Circles of Life

I definitely appreciated the optimism and hope outlined in Cradle To Cradle. In contrast to many of our other readings, McDonough and Braungart did a good job of providing much more specific answers and solutions to our environmental problems. Rather than dwell upon the complexity and overwhelming nature of the situation, the authors provided a realistic and logical approach to moving forward. I also agreed with their emphasis on waste and nutrient flows. It really makes sense to focus on the discrepancy between the linear nature of human economy and the cylical nature of the environment. It is certainly true that humans and our economy are firmly entrenched within the environmental systems that dictate life, and trying to force a linear model upon simply will not work in the long run. Learning from nature is always a good idea, since Mother Earth usually beats human ingenuity for form and function, and coming up with truly renewable resources and solutions is a perfect example of this.
On the other hand, I think the implementation of this trend needs to lose some of its rosy idealism. Like I mentioned in class, I think the fundamental problem with this pattern is the inequal distribution of sources and sinks throughout the world. Since the international community is broken up into nations that do not cooperate at a very high level, the closing off of loops could easily end up benefitting some at the expense of others. This could be especially possible in terms of the split between developed and developing nations. In addition, I feel that there are certain global populations that, by the very nature of their surrounding geography, are incapable of truly ending the concept of waste and resource degradation. The number of people that live in island nations without any discernable natural resources can never be truly sustainable, because they require the support of other countries for their wellbeing.
However, these challenges are not enough to prevent the Cradle to Cradle economy from functioning. I think the authors have prompted an important revolution in the environmental community, with their tenets of respecting diversity and not simply doing 'less bad' things. I hope we as a global community can ultimately understand and appreciate their genius and begin adopting more and more cyclical resource flows that foment real sustainability.