Sustainability

One of the primary reasons I decided to apply for Semester at Sea was the voyage's theme of Sustainability. Every voyage has a theme that relates to traveling around the world, but the potential to learn about so many countries and cultures through the lens of sustainability on this trip really appealed to me. The theme is expressed on the ship primarily through the Global Studies course, in both the lectures and the final project. For the project, Semester at Sea has partnered with the UVA Curry School of Education to work with us to create sustainability curriculum for 12th grade students. Every group will submit a part of what will end up being a comprehensive unit on Sustainability, which has the potential to be implemented in Virginian schools. Our professor, Don Gogniat, has repeatedly stressed the opportunity we have to affect thousands of students with what we learn on our travels abroad. It's exciting.

 

I am working with classmates in my Water for the World class - since there is only seven of us we decided to get together and do something related to water. While it is hard to predict what the eventual outcome of the project will be, I like the people in my group, so it should end up working out.

 

I have wondered about the hypocrisy of the theme - we are, after all, traveling around in a cruise ship that emits untold amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. I learned that 1/5 of our tuition goes directly into fuel costs, and the bill for filling up the tank runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Academic Dean Mark White tried to justify the seemingly blatant contradiction of the theme of sustainability with the reality of our fuel consumption. He said he believed that Human Capital, that is, the ability for humans to reason and make decisions that affect the world, can act as a substitute for the Natural Capital we are using up by burning all of the fossil fuels. In other words, he hopes that what we learn by going on this voyage prompts us to make a positive impact on the world that will far surpass the resources we used on Semester at Sea. While I'm not sure if I completely agree that they are substitutes, I do believe that we should use this experience to improve our world. And I certainly plan to.