Skip to main content

ZUGUNRUHE (zoo ghen roo ah)


Zugunruhe is a German word that describes the unsettling feeling birds have that makes them want to migrate. They can sense change and they want to move ahead of it.


This is a feeling that clearly the human species does not share with our avian brother. We live in places that have started to see storms beyond our imagining, drought, heat, extreme cold,etc. And yet we do not move. We dig in our feet and our oil wells and continue to 'prosper'


International panels of scientists have overwhelmingly agreed that humans are affecting climate change. So, lets STOP arguing about whether it's real or not because it was cold this winter and START discussing solutions.

This sculpture is called "Politicians Discussing Climate Change". 


The 2 FEET of sea level rise expected to occur by 2050 can likely not be halted. So how can we create healthy, resilient places to live, now that we know? 

I love the idea of green building and living infrastructure because it offers solutions, not just the 'Inconvenient Truths' of Global Climate Change. McLennan says, 

" While sounding far fetched only a few years ago, it is now entirely possible to reduce energy within every single one of our communities by 60 to 80 percent within our lifetime with off-the-shelf technologies and knowledge that exists today. With such significant reductions in energy demand, it is also possible to make a complete switch to renewable energy (solar and wind) for the remaining energy we require. The world we seek could become the significant work of our generation, if only there were sufficient poilitical and business will to do so-if only people awoke and began their own Zugunruhe"

We are all guilty of it- patting ourselves on the backs for recycling a water bottle and driving a Prius. But the fact remains that enormous energy is expended to make that water bottle, ship it to you, ship it to a recycling center, process it, ship it (to most likely China), and make it into something new. Just like a Prius still uses gas, and has similar embodied energies to almost any other car in manufacturing.

In his book, Zugunruhe, Jason McLennan suggests simply constant improvements of our existing behaviors. How can I remain self aware and self-motivated?


Jason encourages readers to teach what they know to those who do not- a common flaw among our society is that we feel we have no right to discuss something if we don't know everything. Meanwhile, those who know little to nothing share what  they  are feeling.

He also talks about why it is so difficult to actually stick with a sustainable lifestyle. He believes that society is designed to consume, which any capitalist or liberal will agree with. That makes it pretty much impossible to do everything better- so some people give up and decide not to tackle the changes at all. Positive efforts should not be criticized, particularly in our own community, for not being enough. It's a step in the right direction- let's celebrate that and study the impact!

"To be pleased with one's limits is a wretched state" -Goethe


To understand the full length, width, and depth of the book you'll have to pick it up for yourself; but I will tell you that as a result of this book I have set a new goal to become a polymath. A polymath is a person with wide-ranging knowledge ( as opposed to someone who is an expert in one specific area). 
There is a great argument about the power of critical thinking and research combined with the availability of information. But what will be most valuable moving forward in my selected industry, and most likely yours, is to understand the connections between the trades. When you can do that, you can empathize and problem solve in a whole new way.










Sources: 
Climate Reality Project 
Zugunruhe by Jason McLennan
IPCC

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Eating Garbage

Garbage is Beautiful. And let me tell you why. In 2010, the EPA estimated the US produced over 240 million tons of municipal solid waste. That is over four pounds of garbage, per person, per day. We travel through our day throwing things ‘away’. But where do they go? Does your trash go to a landfill, incinerator, or Waste to Energy Plant? Currently in NJ, thirteen counties have solid waste landfills and five counties have resource recovery facilities (incinerators). Of the five counties with resource recovery facilities, three also have landfills to receive waste that cannot be burnt. Eight counties have awarded waste disposal contracts and require that all waste be sent to one facility for disposal. The remaining thirteen counties have a free market system and transporters may send waste out of the county or state. The majority of us don’t know information like this, and don’t care as long as we don’t have to look at it. But if we were forced to look at the garb...

Covid, baby

Working in the sustainability field has been turned on its head during the Coronavirus pandemic. I went on a short hiatus to become a Mom (Elliott was born in March of 2020 only a few days before lockdown in NJ), and when I resurfaced, our approach needed to be different, here are some examples: Typically, the balance between ample fresh air within a building and energy use would result in driving the building toward lower energy use. Now, the ability to increase the outdoor air is desirable and is carrying more importance as a design consideration. We almost always pursued green cleaning operations and maintenance plans with our projects, however the Green Seal certified (or other healthy for people) cleaning products do not disinfect to the level desired for Covid- forcing teams to decide between abandoning their healthy cleaning policies and safety. Everything is packaged and sealed, and wrapped again. Cafes stopped allowing refillable coffee cups, towns that had plastic ba...

Breaking News- Renewable Energy can STILL power our planet!

Yesterday, The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released an exciting report about the potential of Renewables and the world energy market. Over 120 world experts produced a scientific document over 1,000 pages long that provides a solution to 'business as usual' carbon emissions. They believe that we could meet the globe's energy needs with 80% renewable energies by mid-century . This would be a socially, politically, and physically strenuous task. If we eliminate all the complications and shift our paradigm, we still have issues like that which Ramon Pichs, Co-Chair of the Working Group III, added: “The report shows that it is not the availability of the resource, but the public policies that will either expand or constrain renewable energy development over the coming decades. Developing countries have an important stake in this future—this is where most of the 1.4 billion people without access to electricity live yet also where some of the best conditi...