The 8th Annual Sustainable Earth Celebration presented powerful ideas of sustainability from inspired leaders. “If we don’t strike an international chord, we’ll have to deal with the effects of global warming instead of the causes.”Three-hundred-fifty is a critical number to all who inhabit planet Earth. Three-hundred-fifty parts per million (ppm) is the maximum capacity at which Earth’s atmosphere can tolerate carbon dioxide without causing global warming, said Bill McKibben, the author of The End of Nature; Deep Economy and Fight Global Warming Now. He spoke at the 8th Annual Sustainable Earth Celebration held from Monday, April 14, to Wednesday, April 16, hosted by Maui Community College (MCC) in celebration of Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22.
The figure 350 is a symbol that normal people like you and I can use to motivate leaders across the world to work toward limiting the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in an effort to combat global warming, said McKibben. Currently, McKibben said the atmosphere is holding about 385 ppm, which is well over the limit. Residents can find more information about this figure by visiting 350.org, a Website dedicated to building grassroots movements to fight global warming by affecting change among our leaders.
MCC’s Earth Day fair featured authors and global leaders in sustainability and social justice. Authors and leaders shared their insights, life experiences and highlighted their publications about saving the planet.
“The problem is not in the lack of technology, but in the lack of political will,” said McKibben. Surprisingly, although Germany isn’t the sunniest place, it is the country that utilizes the most solar power in the world because they have mustered up the political will, he said. Japan, another not-so-sunny location, comes in second for using solar power. Regarding political will, the U.S. was using 10 percent more carbon dioxide after Bill Clinton left the presidential office, said McKibben, pointing out that, regardless of who is in power, it’s going to take a movement to affect that leader. McKibben told inspiring stories about social movements that illustrated the power to create change.
“If we don’t strike an international chord, we’ll have to deal with the effects of global warming instead of the causes,” said McKibben, in a desperate plea to call people to action in the fight to save the planet.
Another highlight of the sustainability fair was a talk by Ventureramp President Jim Brazell, a future technology researcher and author. His presentation, “The Future is Here: Maui, Emerging Technologies, Jobs and Strategies,” bridged the gap between advocacy of sustainability and its direct implementation here on Maui. The focus of his presentation was on the community college and its ability to effectively prepare students for building a sustainable future for themselves and the island.
Brazell spoke about moving toward a more integrated and holistic approach to teaching. And to do this, he said it requires industry resources. He said economic developers are stepping up to the task because educators are not.
According to Brazell, learning challenges lie in a generational gap in the use of technology. As an example, Brazell presented the Xbox, a sixth generation video game console produced by the Microsoft Corporation. It is the predecessor to Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console, the latest version. The Xbox is an interactive and highly entertaining video game, which offers a visually stimulating environment that Eco-Boomers, babies of Baby Boomers, use and understand more thoroughly and more often than Baby Boomers. But it is Baby Boomers who are generally the educators, he said. And they are lacking in the ability to understand technology well enough to apply a more constructive use for it. If the Xbox was used as a learning tool for example, or if more constructive uses of it were applied, Brazell suggested that students would be more focused at school and better prepared to build a sustainable future.
Brazell said America requires an educational transformation where vocational departments of community colleges work more closely with business and information technology and academic test preparation departments to form TEAM instead of STEM. Instead of the original concept of Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), he said MCC students need Technology, Electronics, Arts and Mathematics (TEAM) to be more prepared to face the future and work in careers that better sustain their future, the economy and the island.
Ironically, Brazell noted that Maui is already a center for innovation, but a change in teaching pedagogy (the structure of education) toward a more integrated method would create more capacity for innovation by teaching through application.
The implementation of Brazell’s scholastic strategies for MCC, McKibben’s suggestions for stepping up grassroots movements and all the other ideas submitted at the sustainability fair will serve as a catalyst for a sustainable future for Maui.