Week 2 blog response

To be quite honest, I don't quite know what I consider to be the most important global environmental problem, in terms of the environment , to answer the first question. Clean air and water would seem to be important as both are vital to not only people, but to most of the life on this planet. Minimizing pollution, deforestation, and countless other negative affects on the planet is also important. Yet, the biggest problem isn't in the environment, its in people's minds and actions, personally. People are having an obvious negative impact on the planet. How much of one and the resulting long term implications are debatable, but people. as a whole, are harming the planet and the living things on it. 

The biggest problem is then that even those who try to minimize their impact cannot always do so. Living in a fairly small studio apartment in DC, without a car, and trying to eat mostly organic and locally grown [with most of my diet coming from fruits and veggies], there would still need to be 1.9 planets if everyone were to live like me, according to the site we were supposed to go on last week.  I try minimize my carbon footprint as much as I can and I still have an impact. 

Given the structure of life, at least within the US, it is hard to minimize your impact, even if you try. In many places, fresh, locally grown food is hard to come by even if it shouldn't be so a person has to rely on grocery stores. Getting food home requires a car in many places as public transportation may be spotty or nonexistent and the grocery store could be far from your home. There are places where organic, local food is easy to find or you can get around without a car, even in the US. Unfortunately, grocery stores with imported food and cars are becoming status symbols that everyone wants around the world. 

I am not saying that people should be denied cars or modern luxuries, but that people as a whole have to rethink these luxuries. Grocery stores should try and stock local, organic food at affordable prices. Cars can and should be made more fuel efficient then they currently are. Homes should also be made more efficient, in terms of energy consumption, heating and cooling. Some people will have to give some things up, like SUV's that get 16 miles to the gallon or the ability to eat fresh iceberg lettuce year round, but I think it is worth it. 

This sort of ties into the second about living in an "environmentally friendly" way. I think that it is trying to minimize the impact you have on the environment, on a conscious level, through the decisions you make in both the long and short term. This includes things like buying a fuel efficient car but driving it sparingly and buying energy efficient appliances to put in your modestly sized home. Of course, this also impacts the small decisions you make, like throwing the soda can out in a recycling can that is six feet away from you when you are standing next to a trash can. 

However, it is not just something you do in your life, but something you try to encourage in others, within reason. By encouraging your government or your neighborhood to be more eco-friendly, you make it easier for yourself and encourage others to follow in your smaller carbon footsteps. This does not mean that people who don't instantly adopt eco-friendly lifestyles should be made social outcasts or that all environmentalists should become eco-terrorists to persuade their government to change. What I do mean is that people are more likely to become eco-friendly if it is easy for them or if there are incentives, like a recycling bin on every corner or tax breaks for fuel efficient cars. Thus, environmentally concerned people should form civic groups or lobby Congress or talk to their town mayor in the hopes of making a difference. It will take time and effort, but in the end, it will probably encourage more people to change.