Hope Or Despair

I believe that sustainable development can exemplify both hope and despair. Throughout the class there have been some great examples of sustainability and communities which truly represent this to the fullest extent. I have hope for sustainability because I see a growing trend in it just from the everyday examples I see. For example, I was watching the local news the other night and a story came on about the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and how they were making a goal of being the “greenest” Olympics yet. This was being implemented by a series of sustainability initiatives regarding going greener, providing accessibility and integrating sustainability into the operations for the Olympics. I have kind of kept my mind tunneled with regards to what sustainability can be applied to but ultimately it can be applied to anything, and it is great to see this being incorporated into situations that I would not even consider. Sustainability is on the rise and I am seeing it more and more even in everyday life, which is great. However, a lot more can be done though in order to make sustainability a long term plan for the entire planet this is where I have a sense of despair.

Politicians and the economy are holding us back from the true sustainability that can exist in the world today. The narrow mindedness and clashing between politicians and the whole topic of sustainability are what is preventing this from being a revolution and turning the planet around for the better. All of these projects and developments can continue with their own plans to sustainability but however they must comply with the current system of bull headed politicians while being surrounded by the over consumption of everything by typically the majority of the population. Also, there are far to many opposing views and battling theories on what should/shouldn’t be done. A key example in Chris Turners Geography Of Hope is the simplistic story of the Lorax and the once-ler and how the deforestation of the truffula trees eventually lead to the collapse of the entire community. There is a clash between the lorax, whom believes that the trees are there to stay and are not meant to be harvested and turned into thneeds and the once-ler, whom is like every other businessman and is looking to make a profit. However the third variable in this story is the consumers of the thneeds. Silly I know, but it is a big revolving cycle. The once-ler has overproduced and used up all of this resource due to the overconsumption of the thneeds. This example, simple as it may seem, can be basically applied to the world today. There is to many opposing views and not an overall goal in place in which everyone can adhere do. Another example that I feel like I should mention is how David Suzuki requested a simple meeting with Stephen Harper in order to discuss a sustainability plan in which Harper blatantly refused. More fuel for my fire I guess, not everyone is on the same page!

In conclusion, I do have hope for sustainability but yet I feel despair at the same time. There are some major gains I feel within the small scale of things and there are lots of examples that can show this locally such as developments like dockside green and even how the Olympics have integrated sustainability into their operations. However, it goes back to the big picture and how things are not advancing in this large scale. Politicians, the profit hungry businessman, and the overconsumption of everything is whats hurting us. If these large scale factors can find a common ground with the much smaller environmentalists then perhaps sustainability can truly exist and turn into an actual reality.

My Stuff And Consumption Habits

My Stuff And Consumption Habits

The sermon conducted by William McDonough titled the design, ecology, ethics and the making of things opened up my eyes on how things are manufactured and do not necessarily reflect sustainability whatsoever. He states in the sermon that we must honor the earth for which it gives us all things that society needs to survive. The things that are made must not only rise from the ground but return to it, soil to soil, water to water so in which everything that is received from the earth can be given back freely without causing any harm. I believe that this is a good moral to stand by however it is not done whatsoever with regards to the massive “consume and throw away” morals in which we live in today. A prime example is the big corporation box stores such as Wal-mart etc etc. The entire baseline that stores like this run on is to provide the cheapest product and prices to the consumer to buy and have to throw away within a very short time scale. Therefore they will go back repeatedly in order to keep buying these cheap products while the old gets thrown in the trash only to reach a landfill. This is a never ending cycle, especially with certain types of products. Electronics comes to my mind, generally because with most things such as ipods and computers, within a short time they become obsolete and not worth a penny to anybody.

My stuff and consumption habits are generally that of which would not be desired by William McDonough. I like to have nice things, am always influenced by trends and “the next new thing” out there. I have a large array of old electronics and clothes which usually end up being thrown out or placed into storage to sit where they will probably never be used again. Also, now that I am a full time student and not making my own income I have also resorted more to heading to Walmart to buy these cheap consumerables. I would make more conscious decisions if I had the income to do so, like buy something for a bit more that I knew would last a lot longer and also items that are more environmentally friendly, but right now I have been kind of forced to buy based on quantity, not quality.

However, I am just one person in a large world full of consumers whom probably do not think about the effects of buying these cheap items. The norm of the society nowadays is to buy the things that are the cheapest so that they will have more money to spend on other stuff, seems like a no brainer to me. However, the problem with this scenario is that the products that are made with the environment in mind, out of non-toxic materials and built to last generally cost a lot more. Therefore these products do not sell nearly as well as their counterpart and this cycle continues on.

In order for things to change, a total shift in society needs to happen and quite frankly, I don’t see this happening. People are more concerned with making their dollars stretch to the absolute maximum and purchasing these cheap/disposable items seems to be the most feasible solution for your everyday consumer.