Can the Planet

Afford Me?

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Preamble.

The World Commission on Environment and Development (AKA The Brundtland Report, AKA Our Common Future / Notre Avenir à Tous) set four preconditions for the achievement of sustainability one of which was that we should all (especially the citizens of the richer nations) ‘live within the planet’s ecological means‘.  Although the Carbon Footprint Tests you will have done by now (and their underpinning algorithms) are far from perfect, they do at least offer some basic ways in which we can come to understand our impacts upon the planet: no mean feat when you think of the size of that task!   So by now, if you didn’t already know, you should have a sense of whether or not and to what extent your lifestyle fits within the planet’s ecological means.

So this assignment asks you to address the fundmental question:

Can the Planet Afford Me?

( …. and what am I prepared to do about it if it can’t?”)

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Instructions.

If the planet can’t afford 100% of your lifestyle and consumption activities, what (perhaps a LOT more than just one or two things!)  EXACTLY is stopping you personally from changing to a lifestyle the planet can afford and how do you feel that such inhibitors to better sustainability performance in your life could be overcome?

The specifics of how you will deliver this are outlined below:-

Date set: in our first day’s class

Date due: at the end of our second day’s class (a week later in 2022/23). I realise that this doesn’t give you long, BUT:

• you will have been prepared for this in class and have developed the necessary raw materials.
• it is based upon self-analysis and evaluation – this does not require personal research time
• So early in the course, I doubt you will have been given any other work to do.
• I am handing you the report format ‘on a plate‘ – see below….

Please be there and hand your work in in person.  If, for any reason,  you can’t be there, give your hard copy to someone else who can hand it to me in class [NB. I will not be accepting emailed copies].

Your output will be: a REPORT (not an essay – do you know the differences?  Make sure you do!)

Length: 2 x Pages of A4 MAXimum (plus an appendix for carbon footprint diagrammes  if you so wish). 

Language: English or French. [NB.  This is NOT an English class – so I will not be marking your English: as long as your meaning is clear, then even if you make mistakes, I promise they will NOT be penalised.  I will, however, try to give you some feedback to help you improve.]

Format: Printed hard copy please.  I am more than happy for you to use:

• ‘scrap‘ paper already printed on one side.
• the draft ‘brouillon‘ mode on your printer [did you know that, weight-for-weight, printer cartridge (cartouche) ink is more expensive than gold?]
• If you are using a fresh sheet – please print on both sides.

NB. I realise that printing on paper is not the most environmentally-sensitive option, but I much prefer it his way because:

• correcting and commenting on screen takes twice as long as marking a paper copy
• it means hours and hours sitting in the same position – which is bad for the neck and back.  Once, after a marathon on-screen marking session, I got up and fell over in agony having two disks displaced. Result: three days and nights on a hard floor.  Not doing that again!
• Sometimes students think they have sent to the right address or that they have attached their work…yet I never receive them and have to chase people all the time.
• Occasionally the spam-checker system can decide to route a file to Spam and not to the inbox, so it is sent…’technically’ received [but in the wrong place] and I have no idea it is there!
• If only 10% of students in each of the classes I teach ignore my instruction and send by email, that can amount to 40 pieces of work each time (I have appx 400 students).  Can you imagine the time and trouble to chase and find these missing pieces of work or the cost to myself of printing?!?

REPORT FRAMEWORK:

Your report absolutely MUST start with ALL your footprint test scores and your reaction to them.  I suggest you write these in your first paragraph – perhaps in brief bullet points. [Then, if you want to include the diagrammes, you can put them in an Appendix – they won’t count as part of your page limit. DO NOT fill your two pages with the footprint diagrammes so you don’t have to write much!!].

Here is the structure you MUST adopt for your report (ignore this advice at your peril – failure to comply will be heavily penalised):

• Introduction: provide details of ALL your personal carbon footprint test results and tell the reader what you feel about them…
• Main Body: your analysis and evaluation (not just description) of key aspects of your life / lifestyle and consumption activities which have led to these scores
• Conclusion: five key elements:

1. Consideration of where you see yourself on the AIDA (Awareness -Interest -Desire-Action) continuum I will have explained in class (and why)
2. A well-considered list of your personal inhibitors with explanations as to why each one of them is so difficult or impossible for you to overcome on your own / without assistance.  What would it take for you to overcome them?
3. Where there are no real inhibitors stopping you – what are the THREE most significant changes to your personal lifestyle that you CAN and WILL adopt and put into operation TODAY.
4. Given your professional career is set to be in librarianship or in cultural events – what do you feel are the principle sustainability challenges that you might be facing which might affect colleagues / clients /readers / artists /viewers and their ability move along the AIDA continuum towards ‘Action‘..
5. Has this exercise had an effect upon you?  If so what?
   

 

FEEDBACK. I will try to mark this as soon as is possible.  I will bring your scripts/copies to class (GEPSAC – you have me for English, so that’ll be easy enough) or, in the case of the Librarianship group I will get a message to you to ask your Course Representative (délégué) to collect the work from your Course Administrator in FLSH Scolarité.

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NB. Photo: one of the nicest parts of the planet that I know: the Val d’Orcia in Tuscany, Italy, just between Sienna and Montalcino.

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