in a biological sense, this is the simplest way to answer the question, “what happens to us when we die?” however in a more poetic sense, it offers a strange new method of contemplating one’s own mortality. a derivative of this word is “decompositionist,” which means “an advocate or supporter of decomposition, e.g., that of an empire, confederation, etc.”

i am a decompositionist, however not in the political sense. i do not spend my time planning coups or meditating on the economic factors that lead to the falling of the iron curtain (although i have yet to fully form an opinion on the global anti-imperial movements which i see discussed often in my twitter thread).

rather, i spend more than the average portion of my week thinking about physical decomposition. that is the process by which flesh disintegrates into its most elemental components. cycling the energy and nutrients which once sustained it back into the soil from whence they originated. it seems odd for a 21-year-old to spend considerable hours a day pondering the biological processes involved with decay, yet i cannot help myself. 

it seems contradictory to write an essay about decomposition as it is quite literally the opposite of what i am doing as i write this piece. composition. decomposition. to create. to decay. to give life, to lose life. 

i stare at the apple core sitting on my desk, sticky remnants of my harried breakfast, and think about how in two months, hopefully, it will be gone. in two months, hopefully this version of myself will be too. i probably won’t be though. however, that doesn’t stop me from trying to evolve. i think about it when i volunteer at weekly compost collections on friday mornings, and i ponder it when i toss the single use plastic lined cup from my morning coffee. 

despite my mother’s misgivings, i know i am not the only one on earth who shares these sentiments. indeed it would be self-centered to think so, but such is the nature of humans. in her critically acclaimed essay, “the cutting edge of time: erosion of home,” terry tempest williams explains, “my delight in being forgotten is rooted in the belief that i don’t matter in the larger scheme of things, only that i tried my best to be a good human, failing repeatedly, but trying again with the soul-settling knowledge that my body will return to the desert.” i relate intensely to williams’ sentiments, i do not fear the violent majesty of the environments around me, instead i marvel at them, allowing their sheer danger to humble me again and again and again. 

i eagerly anticipate my return to the soil. it takes every bit of willpower i have not to turn my self-proclaimed quotable saying into my twitter bio, however that would probably worry my friends a little too much. in fact most of my friends and family are uncomfortable with my fascination with decomposition. it is apparently not socially acceptable to romanticize one’s own decay, although the popularity of hozier’s music would indicate otherwise. it is not necessarily that i am eager to die, in fact it is not that at all. it is simply that i find a deep and almost indescribable comfort in knowing that one day my pains and worries will have dissolved into micronutrients in soil, feeding that which is so old my lifetime was a mere blink of an eye in its longevity. 

in a way this is my own deeply personal form of existentialism. in a similar vein, mary shelley expressed her own sorrows and beliefs about the position of her own life through her most famous work, “frankenstein.” with a gruesome tale about the violence of childhood neglect and the dangers of necromancy, shelley birthed science fiction, an entirely new genre of literature at the time. shelley was a woman far more educated in the intricacies of both decomposition and composition than i am, yet i cannot help but compare my convictions to hers.

shelley was 18 years old when she crafted what would become her most famous novel, and i was the same age when i first discovered my fascination. in a way, we are two sides of the same coin. while we both are eager to create new life from death, hers is decidedly unnatural, whereas mine is as natural as it can possibly get.

in response to the trauma of losing of her child, she sought to defy nature, bring back the dead, and fight against the very laws of the earth itself. victor frankenstein, and in a manner of speaking, shelley herself, sought to steal that last lingering light of life from the dead, if only to savor its warmth for a moment more. i, on the other hand, seek the exact opposite. i desire to open my hand, releasing those tiny sparkles back into the wild.

although i will not be able to see it, i have a strangely strong conviction that it will happen as i hope. disagreements notwithstanding, shelley and i share a common fear of, enamoration with, and disillusionment with death. 

i wonder, if i had the chance to offer, would she like to decompose with me? 

“a better day” was performed by natasha cooper and  written by natasha cooper and sarah crim. video by cam larmer.

large-scale change involves a big group of like-minded people committed towards taking a step in the right direction. brandon wood, a graduate student at the university of california, berkeley, shares this view. wood is one of the students behind earth action initiative, a conference occurring in april at uc berkeley.

“the goal is to focus on actions, what we can do, and our central philosophy is that we want to reduce the barrier for people to take action,” wood said.

funding action through mini-grants

there is strength in numbers, and earth action initiative is a place where like-minded people are given the resources and support to work together towards a common goal.  

in addition to workshops on topics ranging from responsible consumerism to the role of narrative in science communication, the conference “matchmakes” students to external organizations. according to wood, there is a large number of students working on sustainability initiatives and solutions to environmental problems, and they should not have to reinvent the wheel.

wood worked on a conference last year called “fired up” that featured a similar matchmaking process.

“last year’s event filled an activism niche that had been missed by other organizations and events on campus,” he said. “i hope to incorporate that into earth action initiative.” this year’s conference will couple the matchmaking with mini-grants, another way to facilitate a tangible outcome. mini-grants can be as simple as funding a student group who wants to bring in a speaker for 500 dollars.

“we see [the mini-grants] as a way to keep our focus on action,” according to wood.

while most workshops are marketed towards students, the evening portion of the conference features a climate art experience. the website describes this event as as the usage of “art and food to convey climate science in an intimate and tangible way.”

“there’s these sort of ivory towers,” wood explained. “you have science on one side, you have humanities, you have different ones that don’t interact much. i think a lot of people [from different disciplines] care about climate, so it’s nice to have an event where groups can exchange ideas.”

art as a medium of communication 

additionally, art and food are ways people can connect to climate change and environmental health in a less abstract way. when we hear about problems that affect us globally, it is easy to feel removed from the situation. this part of the conference attempts to change that.

“a lot of times people have a negative response when they’re confronted with the enormity of these issues,” wood explained. “you have this knee-jerk reaction, and you want to put your head into the sand.”

the art show is a different way people can relate to and connect with these issues. “rather than looking at an atmospheric plot of carbon dioxide, art is something people can understand and be inspired by,” he said.

creating the resources for collaboration 

most of the time, one person trying to make a difference isn’t enough. while individual inspiration and motivation are important, collaboration is a necessity.

“we’re sort of inclined to break the problem down into smaller, solvable problems, but i think [that won’t work with] an interconnected, global issue,” wood said. instead, large-scale initiatives are needed. he cites the paris accords as a step in the right direction, and that small initiatives working separately won’t make the impact they want to.

the paris accords was an agreement between governments, which are riddled with bureaucracy, inefficiency, and many other issues that can make unilateral action difficult. organizations committed to improving environmental conditions can avoid some of these problems. the biggest issue is that most of them are too small and disconnected to act together. projects like earth action initiative can connect people and resources, so we can all work towards a better tomorrow.

a project like this would work best in a setting where young people, full of drive and resources, are in their intellectual and motivational prime.

“one thing we are thinking about is [scaling] this to other college campuses,” wood explained. college is where many people find what they want to do for the rest of their lives. if this is even tangentially related to sustainability or environmental health, a conference like earth action initiative can connect them with the right resources and organizations. from the opposite end, sponsors, whether local, national or international, could be interested in finding talent to further their goals. connecting organizations with students whose personal and career objectives align well with their mission statements is a win-win situation. wood hopes to maximize these connections so both actors have a greater chance of collective action and ultimately making a difference.

“i feel like climate is one of those things that can get you down pretty easily, because it’s not hard to get pessimistic,” wood confessed. “i want everyone coming away from this feeling inspired, with the realization that there’s a community at berkeley who cares”

margaret mead is thought to have said that a group of thoughtful, committed citizens is the only thing that has changed the world. i believe this is the key to restoring environmental health. all that’s left is for us to come together. 

representative jay inslee (d-wa) introduced a bill in congress in 2009, called the cascadia marine trail study bill, to designate the cascadia marine trail as a national scenic trail. in washington, 83% of the shoreline property is privately owned, and this designation would not only protect the fragile ecology of this area, but would also protect public access to the cascadia marine trail. this is the first bill to be introduced in congress that would provide a designation for a fully waterborne trail.

supporters of the bill would like to see campsites added for non-motorized boaters every five to ten miles along the trail. “if you’re not kayaking a lot, you don’t really realize how few spots there are that you can camp, and that you can go with a kayak,” says connor inslee of the outdoors for all foundation.

the cascadia marine trail currently relies on the generosity of donors and the efforts of volunteers for support and maintenance, but the economic downturn has resulted in fewer donations, which means losing campsites. the success of the current bill would provide support from federal funding as well as management of the trail and campsites by federal authorities from the national parks service or the bureau of land management.

congressman inslee says americans should support this bill regardless of where they live. “it’s just like asking why you would care about yellowstone or yosemite,” he says, “just because you’re not living [near] there, it doesn’t mean it’s not a huge part of everybody’s lives.” supporters say the designation is about more than funding. they want to ensure that future generations can enjoy this as much as those who travel these waters today.

the house of representatives approved the cascadia marine trail study bill, but a senate vote never occurred, so it was not passed. as is customary, this bill was cleared from the books at the end of the session, but will be re-introduced in the current session.

a company called earth aid has a unique answer to this question: give people tangible rewards for saving energy in their homes and apartments. instead of just helping us avoid things we don’t want, such as higher energy bills, earth aid is offering us things we want, like free coffee, in return for energy savings.

they call it “earth aid rewards.” the program launched in washington, dc for the first time in the fall of 2009 with about 50 rewards partners, and the company plans to expand rapidly throughout the country with both local and national business partners. anyone in the u.s. can sign up for earth aid’s free services, but currently the rewards program is only up and running in dc.

this is how it works: you can sign up to be a member on earth aid’s website and begin submitting information about your utility bills—electric, gas, and water. earth aid then automatically extracts monthly data from your utilities, keeps you up-to-date on your latest trends and tendencies, and offers you tips on how to reduce your carbon footprint, etc. according to ken yarmosh, a web-based product strategist, “earth aid is basically mint.com for household utilities.”

earth aid rewards is not for everyone. some folks won’t be comfortable with earth aid digging into their energy data (even though it’s already publicly available). it’s also one more online membership program to sign up for, enter information into, and keep track of, so not everyone has the interest or mental bandwidth to take it on.

perhaps most importantly, it can take over a year of tracking your energy use before you really know that you’re saving energy and money. this will make it challenging for people who move often (such as apartment renters) to establish a baseline for future energy savings.

to keep people engaged, earth aid will need to find ways to reward its members for their good-faith efforts, even if their carbon footprints aren’t shrinking in the near term. while this approach may make business sense, earth aid must be careful to guard its carbon credibility.

in spite of these caveats, earth aid rewards has great potential to set off a virtuous cycle. businesses have an added incentive to promote sustainability in the community. households have another reason to save energy and reinvest their savings in the local economy. earth aid, meanwhile, earns advertising revenues from its business partners.

sound like easy green, easy money? you decide.

___________________________

peter fargo, mba candidate

the george washington university

how much energy are you wasting by throwing out that plastic bottle? find out!

the technology is here, but without an infrastructure to implement it, there will be no progress.