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Sustainable performance
Apr. 8th, 2005 06:57 amI had my annual performance review at work yesterday. I did reasonably well, especially considering the kind of year I've had, though I did get one major reprimand: innapropriate use of the internet.
*sigh* it's a fair call, I spend way too much work time flicking through my flist or reading on forums. It's going to be hard to stop though - I'm an internet junkie when I've got LAN access. No more LJ from work - ahhh! So this morning I'm at home, getting my fix in before I go in to work a little later. The 7:30 bus instead of going in at 6 with Alex. Not just because I needed my fix though - a late night last night meant that, although I was awake at 5:15, I wasn't willing to rush to get ready this morning. A more sedate morning with time for a proper breakfast and gradual alertness was called for.
Last night we went to a forum on sustainability at my old uni. It was organised by the campus Oxfam group, of whom my opinion is pretty low now. The forum istelf was excellent, with some very interesting presentations given by academic staff (including a guy I knew from 1st year undergrad who is now a lecturer). Sadly, we had to leave before it was over in order to get fed (mmm - pizza cafe) and home at a reasonable hour. Reasonably was getting home at bedtime, and thus getting to bed far too late with a stimulated brain not particularly willing to let either of us sleep well. I heard about advances in solar technology, resource use, the need for intragenerational equity and many other concepts. Most everything was stuff I'd thought about and come to conclusions based on my own experiences and knowledge, so it was good to get confirmation from experts that I'm on the right track.
Getting back to the local Oxfam student group. Sadly, nothing more than a bunch of naive, idealistic hippies. Now, there's nothing wrong with being any of those things, but when you are a tertiary student actively involved in the environmental movement I expect a level of understanding greater than "industry = bad, GM = evil, OMG I went somewhere in a car - guilt!". *sigh* it depresses and frustrates me to see the voice of activisim so detached from reality. It does the cause no good at all, because the average person looks at these kids and dismisses them as the flakes they are. There's no point having a voice no one will listen to, and worse, is grossy misinformed. These kids weren't thinking critically at all - they were happy to get all their information from single sources (hippy gurus, TBH), had no consideration for economics, public health and problems of scale and believed everything had an easy solution but the big, bad government was stopping it. It was the sort of presentation I'd expect from 14 year olds, the level of conceptual understanding was so poor.
Now this is very concerning. These kids were uni students. This means that they actually acheived some academic success in high school. University is supposed to teach and encourage critical thinging, independant researcha dn logical reasoning, but they had none of it. Is this endemic to the education system now, or are the activist kids so detached from the real world by choice? Is the problem endemic to the education system or to the environment movement? Environmentalists have long been their own wost enemy through the promotion of extremeist philosophies and simplistic arguments, as well as lack of consideration of socio-economic impacts. Now there's confusion over what the goal actually is: are they trying to improve humanitie's ecological footprint, or are they railing against globalisation and capitalism? The best way to influence environmental matters and to drive change is to work from within the system. Democratic capitalism, technology and globalisation provide some of the best tools for ecological improvement. Work within the system and you'll acheive far more than by railing against a system that provides the wants for the majority. you're not going to get major social reform overnight, so prioritise and be realistic and use the tools at had to make what changes are practical and possible now. Other things will come later - you can't reinvent society quickly, even in a crisis.
So the forum was good, but didn't tell me too much I didn't already know. I think, however, that it was a bit of a wake-up call to the many naive greenies in attendance. The environment movement needs to grow up and stop hating the system that birthed it.
*sigh* it's a fair call, I spend way too much work time flicking through my flist or reading on forums. It's going to be hard to stop though - I'm an internet junkie when I've got LAN access. No more LJ from work - ahhh! So this morning I'm at home, getting my fix in before I go in to work a little later. The 7:30 bus instead of going in at 6 with Alex. Not just because I needed my fix though - a late night last night meant that, although I was awake at 5:15, I wasn't willing to rush to get ready this morning. A more sedate morning with time for a proper breakfast and gradual alertness was called for.
Last night we went to a forum on sustainability at my old uni. It was organised by the campus Oxfam group, of whom my opinion is pretty low now. The forum istelf was excellent, with some very interesting presentations given by academic staff (including a guy I knew from 1st year undergrad who is now a lecturer). Sadly, we had to leave before it was over in order to get fed (mmm - pizza cafe) and home at a reasonable hour. Reasonably was getting home at bedtime, and thus getting to bed far too late with a stimulated brain not particularly willing to let either of us sleep well. I heard about advances in solar technology, resource use, the need for intragenerational equity and many other concepts. Most everything was stuff I'd thought about and come to conclusions based on my own experiences and knowledge, so it was good to get confirmation from experts that I'm on the right track.
Getting back to the local Oxfam student group. Sadly, nothing more than a bunch of naive, idealistic hippies. Now, there's nothing wrong with being any of those things, but when you are a tertiary student actively involved in the environmental movement I expect a level of understanding greater than "industry = bad, GM = evil, OMG I went somewhere in a car - guilt!". *sigh* it depresses and frustrates me to see the voice of activisim so detached from reality. It does the cause no good at all, because the average person looks at these kids and dismisses them as the flakes they are. There's no point having a voice no one will listen to, and worse, is grossy misinformed. These kids weren't thinking critically at all - they were happy to get all their information from single sources (hippy gurus, TBH), had no consideration for economics, public health and problems of scale and believed everything had an easy solution but the big, bad government was stopping it. It was the sort of presentation I'd expect from 14 year olds, the level of conceptual understanding was so poor.
Now this is very concerning. These kids were uni students. This means that they actually acheived some academic success in high school. University is supposed to teach and encourage critical thinging, independant researcha dn logical reasoning, but they had none of it. Is this endemic to the education system now, or are the activist kids so detached from the real world by choice? Is the problem endemic to the education system or to the environment movement? Environmentalists have long been their own wost enemy through the promotion of extremeist philosophies and simplistic arguments, as well as lack of consideration of socio-economic impacts. Now there's confusion over what the goal actually is: are they trying to improve humanitie's ecological footprint, or are they railing against globalisation and capitalism? The best way to influence environmental matters and to drive change is to work from within the system. Democratic capitalism, technology and globalisation provide some of the best tools for ecological improvement. Work within the system and you'll acheive far more than by railing against a system that provides the wants for the majority. you're not going to get major social reform overnight, so prioritise and be realistic and use the tools at had to make what changes are practical and possible now. Other things will come later - you can't reinvent society quickly, even in a crisis.
So the forum was good, but didn't tell me too much I didn't already know. I think, however, that it was a bit of a wake-up call to the many naive greenies in attendance. The environment movement needs to grow up and stop hating the system that birthed it.
