More Earth Day on the way

The Elements
Modern science has progressed beyond anything imagined in the days when most cultures recognized the "elements" as earth, air, fire, and water. We now think of "elements" as something quite different. We have the periodic table with dozens of substances that are unique and as simple as they can be. In our present time view, the former element "air" is really composed of the elements hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, ozone, and on and on. "Earth" is composed of iron, carbon, hydrogen, and again, on and on. "Water" is hydrogen, oxygen, and a variety of elemental minerals. "Fire" is fundamentally dependent on the elements, oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. Early members of most religious traditions recognized "Spirit", sometimes the “aether” as the fifth, sort of all encompassing, element.

I submit that in our desire to manage human and institutional impact on the biosphere we have become so dependent on engineering and minutiae that we have lost sight of the bigger picture in important ways.

Anne Lamott proposes that there are times for all of us when we simply think, analyze, puzzle, and confound ourselves more than is healthy rather than going with what is in our hearts. The heartfelt action is often better than the highly analyzed, pragmatic, reaction. Discussing this in her book, Operating Instructions, she even says that at some point, usually sooner rather than later, "…the mind is a bad neighborhood at 4:00 AM where we should not go."

The work of many physicists has been taken to task because of a perception that it is aimed at disproving the existence of God. Indeed, many have worked at almost infinitesimally small levels, but in the context of the infinitesimally vast universe. Even though much of the work could be characterized as being at odds with the view of a perfect universe that emanated from the hand of a creator, Einstein especially has acknowledged in writings for the general public that at some point, there is no other explanation for the order and perfection of the universe. In my view he worked so well because he seemed willing to acknowledge that what he believed in his heart was as valid as what could be tested. He worked on the modern elemental level in the context of the fifth of the old elements, Spirit.

I used to worry about why Pi or Phi works. An Internet search for either can be scary. I have come to be able to relax and simply say that they just work because of the perfection of the universe. At some point we need to back out of our minds, away from the too close look, out of the bad neighborhood, and go with what we feel intuitively.

Thought about this way, perhaps the ancient elements, again, earth, air, fire, water, and spirit are a better way to think about our biosphere. Virtually every environmental issue or impact we can think of consists of and affects most of these elements. For instance, it quickly becomes clear that heating a campus of buildings with a central plant, where steam is generated by fossil fuels - oil, gas, or coal - depends on the elements of earth, air, fire, and water. The hydrocarbon fuels come from the Earth, they need Air in order to be able to oxidize as Fire, and so, produce steam from Water. The by-products of consuming Earth and Air by Fire affect Water, Air, and Earth. Mining of the Earth for fuels affects Air, Earth, Water, and requires Fire (electricity, gas, oil). Softening makeup Water for our Heating Plant requires Fire (electricity or heat), which requires Earth and Air, returns some substances, calcium, manganese, iron etc. to the Earth or maybe Water and, well, you start to get the picture.

Understanding of the principles that guide the best use of the elements of creation demands that we think about Earth, Air, Fire, and Water only in the context of the fifth, Spirit. Almost any resource development or consumption issue can be looked at in this way. Preserving the Earth and its resources for the future, cleansing our Air to help the health of our natural world, helping to conserve, restore, and clean our Water resources, and conserving and renewing our energy sources, Fire, will assure the future viability of creation. Preservation and cultivation of Spirit, and examining our use of the other elements in that context, will assure that we bring balance to the ecology of our campus, or any other institution or situation.

Colleges have a sort of unique responsibility to perpetuate themselves. Indeed, mission statements often address this aspect of their life. In addition, most purport to exist in order to serve, as St. Olaf does, by producing graduates prepared to serve a wider creation. We say that we focus on what is ultimately worthwhile and aspire to educate the whole person - mind, body, and spirit.

Preparing students to serve the world while using creation poorly as a college organism is irresponsible and selfish. We have been provided with the natural world and free will. It is ours to use wisely or mess up and we will be the beneficiaries or victims of the ways we choose to exercise our will on creation.

The elements of campus ecology, a small start:

Fire
Gas, Oil, Electricity, indoor and outdoor light, daylight, light pollution, vehicle fuels and lubes, solvents of all kinds, art/science/maintenance, embedded energy in acquired materials, fuels in art processes

Water
Domestic, sanitary sewer, storm water runoff and retention, AC, science, wetlands, mowing and land management practice, food - prep, cooking, dish washing, waste stream, implications of water in materials acquisition and production, cooling, steam production, vacuum by aspiration

Earth
Grounds maintenance, hardscape, land management, wetland, woodland, upland restoration and management, wildlife, bio-mass, outdoor recreation, athletics, natural resource management, material sources, ag and lawn chemicals, fertilization, mowing reduction, fuel acquisition and conservation

Air
Wind-powered electrical generation, particulate emission, CO2 sequestration, O2 production through bio-mass, CO, CO2, NO, SO, etc from carbon based fuels, science and art emissions, woodshop emissions, vehicle emissions, implications of materials acquisition and production on the air, particulates in ceramics, sculpture studios, art welding shops, foundry, and fume hoods. Dust emissions from clothes dryers.

Spirit
College of the Church, stewardship of the natural world, stewardship of the built environment, stewardship of the humans - fair work environments, social impacts of materials and processes, equality across the workplace - faculty, support and professional staff, administration, by gender, gender preference, age, race.

Physics tells us we cannot create or destroy energy, but that does not absolve us of the ramifications of people changing its form. As we think about the ecology of our campus, and its biosphere, we need to consider:

"Although I die, I shall continue
to live in everything that is.
The buffalo eats the grass.
And I eat him; and when I die,
the earth eats me and sprouts more grass.
Therefore, nothing is ever lost
and each thing is everything forever."
Native American author, unknown