C2C/Yukinori Yanagi

I was familiar with Cradle to Cradle before enrolling in this class, but I had never read it, let alone held it in my hands. The synthetic ‘paper’ developed by Charles Melcher, which can be broken down and circulated infinitely in industrial cycles (pg 5) was fun to hold while reading. It was almost cool to the touch, soothing in a way.

My book didn’t come in time, so I had to go to the library; I began to think of how many books are damaged on a daily basis. Wouldn’t it be awesome if libraries didn’t have to worry about the durability and replacement of damaged books?

Some things the stood out to me in the Intro(we weren’t required to read, but hey I paid for the book didn’t I?):

Michael Braungart mentioned that after becoming the director of the EPEA, he discovered the so-called nutrient flows of distant cultures such as the Yanomamo in Brazil, who cremated their dead, put the ashes in a banana soup, and fed to the tribe at a celebratory feast. The Yanomamo believed in karma and reincarnation, or the ‘upcycling’ of the soul(pg 13). The reason I loved reading about this was because 1) it seems as if tribal communities, even throughout history, have always had a veneration for nature 2) this discovery really fits the waste= food mentality; like the ‘upcycling’ of the soul, we as consumers should try to ‘upcycle’ our habits for generations to come, if that makes sense. To further sum up this point, the third quote in the beginning of the book by the faith keeper of the Onondaga really touched me: “What you call your natural resources, our people call their relatives.”

Here’s their website: http://onondaganation.org/

I forgot to mention the haunting paragraph on page 16 starting with “Consider this...” was so incredibly unsettling to me.

Being a woman’s study minor, what I found on in Chapter 1 (page 25) angered me the most. The authors make a crucial and intelligent point that in the 19th century, nature was perceived as ‘mother Earth’ (still is) who would absorb all things and continue to grow. Many people believed their would always be an expanse that would always remain untouched and innocent. To me this is ironic when considering the treatment of women during those times. Women are similarly thought of and desired to reamin untouched and innocent. These parallels between environmentalism and social inequality were most troubling. Additionally humans perceived natural forces as hostile, which had to be controlled. It bothers me that ‘mother’ nature is still looked upon as something cruel, something to blame, something we have nothing to do with-when in fact it’s just the opposite.

In the beginning of Chapter 2, the reference to Malthus was most fitting considering out topic of overpopulation for our project due Tuesday. "The power of population is so superior to the power in the earth to produce subsistence for men that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race."
On that note I find sexual education (contraception) to be so important. There are still cultures around the world that don't believe or aren't familiar with contraception and continue to procreate based on myths and fables. Some tribes in Africa believe that having sex with a virgin will cure one of AIDS. This type of mentality encourages overpopulation which encourages habits that lead to the depletion of the Earth. It's sad that no one listened to Malthus, when he had the right idea to begin with.

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Yanagi's deeper message that his people, like ants, lived inside a constructed social system full of illusions(pg 243), reminded me of our discussions of Inconvenient Truth last class.

Many of us were unable to look past our social constructs, our political views, specifically our views of Al Gore; rather than look at what we were suppose to look at--our responsibility for our planet. I don't remember talking about the issues as much as we talked about politics! If we can get past constructs maybe we can finally establish a healthier identity.