So here's a humorous yet troubling graph from xkcd.com which sums up greenwashing quite nicely and also illustrates the incredible hurdles that we will have to overcome in order to appropriately define sustainability. Grazyna & I briefly discussed this in our pre-term meeting -- the idea that we might want to consider avoiding use of the term "sustainability" entirely, since it has been co-opted to such an incredible extent. What do you think? Can we salvage the word and make it mean something again, or should we search for an alternate way to describe what encompasses a sustainable future?
Great, and you're right troubling graph (we may have to change the name of the program...)
ReplyDeleteAlso, this could be a research subject: through, say last 20 years progression of the repeated appearances of the word "sustainable" in selected industry magazines' articles vs advertisements...
"Take-away"for all of us: every time we use the word "sustainable" let's make sure there is a true meaning to it.
Thanks for the clever graph. Although I think it is very funny, I do not find it troubling.
DeleteI have had countless conversations about sustainability with students, relatives, friends, neighbors, etc., and have nearly always been able to work from a baseline of knowledge that includes familiarity with the term sustainability.
For this reason I am grateful that the word is in extensive circulation. If there is greenwashing to be addressed, that becomes part of the conversation.
-Larry
Nice Michael... I particularly like the tag line: "
ReplyDeleteWarning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)."