« Home at Last | Main | Canadian Thanksgiving »
October 13, 2004
Happy Thoughts
I have been looking over the last few weeks of entries, and I've realized that I come across as either excessively preachy or depressingly gloomy. Recognizing that I can be a bit bossy on occasion (ok, a lot bossy, a lot of the time) and that I thrive on the drama of bad news, this is a problem.
While there are certainly things that am irritated with here in Sweden (the housing situation, the less-than-challenging lectures, the LOUD music coming from my roommates room this very second), I'm generally finding this time to be very fulfilling. I enjoy thinking about sustainability issues, and even if I don't necessarily buy into all the stuff they talk about in class, it is challenging to try and sift through the rhetoric and discover ways to apply these new ideas to my own life. Which leads to the second problem: self-righteousness.
Now that I have a bunch of ideas on how to improve my life (de-materializing, getting rid of my car, composting), I want everyone around me to have similar epiphanies. For one thing, it's so much easier when a group commits to changing its behavior—I would have a common accountability, rather than just holding myself to these new ideals. But also, I want to feel like I'm making a difference in my peer group, and the easiest way to do that from here is to exhort my family and friends to make huge changes in their lives. On the other hand, I have a strong feeling that perhaps that can have the opposite effect, as the constant badgering creates a backlash against change.
Of course, I realize that the most convincing impetus to change is a personal example. So I suppose that I would be most effective by just living my own life, and letting people see that it makes me a better person AND helps the environment, society at large, etc. Ugh—what a responsibility. It's so much easier just to keep encouraging people to compost their kitchen scraps.
So, my new commitment is to stop recommending solutions to people and to just start living with these new values. Additionally, I want to try and move this online journal from a place to complain about things to a place where I evaluate both the positive and the negative—and where I determine my role in both sides of the situation. As I look at some of my colleagues' blogs, I'm struck at how they take issues and apply them to their personal lives, but still manage to speak to a larger audience. That will be my goal here.
I will now begin with a list of things I'm happy about today:
· The gray clouds and drizzly weather has finally passed and today is clear and crisp. The temperature has fallen dramatically in the past few days, and we now hover in the 40s. The trees are changing colors, and it view from my bedroom is breathtaking. Even though the wind is howling outside, it’s a cheery sound, complete with rustling leaves.
· The family upstairs seems to have achieved some sense of balance, and the yelling has abated quite a bit. Now that I feel confident in approaching them the next time it goes on for more than a few minutes, I can more easily bear the few spats that still arise.
· We're done with system dynamics! Afternoon classes were cancelled today, so I'm at home reading the next set of articles—all about environmental economics. Our guest lecturer is Christian Azar, former CEO of Electrolux and Volvo. He will be speaking to us primarily about climate change, and the economics of global warming. Here's the abstract from one of his papers:
Abstract - Are the economic costs of stabilising the atmosphere prohibitive?
By Christian Azar, Stephen H. Schneider
Macro economic studies of the costs of reducing CO2 emissions generally estimate the global cost of stabilising the atmospheric concentrations of CO2 in the range 350–550 ppm in trillions of USD. This creates the impression that the cost of CO2 reductions is so large that it threatens economic development. But, presented in another way, a completely different picture emerges. There is widespread agreement amongst the more pessimistic macro economic studies that stringent carbon controls are compatible with a significant increase in global and regional economic welfare. Even if the cost of CO2 abatement rises to 5% of global income per year by the end of this century, this reduction is minor compared with the tenfold increase in global income that is expected. Since income is assumed to grow by a couple of percent per year, the trillion USD cost could also be expressed as a few years delay in achieving an order of magnitude higher income levels. Similar observations can also be made as regards near-term abatement targets such as the Kyoto protocol. A more widespread recognition of the fact that carbon abatement policies will only marginally affect economic growth is likely to increase the willingness to introduce carbon abatement policies.
· I got a package from La today. I knew it had arrived, but hadn't had a chance until today to pick it up from the post office. I'm so glad I did, because it contains all sorts of goodies, including the Garden State soundtrack. Ahh, good music. There is currently Raggajungle blasting from the next room, so I'll have to wait until later to enjoy it uninterrupted.
· Since class was cancelled this afternoon, I can continue reading my new book (courtesy of the BTH library), The Robber Bride, by Margaret Atwood. I started it a couple days ago, but haven't been able to find any chunk of time to really get into it. From what I've read, however, I think I'm really going to enjoy it. There's also the possibility of a nap!
And now, another installment of:
INTERESTING THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
McDonald's is introducing (or re-introducing?) a sandwich, which is basically a hamburger with lettuce and tomato. Kind of like the Arch Burger, as I recall. What makes it weird is the advertising campaign. The billboard shows a mid-1800s B&W picture of a Mexican bolero singer. He has a huge sombrero, a striped poncho, a handlebar mustache—you get the picture. Towards the bottom of the poster is a color picture of the sandwich, with the caption, "Return of the Legendary EL MACO". Now, this seems strange to me. Is this advertising campaign being used around the world, or just in Sweden? Would people here understand the concept of "El Maco"? Is there some implication that Mexican guitarists enjoyed sandwiches of this nature? Every time I ride my bike past this poster (it's on one of the bus station walls), I think about these questions—which is probably the entire point of the campaign, getting people to think about the product.
