Carrion is a vital food source for many creatures, like Australia’s lace goanna

Surveying the carnage

Fraser Shilling,a professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at UC Davis, heads the California Roadkill Observation System, a research project which encourages members of the public to document their sightings of roadkill and submit them online. As of August 2018, the website had collected over 58,000 observations from more than 1,500 users in less than ten years – from retirees to high school students. For Shilling, the bodies littering highways are an essential tool for understanding animal populations. “I sometimes think of the roads as a continuous wildlife sampling system,” he told Vox. Because of randomness of collisions, the different types of animals hit by cars accurately represent the ecosystem of the surrounding area.

David Wembridge, a surveys officer with UK wildlife charity, the People’s Trust for Endangered Animals, agrees. “While recording road kill can be a little gruesome, high numbers of road kill can indicate a healthy population of mammals in the surrounding landscape,” he explained to BBC Northern Ireland. “In life, mammals are often difficult to survey, so by recording casualties that are easier to observe, it's possible to get an idea of total numbers and how population changes from year to year.”

Because introduced species are just as likely to be killed on the road as native animals Shilling has used his database to track the movement of the Eastern grey squirrel and the Eastern fox squirrel into California. “They're both invading different parts of the Western grey squirrel’s habitat, and we can see that in the roadkill data," he says.

Road users are helping scientist Fraser Shilling map the spread of pests – like the invasive Eastern fox squirrel in Northern California

Photo: California Roadkill Observation System, 23 December 2014 – 23 March 201

Learning from disaster

Due to the public stigma surrounding death, as well as European Union legal requirements, it has has been official practice to remove carrion from German national parks – depriving scavenger animals like lynx of their food source. When an influential 2019 study highlighted the plight of Europe’s disappearing scavengers, leading scientists like German Peter Südbeck rose to challenge the taboo around death. It took a dramatic weather event in the Netherlands, resulting in the sudden deaths of 3000 horses, cattle and deer, to present a new way forward.

The Oostvaarderplassen, part of Niew Land National Park, is one of Europe’s oldest nature reserves. The shock deaths of thousands of grazing mammals during a 2018 Winter cold snap showed how an influx of large carcasses in turn drove an increase in the numbers of insects and other small lifeforms. The nutrients were absorbed by local plant-life too, which experienced rapid growth in the following months. A different investigation into a 2016 Norwegian electrical storm revealed how 323 reindeer struck by lightning and instantly killed, ultimately nourished ravens, golden eagles and wolverines.

Just as Emma Spencer recycles roadkill for her scavenger studies in the Australian outback, Peter Südbeck is learning from the Norwegian and Dutch studies to boost scavenger numbers in Germany. “The motto of German national parks is ‘let nature be nature’,” he told BBC, “but we skipped out this natural process of what's happening with a dead animal.” Head of Niedersachsisches Wattenmer National Park in Lower Saxony, he is leading his team in an initiative to bring back the bodies of locally important species like roe deer to locations in the park – scheduled to begin in September 2022. They will be eagerly awaiting the findings, with cameras trained on any new signs of life entering sites. A sister project in the Bavarian national forest has already proved popular, with live feeds of lynx feeding capturing the public imagination. In June 2021 bearded vultures were reintroduced to Germany for the first time in 100 years; with any luck, there’ll be soon be more of them on the scene.

Bearded vultures were until recently considered extinct in Germany. A young captive bird was recently released in a remote cave in Bavaria’s Berchtesgaden National Park

Reuben Holt is an M.A. student at HMKW Berlin where he studies journalism

We all have a story that goes like this: it’s holiday dinner at your household, the living room has been decorated, the main course – served, and your whole family is deep in conversation (and bowls full of mashed potatoes). While biting into the turkey, your uncle passionately makes some controversial comment (say, on immigrant rights) that inevitably makes your skin crawl.

You look over at your kind, smiley aunt Sophie and wonder “Why can’t he be more like her?!”.

There’s a reason why most of us are apprehensive to discuss new ideas with our male relatives, but quick to open up to female ones. A study conducted on US teenagers found that young people often find the men in their family more authoritarian and resistant to change than the women. When we talk about climate change, this finding becomes particularly relevant. Anecdotally, a lot of us might associate eco-friendly behaviors with females more than with men: think Greta Thunberg, or a charismatic young woman modelling a KeepCup. Research by the platform Scientific American confirms this idea, indicating that women are more likely to use sustainable products and purchase reusable bags.

In the study, male participants had to categorize supermarket items (such as shampoo and dish-washing liquid) as either “sustainable” or “unsustainable”, and as “masculine” or “feminine”. In addition to this, they were asked to indicate how likely they were to buy each product. The findings were conclusive: the items which were seen as more environmentally friendly were also perceived as more feminine, and were less likely to be purchased by the research subjects.

Similarly, researchers from Northwestern University, Illinois found that guys were less willing to purchase food items that they viewed as “feminine”, such as quiche. Since they saw eco-friendly products as less masculine, they were likely to deliberately opt out of buying them.

The fear of appearing effeminate seems to be a major subconscious driving factor for a lot of men. A 2020 study found that most males were likely to avoid affiliation with anything they deemed “unmanly” – so much so that they didn’t want to be seen next to actors wearing gender-bending clothing. Interestingly, these same participants also admitted to considering environmentalism “effeminate”. According to the researchers, this stemmed from the fact that going green means caring for the planet, and – in its most stereotypical form, the very notion of “care” is linked to femininity.

Several of the people interviewed for this blog post (all of whom identify as male) seemed to have experienced these stereotypes first-hand. “I think it comes down to toxic masculinity,” says Victor Lombard, an Environmental Studies major at the Amsterdam University College. “I know some guys who don’t recycle because they think it’s ‘gay’.” For him, this was especially true during high school, which he dubs as a “pressure community”: “As a group dynamic of fifteen to sixteen-year-olds, you quickly felt the pressure to act the same way, so you had to make fun of vegans or whoever tried to be sustainable.”

Walter Bruce, a Digital Journalism MA student at HMKW Berlin, has had a similar experience. “I used to be vegetarian for environmental reasons,”he says. “Back then some people would insinuate or imply that it was feminine or effeminate to not eat meat and masculine to consume it.” Walter also suggests that the reason why some men are averse to environmentalism is fear: “Masculinity is associated with power, and accepting the climate situation is acknowledging that you are powerless unless we change things,” he explains. “This initial position of helplessness is uncomfortable for the hypermasculine.”

The good news is, this avoidant (and sometimes even outwardly negative) attitude towards environmentalism doesn’t have to last forever. “I remember actively throwing pieces of gum on the floor so I could look cool in high school,” says Victor. “Now as an adult, I realize how flawed this idea of not caring about the environment is.” Mario Troyanov, a 23-year-old marketing specialist from Bulgaria, has had a similar journey: “I became more aware of climate change as it featured more heavily in the media,” he says. “This made me start buying local produce and sustainably wrapped products.”

Research suggests that these aren’t just stories of individual experiences, but more so indicators of a generation-wide change. A 2020 study by the Pew Research Center found that almost 50% of Millennial and Gen Z men in the U.S. – even those from a Republican background, were concerned about climate change (as opposed to just 25% of their fathers). Still, there are a lot of uncomfortable questions that need to be asked in order for this progress to continue: Why do we still think it’s un-manly to care? And what’s the reason why young men avoid being associated with (what they perceive to be) feminine behaviors?

Some environmental experts suggest that eco-friendly products with more “masculine” labeling (or what they call “men-vironmental” packaging) can be a way of enticing male consumers to make greener choices. But isn’t that further leaning into the idea that “feminine = bad”?

Ultimately, there are no simple answers to any of these questions. But perhaps this is how we initiate change: by being brave enough to open a discussion, and to question our own gender biases. Because it’s the future of not only our society, but the planet at large that’s at stake.

Ralitza Petrova//  19 April 2022 // #GoingGreen

Ralitza Petrova is a lifestyle and entertainment journalist currently based in Germany. Originally from Sofia, Bulgaria she graduated with a BA in Media from the Amsterdam University College and is now completing a master's in Journalism at HMKW Berlin. Besides studying, she has her own entertainment column for the website VBox7.com, writes poetry and occasionally vlogs. Her main areas of interest include environmentalism, pop culture, health, and wellness.

Some Videos and Readings for the Curious:

TED Talk by Lisa Ocko on tackling the problem of methane emissions

CBS News report in San Francisco on the impact of large scale dairy production:

“Biogas digester at Oregon's Lochmead Farms turns manure and methane into power,” The Oregonian (Jan, 10, 2019)

In this final interview, we talk about the biggest climate change problems they personally encounter* in the United States, how we could tackle them, and which role models still give them hope that we can save our planet. In addition, they revealed* their favorite green books and movies as an inspiration for our German readers (and listeners).

Lea: What do you think are the biggest problems that we’ll face in regard to climate change?

Carla (14): I feel like people not knowing. I feel like our generation is doing things, at least here, and our President doesn’t even believe that climate change is a real thing. But I feel like whenever it is our turn, our generation does come up.

Bane (42): This is the greatest void* – I think – that’s ever been in any grouping. So, at one point, it’d be women vote different than men, minorities vote different, okay? Now, generation forty and under vote 38 % differently than forty and over.¹ It’s the greatest gap ever in American politics for voting. And it’s all based on… A lot of people think it’s based on sustainability, what’s happened environmentally… but isn’t that crazy? 

“The current voters’ disparity is caused by biased media coverage. Because news agencies in the U.S. no longer have to represent a neutral position.”

“In a throw-away economy it’s a non-thought to get things repaired.”

“The real problem lies in the ignorance of not recognizing climate change is a real thing. But also lack of education and the need for jobs blind people. Even tourism contributes to it. For example, in the Arctic, where they use the ice breakers to make room for oil drillings.” 

Lea: What would be the first tiny step towards change?

Carla: I think everyone doing solar panels. I think it is really a good thing because by that we’re gonna have 100 percent clean energy, which is really cool. And I feel like that is something everyone can do. 

Bane: I don’t even think that it’s on the radar that people think, “I need to be sustainable.”  So, the first thing will be to get people to think, “What can I do to lessen* my footprint?” 

Sheryl (48): Law. You would have to be required. 

»Right now, people buy gasoline cars because they are cheaper. If you made electric cars ten thousand dollars cheaper than gasoline cars, guess what everybody would buy.«

Bane: The cost and the savings. Right now, people buy gasoline cars because they are cheaper. If you made electric cars ten thousand dollars cheaper than gasoline cars, guess what everybody would buy. You would buy it. 

Sheryl: And if you said by 2025 every car has to be that. Oh well, then I would have to buy one.

Bane: That’s what everybody would do. 

Sheryl: But there is no law. My car is half. That was the best I could do. But they didn’t have it in electro. 

“We need western world leaders stating that climate change is real and making substantial commitments.”

Bane: And I think when people are out in the environment, then they appreciate* it more and they preserve it more. 

Lea: Do you have a green role model?

Carla: I think my dad is pretty green. He tries his hardest.

Elon Musk  (Duncan.Hull/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0) 

Sophie (41): In general, people in the spotlight inspiring our kids. They make saving the world trendy. It’s trendy to save the world, now. So, that’s what we’re going to do. 

Lea: Can you recommend a green book or a movie?

Carla: I don’t know if this counts but I am Malala. 

Julia (12): Or even – I know these are animated movies – but Ice Age is actually serious. 

Bane: The Fourth Turning: What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America’s Next Rendevouz with Destiny (William Strauss and Neil Howe) à It states his theory of recurring* generation cycles in America.

A walk in the woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (Bill Bryson) à It is about a guy who walked on this trail from Georgia to Maine completely sustainably. 

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (Ashlee Vance) à Elon Musk’s biography.

Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography (Theodore Roosevelt) à It tells the story of Teddy Roosevelt starting the National Parks.

The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon (Kevin Fedarko) à They are going down the Colorado river and the back story is about how you can control rivers and the history of the middle west but it also deals with the green movement and fighting the dams.

This final interview concludes our mini-series about Bane and Sophie and their four kids – the Morgans, a family in western Pennsylvania. I hope that you have enjoyed learning about this family’s approach to a greener lifestyle and their everyday struggles to translate their ambitions into real-life actions. Perhaps it has taught you some new things about sustainability measures in the U.S. I myself am very grateful for all the insights the Morgans have given me into their American way of life and thinking. 

I interviewed this family, because I wanted to get an authentic insight into a real American middle-class family’s views on sustainability and whether they can represent general trends in society. My original questions focused on their actual behavior and consumer choices – their housing situation, travel, eating, and shopping habits. But I was also interested in how they view the bigger picture: How do they perceive climate change in the U.S., the problems and challenges it creates, and the most promising solutions that are available. The Morgans’ statements made me wonder more than once how “typical” of an American family they actually are and how much I personally would agree, or disagree, with their statements.

In the end, it was through their detailed answers, and Sheryl’s and Mary’s additional comments that I have learned so much more: choosing a sustainable lifestyle is not just a matter of your own personal commitment. You don’t just commit to a completely green life and it all just falls into place the next day. To go green, you often need to consider so many aspects: costs, infrastructure, laws, attitudes, geography, and the list goes on and on. What is more, not all of the considerations can be influenced by you. In fact, one thing I learned from the Morgans is that it can be pretty hard to live a greener lifestyle in some parts of the United States: In Gibsonia, for example, public transportation and bike lanes are far from being available everywhere. Solar energy and e-mobility seem to be the Morgans’ preferred solutions to global warming, but can everyone actually afford these technologies? Also, the electricity for e-cars has to come from somewhere, too. And then, Sophie and Bane made it clear that, in their view, the U.S. won’t go green without appropriate laws and environmentally sustainable business solutions. 

All in all, it seems that projects like Going Green are essential in learning from each other and sharing ideas and innovations across borders in order to move our society as a whole towards a greener future.

¹ For statistics on voter demographics please go to https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/11/08/the-2018-midterm-vote-divisions-by-race-gender-education/.

Lea Meimerstorf

Lea Meimerstorf is a primary school teacher student in the 2nd Master's semester at Leuphana University Lüneburg. Her subjects are English and German. She has been supporting Teach About U.S. as a project assistant since 2019.

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#Goinggreen 

The Morgans, a family of six from western Pennsylvania, opened up about their eating, shopping, and travel habits as well as the sustainable options they considered while building their house. But actions speak louder than words and so I wanted to know what are actual changes they have observed in the U.S. during the last years. For this interview, Bane’s sister Sheryl joined us again. Her job at a large American retail corporation offers another, different perspective about American ambitions to go green.

Lea: What are changes that you have seen over the last years that have happened here in the U.S. in order to go green?

Carla (14): There are a lot of social-media-based campaigns going on about saving the oceans and demonstrations.

Julia (12): It feels like people are trying to get the word out about it. 

Carla: I feel like there are some demonstrations in bigger cities, but it is mainly social-media-based. 

Bane (42): I think, for the first time, it’s a discussion. And for the first time, it’s looked at and thought about: What’s the sustainability of this? And I think, that never was a discussion. So, I think, that’s the first step in it, having the discussion.

And I think, something that Europe is way ahead of the United States on is recognizing everything from straws to all these things. They are just ahead of it. And simple things that I always think of when I come back from Europe like in the 90s you’d have a bag of milk that you would put in a multi-use plastic pitcher* and that’s how you’d use your milk. Now, when it’s gone, you have this little empty bag that would compress* down to nothing. Why doesn’t that happen in the States? I have no idea. The States have to have this big, thick plastic thing!

Typical milk jug found in U.S. grocery stores (Risheehan/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0) 

Sophie (41): We used to get milk delivered in glass containers, and you had to set the glass container back out.

Bane: But that’s awesome, because they are taking them, washing them, and reusing them. 

Sheryl (48): You can still do that at Marburger*. 

Bane: So, I think you create change by making the globe smaller and having kids travel and see this!

Sophie: And then they’re like, “Let’s do this!” And they’ll do it.

»So, I think you create change by making the globe smaller and having kids travel and see this!«

Bane: I think the most recent* change in the last year is single-use plastics. Truly, within the last calendar year, it went from “they’re everywhere” to “you’re a bad person if you use them”. And really, I think within a year. Which is so cool. It’s straws, lids*, water bottles. You’re using, you know, corn-based forks. And this is recent, and everyone is on with it. This is super cool! 

Sheryl: At work, we have to do it. We have no choice. They removed all plastic from our building. Gone - one day – gone. They gave us all reusable coffee cups. Now, there is aluminum. So, if you forget, and you need to buy water, and you don’t have your cup, there’s aluminum bottles you can buy. But they made them super expensive. And then they turned all of our silverware and all of our to-go containers to the plant-based ones. So, don’t put it in the microwave! But it doesn’t taste bad. Then you don’t feel guilty taking your salad to go.

Sophie: If every company starts doing that… I feel like it’s just gonna happen. It’s gonna start changing. 

Sheryl: Yeah, we didn’t have an option. And refillable water stations… But that cost the company money. We put asignificant* investment in. Pretty soon, we’re gonna get rid of* all plastic bags. But what happens when you come in and you have four balls that you are buying and your hockey thing and this and that ,and you don’t have your bags? So that’s what we’re trying to figure out* right now. 

Bane: But I think the first step in that is: Less people, even in the last five years, will grab a bag. “Oh, I’m buying one thing, leave the bag. I don’t want it!” 

Sophie: I say that.

Plastic ban legislation in the United States (green = ban; yellow = charge; purple = partial charge or ban on municipal or regional levels) (Delusion23/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0) 

»Millennials won't work for companies that aren't good corporate citizens. So, it's your generation that's driving it.«

Sheryl: It’s starting with companies. Companies are starting to get there. And sustainability is really becoming a buzz with this election cycle. We weren’t quite there, yet. But corporate social responsibility* (CSR) as a whole… millennials* won’t work for companies that aren’t good corporate citizens. So, it is your generation that’s driving it. We are asked a lot about our CSR. We put out our first CSR report. And sustainability is just one pillar* of it. But that has really changed it a lot.

Bane: But a Fortune 500 company* that has a president that is strongly democratic is pushing that agenda. 

Sheryl: Oh yeah.

Bane: Now, in a small business people buy… we don’t do it. Right now, I guarantee if you try to find paper vs.styrofoam* coffee cups, styrofoam ones are so much cheaper. So, economics still drives it. Most people are gonna buy the cheap one. Picture the guy that is making 10 bucks* an hour trying to feed his kid. He’s gonna go into the gas station* to get his 99-cent coffee in whatever they put it in. And that is what he’s gonna take. And that is most of America. 

Sophie: And that doesn’t make him a bad person. It’s just hard.

Bane: No, he just came by*.

Lea: What climate change solutions are you most excited about?

Carla: Solar panels. That is the biggest one we are exposed to, at least.

Bane: Electric cars. ‘Cause I think it is a no-brainer. I think they’re there, and as soon as they get easier… My goal is for Clara to not drive gasoline*.

Lea: Do you know if the power you use is green?

Bane: No. But … and Elon Musk said this, too, You have to believe that a power plant* is more efficient than the power plant under your hood*. Cause all a combustion engine* is a small power plant. It has to be less efficient than what a company gets paid to produce. And if you can get green energy, even better. 

Lea Meimerstorf

Lea Meimerstorf is a primary school teacher student in the 2nd Master's semester at Leuphana University Lüneburg. Her subjects are English and German. She has been supporting Teach About U.S. as a project assistant since 2019.

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#Goinggreen 

Apart from the Morgans, I also reached out to Bane’s older sister Sheryl (46) for an opinion. They stressed that in a country as big as the U.S. how much money you make and where you live heavily influences your options to truly live a green lifestyle. We also talked about how the younger and the older generation can contribute to stop global warming, and what message they want to send out to young people like you.

Lea: Would you consider your own lifestyle sustainable? 

Julia (12): I really try to be.

Clara (14): I think so, yeah. I feel like we try. 

Sophie (41): I would say we’re good at some things and bad at others. I don’t know.

Sheryl (46): No! Look at the cars you drive.

Sophie: Mathematically, the footprint of our cars is erased by our solar panels.

Bane (42): Yeah, we’re neutralizing it.

Bane: Our kids, they don’t like plastic, single-use plastics. As a family, we use metal straws, or we don’t use straws. I think those kinds of choices are the first step in having their generation realize that: “Wait a minute. This is not acceptable. This is no good.” Now… it’s not cheap to be sustainable. Especially, not in this country. 

Sophie: Yeah, it’s not the easy path.

»We are well-educated people that have the ability to be somewhat sustainable. If you're scraping to get by, it is the last thing you're thinking of.«

Bane: We are well-educated people that have the ability to be somewhat sustainable. If you’re scraping to get by*, it is the last thing you’re thinking of. When you’re worried about feeding the kids you’re gonna find the cheapest, easiest way to make that happen. Once you know that they’re gonna eat and they’re gonna be able to go to college, now, you’re like: “Okay, what else can we do to help?” We have the ability to have that discussion. And 90 % of the country or world don’t have that ability to have that discussion.

Sophie: Also, the kids recycle, all the time. It’s absurd if we don’t recycle. It’s absolutely a way of life for us.

Bane: With the changes in the Chinese economy… we would sell most of our recyclables to China. They don’t want it anymore.

Sheryl: They don’t recycle it, anymore.

Bane: They don’t want to take it. And now we have people that are recycling – or think they are – and everyone’s putting in the same thing and putting it in a landfill*. We’re thinking we are being sustainable but the global economy shifts it in such a way that it doesn’t matter.  

Sheryl: And also, there’s an excess* of what China had recycled, and what you can produce from it. So, China is like: “Well, we’re not going to recycle, anymore, until you use the by-products* of what we recycled. That’s another reason why they stopped. And it’s all sick… When we were growing up, we went to the store, and we used the paper bags. Then, they were saying, we were killing all the trees, so, we stopped using paper bags and switched to plastic. And now, we’re killing the oceans. So, we’re not using plastic bags, anymore. There’s always something, right? And the bags that they are using to make the reusable bags have oil in them. I think, it’s like Bane’s put it: You can try, and you have to do your best, but I don’t know that we are solving it here in America.

Bane: Grandpa has no problem burning leaves. There’s nobody on earth… I shouldn’t say nobody… most people our generation would never burn leaves. And no one in their generation will. That’s good. 

Sophie: It’s coming!

Bane: So, people try, but economics still have to work with it, or they won’t do it. 

»Will it come? I think to some extent, but again it's gonna be finances.«

Lea: What does it mean to live a sustainable life for you? What are some examples?

Julia: Plastic straws are a big thing that I’m trying to cut out*. And especially energy, too. I leave my light on a lot. So, I’m really trying to work on that. 

Clara: Eating healthy, saving energy, and things like that. Things like shutting off your lights when you leave home. I feel like I don’t use that much energy personally. I definitely encourage* my dad to get solar panels. 

Sheryl: I think it’s more so the people that live in areas that are sunny and use the solar panels or can use the hydro-electric. I think, people that live off the grid* can tap into* those things. They’re on that path, but the general population doesn’t have that accessible to them. Like, if you’re gonna live in a cul-de-sac* and work in the city and commute*, that’s not gonna happen for you. But those how many percent that have figured it out, they do it like soup to nuts*. So, I think there is the extreme… do you know what I’m talking about?

Bane: I do. But the only thing I have problems with about the so-called off-the-gridders is that their sewage* system is terrible. They’re burning everything. If they can burn it, they’re gonna burn it. It’s off the grid, but I don’t think they do it as a sustainability thing. They do it because of the isolational thing. I don’t think they’re doing it because there is this grandiose idea that I’m gonna save the world. 

Sheryl: Yeah, they’re not the people in Arizona that use all solar… that’s different. 

Bane: What I think what’s been impressive is that the coasts… well, I should say the West Coast especially has been very much forward. We went to California last year, and every Uber we got in was an electric car. 

Sheryl: And there’s already no straws there. 

Bane: Yeah, they are way ahead of that stuff. And now, the East Coast. Well, face it: Americans in general are selfish. They are the country of excess. Now, the East Coast is ten times worse than here with self-centered selfishness. They don’t care. My friends in New Jersey, if it doesn’t help them today, they don’t care. So, you get to these different parts of the country where people care more. And my friend said when I told him, “Hey, we’re putting solar panels on.” He lives in L.A. He goes, “Dude, that is so West Coast!” But it’s real. They care more. They are the ones that have the e-bikes. You know, everything they are doing is trying to be that. So, it’s good. Will it come? I think to some extent*,but again it’s gonna be finances.

»And they knew so much more than I thought they did. But they can't do anything about it, yet.«

Lea: What is your generation in general doing?

Clara: Our grandparents won’t even understand it or want to think about it. Our parents know, but then our generation is doing things and demonstrating. There is a lot of change happening. 

Bane: I think the habits*, just like with everything, change slowly. Growing up, when we were going on a trip, there would never be a recycling garbage can.

Sheryl: I don’t even remember recycling at home. 

Bane: No, we didn’t.  It changes over time, but it does change. And I think that’s really important. And the kids see it, and it’s not uncool to do those things. Right now, sustainability-wise it’s cool to have a reusable water bottle. It’s not cool to use single-uses. And supporting and doing those kinds of things, I think, is big. And when I said to the kids, “Hey, guys what do you think about us getting solar panels?” They’re like, “That is awesome!” They were super excited to do it. And I said, “Well, why are you so excited?” And they knew so much more than I thought they did. But they can’t do anything about it, yet.

Lea: What message do you want to give to the young generation?

»Don't listen to everyone else. You know what's right. Do it.«

Bane: Don’t listen to everyone else. You know what’s right. Do it. All what the grown-ups are going to do is mess it up. So, don’t listen to them. You know what’s right. Don’t listen to us. And don’t accept it unless it’s what you think is right. Because, again, economics drives it all. If these guys say, “I’m never gonna buy gasoline!”… Guess what? It won’t happen, and oil will go away.

Julia: And our parents’ generation would say, “Oh, it’s just one person; who could do that much?” But the kids are saying:, “It’s one person that is willing to do this much.”

Clara: I want to push my parent’s generation to do more, and I want my kids to do more than my generation, because I feel like we have to get started. So, when big things happen, it takes people to get started, so I feel like that’s what our generation is doing, and they are starting this and they are talking about it. And I feel like our parents are supporting it, and they are behind it. 

Lea Meimerstorf

Lea Meimerstorf is a primary school teacher student in the 2nd Master's semester at Leuphana University Lüneburg. Her subjects are English and German. She has been supporting Teach About U.S. as a project assistant since 2019.

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#Goinggreen 

From my interview with the Morgans and my own experiences, I see a lot of changes happening in this area currently. The family I stayed with received at least one Amazon packet a day even though they complained about some of their favorite stores having to close down due to big online competitors like Amazon. My interview with the Morgans helped me to understand their reasons for buying online. 

Lea: What are your average monthly purchases…?

Clara (14): We don’t shop for clothes that much. We only do like a big “back-to-school-shopping*" or when we need new clothes.

Julia (12): My mom, every Monday, goes out and runs errands*.

Clara: I’d say, probably Giant Eagle* and Target* are where we find everyday things. Well, obviously, food. But whenever we need mom’s make-up or batteries…

Bane (42): Amazon. 

Sophie (41): I buy something from Amazon, every day. Literally*. I went up to the bathroom; Bane had left his gel out so I could see it was empty. I scanned the barcode, and it’s on its way. Because I don’t have to pay for shipping I can order without thinking about that. It’s just that it’s out of my mind then.

Bane: I think, Amazon, it’s also made it worse sustainability-wise because…

Sophie: They killed the planet.

Bane: Yeah. Because, now, we have a guy drive to our house for everything that we want, delivered in separate boxes. And we are not going one time to the grocery store. 

»It's like Amazon provided crack cocaine and now they have addicts. I’m an addict, too. They are killing so many things because of it. I mean, I buy it on there, too. But at some point, how do you not?« 

Sophie: And the packaging is one-time-use, and no one recycles it. They are trying to start an Amazon day. That was their way of saying, “Oh, we don’t ship every time to you. We only ship once a week.” But everyone wants it right now. I ordered something on Amazon, and it was at my house the next day. It’s like Amazon provided crack cocaine and now they have addicts. I’m an addict, too. They are killing so many things because of it. I mean, I buy it on there, too. But at some point, how do you not? For example, Clara and I, we went shopping to buy a homecoming dress – we actually went shopping. And we bought a dress, but it is cut down in a way that she needs to wear a special bra. I could go to seven stores trying to find that bra, or in thirty seconds it’s on its way to my house. 

Bane: And most times I go to a store and they don’t have what I want. I think, “Why was I so dumb to even come here?” I could have ordered exactly what I wanted, and by the time I actually got there it would have been delivered to my house.

Sophie: Because of Amazon I go to Giant Eagle once a week, and I go to Target, once a week, sometimes twice a week. That’s it. If Giant Eagle and Target don’t sell it, and I can’t get it on Amazon, then we don’t own it. And only on special occasions*, like once a year, do I take the girls “back-to-school-clothes-shopping”.  We actually go to the outlets, and they try on stuff. At Christmas time, back-to-school, and rare occasions like when she wanted a homecoming dress and we went homecoming-dress-shopping. But other than that, we don’t shop. 

Bane: And you know, with Amazon Prime it’s 99 bucks* a year. So with that one-time price, they get to bring it to your house the next day. And I do that for the office. I bet I have a dozens of addresses that I ship stuff from our amazon account to. And they’ll deliver it anywhere. So, I can buy it right now, and I can send it to my office 50 miles from my house. 

Sophie: And another thing is… I know, we are like cheerleading for Amazon right now, and it’s not the best thing, but it’s so convenient. I said: “Julia, the birthday party next weekend; what do you want to get her?” Twenty minutes later she goes,” Mom, it’s all in your Amazon cart, what I want. Look at it to make sure it’s okay.” So, I look, I saw what she put in. I was like “click” and all the stuff came. They had wrapped it all up. 

Bane: I don’t have to carry it, I don’t have to put it together. 

Lea: Do you go grocery shopping or do you get that delivered, too?

Sophie: I order it online, I drive up, and they put it in the back of my car. They pick the food for me. You can elect to have a delivery, but I don’t, I drive to pick it up. 

Lea: And whenever you buy those things, do you look for organic food or fair trade or social labels?

Sophie: I don’t.  The farm-shared produce are not necessarily organic either but they’re local. 

Julia: No.

Clara: I think just kind of what’s there.

A short explanation of the so-called curbside express at Giant Eagle. (Giant Eagle on YouTube)

Lea Meimerstorf

Lea Meimerstorf is a primary school teacher student in the 2nd Master's semester at Leuphana University Lüneburg. Her subjects are English and German. She has been supporting Teach About U.S. as a project assistant since 2019.

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#Goinggreen 

They eat out in a restaurant once or twice a day. They always order rather unhealthy meals like pancakes, ham with eggs, and baked beans, burgers, sandwiches, or mac-and-cheese, and drinks like iced tea or coke. But they never finish their ordered food and throw about half of it away. Either they don’t even take it home, or they do, but leave it in the fridge until it starts to mold*. I was puzzled to see that whenever they ate at home, they didn’t cook but only reheated take-away food from fast food drive-throughs and added a small pack of chips to it. Then, they ate in front of their TVs on so-called TV tables. At home they usually eat from paper plates even though the real plates are in the same cupboard. But they find it more convenient to throw the dirty plates away instead of cleaning them. They rarely go grocery shopping, and when they do, cashiers* use one plastic bag for every three items. (In many stores there is an extra employee just to pack up your groceries into plastic bags.) So, you end up leaving the store with a shopping cart full of plastic bags.

The interesting thing is that Bane’s parents have a beautiful garden where they grow zucchinis, beans, cucumbers, and strawberries. They eat them occasionally, but most of it is given to neighbors or thrown away, because it is left in the fridge for too long. So, after these experiences, I am really curious to learn more about eating behaviors and choices in other American families.

Just as last week,  I've included audio snippets from some parts of the interview.

Lea: What does your family’s diet look like? What do you eat, usually?

Julia (12): All across the board, pretty much. We’ll have really healthy nights and then we…

Carla (14): Yeah, we’ll have a night, where we’ll have chicken salads, but then we’ll have fatty hamburgers, pasta, and stuff like that.

»Yeah, we'll have a night, where we'll have chicken salads  but then we'll have fatty hamburgers, pasta, and stuff like that.«

Sophie (41): Convenience*. We could be healthier, but we are not …

Bane (42): I’m impressed with the kids’ knowledge of dietary* things. Our kids will know if it’s a smart thing to eat or not. Doesn’t mean that they are not going to eat it. Fair enough, they will. We try to sit down as a family at least once or twice a week. And those meals will be completely balanced. Usually, with a white meat and then vegetables. We are eating out somewhere two or three times a week. 

Sophie: Depending upon what season we are in. During the throes* of baseball season, we eat out two or three times a week, because the game starts at six and we’re coming from here.

Bane: We are part of a farm share which we really like.¹ April through November, we go to a farm, once a week, every other week, every other Monday, and we pick stuff there. That’s all locally grown. The really neat thing about that is: the kids love it. They’ll be like: “Oh man, farm shared carrots!” And they’ll crush them. And the fruit that comes off of there; that day it’s gone. But we shop almost exclusively at Giant Eagle*. And we do it for ease. But also, Giant Eagle prides itself on being local purchasers* of produce* when they can. So, we try to do that when we can. We’ve tried, in the past, things like buying a side of beef, but for a family it just didn’t work for us. 

Sophie: Nothing was in the right proportion for us. You would have four steaks and two pounds of ground meat*. I can’t do anything with that. I need six steaks and I need three pounds of ground meat in order to make a meal for us.

Lea: What about fast food?

Carla: No! That makes us sick. I mean, unless we have to eat fast food, we won’t eat it. We normally cook, if we can. We don’t eat a lot of junk food but not that healthy either. Something in the middle, probably. My lunch is always healthy, when I pack for school. And for breakfast, I have an apple.

Julia: I feel like that’s the same for me, too.

Bane: The kids really don’t like the fast food. So, we’ll be going to a sandwich place. 

Sophie: You know, Subway, Panera, those kinds of things. Or order pizza, and they just eat it in the car. 

Bane: Because they just don’t like fast food. And if one kid wants to go to a Wendy’s, the other one’s like: “Ugh!” They just don’t like it. So, that’s a good thing but there is still processed food*.

Bane’s aunt Mary (65) gave me another completely different perspective on the topic by explaining her eating and shopping habits in a single household. 

I find as a single person household (with my two parents eating with me 2-3 times a week) that it is much, much easier to eat healthy. I have my own insulated shopping bags, shop at farmers' markets, and about 10 years ago, I made a huge effort to eliminate wasting food. If I eat out at a restaurant, it is always to socialize, not to just buy food or a meal. I am not on any specialized diet, but I love vegetables and fruit, avoid starchy* foods and breads, and make homemade green smoothies for any snack and for one meal a day. The main snack that I indulge in buying and eating would be pretzels.” 

¹ Read the lexicon entry on community supported agriculture for further information.

Lea Meimerstorf

Lea Meimerstorf is a primary school teacher student in the 2nd Master's semester at Leuphana University Lüneburg. Her subjects are English and German. She has been supporting Teach About U.S. as a project assistant since 2019.

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#Goinggreen 

For me, this meant a drastic change in my daily life. In Lüneburg, I am used to take my bike or walk, but in the States, I spent more time in cars, already within the first three weeks, than I did during the last 3 years back home. So, I asked the Morgan family how often they use a bike, car, train, or plane to get to places.

In order to understand their answers better, I should explain what the infrastructure around their neighborhood looks like. The Morgans live in a rather rural area of Gibsonia, a very small community in Richland Township, Allegheny County, with a population of 2,733. They live in a new housing plan with lots and lots of villas. There are sidewalks within their plan and a path to get to Carla’s school but there are neither bike lanes nor sidewalks outside of this small area. If they want to go shopping they have to drive 20 minutes by car to get to Cranberry. Here, you have to drive from one parking lot to the other because there are no sidewalks and even within one plaza you can’t always walk from store to store, safely. The only real public transportation available is the school bus system. Apart from that, there is only one bus station for travelling to Pittsburgh.

This week, I've included audio snippets from some parts of the interview.

Lea: How often do you travel by bike?

Carla (14): Never. But as a family we’ll go on bike rides. But not as a transportation, though, more as a trip.

Julia (12): I don’t like bikes.

Sophie (41):  Never. It’s not conducive* where we live. You can’t get anywhere. We are too rural. We just couldn’t do it. We couldn’t get anywhere fast. 

Bane (42): When I was a resident* in Pittsburgh for dental school, we would bike every day. I lived near the University of Pittsburgh, and we’d bike two or three miles to school every day, eleven months out of the year. But where we live, it’s just not there.

Lea: … and by car?

Julia: Every time. 

Bane: 99+%.

Sophie: Nothing is more than 20 minutes, though. 

»Americans are so dependent upon cars, because they're so independent. You want to go exactly now, where you wanna go, when you wanna go.«

Bane: For me, my furthest drive is 53 miles (85 kilometers) from my house. I don’t have access to public transportation to do it. So, I have to drive to it. The only thing we use public transportation-wise is the school bus. The other options are just not available to us. And it’s something we would try to use, but the other part to it is: Americans are so dependent upon cars, because they’re so independent. You want to go exactly now, where you wanna go, when you wanna go. Public transportation just wouldn’t work as well. I don’t know that it’s right but… 

Lea: … and by train?

Julia: Never ever. 

Carla: We’ve been on a train in Europe. We’ve been on a train a couple times but just as a fun thing to do. Whenever we were in Europe, that was the only time we used it as transportation.

Sophie:  Never. When we were in college, I’d take the train to visit Bane, between Pittsburgh and Baltimore. But again, the train is definitely not convenient* or cost effective. 

Bane: Other places commute*, closer to major metropolitan areas and the Northeast Corridor and Northeast Direct. That is a really big train path that goes from DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston. In that area, it’s used a lot. 

Sophie: But, again, from where we are, it’s not useful for us.

Passenger trains in North America. (photo credit: Jkan997/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Lea: … and by plane? 

Carla: When you are going somewhere far away. We probably use the plane two or three times a year. Maybe more. With a round trip*, that’d be six times. 

Sophie: Maybe six times a year. 

Bane: Because of the way the country is set up that isn’t direct. 

Sophie: No, I meant times we get on a plane to go somewhere. 

Bane: I know. We travel a lot; so, six round trips is probably true. But the crappy* thing about it is: you are using more fuel sustainability-wise because you’re not on a direct flight. You may fly from Pittsburgh to Charlotte and then continue to Denver. It’s not the best, but post-9-11* there isn’t an empty airplane, anymore. Pre-9-11 you’d get on airplanes, and sometimes there’d be 30 people on there. Now, every seat is full, because there are so many additional security costs, post-9-11.

Sophie: We never had all that security. 

Bane: I flew back from Paris, by myself, in 1996, after I spent an extra week with my German host brother and his family. When I flew back, they questioned me at machine guns at the Paris airport, because I was a single guy flying back by myself. That was the first time I had actually seen security at an airport. In Pittsburgh, you went through a metal detector and kept on walking. That was it.

Lea Meimerstorf

Lea Meimerstorf is a primary school teacher student in the 2nd Master's semester at Leuphana University Lüneburg. Her subjects are English and German. She has been supporting Teach About U.S. as a project assistant since 2019.

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#Goinggreen 

Their mansion doesn’t look like the typical sustainable home, which I imagine would be built smaller and simpler in order to reduce its ecological footprint. But as Bane tells me, they did focus on eco-friendly elements like insulation, energy efficiency, and solar panels. Here is is part of my interview with the family about their house.

Lea: And tell me a little bit about your house.

Carla: So, I feel, we have a pretty big house. We each have our own bedroom, and there are two guest bedrooms. And we got a pool, which is nice.

Julia: And the entire basement is like an extra apartment.

Lea: Do you know if there is anything about your house that is sustainable or that your parents did specially to make the house more sustainable?

Julia: We are getting solar panels.

Carla: Yeah, we are getting solar panels, and we already use all clean power from wind mills. And we’re putting in a bee hive.

Bane: So, I think, the first thing that was really big when we built the home was thorough insulation. So, attic* insulation was huge. We have zippers* on all the attic accesses to keep that down. It’s a sprayed insulation, so it’s actually wider. And actually, the crazy thing is, with our home, it’s so energy efficient … There was a rating when we built the home, and it’s a rating based upon energy efficiency; our builder made sure it was the premium one, which is important to us. But with that energy rating, one of the things you notice, the snow will already have been off the grass and it’s still on our roof. That’s really interesting, because that shows me, we don’t lose any heat through the roof.

»There was a rating when we built the home, and it’s a rating based upon energy efficiency; our builder made sure it was the premium one, which is important to us.«

Sophie: One year, we came home from Nana*’s house, and there was a power line down. There had been an accident, and all the electricity was out for the whole night, and it was freezing. In our old house, when the electricity would go out in the winter, it was terrible. I remember we were in our blankets, and I ran around getting all our stuff. We got into the car and went to my mom’s home, because it was so cold we couldn’t be in our house. So, this time, I thought: “Oh my god Bane, what are we going to do?” It was like 1:30 a.m. We had just arrived at home. There was no electricity. Bane was like: “Well, let’s just put everyone in blankets. We’ll go to sleep, and it’ll be fine.” And we woke up the next day and our house was still warm. We thought: “Oh my gosh, we didn’t do anything.” I mean, it wasn’t super cozy, but we were definitely not hightailing* to anyone’s house. The power came back on 24 hours later, and we didn’t leave because of the snow.

The pilot light in a gas fireplace. (photo credit: George Shuklin/ Wikimedia Commons)

Bane: And obviously we have double pane* windows and that kind of stuff. One thing that I jumped all over, this year, is: We have three different gas fireplaces. And we use them a lot for heat, in the wintertime. We like the ambience* of it, but we also use it to heat. We have chosen fireplaces that are furnace* capable. So, they actually can heat the home if we need to. And there is a pilot light*that burns on the gas stove, all the time. And even the people that come to maintain the fireplace, they’re like: “Oh, leave that on, all the time.” I was like: “No.” They’re like: “Well, you should do that. It keeps the dust and spiders down, inside.” But I’m like: “No, I’m not doing it.” To me, it’s not acceptable to burn that and have the gas constantly running.And the final one for us would be the solar panels. Our solar panels are going to cover 61% of our output. It won’t be a 100% but 61%. And what we are not using will actually be sold back to the grid*. So, all the people in that grid will use that power if we’re not using it. It is never wasted that way. We also do a thing right now called Green Mountain Energy. We pay – I think – 20 % more for our power and it only comes from wind or solar, right now.¹ And we’ve chosen to do that as a way to help eliminate the fossil fuels. And then my electric car. It’s a hybrid, but we still try to decrease that output.

Lea Meimerstorf

Lea Meimerstorf is a primary school teacher student in the 2nd Master's semester at Leuphana University Lüneburg. Her subjects are English and German. She has been supporting Teach About U.S. as a project assistant since 2019.

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#Goinggreen 

Everyone is getting ready, in the morning, at different stages. My alarm goes off at 6 a.m. I start waking up the kids. It is a 3-hour process. By the time Tom gets onto the bus, it’s 9 a.m. because their schools start at different times. And then they’re at school all day and Bane’s at work and I am either home or not home depending upon what’s going happening. Then the whole crazy routing starts again. At 2:30 p.m., the girls come home. At 3:30 p.m., Ben comes home. And then at 4:15 p.m., Tom comes home. And then activities … we go in a million different directions; no two days are the same. So, from 2:30 to 9:30 p.m. is insanely busy. It’s all their activities, deciding where we’re going - like dance, drum lessons, guitar lessons, lacrosse games, and baseball games.” 

This is the first in a series of blog posts exploring sustainable choices and everyday green habits of a modern American family, the Morgans. Bane Morgan is my former host brother and during my recent stay in the States, I visited him and his family for quite some time during which we talked a lot about sustainability. Sophie and Bane as well as their oldest daughters Carla and Julia told me a lot about how they try to incorporate green choices into their lives. Throughout the next five blog posts, I will give an account of what they revealed to me in regard to topics like housing, transportation, food, shopping, and sustainable lifestyle, in general. 

But before the series starts, you should get to know the family and their living situation. So, let me introduce them to you: meet the Morgans. There are seven of them in total: Sophie (41) and Bane (42), their four children:  Carla (14), Julia (12), Ben (11), and Tom (9), and their dog Bella. They live in the small community of Gibsonia, Allegheny County, in western Pennsylvania. They are a rather typical upper middle-class family who owns a spacious mansion in a suburban neighborhood. Bane is an oral surgeon* and owns his own company. Sophie stays at home and cares for the kids and the dog. Their schedules are extremely busy with school, dance, cheerleading, fencing, basketball, lacrosse, and baseball. 

Lea Meimerstorf

Lea Meimerstorf is a primary school teacher student in the 2nd Master's semester at Leuphana University Lüneburg. Her subjects are English and German. She has been supporting Teach About U.S. as a project assistant since 2019.

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 #Goinggreen   

Greta Thunberg protesting in front of the Swedish parliament building in 2018. (photo credit: Anders Hellberg/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish activist who started the worldwide youth climate demonstrations known as “Fridays for Future”, just arrived in the USA to participate in the upcoming Climate Summit in New York on the 23^rdof September 2019.

In August 2018, 15-year-old Greta was so disappointed with her government not acting upon the pressing climate threats visible in increasing global emissions, rising sea levels, biodiversity loss, global warming, air pollution and a countless amount of natural catastrophes that she decided to skip school and demonstrate outside the Swedish parliament. Other students joined her, starting an international movement organizing worldwide school strikes, every Friday, ever since Greta Thunberg addressed the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2018. Even in the US, where many people haven’t heard of neither Great Thunberg nor her “Fridays for Future” movement, school strikes were held in over 500 places, last Friday alone. The young generation demands actions instead of hopeful words. As Greta Thunberg said in her recent TEDx talk in Stockholm: “Everything needs to change and it has to start today!”. 

U.S. House Representative Kathy Castor talks with Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg in the Congress (Photo credit: Rep. Kathy Castor on Twitter, public domain)

In order to participate in the upcoming United Nations’ Climate Action Summit in New York as well as the COP 25 climate change conference in Santiago de Chile, later this year, Greta sailed all the way over the Atlantic Ocean from Plymouth, UK. The 60 ft racing yacht “The Malizia II” allowed her an emission-free journey due to solar panels and underwater turbines. Greta and the crew set off on August the 14^thand arrived in New York City on the 28^th. The 16-year-old Greta has used her time since the arrival well and spoke in front of the United States House of Representatives Select Committee on the Climate Crisis as well as the Congress, met with former President Barack Obama, received an Amnesty International’s award, and lead a major climate change demonstration in New York City on Friday the 20^thof September. 1.1 million students were excused to join the strike by the city’s public schools. (To see other locations that participated in this strike as well as find cities near you where you can join the demonstrations visit the Global Climate Strikes website.)

On Monday, when the United Nations’ Climate Action Summit is being held, Greta Thunberg will be striking again. She and the countless other young strikers demand for immediate actions and concrete plans to drastically reduce CO2 emissions. On Saturday, September 21^st, before the summit, the UN Youth Climate Summit enables young leaders and activists to discuss their concerns and solutions and present them to international politicians and world leaders. Following the summit, a second worldwide “Fridays for Future” strike is planned for the 27^thof September. 

For further information, please visit: 

• The Guardian, "‘Listen to the scientists’: Greta Thunberg urges Congress to take action"
• CNN, "Greta Thunberg reaches New York after 15-day yacht journey"
• The New York Times, "Greta Thunberg, on Tour in America, Offers an Unvarnished View"

Lea Meimerstorf

Lea Meimerstorf is a primary school teacher student in the 2nd Master's semester at Leuphana University Lüneburg. Her subjects are English and German. She has been supporting Teach About U.S. as a project assistant since 2019.

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  #GoingGreen  

The fifth cycle of the Going Green project is coming to an end and we are proud to present the winners of our annual student competition. We received very thoughtful project outcomes dealing with a variety of topics linked to sustainability. All in all, 18 courses from four Bundesländer and one U.S. state registered on our platform. Over three hundred students and their teachers spent many weeks learning about sustainable activities as well as challenges in Germany and the U.S., finding out about sustainability topics such as waste, food, transport, and fashion. They analyzed how their own behavior impacts the sensitive system of our planet and developed different projects to go greener.

The Teach About U.S. team and our partners are delighted to announce the following student projects as winners of the Going Green 2019 Awards! Congratulations to all students and teachers!

These are the six winning projects:

Best Educational Video:

Save the Coral Reefs! An Educational Video about the Effect of Climate Change on the Ecosystem

by the English course (grade 10) at Mons-Tabor-Gymnasium in Montabaur, with teacher Nina Allgaier.

Best Student Entrepreneurship Project:

Sustainable Cooking – How Does that Work?!

by the course Geography /CAS IB (grade 11) at Leonardo da Vinci Campus in Nauen, with teacher Bärbel Baatz.

Best Social media Engagement Campaign:

soe_fii

by the English course 11 GK at Martin-Luther-Gymnasium in Frankenberg, with teacher Lisa Müller.

Most Creative Video: 

“Climate Change is here: act now”

by the English courses 10 GK and 11 GK & LK at Marie Curie Gymnasium in Bönen, with teacher Karsten Brill. 

Best Research:

Our Biodiversity Gets Lost

by the course 11BG-G at Saalburgschule in Usingen, with teacher Gisela Wildermuth.

Most Thought-provoking Video:

Our Sustainable Shared Flat

by the English course LK 12 at Friderico-Francisceum in Bad Doberan, with teacher Daniela Weihs.

The runner-ups include: 

Environmental Pollution by the English course grade 11 at Albert-Einstein-Gymnasium Neubrandenburg with teacher Petra Wittner

Dream Big, Dream Green by the English course grade 12 at Louise-Henriette-Gymnasium in Oranienburg with teacher Jens Rösener

Action Plan 2019 by the English course 11G at max-Beckmann-Schule with teacher Therese Hartmann

Cross-Atlantic Workshop / Seminarkurs - Environmental Justice and urban Sustainability by grade 11 students at Kepler Gymnasium Freiburg and Lincoln High School in Portland, OR and teachers Jörg Dopfer and Tim Swinehart

Going Green Blog by the English courses grades 10, 11, and 12 at Marie-Curie-Gymnasium Bönen with teacher Karsten Brill

Easy Regional Cooking - Local, Fast and Healthy by the English course grade 12 at Albert-Einstein-Gymnasium Neubrandenburg with teacher Petra Wittner

The Power of the Sun by the English course grade 10 at Gymnasium Lüneburger Heide with teacher Sol Velasquez

Take a look at the 60+ action plans from previous years showcased on Teach About U.S. Read more...

Congratulations to all participants and competition winners! 

In lieu of a final student conference, we invite all project participants, regardless if you upload a final product or not, to join us for the Sommerfest at Humboldt Universität Berlin on August 29, 2019, 14-15:30h. During the event, student groups will have the opportunity to report about their experiences with the project in a casual atmosphere and discuss their action plans with peers and experts on sustainability. Prof. Marcel Robischon, Humboldt University, will moderate the session, and Prof. Torben Schmidt, Leuphana University, a member of the Teach About U.S. team, will give a brief introduction. 

Lea Meimerstorf

Lea Meimerstorf is a primary school teacher student in the 2nd Master's semester at Leuphana University Lüneburg. Her subjects are English and German. She has been supporting Teach About U.S. as a project assistant since 2019.

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 #Competition  #GoingGreen 

With the student competition, our fourth installment of the Going Green project comes to a conclusion. Overall, 43 courses from nine Bundesländer and four U.S. states registered on our platform. Over five hundred students and their teachers spent many weeks exploring sustainable activities Germany and the U.S., discovering how their behavior can impact the environment, and figuring out innovative ways to create positive change in their communities.

The Teach About US team and our partners are delighted to announce the following student projects as winners of the Going Green 2018 Awards! Congratulations to all students and teachers!

These are the nine winning projects:

 
Going Green Together – A German-American Sustainability School Project

by the Project Week Course (grades 7-12) at Louise-Henriette-Gymnasium in Oranienburg with teacher Jens Rösener, and the Social Studies course at Odyssey Charter School in Wilmington, Del., with teacher Melissa Tracy.

Life for Skins

by the English course (grade 12) at Albert-Einstein-Gymnasium in Neubrandenburg, with teacher Petra Wittner.

BK Halle Goes Green

by the course Gesellschaftslehre mit Geschichte bilingual at Berufskolleg in Halle (Westf.), with teacher Carla Merschhaus.

Leinwig's Lasting Lead – the Road to Sustainability

by the English course (grade 12) at Gymnasium Essen-Werden, with teacher Karsten Brill.

Our Sustainability Zone

by the English course 17/5 at Oberstufenzentrum Landkreis Teltow-Fläming in Ludwigsfelde, with teacher Patrick Emmelmann.

MTG Goes Green – Introducing the Green Break

by the English course (grade 9) at Mons-Tabor-Gymnasium in Montabaur, with teacher Nina Allgaier.

Small Steps for a Big Change

by the English course Q1 at Wilhelm-Kraft-Gesamtschule des Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreises in Sprockhövel, with teacher Martina Westermann, and the current events course at Berrien Springs High School in Berrien Springs, Mich., with teacher John Vitek.

Blackout – Wake Up and See the Truth

by the English course 10B at Humboldt-Gymnasium in Potsdam, with teacher Silke Meyfarth.

We Make the Environment Great Again!

by the English course 11 BG-W at Saalburgschule in Usingen, with teacher Gisela Wildermuth.

The first of these awards were presented on April 19, 2018 at the concluding event in Düsseldorf organized by our friends at the U.S. Consulate and the Nordrhein-Westfalen Education Ministry . Representatives of the five participating schools in Nordrhein-Westfalen were invited to present their project ideas to the public at the Education Ministry. Vice-Consul General Benjamin Chapman and Education Minister Yvonne Gebauer emphasized the creativity and the sense of individual responsibility reflected by all projects and congratulated the students on their success in the competition.

NRW School Minister Yvonne Gebauer and U.S. Vice-Consul Benjamin B. Chapman presented the Going Green 2018 awards to participants from North Rhine-Westphalia: Berufskolleg Halle (Westf.), Friedrich-Bährens-Gymnasium, Wilhelm-Kraft-Gesamtschule, Schule am See Sekundarschule Wetter, and Gymnasium Essen-Werden.

Participants from Rheinland-Pfalz, Hessen, and Baden-Württemberg met on Monday, April 22, 2018 at the invitation of the U.S. Consulate General Frankfurt, the German Earth Day Committee, and IHK Frankfurt. Participants from Berlin and Brandenburg will either be invited to a briefing at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin or an Embassy representative will visit them at their school. Dr. Martina Kohl will contact award recipients shortly to set dates before the summer break.

Participants from Mons-Tabor-Gymnasium Montabaur with their teacher Nina Allgaier receive their award at the Earth Day Celebration in Frankfurt.

Participants from Saalburgschule in Usingen with their teacher Gisela Wildermuth receive their award at the Earth Day Celebration in Frankfurt.

Congratulations to all participants and competition winners!

 #Competition  #GoingGreen

The third cycle of the Going Green project concluded in June 2017. After an intensive election season and a school election project that was just as exciting, we anticipated a smaller but not less dedicated group of participants this spring for Going Green. And yet, 23 courses from Germany and the U.S. registered their own Moodle courses and some more participated with our offline materials collection.

The Going Green jury met in early June 2017 to review the student competition entries and awards prizes to seven green action plans in four categories. We are grateful to the U.S. Embassy in Berlin for supporting these student projects once again with monetary prizes intended to kickstart and continue these green projects. These projects all propose unique approaches to promoting sustainability, but they also highlight individual agency and the contributions that each and every one of us can make to combat climate change. In so doing, these students embrace the concept of environmental stewardship aimed at making changes in their communities.

Here are the award winning projects from 2017:

“INNOVATIVE DIGITAL LEARNING TOOL” (PRIZE MONEY: 500€)

QR-Code-Ralley: LHG Goes Green

Class 12 English at Luise Henriette Gymnasium Oranienburg, Brandenburg, with their teacher Jens Rösener.

We created an app which includes 10 stations with QR-Codes, which all deal with sustainability at our school. Our class tried to identify how 'green' our school actually is. We set the priority to raise students' awareness of green issues and wanted to create something that future generations of students could benefit from. Therefore, we developed a QR-Code Rallye that students from class 8 have already put into practice. From the next school year onwards, new students in class 7 will get the chance to use our app as well.

“COMPREHENSIVE SUSTAINAINABILITY SCHOOL PROJECT” (PRIZE MONEY 500€)

Hands-on: Saalburgschule goes Green

Class 11 BG-W at Saalburschule Usingen, Hessen, with their teacher Gisela Wildermuth.

The focus of our school’s “Going Green” project was to reduce our community’s environmental footprint through hands-on activities:

• We raised awareness of the detriments of using plastic in and around our school and took the responsibility of advising and teaching about recycling points in our buildings.
• Another activity to going green was planting bee-friendly flowers around the school. We created posters to inform other students about the purpose of our activity.
• We researched and came up with solutions on how our school could save money and reduce the waste of natural resources by slightly modernizing the school’s heating system.
• We looked at the impact that transportation has on the local environment and pointed out strategies to reduce air pollution.

Through all these activities and supplemental reading, we developed a better understanding of the impact our own behavior has on the environment, and took action to reduce our ecological footprints.

“SCHOOL-BASED RECYCLING CONCEPT” (PRIZE MONEY 500€)

Reusable Bottles at our School

Class FOSP1B at Berufskolleg Höxter, Nordrhein-Westfalen, with their teacher Dagmar Knies.

We set up a container to collect one-way deposit and refilling containers and designed a poster with relevant information.
Problem. At our school, many students simply leave their drink containers in classrooms or even throw them into the bins for general garbage. This means that the deposit for these containers is lost and that they cannot be reused or recycled, which means environmental harm.
Solution. We put up a container for reusable and recyclable drink containers at a central point in the building. We designed a poster showing how to dispose of bottles and cans. It also describes the German deposit system and environmental effects. We also designed a short informational text for other students to raise additional awareness and explain our idea. If this container is a success, we plan to put up more containers in central areas.
Practice. We need to raise awareness and acceptance. People shouldn't throw their garbage into our container, for example. We also need to talk to the cleaning staff, because they are the ones who collect all the drink containers from all over the building.

“SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT PRIZE” (PRIZE MONEY: 1,000€)

Owls and Pillows, Reusing Old Plastic Bottles & It’s going on: Sustainability Ambassadors

Classes 5c, 8a, 8b, and 9a at Schubart-Gymnasium Aalen, Baden-Württemberg, with their teachers Eva Gold, Sarah Garman, Sabine Kroiss, Sonja Sachs, Bettina Schönherr, Stefanie Schulze, and Michael Widinger.

This year marked the third time that students from Schubart-Gymnasium in Aalen participated in our Going Green competition. Four courses developed three different action plans to ‘go green.’ All of them are integrated into a school-wide curriculum focusing on education for sustainable development that is currently being developed by teachers representing different school subjects as well as external partners like Aalen Technical University. The jury applauds this integrative approach and decided to award these groups a joint prize for their collective efforts.

Project 1: Students of classes 8a and 5c joined forces for their upcycling project. They collected old clothes at their school and used these materials to create ‘owl pillows’ that they are planning to present and sell at their upcoming school festival. Grade 8 students also visited their younger partners during class and gave presentations on climate change.

Project 2: Class 8b focused on the issue of recycling plastic and reached out to their art teacher to create sculptures made from plastic trash. They identified plastic bottles as one major type of trash on their school campus and created a poster campaign to educate their fellow students about the consequences of plastic pollution – and ways to combat this development.

Project 3: Class 9a, like their fellow students, realized that change for sustainability requires creative and educational approaches. Participating in our competition for the third time, the students have developed a program to train student sustainability ambassadors. One component of this ambassador program is that older students reach out to local primary schools and educate them about green issues.

Certificate of appreciation

Green Transport Rap

Class 10c at Humboldt Gymnasium Potsdam, with teacher Silke Meyfarth.

It´s a rap-song about why you should use your bike or public transport instead of your car.
We divided our class in four groups, every group worked on one of the four Going Green Projects. The group that treated transportation was chosen as the best group, so their final result was uploaded here.
The problem that the group identified was that many young people are too lazy to go by bike or public transport, so they let their parents drive them by car. That is a big problem, because it causes much air pollution. And often the distance could easily be driven by bike or public transit.
To approach this, the group wrote a song. Many young people like rap music and also the beat of the song is a instrumental version of a really popular rap-song. Our intention was that many people would remember the song's melody. With the lyrcis of the song, the group wants to motivate teenagers to go by bike or use public transport. It´s necessary that this song gets popular, so that many people hear it and think about the meaning of its lyrics. (The music of the song is the instrumental version of "Palmen aus Plastik" made by "Bonez MC" and "RAF Camora".)

The students of class FOSP1B, together with their teacher Dagmar Knies, were invited to the Northrhine-Westphalia Landtag where they received their prize money of EUR 500 from U.S. Consul General Keller and member of parliament Matthias Goeken MdL.

Congratulations to the students at Schubart-Gymnasium Aalen on their 1st prize in this year's Going Green school competition. U.S. Consul General Herman handed the award of EUR 1,000 to the students and held a town hall meeting with over 200 students about German-American relations.

The Teach About US team and our partners congratulate all participants and competition winners!

#Competition #GoingGreen

In 2016, we were able to award 13 first prizes for student projects that exhibited outstanding creativity and innovative thinking, applicability in local communities, and a high quality of presentation – all done in the students' foreign language English.

The Teach About US team and our partners want to thank everyone who participated and helped make this contest a success. Congratulations to all students and teachers!

Video: Going Green project finale at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Berlin, April 2016.

The award-winning Going Green action plans are:

Best Video

Going Green video ideas

by course  5e at Gymnasium Essen-Werden with teacher Karsten Brill.

Best Bulletin Board

Our food – local, healthy, sustainable

by the Biology bilingual course (grade 10) at Städtisches Gymnasium Gevelsberg with teacher Birgit Klöber.

Best Website

How much water do we eat?

by the project group English at Dalton-Gymnasium Alsdorf, with teacher Anissa Schiffer.

Community Engagement Award

Act locally: Our Bike Day, our Donation to the Peace Village in Oberhausen and Teaching Refugees

by the course Q1 and Schülervertretung at Dalton-Gymnasium Alsdorf, with teacher Anissa Schiffer.

Transatlantic Reward

SG Goes Green

by the course 8a at Schubart-Gymnasium Aalen, with teachers Bettina Schönherr and Ilona Ackermann.

Most Comprehensive Award to Save the Environment

Small Steps for a Big Change

by the English course Q1 at Wilhelm-Kraft-Gesamtschule des Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreises and Berrien Springs High School, with teachers Martina Westermann and John Vitek.

Most Artistic Project

Plastic is everywhere!

by the course 7e at Goethe Gymnasium Frankfurt am Main with teacher Anne von Rekowski.

Best Powerpoint Presentation

Einstein Goes Green!

by the grade 11 at Albert-Einstein-Gymnasium Maintal, with teacher Jil Behr.

Most Innovative Product Idea (Print)

Green World - all about plastic!

by the grade 10a at Humboldt-Gymnasium Potsdam, with teacher Silke Meyfarth.

Best Presentation

Life Cycle of Clothes

by the grade 10a at Gymnasium Hittfeld Seevetal, with teacher Philipp Schmidt.

Most Innovative Product Idea

Slow Down Fast Fashion

by the English course grade 11 at BIP-Kreativitätsgymnasium Leipzig, with teacher Madlen Naumann.

Most Creative Contribution

Greenefying Our Scholl School

by grade 11 at Geschwister-Scholl-Schule Zossen, with teacher Patrick Emmelmann.

As you all know, for such projects to succeed, it takes more than a learning platform and the prospect of presenting your idea to a large audience. In fact, what all of these student projects have in common is a teacher who sparked enthusiasm and inspired creativity among their students. This is why we decided to make this engagement visible by creating the Most Engaged Teacher Award. Four teachers share this award:

• Anissa Schiffer (Dalton-Gymnasium Alsdorf)
   
• Chiara Catalano (Georg-Herwegh-Gymnasium Berlin)
   
• Bettina Schönherr and Ilona Ackermann (Schubart-Gymnasium Aalen)

They all impressed us with their meticulous work on the Moodle plattform and the fact that they all succeeded in truly engaging their students in community outreach activities. They helped build partnerships with elected officials, local businesses, or institutions of higher education as part of their Going Green participation. With this award, we want to honor the commitment of these colleagues and shine a light on outstanding teacher engagement – which all too often is not being recognized the way it should be.

Our competition winners were invited to present their action plans to fellow project participants at concluding events in Berlin, Frankfurt, and Düsseldorf. If you couldn't make it to these events or want to relive the experience, here are some impressions from these events.

Going Green Award Winners at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Berlin.

Going Green 2016 Final Event in Frankfurt.

Here are some more impressions from the final event in Berlin at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung:

#Competition #GoingGreen

ZDF 02.11.2016

US-Wahl als Schulprojekt: Schüler lernen über Swing States und das amerikanische Wahlsystem

Lüneburger Landeszeitung 03.11.2016

Schüler sagen Ergebnis der US-Wahl voraus

Berliner Zeitung 07.11.2016

Schulprojekt: Hillary siegt mit großem Vorsprung

Leuphana Universität Lüneburg 07.11.2016

Trump oder Clinton - Können deutsche Schüler wirklich das Ergebnis der US-Wahl vorhersagen?

Der Tagesspiegel 07.11.2016

Schülerprognose zur US-Wahl: Clinton gewinnt

Siegerland Kurier 08.11.2016

Clinton oder Trump - Gymnasium Stift Keppel Hilchenbach nahm am „U.S. Election Project“ teil

WAZ 08.11.2016

US-Wahl: Stift Keppel tippt auf Clinton

Märkische Online Zeitung 08.11.2016

Schüler würden Clinton wählen

Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung 09.11.2016

Gymnasiasten zur US-Wahlnacht im ZDF-Studio

Soester Anzeiger 09.11.2016

"Jetzt geht die Welt unter"

Münster Journal 10.11.2016

„Annette-Gymnasium“ stellt Analyse der „US-Wahl“ in Düsseldorf vor

#Competition #Election2016

Over 900 participants in 58 online courses registered for the Going Green 2014 school projects. We received many motivating news from different parts of the country – students who organized a flash mob, others who designed a mobile app, individuals and groups who reached out to local businesses, scholars, and policy makers, and an entire course that interviewed NGO representatives on Skype.

The Teach About US team and our partners want to thank everyone who participated and helped make this contest a success. Congratulations to all students and teachers!

Video: Going Green 2014 finale at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Berlin with project participants and U.S. Ambassador John B. Emerson.

These are the winning projects of the Going Green 2014 Awards:

Presentation

First Prize: Plastic and Trash

by the English Course (grade 12) at Goethe-Gymnasium in Schwerin with teacher Susanne Herbrand-Escher.

1st Runner-up: Humboldt Goes Green

by the English Course (grade 11) at Humboldt-Gymnasium in Potsdam with teachers Patrick Emmelmann and Carola Gnadt.

2nd Runner-up: If you save the world, you can save yourself

by the English Course (grade 8a) at Nicolaus-Cusanus-Gymnasium in Bonn with teacher Melanie Shriner.

2nd Runner-up: Get going, go green!

by the English Course (grade 12) at Goethe-Gymnasium in Schwerin with teacher Susanne Herbrand-Escher.

Blog/Website

First Prize: Alsdorf goes Green

by the bilingual project course (grade 12) with American exchange students at Dalton-Gymnasium in Alsdorf, with teacher Anissa Schiffer.

1st Runner-up: Think Globally, Act Locally

by the English Course (grade 11) at Louise-Henriette-Gymnasium in Oranienburg with teacher Jens Rösner.

Video

First Prize: Wake up! Go green!

by the English course (grade 9b) at Nicolaus-Cusanus-Gymnasium in Bonn, with teacher Melanie Shriner.

1st Runner-up: Philantrophs are going green!

by the English Course (grade 12d) at Gymnasium Philanthropinum in Potsdam with teacher Heike Piornak-Sommerweiß.

2nd Runner-up: More culture and nature instead of smartphone failure

by the English Course (grade 8b) at Nicolaus-Cusanus-Gymnasium in Bonn with teacher Melanie Shriner.

Most innovative product

First Prize: Superstainable – The Board Game to go Green

by the bilingual Biology course (grade Q1) at Schuldorf Bergstraße in Seeheim-Jugenheim, with teacher Kerstin Oldenburg.

1st Runner-up: Sustainable Cosmetics

by the English Course (grade 12) at Albert-Einstein Gymnasium in Neubrandenburg with teacher Petra Wittner.

2nd Runner-up: Bag to the roots

by the English course (grade 11) at BIP Kreativitätsgymnasium in Leipzig, with teacher Madlen Naumann.

Most creative contribution

First Prize: Greenate – A blog, campaign, and an app

by the bilingual Biology course (grade 10) at Goethe-Gymnasium in Frankfurt, with teacher Anne Schröter. 

1st Runner-up: Regional Food

by the bilingual Biology Course (grade 6a) at Schubert-Gymnasium in Aalen with teacher Bettina Schönherr.

Community Engagement Award

First Prize: Going Green – A Campaign, Workshops, and an Art Festival

by the Key Club at Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut in Nürnberg, with program coordinator Kathleen Röber.

Going Green Action Plan Nuremberg from DAI Nuernberg on Vimeo.

1st Runner-up: Aska Awareness Day

by the English Course (grade 11) at Askanisches Gymnasium in Berlin with teacher Matthias Klaudius.

2nd Runner-up: Food for Thought

by the English course (grade 11) at Strittmatter-Gymnasium in Gransee, with teacher Heike Grützmacher.

Transatlantic Award

Goethe goes green

by the LK English 1^st term at Goethe Oberschule in Berlin, with teacher Christina Kurzmann, and the Green Team at Fayetteville High School in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Most Popular Award

Bag to the roots

by the English course (grade 11) at BIP Kreativitätsgymnasium in Leipzig, with teacher Madlen Naumann.

We concluded the Going Green project and student competition with events in Düsseldorf (December 4) and Berlin (December 5). In Düsseldorf, participating courses and teachers were welcomed at the Nordrhein-Westfalen Schulministerium. Our Going Green participants presented their green action plans and discussed their ideas with Prof. David Goldfield from the University North Carolina at Charlotte. Consul General, Steve Hubler, and Staatssekretär Ludwig Hecke congratulated the students on their commitment to German-American cooperation and awarded prizes for some of their outstanding green action plans.

Our friends at the U.S. Consulate General Duesseldorf and Schulministerium NRW hosted a meeting with students from Nicolaus Cusanus Gymnasium Bonn, Gymnasium Alsdorf, and Gymnasium Essen-Werden in Düsseldorf.

In Berlin, U.S. Ambassador John B. Emerson and the Going Green team welcomed students from eight Bundesländer at our national concluding event that was generously hosted by our friends at Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Prof. Goldfield joined us again for this event and discussed the green action plans with the students. Ambassador Emerson awarded prizes for excellent student contributions and underlined the importance of civic engagement for sustainable development.

Congratulations to all participants and competition winners!

#Competition #GoingGreen

Wiigwaas (birch bark) is fused with water in the landscape. Wiigwaasaatigoog (birch trees) grow in many ways across many eco-systems. Birch is used for many things including makakoon (baskets), jiimaanan (canoes), and mashkiki (medicine). Wiigwaasaatigoog are disappearing so fast that some jiimaanan need to be made from wiigwaas (birch bark) from other territories (even as far as other countries). Properly gathering wiigwaas so as to not kill wiigwaasaatigoog and planting wiigwaasaatigoog in places that still have deep winters can help.

Nenda-noojimojig - The Ones Who Seek Healing. Elizabeth LaPensée, Anishaabe & Métis. Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission, 2016.

Made of wiigwaas is a flower with five petals, the floral representing women, sitting within Nookomis Giizis (Grandmother Moon). We are grateful for our Anishinaabekweg (Anishinaabe women) who walk and sing for the water. Sharing water teachings and songs is vital for us all. Nookomis Giizis influences the movements of the waters, which rise each day from melting land ice and expanding sea water. In turn, all movements on and around Nookomis Giizis can change the direction and motion of the waters.

»Anishinaabeg (Anishinaabe people) understand that we are all connected. Impact on one eco-system echoes to another.«

In the stars beside Nookomis Giizis is the Mooz (moose) constellation, who returns in the fall and watches over the ones who walk, swim, crawl, and fly below. Mooz represents ongoing survival. Yet, mooz on the land are disappearing rapidly due to climate change. We hope for mooz to continue on with endurance.

Mooz looks down at namegos (trout), who swims and leaps. Namegos has long provided nourishment to our people and for this we honor them today through restoration efforts and climate change research. Namegos thrive best in cool/cold water.

»Namegos has long provided nourishment to our people and for this we honor them today through restoration efforts and climate change research.«

Namegos swims towards shallower water where manoomin (wild rice) grows. Manoomin is essential as food and medicine for our people. We are here at these waters thanks to this sacred nourishment. We respect manoomin by caring for the waters, removing invasive plants to allow the stalks to grow, and being gentle when we knock the stalks for rice.

While there is change, there is also hope for healing.

Nenda-noojimojig. The ones who seek healing.

Elizabeth LaPensée, Ph.D. (http://www.elizabethlapensee.com/) is an award-winning designer, writer, artist, and researcher who creates and studies Indigenous-led media such as games and comics. She is Anishinaabe from Baawaating with relations at Bay Mills Indian Community and Métis. She is an Assistant Professor of Media & Information and Writing, Rhetoric & American Cultures at Michigan State University.

 #GoingGreen

Participating in the U.S. Embassy’s Speakers’ Program, Nilda Mesa travelled to different cities in Germany to talk about the status quo concerning the climate and energy policies in the U.S. and Germany at the local and federal government levels. In her article she is providing insights into climate and energy policymaking in both countries and introduces initiatives on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Since in Germany the authorities of the Länder (states) are deduced from the federal government, unlike in the U.S. where the Constitution grants a significant extent of authority directly to states, Mesa's German colleagues were surprised at how decentralized the policymaking in the U.S. can be:

“As their system is so centralized, they assumed ours is much the same, which led them to believe that the pronouncements coming from our federal government meant that all states and cities had no choice or flexibility to create their own policies on climate and energy."

– Nilda Mesa

So what does this mean in times of retrenchment from Washington and the U.S.’ federal governments' withdrawal from the Paris climate goals?

“Little news reaches them through their media about U.S. local and state climate and energy policy, and thus they had the impression that Washington pulling out of the Paris climate agreement prohibited states and local entities as well as the private sector from following their own course."

– Nilda Mesa

 

Since this is not the case, the article shows that there are innovative initiatives under way such as “We’re Still In” (check out our recent blog post about the UN climate conference) and that U.S. states like New York are moving forward to meet the Paris climate goals:

“New York’s policy levers to meet 80x50 greenhouse gas emissions targets, such as REV and OneNYC (…) ."

– Nilda Mesa

 

If you are interested in learning more about the U.S. and Germany’s climate and energy policies, click on this link to read the rest of Nilda Mesa’s blog post for the Sallan foundation.

Marilena Peters has been pursuing her B.A. in teaching Social Studies with a geographical focus and English as a Foreign Language at Leuphana University Lüneburg since 2015. After finishing her studies with a Master’s degree, Marilena intends to teach at an elementary school.

#GoingGreen

Teach About US invites teachers and students interested in up-to-date teaching content about U.S. culture to participate in two award-winning projects. Check out “Going Green – Education for Sustainability”: The project will start its fourth year in the school year 2017/18. In addition, every four years, the U.S. Embassy School Election Projects calls German students to predict the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. In 2016, the “U.S. Embassy School Election Project 2016" attracted over 3,000 participants.  The platform is primarily geared towards the English as a foreign language and CLIL classrooms, but we also encourage social science teachers to use our materials on both sides of the Atlantic.  Invite your U.S. or Germany based partner school to participate in a 'transatlantic tandem' or start a partnership via our platform!

#GoingGreen

In Minnesota water has always played a central role not only for recreation but also industry. Not only is Minnesota home to more than 11,800 lakes but also huge rivers like the Mississippi, the Minnesota River and the Saint Croix River. This allows Minnesota to be the fifth largest producer of agricultural goods in the United States. But this part of the economy also accounts for a significant share of the water used in Minnesota. In total, 34 percent (87.9 billion gallons in absolute numbers) of the state´s water is just used for irrigation purposes. This is unsustainable!

Relying too much on groundwater

Since the end of World War II, Minnesota has shifted its water supply from surface water sources like the Mississippi River to groundwater pumping. Especially over the last 25 years, there has been a steep increase of 35 percent in the usage of groundwater. Although not solely responsible for this increase (an increasing population as well), farming is regarded as one of the key areas to tackle an unsustainable use of water, groundwater in particular. According to Professor Deb Swackhamer, former director of the University of Minnesota Water Resources Center, groundwater can be compared to a saving´s account for times of droughts. In contrast to surface water, which can be refilled through rain, groundwater, is replenished on a geological time scale that might take up to 10,000 years. Thus, it is clearly not sustainable to mostly rely on groundwater. If the groundwater reservoirs decline, it might take generations until they can be used again. In parts of South-West and Central-Minnesota, people have already witnessed a lowering of the groundwater level, which can cause serious water supply problems for communities, industries, and wildlife. Low groundwater in Little Rock Creek in Central-Minnesota has led to decreasing oxygen and increasing water temperatures that harm the brown trout population there. Though a regional issue, the Little Rock Creek case amplifies the importance of a more sustainable use of groundwater.

Cleaning up surface water sources

But why is it not possible to just switch back to surface water sources, which were used in the past? Today, more than 40 percent (more than 4100) lakes and streams in the state of Minnesota do not meet the federal quality standards for water, often caused by the side-effects of agriculture like nitrate and phosphorous contamination from fertilizers and animal manure. By infiltrating the ground or running into rivers, streams and lakes, these substances can negatively impact the overall water quality and foster the growth of toxic blue-green algae. Hence, it is not possible to use the contaminated water for irrigation or even drinking. Drinking contaminated water can cause serious illnesses such as the Blue Baby Syndrome, which is a blood disorder that can even be even be fatal in infants. 

Proximity to pollution sources can negatively impact the quality of water.
©http://www.takepart.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/AgRunoffIowa.jpg

Thus the state, companies, as well as advocacy groups have taken steps to tackle the problems of future groundwater shortages and water contamination in the state. To reduce water consumption in industries and agriculture (together accounting for about 42 percent of the freshwater used in Minnesota), businesses are encouraged to use more conservation-based processes and equipment. A common problem in this context are leaky water pipes and other related equipment. Even a very small leak of one drop of water per minute accounts for more than 10 gallons of lost water per year. Multiplied with the remaining leaks from a farm or plant this already accounts for significant amount of water loss. In fact, both companies and nature can benefit from simple steps like fixing leaking pipes since people save money and nature suffers less from an unsustainable usage of its precious natural resource.

Leaky water pipes account for a significant amount of water loss.
©https://d16ee5lo1src82.cloudfront.net/media/default/Import-Home-BlogPosts/home%20insurance%20coverage%20on%20pipe%20bursts.jpg

Modernizing water supply and treatment

Modern efficient irrigation technology in agriculture also saves water such as low-pressure irrigation. In general, extracting water from streams, lakes or the ground is a highly energy intensive process. Today, still most irrigation systems rely on high-pressure impact sprinklers that release a large amount of water at high pressure to water fields. Thus, these systems require pumps that push large amounts of water through pipes at a very high velocity. But low-pressure systems reduce the pumping demands significantly since pumps extract less water to create the pressure necessary to supply the sprinklers. Moreover, these systems also save water by using larger droplets that are more resistant to wind and evaporation. In contrast, high-pressure rely on small fine droplets, which can spread and be carried away by wind or evaporate in dry atmospheric conditions. Consequently, these systems have to run longer every day in order to achieve the same level of irrigation as the low-pressure systems. Moreover, the short intervals of “light rain” by the low-pressure system are also not disruptive to the soil and help to maintain its infiltration capabilities.

Low pressure irrigation system
©https://www.tlirr.com/wp-content/uploads/sprinkler.jpg

How do we tackle not only water waste but water pollution caused by industries and farming? An effective way to diminish the effect of runoff water is the creation of a living cover around ditches, rivers, streams and lakes. This living barrier holds water on the landscape, filters contaminants like nitrate, and allows water to reach aquifers while simultaneously reducing runoff. Living cover can consist off perennial crops, cover crops, prairie and grasses, wetlands as well as forests. The plants´ root systems hold the soil in place, build organic matter and keep the water clean. In 2015, Minnesota enacted a buffer law which designated about 110,000 acres of land to living cover along its rivers, streams and ditches. From now on, the law requires perennial vegetation of up to 50 feet along public waters and 16.5 feet along public ditches.

All in all these ideas area just small steps. But with the help of such efforts to reduce water consumption and enhance the quality of water, people can protect the world´s most precious resource.

 #GoingGreen

There is a wonderful spot west of the city of Frankfurt in Germany. It’s in an area well known for its excellent white wine, its charming hilly landscape, and its welcoming people. It’s called The Rheingau.

Photo caption: The city of Rüdesheim is located by the river Rhine (photo credit: JeLuF on Wikimedia)

Once you make your way up a hill from Rüdesheim, maybe comfortably using the cable car, a fantastic view over the river Rhine opens up. From there, the Niederwald landscape park, you can see for miles to the West, overlooking the tranquil Rhine valley and even have the illusion that you actually see France.

“Germania” | photo credit: Markus Ziener

When I was there not long ago my daughter asked me about the statue named Germania that is hovering over the platform where people are gathering for the view. The 34-foot figure is called Germania. In her right hand the lady holds the emperor’s recovered crown; in her other she displays the Imperial Sword. I explained that the monument’s message was not a peaceful one. Only a few years before the inauguration of the statue in 1883, Prussia had just fought another war with France, uniting the German principals for the first time into a single nation state. The Germania was nothing else but a warning to the French: Stay where you are, don’t even think about coming here. This is ours.

My daughter was bewildered. War with France? Of all countries? War with our best neighbor, friend, and closest ally in the European Union? I had to smile – and thought that maybe those historians are wrong who believe that nations always fall into the same trap. After so many bloody wars between Germany and France, both countries finally did the right thing after the carnage of the Second World War. They learned from history – thanks to the prevailing of reason and thanks to Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer. The French President and the German Chancellor turned from arch enemies into friends. This seems to have worked so well that even a 17-year old today could not believe that a little more than 70 years ago things were just the opposite.

Nations time and again reach certain milestones, and their leaders have to make far-reaching decisions. Luckily, they are not always about war and peace. Mostly making choices whether to turn left or right at a historic junction are much more profane – or at least they look profane. Nonetheless they often have a lasting impact, and it takes some wisdom to do the right thing.

»He  (Donald Trump) follows the pattern après moi, le déluge’. In other words: I don’t care what happens once I am gone.«

Withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord is such an example. The U.S. under its President Donald J. Trump has decided to make a turn, to exit the road the nation was on. Trump probably truly thinks that this decision is good for business, for employment, for his job approval, for his re-election. He thinks of the short-term benefits this move may produce – for him, his administration, and his electoral base. He does not bother about what one or two generations ahead a 17-year old may think of it. He follows the pattern après moi, le déluge’. In other words: I don’t care what happens once I am gone.

Trump, of course, is not the only politician to act that selfishly. Our democratic systems with elections every four or five years makes it difficult for political leaders to withstand the temptations of reaping the low hanging fruits. Although in this case, the decision is particularly hard to comprehend. Committing to stop global warming is a win-win situation – even if you think that climate change is a hoax. Why? If climate change were man-made, reducing CO₂ emissions obviously is the right thing. And if global warming, in fact, is the fate of the earth no matter what, then we all might find out too late to reverse course.

Two of my favorite books are Why Nations Fail and Collapse, written by Daron Acemoglu/James A. Robinson and Jared Diamond respectively. The authors collected examples of historical crossroads at which leaders took the wrong turn eventually brought about catastrophes even though they knew better. One case study is the demise of the Easter Islands in the South Pacific. According to Diamond, the tree-covered island was destroyed by Polynesian colonists. They cut down the trees to worship their religious cult by putting up massive statues. As deforestation worsened, the islanders tried to appease their gods by erecting even more statues. In the end, the vicious cycle of human stupidity led to catastrophe.

Jared Diamond finally writes: “I have often asked myself, ‘What did the Easter Islander who cut down the last palm tree say while he was doing it?” Like modern loggers, did he shout “Jobs, not trees!”? Or: “Technology will solve our problems, never fear, we’ll find a substitute for wood”?

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Markus Ziener //  02 July 2017 //

Markus Ziener is an author and professor of journalism at the University for Media, Communications and Economics (HMKW) in Berlin. Prior to that he was the head of the op-ed section of Handelsblatt, Germany’s leading business daily. From 2006 to 2012, he served as head of the Washington bureau of Handelsblatt.

#GoingGreen

Education for sustainable development one of the core goals of Going Green, but what does this mean? And what factors are involved in the process? During the 2014 “Going Green” project, our expert Shari Wilson gave us an overview of what environmental education can be.Shari is an ecologist and environmental educator as well as owner and principal of Project Central, LLC, a consulting firm that works with schools, neighborhood organizations, government agencies, and others on projects related to education, the environment, and healthy communities. Here's our interview with her:

Apart from the interview at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, Going Green participants had further questions for Shari Wilson: 

What do you think is one of the best ways to start sustainability projects at the local level? 

Shari Wilson:

“In my experience, the best way to begin is to start small and involve as many people as possible. Persistence is also important. For example, if you see that a park has a lot of litter in it, a campaign to get people to throw away their trash instead of leaving it on the ground might be a good idea. I worked with a school in Armenia on this sort of project. The students did a one-day event at the park where they handed out fliers about littering. Many people said they agreed with the students, that littering was not a good thing to do. The students were disappointed, however, when they found many of their fliers on the ground, and no real improvement in littering in the weeks after their event. After they talked with their city government and asked for more trash and recycling containers, and signs reminding people not to litter, they noticed an improvement. The students also returned to the park frequently and talked to people about littering. When people saw that the students cared about the park enough to keep coming back, their attitudes began to change.

With sustainability projects, we are essentially asking people to change their behavior, often for reasons that are not easily seen and for results that may be abstract. All of the trash on the ground goes somewhere, right? Either someone picks it up or somehow it goes away. What difference does it make whether my trash goes into the water system or is properly recycled or taken to a landfill? Those are questions you have to keep trying to answer, while making it easy for people to change their behavior by locating plenty of trash cans and recycling container nearby, in our littering example."

How did your 14 years of NGO experience change your ideas about community or grassroots initiatives? Did your experience re-shape the way you view grassroots organizing?

Again, Shari Wilson: 

"Probably the biggest lesson I learned was that partnerships make the difference between successful projects and unsuccessful ones. Developing relationships and listening to what others think takes time and patience. Finding agreement on how to approach a problem is not always easy, but it is important to get as many people and organizations involved as possible, even those that are not in agreement with how you think a project should proceed.

One example I recall is when I was leading an effort to develop a park in my community. The land was owned by the city, but there were many competing views regarding how the property should be used. I had heard a lot of rumors about how difficult the park opponents were to work with, but they were keeping the project from moving forward so I had to meet with them. I learned that some of them had concerns about security and others wanted the area used for a boat ramp so they could fish on the river. Once they were invited to join the group, we were able to work out their issues and accommodate everyone. To alleviate the security concerns, park rules do not allow camping overnight. And we were able to find room for a boat ramp that now receives a tremendous amount of use."

What is one of the best examples you have seen of sustainability projects in the schools?

Shari Wilson's answer to this:

"Schools that have the most successful projects are those where sustainability is part of the school culture, meaning that following sustainable practices is part of the normal way the school always works. I have often seen successful recycling or gardening projects begin at schools, only to disappear when an enthusiastic teacher or parent leaves or loses interest.

Starside Elementary School in De Soto, Kansas is a great example of a school that started small, with a recycling program, and has now incorporated sustainability into its character education program. Starside has a school culture that promotes consideration of the environment and provides students with opportunities to learn how to take care of plants, animals, and the earth. Besides recycling, Starside now has lunchroom waste recycling, compostable lunch trays, landscape composting, worm composting, a small solar turbine, gardens (both vegetable and wildlife habitat), and school policies stating that these programs will continue and are part of the school’s curriculum. The policies ensure that the programs will outlive the administrators and teachers that began them."

http://usd232.org/education/school/school.php?sectiondetailid=814&

You mentioned in your interview with 'Going Green' that you encourage students to 'dig deeper' and be more skeptical. Where and how does that begin?

Shari Wilson:

“Anyone who has been around young children knows they are full of questions and curiosity about the world around them. Somehow that ability to question and desire to learn more disappears once they progress in school. The United States is returning to a more inquiry-based method of teaching through the implementation of new education standards. This means students will direct more of their learning, and teachers will serve more as facilitators than lecturers and experts. This is a big change for most teachers and all students, but it will provide in-depth learning that is more relevant for the students. The way most teachers begin the process is to ask an “essential question” that the students will answer. The answer will require research by the students, and often they will come up with different answers to the same question.”

Our former blogger, Alex Magaard, asked:

My younger sister is interested in potentially starting a community garden in our hometown of Wayzata, Minnesota. Do you have any advice for her with where/how to implement her project?

Shari Wilson responded:

“That’s wonderful news! Gardens are a great way to get different community members together, and to teach younger people how to grow their own vegetables. The skills you learn through gardening are like those you learn to ride a bike: once you’ve done it, you always remember how, no matter how much time passes between experiences. Gardening, like bike riding, is empowering; you can grow a vegetable plant anywhere, as long as you have a pot and some sun.

I see from the City of Wayzata’s website that they already have a Gardens Initiative, where volunteers help take care of the city’s gardens. Why not contact the people in charge of that project, and ask if they would help start a community vegetable garden? The City may even have some land that it would be willing to contribute for the garden. I also noticed on the website that Wayzata has curbside leaf pick-up, so there is probably a composting site somewhere.

http://www.wayzata.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={77D44144-7C45-4FA1-9E5C-78ED6C891387}

Another great group to get involved with gardening is the Master Gardeners organization. These are volunteers who have taken a considerable amount of training and offer help and advice to people with gardening questions. Often they are older people who have a lot of experience gardening and love to help others, especially kids, learn to garden. Why not see if there is a Master Gardeners program or something similar in Wayzata?

A local school may also be interested in starting a gardening program. In my experience, school gardens almost always turn into community gardens because people in the community want to help. A wonderful book on how to start a school garden is “How to Grow a School Garden: A Complete Guide for Parents and Teachers” by Arden Bucklin-Sporer and Rachel Kathleen Pringle. It has all kinds of examples and guides for starting a garden. Even if you don’t involve a school, this book would probably be helpful to anyone starting a community garden. Another good resource is the Kansas Garden Gate website, http://www.kansasgreenschools.org/green-schools-garden-gate.

Good luck—let me know how it goes!”

We are very grateful to Shari Wilson for her willingness to participate as an expert in the "Going Green" project and her detailed answers and explanations to our students' questions!

Janina Schmidt obtained her B.A. in teaching Economics and English as a Second Language (ESL) at Leuphana University Lüneburg in 2014. After earning her Master's degree (expected 09/2017), Janina intends to teach ESL as well as English for Specific Purposes with an economic focus at vocational schools. As a student assistant she supports the educational management of the Teach About US initiative.

#GoingGreen #Experts

What is the role of local and state governments in combating climate change in the U.S.? And what does a “green” agenda of a State Senator look like? Tricky questions, but we were able to reach out to Chris Steineger, a former State Senator in Kansas, to give us some first-hand impressions on these issues. His involvement with the green movement in the U.S. goes all the way back to his university days when he first discovered photovoltaic cells and solar energy and also recycling. While serving the 6^th Senate District as State Senator in Wyandotte County, Kansas, for 13 years, Chris Steineger pursued a “green” agenda – not an easy feat in a conservative state. Chris’s public policy focuses included apart from early childhood education, health care, efficient local government especially sustainable energy resources. In 2013, when Chris was teaching students at Humboldt Universität in Berlin, Germany, about the American government and contemporary politics, we got the change to interview him and get to know more about his personal insights in environmental politics in the U.S. Watch the whole interview here: 

During the 2014 "Going Green" project, students took the chance and addressed further questions to our expert Chris Steineger, which he kindly answered in great detail. 

You recently taught at Humboldt Uni in Berlin. Was there anything you saw or experienced in Germany concerning environmentalism that you would like to take back to the U.S.?

On the other hand, were you missing anything from the U.S.? Is there something you would like to see being introduced in Germany? 

Here is Chris Steineger's take on this:

“Germans are more committed at the individual level to a more sustainable Earth. Germans, Scandinavians, and a few others truly "walk the talk." As individuals, they live a life with a smaller environmental "footprint". Smaller homes, cars, food portions, less energy consumption. Germans also practice trash separation & recycling very thoroughly. My own country has millions of very committed environmentalists as well, but the vast majority of Americans really don't practice living sustainably; reducing material possessions; eating less, driving smaller fuel efficient cars; living in smaller homes, etc. Most Americans "talk the talk" but don't live it.

I would like for Americans to adopt the German people's commitment at the individual level to living with less stuff."

What does sustainability mean to you? 

Again, Chris Steineger: 

"I use a very broad and liberal definition for sustainability which includes economics, not just environment. Similarly, the phrase; “living within ones means” includes environment, not just economics. For me, they are one and the same. Certainly the human race as a whole is consuming the Earth’s resources faster than they can be naturally replenished. Air, water, organics, then soil are the most important. The human population is growing to 8 billion soon, yet the amount of air, water, and good soil remains the same. You can gain early insight about what will someday come by looking at today’s events in parts of North Africa. Water and food shortages. The trees have all been cut. Even the jungle animals being hunted to extinction. Some parts of the Earth which are quite dry, are already over-populated and so the people there must emigrate. Some make it across the Mediterranean or come through the east to Europe.

Sustainability includes economics. You can “borrow & spend” only so much money. This is true of an individual; a country; and a generation. The Economic bust of 2007-9 is a direct result of too much borrowing in the previous decade. The older generation gets to enjoy the spending and consumption. The future generations must pay off the debt!"

The plastic bag ban in L.A. and other Californian towns in one of the case studies in Going Green. Is there something comparable in Kansas? Any other interesting or curious examples of local policies for green development? 

Chris Steineger's answer to this:

"Different regions of the US are better and faster at different things. For environmental issues, the leaders are often found in the Pacific Northwest and the Rocky Mountains. The people that live in areas with much natural beauty always want to keep it that way. Kansas and the Midwest States generally lag behind in environmental commitment, and the southern States typically are the most behind on environmental issues. Kansas does very well with wind energy production. We are blessed with high, average wind speeds, which is what's needed to power any wind farm. Also, the Land Institute in Salina, KS has been doing advanced pioneering development for 40 years of "perennial" wheat which would never need to be replanted, fertilized, or artificially watered. They have now a few test fields of this wheat. WHEN it proves commercially viable, it will make wheat production 50% more economical!"

Complete the following sentence: Eco-tourists in the state of Kansas definitely should… 

Chris Steineger:

“…enjoy great beef and pork barbeque while they admire the scenic Flint Hills, are inspired by the Land Institute, and enjoy canoeing on the Kansas River.”

Thank you, State Senator Chris Steineger for engaging in our project and sharing your experience with us!

Janina Schmidt obtained her B.A. in teaching Economics and English as a Second Language (ESL) at Leuphana University Lüneburg in 2014. After earning her Master's degree (expected 09/2017), Janina intends to teach ESL as well as English for Specific Purposes with an economic focus at vocational schools. As a student assistant she supports the educational management of the Teach About US initiative.

#GoingGreen #Experts

A couple of days ago we posted a Q and A with Christianna Stavroudis discussing sustainability. This week in part 2, we dive deeper into how environmentalism is portrayed in political cartoons. Her special expertise and research on that topic in Germany and the U.S. makes Christianna Stavroudis a distinguished interview partner on the issue. Read more about her takes on that in the following.

"What do you think are some of the biggest differences between political cartoons in Germany and the United States?"

Christianna Stavroudis:

German and American cartoons actually have more in common than not: they generally follow a one-panel format (that means the image is not cut up into several panels, like in a comic strip), are often featured on the opinion pages (“Meinungsseiten”), and employ similar metaphorical tools and symbols to communicate their messages. There are a few noteworthy differences, however:

 

1. German cartoons are less focused on the “nation” (both the physical country and the people who inhabit it) than American cartoons are. Just think of how often you see Uncle Sam in cartoons vs. the Deutscher Michel in German cartoons. In the cartoon below, the US stands as a microcosm for the world. I’ve yet to see a German-centric cartoon when it comes to the environment:

 

 

2. American cartoons exploit far more pop cultural references than German cartoons do. The caption to this cartoon below refers to a popular children’s TV science show from the 1990’s, Bill Nye: The Science Guy:

 

 

3. In my experience, German cartoons depict more individual politicians than American cartoons do. This is particularly apparent in environmental cartoons as Germany has a minister for the environment who plays a public role in the debate whereas the US secretary of energy does not make many televised appearances and is not a household name:

 

 

4. German cartoons on the environment are often tongue-in-cheek. Germany has a relatively good reputation worldwide for its environmental policy, so it can “afford” to be tongue-in-cheek about it. The environmental debate in the States is a much heated one and therefore the tone is much more serious in the cartoons. 

 

"How, do you believe, environmental political cartoons differ from other types of political cartoons -- is there a significant difference?"

Christianna Stavroudis: 

"Political cartoons that cover specific topics will often have conventions, references, metaphors and symbols that recur (e.g. sports are often referenced/visualized in election cartoons as the candidates are considered to be participating in a kind of “race”). So in this respect, environmental cartoons are just a thematic subset of political cartoons in general. The issue of the environment, however, is a perennial one, meaning that it shows up year after year. Elements of and foci in the debate will change, but the main problem of “saving our environment” remains. This makes the subset of environmental cartoons unique, as I can’t think of another issue that has had the same longevity and scale. This of course presents a challenge to cartoonists as well in terms of presenting a new take or perspective on this much-covered issue."

"What is personally one of your favorite political cartoons and why?"

Christianna Stavroudis:

"I am writing my dissertation on idioms, so I like cartoons that successfully visually embed idioms into the image. I really like how this Austrian cartoonist plays with the expression “alles nur heiße Luft”:

 

"What are some of the best ways that you recommend for a student to begin environmental activism at the community or aggregate level?"

Christianna Stavroudis responded:

"I think the best way to enact any kind of change is to start with very small, doable goals. Perhaps this can begin at school by putting up posters to encourage fellow students to put their plastics in recycling bins for plastics instead of throwing them into general bins (such posters would be a great showcase for cartoons, by the way!). Or, if the school doesn’t have recycling for plastics, putting pressure on the school board to place these throughout the school. If your favorite Imbiss serves everything on and in Styrofoam, you might talk to the owner about switching to paper. Good environmental practice also relies on the individual taking an audit of his/her habits and seeking to be more respectful with his/her resources every day. And it certainly never hurts to get in touch with local representatives to express to them just how important environmental issues are for you and your community. Remember: you put these guys in power!"

Thanks you, Christianna, for sharing your expertise with us and the Going Green community!

#GoingGreen #Experts

Sustainability can mean different things to different people. One interesting medium that shapes our views and attitudes towards sustainability are political cartoons. To learn more about this, we reached out to Christianna Stavroudis, who teaches linguistics at the University of Bonn. She has supported Going Green since its start in 2014 and her article on this topic appeared in the American Studies Journal. (Also, check out part 1 and part 2 of our interview with her during the U.S. Embassy School Election Project.) Christianna was so kind as to answer some of our students' questions during the 2014 Going Green project. 

Our participant Marc Bernhard submitted the following three questions:

"Is a completely sustainable world possible?"

Christianna Stavroudis:

"I believe that a more sustainable world is possible, but not a completely sustainable one. The use of resources and the increase in standard of living implies an unavoidable unsustainability. Through unsustainable development (past and present) there is damage and abuse that we have inflicted on the environment that is irreversible. 
What I think is necessary is for citizens (not just politicians at big conferences) to take this problem seriously and discuss solutions together that will enhance quality of life for them and for their future generations. Take the example of the travel industry. With cheap flights and decreasing wages in this sector, more people have 
been able to travel than ever before. This is a good thing, on the one hand, because it opens travel up to more people. "Seeing the world" is not just a middle class luxury anymore. However, the very natural 
wonders and cultures that we leave our homes to see are at risk through our reckless environmental practices, both on a small and large scale. We need to remember that we are the ones who both put 
politicians into office through our votes and make business run though our purchasing power. Only through putting pressure on both of these sectors can we affect change."

"How does a completely sustainable world look to you?"

Christianna Stavroudis: 

“A sustainable world for me would be one that would exploit globalization for the purposes of making the world more sustainable on a micro level. This would include the ability for citizens to connect with one another (both nationally and internationally) to exchange knowledge and resources. Internet infrastructures such as forums and skyping can play a big role in this. One of the greatest problems I see with our societies is that they are divided by class. The rich and the poor are growing further and further apart but sustainability is a great equalizer. If we are true to our democratic ideals, we should be able to agree that everyone has the right to a healthy environ. So I would hope that global politics would make the following a priority: instituting policies that lend themselves to more egalitarian socio-economic structures as well as ones that prioritize access to 

literacy, education, mobility, and connectivity.”

How is it that the American government is so slow in acting towards sustainability?

Christianna Stavroudis:

"As I am no expert on public policy, I can only answer this question as an American citizen. I believe the main problem here is a lack of political will. The US has a binary political system: you can basically pick either the Republicans or the Democrats. (On the municipal and, sometimes, state level there are more parties (such as 
the libertarians or greens), but on the federal level it is basically either/or. I admire the diversity of parties that you have in the German Bundestag.) So it's no surprise that these two parties are 
often at loggerheads with each other concerning a multitude of issues, one of the most exemplary being that of environmental policy. This is particularly problematic in these times of recession and the global economic crisis as the discussion of sustainability subsequently takes a back seat to the government creating jobs (or at least the discussion thereof). 
There are two other points that might contribute to a less environmentally-aware populace (we would of course need numbers on this, but my subjective experience of living in both the US and Germany is that being "environmentally friendly" plays a bigger role in my daily life in Germany than it did in the States): 
1) Americans are individualistic. "Freedom" for some people means that no one is going to tell them what to do. This can lead unfortunately to people being reckless with their resources. There are often no immediate consequences to unsustainable practices: there is neither punishment nor does one see the immediate effects of one's behavior. This is a big problem for making policies that encourage people on the micro and macro levels to practice sustainability. I recycle and I want others to, too, but do I really want to live in a society in which we're all checking each other's trash and pointing fingers? That would creep me out. 
2) The States is geographically huge, is rich in natural resources, and has only two neighbors. This contributes to its view of being "exceptional," viewing itself as singular, and, subsequently, sometimes not cooperating with global protocol. The States is still the strongest economy in the world and much of the 
world's economic success depends on that of the States. One of the biggest (if not the biggest) challenges for the 21st century will be making sustainability and economic development/success compatible. (Think of rising middle classes in developing countries like India, China, and Brazil.)"

Could you give me some tips for the cartoon?

Svetlana Ginter from Alsdorf (near Aachen) wanted to know: "I am working on a project about sustainability and my topic is traffic. Now I have to draft a cartoon which has to draw attention on the emissions on the way to school. My question to you is: Could you give me some tips for the cartoon and how can I represent the emission problem well?" 

Christianna Stavroudis responded:

"Traffic cartoon: It is a little bit difficult for me to help you draft this cartoon as I don't understand what the concrete issue is that you'd like to draw attention to. But all cartoonists first make a point of making their issue very clear visually. Your reader must be able to within seconds recognize what issue about emissions you're referring to (is it traffic jams, lack of bicycle paths?). The humor component then comes in when you insert something like a pun, play on words, witty/ironic remark, or idiom into the image. Perhaps school 
children are sitting on a school bus and commenting about the bottlenecked traffic scene they see outside the windows. Perhaps a child is being seen off to school by his/her parent and the child asks the parent a question that the parent can't answer about the environmental issue you wish to critique. Or perhaps you present the reader with a dramatic scene with a compelling caption. Spend some time brainstorming these "ingredients" and see how you can synthesize them together to create an effective one-panel image. Have a look at other cartoons on the web to get inspiration. Break them down into their component parts to see what makes them "work" (or what doesn't). 
  
UN climate summit cartoon: this is my favorite, top of the page

(Photo credit: Joel Pett / USA Today, 12/07/2009. All rights reserved.)

Thanks again to Christianna Stavroudis for the time to answer all our students' questions. We appreciate your willingness to participate as an expert in the "Going Green" project!

Discussing environmentalism can be a tricky thing to do, especially in an intercultural project like Going Green. Over the last years, we've had several experts help us understand some of the difficult questions surrounding the field of sustainable development. Experts like David Goldfield, who was invited to Germany by the U.S. Embassy to give lectures and teach workshops on sustainable development in the U.S. He is the Robert Lee Bailey Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Some of our participants from previous Going Green cycles reached out to Professor Goldfield with their questions, inquiring about the Republican/Democrat divide regarding climate change, the rise of pollution in the past, and the significance of bike cities:

Is there still a considerable difference in attitude toward climate change between Democrats and Republicans?

Mr. Ulrich Kempkens and his students at Bettina-von-Arnim-Schule in Berlin asked:

“Is there still a considerable difference in attitude toward climate change between Democrats and Republicans?”

Here is Dr. Goldfield’s take on this:

“Hi, Uli. Good to hear from you. The answer is yes and no (helpful, right?). Actually, a number of Republican senators and congressmen believe climate change, particularly human-induced climate change, is a scientific fact and not one theory out of many theories. Some evangelical Protestant ministers also believe in climate change, and they are traditional supporters of the Republican Party. The problem is that the Republican base, particularly the very active Tea Party, and major donors such as the Koch Brothers, believe, at best, that the jury is still out on climate change, and that scientific evidence of human-induced climate change is dubious at best. The practical political result of these views is that Republicans running for office can rarely divulge their true views on climate change (a great example of this was the unanimous denial of the Republican candidates for president during their 2012 debates). Also, this makes legislation addressing climate change very difficult to achieve at the federal level, which is why many of the current innovations occur at the state level. It is another example of the growing divide between the Democratic and Republican Parties in the U.S.

Do you think it's possible that the world could ever change in a positive way?

We received further questions from a class of 10^th graders at the Goethe Gymnasium in Frankfurt. They were wondering about these aspects:

1. “Do you think it's possible that the world could ever change in a positive way?”

2. “How can people, for instance in Germany or Australia etc. (in countries where people consume a lot) do something for our ecological footprint without cutting down their spending?”

Again, David Goldfield: 

“Dear Victor, Moritz, and Valeriia,

Thanks for your questions. I am basically an optimist, so I think we can solve these environmental problems, hopefully, before it’s too late. My optimism is based on what has happened here in the U.S. over the past 50 years. In many cities, including mine (Charlotte, North Carolina), the air is cleaner, the rivers and streams are more supportive of life, and there has been growth in the use of renewable energy. But, your question asks about the “world,” not about developed economies such as Germany and the U.S. The efforts to create a world-wide pact or agreement on the environment have been disappointing. Developing nations complain that the developed nations attained their status by polluting the environment, and now they want to impose restraints on poorer nations. We need to do a better job demonstrating to poorer nations that economic development and environmental protection are not mutually exclusive

Which brings me to your second question. We have a saying in the U.S.: “You can pay now, or pay a lot more later.” As climate change begins, increasingly, to have a monetary impact on the U.S. (and on other countries as well), particularly with respect to disappearing shorelines, increased flooding, and serious weather events, as time goes buy the expense for addressing these issues will increase dramatically. But, politicians rarely think in the long-term, even, say, next month, particularly at the national level in the U.S. Fortunately, many of our states have been pro-active. They have demonstrated that alternative energy sources, pollution control, and recycling will result in monetary savings for both consumers and governments. The costs of alternative energy such as wind power and solar power are continuing to come down and are increasingly competitive with conventional energy sources.”

How do you evaluate the development of pollution (caused by humans) in the past 50 years or so?

Natalie from Leipzig, Germany raised the following issues:

“Based your background in history, how do you evaluate the development of pollution (caused by humans) in the past 50 years or so? Is there any chance that we can lower the negative impact effectively?”

David Goldfields answer to this:

“Hi, Natalie. I have wonderful memories of Leipzig, particularly its heritage as a center for great classical music. It proves that humans can create things of great beauty. Which brings me to your question. Here in the U.S., we have made significant strides in attacking air and water pollution over the past 50 years. A major reason for this is that many more people in the U.S. are aware of pollution and the problems caused by pollution. Let me give you a specific example. In 1952, the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio caught fire because of all the chemical pollutants in the water. The event scarcely made the news. In 1969, the river caught fire again and there was national outrage and concern. What happened in the meantime was that we were made aware of polluting industries and the health and environmental havoc they were visiting upon humans and the natural environment. Soon after, President Richard M. Nixon signed the Environmental Protection Act and subsequently established the Environmental Protection Agency. As a result of federal and state policies over the past 50 years, our water and air are cleaner and we are developing (slowly, to be sure) alternative energy sources.

We still have a long way to go. The major problem is not technology; it’s the political will. The momentum has slowed in the U.S. over the past 15 years. Hopefully, we will not have to wait for another disaster to move federal policy forward.”

How is it that cities like Portland encourage people to leave their cars at home and ride their bikes instead – and thereby even create revenues of many million dollars?

A final question came from Jacques, BIP Kreativitätsgymnasium Leipzig. He wanted to know:

“While we worked on the topic City/Transport (Portland, Oregon - A sustainable city?), a question came into our mind. People pay taxes on cars and gas, which can create profits for communities. But how is it that cities like Portland encourage people to leave their cars at home and ride their bikes instead – and thereby even create revenues of many million dollars? In my opinion this is impossible, because the car holder should have to pay taxes for the car and insurance. So, wouldn’t the city lose money if there were no people paying these taxes?”

Here is David Goldfield's response:

“Good question, Jacques. If everyone rode bikes in Portland, the city would benefit tremendously. First, most of those taxes are state and federal taxes, so the city of Portland benefits little from those revenues except in the maintenance and building of roads, which only encourages more automobiles. Second, the savings in road maintenance, parking spaces, and the health benefits derived from cleaner air would more than make up for any lost revenues as a result of the diminished presence of the automobile. This is why cities across the U.S., including my own (Charlotte, NC) are pushing to extend public transportation – we are extending our light rail (trolley) system here in Charlotte and extending our network of bike paths. We believe that these policies are all part of making cities more “livable,” and, therefore, attracting bright, energetic, and well-educated young people to make our cities interesting and economically vital.”

Once again we would like to thank the students for sending in these interesting questions and also David Goldfield for sharing his expertise with us. Remember, it is you who make Going Green a bi-national project, so keep the good work going!

Green roofs are not only an aesthetic benefit for the city of Minneapolis but they help to reduce the city’s ecological footprint.

“Green isn´t just a concept in Minneapolis; it´s a lifestyle.”[1] This slogan by the city of Minneapolis (MN) summarizes the spirit of many people here perfectly. In general, Minneapolis always aims at being a forerunner when it comes to the issues of environmental-friendliness and sustainability. But the development is not only limited to significant investments in a bike friendly infrastructure or the provision of an environmentally-friendly public transportation network. Over the last couple of years Minneapolis has also introduced a number of green initiatives that are meant to improve the lives of the city´s residents. Many different local actors take part in these community activities making the city even greener. One such example is  the “Green Roofs” initiative of the city of Minneapolis in cooperation with other local actors.

The “Green Roofs” initiative is exactly what it sounds like: replacing the traditional roof with living plants. Thereby, buildings become more environmentally-friendly by adopting many advantages of the natural landscape like plants’ ability to absorb large quantities of stormwater. In contrast to green roofs, normal roofs often have the disadvantage of accumulating heat and pollution. On rainy days, this can have severe effects on the water quality of rivers and lakes in Minneapolis. As rain pours down on ordinary roofs, the water washes out dust and pollution and transports it into rivers and lakes. But green roofs feature the ability to hold on much more rain water through the vegetation as well as the growing media and hence play an important part in the efforts to reduce water pollution. This also reduces the needs and costs for any additional expensive stormwater treatment infrastructure in the Twin Cities. The durability of green roofs is another important advantage. The waterproof membrane is below a green layer, which protects the roof from damaging outside factors such as heat, UV radiation or thermal swings. As a result, green roofs can last three times longer than the majority of normal roofs. But green roofs also serve as natural habitats for many different flowers and animals in cities. With the help of these roofs many birds as well as beneficial insects find better living conditions in the urban jungle, which allows their populations to prosper. In general, the overall living conditions for any animal and human being further improves since flowers ensure a better air quality through photosynthesis, which transforms carbon dioxides into fresh oxygen. Finally, those green roofs have positive aesthetic side-effect by beautifying Minneapolis neighborhoods as well.

Rooftop of the Target Center with the skyline of Minneapolis in the background

© http://www.greenroofs.com/projects/target_center/target_center10.gif

Different case studies around Minneapolis have demonstrated the positive effects of green roofs. Minneapolis’ basketball and event arena, the Target Center, is a stunning example of the green roof initiative. The Target Center has 2.5 acres (113,000 square feet) of greens on its roof and was the first sports arena in North America to install such a roof surface in 2009. Since its construction, the  roof has created a number of unique advantages for the city’s climate. The green roof can absorb 0.9 inches of rainfall per foot without any runoff of polluted water. Thereby, 1,000,000 gallons of stormwater are prevented from flowing into the Mississippi River each year. Furthermore, the roof’s waterproofing membrane is expected to last for 40 years. Another advantage of the Target Center´s green roof is its ability to absorb heat in the summer and hence reduce energy costs because it alleviates the consequences of the ‘urban heat island’ effect in downtown Minneapolis. This heat island effect leads to higher temperatures in cities and is caused by dark surfaces like roads or conventional buildings, which are highly concentrated in urban environments and absorb more solar radiation than natural landscapes. But with the help of green roofs cities cannot only become greener in their appearance but also in their way of tackling many of the man-made ecological problems.      

[1] http://www.minneapolis.org/things-to-do/green-minneapolis/

#GoingGreen

Across many university campuses in the United States students have begun to rely less on the government for action on climate change. Instead, they seek to work on a smaller scale to influence what they can control, their own neighborhoods and campuses, to achieve plausible and realistic change. (For example, in 2015 we reported about student activism at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., where the ‘Georgetown Environmental Leaders’ gives student activists a more powerful voice and where university students petitioned their university administration to divest from fossil fuels.)

Photo caption: Exciting activities for sustainable development are emerging on college campuses across the U.S. One such example is Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, where our blogger Edgar Barrios lives and studies. The photo shows a green space near Landis and Gilchrist residence halls, on the FSU main campus. These oak trees were planted by students in 1932. (Photo credit: Sirberus/Wikimedia)

In Florida we experience, first hand, the effects of climate change. With record breaking levels of heat and rising tides, students statewide have directed their efforts to making their universities sustainable. At Florida State University, my own university, and within our Student Government Association we have a bureau (a subsection of the government) called “The Office of Student Sustainability”. The office works to make the campus more sustainable and encourage students to make sustainable decisions. Resulting sustainable projects on campus have overall been successful and of much utility. Let me give you a few examples.

At Florida State University, the Office of Student Sustainability works to make the campus more sustainable and encourage students to make sustainable decisions. The Seminole Organic Garden and the Re-Cycle Bike Program are two such examples of sustainable student action. (Photo credit: Florida State University, Office of Student Sustainability)

The “Seminole Organic Garden” project allows students to adopt garden beds and grow what they please (usually fruits and vegetables). Gardening tools as well as seeds for an initial bed are provided by the Office of Student Sustainability. Another popular project is the “Re-Cycle bike program”, where bikes are rented out to students for either a semester or a year for a fairly low price. The bikes even come with a helmet, lock and chain. Both programs encourage students to change their everyday routine and lead a more sustainable lifestyle.

In working with the student government and the state government, the Office of Student Sustainability has secured a $50,000 “Green Fund” for sustainable student lead projects.

The Office of Student Sustainability engages Florida State University students in sustainable campus and community development. (Photo credit: Edgar Barrios)

Initiatives like these have been popping up all over the state. For example, Florida Gulf Coast University has installed 2-megawatt solar panels in a 16-acre field with the intention of making the university reliable on clean energy. The University of Florida created a compost collecting pre-consumer and post-consumer food waste for their compost from the university’s two dining halls. At Florida Atlantic University they have installed 5-minutes timers within the showers to urge to conservation of water.

The Office of Student Sustainability here at FSU also works with the Office of Governmental Affairs (another Student Government Association bureau) to lobbying the state government on further climate change and sustainability legislation. With the state capital within less than two miles from the university, they have been successful in that endeavor. Other than creating sustainable organizations in the United States, especially in Florida, universities are looking for long term solutions to the problem of climate change. They have since created courses and degree majors to qualify students for an increasing job market in sustainability. At Florida State students can pursue a degree in Environmental Sciences and at the University of Florida students can major in Sustainability studies. This is not happening just in the State of Florida, but rather all across the U.S. Universities such as Yale and U.C. Berkley are taking inventories of how much carbon they emit.

It seems that this generation of students has taken action into their own hands, in terms of climate change. They are initiating change in the realms they can control.  It was only last week that the Florida State University Student Senate (which I am apart of) passed a resolution calling upon the university and the state government to commit to further action in combating climate change and making the university more reliable on renewable resources.

How would you feel if you were riding a bus powered by the leftover scraps you threw away from dinner last night? If the heating in your house was produced within the house itself? If you didn’t have to pay an electric bill because your city is creating your electricity? Maybe you feel like none of that would be possible? Think again because renewable initiatives such as these are taking place in cities across Europe.

»How would you feel if you were riding a bus powered by the leftover scraps you threw away from dinner last night?«

Växjö, Sweden (the potato peel city, as I like to call it) has been a frontrunner in sustaining itself since the 1990s. Motivated by the pollution in their lakes caused by fossil fuel emitting industrial complexes, local Swedish government officials decided it was time to make a change.  They chose to abandon fossil fuels and half their carbon emissions. Today carbon emissions are historically low at 2.7 tons per person (nothing compared to the 19.78 tons emitted by Americans, or the 6.36 Swedish national average!).

Total carbon emissions by nation and region. The image of a footprint is composed of circles sized relative to the carbon emissions of each nation and color coded according to region. (Photo credit: Stanford Kay)

Växjö governs its own energy policy and resources independently. They manage their own biomass plants, produce electricity heating and cooling. The source of their heating? Leftovers from the forest industry such as twigs, leaves, and branches.  The plant supplies energy to 90% of the city’s 60,000 inhabitants. The plant also supplies 40% of the electricity needs. Recycling in Växjö has reached high levels as compost and organic waste is not only separated by the residents but is taken and re-used to make bio-gas that fuels public transport. Sewage is also used to power the green bio-gas busses.

Cities in Germany are also making progress independently, and decentralizing the energy sector. Heidelberg, Germany, a city renowned for Science and the acclaimed Universität Heidelberg, boasts numerous scientific institutions. It’s no surprise that 56 Nobel Prize winners have worked and lived in this research hub. The city at large has its own energy company, as many other German towns and communities do, and manages its gas, heating, water and sewage systems.  By 2050 they aspire to be free of fossil fuels motivating their fast switch over to renewable energy.

Heidelberg’s largest step towards reducing emissions is their 116 hector Bahnstadt district.  Originally a freight train terminal, this plot of land has truly been transformed. The district is 100% free of CO2 emissions and is entirely constructed of passive houses. These structures are anything but passive when it comes to saving energy. They allow for heating and cooling and use less than 1.5 liters of heating oil per square meter per year. The heating comes from internal sources such as solar heat or body heat and the ventilation system is what allows for the transmission of energy throughout the building. Surprisingly affordable the passive houses’ higher quality is mitigated by eliminating expensive heating and cooling systems.

Passive houses harness the energy of the sun light and the enrvironment to drastically reduce the energy consumption of home owners.(Photo credit: primex)

(This database lists over 4,000 passive houses around the world.)

Vertical garden buildings are set to open in Bahnstadt this year, an architectural product of eco-friendly Wolfgang Frey. Based on his ‘five finger principle’ buildings must be ecological, affordable, innovative, integrative and profitable.  These garden structures create oxygen in the atmosphere and have facades covered in solar modules to generate energy. Frey has also established vertical gardens in Freiburg. In countries like the US and China vertical farm buildings are popping up as well!

Feldheim, Germany, located in the province of Brandenburg provides its own power 100%. Creating their own bio-gas from corn, manure and rye produced by the city they power the electricity and water systems. Heating comes from the woodchip plant, electricity is produced by the wind park, and an energy storage plant stores what is produced extra in times of low power supply.

Feldheim, Germany, (pop. 660) is an “Energieautarker Ortsteil,” or an energy self-sufficient district. In 2010, Feldheim became one of the first villages in Germany to supply all of its own electricity and heat. (Photo credit: Andrew Dey/snapshotsofberlin)

Although Feldheim is small, with a population of 660, their initiative has inspired people from many different countries and their ability to provide entirely for themselves based on what they already produce shows how little it takes to be sustainable. Although decentralization of large sectors in the economy is difficult these cities show it is possible and efficient on many levels. Moving towards solar panels and using recyclable material instead of fossil fuels, cities could power the electric grid, reduce emissions, and decrease costs to large electric companies. In America especially, I believe local initiatives could be implemented faster and more effectively than federal initiatives.

On January 26, 2017 the German Solar Association released its estimates that global installed photovoltaic capacity has reached 300 gigawatts. The Association celebrated this announcement, heralding solar energy as a promising form of renewable energy. In fact, CEO of the German Solar Association Carsten Körnig remarked that “The utilization of solar power has really picked up momentum in many countries around the world. As the global thirst for energy increases, more and more governments and investors are committing to clean forms of energy.”

Photo caption: Germany is committing to extending the renewable energy sector. Yet, solar power plants like the power plant Leipziger Land in Espenhain, Germany, are also prone to seasonal variation in their energy production capacity. (Photo credit: GEOSOL Gesellschaft für Solaranergie mbH / Wikimedia)

Yet, according to a study by Agora Energiewende (a German think tank focused on energy policy), much of Germany’s electricity supply still comes from fossil fuels and nuclear energy, especially during the winter months when there is minimal sunlight coupled with increased electricity demand as families heat their homes. In fact, nonrenewable energy sources provided for roughly 90% of Germany’s national electricity use on January 24, 2017 -- just two days before the German Solar Association published its optimistic press release!

So where exactly does the potential of solar energy stand, in Germany, the United States, and worldwide? On the one hand, we have a report from the German Solar Association proclaiming that solar energy is our energy source of the future. On the other hand, seasonal variation seems to be a real obstacle to the viability of solar energy in Germany -- barring innovations that allow long-term storage of energy in photovoltaic panels. With all of this in mind, how much hope for solar energy is there?

This post is a follow up to my article on the solar industry from March 2016. Check it out here!

In my opinion, there are a number of promising developments that point to a great deal of potential in solar energy.

First is an awesome invention out of Albuquerque, New Mexico called Dragon SCALEs. When you think of solar panels today, you probably imagine a bunch of huge panels somewhere in the middle of a desert.

Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is developing flexible, miniature solar cells that could present a portable and versatile solution for different applications. (Photo credit: National Nuclear Security Administration via Flickr)

However, Sandia National Laboratories (pictured above) and mPower Technology Inc. have teamed up to create flexible, miniature solar cells so portable and versatile that they can be used by consumers for camping and emergency response equipment, in addition to deployment on spacecraft and vehicles. The product has been nicknamed ‘solar glitter,’ possibly an homage to its sleek and trendy design. While the partnership between Sandia National Laboratories and mPower Technology Inc. is still in early stages and the product has not yet been brought to market, mPower Technology Inc. has invested $1 million in the project. It will be particularly exciting to see how Dragon SCALEs, if successfully developed, might straddle consumer and utility uses.»I like pizza. I really do.«

»The product has been nicknamed 'solar glitter,' possibly an homage to its sleek and trendy design.«

A second exciting innovation comes from Elon Musk, renowned technology entrepreneur and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla. In November 2016, Tesla acquired SolarCity; shortly thereafter, Musk announced the invention of a new solar roof product -- photovoltaic panels constructed of textured glass that he says will eventually replace traditional roof shingles. While Tesla estimated that its new panels currently cost 20 times as much as inexpensive asphalt shingles, Musk has stated that lower shipping and logistics costs for his invention will quickly make them affordable at mass scale. Like the Dragon SCALEs product out of New Mexico, Tesla’s solar shingles seem promising in that they can break into the household/individual consumer market, hopefully bringing awareness to the value of green power and solar energy.

Ultimately, it’s important to realize that the deployment of any time of renewable energy relies on a number of factors: governmental support, reliable and continuous financing, invention and ingenuity, and public optimism. Over the past decade or so, solar energy has evolved to be a prominent component of the global energy pie, yet there is still more work to be done. Hopefully, future technological innovations by bright young minds devoted to making widespread solar energy a reality will allow this progress to continue!

When people from outside the U.S. think about mobility in the United States, they often just have the picture of big cars in mind. The reality looks so much more different, especially in urban areas. Over the last twenty years, new environmentally friendly mobility trends such as biking or public transportation networks have become more and more popular in many cities across the U.S. Both of these trends can be observed in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-Saint Paul (MN) where I am spending a year abroad at the University of Minnesota. I will focus on the bike friendly infrastructure of the Twin Cities, which encourages people to change their mobility behavior.

Minneapolis-Saint Paul is the second largest urban area in the Midwest of the United States after Chicago. According to the census of 2010, Minneapolis (382,587) and Saint Paul (285,068) have a combined population of 667,655 people. By including the surrounding suburbs the population of the Twin Cities´ metropolitan area increases to more than 3.1 million. What makes this area so special in comparison to many other American cities, particularly here in the Midwest, is its well-designed bike infrastructure. Minneapolis is especially regarded as one of the most bike friendly cities in the country alongside Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. But what factors have contributed to this development?

Bike Map of Minneapolis (see here).

In the past Minneapolis was a center of the American milling industry. Therefore, the city was connected to an extensive railway network in order to transport goods all over the country. The decline of the industrial sector over the course of time lead to the fact that large parts of the network were abandoned. But in the 1990s and early 2000s the city council of Minneapolis made a couple of landmark decisions which were supposed to promote biking as an alternative, environmentally friendly, form of mobility. Back then the city´s government decided to transform old abandoned railways into a large network of off-street bike paths. Additionally, Minneapolis was chosen as one of four US cities to receive $25 million from a federal government's pilot project to improve pedestrian and bike infrastructures within cities. Today, Minneapolis has 118 miles of on-street bike lanes and 92 miles of off-street bike paths (as of 2014). The city´s goal is to further improve the existing system until 2020 in order to make sure that every resident lives within 1 mile of off-street and ½ mile of on-street bike lanes. Due to this development, the city already has one of the highest rates of urban cycling in the entire country since nearly 5 percent of commuters use their bike every day to go to work.

On-Street Bike Lane on N Washington Ave; North Loop, Minneapolis. © Tobias Luthe

Minneapolis has an incredibly vibrant bike culture. Many biking exhibitions and festivals happen throughout the year and introduce people to the advantages of biking mobility. All over the Twin Cities, bike sharing stations (Nice Ride MN) give people the chance to rent a bike for a small amount of money. On campus, the University of Minnesota even actively promotes biking. The university´s recreation and wellness center (Rec Center) gives students the chance to rent bikes for little money. Furthermore, on-campus bike stores as well the Rec Center offer students technical support and advice with all bike related issues. Generally, bikes are not only very popular but also extremely useful because they allow students and professors to easily navigate around campus. In many on-campus areas cars are prohibited because streets are reserved for bikes and the Twin Cities´ Metro Transit (bus and light rail service). Even during the cold and snowy winter days bikes are a frequently used means of transportation. By constantly clearing the bike lanes of mud and snow the city ensures that bikers do not have to fear the winter. The Metro Transit´s buses and light rails are also equipped with bicycle racks, which allows people to take their bike with them no matter where they want to go within the limits of the Twin Cities. Due to these fantastic opportunities, I have also become one of the many bike commuters here.

Bike Path on SE Washington Ave; University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, Minneapolis. © Tobias Luthe

Minneapolis' positive experiences with biking have also inspired the city of Saint Paul to further improve their existing bikeway network. In the next couple of years, the city wants to add more than 190 miles of new bikeways, which would more than double the existing network. Thereby, the city would create another incentive for people to switch from rather environmentally unfriendly cars to environmentally friendly bikes. This could help Saint Paul  achieve its goal of increasing the bicycle mode share from 2 percent to 5 percent until 2025. Studies conducted by the city show that four out of five Millennials are interested in having more alternatives when it comes to mobility. Therefore, Saint Paul is eager to catch up with its Twin City and provide its residents with a modern bike-friendly infrastructure.

The significance of biking culture in the Twin Cities is a small but insightful example showing how many environmental initiatives in the U.S. are rather 'bottom-up' than 'top-down' in the sense that not only the States are considered 'laboratories of change' but that these developments very often rely on civic engagement by activist groups (like the "critical mass" movement), local institutions (the University of Minnesota), and the initiative of communities and their mayors.

It was easy to tell that the video was from the Netherlands, as it was in Dutch and shared by my former neighbor living in Limburg. I learned that the man riding the windmill, Roger van Boxtel, is well known in the Netherlands for his career as a Parliamentarian. These days however, Roger van Boxtel is the interim president of the Dutch Railways and this past month he has been celebrating that all the Dutch electric passenger trains are 100% wind-powered!

The Dutch case  is a particularly interesting one in regards to the role of transportation, and much of it has to do with the country's geography. The Netherlands is a comparatively small and flat country. Consider this: It is less than twice the size of the state of New Jersey and only about 50% of its land exceeds one meter above sea level; you will only find some hilly areas in the south, with the highest elevation of only 321 meters.

Photo caption: Only about 50% of the Netherlands exceeds one meter above sea level, making the country predestined for an effective mass transportation system. (c) AHN, www.ahn.nl

Two current Dutch Railways InterCity trains: a refurbished ICM train in the foreground, and the front of a VIRM double decker behind it, at Rotterdam Central Station. © Ad Meskens / Wikimedia Commons

The NS set a goal in 2015 to switch over entirely to wind power, expecting to realize it in 2018. Due to the addition of more wind farms off coast, inland, and in Denmark they were able to make the switch a year early. Partnering with the energy company Enesco the NS can cater to 600,000 passengers daily, using wind turbines to generate electricity. One windmill running for an hour can power a train for 200 km, or 120 miles. Although trains (even without wind power) seem like they are energy efficient, the Dutch fleet alone consumes 1.2 billion kWh of wind energy a year (equivalent to all the electricity powering the houses in Amsterdam for a year) and 20% of CO2 emissions are caused by modes of transport, whether it be train, car, or bus. Wind energy also contributes to the electricity supplied approximately 473,000 households in the Netherlands. The use of wind for energy isn’t unique to the Netherlands.

Alstom's 'Coradia iLint' train is the world’s first zero-emissions hydrogen train. It is using fuel cells which produce electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen to water and is set to go into service in northern Germany in December 2017. © Alstom

Countries like Denmark receive 42% of their electricity from wind power. Germany produced more electricity from wind turbines than from power plants for the first time ever in 2015, producing 11.98 Terawatt hours of electricity (a terawatt is millions of megawatts). In recent months German Railways has begun experimentation with hydrogen powered trains. In December of 2017 the country plans on launching the first ever passenger rail service powered by hydrogen. The motor will gain power from the hydrogen tank, and the hydrogen energy will be converted with a fuel cell that could move the train at speeds up to 87 mph. The only by-product of the hydrogen train would be steam and the source for the hydrogen is the waste product of various chemical industries (which is normally burned anyway). A supporter of this initiative is Energiewende, a German government sponsored program seeking to transform the energy system and phase out nuclear power and fossil fuel.

Following a great conclusion to our Elections 2016 blog series, we are very excited to announce the relaunch of our Going Green blog!

For the next few months, Teach About Us will pivot away from US politics and instead towards issues of sustainability, environmentalism, and green living. This semester, our intern-bloggers are attending universities all across the United States, meaning that we will focus on Going Green at a local and state level! Each week, we plan to share with you uniquely German and American perspectives, highlighting the ways we ‘go green’ in our daily lives and how we can all seize innovative opportunities to support and protect our planet. With a great team of bloggers and experts assembled, we look forward to publishing pieces on a variety of topics, including sustainable agriculture, clean transportation, renewable energy policy, and college-campus activism.

It is our hope that the Going Green blog will serve as an engaging complement to the curriculum you all will be exploring in class over the next semester. As you learn about fashion, plastic waste, transportation, and urban living, please look to our blog for some real-life examples of how Germans and Americans are learning as you are while making a positive impact on their world.

As always, please feel free to reach out to anyone on the Teach About Us Going Green team with your feedback and questions. We’re all looking forward to a great semester together!

Donald Trump was elected as the 45th President of the United States after a lengthy, historic, and momentous contest with Hillary Clinton that culminated on Tuesday, November 8. One week after the election and the conclusion of a campaign season which occupied much of the collective American consciousness over the past two years, many Americans are still processing the election’s results. Millions appear reinvigorated by the prospect of a Trump presidency, yet just as many are visibly dejected and emotionally drained by Clinton’s loss. And after a campaign season ripe with fiery rhetoric and plenty of controversy, I can also confidently say that many of Americans are thankful that this particular election is over.

Of course, the objective of any political election is to select a new government, and now begins the process of preparing the Trump administration to assume the White House after the presidential inauguration on Friday, January 20. What is interesting about this process is that, while the United States Constitution requires no particular procedure to be followed, there are a series of norms and expectations that will guide how the Obama administration welcomes the Trump administration into the White House.

What exactly does a smooth presidential transition process entail? Check out this useful Fact Sheet from the White House!

This process began in the early morning hours of November 9 when Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump to concede the election and congratulate him as the winner. Shortly thereafter, Trump delivered an acceptance speech to his supporters in New York City. Clinton addressed the nation with a concession speech on November 9, midday. The notion that two opposing candidates speak to one another and only then diplomatically convey election results to the nation highlights an important tenet of the democratic process in the United States. Elections are won and lost with grace, dignity, and an eye towards uniting the country going forward.

  While many of Clinton’s most passionate supporters have lambasted the election’s results and openly protested on city streets over the past few days, Clinton herself conceded the election to Trump and implored liberals to channel their political activism into public service. Many Americans, especially young women, reacted quite strongly to Clinton’s address -- both thanking her for an admirable endeavor to shatter the glass ceiling and bemoaning her inability to do so. Reactions to Trump’s acceptance speech were similarly passionate, as many Americans expressed excitement about the prospect for a return to conservative values and Washington-outsider politics.

  The next phase of the transition process occurred on Thursday, November 10 as President Obama and President-elect Trump met at the White House. According to press reports, the two discussed a variety of topics ranging from presidential demeanor to foreign policy to installing a capable staff in the West Wing. This tradition, of the outgoing president meeting with his incoming successor, has a rich history in the United States. In explaining his willingness to meet with Trump, Obama has frequently cited the decorum and grace which former President George W. Bush displayed when he assumed office in January 2009. The spirit of cooperation which defines these meetings - often between leaders of opposing political parties and occasionally between former campaign opponents (though not in this instance) - is hallmark of American democracy and one of the critical facets of the peaceful transition of power.

North Carolina was for many years a Republican stronghold, but Barack Obama won the state by a slim margin in 2008. It is said that his success can partly be attributed to the demographic changes the state has seen in recent decades. But how do the state's demographics influence the voter's behavior in North Carolina? Only one out of a wide range of tricky questions on the election outcome.

A group of students from the Strittmatter Gymnasium in Gransee, Germany, are currently focusing on the election in the state of North Carolina and came up with some interesting questions. Who else if not our U.S. election expert Matt Riley could help us out here? Matt if a former intern with the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, a student in Public Policy, German and Policy Journalism at Duke University in North Carolina, and currently on an exchange semester in Berlin. At Duke, Matt writes as a journalist and investigative reporter at The Chronicle, the university's student paper, and has covered political stories ranging from Virginia congressional campaigns, North Carolina state politics, and a profile of lead U.S. negotiator in the Iran nuclear negotiations.

This is what the students from Gransee wanted to know from Matt:

How is North Carolina most likely going to vote and what influences do media have in this case?

“Hi Matt, we are students from the Strittmatter-Gymnasium-Gransee in Germany. We are working on the project "US Election". Every school got one state. We got North Carolina, so you are the best expert for us. We have to decide whether North Carolina will vote for Trump or Clinton, but it is very difficult for us. First we thought Trump would win but now, after reading the opinions of some North Carolina students we aren’t sure any longer if our first opinion was right. There are some questions we would like to ask you.

• How do you think are the TV debates going to influence the people's attitudes and (social) media?
• And how do you think the media influences the people?
• Most importantly, what's your prediction for the North Carolina vote? And why?

We look forward to your answer. Thanks for helping us.

Jennifer, Lena, Jolanthe, Carolin”

Here is Matt what replied to them:

“Dear Jennifer, Lena, Jolanthe, and Carolin, recent polling by fivethirtyeight suggests that Clinton is ahead of trump by 2 to 6 percent in the traditionally red state. These numbers are close, but still disappointing for Trump as North Carolina (despite its balanced electorate) went Republican in three of the last four presidential elections. 

  

Trump may be holding out for a late comeback, Nate Silver writes, but because of the way North Carolinians vote, the picture is a bit more complicated. North Carolina is unique because it has high rates of early and absentee voting. While most of these early voters are dedicated partisan voters and not swing voters, this still means that many voters have already cast their ballots in favor of Clinton.

  

North Carolina is vital for a second reason Silver notes. He writes that, "because of the state's demographics, it acts as a hedge for Clinton in the event of a collapse in her support among white voters without college degrees, especially in the Midwest." Silver rates North Carolina as the fourth most important state in the election, ahead of traditionally prominent states like Ohio and Colorado, because of these two factors. 

  

On the media/campaign/debate: 

  

North Carolina is the only state with the elections for Governor, U.S. Senate, and President rated as a "toss-up" by the Cook report. This gives it political importance beyond that of the presidential election, as any increased investment in TV ads and more traditionally door-to-door campaigns could tip the scales in these three important elections one way. 

  

Presidential debates are often deemed more important than they actually are. They rarely act as a polling turning point as many people think. But they do move the polls a few points. The last presidential debate, however, had an important impact on the polling for Clinton, who experienced a 5.5 percent bump, as noted in the News and Observer. These are impressive numbers for Clinton, especially because the effect of the debate is more muted in North Carolina due to high early voting participation."

Thank you, Matt, for taking the time to address our students' questions on the state of North Carolina. I would also like to thank the students from the Strittmatter Gymnasium in Gransee for your interest in the exchange with our U.S. election experts and for your interesting questions. 

Recently, Hillary Clinton´s “Stronger Together” campaign trail stopped by at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis which gave me the chance to attend my first rally in the U.S. Clinton herself was not present during that event and campaigned elsewhere in the country. Instead Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont, who was her biggest challenger during the Democratic primaries, campaigned for her and was highly anticipated by students.

Although the event took place on a Tuesday afternoon in our beautiful auditorium, the event location was sold out. It seems that all politically interested students found some time in their schedules to see that candidate who had captivated the enthusiasm of young voters like no other candidate during the long primary season and who has inspired political engagement and participation with his grassroots campaign.

In addition to Senator Sanders, politicians of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) ‒ the branch of the Democratic Party here in Minnesota – gave speeches to promote their races for the Minnesota State House. This year's State House election in Minnesota, which also takes place on November 8, 2016, is even regarded as one of 20 battleground chambers in the country with the Republican Party currently holding a majority of 73 to 61 seats in the State House of Representatives. The Democrats control the State Senate instead. Thus, the DFL aims at winning the majority in the House of Representatives which would give the party the control over both branches of government since Governor Mark Dayton is also a Democrat.

The most fascinating speaker of that day was Ilhan Omar, an American woman born in Somalia, who runs for district 60B in the Minnesota House of Representatives, which includes the University of Minnesota and some neighborhoods around campus.

Omar and her family fled the country’s devastating civil war at the beginning of the 1990s and immigrated like many other Somalis to Minnesota. Today, around 25,000 Somalis live in the Twin Cities’ metro-area. After Omar’s victory over the long-serving representative Phyllis Kahn in the extremely competitive DFL primary for the seat in the State House, she now has the historic chance to become the first Somali legislator in the U.S. Especially, the support among students in the neighborhoods around campus have given her the decisive advantage over her opponents to win the nomination and possibly the race. Omar’s Republican opponent in the General Election Abdimalik Askar, who was born in Somalia as well, just announced that he is suspending his campaign, which gives Omar a huge advantage. Nonetheless, he will remain on the ballot since the Republican base in my electoral district is rather small and has not been able to find an alternate candidate. Although the race is more or less already decided, both candidates have had an important impact in energizing the large Somali community of the Twin Cities, especially in district 60B, where many of them live. Omar´s campaign reported that 5,868 people casted their vote in the primary, which is an increase of 37 percent compared to 2014.

However, the speech most students anticipated was given by Senator Bernie Sanders. Since the primaries of the Democratic Party for the presidential nomination, Sanders has become an idol for many young Americans. Therefore, I was really looking forward to seeing him in order to get an idea why my fellow students were so passionately supporting him.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks to young voters in support of Hillary Clinton’s campaign at the University of Minnesota on October 4, 2016.

When Sanders entered the stage, he received an incredibly warm welcome from the students. He delivered an energetic speech about social issues like debt-free college, a fairer distribution of the tax burden among U.S. citizens, and an expansion of the Affordable Care Act (also known as “Obamacare”), which has given millions of Americans access to health care. The audience did not stop applauding and cheering  for Sanders. It was impressive to see how he inspired just about everybody in the room. Thus, this rally confirmed my assumption that social questions are highly important for young Americans and cannot be ignored by any party with ambitions for the highest office in the United States. In order to benefit from Sanders’ strong support among millennials, Hillary Clinton has already adopted many of his points and included him in her election team. But despite their cooperation, Clinton remains unpopular among Sanders’ young supporters. Clinton, it seems, has been unable to inspire the same excitement and passion among this growing and increasingly important voter group. While young voters are 'fired up' for politicians like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), their relationship to Clinton is 'lukewarm', at best.

With that in mind, it will be interesting to see if Sanders is able to convince his supporters to cast their vote for Clinton and not another third-party candidate like Gary Johnson (Presidential Nominee of the Libertarian Party) on Election Day.

Last week the third and final presidential debate between Secretary Hillary Clinton and businessman Donald Trump took place at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It was also viewed on the screens of millions of homes across the country. Citizens awaited the final words of the two candidates in a debate that continues to make waves in a sea of predictable responses.

You missed the debate? Watch the most talked-about moments in this 3-minute summary.

Fox News Anchor Chris Wallace moderated, and according to viewers has arguably done the best in upholding unbiased (or at least equal) dialogue with the two candidates. The debate focused on issues like debt, entitlement reform, immigration, economy, the Supreme Court, foreign hot spots and fitness to be president. Differences in opinion on issues such as abortion came through as Trump claimed “I am pro life, I am going to defend pro life” while Clinton stated that she would defend Roe v. Wade, supported a woman’s right to an abortion and Planned Parenthood.  Other topics of dissidence consisted of the US’s relationship with Russia and how that would be affected by a presidency by either candidate. Although the effects were arbitrary, Clinton noted Trumps affiliation with a toxic and ruthless Putin (to her) as Trump proclaimed that an allegiance with Russia would contribute to the defeat of ISIS.

At my university, the University of Michigan, students gathered in Angell Hall and attended different watch parties hosted by College Democrats, College Republicans and Students for Hillary.  The College Republican party hosted republican candidate for state representative in Michigan’s 52nd district Randy Clark who encouraged students to vote. “Everybody wants to run and hide under a rock because they can’t stand this mess that’s going on, but you really have to get involved, you have to make a difference,” he explained.

As for making a difference, the effect of presidential debates on voter opinion is a debatable point, depending on where you get your information. The Washington Monthly for example, asserts that presidential debates are game changers in the opinions of strategists. According to Political Scientists researching data on electoral changes after the debates however, presidential debates have “rarely if ever, mattered”.  The Washington Monthly goes on to say that in very close elections, new information is not likely to change the minds of voters.  Because debates do occur late in the campaign of the candidates, decisions are usually reached by a majority of voters before the debates occur. The demographic of debate watchers typically consists of those who have an interest in politics and/or already have loyalties to a party.  Rather than focusing on how the debate will affect whom they vote for, it atypically aligns voters more closely with the candidate they believe won (and usually that is the member of their party).

Due to the improbability of the election and indecision of voters however, this election year could be different in regards to the influence of debates on voter opinion; especially in the face of Trump’s allegations entailing the corruption of the polls.

Major story that the Dems are making up phony polls in order to suppress the the Trump . We are going to WIN!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 24 October 2016

According to a poll by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, one third of Clinton’s and Trump’s supporters were undecided as to whether they were definitely voting for their candidate. Clinton’s evident rise in percentage points, going from three in the first debate to ten in the last week, show how the debate can have a polarizing effect. An argument for this is that Clinton has also not been in the spotlight of mass media for the past few weeks. Due to scandals involving Trump and his mistreatment of women, Clinton’s scandalous emails have moved away from the limelight, allowing for more media outlets to call Trump’s character into question (especially as women come forth and attest to his alleged abuse). Trump's decline in the polls can also be attributed to his perceived performance in the debates.

In a poll by ABC News, Clinton was found to have reached her highest percentage of support while Trump had sunk to his lowest the day after the debate. Other interesting voting trends show Trump’s popularity among white voters, men, non-whites, and women, declining. Clinton on the other hand has reached her highest percentage of male voters ever.  The poll also found that the number of registered republicans likely to vote has dropped in response to Trump’s campaign against the media.

SurveyMonkey's chief research officer Jon Cohen contributed his thoughts on the efficacy of polls and surveys such as those that are conducted by his company. While explaining the difficulty in predicting an election across fifty states, Cohen affirmed that the polls have stayed relatively stable within the past five weeks and that according to their predictions and data, there is more than a ninety percent chance that Clinton will take the election. He supports his argument by referring to the 307 electoral votes Clinton has already ‘locked up’.

Real Clear Politics show Clinton leading by eleven percentage points in Michigan, but voters supporting Trump strongly believe in his victory and continue to point to his “understanding of how trade deals affect Michigan’s economy negatively and his fight against voter fraud”. Whether the 90% chance likelihood will come to fruition is not clear, as many voters remain undecided. In less than fourteen days we will find out if Cohen was right.

Useful resources

If you missed the third and last debate, you can watch the entire video below:

NPR: Fact Check And Full Transcript Of The Final 2016 Presidential Debate

USA Today: What college students in 5 swing states thought of the 3rd debate

Is there a 'satire paradox' in political cartoons? Are laughter and social protest friends or foes? When a politician is being satirized, does this make the audience more critical of the politician because his or her shortcomings and weaknesses are being exposed and ridiculed publicly? Or does satire unintentionally 'whitewash' such criticism: When you laugh about something or someone, it can't be that bad, right?!

This week, we had a chance to ask our expert on political cartoons, Christianna Stavroudis, a native of Baltimore and lecturer in English linguistics at the University of Bonn. She's been an avid supporter of Teach About US right from its start and has instructed several seminars to teachers all over Germany on using political cartoons in the classroom.

I explained to Christianna that I recently had listened to Malcolm Gladwell's podcast 'Revisionist History' and in one recent episode he talks about political satire. He introduces it with this 2008 piece from Saturday Night Live starring Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, who was then running as vice presidential candidate on the Republican ticket:

https://youtu.be/8HsyEvr5Pnw

Gladwell says that in newspapers and magazines (he is a staff writer for The New Yorker), you have to write in somber, reasonable tones; but in satire, you're allowed to say almost anything: "When you sugar-coat a bitter truth with humor," he says, "it makes the medicine go down." Yet, Gladwell also says that in SNL, the parody of Palin was "toothless", that is "comedy without any courage at all". Why? Because Tina Fey was too busy being funny. This eventually became evident when Sarah Palin herself appeared next to Fey in one episode – she was let in on the joke. Gladwell argues that "nothing of consequence gets accomplished without courage."

A catchier example from this year's campaign is Jimmy Fallon's interview with Donald Trump, which Fallon ended by messing up Trump's hair. It sure was entertaining and made viewers laugh. But does it also challenge the audience's political views?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0BYqzdiuJc

So, I guess you could ask whether this could also be applied to the genre of political cartoons: Should cartoons rather entertain or challenge the reader? Do you have an example or two?

I think it's important to define satire and distinguish it from political entertainment. True satire involves an element of ridicule (not to be confused with teasing, not synonymous with caricature). Unfortunately, this is not evident in a lot of the U.S. political entertainment this election season, including the examples you cited and many cartoons as well. The fact that presidential candidates and even the president appear on talk shows and in comedy sketches already shows that this platform has morphed from an outsider domain (in which there was a clear division between artist and ruling elite) to a hybrid one in which politicians can prove that they can take a joke at their own expense. As it appears, this is a requirement to be successful with a U.S. audience today.

 

A very interesting example of this is the Funny or Die "Between Two Ferns" interview between Zach Galifianakis and Barack Obama:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnW3xkHxIEQ

 

Obama went onto this platform in order to reach out to young people to get them registered for healthcare, but Galifianakis maintained the tone of his "insulting" talk show even in this context. When Obama gives the phone number that people can call to get signed up for healthcare, Galifianakis says, "Oh, I don't have a phone; I'm off the grid. I don't want you people, like, looking at my texts, if you know what I mean." To this Obama replies, "First of all, Zach, nobody's interested in your texts."

 

This is an example of "cooperative ridicule," and it's becoming the norm in shows in which the politicians and candidates can participate by interacting (and even performing) with the artists.

 

Coming back to your question, this is where political cartoons differ in that they generally derive from one cartoonist alone (minus editorial input from the publisher of the cartoon) and therefore don't allow for input by politicians. But they, too, can range from innocuous (Cartoon 1) to harsh (Cartoon 2).

 

The satire created by political cartoons can range from innocuous...
(Photo credit: 'Hillary Rattled', by Nate Beeler / The Columbus Dispatch, 09/28/2016. All rights reserved.)

 

...to harsh. This cartoon by Mr. Fish was published on Memorial Day 2009. In the U.S., Memorial Day is a federal holiday for remembering the people who died while serving in the country's armed forces.

(Photo credit: 'Real One', by Mr. Fish (Dwayne Booth), 5/24/2009. All rights reserved.)

The courage factor rests on both the artist and the audience if real change is to take place. (If that is even desired! Let's not forget that some people just like to complain, that the job of the satirist is to criticize, and that the title "satirist" does not a good person make. There is also a fine line between a satirist and a bully.)

 

Cartoons and video clips of these shows are passively and ever-more privately consumed, which in turn can have the effect of lulling audiences into feeling that they have "done something" merely because they have consumed what they perceive is satire. (Which do think sounds more sophisticated: "I'm watching a comedy show." vs. "I'm watching political satire.") Thus, labelling things satire that are in fact political entertainment can be a brilliant tool for manipulation for the politician clever enough to see it as something at his/her disposal and amiable enough to be watched by audiences. Satire in a U.S. context is often one of the first examples named in support of the First Amendment (Freedom of the Press; Free Speech). But the problem is: When you can say anything, you risk not saying anything at all.

 

True satire involves putting something on the line (reputation, status, etc.) and is therefore by definition something that does not easily fit into the mainstream. Just as a test, try to find a satirist who is willing to attack his audience as much as "the elite". Satirists who simply pander to their audience, lulling them into an "us vs. them/we're the little guy" mood are not taking many risks at all.

 

This is also not to say that artists can never commune with the subjects of their attacks (although it does make things easier). The interviews between Bill O'Reilly and Jon Stewart, for example, are quite revealing as are the roundtable discussions between Democrats and Republicans on Bill Maher's Real Talk program. Note also the criticism that both Saturday Night Live and Jimmy Fallon have received (esp. from minority groups) as a result of their cooperations with Trump. A desire for consistency in politics and political media is being voiced in this campaign season (see Bernie Sanders supporters) as well as diversity of views and representation (#OscarsSoWhite and its effect on the industry; the role of #BlackLivesMatter in the election; the introduction of new political satire shows hosted by non-Americans like Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and the new host of the Daily Show Trevor Noah).

 

It remains to be seen whether these trends will result in new approaches to satire, but, as always, the courage is a two-way street.

Thank you so much, Christianna.

We will be posting more from our U.S. election experts, our 'explainers-in-chief' soon on the blog, so stay tuned!

As you might remember from my last blog post, I just completed my teaching practicum at the Berufsbildungszentrum in Schleswig in northern Germany. During this practicum my group of 12th graders in our English course researched the importance of archetypal swing states for this year’s election and what campaign issues could possibly influence people’s voting behavior in these states (among other things).

The group focusing on Florida came up with some general questions about the state, but what they were really interested in was to get a personal evaluation of the situation in Florida from someone who is familiar with that context. This was the perfect occasion to connect them with our U.S. election expert for the state of Florida, Christina Sickinger, who kindly agreed to give our students an insight into the campaign in her state. As a native of Tallahassee, Florida, Christina interned in Florida with Congresswoman Gwen Graham as well as with her county government this last summer, and she enjoyed the opportunity to learn about both federal and local government. The students wanted to know from her:

What makes Florida the archetypal swing state that it has been since 1992?

"Dear Christina," they asked, "what political issues influence the state of Florida the most and make it the archetypal swing state that it has been since 1992? How does political campaigning differ in Florida compared to other swing states?”

Here is Christina’s take on this:

“The main reason that Florida is the most important swing state to watch is pretty simple: With 29 electoral votes, Florida has more electoral votes at stake than any of the other states that are typically considered “swing states.” Although the state has about 4.8 million registered Republicans and 4.5 registered Democrats, it also has around 3 million independent voters who could go to either party, according to the Florida Department of State. These independent voters can decide who wins the state, so influencing their opinions is an important goal for both candidates.
 
Florida also includes two important populations: it has a reputation as the home for many retirees, but the state is also home to many Hispanic voters, who tend to be younger. Florida is a fairly large state with a population of almost 20 million, and I think that the variety of different demographic groups in different areas of Florida makes it difficult to predict how the state will vote as a whole.    
 
Florida’s history in presidential elections also makes it unique. Florida voted for the election winner in almost all presidential elections since WWII, with the notable exception of the 1992 election. The state went to the Democratic candidate (Barack Obama) in 2012 and 2008, but to the Republican candidate (George W. Bush) in 2004 and 2000. In 2000, the vote in Florida between candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush was so close that it had to be recounted. Bush finally won by a little over 500 votes, ensuring that he would be the next president. The election in Florida is normally quite close, and this history makes elections here even more interesting to observe!"

Thank you, Christina, for taking the time to address my students' questions on the swing state of Florida, and let me also thank my 12th-grade English students in Schleswig for contributing these questions.

We will be posting more from our experts in the two weeks until the election on November 8, so stay tuned.