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Wednesday, 02 August 2006 03:28 |
By JIM GENARO
Participants at the Design Science Lab presented recommendations for combating poverty, environmental degradation and other global and local problems at a public forum last Friday that capped a week of workshops.
About 100 people attended the forum at UNC Asheville??s Humanities Lecture Hall.
The Design Science Lab was a workshop based on the problem-solving methods of Buckminster Fuller, in which participants worked to establish local strategies for tackling the Millennium Development Goals ?? a set of global objectives established by the United Nations for the target date of 2015.
During
the lab, participants had separated into smaller working groups, each
with a different focus. Using the model of the MDG, the groups chose
local and regional issues to address.
The groups also
communicated with each other and shared their findings each day through
the use of a wiki ?? a Web site that allows anyone to change its
content, thus allowing many people to exchange information.
At the forum, each group presented its findings and recommendations, with several speakers taking turns.
| Robin Cape
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While the groups
all focused on their particular issue, one speaker noted, ?®When you??re
working on one Millennium Development Goal, you??re working on them all.?∆
The first group addressed education. One of the MDG??s is to achieve universal primary education.
According to a
woman who spoke on behalf of the education group, ?®We are a long way
from achieving those goals.?∆ More than 103 million children do not get
a primary education worldwide, she added.
A man who spoke
next said that the group??s strategy to achieve universal education was
to work with other organizations in ?®creating a coordinated agency that
provides global access to educational materials.?∆
This agency, he added, would be called ?®WECAN?∆ ?? Worldwide Educational Cooperative for All Nations.?∆
WECAN would be
funded through grants of from companies that manufacture educational
materials, he added. In exchange, the companies would receive free
advertising on the WECAN Web site.
Philanthropic organizations would provide startup funds for the agency, according to the group??s spokesperson.
Another
organization, known as SEED, would help provide information and
assistance to schools that want to become more environmentally
sustainable, he added.
SEED would use
the model of the ?®School in a box?∆ program, by which the United Nations
Children??s Fund provides schools in underdeveloped regions with a box
of startup materials, including a cell phone and laptop computer for
the teacher. With the SEED program, schools would receive materials to
make their facilities more ecologically sound.
A woman in the audience said, ?®I??m very nervous about the corporate buy-in?∆ of the WECAN program.
?®Well, it??s about time we got some of their money,?∆ responded a man in the education group.
A man from the audience asked, ?®What about when environmental curriculum is in conflict with the state??∆
?®Our goal is to
provide regional-appropriate materials,?∆ the group??s spokesman
responded. ?®It won??t be just one program for everyone.?∆
The energy group
spoke next. Spokesman Harry Stewart introduced the topic, saying,
?®Let??s talk about energy ?? or more appropriately for most of the world,
lack thereof.?∆
Access to energy is extremely unequal between different regions of the planet, he said.
The world??s
urban population is increasing steadily, Stewart noted, with about half
the people on the planet expected to be living in cities by 2030.
Furthermore,
worldwide consumption of biomass for fuel is becoming increasingly
common, resulting in deforestation in much of the developing world, he
added.
?®We want everybody, essentially, in Saharan Africa to have the energy they need,?∆ a woman in the group said.
To this end, the
group developed a two-tiered strategy. The first aspect was to support
the creation of energy resource co-operatives. The second was to
develop a manufacturing industry for renewable technologies.
Energy resource
co-ops would provide a communal center powered by renewable energy
systems. In addition, the space would function as a shared kitchen as
well as maintaining a clean water source.
?®Essentially what they??re getting is water and food for their families,?∆ she added.
For $20,000 a facility could be built that would support up to 500 people, the group had determined.
A group that had
worked on sustainability discussed its recommendation that
municipalities hire sustainability agents ?? officers charged with
?®increasing the energy, water and resource efficiency throughout the
country,?∆ a representative of the group said.
The group also recommended the construction of ?®green mobile homes?∆ ?? prefabricated homes that are ecologically constructed.
?®The goal is to
provide suitable, affordable, resource-efficient housing that can be
integrated into existing urban and rural environments,?∆ he added.
| Dee Eggers
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The energy group
spoke next. Dee Eggers, a UNCA assistant professor of environmental
studies, said that economic pressures need to be applied to convince
power companies to engage in environmentally supportive practices.
Noting that the
amount of profits power companies are allowed to make is fixed by the
state, she said, ?®The strongest signal to Duke (Power) and Progress
(Energy) would be to leverage on their allowed profits.?∆
Limiting the
amount power companies can charge during peak hours ?? unless it is
generated using green methods ?? would encourage sustainable energy, she
said.
Asheville City
Councilwoman Robin Cape, who participated in the energy group, said
that the city should create a public information campaign to promote
conservation.
?®We need to use
the proven methods of advertising and promotion to get the message out
to the people,?∆ Cape said. She noted that Austin, Texas, had launched a
very successful campaign to discourage energy waste.
A man in the
group said that greater density was an important factor in energy
conservation. Asheville currently has a density of one house per acre,
he said. ?®This is essentially the definition of a ?¥sprawl community.???∆
However, if
downtown Asheville could grow to a density of 25 homes per acre, it
would absorb the estimated 20,000 new residents expected to move to the
city in the next 20 years. At 50 homes per acre, downtown would absorb
all of the county??s growth, he added.
The next group discussed water quality and sustainable urban agriculture.
Michael Miller,
a spokesman for the group, said that a major concern is ?®non-point
source pollution ?? runoff from impervious surfaces.?∆
The majority of
development takes place along rivers, he explained, which is where
green buffers are most needed to filter out pollutants from rainwater
runoff.
The group proposed a buffer of a minimum of 50 feet from all rivers with native plantings to filter water.
Another man in the group discussed the need for local agriculture ?? including rooftop gardens in the city.
?®Right now,
we??re in a situation where one calorie of food requires 10 calories of
fossil fuels. So this is not a good use of resources and we know we can
do much better.?∆
To this end, the
group recommended that businesses and individuals use rooftops for
gardens and that schools and neighborhoods establish community
gardening programs.
David
McConnville, of the local education group, said that the world??s
problems are not due to lack of resources, but rather of a lack of
education and will.
He quoted
Buckminster Fuller as saying, ?®There is no energy shortage. There is no
energy crisis. There is a crisis of ignorance.?∆
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