We have finally come to the end of ENVR 430, and these twelve weeks of study have enabled me to look at multiple aspects of economics, social/environmental justice, development of consumption and production, and energy to enable us to find responses to today's acute environmental challenges and ways to achieve sustainable development and build a green society. For example, what I remember most is the dual impact of wildfires on ecosystems. Without the reflection and discussion in class, my stereotypes would have simply assumed that uncontrolled fires lead to extreme degradation of biodiversity, but I was able to take a positive perspective in class on how controlled fires play a role in promoting forest regeneration.
In the future, my vision is that scientific knowledge about environmental sustainability will develop in a long-term, close relationship with the natural environment, that the public will broaden its understanding of the meaning of sustainability, and that public understanding of scientific sustainability and public participation in the conscious lifestyle network will increase. Personally, I would choose a more low-carbon lifestyle, buying clothes from sustainable and ethical fashion brands or choosing fashion products made from less dyed natural materials or grown to resemble leather to promote a circular economy. I also support that the education sector should develop science and engineering education and research capacity at different levels so that more people can be trained to play a role in international sustainable research.
I appreciated that the professor and TA helped us understand each learning topic through very focused media/articles in each class on ecosystems, biodiversity, and human-ecosystem interactions and how they contribute to achieving climate change responses as well as addressing sustainable resource use. I hope that I can apply the same reflections and understandings that this course brought to me in my other environment-related course work.
Hi Qihan! I really like your reflection, I think there's a lot of value in what we learned and implementing it in our lives and spreading those ideals. I also think that the media and articles were very useful and they gave a really good introduction to these concepts.
Great post! I really like how your vision touched on improving relationships between people and the environment.
Hi! I love how you talk about the specific example of fire and how without this course we would have just believed that uncontrolled fires lead to extreme degradation of biodiversity for the rest of our lives.
Hi Qihan,
I am glad that you were inspired by the class and are making personal choices to adopt a more sustainable life. I also agree that there especially needs to be more funding towards research and education to contribute to making our planet sustainable. I hope we can both use our reflections and knowledge from the course and contribute to making real change!