Learning Objective
Students understand that the biggest impact they can make in climate resilience is in their immediate community, and are familiar with the local environment, culture, indigenous practices, waste management, and supply chain. Living sustainably during climate change will require adaptations to particular places and ways of being that may not scale or travel well.
Every evening, thousands of starlings take to the sky in one huge flock, creating massive, undulating forms called murmurations. The birds race and dive in extremely close proximity–sometimes only inches from each other. Scientists have found that in order for the birds to move so cohesively when presented with the uncertainty of the movements of thousands of other birds, they only need to pay attention to their seven closest neighbors. By limiting their focus to their immediate surroundings, the birds are able to make complicated movements without disrupting their neighbors. This hyper-localization results in beautiful, complex movements with fluidity and coordination.
Sustainability will not come primarily from homogenized top-down approaches but from the careful adaptation of people to particular place.
- David W. Orr in Ecological Literacy, page 33
What ethical connection does your work have with the world around you?
- Design Professor, Interview #21