Environmentalism is an ethical outlook on the world as much as it is a scientific approach to living. Like any moral philosophy, it can be extremely difficult to enlighten those you see as in the wrong without offending them. When any individual or group accuses you of personal wrongdoing, recoil is the easiest natural reaction. Environmentalists are well aware of this, as are ethical vegetarians, those who donate to charity or volunteer their time with nonprofits and members of the Peace Corps. If somebody tells you in an aggressive or condescending manner that your way of life is damaging, unethical, idiotic, ignorant, unintelligent or reckless, chances are that you would take offense and not heed their advice. Few who truly take the time to evaluate the benefits of green living and weigh it against the ongoing alternative would say that our current lifestyle is worth continuing. However, verbally attacking people is not the answer. It is no surprise that people like David Orr have difficulty reaching new audiences when he resorts to calling people “retarded chimpanzees” (2002, p. 55). David Orr’s message in The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture and Human Intention (2002) is not something that I would personally disagree with, but his attitude within the book is poisonous to his own cause. Before explaining why Orr’s presentation is unhelpful to the greater ecological community, I feel the need to assert that I do not personally find fault with his ideas. During my freshman year of high school I opted to take environmental science instead of the normal physical science course. That class set me on the path to environmental thinking, though admittedly my practice does not always match up with my theory. My personal goals inclu... ... middle of paper ... ...ver. David Orr’s attitude is poisonous and pervasive. It is easy for those who agree with him to sit back and nod their heads gratifyingly as he elevates himself above the uncultured and uneducated masses, but those masses are exactly the people we are trying to reach. How can I as a teacher advocate any style of presentation that offends my students and pushes them away from a healthy, sustainable and reciprocal view of the world? I could not call myself an effective teacher if my presentation was able only to close the minds of my students, not open them. Any teacher can tell you that in any field, including ecology, content means nothing without an effective and respectful mode of presentation and that is exactly what Orr is lacking. Works Cited Orr, D. (2002). The nature of design: Ecology, culture and human intention. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press.
McKibben’s writing style makes it difficult for readers to truly understand the argument he presents; therefore, they are gullible to accepting his opinions. McKibben embarks on a rampage in this article, seeming to continuously ramble on with concepts that fly over the average person’s head. He uses words such as “Class C forest,” “A-2 forest,” “peak-load electricity,” “geothermal drilling,” and “hydrogen sulfide emissions.” McKibben must not be thinking of his audience because for the audience to grasp his argument thoroughly he needs to define these concepts well. If he were writing for a science magazine in which his audience would be well educated in environmental issues, his writing style would be accepted. But this article appeared in Rolling Stone where the audience is not educated on these issues. His bitter and intense voice makes the reader feel as if th...
Lawson, Bryan. How Designers Think: The Design Process Demystified. 4th ed. Oxford: Architectural Press, 2006.
Ehrlich, P. R., & Ehrlich, A. H. (1996). Betrayal of science and reason: How anti-environmental rhetoric threatens our future. Washington, D.C: Island Press.
Wilson's passages are primarily ineffective because they are radical in content, overly-casual in tone, and only acknowledge one side of the argument. When regarding the other side, both the environmentalist viewpoint
...ncludes that one of the many problems could be that American environmental movement has focused on preserving nature so much that it has failed to preserve a love for being out in nature. He admits that preserving nature is not the only important factor, and that the real misfortune lies in not being a part of nature.
As I read the essay, I started to realize that while David Suzuki based this essay on nature and the wildlife, the deeper meaning within is not actually just about nature; instead, it is about parents influencing kids to think a certain way rather than letting them experience it firsthand and unbiased, and I believe that as society is changing, more people are focusing on fitting into the norm rather than trying things out on their own and having their own opinions. I feel upset that society is changing in the wrong way, and sometimes I wonder if parents are taking away their children’s curiosity of the world around them and manipulating their views on aspects of
When it comes to environmental issues there are many value perspectives and different opinions on how the issues should be resolved. These perspectives that author Judith Lazyer describes her book “The Environmental Case” includes Promethean, conservationist, preservationist, and ecological perspectives. In our class we connected topics we learned in our Environmental Policy class to the books such as “Flight Behavior” and Ecotopia in our English Reality and Utopia class. A connection I found between these books and the policies we learned about in POLS 336 was that all our books included the Promethean and Ecological perspectives when it came to environmental issues. These perspectives were also included in the case studies we read in “The
Wright, R. T., & Boorse, D. F. (2011). Environmental science: Toward a sustainable future (11th ed., pp. 349-369). Boston: Benjamin Cummings.
Lawson, Bryan. How Designers Think: The Design Process Demystified. NY: Architectural Press, 1980, 2007. Massachusetts: NECSI Knowledge Press, 2004.
NA, . "A Critical Analysis of Robert Frost's "Design"." Academic Help. Academic Help, 08 October 2010. Web. 16 Feb 2012. .
Design has established itself as core elements in societies helping countless communities build infrastructure, invent new ways to better living conditions and create design desirable for consumption hence bettering the economy. Though this is a positive, most designers of the 21st century use their skills and their designs alike for those who can afford it; designing for what’s in fact the minority, 10% of the world’s population. The reason why developmental aid and design for development is essential to improving standards of living for those who live in developing countries, but to also bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. Ilse Oosterlaken (2009, p.100) equates most designs for development that use a `participatory' process as having a limited, user-centred approach; and suggests instead a more universal design approach, which she calls ‘capability sensitive design’. This essay will illustrate designs that have contributed to developmental design through capability sensitive design approach, considering sustainable design that are not only better the environment, community health and social welfare but the country’s economic standing. Through evaluating each example’s potential for real, sufficient, diverse and lasting value for the targeted users we can determine each design’s efficiency.
Wicked Problems in Design Thinking Author(s): Richard Buchanan Source: Design Issues, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Spring, 1992), pp. 5-21 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/
Hegeman, J. (2008). The Thinking Behind Design. Master Thesis submitted to the school of design, Carngie Mellon University. Retrieved from: http://jamin.org/portfolio/thesis-paper/thinking-behind-design.pdf.
In recent decades, concern about environmentalism has risen on a worldwide scale. Environmentalism is defined by Merriam Webster as the “advocacy of the preservation, restoration, or improvement of the natural environment; especially: the movement to control pollution” (Merriam Webster). In the United States, we have the Environmental Protection Agency, but the positions and policies that come from that department are highly politicized. Within the Christian community specifically, the controversy is not necessarily because of environmentalism itself as there is a mainstream consensus that Christians are to be good stewards of Creation. Rather, the debates are really centered on what “good stewards” should do. Some of the biggest controversy
* Daily, Gretchen C., ed. Nature’s Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1997.