2011.10.26. Sustainability Course. Day 3.

Today Segah-san led a discussion about the state of the world's forests and the threats that they face on a daily basis in different regions of the planet.  We also discussed the various values and benefits that forests provide to society and the world's ecosystems.  In the second half of the morning, Dr. Fukushima lectured from Taiwan.  He really is a very good lecturer.  His primary subject was life cycle analyses and _________.  I enjoy his lecture style, but I think that it would probably be more effective if he was actually present with us.  He tends to prompt individuals in the class with random questions, but can't really see us and doesn't quite wait long enough for someone to speak up in response.  So most of the time, he responds to his own question before someone speaks up.  I'm not sure if he actually wants us to respond to his question, or if it is simply his personal style of communication.  Anyhow, his take on life cycle analyses is unique to all of my studies.  We never talked about anything like it in my economics course and I personally believe that it would have been an obvious choice for a subject.  Maybe I can get him to give a distance lecture to students in Alaska sometime.

I really do like the perspective that these professors are bringing to the program.  So far, each speaker is covering a general subject area and each is providing just a glimpse into their personal research.  I keep finding myself interested in hearing more about their research, but I am waiting to ask because I assume that we'll have a lot more time to get to those details.

Anyhow, so far, so good in the class.  I'm looking forward to the rest of the course.

Dr. Tony Chittenden has been really personable and helpful to the students.  Everybody has been extremely generous especially Dr. Shingo Tanaka and Dr. Gaku Ishimura.  Tony has helped give a little more background about life in Japan, Japanese politics, and I'm hoping to learn a lot more about Japanese culture and customs.  I feel relatively comfortable asking him about these sorts of things (probably because he been a New Zealand citizen living in Japan for a long time) and greatly value his seemingly candid responses and insight to our interest.  He originally came here to ski, but ended up staying.  That's all I know, but it seems like he loves to live life.  And if that is true, that's one value that we share.