Springtime!... makes school difficult

Blooming Cherry Blossoms, hints of green sprouting out of every corner, and a Crayola crayon box of tulips giving their gratitude of salutation to the sun. Its spring time in Colorado which means a couple things: crazy 80 degree weather on Saturday and 21 degree flurries on Sunday; It means planting my carrots and broccoli; and it means (mostly) sunny days that beckon graduate students daily, through the creaks and cracks of windows and skylights, peering into the temperature-controlled and fluorescent-lit boxes they reside in all day, saying ‘come, adventure, enjoy! Forget your responsibilities!’

Alas, it’s already week three of a ten-week quarter and there is much work to be done.

 I’m catching up on some reading this morning on new innovations in sanitation efforts around the world, you know, composting toilets and methane gas generators from human excrement – pretty sexy stuff. If all goes well I will have my first assignment of the quarter turned in by Friday, an analysis of a solar electrification farm out in the Sonoran Desert of California. Solar? Renewable Energy? A cure-all to our carbon-emitting woes, you say? Well, as I’m only now learning, there are all kinds of trade-offs for powering our world with “clean” solar technology. Its a water-intensive project that is located in a place where there is not much water to retrieve, the components are made of some rare earth minerals that are only found in China (thwarting any effort to solve that “energy independence” issue) and the 1800 acres of photovoltaic cells would displace some seriously cute (and threatened) wildlife. I guess my assignment might not be as easy as I thought.

New Beginnings

Spring. A time that breeds new beginnings, blossoming flowers, rejuvenation of mojo after the cold winter…. and the weight of three more classes to tack on your “to-do” list. My week off in Sedona Arizona afforded me the luxurious relaxation of friends, hikes, rivers, climbing and sunshine amidst the backdrop of the serene Red Rocks of the Southwest.

 Here’s what the quarter looks like:

1. Climate Change and Energy course co-taught by a law professor and a biology professor.

2. Food and Water Security by the assistant director of the MDP, Dr. Suki Hoagland.

3. Multi-level Data Analysis, a course walking us through the steps of conducting sound research with, again, the great Suki.

Here’s what Day One of the Quarter looked like yesterday:

1. Of all the water on the planet, a mere 1% of it is available to humans in streams, rivers and lakes… and we're depleting it much faster than the natural recharge rate.

2. One drop of oil renders 25 liters of water undrinkable.

3. The production of ONE TON of grain requires ONE THOUSAND TONS of water.

Doomsday 101? No. Rather, an inspiring pairing of courses on the environment and how our decisions, both locally and globally, can affect the sustainable livelihoods of billions, yes billions of people. While the average American uses 100 gallons of water a day in the household alone, we were assigned various readings in National Geographic’s Special Issue on Water where I learned that African women may traverse difficult terrain for more than 8 hours a day just to retain 2.5 gallons for her entire family. Nearly 900 million people in the world do not have access to clean water. However, I was also enlightened with the thrilling innovation of people all over the world attempting to mitigate the negative impacts of Climate Change on marginalized populations: natural sand dams catching and filtering rainwater that would normally drain away, or toilets that generate Methane gas for new communal kitchens in small communities.

As Barbara Kingsolver says, “Water is life. Its the briny broth of our origins, the pounding circulatory system of the world, a precarious molecular edge on which we survive.” And we have overdrawn our accounts, to say the least. The three courses this spring should help me understand the greater discourse on this facet (among many others) of the intersection of climate change and people. Maybe we can learn together how to transform the reality into one in which those same African women can turn on a faucet just like ours, out of which flows not only the physical resource of water, but dignity as well.

The quest for Environmental Justice forges on to Washington D.C.

Ciel. A French word meaning, “heaven”. Also, another obscure acronym to add to the list of alphabetical agency jargon in Washington D.C. CIEL, the Center for International Environmental Law, is one among the many organizations we are visiting this week during our environmental policy making trip to Washington D.C.

Peace Corps economics volunteer in India, president of the student body at Harvard, and the former White House adviser, Mr. Dan Magraw, finished up teaching a class at Johns Hopkins before humbly offering his thoughts on human rights and the environment to the cohort. Donned in pink (yes, pink), strapped with a variegated bow tie, frazzled gray hair and a charming personality, I was comforted by his generous, humorous and passionate approach to engaging people all over the world.

Whether in the Maldives or the Amazon, CIEL is working on projects throughout the world, attempting to preserve the right to an environment capable of supporting a healthy society and an environment that allows for the realization of all other human rights. One project that piqued my interest was in the Arctic where Inuits are fighting for their rights to food, livelihood, property and culture amidst a climate of melting permafrost and changing sea temperatures. Through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, CIEL has partnered with some of these Inuit people to amplify their voice in the spaces that have the power to alter the current state of affairs, literally suing the United States of America. Magraw says CIEL may have “lost” in technical report terms, but considers every case a success by “forcing the conversation”. The “loss” forces inter-agency processes; it forces silo-ed sectors of governance to unite, collaborate, and listen to the scientific findings of each other; these environmental cases force the EPA to have rich discourse with “foes” such as Senator Inhoffe of Oklahoma.

Magraw also highlighted the importance of the “normative power of the absolute”, arguing that by actually doing things, these environmental realities are transformed from “pie in the sky BS” to implemented policies.

Arriving Friday, we enjoyed a weekend of freedom (how appropriate in the nation’s capitol) to peruse the city, absorbing the richness of culture, diversity, and history represented in the illustrious, sublime mastery of architecture and design. Monuments and museums echo the sagacious utterances of so many great heroes, big and small, soldier and president, citizen and martyr, and patriotic emotions abound.

We began our week Monday with a workshop conducted by Conituum, a global innovation design consultancy firm, who led us through a creative process of designing a sustainable waste management system for Costa Rica. Tuesday through Friday were filled with experiences similar to the CIEL visit descried above. Via security gates at USAID, identification cards at the World Bank, and several non-governmental organizations like CIEL, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), we have been exploring the world of international environmental policy making – what do these people really do andhow do they do it?

After a few days traversing the bustling streets of one of the most powerful cities in the world in heels, I’m inspired by the vitality and vibrancy of this great city. So many people, so many great ideas, so much to do.

Environmental Justice

We’ve all seen these drab photos of billowing gray smoke being dumped into the air. It enervates us, leaves us distraught. But the less-than-desirable emotions of guilt quickly subside as we drive away towards our cleaner milieus in the city, leaving the destructive vista in our rear-view mirror, and leaving the worries of the detriment we’re causing to our planet for another day.

But what if this was your backyard? What if you lived in the port of Los Angeles where 40% of the country’s imports coalesce, the view outside your window sprinkled with power plants and diesel trucks, your water and air sprinkled with pollutants and particulate matter too small to identify yet too large to ignore. The guilt would be much more difficult to drive away from, and the personal health of your family, your neighbors, your community would be a staggering, daily concern.

Last weekend we participated in an Environmental Law workshop co-hosted by the DU law school and two passionate laywer/practioners from Los Angeles. Communities for a Better Environment works in urban communities in Southern California among low-income African Americans, Latinos and other nationalities who are bombarded by pollution from freeways, power plants, oil refineries, seaports, airports, and chemical manufacturers. Worsened by high rates of poverty, inadequate housing, poor schools and inadequate health care and social services, these people – who have no choice but to live in these areas — suffer from very high rates of asthma and respiratory illnesses, heart problems, cancer, low birthrate, and miscarriages.

Two highly trained lawyers opted out of the high wages and posh lifestyle some of their fellow graduates found, to fight for the environmental justice of a people without a voice. Environmental racism refers to the disproportionate location of polluting industry and heightened environmental risks that are borne by poor communities and communities of color. Thus, Environmental Justice is the fair treatment of people of all races, cultures, and incomes with respect to the development, adoption, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.

Among other projects, they are currently fighting the expansion of the 710 Freeway to sixteen lanes, which runs directly through low-income neighborhoods and exploring alternatives to the “cure-all environmental policy” of cap and trade, arguing that cap and trade only bolsters the effects of environmental racism, allowing pollutants to be flooded onto poor communities.

These things are not only in Southeast LA, they’re in our own backyard here in Denver. Communities on the northern outskirts of Denver are fighting to save their public health by opposing the expansion of I70 and the power-producing, pollutant-releasing plants of Sun Corps and Excel.

The pressing question I’m left with after all this….It’s our own fault. We can combat the polluting activities of the big bad evil corporations all we want – and I am proud to have shared a weekend with lawyers and activists fighting this good fight – but the truth, for me, is that our consumerism habits must change. The common emitting culprits: Asphalt/Cement companies, producing the streets and sidewalks we wish to traverse; the power companies producing the energy we all consume without conservation; the freeways packed with diesel trucks toting the material possessions we all must purchase next weekend at the local department store.

I made a commitment last August, one that I have kept thus far. I will not buy anything new for one year. Its incredible what Goodwill and good friends with hand-me-downs and borrowed tools can do for you. What could we all do to live more simply and reverse the order of dilapidated backyard views in poor neighborhoods?

Masters

Long days of fluorescent lighting and temperature-controlled buildings and an overload of information. I step out of that context, that box that becomes my home for eight hours, onto my bicycle.  Frigid air returns, freedom abounds, and I’m off to explore more deeply this dissertation of life’s complexities and beauties outside the air-conditioned box. Sometimes I wonder about the separation, segregation that may inevitably ensue upon acceptance to graduate school.  An elite group of individuals that numbers less than 2% of the world population call themselves Master’s of (you fill in the blank).  And I am one of them  – or, approved loans and crossed fingers aside, I will be one of them someday.  How far removed am I from this civil society that I aim to so positively affect?

My roommate works in a tattoo shop with bearded, pierced, artfully-articulated Master’s of body art.  The  man across the hall from me comes home with dirt in his fingernials, eking out a living as a Master Landscaper -an art all too quickly diminishing from a suffering economy.  There is a bicycle cooperative on the poor side of town, in that alley those men told me not to walk through alone in the dark, where Master mechanics build bikes for free  for the homeless, the poor and the car-less.  There are two boys standing on the corner outside my apartment, next to the coffee shop, fervently offering a partnership in Environmental stewardship with passersby, Mastering the art of concern and care for the beautiful Colorado river we all want to raft down next summer.  There are so many Masters eveywhere.  There are  ideas and innovations and creations and creatures moving and shaking all around me.    There are also broken hearts, broken hands, broken-ness.  Missed opportunities, waiting opportunities, extenuating circumstances and exhilerating heartbeats all around me.  People are mastering things all over the world. From the manicured sidewalks of Denver University to the cracked pavements we ride along on my side of town, to the absent pathways in the Hispanic neighborhoods of this city…. to the polished mud floors of Bangladesh.

I don’t ever want to find myself so affluent, erudite, so comfortable in my elite cohort of Masters representing less than 2% of global population that I become exceptional  to my own society.  I don’t want to be blind to my world of International Sustainable Development that is happening at the cafe three blocks from my classroom building, where an aged, retired writer named Ric waits to tell his stories to anyone who will listen.  I am humbly aiming for my Master’s of Development Practice at one of the best schools in the nation, where learned practitioners and rigorous academics are offering me the opportunity to learn so many new things everyday, and apply them to the world around me to make life just a little easier for my fellow human.  I don’t want the world around me to become transparent, disappearing the fellow human all around me.  I want to absorb all this air-conditioned box at Denver University has to offer and use it to the best of my ability, anywhere.

Consequence of Curiosity

In those precious, valued moments of freedom I rarely experience as a graduate student, I tend to indulge myself in the rants and raves of mind-numbing existential thought – a favorite being the works of Bertrand Russell who said the world needs more of kindness, courage and curiosity.  In lieu of a humble lack of clarity in the first two ideas, I attempt to explain the consequences (and beauties) of a curious mind.

I’ve noticed that graduate school, and particularly a degree of International Sustainable Development, tends to attract humans with an insatiable thirst for knowledge.  This curiosity is awakened with inquiries into international trade policies, power relations and inequalities, unacceptable disparities in health care and, of course, attempted solutions to all the worlds problems.

Yet, most of these curious minds are not satisfied with these questions alone.  No, these minds want to know about the psychological underpinnings of a society that encompasses individuals who kill their congresswomen and fellow neighbors; we want to know about the fledgling musical revolution led by Radiohead now flourishing into an unprecedented Indie Rock scene in Denver; we wan to know about the Colorado River’s increasing incapacity to sustain its 9-State clientele; we want to know about Edward Munchs’ provocative art of the late 19th century.  Ok, maybe that’s just me.

I find life so terribly short.  So little time, so much to do, so much to learn.  Thus, an incessant appreciation for the MDP program in its inter-disciplinary approach.  I’m currently in a two-week long Global Health course, after which we dive into Economics and Project Management Analysis.  Additionally this quarter, we’ll be visiting Washington D.C. to explore Domestic Environmental Policy.  Not to mention, I took advantage of the freedom to choose an extra elective.  Population, Environment and Development in Latin America stirs my mind with the sexy subject matter of Integrated Pest Management, soil erosion, and combating the evil-doings of those pesky multi-national corporations depleting the planet’s natural resources.

I rue the opportunities I have to say no to.  However, I find my life healthily balanced with local concerts at the High-Dive on Broadway, chilly afternoon runs around Washington Park, tasty concoctions of Thai food prepared in the comfort of my apartment… oh yes, and of course endless readings on international relations, health, agriculture, development…. yes yes yes.

I get stressed at times, I admit it.  Being a curious mind necessitates coffee and I sense I’ve imbibed in more than my fair share.  Alas, the challenging chase for knowledge and growth is worth it.

An array of oranges and reds drapes itself over snow-peaked mountains outside my second floor apartment.  Icy streets, single-digit temperatures and a stillness that only presents itself in the simplicity of frigid nights is much appreciated.  I find solace in the ferocity of Mother Nature proving her authority over this giant ecological system.  I forge on… to Global Health Class.

Back in the Game

Day 1 of Spring Quarter:

My “break” was a whirlwind two-week tour.  36 hours in transit from Dhaka, Bangladesh to Denver, Colorado left me more jet-lagged than the trip over, and plopped me smack dab in the middle of colder weather, higher altitudes and the most blown-out, hyper-commercialized, uber-Americana week of the year.  Jingle bells, Christmas trees and new techy ads flooded my senses, and providing a rather confused mind as I tried to reflect on all that I had just seen in the last month in Bangladesh.

Christmas with family and New Year’s with friends, and many mornings sleeping in while snow fell outside has left me feeling … only a bit refreshed.  Somehow January 3rd arrived quickly and I find myself back in the Korbel Cyber cafe reading syllabi and ordering textbooks.  The procrastination already feels heavy on my shoulders and lists are beginning to pile up in my planner.

For the first two weeks, the cohort is taking a Global Health course to culminate the Health conference we attended last fall and health projects we visited in Bangladesh.  After that, we’ll be taking Development Project Analysis and Statistics… oh la la.  I’ve also opted to overwhelm myself with an extra course (mostly because its free), in Population, Environment and Development in Latin America.  As my keen interest in Environment and Agriculture makes itself more prevalent day to day, I am quite eager to begin this course.

Until soon…