Some personal local-global connections

When I teach environmental classes, I always encourage students to make local - global connections, such as what the local demand for food and fuel does to many parts of the world.

Today, I decided to share two, more personal, local-global connections:

(1) The loss of the village my father was born in (Lai Pyout, Burma) with the tsunami in the Indian Ocean in August 2009.

(2) My father's (most likely) last trip to Burma.

When I talked to my father in mid-August of 2009, he told me that the village where he was born is now buried under water from the tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean region a few days before. Although an earthquake triggered tsunami is clearly a natural event, I sometimes wonder about all the things we do to aggravate the damage from tsunami. Should we be building so close to the water? Should we be taking away natural habitats (that can mitigate water damage) so close to the coasts? As with all environmental concerns, the answer lies in some balance between human needs and demands and the need to be aware of natural events and cycles. I don't know where that balance is, but I have been thinking about it and searching for it. It seems to me that as a society we need to discuss the balance we feel comfortable with. In order to begin discussions, we must all agree that we only have one earth, and that there is limited resources on earth.

As for my father's last trip to Burma (he is just spending his last two days of this last trip right now), I agonized over how much money I should send with him to give to relatives. Again, it is that balance of doing the right thing for others, allowing others to live comfortably, but trying to make sure that money does not cause more damage...

Can we change before crisis?

My cousin Helen sent me the picture on your right last week. My brother and I are in the photo with my maternal grandparents in their home in Rangoon, Burma.  I kept thinking about this picture the past week -- with some local-global connections.  

The world has changed a lot in the 37 years I changed countries -- from Burma to the U.S.  The local-global connection I want to share has to do with resources.  My parents recycled (and reused things) in Burma four decades ago because resources were scarce. We moved to Minnesota in 1972, where there were fewer recycling options back then than there were in Burma.  

Like people in poor countries, we reused as much of any material as possible in Burma.  And when we first came to America, we were poor, and continued our ways of careful use of resources -- until we became part of the American dream.  I have seen a lot of people change habits with increased wealth and availability of resources throughout my lifetime.  As far as I can tell, it is an innate human trait to go with societal trends, and hence, generally, people from all cultures have adapted to the consumption lifestyles of Americans when they come to America.  (Always exception to every general human behavioral rule.)  

It is easier to buy things you can afford rather than mend things that can be reused.  It takes time to figure out the recycling and reuse options in your community, but we need to change before we are forced to change.  I know humans will change in crisis as we did in WWII, and as much of the world does today with every crisis that occurs locally.  The question I have is, will we be able to change before we are forced to change?

Think Globally, Act Locally

I am starting this blog to have discussions on the topic of "Think Globally, Act Locally: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle" which we began on our website funded by the U.S. EPA:  http://www.umuc.edu/gogreen/

We hope that you will share what you do locally to reduce, reuse, and recycle, and then we will post your information as part of our data base on sharing local resources, obtained by users around the world at http://www.umuc.edu/gogreen/local/  

Right now, we have an interactive map that users can click onto in order to view what is available in the counties across the U.S.  Of course, we still have a lot of information to gather, so we hope all of you will help by discussing with us what resources you use to help reduce your global footprint.  We hope to expand our map to a global one, so please post information from all over the world.  I will keep it in a file that will be compiled to come out with our global interactive map.

"If you wish to go quickly, go alone.  If you wish to go far, go together." 

-African proverb