Prompt:  Read the entire article and write a two paragraph summary that describes the author's view point on designing for the present and the future.  Do you agree/disagree?  Make sure you support your opinion. 


Design for the Next Century
Saul Griffith takes on the design challenge of our age
by Sam McMillan


We know the problems. Climate change is real. Ice caps are melting. China and India are coming online, and their populations are going to want to drive cars, eat meat and buy flat panel TVs. To power those TVs, China is commissioning a coal-burning power plant every two weeks. Finite resources are being depleted at an ever-faster clip, and landfills are filling up with the cast-off crapadoodle of a consumption-crazed society. Meanwhile designers are walking around wearing T-shirts that say: “Design Will Save the World.”

And that drives Saul Griffith nuts, because saving the world will take more than wearing a cool T-shirt. He should know.

Engineer, inventor, MacArthur Fellow, Saul Griffith holds multiple degrees in materials science and mechanical engineering. He completed his PhD in Programmable Assembly and Self-Replicating machines at MIT. Griffith is not only an inventor, with patents awarded and pending in textiles, optics, nanotechnology and energy production, he’s an entrepreneur, having co-founded Makani Power, an energy company working on ways to harness high-altitude wind energy, and Low Cost Eyeglasses, a company that aims to use desktop printing technology to produce prescription lenses for people in developing countries. In his spare time Griffith, is a writer of children’s books and co-creator of Howtoons, a comic book Web site that teaches kids how to build cool things out of household objects.

When he’s not running various companies, Griffith is a featured speaker at events like TED and Compostmodern, where the first thing he tells his audience of T-shirt-wearing designers is, “We’re planet f*****s.”

Gulp. Yes, he means you. Bike-riding, Prius-driving, hemp-wearing, vegan-eating, laptop-toting you. And me. And for that matter, himself. If you live in North America or Europe, chances are good you are part of the problem. So, how can designers become part of the solution?
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WattzOn.com: Saul collaborated with Kirk von Rohr to establish a new way of thinking about energy and the online tools used to understand personal energy consumption.
DESIGNERS MUST BECOME ENERGY LITERATE
“Designers must get a qualitative understanding of energy and energy use,” Griffith says. “Energy use is part of everything they design. Get conversant with learning how much energy is used in the course of an average global lifestyle, and look at the metrics of consumption.” If doing that means learning a little bit of physics, so be it. “Take Physics 101,” Griffith cajoles. “Overcome your fear.

“To get to a sustainable planet, you have to get to the numbers,” Griffith continues. “The key issue of our age is climate change.” The culprit is carbon. “What we know about climate and carbon dioxide is pretty comprehensive. Pre-industrial society lived in a world of approximately 283 PPM (parts per million) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Today we are at 390 PPM. At 400 PPM we reach a danger level that all but guarantees we can say goodbye to polar bears and coral reefs. Scientists working on climate change suggest 350 PPM may be a sustainable number. But to get there will take us 50 or 100 years, provided we make some hard decisions now.”

The numbers are important because climate scientists know that carbon equals temperature. The more carbon in the atmosphere, the hotter the planet. “Deciding on the temperature of the planet we want to live on is a design choice and it’s an engineering choice,” Griffith says, and it’s one with enormous consequences. Let’s say the temperature of the planet rises two degrees. Doesn’t sound too bad, until Griffith explains, “At 2 degrees we lose 10 percent of our species; at 2.5 degrees we lose 15 to 40 percent of the species; at 3 degrees 1 to 4 billion people face water shortages, and we can anticipate border wars; and at 4.5 degrees London, New York, San Francisco are lost to sea-level changes.”

CLIMATE CHANGE IS A DESIGN PROBLEM
“Where we set the bar for our temperature has major consequences. We can make the decisions to turn down the world’s thermostat,” Griffith says. “But it takes an honest approach and a discussion about what it means to have a good life as a human.” There’s a reason Griffith is spending so much time speaking to the design community about this issue: “The environmental question writ large is an aesthetic question in search of a design solution,” Griffith explains. “If you make it an aesthetic problem, you can engage a larger portion of humanity. The good news for designers is, absolutely everything needs to be done. The bad news? They are not equipped to do the job.

“Designers are the problem today,” Griffith believes, “because they keep pumping out crap. And advertisers keep telling us we want it.” However, he also believes that once designers become energy literate, they will be able to make profound contributions by redesigning products and services that provide the same value while conserving ten times as much energy.


“How do you use less energy, and how do you make it cleaner?,” he asks. “This is the design question for the next century. Making a twenty percent difference in reducing energy consumption isn’t good enough. You can’t win the greenwashing campaign. You can’t do this iteratively. You have to be astoundingly better. You have to make ten times the impact.

“Once you have the numbers, you know what your next 25 years worth of work will be like. That’s your contribution to the world. Designers could be giving us great objects and helping us live with less energy.”
Saul’s Flying: The first route map shows all the flights Saul took in 2007. Saul’s reevaluated flight plan (right) in 2010 only allows for one yearly flight to New York, and the flights to Australia, Hawaii or Europe every few years.
DESIGN FOR THE LONG HAUL: HEIRLOOM DESIGN
One solution is to design objects that require less energy, last longer and are so aesthetically pleasing we want to keep them around longer. Which means, ultimately, we will need less stuff with which to replace them. It’s a movement Griffith has called Heirloom Design.

“We need beautiful objects that last longer,” he says. Griffith knows this kind of talk can start to sound pretentious, so he frames it as an engineering problem. “Designers need to think about this in terms of embodied energy,” he explains, “that is, how much energy is used to make a product. Take a dinner table. An oak table weighing 250 pounds lasts 100 years. Expressed in joules (the energy required to make one pound of material), we can calculate the amount of energy required to make that table. Instead of buying that oak table designed to last 100 years, we have a culture that produces a cheap 250-pound table that will last 5 years. Over 100 years, those tables will consume 200 times as much embodied energy as the more expensive oak table. When designers are equipped with the math to really understand embodied energy, they can make better choices and understand the impact of their design decisions.

“We are living in the age of consequence,” Griffith continues. “We can measure and track the consequence of anything we do. So imagine we design in the world where we can measure the impact of our designs. You have to know the impact or you'll embarrass yourself.

“We’ll need a new understanding around making objects that are cared for and loved,” Griffith says. The fact that designers crave beautiful, well-made objects is actually a good thing as far as he is concerned. Heirloom Design is not about doing without. “We want to encourage people to find things that are perfect and will last the rest of our lives. It just requires a new way to pay for things. The same way we mortgage a house, we should be able to pay a mortgage for the designs we like. Along with a new service industry that understands Heirloom Design, design innovation might just be designing a new, affordable way of financing our ownership of heirloom objects.”
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WattzOn.com uses a visualization of everyday objects or experiences to represent unfathomable quantities. Carbon Parts Per Million is a hard thing to wrap your mind around. Watts is an easier unit to understand, since everyone has turned on a light bulb. In turn, this helps to build a more intuitive way to discuss energy consumption.
DESIGNING A SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY: LEARN TO LIVE LIKE AN ISLANDER
Griffith has this bit of advice for designers who want to make a difference in the decades ahead. “Look for good cultural practices,” he says. “If I were a designer and I wanted to design for the next century, I wouldn’t look at modernist Europe for my model. I’d look at Polynesia and Japan for my inspiration. The Japanese and Polynesian cultures have a lot to teach us. Instead of paper towels in Japan, you carry your own personal towel. Instead of plastic bags that we throw in the trash, you carry your lunch in reusable metal bento boxes. We need to develop an island mentality. Those cultures developed around the realities of natural constraints.

“Polynesians have a concept they call mana,” Griffith goes on, “which can be translated as the authority and respect possessed by an elder. “Anything old, ripped and repaired acquires mana, and over time more value. In a modern culture, the mana that comes from beautifully made and cared for things needs to become our badge of honor.”

Ultimately Griffith explains that the fundamental question for humanity is one of design. “Designers have a choice if they want to be relevant. They can solve the problem. They can learn the numbers. They can get literate about energy and sustainability. And they can learn to measure the end result.”

For better or worse, the results of our attempts to dial back the temperature of Earth won’t be seen for 50 to 100 years. If you get it right, your grandchildren will thank you. For old times sake, they might even get out that T-shirt you used to wear. You know, the one that said, “Design Will Save The World.” CA


 

 
Anthony Springsteel
8/30/2010 01:25:52 am

With upcoming countries like China and India becoming more industrialized, the usage of non-renewable is also on the rise. These non renewable resources not only power the factory but also emit harmful gases. This passage is expressing the fact that wearing a shirt that says “Save the planet” doesn’t actually help the planet. We as designers need to have our ideas speak to vast numbers not a few people we see around local stores who take a glimpse at the shirt we are wearing. Griffith says “To get to a sustainable planet, you have to get to the numbers,” he also describes the significant difference a slight change in temperature can bring. He states “At 2 degrees we lose 10 percent of our species; at 2.5 degrees we lose 15 to 40 percent of the species; at 3 degrees 1 to 4 billion people face water shortages, and we can anticipate border wars; and at 4.5 degrees London, New York, San Francisco are lost to sea-level changes.” So he is trying to get the alarming point across that if we as designers don’t impact the views of others and get them to join the cause, or raise awareness. Then our art work is useless, it may look appealing but artwork is based on its effect to the viewer and making them want to change their opinion or see something in a new light.

Another thing us as designers must focus on is Griffith’s movement called Heirloom Design. This consists of designing new products that require less energy; last longer and so aesthetically pleasing that we want to keep them longer. Along with that Griffiths expressed his ideology of living like an islander, which can be interpreted as taking a step back in time. Instead of using plastic lunch bags, use a reusable metal lunch box like people in the 80’s did. Why aren’t they used more often these days you might find yourself asking? The answer is we as designers haven’t created an aesthetically pleasing lunch box that’s will fit into today’s society; which reverts back to the Heirloom Design. So what Griffiths is trying to express is that we as designers need to create eco-friendly products that are so appealing that the consumers will want to go out and get them, and hold on to them. If we can’t make an impact with our designs by making the viewer think differently or raise awareness then what kind of artists are we?

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Connor Coppock
8/30/2010 01:27:10 am

The author of the passage has a very distinct point of view on design. He believes that design should now be aimed towards the future and away from the present and past, as the world needs a new direction, and he believes that art is a way to that destination. He feels that designers should learn about ways to cut down energy costs, and, as designers have control over what advertisers advertise, persuade others to do the same, in any way possible.

The author of this passage also believes that designers are the cause for a big part of (what seems to be) the main global problem: climate change. The author believes that, with enough empowerment, designers and design firms can begin to create advertisements for products that are far more energy efficient.

I agree with the author of the passage. Even though he may go as far as to call designers “planet f*****s”, his main idea is right on track: designers have way more influence on the world than they know. Without the adverts for certain nature-harming products, the planet would have been in much better condition. I also believe that designers, if they truly want to make a difference, need to stay relevant and conscious of their decisions.

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Anthony Catalano
8/30/2010 01:30:38 am

Saul Griffith is a multiple degree holder that has become sick of designers today. There are many problems in the world today that everyone is well aware of. One of the main problems in today’s world is climate change. He blames the designers for this world wide issue. Griffith states that designers need to start designing more energy efficient objects that work the same. Yes, this will be a difficult task, but that is the job and responsibility of being a designer. Griffith believes that designers need to start off by designing a, what he calls, “Heirloom Design” A Heirloom design is a design of an object that uses less energy, lasts longer than the original object, and is aesthetically pleasing. If all designers did just this, we would be turning doing the world’s thermostat. Designers can choose whether or not they want to be relevant. They can choose if they want to be the problem or the solution. Either way, the world is changing for the worse right before our eyes, and it is up to the designers if this world should continue to worsen or get better.

I agree with Saul Griffith. Everything we use in our lives was invented by a designer. This designer chose how this object would work, how much energy it would use, and what it might release into the world as a result of using it. The designers now need to start designing for the better of the world. They need to take the responsibility of being a designer, learn the numbers required to predict the outcome, and stop designing for the quick money or easy success. If every designer in the world made it their responsibility to designing at least one object that are energy efficient to replace an old object that was polluting, the entire world would see a enormous change in direction, a change in direction that could save our planet.

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Andre T.
8/30/2010 01:32:30 am

The beginning of the article introduces Engineer, inventor, MacArthur Fellow, Saul Griffith who states his opinion on the designers wearing “Design will save the world” shirts. I have to say that I agree with him when it comes to us as people messing up the world. The energy use of some designers is put to such waste because the items they produce could be so much better. Instead of putting a certain amount of energy into one thing that would only last a couple years, it could be put towards something else that would last many more years. Later in the passage he states that we need to make items that appeal others, last longer, and require less energy use. This way more energy could be put towards other things and everyone is still satisfied. I also agree with him here. Some products created could be labeled a complete waste of time.
Also, the article states that society is using too many un-renewable items that may benefit us now but not in the end. For example, coal is something that burns and it can’t be re-used. It’s affecting the environment by allowing gases to enter the atmosphere and making the temperature rise. Carbon is another thing we release. All the energy use isn’t helping the temperature on earth but with simple adjustments things can change rapidly. It won’t be easy but it seems to be the only conclusion. I agree with it all but I will admit that it is something that has never crossed my mind before. The time and effort used to decipher all of this must appreciated.

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NICHOLAS MADDALENA
8/30/2010 01:34:34 am

Slowly but surely, the world is increasing its usage in big industries. This action may not be so slow moving anymore. The population of China and India make up most of the world and they have the same desires and needs to own high class materials and nice flat screen tv’s like the rest of the already modernized world. Saul Griffith proves to all people that no matter how busy or how many jobs you have, there is still room to help improve society and that designers play a larger role than most people think think.
Some people may not realize that carbon is one of the main factors affecting the climate change. The increase in carbon increases the temperature of the planet and heat. Therefore the increase in just one little degree may not appear to do much damage but creates the problems that are sure to come if no action is taken in the attempt to prevent global disaster.
Designers may be a source of the problem today because advertisements keep telling the community what we want to hear. However, the real truth today is that in order to make a difference, the community needs to accept the fact that we are indeed making problems for the world and the following generations. Once designers begin to understand energy more efficiently and begin to create designs using less energy and attractive to society, then they can begin to take part in then the world’s process of improving.
The main goal should now be to design and create objects that are appealing to the eye but last ten times longer than objects nowadays. For example most objects last about 5 years when they have the potential to be much more durable. As a designer, the process of designing should surround the idealism of a natural lifestyle and looking back at certain cultures and their values.
No matter what we as a society do now, we probably won’t see the effects of it since it takes such a long time to make a change. However, we will only improve the globes health and the health of our children and grandchildren to come.
It is more useful to design for the future than the present because unless a substantial amount of the population begins to act or follow some sort of act to improve the world, it will take so long and be extremely frustrating. The effects of designing for the future would have a much larger effect on the future generations. I believe if all designers from advertisements to the engineers work together, the energy crises could easily improve. From the celebrities on tv, the majority of society believes what is seen on tv or what their favorite celebrities are involved in.

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Andre Weir
8/30/2010 01:35:33 am

Saul Griffith is a man who is frustrated with the feeble attempts to save the planet. He believes that people, designers in particular, either expresses their concern for the planet poorly or is belittling the issue. For some designers of production, Griffith doesn’t believe they are doing their job correctly. There is so much to be done and the people are there for the job; however they are missing one key factor and that is becoming energy literate. Griffith feels that once the designers truly become aware of the issue, their work will add so much to the solution. Once the designers perceive this information so will the consumers.

Griffith suggests that designers follow the Heirloom Design. If creators developed object that uses less energy and last almost a life time, people will buy one thing and let it last instead of buying several objects to replace them over and over. Although the Heirloom Design is a good idea, what designers lack is the creativity that will appeal to consumers. If the object has no beauty or creativity, people will not buy it even if it helps the environment. I truly agree with Griffith’s opinion. Inventors and creators are not considering the issue fully which leads into poor products that neither help us nor the environment.

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Yana Yegorova
8/30/2010 01:36:27 am

The world is becoming riddled with issues of over-consumption and climate change. There are simply not enough resources to fulfill the needs and wants of humanity, and even though designers think that their sketches can help, no actual work is being done. While many designers parade their works as world-changing, Saul Griffith is taking the lead with founding new energy sources, creative resource-saving ideas, and educating designers on how to act. Griffith wants designers to know the physics behind renewable energy and how carbon dioxide affects the world. Designers need to be more educated in order to truly speak to the world above a consumerism level. If designers can understand how energy works, they can be able to create aesthetically pleasing, environmental blueprints which will change the course of the world.

Griffith believes that people will be more inclined to help stop climate change if the new products will be as beautiful as the old, except they will use less energy. While it is difficult to change a long history of over-consumption, designers need to focus on a new kind of design, Heirloom Designs, which last considerately longer than polluting objects. Sustainability is the key of design, and it is time for many designers to embrace that fact. Many island cultures, such as Japan, have made sustainability the number one priority because of the strain of numerous natural resources. While the convenience of resources has made America prosper, the inefficiency of the designs have greatly wasted a lot of our wealth. While designers do have a choice, whether they wish to create advertisement after advertisement or break free of the materialistic mold, it is important to think about how you want to be remembered.

I agree that designers need to expand their mindset of a materialistic attitude, and welcome in a new age of literacy, wisdom, and the increasing regard of nature. Whilst every designer would love to stop global pollution, they do not consider the possible effects of the mental pollution of advertisements. Beauty, perfection, and luxuries start to lose their value when the entire world is on the brink of an ecological collapse. Designing trivial things such as trends and fashion bear no weight of consequence when compared to climate change and the depletion of resources, but they do affect how much acknowledgement those issues get from the general pubic. Living in a world where people care more about celebrities than coral reefs, a movement needs to start to remove the screen which conceals a dilemma of over-consumption of unsustainable, wasteful products.

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n.robinson
8/30/2010 01:37:31 am

I agree with the author as well as Saul Griffith. Saul states real problems that are going on in the world right now as we speak. These problems affect the way we live today but more importantly how the ones after us live in the future. With India and China ready to take off as world powers, many problems begin to take hold. India and China become economic powerhouses and with economic superiority comes world issues. Factory after factory will be built to ensure China and India take dominance in the eyes of the world and be recognized as a superior industrialized country. Being industrialized is every countries dream. With industrialization, a country can provide the flat panel TVs and the fancy cars for many of its citizens. Everyone wants to compete with one another and live a lifestyle that is all wants and not needs. The problem as well as the solution to helping planet Earth is us.

I agree with the author as well as Saul Griffith. I believe that designers can and one day will save the world from the time bomb that the Earth simply cannot defuse on its own. Griffith brings up an idea thati completely agrees with. Designers can make products that require less energy and less money to make, safer on the environment, lasts longer, and so pleasing to the senses that we cherish them and use them everyday. The possibilities are endless of the innovations that designers can create for our society now as well as in the future. Creativity has no bounds and I believe that designers will one day save the world.

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Sarah Fernandez
8/30/2010 01:46:10 am

In this article, the author shows a realistic approach to designing for the present and future. The author is basically saying that designers need a reality check and need to fundamentally understand energy and energy consumption that is going on in the world. Designers have such an impact on the world without even knowing it and they need to step up and help contribute. Designers need to become knowledgeable of energy and energy consumption so that they can redesign objects accordingly that will last longer and save energy at the same time. If designers design objects that require less energy and will last longer, then people would not need to be constantly replacing those objects and that in turn will save energy. If all of this energy is being saved, then that will slowly help to decrease the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Earth’s temperature does not need to rise anymore, or else we will be losing species, and cities to rising sea levels. Other designers need to be aware of present day dilemmas and energy consumption and to help contribute instead of designing all of these objects that require so much energy.
I agree with the author’s viewpoint, if designers start creating objects requiring less energy to make, then the future has more of a chance. I think that designers need to take the initiative now, to start redesigning objects and making new objects that require less energy consumption. Then maybe designers in the future will take the same approach in the fight to save energy in order to keep Earth at a sustainable temperature.

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mallory smith
8/30/2010 08:00:41 am

The author, Sam McMillan, wrote this article to expose the truth of what’s happening in the world, and to show how we can change it. He makes it clear that we are the problem, that we’re destroying our own planet, and that wearing a shirt expressing that “Design Will Save The World” will do nothing beneficial for us if we don’t actually act on it and become part of the solution. To elaborate more on his view point he brings in Saul Griffith, an engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur who holds multiple degrees in materials science and mechanical engineering. Griffith believes that designers must become energy literate. He says that designers need to get a “qualitative understanding of energy and energy use”, mainly due to the fact that “energy use is part of everything they design.” Griffith believes that once designers become energy literate, they will be able to make a larger impact by creating designs for products and services that ‘provide the same value while conserving ten times as much energy.’

I agree with this thinking. Many designers don’t think about the long term impact a product will have on the world, rather what that said product can accomplish now. I don’t think designers realize how much of a hold they have over people; if it’s aesthetically pleasing people will buy it, regardless of the effects it will have. That’s why I believe that designers need to start measuring the impact of their designs and looking ahead, and they need to replace old products with more energy efficient ones. I have no doubt that designers can impact the world tremendously, they just need to take the time to learn how to do so.

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Nate Rothleder
8/30/2010 08:20:55 am

To begin the article, Sam McMillan talks about some problems in the world and how other countries are solving them and making a rise in the world. Then McMillan begins to explain the subject of this article,Saul Griffith. Saul Griffith is many things. He has a PhD in Programmable Assembly and Self-Replicating machines; Griffith is not only an inventor, but an entrepreneur as well. Running many companies at once, he still manages to be a speaker at TED and Compostmodern. Griffith is trying to find new ways to use less energy and make the world a more sustainable place to live. During a conference he states that our atmosphere is at 390 PPM, meaning that we have a tremendous amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. He tells people that so they would change the way they use energy. Griffith believes that the worlds design flaw is the amount of energy the world uses, and how it’s affecting everything around us.

Griffith also believes that designers are the problem today. Designers will advertise something, then wont do anything about it pretty much. But on the other hand, he also believes that when the designers in the world become more energy literate, they’ll be able to contribute to the energy crisis. Us as designers we need to focus on making our world a suitable place for all of us. Once we manage to do that our world will be more energy efficient, our world will be cleaner, and an overall better place for everyone. Designers should be focusing on finding ways to redesign the products that use more energy then others, and design them to use less energy. As designers our duty is to make things better for everyone and everything around us. That's what McMillan and Griffith are trying to get out too the world.

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Josue .V
8/30/2010 10:50:53 am

While reading through “Design for the Next Century” Saul Griffith mentioned very interesting facts about the effects that would be encountered. If designers would not become literate, solve the problem, and learn the numbers. Designers have the power to change the present and future on how objects are designed. Designers can produce objects that can take less energy and last longer. This in the long run can decide the earth’s fate. Griffith believes “Designers are the problem today” “because they keep pumping out crap and advertisers keep telling us we want it.”

I strongly agree with Griffith because in a sense this is true. Designers are pretty much like robots being told what to produce and what not to produce. Advertisers try to convince us what we should buy, because it looks better or just because it costs more. If designers can start changing ways they produce an object we can save earth. By learning about other cultures we can figure out other methods of doing things.

The methods of other cultures can help out designers who want to design something for the next century. Consider the Japanese people who carry around a personal towel instead of wasting paper towels by the hundreds. If we could adapt ourselves to this method, our rain forests wouldn’t be disappearing. Throughout the article I strongly agreed with the statements and facts provided by Griffith and I hope designers can learn from this and as well as myself.

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Rosa Padron
8/30/2010 11:00:31 am

We might not feel it, but Earth does, the pain of giving one’s children all their necessities and still receiving our lack of appreciation, interest and concern. This indeed should not be tolerated nor practiced. Not even wearing amazingly cute T-shirts is going to help clean up waste landfills. T-shirts are not going to provide China’s or any other country’s civilians with expensive cars, food, MAC computers or any other requisites. For now, the only way requires energy, which cause all of Earth’s breakdowns and that’s why Saul Griffith is disgusted. Griffith tries to assist the green environment by harnessing high-altitude wind energy and other ways, he also tries to educate the youth on how to build cool objects out of household items. Numbers are worth everything, at first they might seem small, however the story is different once they’ve added up. Long ago, the planet had about 283 PPM of CO2 in the atmosphere, nowadays, there’s about 390 PPM of CO2 in the atmosphere, this can cause unimaginable consequences. Griffith believes that designers are the problem today, he states that they need the knowledge of energy and its uses, because they instead produce toxic products on Earth. However, once they learn about energy and its uses, designers can redesign products with the same value while saving energy ten times more. One solution is the Heirloom Design, this type of movement requires designing ideas that uses less energy, endures for longer periods and is more pleasing to the eye. A tip is to not look at the modern world, but rather the old and traditional-fashioned ways. Take for example the Japanese, they carry their own towel instead of paper towels and reusable metal bento boxes instead of plastic bags. Another example are the Polynesians and their belief in mana, which gives old, ripped or repaired objects more value as well as authority and respect. Now, If we do want to design new inventions, we need to first understand what we’re about to construct, what is it going to be built out of? Will it cause any harm to mother Earth or its inhabitants? Simple answers to simple questions can lead to world-saving methods!
In my opinion I support Griffith and his beliefs. The world is going through a dramatic change and simple actions such as wearing anti-thrash T-shirts is not going to make an impact. We need to take this seriously and thus make serious actions that can make a change ten times more than normal. It’s true that we all crave from technology and the modern world’s comforts, but turning off the lights for an hour when not needed is not a difficult task. No one’s going to listen to what T-shirts have to say, the public could care less, advising and persuading the public to take green actions is preferable. We need to make sure that everyday we celebrate Green Day or Earth Day, there’s no need for someone to remind us, it’s our own job and task to take on. :)

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P. Sanders
9/12/2010 07:53:18 am

Great Job everybody! Now the question is...which kind of designer do you want to be? Yana said it perfectly..."how do you want to be remembered?" Its totally easy to make a buck or two, but another thing altogether to make one change. Its definitely a commitment, but worth every bit of the journey. Lets continue to keep sustainability at the heart of what we do.

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