ABSTRACT
A series of events in 2009 began to chip away at the unbridled optimism the author felt during the preceding two years about the sustainability movement and its potential for transformative change. These events occurred at both the local level of the university and on the global stage in Washington, DC and Copenhagen, Denmark. The preceding speaker, a professor of hydrology, had given a provocative talk about water issues around the world. He focused on severe fresh water shortages in several of the poorest countries and how global climate change would only make this problem worse in the coming years. On the world stage, as we all know, the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Summit failed to produce a global treaty to reduce carbon emissions. During the following year, climate and energy legislation was abandoned in the United States Congress. The new green jobs czar, Van Jones, was even forced to resign without being replaced.
