Thunder

I woke up this morning to thunder. It's definitely not the hot meets cold violent thunder of summer, though, and that served as yet another reminder that summer is over. It also reminded me that I told our school's sustainability committee that I'd be spending some time in my comp class talking about sustainability and what we can do to reduce global warming. The other day I read that if we all reduced our meat consumption by one day a week that act would have a huge positive effect. But I love my steak so much. Besides, I think I do some good things for the environment. I drive a small car, don't use air conditioning, buy local when I can and recycle and reuse faithfully.

What I need though is a glamorous or fun way to talk about sustainability in my classroom. When I told my students that we'd be talking about the environment they groaned, maybe because it had been the topic of their convocation and the speaker was dogmatic and righteous enough that I wanted to through my plastic water bottle in the wrong bin afterward.

That's the problem with issues like being green; there's a perception that they're boring and that the only people who are interested in them are ineffective left-wing middle class liberals who want to tell everybody else what to do. It's the same with peace efforts. So two of the things I affiliate with are boring to a lot of people. What am I gonna do?

I mean, literally, what am I gonna do? Put on your thinking caps and help me come up with some outlandish imaginative way to teach greenness. Do you remember those cholesterol demonstrations with blocks of fat? How about the old tooth in cola? Bad nasty smoker's lung? I don't think I want scare tactics; I want something fun. I've got a few ideas, but I want to see what all of you imaginative people can come up with. Remember, it's college not grade school.
Peace