People
Undergraduate Students
Cole Heisey
B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science
Honor’s thesis in sustainability
Synopsis of Honor’s thesis:
Cities, as they are presently, are unsustainable, consuming a disproportionate amount of resources, inefficiently. In the coming decades, 80% of the world’s population will live in cities, many of them not yet constructed. In lieu of environmental degradation and, in turn, species decline, effects on the health of human populations, and global warming, the entire way we conceive of the city must change. In other words, they must become greener; thus, infrastructure will, in turn, need to be rethought, reorganized. My thesis will discuss how to build a sustainable city using current technologies and techniques, which can be universally applied as needed. Cities should be as self-sufficient organisms, providing for themselves enough food and energy, locally tapped, to supply their expansion.
From a philosophical standpoint, cities are a place for people to live and, above all, create. Moreover, a city is the vehicle whereby humans are elevated and made whole. Individuals within the city should have access to the goods and services they need, especially food and energy, which can be locally tapped. I argue further that health and human happiness of all citizens, in tandem with the vitality of the natural living environment, should be the dominant indicator of success. Evolution of consciousness and the perfection of character should guide decisions. Instead of a monetary economy, a resource-based economy should be the ruling method for resource distribution and extraction.
Eva Soluk
Eva Soluk is a Biology undergraduate student with a Conservation and Biodiversity specialization; she also has a minor in Sustainability. She is researching the bird populations at Spirit Mound and evaluating how the restoration of Spirit Mound has affected the birds that live there. Eva is interested in pursuing future studies in behavioral ecology and conservation.