What is the Future We Want?

Imagine what your ideal sustainable city would be like. Would trees line every street? Every building have solar panels and green roofs? Public transportation and bike lanes dominant the roads?

This is the kind of thinking the Future We Want challenges people engage in.

The Future We Want is a multimedia project that describes itself as “a positive vision for a sustainable society.” A story published on Grist earlier this week explained the project as a combination of short videos, a traveling museum exhibit, a mobile app and eventually maybe an Imax movie.

The project was started in 2009 by an impressive trio of contributors, including Bill Becker who was the executive director for 2008 Presidential Climate Action Plan. The other two founders are Ken Snyder and Jonathan Arnold who contribute sustainable community design and technology experience.

As the Grist article explains, the site is currently a preview for the project so only a few videos and mostly nondescript information are posted. Even so, I’m not sold on the project’s mission. Beyond the stylized videos that Grist describes as “upscale-chic,” I’m more concerned about how the entire project is being packaged.

Being able to visualize a sustainable society is certainly helpful in inspiring change, but how is the average citizen expected to be engaged in being part of a solution? Will the project ask for citizen input on local ways to build a future they want without the help of a sustainable community designer, a technological genius and a climate change policy maker? Will community conversation be encouraged among visitors to the exhibit or the website?

Despite all these questions, I really do support this kind of creativity and experimentation with ideas for more  sustainable living. The Future We Want reminds me the designs by architect Vincent Callebaut, whose work answers ecological and architectural issues, but through a futuristic lens (check out the Lilypad). While I think this project is more realistic than Callebaut’s work,  I’ll be interested to see what becomes of the Future We Want.

Dr. Seuss Book Turns 3-D

By Thea Hassan

Zac Efron, our favorite teen heartthrob, will be joining funnyman Danny DeVito and ex-Golden Girl Betty White in a new children’s film, animated by Universal Studios! Zac Efron will be voicing the character Ted, a young boy who…

Err, wait…this isn’t E news?

Are new movies too far off the environmental beat?

Actually, this one isn’t. The movie will be an animated version of The Lorax, an environmental themed book written by Dr. Seuss.

The book, published in 1971, is full of Seuss’ convoluted wordplay and quirky characters. However, this book is unique in that it illustrates (literally) an important ecological concept of over consumption of our natural resources. It is the story of a growing town which produces and consumes in order to keep progress moving forward. The Lorax, speaker for the trees, desperately urges the town to end its bottomless consuming, but to no avail.  Inevitably, the resources run out and the town is left in ruins, with nothing but the word “unless” written on a stump.

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” -The Lorax

It is a bit surprising to me that Universal is producing the movie, considering the controversy that surrounded the book when it was originally published. The book was banned in some elementary schools, due to backlash by logging companies, as well as environmental skepticism at the time.

The Lorax delivers a powerful message about the consequences of failing to live sustainability. It is a message that most people don’t want to hear. Biologists, ecologists, and climate change scientists seem to agree with the Lorax. If we don’t start curbing our consuming habitats, today, then dire consequences will be inevitable.

Millions of viewers may not realize they are going to be inundated with a vitally relevant environmental message. As Jeff Burnside stated this week at Michigan State University, sometimes it is necessary to hide that environmental pill inside a tasty treat. A Universal Studios 3-D animated movie, with star power to boot, is a tasty treat that many movie-goers won’t be able to resist.

P.S. Interesting to note, the book was originally published with the line, “I hear things are just as bad up in Lake Erie.” Two researchers from the Ohio Sea Grant asked for the line to be removed after the lake clean up was complete. The line is still in the cartoon version.

Sophomore asks for advice from other environmental journalists

This is my first year at MSU, I am an undergraduate sophomore majoring in…who knows what! I still am unsure of what I am going to major in, and the pressure is weighing down hard on me to make a decision. I am set on the fact that whatever I go into has to be something I love, have a passion for, and will allow me to travel, but it?s hard to balance that on top of the idea that I need to choose something that will get me a job upon graduation and provide me with a decent income. I have put a lot of thought into this topic, evaluating what my strengths are as well as what I like to do and I came to a realization of one activity that has both of those factors in common: writing. I have always been a strong writer in that I can write efficiently and put my thoughts together well on paper. Feedback from previous teachers and professors has validated this for me, and I saw through experience last year that I have a knack for research-based writing. Other topics I have interest in include health, nutrition/anything about food, the environment/sustainability and music. I enjoy helping people, arguing a case I feel strongly for, and organizing things. All of these ideas have led me to believe that a future in journalism may be for me. I did some research online and found out about the Knight Center and the environmental journalism major; this brought me to EJA, which I am participating in so I can hopefully get some sort of feel as to what this field is all about. However, as of right now, I know very little about journalism, let alone the environmental specialization on it. All I know is that I like to write, I know I have strengths in writing, and journalism seems like it could offer me a lot of opportunities in the future. Do you guys have any thoughts as to what steps I can take next, or can offer me any insight into this field? Right now I feel like a lost little puppy here at State, but I’m trying to hard to get this ball rolling while finding myself in the process. Thanks!