Blogs
Have each student respond to the following two questions: what is climate change, and how does it affect you?
Climate change is “a change in global or regional climate patterns.” It is mainly caused by increased emission of greenhouse gases and byproducts of hydrocarbon combustion. Climate change affects me personally because I really enjoy the winter I like sports like snowboarding, hockey, and cross country skiing. At one point I really wanted to be a professional snowboarder. Snowboarding is already a sport where it is difficult to train year round so climate change does not help. Each year I notice that ski hills are beginning to open later and later because the weather is so inconsistent. They are also closing down earlier too because it is simply too hot to continue to make snow. With the rate that climate change is happening at winter sports will eventually cease to exist unless we do something about it.
1a
What is your vision for a sustainable world?
My vision for a sustainable world is a world where everyone is able to live comfortably like we are now in Canada, with convenient means of transportation, readily available food, products and technologies while restoring the environment around us. In addition to that we will live in a way that prevents further damage to the environment.
What are you planning to do to make this vision a reality?
In order to make this vision a reality it requires a collective effort from everyone in this world. Mitigating the major causes of climate change will take years, maybe even decades. As technology advances and becomes more environmentally friendly the goal is to have it be accessible to all nations. Allowing all of us to contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
At this point not all countries are able to do that, so my plan is to start with little things like having more green space especially in the central parts of the city where the heavy traffic pollutes the air. I wish to see buildings like in the photo below, covered in plants to help with the excess carbon dioxide.
It is important that people are aware and educated about climate change because I think it will aid in the journey to a sustainable planet. From my trip to Vietnam, I learned that most people aren’t aware of the importance of recycling or waste management. The main river that flows through the capital city, Ho Chi Minh City is extremely polluted from the waste of the people around it. It is not only the river that has waste, the streets also have of garbage. Something as simple as recycling and waste management is a step forward to a sustainable planet because ecosystems like the one in the river won't be disrupted by the pollution and the amount of waste will decrease. For places without a recycling system like Vietnam, keeping waste out if the ecosystems can still beneficial.
Individuals should change what they can control. I believe in not idling, planting more plants, conservation and protection of wildlife and the environment, recycling, reusing or even using electricity wisely because they all are a step forward to a sustainable world. The next step would be to get everyone in this world to be apart of this.
What impact has colonization had on our journey to a sustainable planet?
Past colonization has left a lot of countries in a state of economic and political instability and also technologically underdeveloped. This greatly affects the ability of these countries to acquire and maintain new technology that would allow factories, cars and power plants to be less harmful and more efficient. In some of these countries, they are still struggling to provide citizens with basic needs such as food, water, and a shelter. This makes our journey to a sustainable planet more difficult because we can’t ask nations that are is still fighting to provide basic needs or just to be free of conflict to also tackle such a demanding task like climate change.
- Fishing, farming, livestock
- Cars
- Factories
- Energy source
- Waste
