ma g a z i n e volume
6 Issue 2
2
Dec. 2010
vol. 6 issue 2
FROM THE STAFF
SARAH CARRATT
Monique Mansour Executive Content Editor Liz Brownback Executive Layout Editor Sean McEvoy Executive Business Editor Mukta Mohan Executive Public Editor Gabby Dematteis HRC Coordinator Marty Roers Staff Advisor Design Editors Katrina Sherbina Tauras Vilgalys Business Editors Caleb Nyberg Megan O’Malley Copy Editors/Staff Writers Jennifer Hamlin Rhiannon Koehler Sahar Mansoor Brendan McNerney
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
With every issue, PASSION Magazine strives to encourage a cycle of inspiration in our community. The focus of this particular issue is sustainability, as students come together to plant their seeds of change at LMU. From student workers to faculty, this issue looks at the unsung heroes of Loyola Marymount Univeristy while providing a careful critique of false environmentalism. In the pages of this magazine, students have challenged their peers and administrators to do more to make the University sustainable. In addition to local causes, this issue discusses international environmentalism. From waste in Haiti to nuclear accidents in Russia, the student writers prove that being environmentally conscious extends beyond the bluff and our daily recycling and use of compostable products. One of the inspirations for the theme for this issue was the recent success of the Human Rights Coalition and ECO Students (Environmentally Conscious and Organized Students) who petitioned for a sustainable community garden for LMU. From all the staff at PASSION Magazine, we would like to congratulate not only the students who worked on this project, but everyone at LMU who is already making the school a more environmentally conscious community.
WHAT’S INSIDE 6
Faculty Spotlight: Joe Rasmussen By Kim Tomicich
7
Justice Engaging Faith By Gabby Dematteis
8
Easily Environmental By Mukta Mohan
10 Haiti: Environmental Origins of Disease By Sarah Carratt 11 The Impact By Christine Kilearslan 12 I Live in a GreenWashed World By Sophia Pavlos 4
Dec. 2010
13 Student Workers By Stephanie Argueta
20 Fungus Save Us By Sean McEvoy
14 Our Food Scare Future: A Book Review By Joe Morris
21 The Dictionary Definition of Service By Brendan McNerney
15 The Positive Impact of Consumerism By Natalie Hernandez
22 Habitat for Humanity Chapter Comes to LMU By Julie Yates
16 Disaster at Reactor Four: A Case Study of 23 Symbiosis to a Human Error Predatory Relationship? By Rhiannon Koehler By Sahar Mansoor 18 The Buzz on Campus By Bill Neighbor
GO
To the water bottling refilling stations in the Lion’s Den, Campus Ministry Main Office, or in the lower level of the Chapel.
WATCH
The trailer for the documentary “Tapped” on YouTube and learn about the role of the bottled water industry and its effects on our health, climate change, pollution, and our reliance on oil.
read
“Water Consciousness” a book that explores all aspects of the water crisis – from conservation to privatization – and what can be done to change to way we think about and use water.
boycott
Plastic water bottles on campus.
CLICK
www.storyofstuff.com – A website with videos and information about where the stuff we use comes from and the impact it has on our world, including a video on the production of bottled water.
SIMPLIFY
This holiday season – instead of buying someone a gift, plant a tree in someone’s name, purchase livestock for a family in need, or make a donation to a charity of your choice.
SUPPORT
Ongoing efforts to create a community garden on campus, through groups such as Human Rights Coalition, Eco Students and the Sustainability Office. vol. 6 issue 2
Justice
h t i a F g Engagin
This year many Jesuit schools engaged in direct advocacy with Congress and other policymakers as a part of the Ignatian Family Teach-In in Washington, D.C. Actions that long to embody our Jesuit ideals to promote justice and being in the service of faith. A small group of LMU students decided to still return to the SOA Protest outside the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia this year as well. Given these direct actions in our nation’s capital, what is the point of Jesuit/Marymount students continuing to protest year after year at a military school for Latin American soldiers (especially when it is difficult to see how WHINSEC is at fault –or – the effectiveness of such action -- or as some would argue -- how the killing of the Jesuit priests and their female companions in El Salvador 21 years ago were in any way a conscience, direct action of the US military)? The LMU delegation went to learn and hear from both sides of a very complex and polarizing issue. We struggled with learning the ‘facts’ in a debate that has deep emotions, various nuances, no easy black-n-white answers, and the tragic demonization of the other. We came away deeply challenged to try to make a truly informed decision which does not trivialize the issue, the seriousness of our reflective process, our sincere support of family and friends in the military (support of the troops), and our commitment to acts of peace and justice. The experience of the SOA weekend ultimately transformed our very faith. This may seem cliché, but we grew more confident in our convictions and beliefs. We were forced to reflect on, discuss, and even pray about what we stand for as individuals, but even more importantly how we live out our faith through actions in our
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Dec. 2010
By Gabby Dematteis & 2010 Delegation
everyday lives. We realized that the SOA trip is just one weekend, but we are challenged to engage our personal commitments to justice with our faith in concrete ways every day. Experience first-hand a several hour long prayer vigil commemorating the Jesuit Martyrs and the numerous other victims of the violence throughout Latin America was only one small way in which we engaged the deep inter-connection of faith informing justice. Seeing individuals from the Los Angeles and Chicago Catholic Worker Communities climb the barbed-wire fences to peacefully cross the line onto the military base in civil disobedience and later sentenced to 6 months in jail deeply challenged us to examine our own lives – our own convictions for justice – our own commitment to the LMU Mission Statement – and the communal dimension of our faith. We wrestled not merely with our stance on this particular issue or if we too could ever live our lives so grounded in faith and as boldly as these living witnesses of civil-disobedience. Even more important was discovering that these individuals and others arrested this weekend compelled us to question what social justice issues am I truly passionate about and willing to cross the line for? And how in the struggle to promote justice (what-ever that is for you as an individual), do I ground my actions in a faith rooted in peace and love. This was just one weekend in which we as an LMU delegation strived to embody actions in the serve of faith and really promote justice by our lives beyond this weekend. The challenge for all of us is not just being present there at an SOA protest or not, but truly examining how are we all striving to be a voice for the voiceless and those who suffer unjustly due to my personal faults, at the hands of my government’s foreign policies & institutions, or other forms of systemic injustice.
Joe Rasmussen LMU’s Sustainability Coordinator By Kimberly Tomicich Last year, LMU took a huge step in the direction of furthering sustainability efforts. Among other achievements, the university has created a full-time staff member position for a sustainability coordinator. During his short time here, Joseph Rasmussen, LMU’s first and current Sustainability Coordinator, has made tremendous progress in “greening” LMU. Currently, he is developing several projects. With the help of student volunteers, Sodexo, and research by Environmental Studies major, Annie Daly, Joe is working to improve the current pre-consumer food waste composting system that operates from the Lair kitchen. In addition, he is working with many students to create an organic garden on campus, which will include everything from native plants, to herbs, to fruits and vegetables. Besides these major endeavors, Joe has been involved in efforts to reduce energy use, increase the presence of reusable water bottles and filtered drinking water on campus, and create a map of the bike-able areas around LMU. To accomplish all of this, he has hired student interns and developed a volunteer program. He is an excellent collaborator and he makes a point of reaching out to students, staff, and faculty.
For additional information about LMU’s sustainability efforts, be sure to visit the Green LMU web site at: www.lmu.edu/green
If you would like to learn more about any of these projects and how to get involved, contact Joe at Joseph.Rasmussen@lmu.edu
More information: http://www.lmu.edu/sites/Community_home/green/video.htm OUR MISSION PASSION MAGAZINE is a student-run magazine that seeks to encourage all members of the LMU com munity to find their place in the fight for social justice. Being a voice for those who go unheard, we publish articles that put a face to the struggles of the forgotten, in the effort to reveal their dignity as human beings. We encourage a cycle of inspiration in our community, and Passion Magazine is the place where our conversation as to how we can achieve justice begins. 1 LMU Drive, Malone 210 Los Angeles, CA 90045 NEW Website: http://lmupassion.wordpress.com/ Email: passion.magazine@gmail.com vol. 6 issue 2
Easily
By Mukta
T
muting to work. Stores are even catching on.
he environmental movement has been going on since the Industrial Revolution, but ever since Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth came out it seems as if everyone is hopping on the Earth-friendly bandwagon. W hat used to be a small, unnoticed community of activists, hippies, and hikers has now turned into a global group that includes people from all walks of life. Websites like TreeHugger and The Green Guide make it easy for the average person to live more sustainably. They offer countless guides on how to “go g reen” in all aspects of life from making an environmentally friendly cocktail to com-
Many now offer environmentally-friendly lines of clothing such as H&M’s Garden Collection which offers stylish pieces that are made with organic cotton, organic linen, and recycled polyester.
With grocery store reusable canvas
bags, steel water bottles and hybrids all around, it’s unlikely that you would be caught without an energy-efficient light bulb in your home. So that means that you’re environmentally friendly, right? Even though you’ve heard the basics a million times - reduce, reuse, recycle – there’s still a lot more you can do.
Here’s a list of 3 easy things that you might have missed:
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FIND OR SHARE FRUIT AT NEIGHBORHOOD FRUIT www.neighborhoodfruit.com Neighborhood Fruit maps out registered fruit trees in the United States that are available for foraging. Chances are if you have a fruit tree in your yard, most of the delicious produce dangling on the branches ends up going to waste. The food we buy from grocery stores is grown in water wasting orchards and must travel hundreds of miles to reach us, using fuel and polluting our environment. Now, it doesn’t have to. Although it’s still in beta mode, Neighborhood Fruit is paving the way towards a more sustainable future in which the food we eat is grown right in our own communities. Dec. 2010
Mohan
2 3
Environmental
DOWNLOAD A REGIONAL SEAFOOD WATCH POCKET GUIDE
(and use it when you’re ordering sushi!)
www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr_seafoodwatch The Monterey Bay Aquarium started Seafood Watch, a program that helps consumers make ecologically mindful choices when buying seafood. They encourage people to buy fish that are raised only in fisheries that don’t harm the environment. Right now, fish from the ocean are being gathered much faster than they can reproduce. Seafood Watch has a team of scientists who study government reports, contact fisheries and do much more to compile a list of fish that is divided into three categories: Best Choices, Good Alternatives and Avoid. The list is conveniently included in a downloadable pocket guide which is available on the Monterey Bay Aquarium website. Next time you and your friends go out to get sushi, take a guide with you and do your part to save our oceans.
Organize a clothing swap The idea behind a clothing swap is simple: clear out your closet of all of the clothes you don’t wear anymore, tell your friends to do the same, pick a place and exchange items. By doing this, you rid yourself of space wasting items, get free clothes to add to your wardrobe and ensure that clothing made from synthetic fibers doesn’t get into our landfills. Clothes made from organic cotton, bamboo and hemp eventually biodegrade but the majority of what we throw away stays in our landfills forever. If you don’t want to bother with a clothing swap or have a lot of leftovers, donate to a local thrift store, because even if you think that polyester jumpsuit your dad wore in the ‘80s is hideous, someone out there will probably want it.
vol. 6 issue 2
Haiti:
The Environmental Origins of Disease By Sarah Carratt
On January 12th of this year, a catastrophic 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti about 16 miles west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater immediately followed the initial quake (before January 24th), drastically changing the lives of three million people in less than two weeks. While estimates vary, it is believed that as many as 230,000 people died, 300,000 were injured and 1.3 million made homeless or displaced by the disaster. In addition, some relief efforts are producing even more waste and contamination. Now, as cholera begins to break out in the recovering country, the 1.3 million people stuck in over 1,350 tent camps are now extremely vulnerable to the disease. Cholera is a ghastly disease that causes victims to vomit uncontrollably and have diarrhea that is so intense that a victim can become dehydrated and die within hours. Among other symptoms, victims have painful abdominal cramps, excessive thirst, rapid heart rate, and are generally very tired. In Haiti, buildings are left in rubble, sewage systems remain non-existent, and sanitation is almost impossible. Two weeks after the initial disaster, UNEP reported that “the percentage of destruction or severe damage to buildings and other structures is 60-80%” and that “debris is also being dumped in large quantities on the roadsides.” UNEP reports that in addition to visible rubble that remains in the streets, contaminating water and damaging public health, a significant amount of medical waste is piling up in hospitals and medical treatment centers. Just as there are no sewage sys-
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tems, there is also no established way to dispose of these potentially hazardous materials. The environmental damage in Haiti was across the board, ranging from secondary spills and hazardous chemicals to landslides. In addition, because so many people are migrating to rural areas to escape the destruction of the cities, more of the country’s limited natural resources are being exhausted. All of these conditions make for worse living conditions and help to cultivate disease for the Haitian people. While organizations like Catholic Relief Services have been passing out soap to people in the worst areas, the disease is spreading because of the living conditions of the people. It is estimated that as more than as 1,500 people have died of cholera so far, and at least 28,000 more are ill. President Rene Preval of Haiti confirmed the outbreak on Friday, October 22, and now health officials are afraid that the disease will spread further into the camps of Port-au-Prince. In the capital, more than one million displaced people are still trying to recover from the earthquake. O n t h e s a m e d ay a s t h e P re s i d e n t ’s announcement, CRS carried out an assessment where the outbreak originated and determined that the main needs are medicines, clean drinking water, cleaning materials, hand sanitizer, diapers, sterile gloves and tents to house the patients. In rural areas, 92% of Haitians do not have access to safe drinking water. It is this dearth of clean water and sanitation throughout Haiti, not just in rescue camps and rural areas, which is contributing to the spread of the deadly disease.
The Impact By: Christine Kilcarslan
What did I know of hard work? sitting in an office staring at a saffron yellow legal pad stifled by the organization of each parallel line, as if it were leaping off the page and choking me with its own perfection. No-that wasn’t hard work. Working in a recycling dump, putting yourself in another’s shoes. Feeling oneself going green - a different kind of green. Jealousy and empathy intertwined in a sick tango. A journey fueled by John Deere. I learned to throw caution along with cardboard solidarity with solid waste. “el golpe avisa” they’d tell me. I was nineteen and the impact did more than tell me. “el golpe avisa” translates to “the impact of hitting an object will tell you when to stop” example: trying to park a car in reverse
Get involved!
Visit our web site: www.lmu.edu/green
GreenLMU Volunteer!
Opportunities include: community outreach, habitat restoration, research projects, and green campus initiatives. Contact: green@lmu.edu
Join “ECO Students”
The ECO (Environmentally Conscious and Organized) Students Club’s mission is to educate the LMU community about sustainability and to promote change toward an eco-friendly lifestyle. Contact: greenlmu@gmail.com
Minor in Environmental Studies
This program offers a coherent curriculum addressing some of the most pressing ecological, political, economic, social, and ethical problems of the contemporary world. Contact: btreanor@lmu.edu
vol. 6 issue 2
I live in a green- hia Pa op S washed world By
s o l v
I live in a greenwashed world; it’s the new optimism. Out with the rose, in with the greencolored glasses, my eyes are seeing things in a new light. Did you know that all I have to do is buy the right things? Then I’ll be environmentally friendly! No, look: I can buy Green Works detergent, and it even comes with Clorox. Being good to the planet won’t keep me from having crisp white clothing! Just because I’m a student doesn’t mean I can’t be green. I print all my essays on recycled paper, and take all my notes with pens made from old water bottles. They don’t last too long, but that’s a small price to pay for saving the world. Oh! That reminds me, I need to throw away all the packaging that my planet-conscious school supplies come wrapped up in. Oops, did I say throw away? I mean recycle! I used to feel guilty about drinking bottled water, but then Dasani came to my rescue: their PlantBottle is made from up to 30% plant-based materials (oooh!) and its still 100% recyclable. That means I
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can drink 30% more Dasani waters! It’s almost too easy. They even have a Green Cap. I don’t know what it means, but it sure sounds wholesome. Sustainable clothing is really hip, but it’s expensive! So thank you H&M for making it so easy for me with your line of organic cotton clothing. Stylish, eco-inspired, and surprisingly affordable. No really, how do they get the shirts to be so cheap? I thought being organic made the cotton more expensive, but I guess they make up for it somehow. All I know is that my new duds are cute and guilt-free! My boyfriend likes their stuff a lot too. He doesn’t really have time to pay attention to things like that, so I buy him all the right things. I mean, he thinks saving the environment is totally important, don’t get me wrong; that’s why he wears a Livestrong bracelet.These days I fill up exclusively at Shell stations – they’re working to deliver cleaner energy and help me use less of it. That’s what their ad in the Times said. “Securing the new energy future!” Sounds difficult, right?
Thank goodness it’s in the hands of a company I can trust. Finally, at night when I open my organic Italian prosecco to wash down my grass-fed steak shipped from Paraguay, I think about all the good choices I’ve made and give myself a little pat on the back for doing my part. See, you can have your cake and eat it too. All I need to do is look for the green labels, or ones with flowers, or maybe a nice tree against a background of blue sky. And names like “Nature’s Source” really tell me that I’m doing the right thing. After all, why would anyone mislead me into buying things I don’t need by tugging at my environmental conscience? No, everyone just wants to make a difference, in their own little way. Businesses care that I care about saving this planet, and so they’re going to go out of their way to create new products just for me, and my new lifestyle. That way, I won’t really have to change anything, and I’ll still be a better person.
P SSITIVE
IMPACT of
Consumerism By Natalie Hernandez
Consumer Guide to Supporting “Real” Green Businesses
(not just the ones that call themselves “green”)
sinsofgreenwashing.org
Shoes:
When hearing and learning about an environmental issue that www.toms.com may or may not directly affect us, how do we contribute? Yes, it is important to vote for environmental regulations and protest against environmental injustices locally and around the world. However, there is an alternative power for environmen- www.patagonia.com talism you already possess that you may or may not have americanapparel.net tapped into yet: your money. If we treated everything we buy www.homeboy-industries.org with our money as a way to promote social justice, our world would be a whole lot better. Think of how many times you Toiletries: have bought clothes, food, presents, toiletries, etc., and not even thought about where they came from, who made them, www.tomsofmaine.com or what their production may have done to the environment www.seventhgeneration.com and people. I am not saying that we should go on a shopping freeze and stop buying many of the items we require to live, but I do believe in actively thinking about and researching www.slowfoodusa.org what we are buying, so that we know how to make better decisions about what people and environments we are supporting. LMU’s Farmer’s Market We have to remember that corporations do not make things 1st and 3rd Thursday Convo of every month that we will not buy. We are the ones who need to demand Gifts and Accessories: “good, clean, fair” clothes, food, presents, toiletries, etc., so corporations will provide them. When you buy something www.celerystreet.com without thinking about it, you are telling corporations that you don’t care that the t-shirt you just bought was made with envi- www.DellaLA.com ronmentally hazardous chemicals and by exploited workers, as long as it’s cute and you got it for a good price, right? Your www.buffaloexchange.com purchase will allow the corporation to continue to make more of these t-shirts with the same practices and in a great number. www.salvationarmyusa.org We need to stop thinking about getting the cheapest and greatwww.goodwill.org est number of items with our money and switch to thinking about getting the most quality items that are good for the environment and people. Here are a few sites to help you sup- Some of the items sold by these companies have port this ideal. But don’t limit your choices to these- do your recently become “in fashion,” because of their social responsibility. However, let’s not make their practices own research before you buy! a trend, but something to stay!
Clothing:
“Good, Clean, Fair” Food:
Thrift Stores:
vol. 6 issue 2
t n de
u t S
Workers By Stephanie Argueta
What people don’t understand is that we’re not really “LMU students”: We are S T U D E N T WO R K E R S. M o r e t h a n working to make the hours, we work because we have to. We work until the job gets done; we work until our bodies can’t take it anymore; we work to maintain a reputation and to raise even our own expectations; we work because we want to. And sometimes, not even that’s enough. Sometimes you come home sweaty, dirty, rosy cheeked, and catching your breath after a job, to finally sit down and realize that it still won’t pay off. No matter how many 2 am jobs you show up to, how many seniority jobs you get to do, or crew jobs you get done… it’s all to cover a small portion of the dreaded tuition coming from 90% of our paychecks. But I say this not to complain or to evoke pity of any kind; quite the opposite. I say this to brag. Who else is there to dig through trash? Set-up for events no one even thinks twice about? Work year-round with limited holiday
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breaks, still knowing that you’ll have to take out loans in the end? Who does all this and STILL sticks around? WE do. I don’t think any of us would’ve believed it, if as high school seniors, we were told that we would be working this hard at LMU. We would probably ask, “So how the hell do I have time for everything else in my life?” To tell you the truth, I don’t even know how I do it….but it seems to “work” out. We work what feels often like full time employees, we study like full time students, we go out with friends, and have families to go back home to. The moment we all learn to master this lifestyle, however, comes at different times. There are 24 people between the ages of 17 & 23, who help each other out: Failing and getting back up, giving and listening to some of the best and worse advice one can get. Work Hard. Play Hard. Yeah, it’s a common quote. But come hang out with the student workers. We’ll show you what that really means.
Our Food Scare Future A Book Review By Joe Morris
In the most recent revision of his book, Plan B 4.0 Mobilizing to Save Civilization, author Lester Brown discusses the most important and most ignored looming threat to global security: a global food shortage. Brown describes how society is already on the brink of a Malthusian Catastrophe; a global crisis, in which the world will be unable to feed its growing population. Because of our unsustainable, linear, throwaway lifestyles, we are well on the path to a global famine within the next 40 years. While the economies of the U.S. and China have already pushed the Earth’s natural systems beyond its limits, the demand for cheap natural resources will only continue to increase with global population growth. Furthermore, because most of the future global population growth is predicted to be in the form of new middle-class citizens in developing countries, such as India, this population growth will increase the strain on developing countries’ already overstretched power plants. Since these countries need tremendous amounts of electricity, alternative, cleaner sources of energy are often too expensive and unable to meet their current energy needs. Therefore, population growth in developing countries will only increase the likelihood of a global crisis because these countries increasingly use unsustainable and environmentally degrading sources of energy, such as coal-fired power plants. Additionally, as a result of our continued and escalating over-consumption of the world’s finite natural resources, the three critical tenants of agriculture: cheap energy (primarily oil, which is a main ingredient in fertilizer and pesticides, and is used to transport food from farms to grocery stores), an abundant supply of water (used as drinking water for livestock and to water crops), and a stable climate (an essential factor for the growing of crops), which enable the agriculture industry to supply the world with cheap, abundant food, will soon vanish. As these three supporting resources are exhausted, our society will soon be forced into a new era of scarce, expensive food. Our current habits of annually increasing our carbon dioxide emissions, continued inefficient and wasteful use of our finite supplies of fresh water, our addiction to oil, and other unsustainable habits, all work together to contribute to our future demise, by undermining the most irreplaceable resource needed to sustain life: food.
vol. 6 issue 2
Disaster at Reactor Four: A Case Study of Human Error By: Rhiannon Kohler Blame is a funny thing to apportion, especially in cases of limited transparency. And nothing is more opaque than the truth of what happened at reactor four at the Chernobyl power plant in the early hours of April 26th, 1986. We do know that reactor four control engineer Leonid Toptunov and shift foreman Aleksandre Akimov were responsible for carrying out the orders of Director V.P. Bryukhanov, and his chief engineer, Nikolai Fomin. The chain of command at Chernobyl prevented Toptunov and Akimov from knowing that the Soviet bureaucracy had not approved the experiment that they were about to conduct on the nuclear reactor. As the BBC put it, Bryukhanov and Fomin “wanted to test the efficiency of its electricity generators after the supply of steam coming off their RBMK nuclear reactor had been switched off.” Essentially, they wanted to test the effects of a blackout on the reactor. RBMK reactors are watercooled reactors that use graphite as a moderator. Control rods can be inserted to slow neutron release during nuclear fission so that the reactor doesn’t dangerously overheat. The reactor, however, must have a 16
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certain number of rods in place in order to run smoothly. In the case of Chernobyl, reactor four needed to have at least 28 control rods in place in the reactor for safe operation. RBKM reactors also need to run at a power level that is somewhere between 700 and 1,000 MW. RBMK models can be disconnected from all safety systems and scram buttons, leaving the operators no recourse in an emergency. Even when the scram button works, it needs to be held down for a solid minute before it goes into effect. Glenn Cheney, in his 1993 book, Chernobyl: The Ongoing Story of the World’s Deadliest Nuclear Disaster, explores further technical weaknesses of the RBMK reactors. Yet all reactors have weaknesses and the operators were keenly aware of reactor four’s weaknesses and what they needed to do to operate the reactor safely. Ultimately, Toptunov and Akimov decided to run the test when the reactor was not operating within the 700-1,000 MW range. This decision, along with the fact that Bryukhanov and Fomin were adamant about keeping the safety systems tur ned of f during the
experiment (so as to closely mimic the of volatile material. impacts of a blackout), created a deadly We’ve risked enough as a global combination. Ultimately, the reactor community. It’s time to realize it is overheated and the operators lost track of impossible to completely program out how many rods they had taken out of the operator error. And though the amount of reactor. When they discovered that they energy societies can har ness through were 10 below the minimum of 28 they nuclear power may be great, the Chernobyl couldn’t put the control rods back into the dead zone serves as a warning regarding reactor fast enough to prevent the top from the risk inherent in working with nuclear blowing off the reactor and the core from fission. There is no reason to continue melting. The fire created a radioactive working with materials that can result in dead-zone that stretches nineteen miles the ruin of thousands of lives given the around the reactor in every direction. advent of alternative energy sources that The ultimate effects of the Chernobyl provide countries with sustainable methods disaster won’t be felt for quite some time. o f h a r n e s s i n g e n e r g y. A s t h e n e x t The final message to take away from it is g e n e r at i o n o f s c i e n t i s t s, e n g i n e e r s, exactly the danger that the Soviet Accident politicians, and voter s, we have the Commission cited as the main cause of the responsibility to make a change. The case accident: human error. Governments and study of Chernobyl should direct students corporations can never fully guard against to volunteer their time to organizations it. Therefore, risk will persist despite the working for sustainable energy and to write great technological strides that have been to their congressional representatives made in the field of nuclear energy over telling them to support alternative energy the last twenty years. Indeed, human error, sources over nuclear programs. compounded with technological problems, has created a history of nuclear accidents for the U.S. and Russia. According to the BBC, “Since 1945, there have been 60 known accidents at nuclear reactors and processing plants. T hirty-three have occurred in the United States and 19 in the former Soviet Union.” Though the magnitude of those accidents has varied for each event, the true problem lies in A small travelling amusement park was coming to town and they were the unpredictability going to open up a few days after the disaster. The bumper cars sit unused and uncontrollability since 1986.
vol. 6 issue 2
T
he buzz on campus lately seems to indicate that Loyola Marymount University is a pretty environmentally friendly place to be. On any given day, you can hear almost any tour on campus touting the amazing beauty of our campus, from our Garden of Eden palm trees and flowers to our immaculately manicured lawns. Stop by a Farmers Market and you can soak in some sun and sample the array of eco-friendly Sodexo products. And then, of course, there is all that green energy powering our campus from those state-of-the-art UHall rooftop solar panels. We recycle and reclaim water on campus for irrigation purposes, and we have tray-less dining halls. It seems no great surprise that Loyola Marymount University has finally been given its due recognition for our sustainable practices. This year, we received a B+ sustainability ranking from the Sustainable Endowments Institute’s Annual College Report Card (up from the B- and C- ratings that we have earned over the past two consecutive years). 18
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Now a B+ is not bad, but how many professors would be turning summersaults if I got a C- or a B- and YES even a B+ in their classes? Sure, we might be happy, but is this the excellence in higher education that we strive for at LMU; a B+? At least we are heading in the right direction, but does this ranking simply pacify us all into lethargic and glossy eyed states of acceptance of the high quality of our environmentally sustainable efforts on campus? We talk ourselves into believing that it is pretty environmentally friendly as U.S. colleges and universities go. Do we live on a bluff of make believe in which we make ourselves feel better for throwing away disposable plates and silverware everyday in our dining halls because we can tell ourselves at the end of the day that we are a tray less institution (that saves water on doing dishes but doesn’t account for the water used in the production of our disposal plates and extra landfill waste)? Do we rationalize not having to use electric Zip cars on campus and/or wasting enormous amounts of energy each day with our computers, hallway lights, and Jazzman
large screen television that are left on 24 hours a day, and yet feel good because we do have a LMU Lights out student group and can do photo- shoots with political celebrities next to our campus solar systems that in reality only produce 6 percent of our campus’ power? Do we not worry about the leaky faucet or those long 20 minute showers each day or the nearly 6.8 million gallons of water that Americans flush down the toilets every single day because our campus uses reclaimed water for irrigation? Do we not have to worry about the countless plastic bottles or other recyclable items that mistakenly make it into the trash each day on campus, hoping someone else will pick it out and take care of it because our campus is apparently able to divert 56 % of our waste from landfills? But if the average American throws away 56 tons of trash each year, that’s still 44% or potentially 25 tons of trash per year per student that’s still going to landfills. Do we not worry about how our relationship with God and the earth is damaged every day by our not living out one of the core principles of Catholic Social Teaching because
we call ourselves a Jesuit Institution that has daily mass and that believes in the service of faith and the promotion of justice? Do we not worry about how we are not being of service to the environment because we average around 170,000 hours of community service at LMU and it doesn’t matter if we are not carbon neutral until the year 2050, when most of us will be nearing retirement? I truly hope that what we are ultimately being encouraged to learn here at LMU through the education of the whole person is to do the exact opposite… to indeed worry about what we are NOT doing in the service of our faith to care for all of God’s creation and the environment NOW. We strive for excellence here at LMU, and I feel there is a lot more we could and should be doing to be excellent, especially in regards to our sustainable practices. I know it starts with me and you and our beloved LMU. In adapting the words of Elie Weisel, we must remember that the beauty of creation, and hence our LMU Campus, is not merely God’s gift to God’s creatures, “it is our gift to each other.” vol. 6 issue 2
T
he first organisms that arrived on land over 1.3 billion years ago were mushrooms. They are our ancestors and they broke down rocks into soil and allowed all life to follow. They breathe oxygen and dispel carbon dioxide, just like us. In fact, we are more closely related to fungi than any other kingdom. So perhaps it is a beautiful coincidence that today, in the first years of this new millennium, we must turn to mushrooms to sustain human life. We have dislodged ourselves from this planet, from the way we grow food, produce energy, and recycle waste. As a species we have neglected to learn from the precious simplicity that is the Earth’s natural recycling system. One product in particular demonstrates this carelessness. Styrofoam is a useless human invention. It takes 1.5 liters of petroleum to produce a square foot of the material, which has a minimal life of use and then finds its way into landfills and oceans. In water, Styrofoam breaks down but does not go away; instead it infects our ecosystem. Each year, we spend 20 billion dollars on the production of Styrofoam. In short, we are paying a huge sum of money to poison our habitat. So what can mushrooms do to solve this problem? A company called Ecovative Design has found a way to grow a Styrofoam substitute out of mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms. Their product, Mycrobond, assembles itself using food waste such as rice stalks and cornhusks. There are absolutely no byproducts and when Mycrobond is done being used, it can be crushed into any soil and will actually improve its quality. It is cheap and easy to produce and has many uses, from acoustics to insulation. Mycrobond could be the healthy plastic of the future. We need to look to nature in order to return to a state of harmony with it. Creating products that do not agree with the Earth has damaged the natural process of recycling. Unless drastic change occurs in our generation, we may have doomed our species to the wrath of an unforgiving nature. It is going to be these kinds of simple solutions that will help us return to a healthy ball of life in this dark and quiet universe.
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The Dictionary Definition of Service By Brendan McNerney The Webster’s dictionary defines service as any work done by one group that benefits another. M y d e f i n i t i o n f u n c t i o n s
a
l i t t l e
d i f f e r e n t l y :
Service may seem like an aimless pursuit and to some it’s point may seem completely moot but perhaps there is something to its secretive charm that extends beyond just trying to prevent others’ harm.
Some do it through various religious groups and funds; others try to find their calling through protesting guns; still others find solace in simply being themselves The message is important but the effort is better: and condemning those who say gays are going to hell. soapboxes are easy to find but not a homeless man a sweater. It’s the little things in life that make it worth living. Who would have thought that the greatest part of it would be giving? So do what you can, when you can, where you can. Because in the end the only thing we have to give is a hand and please bear in mind that this is not a demand. But perhaps when you’re free you might consider taking a stand and your passion might just turn out to save one homeless man With a sweater. W h a t ’ s y o u r d e f i n i t i o n ?
LMU GRADUATE PROGRAMS PREPARATION FOR A CAREER EDUCATION FOR LIFE Laying the foundation for lasting careers, Loyola Marymount University Graduate Programs provide the educational tools needed to flourish in an increasingly complex world by developing skills in empathetic leadership with vision and values. Explore one of our 30 Graduate programs in: • • • • • •
Liberal Arts Business Science & Engineering Communication & Fine Arts Education Film & Television
Take the first step to realizing your potential, visit http:/graduate.lmu.edu or call 310.338.2721
Loyola Marymount University
By Julie Yates
Poverty and homelessness are extreme issues that are very relevant in our world today. Many students wonder what they can do to help, and working with Habitat for Humanity can provide an answer. This semester, I have been working closely with a local Habitat for Humanity Affiliate and Student Leadership and Development at LMU to create a campus chapter that will offer students a chance to help their local community. Doing construction work, going out into the Los Angeles Area, and working with other students can offer LMU students a way to give back. Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit organization that specializes in providing people with affordable housing and aims to eliminate poverty housing from the world. The organization was founded in 1976 by the Fuller family in Georgia and still exists today primarily from volunteer support. Although the organization is Christian-based, it is open to people of all walks of faith and life. Habitat for Humanity can be found in approximately 90 countries and in all 50 states of the United States. I first learned about Habitat for Humanity this p a s t s u m m e r w h e n I w e n t w i t h a g ro u p o f college-aged students to Santa Ana, El Salvador. Over the 10 day trip we did various tasks like painting, digging ditches, tamping floors, and pouring cement. Though the work that we did in El Salvador was difficult, we built relationships with all kinds of people and learned a lot about the culture in El Salvador. We 22
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learned a lot about responsibility, hard work, and being apart of a team. It is because of this that I would like other students at LMU to become involved. Whether students have had experience with Habitat for Humanity or not, all are encouraged to join the club or attend an upcoming informational meeting. The intent of the campus chapter is to teach students that they are not only doing construction work and building to give someone a house, but they are building relationships with those they are working with and those they are helping. This type of service is especially interesting because students can see the result of their service immediately and it is a hands-on way to get involved. The Habitat for Humanity LMU Chapter will be a new organization on campus in which students can become active participants and members within the Los Angeles community as well as within the LMU community. A goal for the campus club is to instill a lifelong idea of community service now and after college and to educate students about poverty and affordable housing. The club will partner with Habitat for Humanity San Gabriel Valley and will hopefully go out into the Los Angeles community to do any type of work that is required to build houses. My main hopes for this chapter are that it will be a lasting campus chapter and that students of all kinds of backgrounds, academic classes, and areas come out to help serve. If there are any questions about the Habitat for Humanity LMU Chapter or how to join, please contact jyates2@lion.lmu.edu.
HOW?
Symbiosis to Predatory Relationship? Stride of mankind from Ape Age to the present advance modern age is not a miracle, which took place in few seconds. Man being a extraordinary component of environment made this possible by implying his intellect, power and vigor. In his beautiful journey of development, nature proved to be the true companion right from the very beginning of his journey. Initially he was influenced by physical factors of climate, soil, water, air. Hence, his relation with nature were symbiotic and friendly. He also had respect for the devotion of nature towards him. However it is inherent in human nature to dominate his surroundings. Soon with increasing exercise of superior brainpower the relation between man and nature and man and other life forms and also with inanimate physical constituents got changed from symbiotic to predatory. His approach, behavior and interactions became more and more anthropocentric arrogating to himself the exclusive rights to use and exploit nature for his own pleasure and increasing greed. With the advancement of science and technology, and increasing number of population man was inclining towards maximum use of resources. After industrial revolution the rate of exploitation and consumption of resources increased too much. In addition to direct pollution of the environment by industrial emission of poisonous gases into atmosphere and toxic effluents into water system and soil the most harmful impact of industrialization is that it is triggering consumerism more and more and to meet the increasing demands of the industries are coming up which further triggers consumerism and the vicious cycle is going on. Population increase and consumerism that is cutting ruthlessly the very fabric of environment safety. The air we breathe, the water we drink and the soil that produces our food, are getting more and more polluted. In many cities, the air has become so polluted from vehicular and industrial emission that people are required to wear masks. The water in most of rivers and other surface and underground water bodies is so dangerously polluted by industrial household and other effluents that it is not safe even for bathing, much less for drinking. Experts fear that if population, pollution and consumerism continue to grow there will be fierce
By Sahar Mansoor
wars for water in future, because of over exploitation of underground water the water table is receding fast and has gone down at many places from few meters to hundred of meters. This has also increased the fluoride content in water at several places causing flurosis. Even in the largest water bodies, oil spills and the other wastes including the hazardous atomic wastes are polluting the seas surrounding the planet earth. Because of pollution and over exploitation of various products from sea, its fishes, corals, shells, minerals and others, these eco-systems so important for climate balance on earth, is being damaged dangerously. Lets us all take a step back and stop to introspect on our lifestyle. Ask yourself “What do I do to conserve this wonderful earth that we call home?” Ask yourself the following questions: 1. Do I recycle? It’s free, reduces consumption and increases energy efficiency. 2. Do I save water? shorten your shower times and shorten your water bill. 3. Do I reduce electricity? Remember to turn off the light when you leave the room and to unplug your computer and other electronics and appliances when not in use. These small gestures will not only save energy but will save you money on your electric bills when we have to pay for your own bills. 4. What light bulbs do you use? Replace your current light bulbs with compact florescent lighting. Believe it or not, these bulbs use 30% less energy, but produce the same amount of light and last longer. 5. What kind of a car do you drive? You may not be ready to give up your sporty SUV, but why not trade it in for a hybrid? If that’s not in your budget, carpool, bike or walk. 6. Do I double up on printing? Configure your computer to print on both sides of the paper. This saves paper, trees and you running out to Target last minute to buy a new supply. 7. Where do my fruits and vegetables come from? Support local farmers market. Go to ASLMU farmers market. You will be cutting back on gas and decreasing our dependence on oil with the trucks that are used to ship produce. vol. 6 issue 2
to pause, slow-down, reflect, meditate or pray y and strengthens our mind, body, and spirit.
BELONG. BELIEVE. BECOME. LMU Campus Ministry
E taken TIM Have you ? y toda for yourself
Taking time to pause, slow-down, reflect, meditate or pray renews energy and strengthens our mind, body, and spirit.
BELONG. BELIEVE. BECOME. LMU Campus Ministry