Focused Discussions
Using Biomimicry to Strengthen Our Understanding of Sustainability
Focused Discussion Steve Thomas
For many generations, we humans have been creating unsustainable conditions for ourselves and for the planet. Given this history, perhaps we humans should not be considered the planet’s experts on sustainability. However, we now face multiple crises. Clearly, a better understanding of sustainability could greatly improve our responses to these crises. Can we rely upon what traditional science can discover about sustainability—including its underlying relationships, forces, and dynamics? Unfortunately, the presence of sustainability in complex economic, social, and cultural settings is often undetermined until many decades and several human generations have elapsed. As such, traditional science would probably require centuries of inquiry and experimentation to achieve a greatly advanced understanding of sustainability. The crises we face are growing, and we cannot afford to wait centuries for this knowledge. So, is there another way to develop more insight into sustainability? Perhaps there is. Natural selection and evolution have guided wild plants and animals to develop highly complex and sustainable systems (e.g., natural communities and ecosystems). These complex natural systems can be studied and their principal patterns can be translated into common language to improve our understanding of sustainability in a wide variety of human situations. In this session, we will discuss a nature-based model of complex system sustainability and how that can be used to create more sustainable human economies, communities, occupational groups, governments, environments, cultures, and health systems.
Using Transformative Learning and Heutagogical Principals to Understand Human Agency toward Social Change
Focused Discussion Kshamta Hunter
Human agency (see Bandura, 2006; Mayr, 2012) is at the core of education and building resilience while preparing the next generation for the social, economic and environmental changes (Montenegro and Patrinos 2013, 2014; Commonwealth Secretariat, 2017). It is important to understand human agency in the context of building the necessary knowledge, skills, values, attitudes and competencies (de Haan, 2010; Rieckmann, 2012; Wiek et al., 2011) associated with sustainability (UNESCO 2017). How can we understand human agency in the conceptualization, interpretation, and application of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, in order to encourage social innovation through exploration of socio-cultural values and social emotional learning? What kind of curriculum and pedagogy is needed to enhance human agency toward achievement of SDGs? Drawing mainly from the transformative learning theory that applies heutagogical principals (see Blaschke, 2012; Hase & Kenyon, 2000), I hope to theorize and develop a responsive curriculum that uniquely blends and offers learning opportunities towards achievement of SDGs. In this focused discussion I hope to gather input on the role of human agency in sustainability teaching and learning and what might be the best mechanism for cultivating human agency in young adults. What kinds of change have the participants’ experienced in their own lives that could be related to human agency. What factors led to the change and how? What role does social emotional elements play in this change and influence human agency?
Biochar - a Catalyst of Change: From Forest Management to Fertilizers and Bioremediation
Focused Discussion Weston Stroud
As a person in their twenties, the effects of climate change are becoming clear, and the future lies untold. This discussion seeks to draw from the different passions that drive all of us by focusing on how hard manual labor when combined with "positive infrastructure" can potentially have amazing results. The conversation is focused on the process of building a medium scale, portable pyrolysis burner from mostly scrap metals found in Whatcom and Skagit counties. This pyrolysis burner is a prototype that will produce significant amounts of biochar, and can be used to remove large amounts of deadwood from overgrown forests by converting it into biochar and bio-oil and gasses. There is a life cycle assessment being written about the project, and it stands as a model open for others in the Pacific Northwest and around the world to adopt.
The Significance of Integrality in the Education for Sustainability - Dimensional Understanding: We Are Not Seeing What We Need to Understand
Focused Discussion Garth Pickard
For centuries formal education has disenfranchised most individuals by limiting their understanding of the integral nature of all that is living and inanimate. It is most apparent that people and the formal educational experiences that binds them, contribute more to the economic, social, cultural, and environmental problems our planet faces, than it does otherwise. Simply put, either we change the way we learn or we continue on this destructive educational journey. The only purpose of formal education for the twenty-first century is to assist individuals gain the knowledge and develop the skills to sustain the well-being, of all, over the long-term. Twenty-first century education is a pedagogy, and until we wake up to this fact we will continue to be mired in the circumstance current educational practice has created and continues to create. This shift in thinking must be based upon 'principles' that reflect an understanding of 'sustainability' in all its manifestations, community in all its manifestations, and humility borne out of gratitude. This discussion focuses on twenty-first century education based on principles and not on personalities.
Preparing to Adapt: Food Sovereignty in Alaska's Native Communities - Education and Implementation
Focused Discussion Red Bradley, Ronalda Angasan, Charles Parker
Keepseagle Settlement funds have provided Alaska Village Initiatives with the monies to undertake a two-year project to assist native tribes and villages with a focus on farming and food sovereignty education. The Alaska Native Agriculture Program - designed to enhance our subsistence lifestyle, while establishing modern agriculture to replace expensive and often spoiled vegetables shipped to our villages. Access to fresh produce in Alaska is limited to 38% of Alaska residents. Without accessible roads, 82% of Alaska’s native villages are vulnerable to natural disasters or events that can affect the flow of goods. The need to renew traditional cultural practices as it relates to traditional lifestyles - including food and plant gathering - is becoming apparent. Two observations from the 2018 National Climate Assessment released in November regarding traditional lifestyles and the impact of climate change are noteworthy: “Observed and future impacts from climate change threaten Native Peoples’ access to traditional foods such as fish, game, and wild and cultivated crops, which have provided sustenance as well as cultural, economic, medicinal, and community health for generations; The cumulative effects of climate change in Alaska strongly affect Native communities, which are highly vulnerable to these rapid changes but have a deep cultural history of adapting to change.” Preparing to Adapt discusses past foundational work and current planning, mini-granting, and curriculum development using the First Nations Development Institute’s Food Sovereignty Assessment Tool as a baseline tool for targeted program development based on Alaska’s six climate regions and varying needs.
