by seattleniceguy 13 Replies latest social current
SNG
There is a book titled The Hidden Connections by Fritjof Capra(spelling???)
He talks about this concept of environmental and economical sustainability. He tends to get a little deep in biological theory, so just skip to the economical if you get a headache. Interesting read.
Thanks, DarkUncle. I will definitely check that out.
SNG
The 3 R's: recycle, reuse and reduce.
My brother, who lives north of you SNG, up on Vancouver Island, works in the Environmental Field, helping companies, communities deal with thier not-so-nice waste in both Canada, the United States and abroad.
Here in Toronto, we have blue boxes for: aluminum cans, bottles, plastics (1, 2) thus far. We have paper recycling (grey boxes), and a slightly different version of the grey box, for cardboard and similar hard paper products.
Out of the original six municipalities that made up the previous Metropolitan Toronto, green boxes/containers have been made available to deal with organic waste.
That being said, we DO NOT DO ENOUGH to keep our trash from going down the road to Michigan.
I hate that, and well.....I don't like thinking of my Michigan neighbours as dumping ground!
We make the trash, we should be 100% responsible for it.
Anyways, under our previous municipal mess of civic government, Michigan received some of the most hideous wastes from our megacity (5 million plus). Disgusting and so unnecessary.
Fortunately, under the new civic government, things are looking better. Diversion from landfill sites will decrease, and we will be able to do the 3R's in its entirety.
Ontario still needs to implement the Deposit Return policy, like the rest of Canada.
The consumer subsidizes the corporation here.
Your husband is a PhD student in ecology? That's awesome. What type of fields are available to a person with that degree?
His PhD will be in biology / ecology. Mine will be in Environmental Anthropology. Most likely we will teach at a college or university while also doing research, but we could also work for government agencies or NGOs as well. His undergrad was in Environmental Studies / Life Science. He had planned to go to work for someplace like the state game and parks with a B.S., but his professors practically ordered him to go get a PhD.
He did a summer at Cedar Creek Natural History Area, which is an LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) site
and met the PhDs working at the urban LTER site in Phoenix (all of metro Phoenix is an LTER), and decided to go to grad school here.
The environment is a big field, with lots of different career options. One of the cool things happening in the study of the environment are some IGERT (Integrated Graduate Education, Research and Training) programs. This is an NSF funded program where grad students from multiple departments, science, social science, etc, work together (something sorely lacking in most grad programs). There are IGERTs on multiple subjects, and there are a few around the country that are studying the environment. ASU's program is in Urban Ecology.
We're pretty new to grad school, but we're always willing to 'talk shop'...I think my personal messaging is working...let me know and I'll send you my school email addy if you want.
Liz
