Tuesday, November 17, 2009

A little get together with Ernest Callenbach

Hello All!

Clearly I'm procrastinating because I'm blogging in the middle of the week. In my defense I have about 5 pages of outline written that needs to grow into a 10 page paper draft by 8pm tomorrow. I feel like that's a solid start... right? (Insert mildly panicked, desperate expression) Never the less, I am still procrastinating, so I must not be too worried. This mildly alarms me.

Anyway. This past monday, I was lucky enough to meet and interact Ernest Callenbach. What an amazing guy. He wrote the book Ecotopia in 1975 which was huge for environmental thought. He introduced ideas that have become commonplace today. It's pretty cool. Biodegradable plastics? Yeah, his idea. His book was pretty interesting too. It's fairly short, so it's definitely worth a read. he's from CA, and was a film critic. He himself said that the book isn't good writing, it's about the ideas within. Pretty Neat.

We planted a tree in the IES yard that is one of the EU's environmental initiatives with him, which was cool. I honestly think that it was actually a big deal. Who knows though. The tree was pretty measly, which sparked a lot of jokes. He quotes a spanish saying that I really liked after planting it: The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit. What a great saying.

After the "ceremonial tree planting-"and seriously, it was official. There's a plaque now. He sat down with my class and answered questions and we bounced ideas off of each other. He's very bright, and it was very interesting.

Seriously though, check the book out. It's called Ecotopia. It's a little farfetched with parts of the plot but it suggests some pretty fascinating and thought provoking ideas.

Back to work now!
Anna

1 comment:

  1. ugh obvi i am procrastinating too. it is great that you planted a tree...sounds fun!

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