter is: "We can build...we can design...we can celebrate..." (McDonough 156). The reason being is because it is taking on an Obama campaign mind set of change and optimistic possibility. We can build factories that can produce biodegradable products and we can design systems that will regulate themselves, we can and we will, if we can do this our future looks bright.
james7425@PhilaU.edu
In chapter five they emphasized the fact of giving back to the enviornment which I find to be the number one issue here. We take everything from the environment and we never give back and then we complain about pollution or global warning when we are the ones thar are causing it. How many trees are cut down a year and never replaced? The detergent was another powerful point. The realization of using powder instead of liquid since it is going into water, will help save water. Yet why is no one doing this? Instead they are just trying to be "less bad" and condense the liquid.
I also think the ecology/equity/economy is a very influnetial ideal that many companies should strongly start considering more so now a days. It will bring more profit while saving the environmnet. But that will never happen unless it is strict legislation pushes for it. The government is aware of all of these problems and solutions but chooses to ignore it just so they can continue making money even if it results to killing the planet and us.
buccello2662@philau.edu
Chapter five really opened my eyes as to how our current system of "going green" is truly lacking. Companies and people are so accustomed to the "reduce, reuse, and recycle" jingle that they tend to forget the bigger picture. When people design new products they only focus on one aspect or area of the world as a whole, rather than focusing on the different cultures and statuses of other countries. For example, laundry detergent is only designed for washing machines, not everyone in the world has one. The women in India who do not have washing machines pour the detergent along with the harsh chemcials in the river. It is not their fault that they are pouring harsh chemicals into the river, it is the fault of the producer of the product.
Another concept that I think is really important, is the use of local resources to go green. Just like the Bedouins used adobe bricks to help build a non-nomadic city. If we use local materials here it would make a world of a difference.
kanji2273@philau.edu
Think globally, act locally. The world is comprised of numerous complex and diverse ecosystems and cultures. It can be described; however, that we all share a common ecosystem and culture – that of the entire earth. The authors offer, “Each species’ industry has not only individual and local implications but global ones as well.” It is important to understand the global consequences of one’s actions but less so to proscribe a global solution to any negative results. If one focuses on local environmental health and cleanliness, the possibility of global benefits increases. And through such consideration, pride and respect of all the world’s cultures can grow. Each culture and each ecosystem can better itself to better the collective.
McDonough and Braungart even assert that all sustainability is local, describing, “We connect them [human systems] to local material and energy flows, and to local customs, needs, and tastes, from the level of the molecule to the level of the region itself.” (123) Within a culture, every tribe can specify and utilize what renewable resources are available. Locals know best the ecosystem and style in which they live – collaborate with locals to create safe cleaning products for their hands and rivers.
The Authors present and repeat an axiom of great current meaning, ‘yes, we can.’ It is wonderful the French reuse jam pots as drinking glasses, but it would be innovative to explore the possibility of bringing these pots back to the jam producer to have the jar again reused and filled with jam, when desired. With such achievements, “We can celebrate the fecundity in the world, instead of perpetuating a way of thinking and making that eliminates it.” (C2C, 156) We can all contribute to global health – even through modest, local action.
Please do not consider this entry for the gift certificate award. Many thanks.
I read Chapter Five while traveling on a ferry, watching the steamboats pass and the sunset. I really liked the idea of the Ecology/Equity/Economy pyramid. It is definitely best to make sure that products respect all areas, and not favorable towards one. Another great idea was that we are giving back to the environment. It was said that humans take from the environment, but really, we should be giving back. We should be giving back to the environment, just as they are giving to us. Chapter Five gave us many creative ideas of how to help our environment, now all we need is to work together and put them into action.
megan_elizabeth_xoxox@yahoo.com
To me, chapter five really stressed relationships, many relationships. One of which is the relationship between cultures and the diversities of them. The problem right now in America is the rise of the sameness and building molds that have spread and populated the suburban areas around the US. Right in my town there is a community where each home (of the 100 or so home community) looks the exact same and has the exact same back yard with absolutely no land to play in and no creativity in the building. The community serves two purposes, to give people nice homes and at the same time cost loads less to put all the houses there because they fit the same mold. The book said this was a form of “de-evolution” (119). In this place and all around the globe people are putting aside diversity and replacing it with convenience and it is hurting rather than helping.
There are more. Furthermore one other relationship they talked about (a more important probably) was the relationship between Earth and us. We need to seek a liaison with Earth rather than trying to dominate it as we are doing so. We need to be as the ants were in John Terborgh’s rainforest, co-habituating in one area of the forest (a tree from the ground up to it’s tops) and living off similar foodstuffs, just looking in different places. We need to understand each other and like the ants live with each other as well as work with each other. It is important to have strength in a healthy biodiversity and in diversity itself.
It is also important to understand the triangle that is ecology, equity and economy. Out of all the explaining of the relationships in that section the one that popped out at me was the one between economy and ecology. This couple equaled eco-efficiency, which was something the earlier chapters were poking at. Eco-efficiency is good but what we really want is to be effective (eco- and otherwise).
shenk4574@PhilaU.edu
In everything we design we must consider a two part process, diversity and usefulness. Usefulness of a product is critical because without careful consideration products cannot please the consumer as well as incorporate diversity affectively. Most people would not purchase a product that is not useful even if the product fully respects the diversity in which it is fabricated and implimented. The bottom line is that without usefulness a product cannot be diverse. This shows why most products fit the 'one size fits all' system. If a product is able to please consumers by being basically useful then diversity typically gets swept under the rug in order to cut costs.
Chapter five urgently emphasizes the need for diversity simply because it does not exist in design. "One size fits all...We see this as de-evolution - simplification on a mass scale - and it is not limited to ecology" (C2C 119). While the message is clear, society does not act on diversity and circumvents the situation by using the 'one-size fits all' system because as long as the product is useful and basic the need for diversity is void.
The former Soviet Union, for example, negelected diversity and as a result suffered overall. "A competing team proposed Soviet-style prefabricated housing blocks..."anywhere buildings" (C2C 123). By not considering diversity the Soviet Union lost the contact to a team that took advantage of the elements at hand. "The question that helped to guide the team's work at every level was: What is the right thing for this place" (C2C 124)? The team that respected diversity not only made a product that was useful but it incoporated many of the local features and elements which in the long-run save money and improve the lives of the local people. If this concept of diversity within usefulness is applied then many of the products we use, such as laundry detergent, can be both safe and cost-cutting.
Rich9533@philau.edu
I found chapter five to be the most interesting chapter so far. I knew that every region in the world was very different from every other region in the world, of course. But I was unaware of the idea that different versions of the same product is better in different areas. Like Justine mentioned, in some parts of India women wash their clothes by hand on a rock, not to mention in some of the same waters people enjoy an afternoon swim. The “one size fits all” detergent is too strong for their hands, the rock they rub it on, and the people that are swimming. I think the idea of creating varieties of the same product to protect the inhabitants of that region is a very good idea.
In the book they also say that “local sustainability is not limited to materials, but it begins with them.” I think that a lot of manufacturers just want to get their products wherever they can get them and to whom ever they can give them to. They do not think about how the materials in their products could be potentially harmful to the environment they send it to. There are materials in some places that are not in others for a reason. Not all areas can handle the same materials without causing problems for the environment, the people, or the wildlife. In the book, they give the example of when Chestnut blight entered the United states. Chestnut blight wiped out a lot of the chestnut trees which were dominant in the eastern forests of the United States. It all started from a piece of lumber that came to this country from China. It not only wiped out the chestnuts, but other native species that had grown with them.
Countries and regions need to be very cautious when accepting products from other countries. Manufacturers should also be aware of what they are selling and how it can affect other regions of the world. I think it would be very wise for industries to create variations of their products for different areas. I never thought that bringing a material that thrives in one area that does not in another can harm it so much. I think it is a very good thing to be aware of.
I remember Welches use to make their jam glasses reusable as drinking glasses, with fun dinosaurs and sesame street characters. This was quite a long time ago, before this huge "green" movement. I don't believe that they do this anymore (maybe they do). It's strange they would stop, possibly to satisfy other consumer needs. We very much have the knowledge to reduce renew and recycle and we have had the knowledge, but as stated many times before it has to be applied.
sovia1267@philau.edu
Nitrogen was involved with Mr. Braungart’s work on a model waste treatment system opened at Silva Jardin, Brazil. Living things need nitrogen to manufacture proteins. The growth of plants can be limited by a lack of nitrogen available from the soil. Too little nitrogen can cause malnutrition in people. People need nitrogen-containing molecules---proteins, DNA, and some vitamins. However, too much nitrogen can affect the growth of pollution-sensitive living things such as lichen. According to G. Tyler Miller Jr., nitrogen gas makes up about 78% of the volume of the Earth's atmosphere. Initially useless to most plants and animals, nitrogen gas is converted into water-soluble ionic compounds containing nitrate ions which are taken up by plant roots. In nitrogen fixation atmospheric nitrogen gas is converted into forms useful to plants by means of soil bacteria and rhizobium bacteria living in swellings (nodules) which are on the roots of alfalfa, clover, peas, beans, and other legume plants. The conversion is also accomplished by blue-green algae in water and soil and by lightning. Nitrogen gas and oxygen gas in the atmosphere are converted into forms that return to the earth as nitrate ions in rainfall and other types of precipitation. Plants then convert nitrates obtained from soil water into large, nitrogen-containing molecules. Some of these are necessary proteins and nucleic acids. Animals get proteins and other nitrogen-containing molecules by eating plants or animals that have eaten plants. Decomposers break down nitrogen-containing molecules of dead plants and animals into ammonia gas and walter-soluble salts which contain ammonium ions. Other bacteria convert these forms of nitrogen back into nitrate ions in the soil and into nitrogen gas. The gas is released to the atmosphere and the nitrogen cycle begins again.
There are species which have not yet been counted. The National Park Service states: “The diversity and distribution of lichens tell us a great deal about air quality and the level of certain types of pollution in [Yosemite]. Lichens...lack roots and rely upon the atmosphere for their water and nutrients. Since they do not have an outer epidermal layer, they cannot discriminate between nutrients and pollutants…[and] both pollutants and nutrients are absorbed. When pollutants accumulate above certain levels, lichen growth and health are impaired. Since individual species differ in their tolerance levels, air quality readily influences the composition of lichen communities….[M]onitoring lichen community composition and composition changes has become one of the best biological measures of nitrogen and sulfur-based pollution in forests. The present levels of nitrogen deposition are nearly 10 times higher than natural levels in the southern Sierra Nevada. Combined with ongoing regional climate change, there is great concern that the lichen diversity will decline. Presently, very little is known about lichen diversity and distribution in Yosemite and some of the natural diversity could be lost before it is catalogued.”
More than 100 lichen species have been added to Yosemite National Park’s survey list. Intended to record “microhabitats containing high biodiversity of lichens and other bryophytes,” the survey has shown that “several pollution-intolerant species...are uncommon and may be in decline.” Humans intervene in the nitrogen cycle through the addition of large quantities of nitrogen and nitrogen dioxide because of burning of fossil fuels in power plants and vehicles, industrial processes connected with fertilizer, runoff of animal wastes from livestock feedlots, runoff of commercial nitrate fertilizers from cropland, and discharge of untreated and treated municipal sewage). So “[n]itrogen-loving species...appear to be increasing in abundance…Yosemite is a large and rugged national park and many habitats are still unexplored for lichens.”
Nitrogen amounts indicate changes needed to be made in designs and buildings in order to “respect diversity.”
klein0470@philau.edu
I love you Justine!
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