Global Climate Modeling

The following is an attempt to synthesize new learning with old, to form a more comprehensive understanding of climate modeling.  I have tried to present it in a way that makes it accessible to most... and hopefully it is generally legible!

Reflections on Coal

                Before this course I knew that there were a lot of different things that were threatening the environment, but I believed that the number one thing that needed to stop right now was coal burning. Then I came here and we focused on agriculture, transportation and oil, all of these different things, and coal faded to the back of my consciousness quickly. I was so focused on all these other things we were learning about in the world that were also evil that I forgot about my enemy. This is what coal does; it fades into the background and provides you with electricity while you freak out about oil. It’s crafty like that. Then the other day people were talking about what they wrote their essays to get into this course on and they said things like perceptions were the most prominent climate issue in their minds; those vague, hard to grasp issues that you can be super upset about, but no one is going to call you a hypocrite if you don’t do anything about it. That’s when I remembered; I remembered that I had written a quite heated essay about coal, I remembered the facts about how an electric car that runs on coal power is only 10% cleaner than a petroleum car. I remembered that while coal is a very dirty fossil fuel, it still provides power to over 50% of Americans. I remembered all this and yet the emotion did not re-manifest itself. I remembered feeling those emotions against coal, but they were no longer there. They were off being pre-occupied by all of these other things; the mining of rare earth metals, industrial agriculture, airplane emissions, how stubborn people are about making change. My emotions had their own fights to fight and I just kept piling on all these new enemies every day, they couldn’t be bothered with an enemy that they had already fought with. They were busy. Then I took a step back with these new re-memories; let the environment fend for itself for just a nanosecond. That’s when what I had forgotten about crept back in. I was still holding those other attacks at bay, but not actively fighting them and coal drifted back in a haze of smog, settling between all of these other new environmental enemies, the emotions were back. Not back in the hard shimmering black lump they had been, but back none the less. I could no longer just hack at it endlessly without actually making any progress. It was taking cover amongst the other enemies. I don’t want to forget again. I can no longer take all of my energy out on coal, and I realize that one solution without others is not more than minutely productive. All of these things have to be attacked at once; though I do not have to give up focus to get overrun by them all. To the contrary, I can gather my armies of bike riding, CSA-eating eco-warriors and we can all work together to fight them all. I can work just a little harder to track down and root out my enemy number one; whatever that ends up being. It could be coal, or something else, I just need to keep them all at arm’s length for a brief moment while I gather my armies and choose one.

Dusty Reed

My Attempt to Understand the Role of Architecture in a Sustainable Future

Personal Background

My interest in architecture began in middle school. I would cut out magazine clippings of houses and buildings and collect them in a small folder to look at with my mother. During classes, when I should have been paying attention, I found myself doodling houses and obscure buildings instead (albeit very impractical and unrealistic ones). More so than my friends, my state of mind was extremely sensitive to the spaces I inhabited. As I continued through junior-high and high school my interest in architecture often waned due to dull course work and a lack of passion. Because of this, I began to pursue my interests elsewhere. Acting upon a necessity to discover my academic interests, I initially went to college for subjects other than architecture. However, I immediately felt out of place. I asked myself questions such as “Why should I waste my time studying superficial topics?” (these various fields were in fact very respectable, but my mindset at the time said otherwise) or “Shouldn’t I be studying architecture instead?” Through architecture I would be able to express my creativity as well as fulfill a more meaningful purpose. Through architecture I could attempt to leave this world a better place than when I arrived. After several weeks of confusion and an epiphany of sorts, I decided to transfer schools and dedicate my foreseeable future to pursue a degree in architecture at Miami University.

After completing my first year of school at a new campus, I was certain that I had found an outlet to freely express my creativity. However, I still longed for a greater purpose in my work. I once again began to question my path, asking myself questions such as, “How can I embed my architectural education with the ‘purpose’ I am searching for?” The answer came in the form of a minor in what roughly translates to Sustainability Studies. Once my courses began to address environmental issues, I started to question the sustainability of my own lifestyle and to think of my projects within a more general context. Sure, the design is visually interesting, but how can it be built responsibly? My answers to these questions are still limited, but by spending time focusing on larger sustainability issues I hope to bring valuable perspective into future conversations.

The Home and the Role of an Architect

By examining the function of a house more thoroughly, it immediately becomes clear that this universal structure serves many more purposes than simply providing shelter. The home is a space where one’s day begins and ends, and it provides a backdrop for the events of our daily lives. Whether you rent a small apartment in the city or own an extensive ranch in the country, “home” is an environment where inner thoughts and desires can be freely and outwardly manifested. If the importance of “home” is to be properly respected, architects must design spaces that appropriately respond to their environments and their owners’ individual needs.

Over the past few decades, though, architects have been tasked with an even greater responsibility: to design not only for the needs of the inhabitants, but for the earth’s as well. If humans are to continue to develop, we must to minimize our individual impacts upon the planet. In my opinion, housing is an area of development that has the potential to address these issues in an incredibly tangible and transparent fashion; by designing sustainably we give others the opportunity to physically experience conscious, beneficial change with their senses. Fortunately, thanks to an increasing number of environmentally conscious architects and designers, this is experience is often quite beautiful.

Alas, there are still countless challenges ahead. It becomes more difficult every day to accommodate the needs of man and earth - two clients which often have conflicting interests (in most cases, the one offering monetary reward will take precedence). If we truly intend to change the course of human history on earth, this must change. Only by approaching this issue through modifying the lifestyle of the individual will we see success. Being in the architectural education process, I find this very exciting. The way I see it, this challenge presents those in the field of architecture with a unique platform from which to revolutionize daily life. If the spaces in which we dwell really are so important, maybe they can influence us to think differently in other aspects of life as well. Would you rethink your daily fossil fuel use if your home barely used any itself? Would you consider a solar water heater if your hot showers were just as comforting?

How I’ve Changed

It has been several years since I decided to transfer to architecture school and pursue a career in architecture. Although I have gained much valuable knowledge  back on campus, my experiences here in Iceland have drastically shifted my views. Instead of focusing on how to accurately draft a floor plan or adjust lighting in a computerized rendering, I have spent the past few months increasing my personal awareness of the larger issues humans all face. At first, I was unsure if this broad and seemingly abstract style of education would prove potent enough to effect my work and life back in school. However, as the weeks passed I more fully realized the importance of this newfound knowledge. Back at school, for example,  I was given scattered lectures warning of our grim future. These were motivating, but I did not feel armed with enough knowledge to craft potential solutions. The only realm in which I felt able to create change was the studio environment (which, as far as environments go, is very conceptual and quite far from the "real world"). Through taking classes and participating in an Icelandic community over the past few months, I now have a much greater understanding of “the big picture” and more fully realize architecture’s role within this larger (largest as far as humans are concerned) context. I am very confident that I have the knowledge and resources available to not only educate my friends and family at home, but to alter my own lifestyle and create a smaller carbon footprint. In the academic world, I hope to express myself through sustainable building design and set the stage for individuals to make decisions which are not only economically and socially viable, but which help nourish the Earth in return for it’s hospitality.

Jordan Frazin

Learning and Memories

“I’m learning all the time. My tombstone will be my diploma.” –Eartha Kitt.

The journey of learning is one that is unending. We are constantly discovering new things about ourselves, our environment, and each other, often in subconscious ways. There is a certain joy that comes with this learning as well; a sense that something new lies behind each door, under each rock, inside of each smile. This joy of newfound wisdom became especially apparent to me during my semester in Iceland. Whether brainstorming solutions to global warming or conquering a new Icelandic word, every lesson is its own little triumph.

These poems and thoughts that follow only capture but moments of all the transformations I have gone through in the past twelve weeks. Though by no means all-encompassing, let these serve as not only my manifesto to sustainability, but to a life of learning and one more fully alive.

Icelandic Skies

“Never fear the darkness. All we need is just the sun in the sky. And the hope of a summer to come with the meaning of love.”

Incredible skies, expanding over the endless landscape

Another valley, another hill, another mountain

Goes on forever

If we’re lucky, we’ll see the sun

Casting shadows on unassuming sheep

Here comes light, heat, long-lost sunglasses

The clouds

Erupting in wisps above dormant volcanoes

Keeping us bathed in different shades of gray

And how can we forget the darkness,

Our attention-seeking friend?

Yes, we feel your presence... at 10:30 in the morning.

On nights of stillness, we see the Aurora’s brushstrokes

I wish I had a frozen river

To skate away on

I’m smaller than a seed

But richer than the ocean

The sky is one of my favorite professors.

Backpacking

“Other people may be there to help us, teach us, guide us along our path, but the lesson to be learned is always ours.”

Just when I thought it was too cold to keep walking

            I put on another layer and pressed on

Just when I thought we’d never reach the night’s destination

            Our shelter appeared like a beacon from God

Just when I thought we’d never be able to do the dishes without running water

            We created a dance of towels, dishwater, wet socks, and smiling faces

Just when I thought I couldn’t climb another hill

            My legs kept moving

Just when I thought I wouldn’t muster the courage to cross a bridge

            I grabbed the hand of a friend and we made it

Just when I thought I had travelled to the most foreign of landscapes

            I never felt more at home than in that land of heat, ice, and stars

Just when I thought I knew myself

            I became reacquainted with who I really want to be

Turfhouse

“Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.”

There was just something about it.

Maybe it was coffee break, sitting snuggly on the beds and taking a break from nothing but the hvasst howling outside.

It could have been the feeling of cold, soggy turf sheets in my hands and the effort of fitting the rocks together until they formed some sort of haphazard and basalty union.

Perhaps it was the knowing faces of our hosts, steeped in an unstoppable desire to bring back what has been lost.

Or possibly it was the simplicity of lying in the birthing bed at night with the storm and the frosty breaths of friends sleeping as my lullaby.

How have we become so lost from our turf, our past, each other?

This, I have realized, is something worth fighting for.

Family

“I have never in my life learned something from any man who agreed with me.” –Dudley Field Malone

We’re a band of ragtag misfits

More like family sometimes than classmates

Movies, secrets, lentils

We’ve shared it all by now

I feel I’ve learned more

From these friends

Than from all lectures and guided tours

Combined

They’ve taught me how to be humble

How to laugh and cry and learn at once

How to disagree completely

But love each other anyway

I’ll miss this house full of siblings

With all its noise and music

And someone to always be there

To help my world become a little larger

Dreamland

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether twenty or eighty.”

I’ll be honest. I didn’t know what to expect from Andri.

Was he a lunatic? An outcast? A delusional hippie?

He was someone I would like to become.

I loved his passion for seeking out answers to questions that no one will reply to.

Why sit back and listen to the press, the politicians, and the corporations tell us what’s wrong and what’s right?

We can do better.

We can educate ourselves and then educate others.

We can challenge each other, change minds, cause mischief, make a lasting impact

Change the world.

 

If there is one thing I’ll take back with me from Iceland, it’s an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. I recognize now that there are lessons to be learned in every corner of our lives. Some stare us right in the face, like a museum or a guest speaker. Some are harder to be found, like in the tears we cry when we’re missing someone we love.

On a larger scale, this passion for new knowledge is essential to anyone or any system striving for sustainability. As mentioned in our group definition, humans must achieve resilience, continued learning, and consciousness of our relationship with the earth in order to contribute to a sustainable future.

As Albert Einstein once famously said, “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” More complex problems require that we call on each other to find an answer. Just as I have used quotes throughout my poems to inspire and teach me, let us use the ideas, opinions, and experiences of all humans to propel ourselves along in this journey to a better future.

-Elise Niemeyer