Professor Troy Abel from Huxley College of the Environment and his students share their insights on ecological citizenship, political biogeography, and immersions in one of the most biologically intense places on the planet. Costa Rica is translated as rich coast, a name originating from Spanish conquistadors who mistakenly thought the land was filled with gold. Many now recognize that Costa Rica’s riches are more green than gold with more than 4 percent of the world’s estimated biodiversity. Costa Rica has universal health care, a longer life expectancy than the U.S., and no military. Only by expanding our attention to all of these facets can one begin to see “Ecotopia’s Prism,” or Costa Rica’s intersections of ecology, economy, and culture fostering and inhibiting sustainability.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

A New Perspective

A New Perspective
Connor Harron

So many wealthy faces,
Still dominated by gloomy traces,
But laughter and smiles abound,
Smothering those where money rarely comes round.

Simple pleasures through and through,
No distractions to break the glue.

How do we justify our lives,
If we consume enough to destroy our hive,
But self report,
That we no longer have cohorts.

How do we learn from our mistakes,
And create something beautiful for our children to take?

Many call our society individually driven,
But the commons only thrive when we have given,
Our cooperation,
Not corporation.

Altruism is a false label,
Which exhausts motivation before we are able,
To change more than the cable.

However, a new perspective will show,
That our success’s are linked more than we know,
So maybe to truly be egoistic,
We need to be more realistic.

Our system is broken,
With so much, our lives are still tokens,
Pawns in a transnational corporate battle,
We need citizens not cattle.

There may not be a simple solution,
But if we focus on a local notion,
A Grameen model for a new revolution,
Support for any creative resolution.

We can work together on these issues daunting,
For we share desires to promote clotting,
Of wounds long unhealed,
A new perspective can bring us together sealed.

In a world so bright,
The darkness is surprisingly tight,
But so quickly can it turn light,
A prism in the night,

Needs but one shaft to arc,
A million separate sparks.

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