Compared to the crisis in Earth’s atmosphere, the increased acidity of our oceans have received scant attention, which makes Bryan Walsh’s article on the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences very welcome. Radically altering the nature of our seas is likely to lead to disastrous consequences for all life everywhere. If the oceanic food chain collapses due to acidification, the lives of billions of people will be jeopardized, along with those of the other creatures with whom we share the Earth. Giant corporations and the climate-change denialists they fund are symptomatic of a short-sighted and ignorant fixation on immediate profits; when a good quarterly report outweighs the long-term health of the planet, humanity becomes an endangered species…which will surely be bad for business. America is the world’s largest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases; we must take responsibility for the natural systems we are destroying.

Warren Senders

They ran an AP story on a farmer who’d gotten badly whacked by the flood, so I hung this letter on that.

Pakistan’s devastated agricultural infrastructure, like the droughts that have destroyed Russia’s wheat fields, is a tragic consequence of global climate change. Since the mid-1980s, climate scientists have predicted that higher concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will increase the likelihood of catastrophic weather events. Unfortunately, corporate-funded denialists continue to receive equal coverage in our news media, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of climatologists agree on global warming’s human cause. Although stories like Abid Hussein’s put a human face on the disaster in Pakistan, they fail to point out the role of climate change in making that disaster possible. What will it take for Americans to wake up to our responsibilities as the world’s foremost per capita emitter of carbon dioxide? Twenty million people’s lives have been turned upside down in Pakistan — and that’s just a preview of what’s in store for the world in the coming years.

Warren Senders

HATA SIAL, Pakistan — When the governor of Punjab Province arrived recently in this small town with truckloads of relief goods for flood victims, his visit was as much a political mission as a humanitarian one. His message to the hundred or so displaced people gathered under an awning was that the government was there for them. Long after floodwaters subside, Pakistanis will face a lack of housing, food shortages and price spikes, among other hardships.

“The people say this was an act of God,” the governor, Salman Taseer, said in an interview after reassuring the crowd. “But what comes now, they say, is the act of man. If we don’t deliver, they will not forgive us.”

The “act of God/act of man” construction gave me a nice hook for the letter.

To the suffering Pakistanis, the floods that have destroyed their lives may seem an “Act of God,” and their government’s paralysis an “act of man.” But the grim reality is that the greenhouse effect brought about by the West’s profligate consumption of fossil fuels drastically increases the probability of catastrophic weather events. Thus, the floods are as much an act of man as the dysfunctionality of the Pakistani government. And just as Zardari’s administration is stymied and near-helpless in the face of this disaster, America’s national politics is mired in a quicksand of anti-science rhetoric that has rendered it unable to address humanity’s most pressing problem, or even to acknowledge that the problem exists. Global climate chaos is going to give us many Pakistans, each with an overwhelming share of human misery. Will we admit our own responsibilities, or will each new climate disaster still be an “Act of God?”

Warren Senders

College:

As a college student, I was lucky; I did my learning through a now-defunct organization called Campus-Free College. Another CFC graduate described it nicely:

Campus-Free College unfortunately no longer exists. It provided a fabulous opportunity for self-directed students (seeking bachelor and master degrees) to design their own curriculum in coordination with professors at colleges throughout the world and professionals in their chosen field of study. It was the ultimate school for entrepreneurs.
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Another student recalls:

“Campus Free College” was the place where I applied to work on an undergraduate degree. The school was later renamed Beacon College. It was a place where you could negotiate and design your own college level program and then recruit your own teachers and advisors.

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Perhaps the most famous graduate of CFC was Mitchell Kapor, the guy behind Lotus 1-2-3.

Every bit of learning I did at CFC (which later changed its name to Beacon College) was coordinated with two individuals: Larry L_____, who was assigned to be my “Program Advisor,” and was responsible for regular conferences with me about my learning goals and progress, and Joseph S____, who was assigned to be the “Monitor” for Larry and me, and was responsible for cross-checking with us about the larger context of what we proposed. Overseeing this three-part relationship was a body called the Academic Council, which approved the awarding of grades and offered feedback as required.

When I decided I wanted to learn something, I first had to write a “Course Description.” I would outline the proposed activity and describe why and how it was integral to my learning goals. Then, I would describe who or what I would be using for learning resources, describe how my work would be assessed, and describe how the teacher or supplier of resources would be compensated.

For example, I wanted to learn about physics and acoustics; as a musician I thought it was crucial to know something about the physics of sound. The college rolodex supplied me with the name of a physicist who lived in the area who had expressed willingness to work with students. I called him and we agreed to meet. After discussing my thoughts, he made some suggestions for reading material, and we agreed on a price for his time. I wrote a Course Description, outlining what we planned to do, what books I was to read, how often I was to meet with Nigel H____, what I would do to demonstrate that I had done the learning I set out to do (write a paper, build an instrument to demonstrate overtonal tuning procedures and submit a recording).

Then — I did the project. After the work was done, Nigel wrote a very nice assessment of our work together, and I submitted my paper, his assessment, and photos/recordings of the instrument I’d built, along with another form, called a “Credit Request,” in which I described: a – what I’d originally thought I was going to learn; b – what I had actually learned; c – why it was worth the credits I requested; and d – what the completed project had taught me about my overall learning goals. A lot of paperwork (very much like what’s involved in handling grants and fellowships — excellent training for much of my future work!).

Sometimes the assessment would take a different form. A project on instrument-building, for example, would ab necessito be inadequately assessed with a paper. Instead, I submitted photographs, detailed descriptions, and recordings. Then I proposed another project, in which I would receive credit for coordinating and curating a gallery exhibition of handmade instruments by all the craftspeople in the community; my instruments were part of the larger display, and hundreds of people came to enjoy the exhibit in a local art gallery. I developed skills in event management, logistics, promotion and outreach…and I submitted an album of photographs, press releases, photocopies of the visitor’s book, and a statement from the gallery director saying that I’d done a good job. I didn’t have to pay anyone anything, but the learning was genuine and integral to my life-path.

Repeat this, in my case, thirty-six times over a four-year period (165 undergraduate-level credits). I only took one two-month vacation; the rest of the time I was engaged in learning.

Over the four years of my degree, I took a total of two university courses — one at Harvard and one at Tufts. In both cases I arranged with the instructor that I would be treated as a regular student and assessed identically with the rest of the class. Incidentally, both of those professors are still friends and professional colleagues, thirty years later.

By the time I finished college, Campus-Free-College had changed its name to Beacon College, and I was, most of the time, compensating my teachers by barter. I “paid” my singing teacher by producing concerts for her, using the skills in event management that I’d developed; I “paid” my composition teacher by building him a pentatonic marimba, using skills I’d developed when working with my instrument-building teacher two years before.

In 1981 I submitted a “Degree Request,” along with a final statement of what I considered my Curriculum to be. My Program Advisor wrote a beautiful letter of support, which included the following paragraphs:

“Warren is an academically brilliant person who would likely have done well in any educational program. But in addition, he and Beacon College were made for one another. Surely he has stretched every boundary, asked for every exception, and called into question every procedure designed to accomodate self-directed learning. His program is the most sophisticated intellectually, the most daringly adventurous, and the most completely fulfilled program I know of. It can be — and has been — criticized by the prudent (even by Warren himself) as having far more of this and somewhat less of that than programs should. But it floats above these critiques because it seems to be so much what Warren’s program ought to be.

“In carrying out this program Warren has, more than any other single student in my memory, achieved the self-direction and the high functioning of adulthood of which Carl Rogers speaks. Here, Warren has followed his own rhythms and needs, often turning conventional patterns of learning topsy turvy in the process. He has dared to do advanced things first and simpler ones later. He has used a very wide variety of resources, from peers to Harvard professors to street musicians, from university courses to self-directed readings to programmed texts to encounter groups. The patterns and directions his work has taken are commendable because of their appropriateness to his own developing personhood. Alas, they are not models for other students as the works of Frank Lloyd Wright or Sibelius or Titian are not; there is a uniqueness in how Warren expresses himself educationally — not a moral or artistic superiority — that makes him, like them, uncopyable.

Now at graduation time, Warren has a great number of artistic skills, a wide range of knowledge, a depth of understanding, and a set of carefully examined attitudes and values, that are unequalled, in toto, in other graduates I have known. There is a synergy in all these learning outcomes that makes the overall result greater than any list of detailed accomplishments. For this reason, perhaps, Warren exhibits the greatest sense of satisfaction and fulfillment I have ever seen in a graduating student.”

L. Lemmel, Final Program Advisor’s Evaluation, 10 May 1981

For what it’s worth, I can say with complete assurance that I use everything I did in college in the regular flow of my life as an artist, a teacher and a scholar. Nothing was irrelevant; no experience was wasted.

Lessons from my college experience:

Every learning is unique, and thus every assessment of learning must be unique.

Learning is genuine when it can be linked to an individual’s past experience, present situation, or future aspirations. Assessment is meaningful when it recognizes that these links are at the core of the learning process.

It takes time and patience to avoid self-deception in assessment, whether it is of one’s own work or the work of others.

Check it out.

Third time this year in the Globe. Can the NYT be far behind?

Frank Rich’s takedown of the Koch brothers does not go far enough. In their disregard for the continued health of our democracy, these arrogant billionaires reveal themselves as fundamentally anti-American. Even worse is their readiness to disseminate misinformation which is overwhelmingly likely, not just to mislead the the American populace, but to endanger the planet. Their recent donation of a million dollars to the proponents of the anti-environment Proposition 23 in California is an example of their long history of close engagement with the denial of the human contribution to catastrophic climate change. At this time in history, our continued national inability to grasp the genuine science of global warming has profound moral implications. The continued survival of our species is placed at risk by the Kochs’ continued readiness to fund an ideology that rejects robust scientific evidence in favor of fiscally expedient ignorance.

Warren Senders

While it looks as though the Massachusetts coastline has been spared the worst effects of Hurricane Earl, the fact is that over the coming decades, we are going to see more hurricanes, more often. The climatic effects of even a one-degree rise in global atmospheric temperature include dramatic increases in extreme weather, like the catastrophic floods that have rendered Pakistan helpless, and disrupted the lives of more people than live in New England. Of course, it is impossible to say that a specific weather event is directly caused by the greenhouse effect; the laws of physics and probability don’t work that way. But climatologists have predicted for decades that increased atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases would lead to exactly the kinds of weather we’re seeing all over the globe: heat waves, torrential flooding, anomalous precipitation, droughts, and overall volatility and unpredictability. “Global warming” is an inadequate term; we should call it by its true name: “climate chaos.” And we — all of us — need to wake up to the need for rapid and robust action to mitigate its effects.

Warren Senders

The United Nations has the correct position on additional funding to poorer nations to aid them in coping with climate change. The facts are inescapable: the poorer the country, the lower their per capita greenhouse gas emissions. Compared with the CO2 released into the atmosphere by the United States (five times more than our share of world population), Pakistan’s is little more than a rounding error. While climate change’s effects will be felt everywhere in the world, it is the industrialized West which is overwhelmingly responsible for the increasing atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases.

We tell our children to accept responsibility for damage they cause. We grownups must do the same, and face the fact that our fossil-fueled conveniences are destroying the world in which we live — and that it is unfair to make the poorest of the world’s people pay for the destruction the wealthiest have brought them.

Dear President Obama,

It’s been thirty years since Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as President and set about undoing all the things that Jimmy Carter set in motion.

Looking back over the past three decades it is astonishing how much President Carter got right, and how much President Reagan got wrong. If we had taken energy independence seriously and devoted the necessary budgetary support to wind and solar energy, America would have stopped giving money to OPEC. Our share of worldwide carbon emissions would have dropped significantly — perhaps keeping the planetary atmosphere below the crucial 350 parts-per-million level (in which case there is increasing evidence to suggest that many of today’s climate catastrophes might never have happened).

America would be a world leader in green technology, rather than lagging behind Europe and China.

We would not have needed all those expensive wars to protect our oil supplies.

The Gulf of Mexico might not be a massive dead zone.

It appears that you’re reluctant to do anything that would excite controversy (although it should be obvious to you by now that the Republicans will gin up controversy over anything), a pusillanimity I am depressed to see in the President I donated, volunteered and voted for. But I digress. The time is now for a full bank of solar panels to be installed on the roof of the White House. Perhaps you should be out there with a hammer yourself on October 10, as part of 350.org’s International Work Party.

It would be a gracious gesture to invite President Carter to the White House roof to pound in a few nails. With the clarity of hindsight, it appears that the only thing he did wrong was to be right.

Yours Sincerely,

Warren Senders