At first, I thought the class would be more of a traditional teaching style and long and I would feel fatigued at the end of the class due to the 3-hour class time. But after one semester, I felt that it never made me tired, but I was able to actively participate at the end. Before this class, I didn't realize that there were so many issues that were relevant to the environment, such as the topic of burial. After listening to the class, I always feel a little lost in my heart about people's ignorance and indifference to the earth. This is inevitable. But the active discussion with my classmates in the cosphere after class makes me feel that people will only become more and more concerned about the problems of the earth in the future and make the earth a better place. This class not only taught me to think about different aspects of the problem, but also to think about aspects that I would never have thought of normally, such as the connection between environmental issues and philosophy. Reflection is also something that this class is trying to teach us. I really liked the way it was taught instead of forcing us to memorize a bunch of teaching material and a final exam. I will try to control my own words and actions at all times and try to influence people around me in a positive way. It will be my lifelong goal to make the earth sustainable. Finally, I would like to thank prof Kai, ta Dana, and the students. #UnleashValues

For me, getting old is really scary. Because getting old often means death. It is very common to grow old and die. But only very few of the elders can die in peace. For other elders who are suffering from illnesses, dying in peace is a great luxury. Because of the emotional connection between the elders and their children, most of the time they may not express their feelings and will just let their children make arrangements for their next days. The technique of euthanasia can help the elders to die peacefully. However, not all countries accept this technique, because the essence of euthanasia is to kill a person. But for me, respecting the wishes of the elders is the last thing I can do for them as a child. As much as we as children would not want to let the elders go, we would not want to see them suffer from illness. I think euthanasia can be applied to all countries, not just developed countries. I envision that euthanasia can be given to the elders if the doctor has done a complete examination and thinks that he or she is suffering and the treatment will make him or her suffer more. These elders must express their wishes clearly. But I do recognize that euthanasia is a very controversial technique. #UnleashValues

I envision that we will have a strong system to manage waste.  People from North America always do recycling better than people from other states. Because if they do not do well, they will face a high fine. From when I lived here, I was punished by throwing garbage things. In my opinion, I think we need to cultivate everyone from their child that recycling through classification is so important that we must do to make the world more sustainable. I think countries from other states can also have a mandatory rule (accompanying with fine) about classifying household wastes. With the strong sense of recycling, the government can then create an organization to further help the reproduction of wastes.  Also in the future, we may only have the compostable plastics in the world rather than a lot of single use plastics.

I envision that the business sectors will not dominate how the world goes on and ordinary people’s lives, especially cheating people with scandals. Business sectors usually influence governments’ actions through bribes in the past. I don’t know if such actions are suppressed or not since I don’t have relevant information as an ordinary person. What I want to say is that we really need a clean world without any bribes and an action-oriented executor to prevent such things. Meanwhile, making businesses sustainable does not need any bribes if you have all the good qualities and virtues. Ethics are a good consideration for executors from all businesses. Except for companies, governments also need to improve the transparency of information to ordinary people and make more acts to regulate the operations of companies.  The process of making all companies sustainable requires a lot of sectors to sacrifice to achieve. Changes in such sectors are tough actions in both governments and businesses. Even though executors may make a mouse-promise on such things, we are not sure that their employees will follow the principles.  #UnleashValues

Nowadays, fire has impacted our lives severely. Take the example of a forest fire a few days ago, it is so hard to breathe outside. I take the mask not because of the covid-19 but because of the bad weather condition, the severe pollution from PM 2.5. I really enjoy the clean air which means children can play outside without any considerations.  I never realized the severity of forest fire before since it may not last so long with small influences on people’s lives. Since I have been in Vancouver, I can feel forest fires affecting people’s view and air quality every year. Except that, I believe that animals and forests are negatively affected by such fires which lead to biodiversity loss. Other than that, I also believe that fire is the natural and beneficial product leading to successions in nature. However, human activities are causing more drastic climate change which makes fires more destructive just like the forest fire a few days ago.  I envision that we will have a more natural and beneficial fire in the future with less human activities involving in affecting nature.  #UnleashValues

I envision that future agriculture is sustainable even though it requires large amount of endeavor. Nowadays, the sustainable food is not enough to supply the world’s food need which is the main reason that most of the agriculture is not sustainable. The food quality is not promised according to the current production of food. To solve this problem, I think that governments should give sustainable farmers more subsidies to ensure that all production of food is sustainable. Sustainable agriculture always requires more money than conventional industrious agriculture. This difference usually reflects in the grocery store, the prices of the industrious food and the sustainable food. Not all people are willing to buy food in a higher prices. To better solve this question, governments should contact sustainable farmers and grocery stores that they can make good deals for selling sustainable food. Meanwhile, grocery stores need to control the prices of the sustainable food to make it has the price close to the traditional food or even lower than it. Customers who are willing to pay for the sustainable food may have discounts to attract them. #UnleashValues

People now do not realize that water supplies are in shortage. According to the videos, we are currently experiencing a water shortage and not everyone can save water sources instead of wasting water resources through daily and industrious usage. For developing countries, water prices are so low that everyone can afford it and they do not matter how much water is wasted. In addition to this, for developed countries, water is usually free to everyone which may lead to a more serious idea that people can waste water without any punishments. I think to better protect our water resources, the government needs to launch the relevant law and set up mandatory lectures for the public, which is about saving our water resources. Meanwhile, based on the videos, water cost is invisible to the public. For example, producing a t-shirt and a hamburger usually requires a large amount of water and such products are usually at a low price. I think that another way to protect our water resources is to make such invisible water costs visible to the public that they need to pay for water usage. Also, the root causes of such invisible water costs are companies that make such products. Companies now need to produce products of higher quality using fewer resources rather than wasting a huge amount of water to produce products of relatively low quality. #unleashvalues

even though a world full of justice may not be possible, people still need to take more responsibility to protect the nature and try to avoid the injustice. There are so many unfair problems associated with not only the ecosystem but other parts (economy, school…). The unfair distributions of power in different groups will lead to injustice, just like the stories in classes. In decision making, the supreme should try their best to listen to voices from different groups, including marginalized groups (indigenous people) and the public. Due to the unequal amount of sharing message, the supreme usually make some fathomless decisions that the public cannot understand. If this happen, representatives from indigenous people and the public now need to take their own responsibility to negotiate with the supreme that they are not doing wrong to systems that they care about. In addition, I envision that the supreme needs to make the decision making process clear to the public. Representatives from the public have the right to vote for different decisions and the percentage of representatives cannot be lower than 40% (estimate) which can play an important role in influencing the final decision. #UnleashValues

I envision all stages of producing products will be green, from extraction, production, and disposition. Except that, I also hope that people do not buying products signaling their status, consuming earth’s finite resources. I will try to achieve this goal from myself. In the future, i will only buy things that I truly need. Fast fashion brands will not be in my lists anymore. Meanwhile, I will appeal to my families and friends to reduce the over consumption.#UnleashValues

Hi, I'm Yaxi Tan, a 4th-year student in environmental science. I am very excited to learn more knowledge and actions for sustainability and try to build a peaceful and loving community. Let us make something enjoyable this term. If you are interested in sustainability and relevant topics, follow #UnleashValues.