Troy Hottle, Steven Milcinovic, Seth Ostheimer, and Steven Shaak
Arches of Pergamon in Turkey.
Photo: Troy Hottle.
American lifestyles have been the envy of people the world around, but the unsustainable nature of our way of life has become increasingly apparent. Global climate change has been confirmed and accepted by scientists from many backgrounds and the emanate threat of a global crisis increases with every day gone by without a change in resource consumption. Our country, the United States, while being the largest economic power, is in the position to become a strong role model for sustainable development and utilization of renewable resources, has failed to recognize the changes necessary to maintain a healthy environment for all living beings. The US with less than five percent of the world population has consistently contributed to nearly a fourth of carbon emissions on Earth. The idea that we have an infinite number of resources and an ever-growing economy has historically been the dominant view among Americans. The belief that technological innovation and the flux in the demand for new more sustainable products will save us from any environmental threat be it global warming, dwindling resources, or changing weather patterns is one that has been held by many Americans for many years.
We believe that we are currently witnessing the beginnings of a cultural paradigm shift in which our generation has started to realize the necessity for more sustainable living practices. Similar to Victor Jakob’s realization in Night Thoughts of a Classical Physicist (McCormmach, 1982) that his form of classical physics was no longer applicable and was in fact wrong, many Americans are moving to a belief that the free market approach has failed to bring about a sustainable life style quickly enough and have voluntarily taken it upon themselves to change aspects of their lives. This has been difficult as the older generations, especially those that hold the wealth, fear change and fight it as it could jeopardize their continual economic prosperity. This parallels the scientific community’s attempts to hold onto their established beliefs as seen with Jakob’s internal struggle with the past and future of physics, with the revolution in thought from classical physics to uncertainty, relativity and atomic theory. Like the physicists of the 1920’s, America today faces a necessary change in thought to deal with the realities we are witnessing in the twenty-first century.
Bronze statue of female hunter outside of Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
Photo: Steven Shaak.
We believe that failure to make these necessary changes to our life styles will lead to the stagnation of society as the failure to make the move in physics in the 1920’s would have led to the stagnation of science. Progress requires change and the change is on the horizon.
Troy Hottle, Steve Milcinovic, Seth Ostheimer and Steve Shaak
hottlet at hiram.edu
Last updated 23 March 2008
Banner Photo by Mathew J. Wilson