This Is Our Planet!

“This is our country!” the automobile advertisement proclaimed. A time-out had been called on the football field, and the ads began to roll. Yes, after holding out for over a decade, we finally got cable TV at our house. Like others, I took this newfound opportunity to channel surf the scores of programs that were now available at a click. And, like many others, I found the advertisements to be more intriguing than the programs. Some voices told me, “It’s the water.” Others, that a particular automobile represented a “revolution,” and that the truck advertised was “our truck” and the proud owner was “our kind of guy.” On other channels I was offered “extreme luxury” and “high energy,” and the owner of a large SUV told me, with no irony intended, that his goal was to leave the world a better place. Then an advertisement noting that diamonds are forever was separated by just one ad from another for a new movie about the horrors of the diamond trade. My new toy got me thinking about the environment and our future.

My concerns were driven home the next day at a stoplight. A large, new, crew-cab pickup truck pulled up to me and blocked the sun. I looked over at the happy owner and the children in the backseat, who probably were not yet all of school age. I thought about them and the world they will inherit. If those children were all in the first grade, and they went on to college and graduated, they would be in the class of 2022. The class of 2022 will be living in a world with at least two to three billion more people than now; a world that is warmer, with higher sea levels; a world with less water, oil, and natural gas, and less biodiversity because thousands of species of plans and animals now living will be extinct. The class of 2022 will be living with the consequences of decisions made by those who are their parents and grandparents, their teachers, and those who hold elected office in this country.

We won’t have to, and can’t, wait for the class of 2022 to commit to change. Today’s generation of college students understand they are living in a global environment, and many understand they cannot continue to consume scarce resources at the current rate. The notion that we must conduct our lives in such a way that we can meet our needs without compromising the ability of future generations to live decent lives is a relatively new one, though it is understood by our students. The United Nations adopted the concept of sustainable economic development to raise people’s awareness of what is at stake and to help people understand that we must deal with three interrelated issues simultaneously: the environment, the economy, and the society. This is not an antigrowth message; it’s a message that not all forms of growth can be sustained.

Universities throughout the country are introducing programs of study in sustainability. (See The Chronicle of Higher Education, “Creating Sustainable Universities,” Oct. 20, 2006: A8–25.) The reasons they are doing so are multiple. Some are focused, like any good businesses, on saving money through sustainable business practices. New and greener buildings on our campus will not only save the university money in terms of energy usage, but they will also be used to educate students about the use of sustainable building materials. One of the distinguishing features of many programs is the focus on local problems. (Richard Monastersky, “Support at the Top for Sustainability,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct. 20, 2006: A25.) Last month, on Nov. 2–5, Chico State played host to a conference that registered over 900 people. In more than 60 sessions, many organized by members of the local community, participants discussed such issues as stewardship of the land, sustainability, “smart” growth, transportation, economic development, renewal energy, and the built environment.

A second feature of the sustainability movement is that it is by nature interdisciplinary. There is an understanding on this campus that in order to achieve sustainable economic development, we need to harness the talents of those in the natural and social sciences, engineering, and agriculture, as well as those in the humanities and fine arts. There are now over 150 courses that are “green,” which introduce students to conversations about humans and their relationship to the natural world. The sustainability movement is thus an end in itself and a means to an end—a future that we actively own. It is not easy to achieve this goal, but it is essential. There are no simple answers to the complex question of how we can live our lives in such a way as not to imperil future generations.

Finally, the sustainability movement is serious about succeeding. To paraphrase Ray C. Anderson, founder and CEO of Interface, Inc., one of the world’s largest manufacturers of sustainable floor coverings, “Sustainability must be more than the program of the week, or the month, or the year.” For Chico State, sustainability is a way to engage our students, to create democratic citizens, to act on our values, to connect to our community and region, and to model the kind of behavior that will cause the class of 2022 to believe we have done a good job. If we get it right, they will be viewing ads that say, “This is our planet!”

—Scott G. McNall