Greener Future

Ultimately, this course has been a great learning experience for me. If anything, I am disappointed that I have waited until my senior year to take an environmental course. I am an International Development major with minors in Spanish and economics, and I feel that environmental policy is very related to what I have been studying. In all of my international development courses, whether they pertain to human rights or simply the basics of development, it is impossible to deny that the environment plays an important role within it. Especially the idea of sustainable development. I have heard the term tossed around before, but it was not until after this course that I really felt like I understood it. The quote that sustainable development is development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” has struck a cord within me and I think of it often. Anyone can talk about how important it is to help the impoverished and aid the developing world, but if we ignore the environment, our actions and the actions of developing nations with have dire consequences. Following that same train of thought, I will take away a lot of concepts discussed in the course and apply them to my study of economics. I saw the connection between the environment and the economy most clearly when I wrote the first paper for this class on Rio+20. After reading all about the Rio+20 themes and agenda I paid close attention to the concept of a green economy. There are ways that we can influence how developing nations grow and methods of encouraging them to take a greener route than nations like China and the US. Two of the methods that stood out most to me were green subsidies and facilitating green practices such as organic farming. There is so much more we can do to help developing nations than throwing food and money at them. For example, if we give them the tools to farm organically and efficiently we will we aiding their sustainable development as well as helping the environment as a whole. Another important concept I will take with me is the idea of practice what you preach. How is the US in a position to tell other nations how to be green when we ourselves are one of the largest, if not the largest, contributor to pollution and environmental harm. I also need to start taking actions to become greener instead of talking about them as well. This course has been invaluable for me and has opened my eyes to just how interrelated all of the SIS disciplines are and I hope to remember that as I continue my studies and enter the “real world” in May.

Finals Thoughts

I am not even sure I can count the number of things that I will take away from this class. First of I learn more than I had anticipated and second of all I learned that this was a subject that I deeply care about and want to make a career from. I also got a unique perspective about West Coast environmental views and East Coast views. I think the one thing that has really changed since I began the class is my eating habits. Right before school began I decided to become a pescatarian. I was a very nutritious person before but ever since learning more about our food system I've become more and more obsessed with what I eat. I read all food labels and if anything with corn is in the first five ingredients I don't eat it. I have also given up fish since watching The Cove and discovering that by 2040 humans might not be eating fish. I think the other topic I connected with was discussing biodiversity. I never knew much about species but the book End of the Wild I found frightening and fascinating. So overall, I will take many things away form this class. Most important I will go on to be self-aware of the environment.

Final Thoughts

There are many things I will take away from this class. The first is the idea that recycling and buying reusable bags is not enough to save the environment. This idea has really impacted the way I look at environmental intitiatives and basically every aspect of our lives. I have started to think about many of my daily activities such a eating in a new light. Also, I have learned that the environmental crisis is very serious but there are positive ideas like the ones from McDonough's Cradle to Cradle systems for design. Finally, I have realized that climate change and other environmental factors will negatively impact the lives of the impoverished the most. These changes will make the lives of the citizens of the under developed nations harder than they already are. These problems are definitely issues for concern and must be considered when making policies.

New Perspectives and Solutions

This was my first time taking an environmental course, and I have learned a lot from it. Before taking the course, I thought I had some base knowledge like the environment issues that are still currently controversial (climate change), but through out the semester, I’ve learned it was just partial of what environmental politics covers; rather today the issues about environmental is all surrounding us.

The fact, I’ve learned it’s not one individual who can change and save the world, but it was more complex where without any cooperation from everyone, the success level cannot be never reach. If we want to really change the environment and take care of it, it needed every part of the government, community, individual, etc. to be one.

I believe that the most important thing I have taken from this course is the possibility and more bright future views of it is not yet to say our environment is unsolvable and reach the end. Also the fact that climate change is really impacting every aspect of our life and it will be in our future and this changes would be make no one to be happy. Today, we live in a globalized world, we tend to observe new things very quick, which may lead us to think adapting new policy and new output for future would not harm us too much. The earth would not go back to where it was as green, blue and white, but if we can at least sustain our earth as what it is today; I think it’s better than nothing. In the end, I did really enjoyed our class and it was good experience that I can now use this new knowledge to spread the word about the environment issues and become more active on environmental issues in our community.