imagine a world where this does not
exist imagine a world where this is your
does not exist nor does this it’s a
once-in-a-lifetime experience if you see
this doing this it’s considered a
privilege the things we take for granted
making coffee caring for a pet are no
longer given to us no longer possible as
unreal as this situation seems this may
be the near future fate of many cities
across the globe
April 2018 Cape Town South Africa is
running out of water rations have
decreased from 23 gallons a day to 13
gallons a day per household in the last
five months but this isn’t just one
problem facing a single developing
nation according to a 2015 NASA led
study groundwater which is a usually
reliable source of fresh water is now a
highly stressed resource worldwide 23
out of our 37 large groundwater aquifers
are now depleting faster than their
being replenished it’s becoming a scary
reality that we may soon run out of
fresh water cameras traitor’s 2011 novel
the water wars plummets the readers into
a world where constant drought when
we’re in a single generations humans
have used all the fresh water on earth
it sounds a little bit like Cape Town as
someone who study environmental policy
and who plans to pursue a career in
policy I’ve examined these issues in
great detail typically I look at them
through a regulatory lens what policies
are in place what’s working what needs
to be fixed but recently I’ve been
borrowing on different
studying art music and literary studies
humans are naturally drawn to the
possibility of escape that a good book
can provide we form connections with
characters and sympathize with their
experiences
Brooks create a world of perfection we
wish to live in or 1 so wreaked with
disaster that it makes us grateful for
what we have today books are also
predictive dystopian novels in
particular examine the worst case
scenario there’s a sub-genre of
dystopian fiction eco fiction that’s
focused on environmentally related
disasters these books are imaginative
and like the water wars often seem
extreme but I propose using these books
to examine the worst case scenario and
to plan our policies around that is it
intimidating to think we could run out
of water I suppose but is it better to
be prepared absolutely
books are also easily accessible to all
they sit on shelves in bookstores and
coffee shops and in campus and community
libraries they’re appealing and
attractive to look at this is nice I
would spend hours down this aisle I
could spend hours reading these books
but this looks like what I usually have
to read for class
these look nice he’s not so much books
create discussion there are thousands of
book clubs across the United States
centered around discussion discussing
the social themes and books they’re a
breeding ground for new ideas in a space
to create a passion for change to kill a
mockingbird has become one of the most
highly challenged texts in American high
schools why
it creates discussion centered around
race death and social and justices books
are powerful there are many benefits
using literature to craft public
policies I’m going to focus on three
today literature is creative and
imaginative it has clear prose and it
brings an interdisciplinary approach to
the issue at hand this is by no means an
exhaustive list but these are the three
ideas I believe we can best learn from
literature so books are creative they
try to find a simple solution to a very
complex problem policy on the other hand
tries to find a blanket solution to the
problem it tries to find one way we can
fix everything that has to do with that
issue so science supports the depletion
of underground water aquifers current
policy says we have to regulate who has
access to water we’re running out of
water not everyone in this room is going
to get water but well hold literature
say has to be specific and creative so
if water is running out of Ogawa aquifer
in the southwest part of the Great Plain
regions of the United States which it is
we could create a new faucet that’s
going to dispense the smallest amount of
water to complete certain tasks so it’s
going to dispense the smallest amount or
outer water to brush your teeth or to
clean your dishes policy could say that
every toothbrush has to have a small
metal chip inside of it so when you put
it under the faucet it dispenses the
perfect amount of water and you pull it
out it’s gone this solution is clear
it’s specific and it’s creative and it
clearly addresses the problem of running
out of water
literature also has clear prose it
demands to be understood by its audience
JK Rowling would not have sold over 400
million copies of harry potter if the
audience didn’t understand what she was
saying literature has a keen awareness
of its audience policy on the other hand
is often full of jargon and this can
lead to misinterpretations and can have
heavy consequences
Flint Michigan 2016 after over 18 months
of residents suffering from skin
digestive and mental health problems the
state calls a state of emergency
Governor Rick Snyder has admitted
several times that his administration
had mistakes and misunderstandings of
the policies in place but this is
unacceptable
are we content in a system that allows
our policy enforcers to misunderstand
these crucial documents policies that
could mean life or death I was furious
when I heard the Michigan government had
misunderstood a federal policy so I went
and did some exploring and I found in
the federal code of regulations among
parts and sections and sub parts and
headings a whole bunch of stuff the
regulation for control of lead and
copper in different sized water systems
here is just one part of that text a
system is deemed to have optimized
corrosion control and is not required to
complete the applicable corrosion
control treatment steps identified in
this section if the system satisfies one
of the criteria specif is this public
policy or is this rocket science because
this is very difficult to understand
it’s not well organized it has a bunch
of random words in there this is what
politicians have to sort through to find
the true meaning of a policy but we
could easily rewrite this given what
literature can teach us about prose for
example the word showers are placed with
must giving this authority all the
unnecessary words are removed and
includes an emergency plan right there
we’re something to go wrong in this
process my text demonstrates a keen
awareness of its audience it’s easy to
follow it’s well-organized the original
text is bureaucratic and it’s very easy
to misunderstand so I understood why the
Michigan government misunderstood but we
could rewrite policy so easily so why
don’t we finally literature brings an
interdisciplinary approach to the issue
it says the environmental issues are not
just about the environment they’re also
about social institutions government
economics and more
environmental destruction is often
immediately contributed to consumerism
we buy too much stuff and that’s
depleting the environment but no
policies focus on why we buy stuff
policies focus on how to make the stuff
so we can buy it how do we get people to
buy more stuff humans form relationships
based on stuff our new car is the hot
topic of the conversation or our new
shoes our new dress our new iPhone we’re
replacing human connection with things
we see this in a variety of works of
literature where the main characters
relationships are based on money power
and exploitation Margaret Atwood’s Oryx
and Crake is a great example of this the
main characters which are humans their
relationships are based on money greed
carelessness and using each other their
societies a disaster there’s only one
person left living on earth but then the
crackers an engineered species of
human-like creatures are completely
different they don’t have any money they
don’t buy anything their relationships
are based on what is inside themselves
and who and what is around them and they
live in harmony and they’re happy we
could greatly benefit from policies that
focus on creating spaces to spend time
together
creating more parks preserving natural
areas maybe a walking or biking or
hiking trail so we can spend time
together inform community based on
personality and relationships not based
on things so we leave you with a
challenge next time you read a book
whether that be a dystopian novel or
another genre of fiction or any genre
think about it differently instead of
longing for that perfect aspect of
fictitious society try putting it into
action in your daily life take Harry
Potter and use more kindness and loyalty
in forming your relationships take the
hunger games and see environmental
disasters as a way to compat against
habitat destruction or take
the series of unfortunate events and
pursue the message of perseverance in
the face of immense challenge
it may be tedious to put these books
into action but you may start a new
movement for social change we’ll never
know unless we try
so read on and let’s change the world
thank you [Applause]
exist imagine a world where this is your
does not exist nor does this it’s a
once-in-a-lifetime experience if you see
this doing this it’s considered a
privilege the things we take for granted
making coffee caring for a pet are no
longer given to us no longer possible as
unreal as this situation seems this may
be the near future fate of many cities
across the globe
April 2018 Cape Town South Africa is
running out of water rations have
decreased from 23 gallons a day to 13
gallons a day per household in the last
five months but this isn’t just one
problem facing a single developing
nation according to a 2015 NASA led
study groundwater which is a usually
reliable source of fresh water is now a
highly stressed resource worldwide 23
out of our 37 large groundwater aquifers
are now depleting faster than their
being replenished it’s becoming a scary
reality that we may soon run out of
fresh water cameras traitor’s 2011 novel
the water wars plummets the readers into
a world where constant drought when
we’re in a single generations humans
have used all the fresh water on earth
it sounds a little bit like Cape Town as
someone who study environmental policy
and who plans to pursue a career in
policy I’ve examined these issues in
great detail typically I look at them
through a regulatory lens what policies
are in place what’s working what needs
to be fixed but recently I’ve been
borrowing on different
studying art music and literary studies
humans are naturally drawn to the
possibility of escape that a good book
can provide we form connections with
characters and sympathize with their
experiences
Brooks create a world of perfection we
wish to live in or 1 so wreaked with
disaster that it makes us grateful for
what we have today books are also
predictive dystopian novels in
particular examine the worst case
scenario there’s a sub-genre of
dystopian fiction eco fiction that’s
focused on environmentally related
disasters these books are imaginative
and like the water wars often seem
extreme but I propose using these books
to examine the worst case scenario and
to plan our policies around that is it
intimidating to think we could run out
of water I suppose but is it better to
be prepared absolutely
books are also easily accessible to all
they sit on shelves in bookstores and
coffee shops and in campus and community
libraries they’re appealing and
attractive to look at this is nice I
would spend hours down this aisle I
could spend hours reading these books
but this looks like what I usually have
to read for class
these look nice he’s not so much books
create discussion there are thousands of
book clubs across the United States
centered around discussion discussing
the social themes and books they’re a
breeding ground for new ideas in a space
to create a passion for change to kill a
mockingbird has become one of the most
highly challenged texts in American high
schools why
it creates discussion centered around
race death and social and justices books
are powerful there are many benefits
using literature to craft public
policies I’m going to focus on three
today literature is creative and
imaginative it has clear prose and it
brings an interdisciplinary approach to
the issue at hand this is by no means an
exhaustive list but these are the three
ideas I believe we can best learn from
literature so books are creative they
try to find a simple solution to a very
complex problem policy on the other hand
tries to find a blanket solution to the
problem it tries to find one way we can
fix everything that has to do with that
issue so science supports the depletion
of underground water aquifers current
policy says we have to regulate who has
access to water we’re running out of
water not everyone in this room is going
to get water but well hold literature
say has to be specific and creative so
if water is running out of Ogawa aquifer
in the southwest part of the Great Plain
regions of the United States which it is
we could create a new faucet that’s
going to dispense the smallest amount of
water to complete certain tasks so it’s
going to dispense the smallest amount or
outer water to brush your teeth or to
clean your dishes policy could say that
every toothbrush has to have a small
metal chip inside of it so when you put
it under the faucet it dispenses the
perfect amount of water and you pull it
out it’s gone this solution is clear
it’s specific and it’s creative and it
clearly addresses the problem of running
out of water
literature also has clear prose it
demands to be understood by its audience
JK Rowling would not have sold over 400
million copies of harry potter if the
audience didn’t understand what she was
saying literature has a keen awareness
of its audience policy on the other hand
is often full of jargon and this can
lead to misinterpretations and can have
heavy consequences
Flint Michigan 2016 after over 18 months
of residents suffering from skin
digestive and mental health problems the
state calls a state of emergency
Governor Rick Snyder has admitted
several times that his administration
had mistakes and misunderstandings of
the policies in place but this is
unacceptable
are we content in a system that allows
our policy enforcers to misunderstand
these crucial documents policies that
could mean life or death I was furious
when I heard the Michigan government had
misunderstood a federal policy so I went
and did some exploring and I found in
the federal code of regulations among
parts and sections and sub parts and
headings a whole bunch of stuff the
regulation for control of lead and
copper in different sized water systems
here is just one part of that text a
system is deemed to have optimized
corrosion control and is not required to
complete the applicable corrosion
control treatment steps identified in
this section if the system satisfies one
of the criteria specif is this public
policy or is this rocket science because
this is very difficult to understand
it’s not well organized it has a bunch
of random words in there this is what
politicians have to sort through to find
the true meaning of a policy but we
could easily rewrite this given what
literature can teach us about prose for
example the word showers are placed with
must giving this authority all the
unnecessary words are removed and
includes an emergency plan right there
we’re something to go wrong in this
process my text demonstrates a keen
awareness of its audience it’s easy to
follow it’s well-organized the original
text is bureaucratic and it’s very easy
to misunderstand so I understood why the
Michigan government misunderstood but we
could rewrite policy so easily so why
don’t we finally literature brings an
interdisciplinary approach to the issue
it says the environmental issues are not
just about the environment they’re also
about social institutions government
economics and more
environmental destruction is often
immediately contributed to consumerism
we buy too much stuff and that’s
depleting the environment but no
policies focus on why we buy stuff
policies focus on how to make the stuff
so we can buy it how do we get people to
buy more stuff humans form relationships
based on stuff our new car is the hot
topic of the conversation or our new
shoes our new dress our new iPhone we’re
replacing human connection with things
we see this in a variety of works of
literature where the main characters
relationships are based on money power
and exploitation Margaret Atwood’s Oryx
and Crake is a great example of this the
main characters which are humans their
relationships are based on money greed
carelessness and using each other their
societies a disaster there’s only one
person left living on earth but then the
crackers an engineered species of
human-like creatures are completely
different they don’t have any money they
don’t buy anything their relationships
are based on what is inside themselves
and who and what is around them and they
live in harmony and they’re happy we
could greatly benefit from policies that
focus on creating spaces to spend time
together
creating more parks preserving natural
areas maybe a walking or biking or
hiking trail so we can spend time
together inform community based on
personality and relationships not based
on things so we leave you with a
challenge next time you read a book
whether that be a dystopian novel or
another genre of fiction or any genre
think about it differently instead of
longing for that perfect aspect of
fictitious society try putting it into
action in your daily life take Harry
Potter and use more kindness and loyalty
in forming your relationships take the
hunger games and see environmental
disasters as a way to compat against
habitat destruction or take
the series of unfortunate events and
pursue the message of perseverance in
the face of immense challenge
it may be tedious to put these books
into action but you may start a new
movement for social change we’ll never
know unless we try
so read on and let’s change the world
thank you [Applause]
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