Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Hope or despair?

Reading Page 305 -351 “Geography of Hope” by Chris Turner

Hope or despair…. that is the questions. When it comes to these two words, and relating them to sustainability, I am on both sides of the fence. I am very hopeful for sustainable development now and in the long term, but I feel in the short term sustainable development will not be implemented into our society sufficiently or quickly which puts me on the side of despair.

With these different opinions that I have, I believe that change will occur and hope that it does and try to make a difference everyday with all aspects of my life. Only being one person in such a vast world it is hard to make a difference and this is what leads me to despair which is defined as a state in which all hope is lost or absent. A change in our basic way of living and producing products must change in order for sustainability to fully take charge. With being in a society of people with such a vast array of knowledge and experience, we are noticing day by day of new ways that we are harming our world. Instead of sustainable development sounding like a priority we need it just to be a way of life. This would help drastically towards long term thinking and will likely no happen anytime soon, considering the current situation. I believe when the world starts to actually see major crisis’s and disasters start affecting each family, something will be done to save the world, but it will be too late in my eyes.

After taking this sustainability class and reading the book the “Geography of Hope” by Chris turner it has truly opened my eyes to many vast aspects that I have never realized are going on and makes me want to tell others so that we can make a change before disaster occurs. In today’s world I hear so much talk about making a change for a better world and cleaner environment, but it makes me wonder how much of this is actually happening and not just being spoken. Chris Turner outlines many different types of positive change in his book that makes me hopeful, we just need people today to implement these aspects and turn the idea into reality. In order for all countries and people make a change in the world for a more sustainable world we need to implement change now. Don’t get me wrong, I see lots of people and companies making changes for the better which is a step in the right direction, but it also takes a long time to get more people on board. If we start getting more governments on board and implement stricter laws or set goals it will help in this process. We need governments to try and accept all of these external environmental impacts into their economic assessments and start to show some plans for long term thinking.

I understand that this is all a bit farfetched, but I do see a change in the world slowly happening right before my eyes. Things such as plastic bags not being used anymore which helps eliminate garbage in our landfills and in the oceans. It might be a small step to this major problem of ours, but every little change for the better will help in preserving the amazing world we live in today and will ensure that our children will have good healthy lives as well.

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