Have you ever thought to yourself, wondering how your life will be when you’re finally a college graduate? Well I, meaning you from the future, finally became a college graduate from California State University Monterey Bay. It only took me four years to obtain my Bachelors of Science in Kinesiology. However along the way I made a couple important decisions in my life that changed it for the better; remember always wanting to change the way you consumed energy and water because you thought you used more than necessary. About a year and a half ago, I decided I wanted to change my ways, which I was able to accomplish, I created two new personal policies, one for energy and another for water, which I will follow in my everyday life. Implementing my personal energy policy: turn off any lights or electrical items when not in use and my water policy: to take shorter showers or turning off the faucet while brushing teeth, helped me obtain my ideal environmental world view which is Stewardship. The aspects of this type of world view have to do with being environmentally aware, taking responsibility as caretakers of the earth. One main concern or thought of Stewardship knows that we will most likely never run of a certain product or good, but why waste it if we don’t have to. Not only did adopting the two new personal polices help me obtain my ideal environmental worldview, it actually created a more sustainable lifestyle for me.
There are a few reasons why I say my personal policies created a more sustainable lifestyle for myself yet; all the reasons mainly have to deal with the three circles of sustainability. The three circles of sustainability are three main concepts that have to blend together to create a sustainable environment. O...
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...nd water were quite simple; I simply took shorter showers and turned off electrical appliances when not in use. I choose these simple policies to follow because they were affordable and in reality they saved me more money a month, which allowed me to have money to spend on new appliances that used less energy. Overall I think that the personal polices I implemented gave me a better lifestyle, one I was saving lots of money on water and electricity bills and also I was aiding the environment to ensure a better future for the generations to come after me. I trust that the polices are great because I made sure that they satisfied all three circles of sustainability, it has social desirability, it is ecologically viable and also economically feasible. Honestly, adopting these two new personal polices were simple and created a better sustainable lifestyle for you and me.
In Michael Pollan’s “Why Bother?” Pollan argues that each person can contribute to helping to the environment by erasing their carbon footprints. In my everyday life I experience the choice of driving my car to work or riding my bike. More often than not I choose to drive my car because it is the easier option. I, along with many other people, believe that my individual impact will not cause a larger impact on the global scale. In Pollan’s essay, he makes each person think about the effect they are leaving on the environment and how each person, as an individual, can change his ways before it is too late. Wendell Berry, a naturalist and well-respected and influential writer, was a key factor in recognition of the environmental crisis and how to solve the problem.
...an do what I want” is slowly changing. There are more environmental groups and volunteers and more information about how to save the environment.
Sustainability is becoming a major debate in the united states and in the world as a whole. People are becoming more conscious of their surroundings and want to conserve the environment in order to keep the Earth healthy and to maintain diversity among the environment. In Christian Weisser’s “Sustainability,” he goes on to explain what sustainability truly is. Weisser does a good job in using pathos to persuade a typical college student in the validity of sustainability.
In my day to day life I have several habits that would be considered harmful to the environment. Throughout this paper I will discuss some of these habits and ways to fix them. The bad habits I have chosen to discuss are; leaving my phone charger plugged into the wall, purposely taking the long way home from work, always choosing to drink bottled water over tap, and using plastic bags at the market and falling asleep with the television on. I am going to discuss how each of these has a bad impact to the environment and how I can help reduce the damage done by these bad habits.
In conclusion, the impact I personally have on the planet has surprised me. My personal ecological footprint is much larger than I expected. However, there are measures I can take to drop my current consumption rate, such as altering my recycling choices, making better purchasing decisions, and adopting the reduce, reuse, and recycle concept throughout my household. By altering my habits and consumption rate, I can affect my local community tremendously in a positive way for the planet Earth.
Fossil fuel emissions are the major cause in climate change and human beings are the ones using theses as their energy sources. The carbon dioxide that is emitted into the atmosphere cause changes in nature and the, “Violations of the natural conditions of life turn into global social, economic, and medical threats to people-with completely new sorts of challenges to the social and political institutions of highly industrialized global society” (Beck, 80). People need to throw away their anthropocentric views and realize that the issue is not only the environment being affected by global warming, but that their lives are being disturbed by this phenomenon also. Many people tend to try and not harm themselves, instead they aim to stay healthy so they can live long prosperous lives. German sociologist Urlich Beck’s idea that “nature is society and society is also ‘nature’” (Beck, 81) suggests that the argument on climate change is more personal than anything. It is something that should be discussed in the private sphere by individuals reflecting on their own lives and choices. Humans should not look at recycling, as an example, a way to reuse the resources the earth gives them to help it sustain, but instead as a way to ensure that there will always be resources for themselves and their descendants to survive. The carbon emissions
I conclude that it is quite urgent to change our way of living. I need to take responsibility - use less electricity and find more solutions to save our world. If I don’t want to suffer then I need to take some action and need to change my habits for future generations.
One of my personal goals for the project was to learn as much as I could about the sustainability issue facing us. I did this by participating in all of the projects that were done throughout the semester. The main project that occurred during the semester was the personal sustainability goals that we each set for ourselves. While doing the actions that we pledged to do, we learned different things about sustainability that we never knew before. One of the things that I learned was that, at Clemson, it is hard for students who want to recycle to be able to recycle. There are not the necessary facilities nearby our student housing to place our recyclables. I also learned that some actions that should be done to be sustainable are hard to do in the society that we live in. One of these activities that we do is the needless driving that Americans do in general. Since we live in a moving society, it is sometimes hard to do. An easy thing that everyone can do is to recycle some of his or her wastes. This can be done for most people at little or no extra effort than just throwing your trash away.
Discuss the concept of sustainability. What ethical principles are parts of a sustainable lifestyle? Why should we consider sustainability as a guiding principle of our environmental philosophy?
As a concerned human being for my current environment as well as the future to come, I agree with these four great tips: Reuse, Reduce, Recycle and buy Recycled as being an effective formula in guiding us to keeping the environment clean and reducing global warming. This would have to start with every individual working together to take the first steps in improving our environment.
Sustainability is usually laughed at, global warming is not a “reality” right? Yet the fact is something is happening in our world, it’s catastrophic and devastating, and yet many turn away at the thought of becoming a sustainable society. Consumed with the here, the now and the growth of the economy; nations neglect the future needs of their children, grandchildren or even great-great grandchildren. Is it hard to become sustainable, yes but not impossible. It is profitable to become sustainable, yes but not without some loss. Sustainable as described by Merriam-Webster dictionary, able to be used without being completely used up or destroyed [or] involving methods that do not completely use up or destroy natural resources [or] able to last or continue for a long time, this indicates a steady progress even if it is a bit slower than expected. Sustainable societies are not hocus pocus, they are a reality in some places around the world. Sustainability is an intermingling of wise resource use and protection of the “quality of life”, it is met by using natural resources sparingly, by recycling or reducing and eventually stopping the use of other non-renewable resources, to provide for our immediate need, but also to conserve and protect the needs of the next generation and to improve the quality of all the lives to come. Without rethinking and changing the way our nations focus on fuels, than there is no way for sustainability to a plausible plan.
The future, it seems so far off; depending on one’s perspective, it is a week, a month or years. The future, from an environmental perspective is now. Changing behaviour in the present will set the world up for a better future. Understanding sustainability and what it means to be eco-literate is seemingly hard for some, which begs the question, when should ecologising education begin? This essay aims to summarise the extent of educating for a sustainable future and analyse how relevant it is. The concept of ecological literacy is explored along with its benefits and limitations. This essay was written from the viewpoint that everyone has a role in moving towards sustainability, beginning as early as early childhood.
There is no doubt that human activity is having a significant impact on our environment. These environmental impacts include depleting our natural resources, air and water pollution, climate change, destruction of habitats, and loss of biodiversity. Because of these growing concerns, we need to learn how to live sustainably. Living sustainably will allow us to conserve our limited resources more wisely so they will be available for future generations (Withgott & Brennan, 2011, Chapter 1).
... By showing the world the severity of our need for conservation, we will be able to save the earth and get the most out of our resources. We need to fix this problem before it becomes uncontrollable to the point of having no resources to meet our needs. By reducing our consumption of resources, we will be able to become closer to fixing the problem of global warming, high gasoline prices and pesticide-filled meats. The outcome of respecting our world and “going green” will better how we live our lives, our communities and the environment.
Environmental health explains the quality of your home, work, school, and social environment. Even the health of our planet plays a factor, air quality and availability of clean filtered water and healthy food. Also the weather and pollution, exposures to chemicals are factors playing against environment. I read an article by Lecia Bushak and she had made up many ways to help improve our environment. “Earth Day isn’t the only day you can take steps to make the environment better. In fact, it’s really easy to go green on a daily basis, and in doing so, you’ll be improving your own life” (Bushak, 2015). Following her step I will do my best to not use my car as much. I will be recycling more that’s for sure. I also will start being better about monitoring my electronics and water use in my home! These few changes will make the difference in my environmental health and I am willing to make these changes!