Instructional Videos and Websites Developed
Frontiers in Sustainability
http://www.frontiersinsustainability.com/
Kat McDearis and I created the following eight videos to address sustainability in a variety of contexts. These videos have been viewed over 60,000 times.
Are We a Species in Decline? | Dr. Eric Pappas | TEDxJMU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvEFNFGecO8&feature=youtu.be
2016. This video addresses the question of whether we are a species that is designed for survival and evolution.
Your Vote Doesn't Matter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdAVvKQ8tkk&t=2s
2016. You've heard “If you don’t vote, you can’t complain!” But here is why voting in the United States has become more of an illusion of democracy, rather than an actual say in how the government is run.
Individual Sustainability (Sustainable Personality)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDlowkyqTqw&t=2s
2013. An important context missing from most discussions of sustainability, especially within academia (or society in general), is individual sustainability. Living a sustainable lifestyle includes creating harmony, interconnection, and relatively high levels of awareness in one's values, thoughts, and behaviors, as well as maintaining an increasing control over one's physical, emotional, social, philosophical, environmental, and intellectual life. The general skills that lead to individual sustainability are awareness, motivation, and the ability to engage in intentional self-development. As well, individual sustainability includes possessing a well-developed and demonstrated value system that acknowledges the interconnectedness of all global biological systems and our appropriate place in the Natural World.
We now refer to Individual Sustainability as Sustainable Personality.
Individual Sustainability (Sustainable Personality): Are Your Values and Behaviors in Conflict?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-dOnnvOw7c&t=1s
2014. Too often our behaviors are not aligned with our values. The underlying principle for learning about sustainability or exhibiting sustainable behavior is values, which we define as beliefs in, or demonstrations of, the significance and meaning of objects, qualities, or human behaviors. When solving sustainability problems, we are confronted with a decision we must make according to our values related to human well-being and survival. As individuals and as a society, we must understand the value-related ramifications of our actions on a host of factors that determine sustainable practices, whether they be corporate, community, or individual. Individuals generally embrace admirable values related to sustainability, but often encounter a “cognitive dissonance” when asked to explain whether their actions accurately reflect their values. In short, many of us often do not act according to our values (it is a question of integrity). This inconsistency often motivates individuals to more actively align their behaviors with their values.
You Can’t Eat More than Your Share (Radical Premises in Sustainability, Part 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TFWbpgCFjg&t=1s
2014. Do we have the human right to use huge amounts of natural resources to produce unhealthy food that makes us fat and sick…and threatens to overwhelm our health care system, when so many people in the United States and the rest of the world have too little food? It’s an individual choice.
You are Responsible for Everything You Buy. (Radical Premises in Sustainability, Part 2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i0f3ndULhU&t=42s
2015. You are responsible for everything you buy—from the health and working conditions of the workers who mine the natural resources and those who manufacture the products, to the marketing practices, to the overuse of natural resources, to the inevitable disposal. Even more tragic is our inability to align our very admirable values related to sustainability with our unenlightened and selfish buying behaviors, for it is individual behavior that creates the foundation for action in environmental, social, economic, and individual sustainability.
Your Wealth Does not Justify Your Overconsumption. (Radical Premises in Sustainability, Part 3)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2v77yutPgE&t=42s
2015. We hear more and more lately about our serious environmental problems…and our chronic economic problems…low wages, high taxes, high unemployment, diminishing benefits, small business and home real estate losses, and generally how hard it is to regulate the U.S. economy.
Really? Our economy is only hard to regulate because it is rigged in the favor of the very wealthy. This is not an accident—the system works against just about everyone else, and it most always has. Does anyone not know that most of our laws, financial regulations, and tax policies overwhelmingly favor the wealthy? They own and use the most natural and human resources because they can pay for it. Mansions, expensive cars, jets, lavish summer estates, servants, multi-million dollar weddings and vacations….while most Americans live paycheck to paycheck.
In reality, our economy is very easy to regulate and in such a way that most everyone could have a decent job, good healthcare, a home, and some free time. We have the resources, no one would argue that. What we do argue is just how our vast resources are distributed, and at this point, our entire economic system is designed for the wealthy. The control it. They are not sorry. They do not feel guilty. And they manipulate us at every turn, especially through purchasing political influence.
And none of it seems to bother us so much that we do anything about it but complain.
The Myth of Marriage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN3tMSBkyw4
2014. We spend considerable time being in denial about how romantic relationships are formed and sustained over time. The prevalent romantic myths we find in books, movies, parental instruction, and cultural norms seem to lead us to believe some magical quality characterizes finding and being with “The One.” Could it be that, as our society changes (as rapidly as it is), that perhaps our romantic relationships need to reflect these changes? Or maybe we just need to get realistic about relationships.
Other Websites Developed
Personality Pad
https://www.personalitypad.org/
PersonalityPad is an interactive feedback tool designed to promote self-insight and inform self-development goals.
Conflict Negotiation Strategies
https://www.jmu.edu/ihot/interpersonal_communications_conflict_scenarios.shtml
Interpersonal Communications Conflict Scenarios In The Workplace: The objective of these scenarios are to solve workplace team-related problems through identifying and negotiating interpersonal relationship conflicts.
Sustainability Library
http://www.cisat.jmu.edu/stemhhs/library/
This extensive site (over 1500 articles and videos) focuses primarily on the following topics, from a systems theory point of view:
Social and Cultural Sustainability
Environmental Sustainability
Economic Sustainability
Individual Sustainability
Technical Sustainability
Women in Science and Engineering
Indoor Environments
Creative Design
Teaching Sustainability and Design
Ethics
Other Videos
Fast Change: The Science of Accelerated Self-development
https://jessepappas.wixsite.com/mysite
Are You Sustainable?
http://megancuzzolino.com/blog/2016/10/26/are-you-sustainable
Engineering Students Design Bicycle For Teen's Disability