Amy Doherty - Design Your Environment
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
— Margaret Mead
Tell me about your background, your career, and environmental involvement.
My family moved a lot and I almost never stayed in one school for an entire year. One year we were staying with my aunt and my cousins and they let me plant a little garden. I was so excited to see plants growing!
I went out to water them every day. When we moved I was devastated. I started growing houseplants that I could take with me when we moved. This naturally has extended to container gardening and I could take my outdoor plants with me too.
I studied landscape architecture at the U of O because I wanted to help design a sustainable world. So much of design is not environmentally friendly and I could never find a job in the field that was in line with my principles. I love being a Master Gardener volunteer because I get to help people learn to garden.
From where you stand, what do you see as one of the primary contributors to climate change and environmental destruction?
In the US, our reliance on cars and freeway systems. The freeway system was developed along with the suburbs as a governmental response to the cold war. They worked together to intentionally create sprawl so cities would be a less desirable target for missiles.
When the government found a better solution, the enormous amount of funds for the freeway system were no longer provided and that fell to tax payers.
This development is very expensive to maintain and now falls primarily on homeowners to maintain through their taxes.
The enormous amount of paved surfaces increases the "heat island effect" in cities and increases flooding because paved surfaces make water flow very quickly.
As energy becomes more expensive, we will have to move away from freeways and create fewer suburbs so mass transit can function.
What would you like to see happen in the next 5 years regarding environmental/climate change? 50 years?
The change that I would like to see in the next 5 years would be changes in food policy. An enormous amount of food is thrown away. Many countries have made this illegal. Most of the fruits and vegetables that are thrown away is because they are "ugly" or are not uniform size and shape. Farmers sometimes can't afford to harvest crops and they have to let them rot in the field. We could create jobs by allowing gleaning programs to operate and work cooperatively with food banks and this would create stability for people who are food insecure.
Within the next 50 years (definitely sooner), I would like to see 95% of plastic become biodegradable and for us to refill glass jars and bottles. The glass jars and bottles could use a deposit-based system where they can be sterilized and reused for a fraction of the energy cost.
This used to be the normal thing to do until the 1960s. Plastic was very cheap, then it became the standard. Now it is difficult to get packaging equipment that doesn't use it.
What’s the first step you or I personally could take to move us in that direction? What small steps can we take in our daily lives?
The first step a person can take is to really think about your habits. We are our habits more than we are our conscious choices. We have to start with self awareness before we start to change. Every habit you have has a reason behind it and before you can change what you do you need to be aware of what need you are fulfilling through that action. This is why purchases like reusable bags or coffee mugs don't work for some people. That bag or mug is not helping you fulfill the need that you are trying to satisfy.
No product can fulfill our inner desires, we can only meet material needs with things.
Landfills are full of impulse buys from people trying to feel loved and happy.
What would you say to inspire someone that believes corporations bear the responsibility and that we have little impact?
Corporations do create the majority of pollution and environmental degradation, but they will only continue to do so as long as we make it profitable for them as a business model.
Corporations are only accountable to their shareholders. They are not accountable to their customers or employees. If you need a corporation to stop doing something, you need to make it unprofitable so they will seek out another solution to create profit for their shareholders.
