Galileo’s Legacy Conference: Students Learn How to Go Green and Sustain Energy

By Brian Horstmann

March 4, 2010 No Comments

“They say people don’t believe in heroes anymore. Well, damn them! You and me, Max, we’re gonna give ‘em back their heroes!” Or so says Fifi, Max Rockatansky’s commanding officer in the film “Mad Max,” the 1979 movie explaining an environmental crisis that could occur unless society becomes more green. In “Mad Max,” war, famine and a shrinking amount of gasoline have caused the world to go straight to Hell. It is this exact type of future that many people are working against, spreading awareness of the perils that society will face in the future if our current lifestyles continue unchecked. From February 25-26, Missouri Western hosted the fifth Galileo’s Legacy Conference, in which three professors discussed environmental sustainability, and what needs to be done to escape this “Mad Max” outcome.

The conferences kicked off with “Simplicity: The Sustainable Life,” presented by Lisa H. Newton, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Program in Applied Ethics at Fairfield University, Connecticut. She spoke about how people need to cut out all the unnecessary possessions and extravagant lifestyles that some folks have in order to save the planet and ourselves from the depletion of its resources.

“We are going to die, drowning in the rising oceans, choking on the polluted air, buried in the trash, or starving to death in the new deserts,” said Newton.
Dr. Newton described how people in this day and age, especially in America, are using and wasting so many resources to a threatening degree, and that modern utilities, such as the availability of agriculture, have separated us from nature itself.

“We are living, until we die, out of harmony with the natural world, and that is very painful,” said Newton. “We must restore the balance with Nature or die spiritually as well as physically.”

Modern lifestyles and the availability of food, clothing, cars and technologies are increasing the distance between man and his relationship with the world itself. Dr. Newton spoke of the Yanomami tribe in South America, which has survived around 30,000 years without changing the way they live or destroying their environment. They have accomplished this by regulating childbirth so that they won’t use up the resources in the area. If modern civilizations were more careful about how they reproduce and use what the earth gives them, perhaps the planet wouldn’t be a ticking clock towards Doomsday.

“We are a different kind of predator,” Newton said. “We prey without limit. Wherever homo-sapiens show up, everything else dies.”

The second conference focused on the diminishing amount of oil on the planet, and how our reliance on gasoline will play a huge part in our downfall. Presented by Kenneth Deffeyes, Professor Emeritus of Geology at Princeton University, the conference was titled “Beyond Oil: Sustainable Energy”. He spoke of how rising gas prices, the lowering amounts of oil and rampant oil drilling are negatively affecting the planet, leading to a dark outlook of the future.

“Someday, Kansas will look like Iran, with dry holes,” Deffeyes said. “Someday the whole world will look like that. This is how you get there.”
Dr. Deffeyes enumerated on how important it is that society figure out how to run itself 100% on solar power before the natural gases are all gone. By then it would be too late. Fortunately, some action is being taken to wean humanity off of natural gas’ pull.

“It’s encouraging news that the U.S. is looking into new nuclear reactors,” said Deffeyes. He noted that nuclear power is much safer than it used to be, but that still shouldn’t keep solar power use from happening. As he noted, it’s the only resource available that cannot conceivably be used up. Of course, it is still very important that everyone do their part to conserve what they use.

“It’s important to learn when you’re young that there are conservation habits like turning off the lights when you leave the room,” said Deffeyes.
The third conference was titled “Food, Friends, and Faith: Cornerstones of Sustainability”, and was hosted by John Jkerd, Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics at the University of Missouri in Columbia. With the air of a preacher about him, Dr. Jkerd pleaded that everyone do their part to make the world a better place.

“Change always comes from the common people,” said Jkerd.

He spoke of how many common sense changes need to be made if humanity and the planet Earth are to survive.

“We’re not apart from the world, but a part of the world,” said Jkerd.

Dr. Jkerd made a huge point about how economics are running modern civilization, and that the end result of their run is disaster. The economy is draining the planet of its resources, and draining humanity of its will to live. He made dire mention of how the number of young people committing suicide has tripled and quadrupled over the past few decades. It’s a tricky situation, figuring out how to keep society on its feet without screwing things up in the long run.

“Sustainability is about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the future,” said Jkerd. “Changes in thinking like this will not be easy and will not be quick.”

The Galileo’s Legacy Conference of 2010 exemplified many harsh realities that the world needs to face head-on before it is too late. Massive changes in society’s structure must be made, along with many sacrifices. The overbearing theme that each speaker made mention of was that every individual must do their part to create change. It will not just be handed to us. In the end, in order to avoid the disastrous future that films like “Mad Max” display regularly, everyone must become an example of the “heroes” that Fifi spoke to Max about. Each of us will have to be a hero to ourselves and our planet, ultimately leading to the most heroic of deeds: saving the planet, and all life on earth.