A quick shout-out to our classmate, Claire, who penned a crisp and comprehensive article for the UW Daily about mindfulness in the classroom. A talented journalist, Claire interviews a few experts on campus while weaving in her own findings from the quarter in Honors 392. She calls attention to three alliterative components within mindfulness: “presence, personhood, and perspective.” When outlined as… Read more »
Eco Villages support an interesting solution to climate change, a massive scale down of our current lifestyle. Eco Villages take us back to our roots in the land and create smaller scale societies where environmental efficacy is paramount. As Professor Litfin delved into her studies of eco villages I was struck by the still vast differences in the villages consumption… Read more »
Let’s relive our most recent contemplative practice. Imagine: The state of the world is worsening. Feverish Earth and its subjects are drowning in corruption, injustice, and inequity. Children are hungry. Rich men govern from palace-sized homes. Industry of war is prospering. The future is dark, smoldering hot, and underwater. Run through the litany of traumas endured by Earth and its people. This reality is familiar…. Read more »
The constant across all cultures is the factor of the human brain—a three-pound, equally introspective and innovative organ that has the capacity to interrogate its own existence. However, the rate of development across the world has been highly dependent on the geographic limitations of the region each society settles in—at it’s most basic, the growth of the polis is a… Read more »
In our most recent class contemplative practice we were asked to envision the world in three different ways. This included having a perspective of our Earth as getting worse, getting better, and it being in a state of things are what they are. I learned a lot about the state of the world in my own perspective and how I… Read more »
Director Josh Fox’ film, How to Let Go of the World and Love All The Things Climate Can’t Change, is truly eye-opening. The part filmed in Beijing was most horrifying to me. Fox says when he first arrived in Beijing, he thought it was foggy, but in fact he was seeing pollutants suspended in the air. This pollution kills millions… Read more »
It is easy to feel paralyzed and pessimistic when pondering the Anthropocene. With so much damage already done though carbon dioxide emissions and many complex and political issues ahead how could you not feel scared and overwhelmed? While I am often overwhelmed by the vastness of issues presented by the Anthropocene, a “perspective” contemplative practice completed in class helped me… Read more »
Image from: https://philosophersforchange.org/2012/06/05/philosophy-as-critique-and-ideology/. There are three common perspectives that people take on the world: optimism, pessimism, and realism. Of course, people are rarely ever strictly one thing, and will experience a mix of worldviews depending on their day and major life events. Why does it matter how we frame the water in the glass? The water remains the same amount whether it… Read more »
In an era of global citizenship, our president is putting “America First”. This simple slogan would be harmless if our actions did not have consequences that the rest of the world must bear. In reality, the United States is the second largest emitter of carbon dioxide. We are such a great contributor to the underlying causes of climate change that we… Read more »
Why do we ignore climate change? PBS’s, “It’s Okay To Be Smart” examines this conundrum. Our modern minds are equipped with stone age technology, deciphering today’s events with a dated and out of focus lens. Issues that demand our brains attention are personal, abrupt, immoral and are happening in the now. Climate change lacks these attention-grabbing characteristics, which allows our… Read more »
