To My Future Self,

Fall Quarter, 33 years ago, you took a class called intro to sustainability. This class opened your eyes to the magnitude of the environmental problems our world is facing. At least in 2017, it is the standard to put short-term profits over long term planetary health. Even though work is being done to reverse our bad decisions, I believed there was still a lot of work to be done. I first focused on what I could do to reduce my personal impact. I started biking more, instead of taking public transportation, I ate less meat and more locally grown/raised food, and I was more conscious about the amount of trash I was creating. Although making these changes showed how easy it was to reduce my impact, it also showed me how little one person can actually do. This lead me to my final project, which focused on reforming the education system to incorporate sustainability classes into the current curriculum. Although I might be in the minority, I did not learn about sustainability until I reached college, which I though was ridiculous, considering the gravity of our environmental status. My philosophy is the only way to stop and reverse our impacts on the environment is by large scale government policy changes. The way to achieve this goal is by educating a generation of students about sustainability; hopefully then, the topic will be viewed in the same light as a core class, like math or english. Once those students, who now understand our environmental problems, reach the age of being able to influence policy, they will make the changes necessary to ensure the survival of our planet. Hopefully, if you’re reading this in 2050 these changes have already been made and the world is on its way to a greener, happier future for everyone.