Week 1 Discussion

Personally, I have to say that the root problems are population combined with technology. If our population weren't as big as it is, we (probably) wouldn't be causing as much harm to the environment simply because, using the I=PAT equation, less people equals less impact. I also feel that if certain societies didn't rely so much on technology, we, as humans, would produce much less waste and therefore cause less environmental degradation.

I think that living in an environmentally friendly way means, at the very least, that you are conscious of how your actions affect the planet. In our developed, technological world, there is truthfully only so much one can do. I try to be as careful as I can about being nice to the environment--I recycle what I can, turn off electronics when I leave my apartment for the day, reuse whatever I can, and walk almost everywhere. I can also say this is true for most of my friends, though the environment doesn't come up very often in conversations. I'm not one to go up to strangers and make suggestions about how they could takes steps to save the environment, but I do notice that when I go home, I will comment to my parents if they are being wasteful.