Sustainability Science

We hear a lot about sustainability these days. This comes from the fact that we can demonstrate that certain activities, when carried out by a large number of people for a modest amount of time, can jeopardize the ability of future generations to engage in the same activities. Possible problem areas:

• Burning fossil fuels for energy
• Harvesting of limited natural resources: forests, fish, etc.
• Production of greenhouse gases

And the list goes on. To make these activities sustainable, it seems that we must limit them in some way: fewer people perform the activity, each person performs the activity less frequently, or the activity itself is altered so that it becomes more sustainable.

The National Academy of Sciences has recently launched a new section of PNAS (the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) that is devoted to Sustainability Science. Go to the journal’s web site and see if any of the articles interest you. If you find something interesting, tell the Project about it.

Green Chemistry Project in transition

The Green Chemistry Project is going through a transition this semester. Last semester we were able to have weekly meetings and discuss news stories, research articles, and other topics of interest.

Unfortunately, from our two attempts to hold meetings at the beginning of the month, it is clear that we cannot get a critical mass of members to show up for lunch meetings this spring. Reed College is a busy place under “normal” conditions, but with junior qualifying exams and senior theses … well, it just gets hard to find an open spot on the weekly schedule that people can commit to.

So we are entering a quieter phase. Right now, the Project will function mainly as a blog. I will post information about articles and events that I discover. I encourage you to subscribe to the blog, and to write comments and posts of your own. If you are unsure how to subscribe or post, come see me. Or, even more simple, just stay on the email list (and send me emails of material that you would like to see posted).

I also want to encourage any Reed students who are interested in green chemistry in particular, or environmental issues more generally, to contact me. The Project can become active as soon as some students flip the switch.