Freshman Inquiry: Sustainability

Permaculture Gardening

logantaylor — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:54:33 +0000

The purpose of permaculture gardening is to produce the most growth and product for the least amount of effort. That’s what I was told at least at the permaculture gardening club gardening party by a student that was leading the group in pursuit of a certificate that psu gives to students that fulfill its requirements in permaculture gardening. Permaculture garden has many attractive and creative designs that you may have seen. There is a student run garden in-between Neuberger hall and The Smith Center. Some of the designs there include the keyhole garden a horse shoe shaped garden that allows you to access everything planted in it from the center, as well as a herb spiral an impressive rock and dirt spiral structure that had herbs and strawberries planted in it and they also have 3 raised bed gardens wood boxes that allow you to build soil up off the level ground about 6 inches. We spent our time pruning lemon balm in the herb spiral, aerating and adding compost to the soil in the raised beds and planting several things in them, including spring greens, lettuce, radishes, carrots and beets. It was very fun and I would recommend the club to anyone who likes to garden. Here I am pruning lemon balm

Logan Taylor

Sun chips – compostable

antranpsu — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:26:33 +0000

So, right now I’m eating currently eating a new bag of french onion Sun Chips, and they’re delicious! The bag is made of some sort of film, and suppose to be compostable now, which means you can bury it and it’ll degrade in the soil. But then I started thinking. Is it safe? Because i remember a time when everyone had a nalgene bottle, but now they said the bottle could give you cancer. So, even though this bag is 100% compostable, maybe it could have some kind of chemical that could harm the soil, or harm the plants around it. But i see this as a good start. Hopefully all the other chip companies will follow in the footsteps of Sun Chips, and make recyclable bags.

~Anthony Tran

solar energy map

mzaharchuk — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 03:28:26 +0000

Here is a cool map that uses satellite imagery to show which houses and businesses in the Portland area have decided to use solar panels. This is a good resource for finding out who to turn to if you have any questions about the costs and benefits of solar energy, and it also might serve as a little incentive for new solar customers who want to be recognized as “eco-conscious”. Another interesting feature is that you can enter in your address, and it will tell you your estimated solar potential as well as how much it would cost to install solar panels. Check it out.

-Matt Z

Oil Production May Peak a Decade Earlier

nevin2 — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:17:23 +0000

As the world continues to rely on oil for more and more things, the oil reserves continue to be drained at faster and faster rates. How long until our reliance on alternative energy is 100 percent though? According to Science News, it may be closer than scientists previously thought. Are we going to be capable of relying completely on alternative energy before fossil fuel reserves run out?

Nevin Lewis

Rainforests

cody7010 — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:45:04 +0000

we are losing 137 plant, insects species every day according to experts. Why? Most rain forests are disappearing because of bulldozers, chainsaws and fires for its timber value. Is it really worth killing off species to make a dollar? There has to be a better way for our society to create the items that come from destroying the rain forests. This article has a lot of really interesting facts about the rainforests and how destroying it is affecting all of us.

~Cody Males

Resorts where they shouldn’t be

kfatland — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:36:25 +0000

The last few weeks we talked in class about water shortages and factors that contribute to them. At least to me it seemed that the most obvious factor was people overusing in places of the country that do not have much water to begin with. Such as Las Vegas with their giant fountains and swimming pools, here is another example http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124593116. People are clearly not getting it if they are talking about building things like this still.

Kirk F.

ECOBLOCK

antranpsu — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:45:26 +0000

So i was at the eco-block get together like David, and Matt. I was apart of the energy portion of the meeting. They were talking about putting stationary bikes next to the business administration building. A station to generate electricity to power the lights around there, or to charge a electronic device you had. I think this would be kind of weird. Its a good idea, but I don’t think in front of the max is the place for it. Maybe somewhere that doesn’t have so many people around.

The energy group also talked about putting in water power generators underneath the bridge. That way the rain water streams off, and pushes the generator to generate electricity. It wouldn’t be a lot of power, but it would be something. I thought this was a good idea. All this would happen on Montgomery St. in that empty lot.

Anthony Tran.

Go Vegan!

graceaw — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:39:04 +0000

I recently decided to try going vegan at the beginning of last week. It has been something that I have wanted to do for a while and I thought that I would share the experience with you guys! I am no expert yet, but I have found that it is not as challenging as I thought it might be. There are many benefits to being vegan including; health, animal, and environment. This website lists 101 reasons and benefits that might influence you to try it too. I was worried that it would be difficult to find a variety of foods to eat but you can find tons of information online about vegan options. I live on campus and so far have found vegan options at victors, hot lips, chipotle, seattle’s best and many other restaurants around campus. I have felt much healthier and full of energy ever since starting my new diet and I encourage you all to try!

Grace W

Environmental History Forum

mzaharchuk — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:55:25 +0000

I just got back from an “Environmental History Forum”, a series of speeches and a group discussion held at the Smith center at PSU. The three guest speakers were all professors at the University of Wisconsin: Nancy Langston, James Feldman and William Cronon (from first term’s “Goals of a liberal education”). A main topic being discussed was our ability to learn from the past in order to create a more sustainable present and future, both by studying how previous cultures have changed or adapted to threats such as scarcity of resources as well as studying what didn’t work so well in the past. An example that I thought was interesting was that Cronon predicted that in 20 years we will look back on the compact fluorescent bulb and say what a mistake it was due to the spread of mercury that it causes. This learning from previous good and bad decisions seems to be one of the main pillars of environmental history. Another concept brought up is that “sustainability” is not actually a state of equilibrium or stasis that can be achieved, but more of a continual process of discourse to keep moving forward and making better decisions. Also popular was bashing on Jared Diamond and his idea of why civilizations collapse for being too simplified. Overall, it was a very fascinating event and I would recommend reading “Changes in the Land” or any of Cronon’s books. He is a very smart guy.

-Matt Z.

Obama’s State of the University

roxybarton — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:45:40 +0000

I wrote a term paper on this article for my economics class and thought it would be interesting to share with you, as we are college students. As you know, California’s economy is in pretty bad shape (a $21 billion dollar budget deficit as of November 2009). The President has a proposed a solution: federal loan forgiveness if you graduation and work in public service. You can read the full, official(?) proposal here. But here’s the catch: what if you had plans on become on entrepreneur? Or something else that has nothing to do with public service? Yes, many careers can be tied into public service, but if that’s not what you were planning on spending thousands of dollars on education to do, then what happens? It is clear that many students will not be returning to college in the fall due to this enormous tuition hike. Where do you think they should increase taxes? Is it unfair to ask these young college students to dish out even more money, when their education is our future? On a personal note, luxury taxes would be the most appropriate place to hike up percentages. Think of how many people in the Los Angeles area live their lives in excess. Not to mention the entire film industry in LA: so much of the state’s revenue is generated there. Are they experiencing a 33% tax increase? I think the wrong people are being asked to dish out more money.

- roxy