I loved this class because it provided a dedicated space where I was given the opportunity to engage in discussions about issues I have previously encountered in other studies or in my personal life, but on a deeper level. I loved how many discussions we had in class and I learnt so much from the varying perspectives of my classmates. I also really appreciated getting to hear the perspectives and ideas of my shyer classmates (like me) in the CoSphere forum's weekly #UnleashValues post. I really liked the ideas we started the course with in week 1, about how voicing your values on social media or on CoSphere can have a huge impact. The learnings from that first week's lecture really stuck with me because it helped me feel hopeful and less alone, and set the stage for the rest of the course. I did not expect that this class would allow me to learn about systemic solutions to addressing these challenges, which was empowering for me because it enabled me to see that the burden of solving the issues cannot be placed solely on the individual. It also helped me understand why it's so hard to create change with the current systems in place. I did not expect to be prepared enough to run my own workshop with my group, and in many ways I'm still not, but I loved having the opportunity to try my shot at it and having the full support from the teaching team despite the lack of perfection our process allowed us to focus more on the learning of this experience rather than the stress of trying to achieve something specific or perfect. I am leaving the class with skills gained in analyzing the issues the world is facing in sustainability. For example, I have learnt so many ways that a problem can be addresses systematical, like addressing the political, economic, or social barriers. I noticed myself getting better and better at this each week as I was creating my weekly post. I intent to take my experiences in ENVR 430 forward into the future by compiling all of the values and visions of the future that I have expressed over the term's posts and reflecting on them. I will continue the practice of looking for solutions to problems that are both individual and systematic, knowing perfectly well that individual actions can only go so far if we don't change the system, and I feel really good about having solidified this learning during my term in ENVR 430 because it helps me feel hopeful and allows me to find more effective solutions! I envision a world where we can finally address the social and environmental issues facing our communities because I value equality, safety, health, connection and a bright and beautiful future for my community and the people and creatures of the world! In order to achieve this, I will focus on the issues most important to me and my community (because I can't address them all, SMART goals people!) and apply the methods learnt in class for how we can dissect and approach these problems at different social, political, cultural, and economic levels. A systematic approach is necessary and I will aim to continue to do my best as an individual while emphasizing that we need to organize as a collective to push for systematic change!

I envision a world where we no longer separate ourselves (humans) from the rest of the living and non-living world, because I value connection to nature and to the life around me, and believe that we should be more integrated with the natural world around us. For me, this means we aren't scared of dirt, or bugs (maybe some poisonous ones), we aren't afraid of getting wet or feeling the cold on our skin. To extend this thought, we should promote the option of natural burials for people to explore and understand how their bodies are a part of nature, always have been and always will be. Maybe seeing themselves, and their existence, in this new perspective could help bring about change in other aspects of their lives and how they interact with nature on a regular basis. This means we need to make it legal to have these kind of services available to people and make these options available for those who want to, and see what other changes this might inspire for us to build a closer connection to nature.

I envision a world where we don’t consume products without thinking about the effect it has in the world beyond what we used it for because I value conscious consumption, reflecting on the products we consume, and the effects they have on our bodies and our planet. I think companies should be forced to follow laws that require Extended Producer Responsibility so that they are forced to come up with solutions to the problems they create! If you are a company producing a product made of plastic or packaged in plastic, or even a metal that is energy-intensive to recycle, you should be responsible for the life of that product and the fate of that product after it has been used by the consumer. This will help incentivize innovations that actually help us recycle plastics while also incentivizing companies to move to materials that aren’t plastics and can actually be recycled. This takes the burden away from the individual consumers for how they deal with the plastic waste that they use, often because the places they live in do not have the infrastructure available to process these materials.

I wish we lived in a world where we had more control over how business shapes our lives and our futures. I value transparency and honesty, and I also value making decisions with my money to ‘vote’ with my dollar. As we have learnt this week, voting with your dollar is not always possible: companies lie and it’s hard to accomplish full transparency of supply chains, wages, working conditions, environmental impact, etc. I think an important place to start is to ask ourselves why the product is produced and what or who benefits or is disadvantaged from the messaging a product or service is using to sell their product to us, what the motivation is. I also think that at a system level, governments should be enforcing laws that force companies to pay for their own audits. This does NOT mean that the companies get to choose their auditors (which would an easy way to cheat). This just means that, with an understanding that being strict in the enforcement of environmental laws is expensive and requires resources, the government will be able to accomplish very strict environmental enforcement using these audits if companies that exist to make a profit are forced to pay for these audits…sort of like taxes? This isn’t a perfect system but it could be a good start. This would bring about increased transparency that could be made into an annual report that is distributed to consumers that is easy to understand. This process would also take resources and time, which can be paid for by those same companies, as a portion of their profits 😊. This might also help shed GOOD light on the companies doing good stuff, and hopefully incentivize others to follow suit.

I envision a world where people can live without fear of having their homes and the places they live wiped out by natural disasters, like forest fires, because I value safety and security from events exacerbated by climate change. I think this will require us to go back to learn the history of the natural areas we live in. A lot of North America used to be a natural savanna, which included a mix of grasslands, woodlands, and shrublands, in addition to forests. This is what the land looked like before it was colonized. At this point, fire was a normal part of the ecosystem and was embraced as a way of managing the land. As colonizers came and settled, they began putting out fires as they came up. Over time, the savannas diminished in size over time, slowly being taken over by more and more forest areas. I think we need to embrace fire as a naturally occurring event that has been happening for a long time, but we also need to learn about how climate change is causing our fires to be more frequent and more intense now. We can start to use prescribed fires to reduce the amount biomass available to start fires around communities to protect them. I think we should also increase messaging about the importance of forest management for the prevention of ‘super’ forest fires in the same way we have successful messaging around preventing fires in the summer months using fire bans and sharing fire data from around the province. I think we can slowly work our way back towards a point where we live in partnership with the land and we manage it for both ours and their success. I also think we need to start re-evaluating the planting standards used by foresters in BC. There is a very large industry of reforestation in BC (for future logging) and I have seen the planters be paid higher wages, and by the hour, for planting that involves higher spacing between seedlings and techniques around micrositing and species allocations that provide a diverse, polyculture planting scheme that allows for more trees to survive (decreasing the amount of biomass available for fuel). I think we should incorporate these planting standards and wages by reforestation companies in order to reduce the amount of fuel available for wildfires.

I envision a world where regenerative farming becomes the norm, because I value our planet, our soils and our world’s biodiversity. If regenerative farming were to become the new standard for farming, we would see an increase in the carbon sequestration of the planet’s lands, instead of continuing with the desertification of the world’s land that is caused by our current farming practices. Regenerative farming creates a greater understanding of the different relationships that make up the soil and plant ecosystems we farm on and would allow us to take what we need from the earth while also giving back to it, making it more sustainable. I believe that to achieve this goal, we should have subsidies in place that allow farmers to receive support from the government for the first decade or two of using regenerative farming practices to grow their crops, because of the lag between starting regenerative farming and actually seeing/experiencing the multitude of benefits that come from regenerative farming. I feel as though this is what is stopping many farmers from starting regenerative farming. This will help incentivize and support farmers a as they make the transition to this type of agriculture, as it can be difficult decision to make financially and we want to ensure they can support themselves and their families during this transition. We as individuals should also change the food we consume and focus on buying food that is good for the planet and promotes regenerative agriculture and healthy land management practices. Making sure our education systems are teaching current and future generations about the importance of preserving and protecting soil and how our agriculture practices came to be and are currently impacting our climate will be crucial in changing the way our food is grown and our land is managed.

I envision a world where water is recognized and treated as the valuable resource that it is. I value water as a resource that is given to us by the planet and that is unique in its ability to be fully recycled every single time. I wish there was more education around how much water is wasted or polluted by the products we consume, maybe this could create larger awareness on how much water the companies we buy from are wasting, and shed some light on which companies are making the effort to reduce their water usage and/or recycle their water. There should also be government policies in place that put a cap on how much water a product can be allowed to use in its manufacturing process. Maybe we could also provide funding to expand on the smaller scale water efficiency and recycling programs we have seen around the world that work to reduce the amount of water wasted in the manufacturing process.

So here's the thing. I was reflecting on the purpose of the things in my life. I have everything I need in my life, so the new things I buy rarely serve a purpose beyond making me feel fulfilled and happy. But the happiness and excitement that comes with acquiring my new thing never lasts, so I'm left reeling to find another new thing to satisfy those feelings. A lot of the time it feels like a good percentage of my brain activity is used to think about where I could look next to find my new thing. It doesn't feel good to realize the amount of environmental degradation and inequality that my personal consumption causes in the world. I envision a life for myself and for others where we focus on our personal relationships, cultivating community, and taking meaningful actions that help us find those feelings of happiness, satisfaction, and excitement without causing harm to our planet and our people. I want to focus on my values, like making the most of the clothes I already own. I can do this by finding new ways to style them, taking proper care of them and repairing them as needed (instead of donating them). I also value my personal relationships, and will work to cultivate those as a means of arriving at the same feelings of happiness, where my brain will spend less time searching tirelessly for a new thing and will spend more time making memories with my friends, participating in my community, and engaging more with the world in front of me. Being in nature is one of my favourite ways to stimulate the part of my brain that likes new-ness and excitement. There's so much to explore and so many things to see and feel, so I will focus on satisfying those needs while I am out on my hikes and bike rides. I'd love to hear the ways you might be choosing to find happiness in your life that doesn't include the consumption of new products!