Hello, my name is Kevin Francis Berthoud, I currently live in Atascadero, CA part of California’s beautiful central coast, and I am originally from California, PA. I am currently working as a Field Service Technician for First Solar at the Topaz Solar Farm in Santa Margarita California and I would like to pursue a career working on the contract and business side of the company. My big gain I would like to get out of the course would be a more expanded view on the concepts of sustainability, as of right now my view of sustainability is resigned to Solar concepts and the ideas of land usage, manpower, irradiance, weather concerns with little concern for other concepts i.e. wind power or hydroelectric and any sort of geographic concerns. I’ve moved towards sustainable energy from the nuclear field mostly for a quality of life concern, time off was few and far between and the civilian nuclear field is made almost entirely of Navy so much where the structure follows into the civilian world, I was in the navy for 8.5 of my best years and stationed in beautiful Pearl Harbor Hawaii on board the very fine ship USS Columbia.
I think the most interesting thing mentioned in the first module was the discussion of governance, sustainability, and ethics, mostly because of discussions outside of the module, the political atmosphere tends to never agree on a lot of things, and climate change and the effect that people have on the environment is always treated as a subjective, it is personally a major player in my choices I make, has been a relatively large deciding factor in the decisions that have gone into my career choices post military. It is a hard conversation to have because it deals in compromise, but compromise in a routine, in a business, in the way you live your life, and it evolves with technology and our population and our energy needs.
Hello Kevin,
My name is Katherine and I am a junior at Penn State University, University Park campus. Your entry caught my eye as I recently visited the beautiful island of Oahu and toured the Pearl Harbor Museum. I am also very interested in gaining a broader concept of sustainability, but you seem to understand solar concepts and sustainable energy more than the average person, especially due to your work as a field service technician. The topics of governance and ethics also caught my eye from a political standpoint in that there are constant disputes in the political world. However, I became especially intrigued when you mentioned the effect that it has had on lifestyle and career choices that you have made after being involved with the military. I think the overarching message that everyone needs to understand is that environmental governance and ethics have an effect on all aspects of life, not only in the present but will continue to evolve in the future as well. I breifly touched on this issue in my blog post as well, (http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/01/18/module-1-getting-to-know-you-learning-activity/).
Hi, Kevin:
Nice to meet you! The weather in Atascadero, CA must be gorgeous, and I really want to get out of State College to receive some sunshine! I think you will definitely expand your views about sustainability after taking this course because it’s such a board concept that covers different fields.
One of the very hot topics in PA these days is methane leakage caused by producing shale gas. Although this type of natural gas is considered sustainable, but people still debate about the trade off between having a cheap energy source and accelerating global warming. I think this example is consistent with your idea that sometimes people just don’t agree on the same issue.
Here is a link that drives you to know a little bit more about me: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/01/15/getting-to-know-me/