Coming into the class, I was initially a bit sceptical towards the way we are approaching this course. However, as the term progressed, I found myself to really appreciate how we interact with the lecture materials every week, and also how we approach the “difficult stuff” like hard conversations and workshops/campaigns. Through these practices and experiences, I think I would be able to look at sustainability topics through a different angle than before, focusing on the multiple and complicated layers of issues that surround the topic rather than only looking at the surface of the problem. I often find the reflections for every week’s learning journals are really useful in terms of deepening my understanding: they are often a place for me to gather my thoughts and re-examine how I view these environmental issues, so moving forward, I think I will try to apply this technique in other aspects of my learning/life as well.

I envision a future where the deceased are buried in eco-friendly ways that would allow the nutrients to go back to nature. Currently, the burial practices are either damaging to the soils (embalming), or to the atmosphere (cremation). Despite the existence of alternatives that offer greener solutions, cultural taboos surrounding the topic of death prevents us from adopting newer practices. And so any interventions that aim towards the future I envision would naturally involve changing the societal values regarding death. For example, increasing public awareness about the ecological harms that current burial processes can bring is definitely a valid solution. But even more importantly, the society as a whole should become more open towards talking about death itself. This can partly be encouraged through changing the default organ donations to be donors: having people becoming more aware of what happens to them after their death may facilitate better discussions about the topic.

I envision a world where EIA legislations are more well defined and enforced, projects from corporations such as mining companies would be thoroughly analyzed before their projects are allowed to start, and regulatory inspections or reassessments are performed on these projects after they begin operating. At the moment, EIA does not exercise its intended effects on the evaluation of resource extraction projects, due to both resistance from the industries, as well as inaction from the government in regards to enforcing its environmental laws on these companies. To overcome these problems, we should advocate for third-party organizations to monitor and keep these resource-extraction industries in check, working towards more transparency from these corporate activities. This way, we can spread awareness about the environmental impacts of resource-extraction, and report any irregular/illegal actions taken by the corporations so that public pressure would compel the government to take action instead of sitting idle and not enforcing its environmental laws.

I envision a future where corporations are regulated by governments to engage in sustainable practices. The VW story reveals just how common it is for corporations to attempt to cheat around the regulations instead of following them, and even when they are exposed there are relatively little consequences for these corporations. Therefore it is important for the government to step in and enforce the regulations properly, restrict the loopholes that large corporations use to maneuver their way out of, and regularly inspect the corporations to avoid exploitations. Despite the current issues that plague many NGOs, I believe they would still be the key to propel the government into action. Just like a spark is needed to light a fire, so are actions/campaigns promoted by NGOs needed to increase societal awareness that eventually pressures governmental action.

Coming back to the topics of complex systems and its relations to our food security. I think our current understandings of how agriculture functions in parallel with nature quite problematic: many methods and policies are implemented in farming without enough knowledge or consideration to the potential cascading effects that may occur, and thus we often end up choose options that seem “greener” or “sustainable” but cause more damage to the environment in the long run. For my envisioning, I think it would be a bit deus ex machina to envision a future where we have the science/technology to make our agriculture sustainable. Instead I’d like to focus on how we as individuals understand sustainable agriculture itself. Just like in the beginning of the class when most people voted yes to organic food being better, and later changed their perceptions due to the lecture, I envision a future where more people recognize the pros and cons of different agriculture methods, and thus cause the market to shift towards more sustainable options. The interventions that would be required to cause this spread of knowledge? Lectures like today’s, presentations, workshops, campaigns, advertisements etc. All of which serves to both spread the knowledge about sustainable agriculture, as well as raising awareness about how our choices of actions in farming can cause rippling effects across the ecosystems.

I believe in order to have a future where real sustainability can be accomplished, we must first have a future where deeper recognition/understanding of how “valuable” (not in the economic sense) natural resources are present within the society. Take water in Capetown for example, once people are alerted of the incoming crisis due to the shortage of water, actions are taken to cut down any wasteful behaviours that people normally turn a blind eye towards. This shows not just the power of collective action, but also how recognizing the values of natural resources can vastly improve societal behaviours towards sustainability. Capetown luckily managed to avoid their day 0, but we need to take action before such crisis arrive at our doorstep. Therefore, we must push for a wider recognition of the consequences of wasteful practices that exist in the society, and through that we can forge societal values where people live and act in sustainable ways with an awareness of reducing unnecessary wastes. This can happen through a bottom-up approach, where changing societal values can push the government/corporations towards sustainable behaviours as well. #unleashvalues

I envision a future where societies in the world connect with their local ecosystems on a deeper level than now, especially on how resources are taken and returned to nature instead of focusing on pure extraction, and people would focus on living a life where the balance with nature plays a central role in their lives. The reason for this is, as we know from current studies on climate change, our method of harnessing resources from nature causes immense damage to the local ecosystem on multiple levels, from microscopic zooplanktons, to larger organisms, to people living in the area, and oftentimes the damages are practically irreversible. Through promotions of values (such as #unleashvalues), and pushing the government to establish policies towards sustainable, respectful (to nature) methods of living, A local example in this case would be a push towards protection of the old growth forest in BC. I hope the world we live in the future can be one with humans and nature living in harmony. If I have to choose a lifestyle between being the human corporations in Avatar, or the Na’vi, I think the Na’vi way of living with nature is the more sustainable future.

For the future I am envisioning, there will be large scale legislations around the globe to prevent or discourage planned obsolescence for many consumer products. This includes examples presented in the class today — washing machines — but also other electronics such as televisions and fridges, as well as cars and non-electronic things. In this future, activists work to promote the trend of long lasting products / Efficiency over a long period of time in the society, and regularly checks newer designs and innovations as to whether they are sustainable over the long term rather than purely being “technically” more green, but increasing the total number of production. I believe a way to achieve this is through activism, such as #Unleashvalues and other platforms to raise awareness of these goals, and when the movement becomes large enough, can compel industries to adjust their strategies and produce more durable products for the consumers.

Hi! My name is Tom, and I am currently a fourth year biology major. I am glad that I decided to join this class, because I have been quite interested in studying how environmental changes are affecting our ecology, so naturally this course, with its call for climate activism, draws me to the class. I am quite excited for how this class unfolds, and I will be posting here over the coming weeks on various topics in environmental science. I look forward to interacting with you all and hopefully together we will bring about more awareness to the current climate crisis! #UnleashValues