Not just Sustainability

[Twocubdad]

Back to the merit badge.... Since we're all just guessing/hoping, my hope is that this doesn't become a water-down, easy to get alternative to Enviro-Sci. ES is one of the few remaining required MBs which really require some effort. I'd hate to see this as an easy work-around.

 

My fear is compounded by by sons' experiences taking AP Enviormental Science in high school. My younger son, who is currently taking the course, says that now, two months in, they have yet to cover anything he didn't get from the merit badge. My older son used to call the class Enviromental Politics or Bottle Collecting 101. The basic message of the class was you can save the world if you'll just collect enough plastic bottles. This while ignoring the insane number of Escalades in the pick-up lane or the number of students in families of four living in 6,000-sq.ft. houses. I think SP's point is if this is what you mean by sustainability, then don't bother.

[packsaddle]

Twocubdad, 'sustainability' is something that appears quite differently to different people but sooner or later, every population will have sustainability-related forces and factors thrust upon them and they will either meet those challenges or be selected against.

 

I have to say that after decades of watching politicians of all stripes, I have yet to find one (with the possible exception of Carter) who actually grasped even the basics of the concept...or else grasped the basics and then ignored them for the sake of political gain.

[perdidochas]

BSA24,

 

Exaggerate much?

 

I live on the Gulf Coast in the westernmost part of the Florida Panhandle, about 3 miles from the Gulf, where the oil did come ashore (and yes, I did see it). Yes, there are still residual tar balls. That said, we are far from having "destroyed the ecology and fisheries for millions of square miles of ocean for decades to come." Effected, yes, destroyed, no. Exaggerations and hyperbole don't help your point, especially with those who know the truth.

[perdidochas]

Twocubdad,

 

I'm afraid that's exactly what it will become--a cheap alternative to Environmental Science for boys who don't want to get their hands dirty doing experiments/field observations.

[Callooh! Callay!1428010939]

"renders your argument irrelevant"

 

Which argument?

 

The one arguing that SP's concerned conjecture about the "Sustainability" MB probably stems from his awareness of current trends in usage of the word "sustainability?"

 

Or the one arguing that conservation and concern for the environment are Conservative concerns?

 

Or is it the ancillary "leftists lean collectivist" shoes and discomfiting worry that they might fit that has us atwitter? And all over propaganda that is apparently hardly worth addressing... informed as it is by nothing more than wikipedia used to support views from one who "needs to be reeducated" and is "so confused and misinformed?"

 

"As others have said the BSA was founded by some of the avid conservationists of the day and has always been one of the centerpieces of the program which renders your argument irrelevant."

Surely, since the argument never disputed or even mentioned BSA being "founded by some of the avid conservationists of the day" the argument is irrelevant to that statement or that statement to it. And so a fair rebuttal is this: "Many conservationists like to drink coffee which render your argument irrelevant."

 

"It certainly doesn't help them learn about each other. Instead, it just drives them apart."

"learn about each other" has its merits. But it's often more interesting to discuss ideas than people. But since we're on the subject, it's perhaps worth noting that in plenty of instances, learning about each other does drive people apart.

 

Anyway, while SP's concerns over what "sustainability" means have some reasonable foundation, one hopes that this "Sustainability MB" will be a good learning opportunity. It'll be interesting to see what the requirements are when they do come out and how they differ from Environmental Science.

 

Cooking back on the Eagle list. That's cool. It was on my sons' required (by their helicopter parents) list anyway. High speed, low drag is great approach to nutrition in the field but it's good to know all the basics that Cooking MB covers.

 

And as is observed in the NJCubscouter post above... the proposed additions look pretty heavy on the techie emphasis.

 

(This message has been edited by Callooh! Callay!)

[Callooh! Callay!1428010939]

"Eating Fossil Fuels," (The reading recommended to us by the originator of the other thread on this subject in which overt political references are forbidden), just from a from a quick perusal, does appear to offer a foothold to understanding something about Sustainability.

 

The author has also "written about class war, sustainability, direct action and the environment. He is also an anarchist activist and a member of the Industrial Workers of the World. In 1999, he was one of the organizers of a hunger strike to provide medical care for political prisoner Leonard Peltier." (From Wikipedia of course - that's how these posts stay so misinformed and confused).

 

And the publisher, New Society Publishers, would likely be delighted to advise us on Sustainability Merit Badge requirements as the subject is their specialty. Their website informs us that "New Society Publishers roots are firmly in the activist soil of both the United States and Canada. In the US, a Philadelphia office first emerged from the Movement for a New Society during the anti-Vietnam war, offering Americans nonviolent, civil disobedience training. From this work grew the need for a publishing house, and New Society Publishers was created in the late 1970s with a mandate to publish books for nonviolent social change." The Movement for a New Society had a "vision of a decentralized, democratic and caring social order; a nonviolent revolutionary strategy; and a program based on changed values and changed lives." One supposes they hadn't much use for Julian Simon, as that would certainly be deemed political.