By admin ( October 23, 2009 at 2:08 pm) · Filed under Permaculture, career, choices, non profits
For the past few months I have really taken a close look at how I want to advance professionally. I mean, I know I love writing, I know I love environmentalism, I know that my future career endeavors will combine elements of both. But what I have been struggling with is whether or not I am ready to take the next big step in my career, which represents a large risk. It also represents the chance for great professional satisfaction. What do you think? Should I take a leap of faith despite the economy, despite the risk? HELP!
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By admin ( October 12, 2009 at 9:27 am) · Filed under Permaculture, Sustainability
Last week I went home for lunch, fixed myself a tuna sandwich and turned on the TV to watch the previous night’s episode of The Daily Show, one of my all-time favorite shows. The interview for that episode was a young man named William Kamkwamba, who at age 14, built a wind generator from parts laying around his village in Malawi. Several things about this story are so extraordinary: 1. this kids was not even in school at the time. His parents didn’t have the money, so he went to the local library funded by some charitable organization. 2. He didn’t really speak or read English, so he learned how to build this windmill by looking at the diagrams. 3. He didn’t seem to think any of this was a big deal.
I can’t wait to get out and but the book. In the meantime, here is a link to his blog and the daily show clip.
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By admin ( October 7, 2009 at 9:31 am) · Filed under Sustainability, green, sustainable living
Today I googled the words “environmental sustainability” and in .38 seconds, Google gave me 8,950,000 results. In the first page, I see entries on Wikipedia (of course), a funding opportunity from the National Science Foundation to support engineering research, something called the EcoEarth Portal and another site to end poverty by 2015.
Let’s see what Wikipedia has to say about sustainability…
“Sustainability, is a broad sense, is the capacity to ensure.” As good of a definition as any, I suppose. Although the word endure in its current use seems to me to equate with “suffer through” and creating a sustainable world shouldn’t be something we all have to grit our teeth and endure. If that is the case, then I have a feeling that we won’t be getting there anytime soon, since we Americans are creatures of comfort and convenience.
Can you tell I am feeling disillusioned today?
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