Wow! We covered so much this term and I didn’t even realize it until I looked back at all my CoSphere posts. In my very first learning journal, I mentioned how nervous I was about all the different aspects of sustainability, but also how excited I was to tackle the issues as a diverse class of people. ENVR 430 met all my expectations and more. We covered so much as a class and I really broadened my idea of what it means to be sustainable. At times, it was overwhelming and somewhat depressing to consider the state of our world, but developing the final project and hearing about other group’s projects, left me feeling hopeful that I was surrounded by like-minded people. I hope that all of my classmates take the lessons we learned here into the future. I will and have been using what we've learned to educate more people. The more people know, the more informed decisions can be made. Thank you all <3

Every time I think about death and cemeteries, I think of the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. The graves are, no doubt, magnificent works of art and hold an important place in history, but imagine how ridiculous it would be if we were all buried like this. The amount of space given to each individual is probably more than the average, affordable Vancouver apartment. Ideally, we as a society would pick funeral practices that reinvest in our earth. The positive future I envision, is one where human death begets life. Until this week, I had never even heard of alkaline hydrolysis and I think that’s where the main problem lies. What we learned about death-care practices this week needs to become more widely-available knowledge. As an intervention, I propose a campaign focused on educating people on natural death-care options and legalizing practices like alkaline hydrolysis in all of Canada. Expanding options and opening up the conversation about death would be a huge step forward for us as a society.

You know that feeling when you’ve taken hours to hike up a mountain and the noises of civilization are no longer reaching you, and you’re in an absolutely blissful mental state, and then you look down and see an empty, single-use, plastic water bottle lying in the dirt. And immediately you just become disheartened by the fact that anyone would leave behind what we all know is not compostable. Well, I wish for a future where that no longer happens to anyone. Our world needs a mass overhaul where single-use plastics are banned in every step of our supply chains. Alternatives are possible and not that difficult to implement in the long-term. We just have to put in the effort. In class we talked about how flexible plastic bags are more environmentally friendly than plastic canisters as coffee packaging, specifically because of the emissions from transportation. But what if, instead, we shipped coffee in bulk, and then packaged it in locally made, easier-to-recycle or reusable packaging immediately before selling it to the consumer.

The future I envision is one where all businesses are transparent with respect to their practices and supply chains. We, as consumers, should care where products are coming from and being made. I also wish for full transparency to force these businesses to adopt more sustainable solutions. An intervention I think would be helpful here, is the demand for a corporate social/environmental responsibility group with decision-making power within businesses. If consumers hold individual businesses accountable for their own environmental impacts, I think we will see a big change in our markets.

Until last year, I was fortunate enough to never be home when the forest fires were happening. I somehow managed to plan my vacations during the smokiest days of the summer. I know exactly what I want to see in the future. And it’s the opposite of what I saw the first day that I opened my front door to smoke. The future I envision has clean air for everyone. In order to see this future, we need to understand and push for more controlled burns. The Canadian government calls prescribed burns a “versatile management tool,” but continues to pour money into rebuilding affected communities instead of committing to in-advance fire management. As a group educated on fire management, let’s push our government to take fire/forest management more seriously!

Record breaking rates of inflation mean that food is more unaffordable than ever, and we’ve all heard the statistic- 37% of students self-reported food insecurity in 2019, and this number is quickly rising. As tuition, rent, and food prices alarmingly increase, wages continue to stagnate. Visits to the AMS food bank and food security initiatives like Sprouts are skyrocketing. UBC provides insufficient, precarious and mismanaged food security funds at best, and at worst, drastically decreases funds. UBC knows how deeply hunger and unaffordability affects us - and despite a 3 billion dollar budget, they continue to let students go hungry. So… join us at 2pm on Friday the 21st! As students, we are “Hungry for Change” and it’s time for us to stand up together. You can sign our open letter here, and tell your friends! We will also be hosting an Art Build to make signs, posters and banners at 6pm on 19 October at Sprouts. Check out this link for more information and resources! https://linktr.ee/hungryforchange

At the end of the day, this topic affects us all. We need to find a way to feed everyone without continuing the damage we are inflicting on our environment. But what is more important? Feeding everyone, or decreasing the effects modern agriculture is having on our fragile ecosystems. It doesn’t seem like there is a solution to both just yet. In the future I envision, perennial polycultures will feed the majority of our world’s population on a mostly plant-based diet. One of the pre-watchings this week estimated that switching to a vegan diet requires 18 times less land. Maybe it is optimistic to assume that if more people switched to eating plant-based meals on a more regular basis, we would have enough land to successfully operate perennial polycultures like the biggest little farm, but I think we would see a huge impact from this. A huge mindset shift for many people would be necessary. The kind of intervention we would need to see here is the massive education of society on the environmental impacts of their diet. Governments need to push to include this kind of education in our school curriculums so everyone can make more informed decisions!

In Canada, many of us are fortunate enough to have access to safe, clean drinking water with no limitations. Using water is something that I do very mindlessly. I turn the tap on every day without having to worry about whether or not it will actually work. I think this should be a fundamental human right. If we were less wasteful with our water, scarcity should not be an issue for anyone. Those of us that don’t consider the thousands of litres of water that go into our diet, clothes, and every day lives, need to change our perspective. We need to start treating water as the valuable contribution that it is to people. One way to execute this change would be by implementing laws to force water recycling. In the future I envision, governments in countries where water is readily available, would stop letting us waste water! One example of an effective way to make this happen would be to call for action from the government; governments could start passing laws to force the implementation of water-recycling infrastructure in projected residential and commercial buildings.

In elementary school, I learned about the Seventh Generation Principle: it is a philosophy followed by the Haudenosaunee First Nations people where the environmental impacts of the decisions we make today should be considered up to seven generations in the future. For example, the extent of fishing in a season one year is limited by the need to maintain a viable population for the future. As far as I know, other First Nations peoples have similar values. So, this makes me question why the procedural dimension of justice in decision making that directly affects their communities is so often ignored. Is what’s socially just, specifically in these communities, not also ecologically just the majority of the time? So, the future I envision is one where the procedural dimension of justice is really emphasized and all involved individuals are represented in decision-making processes. I hope distributional and recognitional dimensions of justice will directly be more equitable as a result.

I envision a future where it is easy to make a conscious consumer choice; one where all consumers understand and care about the ethical and environmental practices behind the goods we purchase. Ideally, we can turn our economy into a circular one where things like second-hand clothing, recycling technology, and fixing what's broken before buying new become the norm. #UnleashValues

Hello! I’m Nina, a fourth year physics student enrolled in ENVR 430 at UBC. I look forward to learning more about what effective sustainable solutions exist and how they align with my own values. Oftentimes, I find approaches to the climate crisis unbelievably overwhelming, so hopefully the support and ideas from our community will encourage conversations that allow us all to be more vulnerable. #UnleashValues