According to Theodore Roszak's first book on Ecopsychology (1992), while the mind is partly shaped by/within social, cultural, and historical contexts, it also has a deep and fundamental connection with the "natural" world, and the planet, more generally. Thus, in one sense, striving towards environmental sustainability is necessary for psychological self-preservation and restoration. Environmental activism-as-cognitive therapy. Applied to sport, the notion of sustainability has a number of interesting elements. The body struggles to sustain effort over the course of a race, bout, or contest, the mind sustains focus and attention in order to achieve peak performance, and exercisers sustain (of fail to sustain) a practice of regular physical exertion. As we approach Earth Day in the next week or so, what do we make of sport, the body, the environment, and sustainability? In what ways do modern physical cultures contribute to or detract from "green" politics and practices? In what ways have we built or altered environments to sustain our sport and fitness endeavors while simultaneously damaging natural settings? Drawing from ecopsychology, what does it mean that we sometimes condone environmental degradation in the pursuit of our sport and exercise interests? Further, what do we make of the cyborgian identity projects at the intersection of the technocultural and the ecopsychological? The interface/elemental-body/psyche...From: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QpZD5W3phY
"Go Green" seems to be a popular topic today among many schools. Chabot College in Hayward, CA is a community college that is redesigning their campus in ways that are environmentally friendly. There was a time when I watched a video about numerous nightclubs that did the same thing. So many factors come into play when the environment is involved. These "Go Green" movements are only the beginning steps of a long process towards rebuilding the environment. In terms of sports, the Minnesota stadium shown in the video is one way that sports can become involved. In general, sports should design a plan that would help eliminate the amount of waste generated at a single game. Ultimately, each person needs to be involved in order for such plans to succeed.
ReplyDeleteIndeed I find it a good thing that people are taking initiative of making an environmentally friendly football stadium. But on the other hand, I am not fully convince of how everything is plan out. There are chunks of things that are being left out. It is said that the stadium is located on the now nonexistent brownfield land. But what happen to all the contaminated residues that lingered on the land? I heard stories of contractors disposing contaminated residues in abandon areas near cities and rural areas without the public's recognition. Then a couple of weeks later, people from the communities would get random sicknesses.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, are the recycled steel just as sustainable as non recycled steel? Safety is the most important thing when building a stadium that carries 50,000 drunken college fans. Can the stadium also sustain natural disasters?
And Lastly, with our technology in today's world many would think that we have found ways of decreasing our use of electricity by a long shot. Why is it that this stadium can only decrease electricity by only 10%? The stadium cost about 250 million and can only save 10% of their electricity? In my opinion, 10% is not a lot.
-Jennifer Hong
I think that people alter environments a lot in order to sustain a sport and we do not think about what we are doing to the environment. For example, the golf courses that we make takes a lot away from natural habitats and uses a ton of water each day to keep it in top shape. We do not realize how much we are hurting the environment because we are more interested in the sports. I do not think that building golf courses is necessarily wrong, but we should think about how we can make them without hurting the environment as much.
ReplyDeleteMIKE SEBESTA SAID!
ReplyDeleteI believe that it is a struggle between many aspects of human society. We want to excel in sports, as well as watch college sports and professional sports put on a spectable. But usually the best performance for a "great show" is not usually eco-friendly. Even though many people might feel very strongly for the economy the sporting world completly shadows any opinion on the subject. Because sports are all about money and ratings. And simply put if synthetic EVERYTHING gives best performance and puts people in the seats that is what these top executives will use. So it is a vicious circle of people caring more about the sport society then the environment, there are those few who are dedicated to saving the planet, but sadly it seems that they are just small fish in a shark tank.
There have been strides at correcting this problem and slowing this added poison that is killing mother nature. I hope greater successful attempts will continue on this problem because there has to be a way in which we can have both a great pro and collegiate sports industry while deeply improving the quality of our planet. One thing is for sure, we must realize the importancy for this issue and the urgency to act now before it is too late. Even though it will be tough, hopefully in the future we can follow the University of Minnsota's lead and start to combine sport AND "green" to better our environment while still keeping hold to our sport culture that we hold so dear.
-- Mike Sebesta (KIN 164)
The practice of environmentalism is not new, but it seems to have become some kind of trend like in fashion. Unfortunately, humans and our practice of sports have degraded much of our natural resources. The building of golf course to "add green space" to an area is an excuse to practice a sport that consumes an enormous amount of land,grass that is not drought resistant,and golf carts instead of human powered generation to move about within †he golf course. Whether going green is looked as a fad, people should consider the amount of destruction we do to the earth, because we might not have one for future generations.
ReplyDelete-Martha Topete
The idea of protecting the environment and going green has been around for years, but actively becoming involved in saving the environment has just started to come to the forefront of conversations. Sports have a great influence on our society, and can help propel and support the campaign of becoming more green. Unfortunately, this is not the case because land is being bulldozed to build new golf courses and stadiums. Wild land that is the natural habitat for many animals and plants, is now becoming commercialized and consumed by the human race. If the sports world can help influence our population by going green in the new stadiums, or building eco-friendly parks, then this may help open the eyes of society to realize that we could lose our natural world due to our materialistic consumption. Small steps such as recycling, using reused utensils, dishes, and cups, or even using solar energy and solar panels can help us to preserve our environment. Even though these ideas may cost a lot, it's more costly to lose our environment and planet than a few dollars.
ReplyDelete