Wednesday, March 11, 2009

200 Mile Radius - Sustainability in Action


As I mentioned before, a big trend in culture is being green. One of the top experts in this field is Simran Sethi...
Right in our own backyard... Simran Seth, award-winning journalist, teaches courses on sustainability and environmental communications at the University of Kansas. Simran is named one of the top ten eco-heroes of the planet by the UK's Independent and lauded as the "environmental messenger" by Vanity Fair. Simran has contributed segments to the Nightly News with Brian Williams, The Oprah Winfrey Show (above photo recycling with Oprah), The Today Show, Ellen DeGeneres Show and Martha Stewart Show to name a few. She is committed to a redefinition of environmentalism that includes voices from the prairie, the inner city and the global community. Simran serves on the Sustainability Advisory Board in Lawrence, Kansas and is the Chair of the City's working group on climate change policy, education and outreach.

Her unique approach to fighting "the good fight" left me without words (even now i am having trouble writing this). She explains the concept that changing the way we live in general will have it's impact on the environment. She touched on subjects such as: communities & relationships, clothing, energy, transportation, media consolidation, fostering art, commerce, nature, waste, and even how global issues like terrorism can relate to climate change. Very interesting.
Since Simran is from our area, her talk was focused on what our region is doing, and could be doing to better itself. Specifically, she mentioned Kansas and wind-power, and preserving the Haskell-Baker Wetlands—577 acres, inhabited by 312 different species. Below is a piece she did for the Sundance Channel on the success of Greensburg, Kansas (which she showed part of at the presentation).


The Good Fight

I'm personally glad she is part of my 200 Mile Radius.

2 comments:

Emily said...

Loved Sethi's presentation! It's so encouraging to see someone who is so passionate, but so practical too. She is a force for good and I'm so glad Hallmark brought her in for Trends week!

Hello There ! said...

I agree with Emily, I loved Sethi's presentation as well, I'm so happy I got to see her talk. I loved her scale of green from Evergreen to Nevergreen.

I want to take one of her classes