Brazil, here I come! woo woooo

Friday June 3, 2011 The time has come for me to set out into the world again!

A serious long-term threat facing the world is the danger that human actions are producing irreversible, harmful changes to the environmental conditions that support life on Earth. I want to solve this problem and am devoted to learning how people can change their lifestyles to do so.

I am off to Brazil, supported by a USC SURF grant (http://dornsife.usc.edu/surf)to do research for two weeks. I have two research initiatives:
• To learn about the lifestyle practices that ecovillages exhibit in order to live in a more environmentally sustainable way
• To assess the role that Brazilian ecovillages play in greater Brazilian environmentalism I will explore the first initiative in order to better understand each ecovillage and be able to evaluate which practies are most effective and can be adapted for life outside the ecovillage.

When I return home, I will be an agent of change and will bring these lifestyles practices back to USC with me. Over the summer, I plan on making a short video about ways that the ordinary individual can transform his or her life to be more environmentally sustainable.

The second initiative will be a bit more challenging to rightly assess, especially in the given time frame of two weeks. I will interview ecovillagers, as well as city dwellers to find out what role ecovillages play in national environmentalism. In a world approaching peak oil, global warming, and possible water shortages, Ecovillages provide the perfect model to be emulated world wide.
Can these ecovillages be agents of change for Brazil’s devastating environmental state? In what ways can ecovillages maximize their impact in the environmental movement?

Over the summer, I will write a short paper on my findings and turn it in to the SURF grant foundation in September.

So why did I choose Brazil, you might ask? For a few reasons – I went to Brazil in March 2010 just for ten days and I fell in love with the culture, the people, the lifestyle, the language, everything. So I’ve since had a yearning to return…

More importantly, Brazil has a very unique and wonderful position in terms of environmentalism. Unlike other developing nations, Brazil has enough money and has the desire to invest in environmental initiatives. Sustainable development is not common for developing countries because of the large upfront costs that it requires. Brazil, however, is home to one of the greenest cities in the world (Curitiba) and has made valiant strides towards ending the accelerated deforestation of the Amazon. These, among other efforts (such as ecovillages), show that Brazil is prioritizing saving the natural world when the incentive is strictly environmental and not monetary.

As environmental issues world wide intensify, Brazil has the ability to set a model for other developing nations to follow – what if all developing nations were to start incorporating environmentalism into their development in small ways? The future would look much greener :)

And so Brazil it is! I arrive tomorrow and have no idea what my internet situation will be, but I will do my best to keep you guys updated on what I find. I love you and miss you all!
Chao,
Ninita