United States: 1a. My Virtual Profile

Environment   Jul 24, 2017 by jennifercruden

A) What is your vision for a sustainable world?

My vision for a sustainable world has many different features. The first features are peace, respect, and cooperation, the 2nd is using resources wisely, and the final one is clean energy. The key to attain these 3 main features and to have a sustainable world relies on humans. Individually, we can make a difference, but if we all unite to become one, we would make the biggest difference of all.

The first couple features to make a sustainable world are peace, respect, and cooperation. In the world I imagine, everyone is at peace with one another and people can live without feeling in danger. In my vision, disagreements are settled before they become arguments and people don’t care who they work and interact with because they respect everyone and are able to cooperate even with people they may not like much. The world is like this because people listen. People are listening to each other and are able to accept the fact that others may see things differently. With more pressing issues, where a solution has to be found and you have to find something to satisfy everyone, people are able to open their minds to other ideas and find a compromise between the different visions. In this world, people protect the earth by learning about and solving issues as soon as they occur. Global warming and many other issues have already been solved because of everyone’s help.

A sustainable world would be one where resources are used wisely and are reduced, reused, composted, or recycled. When you buy items in bulk, you often end up reducing the amount of plastic packaging and therefore help the earth. In my vision, people are buying things in bulk instead of buying individual items when they know they can use all of it. Also, instead of buying plastic bottles of water and plastic bags, people are buying/bringing/using their own reusable bags and bottles. If people do have to buy/use plastic though, they make sure that they recycle it. Everybody is also making sure to recycle paper. Although composting is not part of the 3 r’s, everybody still composts anyway. They do this because they know that instead of throwing away a banana peel where it will add to the trash at a landfill, they can compost it and help keep the environment healthier.

In my vision, clean energy is being used to power almost everything. Solar panels and windmills can be spotted almost anywhere you go, and water is also being used for energy. Gasoline based cars are no longer made or driven and are a part of history. Instead, we drive electric cars.

All in all, the features above are all part of what I think a sustainable world would look like-peace, cooperation, respect, resources used wisely, and clean energy used to power everything.

B) What are you planning to do to make this vision a reality?

In order to make this vision a reality, I can act like the people I described in my vision. I can start by listening to the people around me, opening my mind to their ideas, and/or being ok with it if their idea does not match my own. If everyone in the world were to do this, we would soon be able to listen to each other and would quickly and easily find peace. If we were to each make an effort to reduce, reuse, and recycle more than we do now, the world would be healthier. Recycling plastic and paper materials may not seem like much, but if we were to recycle everything that could be, there would be a lot less trash all over the place and a lot less plastic in the ocean. This is one reason why I want to start recycling more and being sure that I pay attention to whether or not I can recycle what I want to throw away. Buying reusable bags and water bottles gives many benefits, like there being less plastic bottles and bags in the ocean. My family brings our own grocery bags when we go shopping and I try to bring my own water bottle instead of buying plastic ones. Another thing I can do to make this vision a reality is to buy items in bulk. This way, the amount of packaging will be reduced. My family owns a Highlander Hybrid and a Prius which helps with clean energy because they do not use as much gas as some cars. Soon, we plan to get an electric car which will use no gas at all. This brings us closer to using only clean energy. Something else I can do is learn about the big problems the world is facing. If I know the problems we are facing, it will be easier to know how I can help fix them. In conclusion, the ideas above are things I plan to do to make my vision a reality and I hope that you will also consider following these ideas. Doing these things may not seem like a lot, but just one drop in the ocean gives it more water and one good deed that one of us does helps the world become a better place.

C) What impact has colonization had on our journey to a sustainable world?

I think colonization has had both a negative and a positive impact. As people colonize new places, they need certain things like space and resources. This can be bad because sometimes people end up limiting the amount of space for an animal's habitat and/or destroying the habitat. Also, as cities, towns, and states grow, there are more cars and factories that may cause pollution. The reasons above are why I think colonization has had a negative impact on our journey to a sustainable world. However, colonization has also had a positive impact. One reason why is that as we colonize more places, we learn that not all things have to be done one way. For example, the American Revolution(1765 – 1783) occurred when the colonists no longer wanted to be a part of England because they wanted to self-govern. Also, as civilizations get more and more advanced (technology gets better, population increases, more buildings are made, etc.), people have enough money to buy eco-friendly items like solar panels. This means that as we colonize new places and those places become advanced civilizations, there is enough money and enough eco-friendly people to educate others and create eco-friendly products for people to buy and use. The more people that are eco-friendly, the closer we get to a sustainable world. This is why I think colonization has had a good impact. As you can see from the above paragraph, I believe that colonization has had both a negative and positive impact on our journey to a sustainable world.

This picture shows people happily gathered around the earth. I thought they might be holding hands and smiling because there is a bond between them that allows them to get along happily with one another without fighting. They are in a circle around the earth in a way I thought represented them protecting the earth.

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