Reading Recommendations

Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.

While not an official holiday, many folks choose to celebrate their respect for the environment by participating in events that increase public awareness of environmental concerns.

One topic that I’ve chosen to learn more about is Environmental Justice.

Michael Regan, who currently heads the US Environmental Protection Agency, has articulated the concept well in saying: “every person has the right to clean air, clean water and a healthier life, no matter how much money they have in their pockets, the color of their skin, or the community they live in.”

In searching on the topic, I came across the book Environmental Justice and Resiliency in an Age of Uncertainty, published in 2022 and edited by Celeste Murphy-Greene, a faculty member at UVA who focuses on Sustainability and Environmental Justice.

Murphy-Greene provides a framework for thinking about environmental issues by approaching them through a social justice lens. Topics of the book include an overview of Environmental Justice, Climate Justice, Health Equity, Smart Cities, Local Clean Energy, and the role that Public Works and Public Procurement can play in promoting Environmental Justice.

Murphy-Greene says her interest in environmental issues began as a college student when she was lifeguarding in Falmouth, Massachusetts and witnessed a large amount of medical waste wash ashore after a New York City-based barge dumped its contents.

On a different pedagogical note, I recently enjoyed watching My Octopus Teacher, an Academy Award winner from 2021 for Best Documentary Feature, which provides a personal account of filmmaker Craig Foster’s interactions with an octopus.

Foster was inspired to found Sea Change Project, which is dedicated to helping people understand human inter-connectedness with the natural world and to raising awareness for the Great African Seaforest.

You can see a trailer for the film and learn more about Foster’s initiatives at Sea Change Project website.

Happy Earth Day!

March is the month for celebrating women’s history. Some key events that have occurred in March over time:

• March 1857: Female textile workers in New York City marched in protest of unfair working conditions and unequal rights for women
• March 1908:  Women workers marched in NYC to protest child labor, sweatshop working conditions, and to demand women’s suffrage
• March 1911: First International Women’s Day marked by gatherings in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland
• March 1913: Women’s Suffrage Parade in Washington, DC where more than 8,000 women gathered to demand a constitutional amendment guaranteeing their right to vote
• 1975: United Nations began celebrating March 8 as International Women’s Day
• 1978: Women’s History Week started in US
• 1987: National Women’s History Project successfully petitioned Congress to include all of March as a celebration of the economic, political, and social contributions of women

In recognition of this, I expanded my reading horizon this month and landed on 37 Words: Title IX and Fifty Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination by Sherry Boschert.

An author, journalist activist, and environmentalist, Boschert posts frequently on sherryboschert.com

If you were lost in space, having artificial intelligence by your side would be helpful. Will Robinson’s robot, B9, was a form of chatty artificial intelligence imagined in the middle of the last century. B9 was a fiction brought to life by actor Bob May in the Lost in Space sitcom.

Artificial intelligence (AI) in the 21^st century is real. For the analogue -inclined, developments in AI can be mind-bending. AI might seem worlds away and you might feel ‘lost in space’ if you’re trying to understand what it’s about.

ChatGPT, which went mainstream in December, provides a window into the world of AI – and is an application that’s available for anyone to use today.

McKInsey’s recent blog post What Is Generative AI? Is a helpful explainer. It describes AI through the lens of content creation, and the disruptive effects it’s likely to have.

Also the New York Times sponsored podcast Hard Fork provides an engaging discussion of the new technology in Can ChatGPT Make This Podcast?

Of course, seeing is believing. You might consider setting up a ChatGPT account and giving it a whirl. I was impressed by the amount of content the application generates in response to questions, as well as with its accuracy and speed.

If you decide to ChatGPT, or have other AI-related experiences, I’m interested to hear your impressions.

In my reading selection for this month, I go deep. That is, the author raises challenging questions. Having deep, distraction-free time to contemplate what he is saying is beneficial.

In 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, author Yuval Noah Harari says in his introduction: “I want to zoom in on the here and now, but without losing the long-term perspective.”

Harari then asks: “How can insights about the distant past and distant future help us make sense of current affairs and of the immediate dilemmas of human societies? What are today’s greatest challenges and most important choices?”

Chapter titles include: work, equality, nationalism, immigration, ignorance, justice and education.

Harari is an Israeli historian and professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Other books include Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.