Dear future self,
What does sustainability mean to You?
To 21 year old self: sustainability is a broad term with seemingly infinite ways to classify it. To me sustainability is living a life with a conscious approach to what ramifications come with actions. As a species we have done a pitiful job of maintaining and managing our home. Upon taking this course I believed that I wasn’t the problem but I like many are culpable. We are all culpable. It is unfortunate that our society relies on certain technologies and rituals that aggravate our planet’s well-being. From birth we are subjugated to a lifestyle of consumption with no bounds. As we grow older we are reminded, minutely, of what our actions do to earth. This course is the first course I have ever taken dedicated to sustainability and climate change. I think it is wildly innapropriate that these topics are not discussed with young minds considering they are the most susceptible to information. Every year more and more young environmentalists are left without the proper education that would inspire the thought processes necessary to serious action. I strongly believe that if we were to educate young minds on what exactly is happening to our planet more young people would feel an obligation to do something about it.
Today, with the current political arena, sustainability has been put on the back burner. These political powers say that they don’t believe in climate change, though they probably do, they publicly disagree because it doesn’t fit their agenda. Politics seem to have enormous pull when it comes to combating climate change. This past year Donald decided that the United States has no place in the Paris Agreement. One of four some countries isn’t on board with this agreement. While people like Donald have detrimental effects on the well being of our planet, they also give rise to resistance.
I hope that you have grown into a person that talks about sustainability when the times present themselves. I hope that you take actions in your own life and I hope that you never give up. Prior to this course I didn’t have much to say when it came to the topic of sustainability. I thought it was a great idea but so far gone that trying to combat it was a poor use of time. I’ve learned that it isn’t. I’ve learned that without more people taking action and talking about it our planet will continue to spiral downward until it is completely burnt out.
Be conscious, continue to learn and take action.
