The World is Sustainable

Last Thursday, I attended a series of lectures at OCC which were related to the International Day of Climate Action. This was an event initiated by 350.org in order to raise awareness and get the public to act to reduce the amount of carbon in the air.
I was able to attend several lectures, including GreeningUSA's 12 Traits of Sustainable Communities, Rethinking 81, The National Scene, and Transition Towns.
I thought that these lectures were extremely interesting and I was happy to see that we are taking action to preserve and improve the world that we live in.
One topic that seemed to be common throughout the different lectures, was the issue of sustainability. I was very intrigued by this, since I didn't know what it meant. Now that I do know what it means, I find myself even more interested.
The UN's definition of "sustainability" says that it is "the ability to meet the needs of the current generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
I now find myself thinking of ways that I can do things while making the world a safer place for my children and their children.
I believe that the topic of sustainability related very much with the lecture about Transition Towns. Doing things in a more natural, earth-friendly way, while dealing with the concerns of climate change and peak oil is going to be paramount to the survival of the Earth and the human race as a whole.
It is very scary to think of what will happen when we start running out of resources and we have to think of alternate ways to maintain our quality of life.
I look forward to hearing about what happens in Copenhagen this year, hoping that my country will have a stronger presence than in Kyoto and that we start encouraging our younger generations to take care of our planet. I also hope that, locally, we can create more programs that will enable us to lead greener lives and make it easier for people that are hesitant, to help make our community more sustainable.

Here is an image of Prof. Klein talking about Transition Towns.

It's a Coverup!

The second video that we watched this week was an interview with Gerald Celente.

Celente Video

Gerald Celente, a Trends Forecaster for the Trends Research Institute, talks about how he predicted the current economic crisis a year before it occurred. He actually says that his prediction was off by a few days.
Celente's main focus was that the recent stimulus packages that have been given out to companies and banks don't constitute a recovery, but a coverup. He says that the country has two possible directions it can take now, it can go through a revolution or a renaissance. Although he believes that we are better positioned to begin a revolution, it is still too soon for a recovery.

The biggest thing that he mentioned, that really resonated with me, was that we really have to let the "too big to fail" fail. We shouldn't have bailed out the companies that lost so much money and bankrupted the country.
I didn't know too much about the economy and the stimulus packages until I saw this video, but Celente makes me want to be more active in the economic future of my country and my family.

SNL vs. Obama?

In our last class, Prof. Klein had us watch an opening video for Saturday Night Live, in which an Obama impersonator poked fun at the President.
The link to the video was taken down, but the gist of the video was that the fake Obama proved how he hasn't done anything since he's been in office. He listed all the promises that he made during the campaign and showed how he hasn't been able to complete any of these items. Some of the items in the list were healthcare reform, close Guatanamo Bay, pull out of Iraq, and others items.
I thought that overall, the video was pretty funny. It's meant to be a spoof, and I took it as such, even though a lot of the people in class took it a lot more seriously.
I must admit that a little part of me was a little sad for the President because, being a supporter, I do agree that all of these things that made me vote for him haven't been accomplished yet.
All I can say is that it is still early, and the President was handed a country with a great many problems that can't possibly be solved in less than one year. There's still hope for our new President yet.

Edit: Here is a link to the video on Hulu.

SNL Obama Skit