The Progress Paradox and Sustainability

Two ideas have been swirling around in my thoughts for the past months. The first is from Gregg Easterbrook’s The Progress Paradox; the idea is that almost all aspects of Western life have vastly improved in the past century - but most men and women feel less happy than in previous generations. The second idea is that we have to figure out ways to live on Earth sustainably (a good staring point to understand why is Jeffrey Sachs' Introduction to Sustainable Development course available On Demand from Coursera)…or we won’t be able to live on Earth; our population is growing, there will come a time when the world cannot provide enough food and water, and we are changing the climate of the earth (and it’s not for the better).

Putting the two ideas together - we live in a way that is not making us happy and it is hurting the planet…..

We need to change the trajectory of ‘progress.’

Up until now - progress has been about harnessing the resources that the earth stored away in the past. Breaking natural cycles was not something we worried about. In many cases the resources are transformed as they are harnessed and cannot be used in the same way again. With the cycles broken, the resources are not replenished either. For example, we have ramped up agriculture to produce food for more people but managed to reduce the productivity of the land either by erosion, salination, or poisoning of soil…so that some soils can no longer grow food as effectively (or at all). And the overall biodiversity around us has been dramatically reduced.

Our quick and dirty manufacturing has made industrialists wealthy and provide inexpensive products to millions but left debris and poisons in their wake.

There is evidence that there is a human induced mass extinction happening on Earth right now.

We all make choices about the way we live and most of us would choose to live sustainably if we could. But our society provides very few choices that enable that?

Right now some aspects of sustainability are very difficult or impossible. Some examples:

There are some items that always come packaged in plastic (plastic bins/bags of salad greens, bags of frozen fruit),

There are products that such short serviceability that they clog landfills (disposable diapers, foam packing material), and

Electric cars are expensive and range limited….the list goes on.

But the real problem is lack of vision from the top that leads to a sustainable society. With no top down vision it is hard to piece together what we as individuals can do (i.e. bottom up) that will make a difference. That does not mean we should not take the actions that we can.

In 2015 - my overarching resolution for the new year is to live more sustainably. 

There are some steps I have already taken in the past few years and new actions. Some are substantial…some are very small. I’ll be writing about them in the weeks ahead and encourage everyone to think about taking steps, even small ones, toward living more sustainably. It’s the most important type of progress we can make for the long term benefit of our children…and the generations to come. And - who knows - maybe there is a nugget of happiness in the doing too.

3 Free eBooks - December 2014

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for December 2014.

Boggs, Jean Sutherland, Douglas W. Druick, Henri Loyrette, Michael Pantazzi, and Gary Tinterow. Degas, 1834–1917. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1988. Available from the Metmuseum site here.  This is the catalog for a large scale retrospective exhibit of Degas’ work in the late 80s. There are lots of examples of his works and his process for their creation. There are many other similar books on the Metmuseum site that make it worth browsing.

Wilson, Charles William. Picturesque Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt. New York: D. Appleton. 1880. There are four volumes available via the Internet Archive: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3 and Volume 4. With all the wars that have happened in the area between 1880 and today - I wonder how many of the places depicted in the drawings are still standing. Many looked very old in 1880!

Hariot, Paul. Atlas colorie des plantes medicinales indigenes. Paris : Librairie des sciences naturelles. 1892. Available at the Internet Archive here. I always enjoy a book of botanical prints - which is what this is. I like the way the prints are an intersection of art and science. There is another book from the same author that I am looking forward to viewing too.

3 Free eBooks - November 2014

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for November 2014.

Fritzinger, Leopold Joseph Franz Johann. Bilder-Atlas zur wissenschaftlich-popularen Naturgeschichte der Wirbelthiere. 1867. Available from the Internet Archive here. A volume of color prints of lizards and other reptiles.

Verneuil, Maurice Pillard. Etude de la plante : son application aux industries d'art : pochoir, papier peint, etoffes, céramique, marqueterie, tapis, ferronnerie, reliure, dentelles, broderies, vitrail, mosaïque, bijouterie, bronze, orfévrerie. Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts. 1903. Available on the Internet Archive here. It is interesting to see how botanicals were translated into interior design elements in the early 1900s. I’ve made collages of the iris designs.

Adams, Robert. Ruins of the palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia. London: printed for the author. 1764. Available at the Internet Archive here. This book had been on my ‘too read’ list since last fall when I enjoyed a Roman Architecture course via Coursera. The drawings are quite good. The author includes images of the ruins as they were in the 1760s as well as what he thought they were like when they were first built.

3 Free eBooks - October 2014

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for October 2014.

Heminway, M. & Sons Silk Co. A Treatise on Embroidery. New York: M. Heminway & Sons Silk Co. 1907. Available from the Internet Archive here. I started out looking at this book as a snapshot of embroidery from the early 1900s. Then I decided that the botanical depictions were quite good (the California poppies are my favorites). I savored the colors and artistry. In the days before television, embroidery rose to an art form - it was the tangible product of ‘free time’ for many women. In my adolescence in the 1960s, my grandmother taught me some basic embroidery stitches and I made a few pieces - and then stopped. I didn’t have time for it during high school, college and career; now, when I could return to it, embroidery does not appeal to me.  I don’t know anyone else that embroiders either.

Gell, William. Pompeiana. London: Jennings and Chaplan. 1832. Available from the Internet Archive in two volumes: one and two. Pompeii has attracted tourists for a long time. These volumes are from a time before the large numbers of the modern era.

Tennyson, Baron Alfred with decorations by Howard Pyle. The Lady of Shalott. New York: Dodd, Mead, & Company. 1881. Available from the Internet Archive here. The illustrations make this worth a look. Sumptuous.

3 Free eBooks - August 2014

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for August 2014.

Shelley, George Ernest; Keulemans, John Gerrard (lithographer/llustrator). A monograph of the Nectariniidae, or, Family of sun-birds. London: Published by the author. 1876. Available from the Internet Archive here. The illustrations are the best of this book and there are other books that have the same lithographer also available on the Internet Archive that are worth a look too (although I think the sun-birds book is the best).

Dam, Jan Daniël van; Tichelaar, Pieter Jan; Schaap, Ella; Lins, P. Andrew. Dutch Tiles in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art.1984. Available from the Internet Archive here. I started looking for books that had tile patterns after the Coursera course I am taking on Symmetry used them as part of the introduction to the vocabulary used to discuss symmetry. What do you think of the grapes and pomegranates tiles? Notice that the tiles are rotated to create the pattern (the stems always point to the center).

an hui sheng chu si hai zong zhi hui bu. xiao mie wen ying de ye sheng zhi wu. 1958. Available from the Internet here. This is a Chinese botany book. I always enjoy botanical prints and these were no exception. It was also good to realize that books from around the world are making their way into the archive.

Enjoy these and many other books that are freely available on the internet.

3 Free eBooks - June 2014

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for June 2014.

Birds, Illustrated by color photography. Chicago: Nature Publishing Company. 1897. Fourteen volumes are available from Project Gutenberg here. The image of the kingfisher is from volume 1, no. 2.  I am slowly working my way through all the volumes. I’ve enjoyed the first 4 so far.

Cailliaud, Frederic. Voyage a Meroe. Paris: L’Imprimerie Royale. 1826. Two atlas volumes are available from the Internet Archive: volume 1 and volume 2. I just finished a Coursera course on The Art and Archeology…and was thrilled to find these books online. They have drawings of some things that have been degraded between 1826 and not - either through simple ravages of time or rising water from dams built on the Nile.

Versailles et les Trianons : vues photographiques. Versailles: Moreau. 1880. Available from the Internet Archive here. It’s been a draw for tourists for a long time….and people bought souvenirs in the 1880s like this book!

Free eBooks - May 2014

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for May 2014. This month I’ve selected 3 books that are multiple volumes - totaling 35 ‘books’ in all.

Commission des sciences et arts d’Egyte. Description of Egypt. Second Edition. Paris: C.L.F Panckoucke. 1820. There are 5 volumes of plates about Antiquities, an atlas, 2 volumes of plates about the Modern State, and3volumes about Natural History. Available from the World Digital Library here. These are the volumes produced from Napoleon’s team in Egypt. I found them based on a reference in the Roman Architecture course I took on Coursera; they supplemented another course I finished recently on Cairo Architecture and the course I am taking right now on The Art and Architecture of Ancient Nubia. The drawings were very detailed.

Roberts, David. The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, & Nubia. 6 volumes available from the Internet Archive here. London: Day & Son. 1855. I found this series when I did a search for ‘Nubia’ in the Internet Archive. I haven’t tried to pair the drawings of the same ruin from 1820 (Napoleonic team) and 1855 but it probably would be possible. Some of the monuments were still partially covered with sand (and thus protected from erosion more than they are now) and the dams on the Nile had not been built to inundate the ones south of Aswan.

Wild Flowers of America. New York: G.H. Buek & Co. 1894. There are 18 issues available from the Internet Archive here.  Many of these flowers are recognizable. I’ve seen the columbine in many local gardens this year!

3 Free eBooks - April 2014

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for April 2014.

Boston Architectural College. The year book of the Boston Architectural Club: containing examples of modern architecture. Boston Architectural Club. 1929. Available from the Internet Archive here.  There are quite a few year books available but I picked this one to highlight because it has pictures of the Bok Tower. I created the collage below with pictures from this 1929 book (black and white) and some that I took last November. The antennae (lightning rods?) have been added.

French Silk Sample Book. 1895. Available from the Internet Archive here.  This is a book of actual silk swatches that has been scanned! The surprise to me was how ‘modern’ some of the fabric patters were.  I included some of them in the collage below.   

Stuart, James. Revett, Nicholas.The antiqvities of Athens. London: J. Haberkorn. 1762. Two volumes available on the Internet Archive: Volume 1 and Volume 2.  This was a reference in one of the Roman Architecture lectures on Coursera and I was thrilled to find the books available on the archive. I appreciated the attention to detail in the drawings. They must have taken pains to get exact measurements of many of the buildings….and some of them were in much better shape in 1762 than they are today.

3 Free eBooks - March 2014

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for March 2014: birds, insects and flowers. I am anticipating spring!

Gould, John. The Birds of Europe. London: R. and J.E. Taylor. 1837. Five volumes are available on the Internet Archive: volume 1, volume 2, volume 3, volume 4, and volume 5. A few years ago I saw an exhibit of John Gould’s bird prints (large books) in a museum in Tennessee….and made a note to check the Internet Archive for any scanned versions of his work since the exhibit only displayed a small portion of the volumes. It was such a pleasure to finally browsing through these books online.

Fabre, Jean-Henri; Stawell, Rodolph, Mrs; Teixeira de Mattos, Alexander; Detmold, Edward Julius. Fabre's Book of Insects. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company. 1926. Available on the Internet Archive here. The illustrations by Detmold are the draw for this book.

Galeotti, Henri); Funck, Nicolas; Morren, Edouard. L'Horticulteur practicien; revue de l'horticulture franaise et trangre. Paris: A. Goin. 1858. Two volumes are available on the Internet Archive: 1857 and 1858. The illustrations of rich with color and detail of flowers….it’s like touring a conservatory online. I picked the forsythia illustration because it reminded me of how disappointed I that our neighbor’s forsythia is likely to have a hard time this year since the deer have eaten all the tender parts. It might not manage any blooms at all!

Book Quote of the Month (about Grandmotherhood) - March 2014

It’s our mothers who teach us how to live in the world. And we think forward through our daughters, if we are mothers, and beyond them to their daughters. - Roxana Robinson in her essay for Barbara Graham’s Eye of my Heart

I enjoyed every essay in this book written by grandmothers about their view of themselves in the role. Each was a learning experience having not been thrust into that role yet in my own life. All of the essays had some positives --- but every single thing was not rosy. Relationships are complex.

The book reminds me of my relationship to my grandmothers and my relationship to my mother as she became a grandmother to my daughter. I remember the good times and have to think hard to remember ones that were not positive in the end. I am surprised to realize that my grandmothers were about 20 years younger than I am now when they became grandmothers and that my mother was a grandmother by the time she was my age (although only a few years younger). My generation waited until relatively later to have children.  I have known 5 generations of my family (2 great-grandmothers, 4 grandparents, 2 parents, 3 siblings, 1 child) already; because we are living longer, many people know 7 generations in their lifetime.

Another realization - the role of grandmother is something we are granted rather than choose - a role to savor if it happens. This book provides look into the many ways ‘savoring’ is done.

3 Free eBooks - February 2014

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for February 2014.

Michaux, François André; Hillhouse, Augustus Lucas. The North American Sylva, or A description of the forest trees of the United States, Canada and Nova Scotia. Paris: C. D’Hautel. 1819. Volumes available on the Internet Archive: volume 1, volume 2, volume 3, volume 4, and volume 5. This series fit perfectly with my planning to look at trees more closely this year. Once I found the first one - I went through all 5! They are full of illustrations.

Malonyay, Dezso (Desi). A magyar nép mvészete : számos szakért és mvész közremködésével. Budapest: Franklin-Társulat. 1907. Volumes available on the Internet Archive: volume 1, volume 2, volume 3, volume 4, and volume 5. This series is about Hungarian folk art. I enjoyed the art work rather than trying to wade through the machine translation of the Hungarian text. There is a lot included - ordinary room arrangement with bedding piled high on the single bed, embroidery on clothes (jackets, skirts, shirts, aprons, scares), furniture - painted with stylized botanical motifs, some elaborately carved, decorative facings for doorways and gates, carved or painted canes and knife handles, and dyed eggs with designs created with wax.

Crockett, William Shillinglaw; Smith, William, jr. Abbotsford. London Adam and Charles Black. 1905. Available on the Internet Archive here. This book is about Sir Walter Scott’s country house in the Scottish Borders written at a time when his great-granddaughter had created a ‘catalog’ of Abbotsford. I enjoyed the illustrations more than anything else.

3 Free eBooks - January 2014

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for January 2014.

Reed, Chester Albert. Wild Flowers East of the Rockies. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co.1910. Available from the Internet Archive here. This book had great illustrations. I found myself looking forward to spring when I can out to find skunk cabbage and trillium.

Bailey, John; Schneider, Carri; Vander Ark, Tom. Navigating the Digital Shift: Implementation Strategies for Blended and Online Learning. Digital Learning Now. 2013. Available in several formats here. This book is a series of papers about the adoption of Common Core State Standards and the shift to personal digital learning.

Moncrieff, Ascott Robert Hope; Palmer, Sutton. The Heart of Scotland. London: A & C Black. 1909. Available from the Internet Archive here. I like the golden colors of the paintings by Sutton Palmer. They are full of details too - enough to make the 1000 words that picture are touted to be worth.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 4, 2014

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Quinoa, Apricot, and Oat Muffin Clusters - Yum! I made these yesterday. There were some substitutions since I ‘made do’ with ingredients I had around the house: spiced fruit preserve instead of apricot paste, sesame seeds for the nuts/seeds, tahini instead of almond butter. I also used muffin cups that I had had for years (found recently when I was re-arranging the cabinets!).

Heat maps reveal where you feel emotions in your body - Hmmm….so people that are happy are physically warmer!

Beyond the Core: What about Other Important Outcomes? - What topics do you think are missing from the common core for K-12 education? Use this article to jumpstart your thinking.

Stranger than Fiction (Plant Biology) - An intro to the January issue of The Scientist online magazine. Read the full articles too: Plant communication, plant DNA challenging preconceptions about the evolution of life, and gold in plants.

Attacking Fungal Infection, One of World's Major Killers - When we think of microbes that kill we generally think of bacteria or viruses, but fungal infections kill 1.3 million people per year. I remember the mycology class I took (a long time ago) in college because of the beauty visible through the microscope: it was a blue world (dye) with complex structures. Reading this story makes me wonder if there were too few people from my generation that chose to pursue medical mycology and if our medical system has tended to focus only on the non-fungal microbes. Here’s another fungi story published this past week about How Mushrooms are Changing the World’s Winds.

Meditative Moments Found Within Dramatic Landscapes - If I went for a walk, there would be some places close to my house that look like these images! I took a few pictures from my door and decided that the wind and temperature in the teens made it too cold to venture further.

Marvelous Snowflakes - A video about how they form…in keeping with the view from my window in Maryland today!

The Best Wildlife and Nature Photos from NWF Staff in 2013 - My favorite is the pitcher plants (toward the end) but the sandhill crane (the picture after the pitcher plants) just visible in tall grass is a close second. And here is a group of nature photos from National Geographic: Rainforest Bugs and Best Wishes for 2014!

Elder Pharmacology - Many clinical trials exclude patients over the age of 65 as well as patients taking multiple drugs. And one of the key findings by gerontologists is that the biology of a young body is quite different from that of a young body. Put these together…and doctors medicating patients over 65 are virtually ‘flying blind.’ The status quo is not acceptable.

The book we all wish we could have read as children - I’ve added Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison to my wish list (The NPR article that is referenced is here.)