I am a very detail oriented person because I know details can affect results in many situations. This applies to environmental situations too – small details can have large effects on the environment. I remember during one of the lectures in this course (near the start of this semester for this course), the class was having a discussion about people being unsustainable. I remember that I raised my hand to talk about a specific situation. The situation is the following: Someone parked their car in front of a store to drop off someone else. The person who was dropped off went to the store, and the other person stayed in their car scrolling on their phone. Their car was left on – their reasoning for this might have been to have continued access to the air conditioner or heating in the car. However, this is how fuel from the car is wasted and carbon dioxide is released into the air. The person scrolling on their phone in comfort does not consider the negative effect that their action causes. They might think their action does not make a difference in climate change because they think it is only one car that is in the parking lot doing this – however, there are many people around the world doing this daily. The carbon dioxide that is released is added up and produces the huge effect of hurting the air quality on Earth. In fact, I am so concerned about the reduced air quality that sometimes I consider wearing goggles so that polluted air does not enter my eyes – I care about keeping my eyes safe. I also care about keeping my lungs safe. It is saddening that many people leave their cars on for a long amount of time because they want to scroll on their phones inside the car. 

Another situation is that many people do not speak up much even when they see that others are doing unsustainable things. To stop climate change, people have to be able to communicate. People have to try to spread the message that the environment needs to be saved. For example, a way to support sustainability is talking to people who have their cars on for no reason, and letting them know that leaving the car on contributes to releasing carbon dioxide. There has to be more awareness about climate change. Every detail has an effect. People have voices, and they should use their voice to speak up about how to help the environment thrive. Posting videos explaining how to be more sustainable can help spread the message to so many people on the internet. Since in the present time, most people are using online apps to communicate, it is a popular and effective way to let a lot of people know that climate change has to be stopped. 

There are so many ways to save the environment. Walking instead of driving, turning a car off when it is not being used, saving natural resources, etc. People think these actions are very small-scale actions – however, all of these actions are truly helpful in maintaining a healthy environment. Putting in effort is important. Changes can be made. Animals, plants, humans – they all want clean air. It is important to consider details regarding saving the environment. Details matter.

Near the start of this course, I thought sustainability was about being focused on products which maintain environmental safety. Then after researching for my two product reviews and the final research project, I realized that the way that products are manufactured also matters. Some products seem sustainable, yet they are manufactured using methods that can harm the environment. 

For example, my second product review was about bamboo fabric because it seemed to be sustainable. In the past, I’ve also heard about how soft bamboo fabric feels compared to other materials for clothes. So this made me interested in learning more about bamboo fabrics. I learned that people think bamboo fabric is sustainable because bamboo fabric is made from bamboo plants. Bamboo plants have many positive factors. They don’t even need much water to grow. Also, bamboo plants grow very quickly. These factors mean that even after people use bamboo to make bamboo fabric, the plant grows back. Then after doing more research on this topic, I realized that bamboo fabric is not fully sustainable. I learned that the manufacturing of bamboo rayon (which is a type of bamboo fabric), harms the environment. While researching for my 2nd product review, I learned that making bamboo rayon needs many toxic chemicals in the process. These toxic chemicals get released into water, resulting in animals that might drink the water or get the water in their eyes when swimming. This is the reason bamboo fabric has a scary side – the manufacturing of it is unsustainable. 

Another example: My first product review, as well as the final research project, were both on electric cars. Originally, I used to think that electric cars are truly sustainable products. They seem so eco-friendly because they don’t even release carbon dioxide. Electric cars use batteries for power. I noticed that the public has this image of electric cars as being the perfect solution to global warming. So many people compliment electric cars on their ability to reduce global warming and use less natural resources. After doing more research on electric cars, I realized that they actually have a negative side. Their batteries need lithium and cobalt, which people get through harmful ways of mining. To specify, the methods of mining are surface mining, brine mining, and underground mining. The negative effect that all of these methods have is releasing carbon dioxide because of the machines that dig the Earth for the metals. This contributes to global warming. This shocks people because electric cars have so much respect because their purpose is to reduce global warming. Yet, the manufacturing of the batteries is unsustainable. 

After doing research for the electric cars and bamboo fabrics, I learned that although there are many products that are made to save the environment from harm, there can also be manufacturing methods which harm the environment. This is why my definition of sustainability developed to include that products, as well as their manufacturing methods, factor into whether or not a product is truly sustainable.

References:

• Kellogg Kathryn. “Bamboo Fabric: Sustainable or Hype?” Going Zero Waste. 1 Feb 2022. https://www.goingzerowaste.com/blog/bamboo-fabric-sustainable-or-hype/
• “Bamboo.” CFDA. https://cfda.com/resources/materials/detail/bamboo#:~:text=Processing%20of%20bamboo%20rayon%20can%20have%20harmful,quantities%20of%20water%2C%20toxic%20dyes%2C%20and%20finishing
• Zheng, March. “The Environmental Impacts of Lithium and Cobalt Mining.” Earth.org, 31 March 2023. https://earth.org/lithium-and-cobalt-mining/#:~:text=Relative%20to%20fossil%20fuels%2C%20Cobalt,of%20CO2%20into%20the%20air.

            The article by Benji Jones, which is called “The surprising downsides to planting trillions of trees” connects to the outrageous situation happening in daily life. The article describes the issue of many trees being planted in the wrong conditions – not enough rain, wrong season, or an environment where animals eat saplings.  People think that if they just continue to plant more trees, then global warming can be stopped. The reason people think this is because trees reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. However, humans don’t consider the conditions that trees need to survive – enough sunlight, rainfall, nutrients, etc. Also, conserving trees which are already grown is helpful for the environment. Yet, people fail to do this because they want to cut down the grown trees to make buildings and businesses. There is a store that was built at a nearby city, and there were many huge trees being cut down to make space for the new store. Then after the new store got built, there were little saplings planted to make it look like the business cared about nature. However, it was wrong to cut down the trees which were originally in the land by the store – those grown trees should’ve been conserved.

           Many trees get planted without considering the season (or the weather conditions). People don’t think about the scientific aspect of tree growth: Saplings can’t survive in the freezing cold weather, the windy days, or the times when barely any rain falls. Saplings are weak, they’re still in the growing phase. Most saplings are so thin that windy days or no rain (dry days) have the negative effect of destroying the saplings. People wear scarves and hats when it’s cold or windy, yet they don’t think saplings need warmth. 

           Conserving trees which are already grown is an action that many humans don’t do. Consider the following: Humans remember to drink water to stay hydrated, they also remember to not stay out in the sun too long to avoid their skin from drying up. Humans wear raincoats to protect themselves from heavy rain, and they also remember to eat beneficial nutrients to grow up healthy. It can be seen in daily life that humans really take care of themselves, and they demonstrate a high level of care when it comes to themselves. To build new houses or businesses, humans also cut down trees. Then after cutting down all those trees, people show the desire of planting millions of new ones to decrease carbon dioxide. However, the idea of conserving the trees which are already grown is a concept that many humans haven’t considered. Trees take many years to grow, yet they get cut down in minutes.

          People go to the doctor because they care about their own health. Medicine, nutrients, water, and shade – humans love to give themselves the proper lifestyle so they can grow to their maximum potential. Most humans fail to give this high amount of consideration and thoughtfulness when interacting with trees. When growing saplings, there are many solutions to help them be safe when growing: Putting a barrier around saplings to prevent animals from eating them, only planting seeds when the season supports plant growth, and providing enough water to each sapling. Remember, there are also already trees which took many years to grow. The main 2 lessons that should be learned: Conserve the trees which are already grown, and make sure to give new saplings the proper conditions to grow.

Reference cited below:

Jones, Benji. “The surprising downsides to planting trillions of trees.” Vox, 22 Sept. 2021, https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/22679378/tree-planting-forest-restoration-climate-solutions.

Every single day, people have the choice of being conscious about their daily interactions with nature. However, most people choose to pollute instead because they don’t care about how the environment’s health condition is. There is the concern of how the future of the world will be affected because of the pollution. The issue is: The suffering is already happening now. Humans focus on the future so much that they don’t see what is already being destroyed currently, and the effects of the current time have an effect on the future. In the article “Our planet is not doomed. That means we can, and must, act” by Dagomar Degroot, the idea of the future being able to be saved by caring about the present has been conveyed. Dagomar Degroot explains the concept of people thinking the future is already destroyed due to climate change, therefore those people think putting in effort to try to save the future won’t do anything – this is the mentality of the people who are only focusing on how the world will be in the future. However, if humans continue to think this way, then there will be the result of less effort put in to eliminate global warming – which ruins the environment even more due to continuation of pollution. The time to change how the environment gets treated must be as soon as possible, meaning humans must take action to care for the conservation of nature in the present . There are so many ways to contribute to the health of the environment such as recycling, using reusable water bottles, using solar energy, etc. Every action matters – even the action of informing friends and neighbors about how to live sustainably such as sharing a car to drive (to reduce carbon emissions), or making sure to turn off the car’s engine if the car is parked so the air pollution can be avoided – air pollution can hurt the lungs and tissues in the body.
The negative side effects of global warming should be understood by humans:
1. There are natural disasters happening constantly – for example, hurricanes, tornadoes, storms, etc. The reason for these natural disasters is climate change because climate change results in the heat of the oceans to increase, therefore the ocean’s heat going up has the effect of leading to the natural disasters (hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.).
2. The temperature of the whole entire planet is increasing. This would have the effect of extreme heat in many countries which can result in heat strokes. The heat strokes results in the body not lowering its own temperature.
3. The more buildings that get built, the more trees get cut down. This elimination of trees to make more buildings actually increases the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. Trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. However, with less trees, the carbon dioxide levels in the world increase, therefore there is more air pollution. Then the air pollution results in many diseases which can be in the lungs, and the other effect of air pollution is the pollution from the air going into the body’s tissues which can cause infections in the tissues.
The health of the world affects the health of the people and animals on the planet. It’s important to inform people of how important nature is and how to protect nature. Helping nature survive should be a daily task. Although people worry about the future, there are already natural disasters ruining habitats of animals and causing injuries to many people. The lungs breathe in pollution and get ruined, and along with this, many other functions of the body suffer due to the contaminants in the air from carbon emissions. There should be more effort in creating positive interactions which can help the environment be protected – this should be done now, as soon as possible.
Citation:
Degroot, Dagomar. “Our Planet Is Not Doomed. That Means We Can, and Must, Act.” Washington Post, 7 Oct. 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/10/07/our-planet-is-not-doomed-that-means-we-can-must-act.