Now that the academic semester is coming to a close, students may be seeking some good reads. This Green Tip of the Week can be considered a passive one; meaning this tip is not on ways to actively be sustainable through actions. This week’s tip is more focused on how to form an intersectional green consciousness through various forms of consumption.
Books
Marta Peirano’s Contra El Futuro: Citizen Resistance in the Face of Climate Feudalism, is a book that argues for a hopeful future and how we as a species have the tools needed to combat climate change. It provides strategies used by citizens to combat hierarchies and capitalist structures that have accelerated the climate crisis. Arguing that “the great technologies of our time can’t help us manage this climate crisis, since they were designed for a very different purpose—to manage ourselves during this time”.
William McDonough and Michael Braungart’s Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the way we make things challenges the “cradle to grave” cycle we envision in the products we consume and proposes a new idea: the cradle-to-cradle cycle in which designers create products that can provide nourishment or create new “life” after its death. This form of production means to not settle for just recycling, but rather a system which could reduce the amount of waste emitted through traditional manufacturing processes.
Music
Donald Glover’s (Childish Gambino’s) Feels Like Summer, has such a lush, soulful vibe that if one was to skip the lyrics, would think it is a perfect summer song. However, the meaning of the song is a warning to the dangers of global warming. “Every day gets hotter than the one before, running out of water, it’s about to go down” and “air that kill the bees that we depend upon, birds were made for singing waking up to no sound” depict the grim future we may experience if we do not combat climate change.
Films
Don’t Look Up is a comedy about astronomers discovering a comet will destroy Earth and warn the planet in hopes to destroy it. Albeit the premise seems to have nothing to do with climate change, the events and political conflict mirror the actions and complexity of the climate crisis in the real world.
Love Thy Nature is a documentary narrated by Liam Neeson which examines the little aspects of nature that make it beautiful and the relationship between mankind and nature. This documentary will be shown in Hoyt Auditorium on March 25th from 8-10pm.
Written by Lugardo Marroquin ’24
Great music recommendation