why kill?
Why title a blog with a deep-seated root in the environment, economics, and social issues “kill Sustainable”? My own utopian hope (beyond me just wanting you to click out of curiosity) is that the day will come that we will no longer need the physical word “sustainable”. When that day comes, what we define as sustainable today will be equal to the social norm. There will be a paradigm shift to a new way of thinking about life cycle flows, systems analysis, and ecologically/socially/economically judgments for the greater good.
But how do we get there?
As Tom Friedman said in his book Hot, Flat, and Crowded, The world is becoming flat. The rise of the middle class as an ever-growing structure for governing is partially in thanks to the rapid expansion of technology, most notably the Internet. Through the use of social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and blogs like Wordpress, the middle class can entice a snowballing effect on the grassroots movement, enticing greater change even faster than former generations on the earth.
How do we most effectively use this technology?
Is it most effective to create a driving train to make one push or individual bikes for each specific issue (or bikes on the train, to create a maximized efficiency of entire system?
My goal in this is to help to facilitate answers to these questions and coming issues.
My name is Ben Thomas. I am a student of Urban Planning and Development and Landscape Architecture at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. My focus is upon sustainable design and its relationship to the over-arching urban issues such as urban sprawl, transportation, and socioeconomic justice with our current environment.
My current work is delved deeply in ecological economics, whole systems analysis, land use policy barriers to sustainable development, and the richness of biodiversity and how to use technology to inform and learn lessons in sustainability from diverse sets of people of all economic statuses. My undergraduate thesis is a retrofit analysis and design of a small town in northern Indiana desirous of creating a completely sustainable infrastructure and renewable energy base.
If you have thoughts on any of these, or places I may further read to enhance my views, do not hesitate to send me things.
