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.

Atmospheric pollution from human activities, especially CO2 emissions from tourism development, leads to a rapid depletion of natural resources and local land. In some ecosystems, we can also observe a trend of biodiversity decline. I believe that the importance of rewilding reconstructs ecosystems previously altered by human disturbance, making them more sustainable, and that biodiversity can control climate change to mitigate the effects of environmental hazards and associated costs. I believe that rewilding is a way to protect species from extinction, but management strategies for rewilding should be refined, as misuse of the increasingly popular concept of rewilding can have a range of impacts on existing ecosystems. I envision a world where Environmentalists can find a wilderness model that counteracts the harmful effects of carbon emissions from tourists and establishes technology-driven sustainable tourism such as ecotourism, a form of sustainable tourism based on natural resources. On the other hand, I also envision that rewilding is more strategically implemented and managed around the world through appropriate human interventions to restore species that are declining or endangered, including the removal of man-made structures such as dams and dikes in ecological zones that impede biological reproduction and provide space for disappearing species to thrive. Alternatively, top predators can be reintroduced to balance local biodiversity and populations. Rewilding programs should identify core rewilding areas, rely on monitoring and local feedback, and improper management of rewilded ecological zones and unskilled rewilding can even disrupt the local environment and food chain balance. An unfortunate example is the Oostvaardersplassen project in the Netherlands in 1983, where not only was the local vegetation eaten up, but 30% of the animals died in the winter when food was scarce, due to the wrong number of the introduced Heck cattle, Konik horses and red deer populations. I support rewilding is scientifically based and adequately assesses whether the environment of the ecological zone meets the criteria for rewilding. Tourists should be aware of the carbon footprint of climate change from traditional tourism and convert them to ecotourism, and construction of ecotourism sites should use sustainable materials. As governments and businesses should recognize the economic potential of scientific evidence-based rewilding and encourage investment/subsidies for sustainable rewilding projects, this gives legitimacy and sustainability to them.

We cannot deny the role of LCA in stimulating the green economy and sustainable economic cycles as a way of assessing the environmental, economic, and social impact of a product or service throughout its life cycle, and I believe that current LCA systems have been developed and refined and are very widely used in the private and public sectors. I believe that LCA allows business decision-makers to understand the wider sustainability impacts and choose products with minimal environmental impact or change their investment decisions, governments to enhance the overall environmental benefits of industry and services to society through LCA, and consumers LCA can provide them with better quality environmentally friendly products and more sustainability-oriented lifestyles. But is relying on the products quantified by LCA the best way to solve all environmentally relevant problems? Thus, I envision a world where some limitations of LCA can be minimized as researchers and companies implementing LCAs will conduct more specific and targeted assessments, then compare the impact of the products on public health and the local environment. LCA research is largely based on databases and simplified models, as only clear and transparent data information can guarantee the timeliness of assessments and conclusions, comparative LCAs that rely on outdated data or data generated in different regions may not provide a reliable baseline for comparison. I also envision a future where the party conducting the assessment will consider or weigh up other options for environmental benefits in addition to the specific scenarios provided in the LCA. In terms of sustainable businesses or NGOs that use LCA on a global scale, my vision is that the cost of using LCA databases and maintenance will be relatively reduced in the future, or the governments of developing countries should have certain incentives or subsidies for researchers building domestic LCA databases. I support that there should be more collaboration between LCA experts and researchers in other specialized fields to make more LCA analyses available to the general public to encourage environmental policy in government and product choice by the public. They should also actively communicate with the public to raise awareness of LCA issues. Academic institutions have a responsibility to educate and train environmental practitioners to apply LCA and mainstream LCA into product development, marketing, and decision-making.

Human industry is an important factor in climate change because it depends on the uninterrupted production and consumption of natural resources. Creating a working environment that is conducive to sustainable business and employment can help create long-term value for businesses. I believe that sustainable business is a promising trend, but corporate strategies which focused on sustainability don’t mean sacrificing profits or putting success on the back burner because the growing consumer demand for green products and services is a significant business opportunity for companies who are using environmentally friendly technologies. I envision a world where the government can conduct a comprehensive assessment of all forms of commercial subsidies and then maintain fairness and transparency in the marketplace by implementing appropriate pricing and regulations, thereby eliminating subsidies and harmful incentives that are detrimental to ecological sustainability. Some of the data that I've learned is that $22 billion a year is spent on subsidizing overfishing and that one-third of the world's fish stocks are overfished. The fact is that most of these subsidies go to industrial fishing fleets, and fish stocks that are sustainably harvested by small-scale, private, artisanal fishing enterprises are thus heavily depleted. I also envision a future that companies can target the circular economy to develop sustainable strategies to reduce business costs and increase brand value for their products. Some companies are practicing to significantly increase their brand value and competitive advantage by focusing on sustainability, such as Adidas, which has pledged that nine out of every Adidas product will be made from sustainable materials by 2025, and Nestlé, which has pledged to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and 100% recyclable or reusable packaging by 2025. I support that governments should actively reform and develop environmental laws and policies, and sustainable governance should be promoted globally. Companies, in turn, should address regulatory issues around pollution and human rights, and communicate openly with key stakeholders to identify where they are going wrong in their sustainability strategies. CEOs and corporate boards of companies that lack sustainability in terms of implementation should strengthen their collaboration with key stakeholders such as NGOs, governments, and international organizations.

My positive vision for the future regarding fire and air is that they are part of the Earth's system and biogeochemical cycles and are an important factor for society to achieve sustainable development goals. On the other hand, I believe that wildfires driven by climate change and land use, if not properly managed, have huge economic costs and increased greenhouse gas emissions. If the warming cycle is not broken, more and more wildfires are expected to occur in the coming years. The warming cycle we studied in class is a good example of the dual impact of wildfires on ecosystems, as we often criticize the impact of wildfires on biodiversity while ignoring the role of controlled fires in promoting the regeneration of savannas, tropical forests, and boreal forests. I envision a world where people could pay more attention to agricultural management measures and fire suppression measures, especially in the agricultural boundaries and human settlements close to the forest. This is because social development of the industry has led to the use of forests as part of agriculture which has increased the risk of fire-prone areas and wildfires. On the other hand, the responsibilities of wildland fire managers should be clarified and emphasized, that is, to assess the threat of man-made fires to wildlands and the threat of wildland fires to humans in areas where people and property may be at risk. I also envision a future that the government will reward Innovative fire protection measures developed to improve sustainability to integrate fire safety and sustainability better. This is because of land contamination due to fire-damaged materials that may contain heavy metals as contaminants from traditional firefighting activities during a fire. And the use of environmentally friendly cleaning substances and fire protection devices during a fire should result in less harmful smoke, less material waste, and less pollution. I support those fire departments should make use of advanced technology to monitor, detect and control fires, and the scientific data can be better used as a fire control and forestry management strategy. If necessary, we should also learn from the traditional knowledge of the indigenous people to improve the efficiency of modern fire management strategies the government should provide incentives to indigenous communities involved in developing fire prevention strategies to increase stakeholder participation.

My positive vision for the future regarding to the food and complex adaptive system is that not only is sustainable agriculture good for economic viability and profitability, but it can also combine these aspects with environmental health and social equity, and I see a great future for the cause of sustainable agriculture. Because in the past, most food production was done through industrial agriculture, which produced the same crops every year and used large amounts of pesticides and fertilizers to produce them. This system cannot survive in the long term due to its impact on climate change and environmental pollution, and I believe this is because the methods now used by modern industrial agriculture are largely divorced from the natural processes of the ecosystem. On the other hand, I disagree with industrial agriculture because it essentially exploits the land and labor of agricultural workers in developing countries to supply farmed animals and consumers among high-income people, which is an environmental injustice; imagine that rich countries need more land to raise edible plants and animals, but most of that land comes from other poor countries. I envision a world where farmers and scientists are helping to transform farms into more sustainable enterprises such as encouraging the revival of small, family-run farms that are more economically, environmentally, and socially viable. A good example is IZagro, a Brazilian startup that has developed an app that connects small farmers with each other and with agronomists, providing free agronomic information on key crops while farmers can use IZagro to purchase farm inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, and seeds. Small-scale sustainable agriculture managed by local people increases the benefits by protecting rural people from farming on their own land rather than as contracted work by rich countries. I likewise envision a future of sustainable agriculture in which natural resources and systems are well managed. Agricultural technicians can focus their efforts heavily on protecting land conditions and public health, sustainable agriculture leaders should use freshwater resources wisely and ensure that runoff is kept free of toxic pollutants while flowing to other ecosystems or human consumers, and they also need to manage soil health and nutrient cycling to ensure that optimal levels of healthy vitamins and minerals are present in harvested crops. I support the conversion of more agricultural land to organic farming in government years to mitigate climate change because the soil amendment practices of organic farming also help to absorb more carbon in the soil compared to non-organic systems, and the lack of pesticides increases the biodiversity of organic farms. At the same time, the government should support public policies and agricultural transformation policies that reject corporate-controlled industrial agriculture.

I have some thoughts about the second question we took in a poll during class, which is about whether the government should make decisions based on cost-benefit analysis including ecosystem services. I believe that ecosystem valuation can be complex and controversial because some people would say selling natural resources with a price tag is an inappropriate action. But creating markets for ecosystem services to make trade-offs in allocating resources, and using policy interventions and environmental variability to link to ecosystem services can provide sustainability of ecosystem services, and can make ecosystems more valuable to society. In today's class, I recognized the importance of water supply to ecological sustainability and that more industries and agriculture will increasingly compete for water resources today. In some areas, the lack of adequate quality and quantity of drinking water remains a serious health concern. So I believe that pricing water appropriately will encourage people to reduce waste and invest more in water infrastructure, especially for properly mitigating the costs of resource use for low-income people and encouraging governments to invest more in water and sanitation infrastructure. I am envisioning a world where governments can support increased trade to more effectively manage the capacity of the environment and the rate of output of ecosystem services. But markets for ecosystem services are complex and subject to many uncertainties, not least because trade can have both positive and negative impacts on the environment, and because many of the services provided by ecosystems are public goods, property rights associated with ecosystems and their services are often not clearly defined. Suppose the property rights of natural resources are not clearly defined. In that case, they may be overused as public services or the effects of uncompensated side effects of human actions (e.g. anthropogenic pollution of water resources or illegal fishing, illegal exploitation of forests). I support government enactment of bills to value ecosystems that can help resource managers deal with the effects of market failures. In the case of the Panama Canal, for example, a better solution could be to legalize private farmland uses around the Panama Canal to increase dry season water flows and reduce sedimentation. Policymakers can also best combine trade and environmental policies to create markets for environmental products and even develop sustainable import and export trade.

I have more feelings about the second story. I believe the power imbalance in fisheries management and the injustice caused by climate change is a fascinating case study. Regarding economic sustainability, fish as income will take precedence over biological sustainability. I believe that fisheries with high social satisfaction are less relevant to biological sustainability, which would create a paradoxical point of environmental injustice and social injustice. But there is an irony that social sustainability always takes precedence over achieving biological sustainability, and some institutions or scientists will wrongly place the responsibility of biological sustainability on individual fishermen. I think these discriminatory perspectives deviate from ecologically sustainable development approaches and lack consideration of the social impact of justice decisions. I envision a world where justice enhances equity by rebalancing power and agency to the marginalized, as do natural resources. There is a close correlation between natural resources and society, which can be seen in the actions of fisheries and coastal animal protection. I personally agree that social and environmental justice outcomes require multiple perspectives that balance history, capital, and/or cultural dynamics to maintain a balance within the ecology. I support transparency in public fisheries to identify illegally caught fish, as well as public pressure on politicians to improve policies to balance natural ecological equity, and there is a need for social scientists to propose standards of social responsibility to regulate and mediate human-nature harmony on an ethical level.

Visions: I envision a world where we are in a carbon-neutral world. Global net greenhouse gas emissions fall to zero, and society relies primarily on electricity from clean energy sources such as solar and wind for production. The development of electricity technology has been rapid, and as more affordable energy sources, solar and wind farms have greatly increased their power generation and have completely replaced coal and natural gas-fired power plants. Values: Vehicles that rely on oil, coal, and natural gas to generate power have been eliminated from the market because we have developed engines that use hydrogen as fuel. I think hydrogen is a new type of clean energy that is both efficient and environmentally friendly. Scientists can separate it from water through electrolysis for us to use in large quantities because hydrogen can be reduced to water vapor after combustion without polluting the environment. I think future emissions scenarios for weather in around 2050 would see the world warm by an average of 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, due to the continuous emissions of human-produced carbon dioxide in the past. Interventions: With the continuous improvement of a sustainable future, I will definitely support the activity that helps governments and technology companies increase carbon taxes and develop sustainable energy sources (the development of hydrogen energy, the use of biomass to directly convert the sun into hydrogen, the use of ocean waves to generate electricity, the development of waste gas to develop energy markets) enabling us to create energy more efficiently and reduce carbon in the environment to avoid the severe consequences of climate change, which is the foundation of a carbon neutral world.

It is great to meet you guys at CoSphere and my name is Qihan Wang. I am currently enrolled in Earth and Ocean Science major as a fourth-year student. My field of study is diverse and involves different professional perspectives including environmental, marine, geographic, and atmospheric science. In ENVR 430, I believe that raising people's understanding of the environment and awareness of environmental issues through educational means is possible. It enables people to understand the interrelationship between human beings and the environment and mobilizes all members of society to work together to protect the environment. I am looking forward to using my own value in this course to create new recommendations and goals for environmental sustainability and to help environmental learners identify the symptoms and causes of serious environmental problems. See you guys in class!