Operation Free - veterans' with a new mission

One of the most exciting projects going on in our country today - along with efforts like 350.org, Define Our Decade, and the Presidents' Climate Commitment - is Operation Free. Veterans seeing the connection between costly and unnecessary wars, energy supply and demand, and climate disruption are touring the country fighting for policies that will stop sending our money into the hands of our enemies (and destroying the lives of people in countries that are "resourced cursed"):

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C-ROADS less taken...

Speaking of Hopenhagen - you want some hope?? Check out this new TED talk from (fellow Dartmouth alum!) Drew Jones of the Sustainability Institute. This is the kind of way we need to be thinking - acknowledging the danger of potential "Business as Usual" emissions scenarios, and then immediately recognizing that those are not a pre-determined future, and that we must mobilize immediately and in a big way if we're even going to get close to achieving atmospheric concentrations of 350 ppm in a meaningful timescale. Enjoy, (and learn more at the Climate Interactive Blog):

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New MSLS Brochure

Check out the new MSLS brochure - some great updated info about the program in a snazzy technical online book-thing. Also, if you go to the program you learn how to jump super-high in a business suit, as evidenced on the cover shot.

Check out the new Brochure from the MSLS Programme at BTH!

Earth Overshoot Day

Sadly, today is Earth Overshoot Day. This is based on the measure of the Global Footprint Network, that today humanity has consumed all of the new resources that nature will produce this year. From here until the end of the year, we'll no longer be "living off the interest" and instead will be "eating into our capital." A basic understanding of finances let's us know that this is not good for us - and especially not good for our children and grandchildren, who will be left with that much less, a world that produces less, and as a result a system that is far less resilient.

Often people make the mistake of thinking that sustainability is all about limits, having less stuff, being restricted in terms of what we can do. In fact, it is the opposite. By recklessly pursuing physical growth in a "take-make-waste" economy - thinking we're getting more - we're actually getting less - now and in the future.

As the Footprint Network points out, the financial collapse happening around us right now is a stark reminder of what can happen when debt and spending are allowed to grow out of control, with no responsibility and no acknowledgment of the natural limits that every system is subject to - whether it's the laws of thermodynamics on the planetary scale, or the rules of accounting for a business. You can only cheat the system for so long, and we've been cheating the system for too long. We continue to see examples of organizations, communities, cities, and now entire economies hitting the funnel walls - Enron, New Orleans, Houston/Galveston, Lehman/Bear/Freddie/Fannie/AIG.

Of course the good news is, that to avoid this collapse, all we need to do is be respectful of those limits. And these limits will not limit us. Constraints breed creativity - the rules of music enable artists to create beautiful songs as opposed to jumbles of noise, the rules of soccer make a fun game as opposed to an aimless group of people chasing a ball, tough engineering challenges with unusual constraints spur innovation, the list goes on. And accepting the challenge of operating all of our institutions, organizations, businesses and within the constraints of the sustainability principles will help us come together and engage in the most gratifying work imaginable - creating better lives for ourselves, our families, our communities, those around the world while contributing to the health and well-being of all other life. So we can move-on from this myth that acknowledging the reality of the limits that the laws of nature represent will cause problems for us - it only opens up opportunities and is our way forward for improving our quality of life.

To learn more about ecological footprinting, the Footprint Network, and Overshoot Day, check out: http://www.footprintnetwork.org/

Stay going...

Sustainability Masters Programs

Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability (MSLS) at the Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) in Karlskrona, Sweden

Bainbridge Graduate Institute (MBA) on Bainbridge Island, WA

Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at UC Santa Barbara, CA

Culture, Ecology & Sustainable Community (MA) at the New College of California

Environmental Education and Communication (MA) at Royal Roads University, BC

Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at University of Michigan, MI

Green MBA at the Dominican University of California, San Francisco Bay Area, CA

Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy (ISTP) at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia

Managing for Sustainability (MBA) at Marlboro College

MBA in Sustainability at Bard College

The Nicholas Institute at Duke University

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at UVM in Burlinton, VT

School of Sustainability at Arizona State University

Stony Brook Southhampton at Stony Brook

Sustainable Design (MS, Architecture) at the University of Minnesota

Sustainable Management (MBA) at the Presidio School of Management, San Francisco, CA

Systems Design - motto at Politecnico di Torino

Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies at Yale in New Haven, CT


If you know of any other sustainability masters programs, please let me know!