Service Trips – The Enchanting Challenge

Have you heard the news?  The Empire State Building is GOING GREEN!  Can you believe it?!  It seems like that is a symbol for our country, when a landmark such as the Empire State Building retrofits…I think it is really sign that, as Thomas Friedman says, “green is the new red, white, and blue.”  I really believe that there will come a time in the relatively near future that going green becomes the norm.  Just look around at all the good green news:

the soon-to-be-green NYC landmark

*New York City is currently carrying out a mission to make all taxis hybrids by 2012! (Hot, Flat, and Crowded, page 329)

a fleet of NYC hybrids

*Houses in our nation’s capital are setting the trend by retrofitting!

houses being retrofitted in the DC area!

*There are currently over 82,000 LEED graduates in the US!  (What the heck is LEED?!  LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and it is a certificate awarded by the US Green Building Council to those who have passed the LEED exam.  Passing the LEED exam means that you are qualified to give green consulting in building design!) (Information from the LEED-certified eco-guru, Caitlin Cunningham.)

*The forestry and logging industries are also experiencing environmental movements, which helps to preserve the forests AND the loggers’ jobs!  A stunning example of this is the largest Chinese tire company, GITI Tire, and its carbon offset program.  GITI Tire now plants rubber trees around Indonesian forests, which provides a “buffer zone of sustainable agroforestry around the edge of the forest, which will protect the trees, produce rubber for tires, and provide additional livelihoods for the villagers,” as Thomas Friedman explains in Hot, Flat, and Crowded (page 308).

Indonesian reforestation efforts

Everywhere you look it seems that there are green efforts all around, from Norway’s impressive carbon-offset programs, to Indonesian reforestation initiatives, to Costa Rica’s ban on drilling oil—it is all evidence pointing to the fact that the environmental movement is becoming a global phenomenon.

BUT, there is still a lot of work to be done.  I want to share with you and stress all of the good things that are happening to keep you inspired and keep you motivated.  But, I also want to remind you of gaps that need to be filled in so that we can help mend the holes together.

One of the greatest degradations of the earth right now is happening because of industrial, chemical-laden farming.  Yes, many argue that industrial farming is what feeds us, but it is also what is causing us to go hungry at the same time, as rampant pesiticide and chemical use has rendered 30% of farmland un-farmable since the 1970′s (Barbara Kingsolver, “The Blessings of Dirty Work,” first published by The Washington Post on September 30, 2007, and later reprinted at the back of her book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle). 

In Barbara Kingsolver’s essay, “The Blessings of Dirty Work,” she recaps the work being done by Vandana Shiva, the director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy and a well-known advocate for farmer’s rights.  Ms. Shiva is particularly interested in the farmers of her homeland, India, which houses 1/4 of all farmers in the world.  India knows first-hand the trauma presented by industrial farming, as 150,000 farmers have taken their lives (many by consuming pesticides) out of the desperation that ensues after becoming bankrupt from the expensive chemicals they are forced to use by the industrial farming market (information found on page 8 of the essay, following Animal, Vegetable, Miracle).

Vandana Shiva has dedicated much of her life’s work to helping these farmers that encounter such desperation.  She runs an institute that teaches Indian farmers how to farm sustainably, and how to make a living through such endeavors.  But her efforts will remain futile if we consumers do not change our purchasing habits.  If we are serious about helping the world, about helping the green movement, we MUST get serious about eating local, organic, and natural food.  It is one of the first steps to realizing this world-wide change. 

the activist herself, Vandana Shiva