The post-carbon era is going to require our reconceptualizing many already existing programs, extending some programs to include new areas of knowledge, and, in some cases, developing entirely new programs of study. Below are a few examples of the kinds of changes in curricula that will be needed.
Agriculture
The dominant industrial agriculture model, which is dependent on fossil fuels, is unsustainable—not only in terms of its enormous consumption of nonrenewable energy sources, but also in terms of its detrimental impact on the environment and the resulting nutrient failures. This globalized food system, racking up thousands of “food miles,” is extremely vulnerable to impending energy scarcity and thus threatens public food security.
As calculated by Richard Heinberg, some 50 million prospective farmers need to be trained in organic growing within the next twenty years if we are to stave off worst-case scenarios of food shortages. Over the last half century, thousands of small-scale farms have been forced out of production, unable to compete with huge fossil-fuel-based agribusinesses. The average age of farmers in the United States today is fifty-nine and, until recently, young people have had little incentive to go into farming. Thanks in part to the works of Michael Pollan and Joel Salatin, new interest in relocalizing agriculture via organic and free-range farming has emerged. Many communities and individuals are willing to devote land to local food production but cannot find people with the skills and knowledge to operate successful farms.
These realities point to the urgent need for community colleges to develop organic agriculture and/or permaculture certificate or degree programs. Every community must reconnect with local food production as a necessity. No program is in greater need of immediate implementation than that of teaching future farmers the basics of sustainable agriculture.
Culinary Arts
These programs typically train students for employment in conventional food settings, preparing them to work as chefs, cooks, and managers of food services such as restaurants, cafeterias, hospital kitchens, and school lunchrooms. Culinary arts in the future may have to extend their programs to include the basics in canning, root cellaring, and “know-your-foods” courses in which students learn about the vitamin and mineral properties of different foods, as well as how to prepare them to maximize their nutritional value.
One can envision culinary arts intersecting with agriculture where students learn, for example, the basics of growing vegetables, fruits, and herbs as an integral part of their training and preparation for jobs in the food industry. Courses in organic farming, greenhouse production, vermiculture, and beekeeping could become invaluable classes to budding chefs who are seeking to bring healthy and nutritionally dense food at affordable prices to their restaurants, cafeterias, and kitchens. One also can envision culinary arts and agriculture intersecting with the health-care sciences with emphases, for instance, on healing through herbs and on sound nutrition.
Health Sciences
Current health-care training programs in community colleges prepare students for employment in traditional medical sectors, all of which are heavily dependent on nonrenewable petroleum-based products and services, from analgesics and antibiotics to surgical plastics and petrochemicals for radiological dyes and films. In the meantime, public health dollars are spread unevenly across states and are eroding as the recession hits state and local public health departments alike.
These realities necessitate a rethinking and an extension of educational programs preparing people for work in the health-care sector. Holistic preventive education via courses focused on healthy eating that promote good nutrition as the first step toward sound health practices may become required curricula. Health-maintenance programs that deal with issues such as stress management, emotional balance, violence prevention, physical activity, personal hygiene, and sanitation health may become integral parts of health-care training, thus preparing students to be practitioners and community public health counselors within local and even micro-level health service agencies. As federal and state budgets shrink, more responsibility will be foisted onto communities and local public health practitioners to fill the widening gaps.
Business and Finance
Business as usual will be hard-pressed to continue in a post-carbon economy. As consumerism (characterized by energy inefficiencies and mega-waste) declines out of necessity, new forms of business will have to emerge to meet consumer needs. The community college, with its agile character and connectedness to local environs, is well positioned to help localities (re)discover local manufacturing as small, locally based businesses emerge to meet public needs. Thus, courses on how to develop and run small businesses that emphasize sustainability and that function through cooperation and interdependence via regional networking will become highly valued. The strategies initiated within the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE)—the mission of which is to “catalyze, strengthen and connect networks of locally owned independent businesses dedicated to building strong local living economies”—could become the core of academic training for business majors at community colleges.
In addition, courses and programs focused on the functions and operations of publicly owned and controlled banking systems (such as credit unions, as well as regional banks and state-owned banks) will be in demand, as will educational programs on how to set up time-shares, time-banks, local currencies, and other public finance innovations.
Engineering and Industry
“Green jobs” is the growing mantra as people across the country begin to grapple with impending environmental problems brought on by climate change. Such new and alternative employment is especially attractive in the face of recessionary double-digit unemployment and the fear of mounting job losses from traditional employment sectors.
Community college engineering programs are ripe for developing both degree and nondegree opportunities to train students in “green engineering.” Such work would include job training for employment in photovoltaic installation and much-needed retrofitting skills to transform the millions of already-existing buildings and houses into energy-efficient structures. Many communities and individuals are willing to convert to these new sustainable technologies but, as in agriculture, cannot find local people trained in the skills and knowledge to do this work.
Moreover, there is a plethora of opportunities to learn and invent within the realm of low-tech engineering, which readily could become core curricula of engineering programs at community colleges. For example, Amy Smith, a senior lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT who specializes in engineering design and appropriate technology, has produced several inventions that are sustainable and useful in poor, resource-constrained countries —technologies that we may find suited to our own energy-constrained needs in the future.
Conflict Resolution
Several four-year colleges and universities have academic programs in peace studies and conflict resolution. However, only 1 percent of such programs are available at community colleges. Undoubtedly, numerous disputes and conflicts are likely to arise as we transition from the current large-corporate dominant system to a post-carbon energy system. For example, much of agriculture, out of necessity, is going to have to become local and urban, disturbing the “normality” of green lawns, open spaces, and public lands. Land use will have to be reconceptualized as well as rezoned to meet the new food-production needs. Such changes are likely to induce conflicts, especially, for example, as some residents in neighborhoods attempt to turn their green lawns into agricultural plots or small animal-production sites. There will be numerous incidents calling for the skills of mediators and arbitrators who are locally based to help manage and negotiate these community and neighborhood disputes. In addition, larger-scale environmental-impact conflicts, such as a recent dispute in Massachusetts over the placement of wind turbines for the offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound, will become more numerous as we confront the challenges of transitioning to a sustainable, post-carbon energy system.
Community colleges could provide the necessary training and expertise for relatively short-term, two-year degree programs that prepare students for careers in conflict management and dispute resolution of local neighborhood, community, and regional issues. Such a program could have tracks—agriculture, environmental, social welfare—in which students concentrate their area of expertise. Furthermore, even shorter-term training via certificate programs could be established, preparing students for micro-level dispute resolution such as conflict between neighbors.