With all that’s going on in Michigan schools it is easy to become overwhelmed and frustrated with Lansing. With so much focus on funding (or the lack thereof) we can sometimes forget the big picture of what’s happening around us, the world in general, and how we need to be positioning ourselves and our schools for the future.
No matter who is elected president, it’s clear we have some national imperatives upon which we can all agree: 1) the vital need for energy independence; and 2) the need to find a way to better integrate and cooperate with the rest of the world.
I’m in the middle of reading Thomas Friedman’s new book, Hot, Flat and Crowded. While I enjoyed his first book, The World is Flat, I found it a bit tedious and redundant. His new book is much more to the point, readable and instructive. In Hot, Flat and Crowded, Friedman offers a scientifically based, frightening view, of global warming and over population. He also offers solutions for the US and the world that make sense. But, he says, we need to get moving; meaning we need to get changing how we do things.
Friedman even exploded one of the comfortable myths I had come to harbor – that global warming might be good for places like Michigan and Minnesota. Though there are natural cycles of warming and cooling on our planet, what’s happening now is accelerated, and of human origin according to about 98% of the scientific community. This type of change brings many unpredictable consequences – stronger storms, longer droughts, rising seas, infestations of insects that had normally been killed off by harsher winters, etc. In other words, it won’t just mean warmer days, less snow and shorter winters.
I’m not trying to be an alarmist…or maybe I am. After reading the first half of this book I am alarmed and I hope other people will be too. We need to make some changes in how we do things, and we need to act quickly in political/human terms.
If you have any interest at all, I hope you’ll read Hot, Flat and Crowded*, and see if you agree. If you do, then help spread the word and begin being part of the solution.
Schools can do their part by making sure they are good stewards of their environment. Does your district have an energy conservation policy? Do you recycle? How will your district help educate your students and community?
While there are big solutions needed for the big problems we face, there are also many small things that we all must do to contribute – whether it is buying more fuel-efficient cars, using fluorescent bulbs, or starting to recycle newspapers and magazines at home. The point is to start being more a part of the solution, and be less of a part of the problem.
You know the old cliché, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” That’s where we are now - at the beginning of a new world.
The US has under 5% of the world’s population yet we consume about 25% of the world’s production energy resources. Demand for oil has grown 22% in the US since 1990. China and India currently consume between 9-30 percent less energy per person than the US, but that is changing. Oil demand is expected to rise from the current 86 million barrels consumed per day by the world, to at least 116 million barrels by 2030. If China and India were to increase their usage to US levels, we’d need 200 million barrels a day.
As you read this I’m touring China for the third time in the last 4 years. Traveling like this has changed my world view dramatically. The world is a fragile political and ecological environment. I’ve become convinced we must start reaching out to other nations, developing more person-to-person relationships, and building better relationships between governments. It starts with understanding each other better. I hope your school has a plan for “internationalizing” your students’ education so they will be able to cope with and benefit from the coming changes in a flat world.
While Friedman’s book and the underlying premise can be depressing, it only makes sense to look at the flip side of the gloom. With problems come opportunities. Meaning that if we as a nation confront the problems with thoughtful solutions, we as a people can prosper, as can the world. This has been the American problem solving spirit in the past and, if we maintain it, it will serve well us in the future.
It can be a good world, but it cannot be the same world we live in now. We need to begin the journey to a new and different world, and we need to prepare our children for it regardless of the financial condition of our state or school districts. There are small and large things all of us can do to make the world and our communities a better place. Hopefully that becomes our collective mantra and our individual mission while there is still time.
* If you read my column last month you won’t be surprised that at first I didn’t actually read this book, I started listening to it on my I-Pod. I haven’t finished it yet but I already got a hard copy because I wanted to have it as a resource for the many interesting facts and figures Friedman provides.