Abstract People think that the planet has unlimited resources and that it should be okay to just use water, trees and energy as they please. In reality this is false, because people have lived like this for so long our resources have been dwindling. If people do not start changing their habits our planet will not survive. Everyone needs to start living more sustainably. Three big ways of doing this are in the aspects of energy, or transportation, recycling, and food and water.
SUSTAINABILITY FOR EVERYONE 3
Many people use the planets resources like they will never run out. People think that the resources yield unlimited materials for everyone to use. In actuality the planets resources are quickly being used up. If a way to save resources is not put into action the Earth might not make it. Almost everyone living on the planet right now is helping to kill it. Luckily, there is a way to turn this around, it is called, sustainability. Sustainability is a way to maintain the conditions that humans and nature can live in, it also is a way to help protect the environment. Sustainability is not hard to achieve, everyone can be sustainable in transportation, recycling, and where they get their food and water. Living a sustainable life is not hard to do, it is easy enough that even the kids can do it. Although it sounds like many people are killing the planet, there are also people that make sure they are always living sustainably. There are government run groups that make it their job to inform the public of ways to live sustainably. The Environmental Protection Agency has said, Sustainability is important to making sure that we have and will continue to have, the water, materials, and resources to protect human health and our environment. The Environmental Protection Agency works to develop theories and things that people can do to live more sustainably. They went from controlling the pollution to preventing it. The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, is a source that anyone can use to learn how to live more sustainably. One of the many causes of our diminishing resources is the amount of energy used on a daily basis. This energy is used in houses and in transportation. A lot of homes use a lot more SUSTAINABILITY FOR EVERYONE 4
energy than necessary. When things are plugged in, even if they are not being used, energy is being used. Even though those electronics that are plugged in and not being used are not hurting the environment it is an easy place to start practicing being sustainable. An energy source that is hurting our environment is transportation. Anywhere a person goes anymore they are likely to run into some traffic, they will get stuck behind the line up of cars that is polluting the air. Sometimes finding sustainable alternatives is hard, but finding sustainable alternatives for energy use is pretty easy. All the electronics that are plugged into the wall, not being used, can be unplugged until they are in use. Even just unplugging a few more electronics than normal will save a large amount of energy. Another way to save energy in a home is to invest in some newer appliances and updating regular light bulbs to LED light bulbs. All new home appliances are built to save energy, they may cost a little more initially but in the long run they will save a lot of money and energy. LED light bulbs are also used in homes to save energy. These light bulbs save a lot more energy and they also need to be changed less, making less garbage that takes up space at a landfill. Along with saving energy use at home it can also be saved on the everyday commute. Carpooling, taking the bus and biking places are some ways to save energy while commuting. The more cars on the road the more CO2 emissions going into the atmosphere. If people do not start saving energy in their homes and on their commute there will be too much pollution for the environment to handle. SUSTAINABILITY FOR EVERYONE 5
Another way the average person can live sustainably is by recycling. Many places in the world do not recycle. Without recycling not only are landfills being filled up too fast, but natural resources are being used faster than they can be made. This is one of the main causes of resource depletion. For example when paper is not being recycled then to make more paper more trees need to be cut down. This is a problem once all the trees have been cut down and they are not growing fast enough. Trees are used for so much more than just paper to write on, so when there are no more trees there will also be no more new shelter. There is a lot to lose if people cannot start living more sustainably and recycling. Recycling is easy to start doing depending on where you live, a lot of states in the United States have garbage and recycling services when you live in a house. It is not too hard to separate the recyclables from the garbage in the colored bins, then put them out on the street to be picked up. Not everyone can have access to this method of recycling. For people that do not have curb side pick-up there are often public recycling centers where anything can be recycled, from paper to cardboard to batteries. These places are completely sustainable. Recycling has turned into a regular thing in Portland, Oregon. On every corner you are likely to find a recycling bin of some sort, it could be for bottles, paper or plastic. Portland is one of the most sustainable cities and recycling and reusing is their main way of being sustainable. Some may think that they are recycling for no reason but now there are a lot of stores that sell recycled paper goods and recycled plastic items even. Being sustainable is as easy as throwing a SUSTAINABILITY FOR EVERYONE 6
piece of paper in the recycling now. The more that people recycle the more resources that they are saving. A big industry that can either be really sustainable or not sustainable at all is the food industry. It is so easy for food corporations to take the easy road and choose the options that are the most inexpensive. When corporations are choosing these inexpensive ways of making and preparing food they are cutting major health corners. The food they serve is not healthy and they really do not even care. People who eat from these large food industries end up getting sick or even more often their food gets recalled. When something is recalled it is because something is wrong with it, most of the time this could be prevented if the corporations were taking the health measures that they should have been in the first place. If food corporations were more concerned with the publics health than they are with making money it would be a lot easier to eat sustainably. Large corporations that deal with meat, obviously, could care less about the people that will eat the meat. The cows that are brought in to be slaughtered are fed a corn based diet. This would be okay if cows could digest corn, but they do not. In the movies Kind Corn and Food Inc. there is video footage of a famer making a hole in the cows side. They have to do this so they can scrape out all the corn product that cannot be digested by the cow. Because of the diet that the cows are being fed and not being allowed to move around very much these cows are very sick when they are brought in to be slaughtered. If they were not being killed they would die soon anyway. Not only are the cows SUSTAINABILITY FOR EVERYONE 7
sick when they come in, but the way that the meat is processed is now in factories, where meat is sent through machines to be cleaned and packaged. This really is not a very clean process. Not only is the machinery in the factory not the best way to process the meat, it also puts out a large amount of pollution. The pollution from these factories is not good for anyone and is especially bad for the environment. In the movie Food Inc. there are interviews with neighbors of one of these large factories. These interviews show that a majority of the people that live by the factory have many health problems. In the movie Food Inc. the many problems of the food industry are shown. The food industry had to keep up with the growing demands for cheaper and cheaper food. Because the food is cheaper the corporation workers try and cut costs, If we put glass walls on the food industry in North America we would have a different system all together (Food Inc.) This quote is saying that if we micro managed every process of the food industry in North America the system would change completely. There would be no more short cuts and food would be healthier. When a person is grocery shopping at a Fred Myer or Safeway it is hard to find meat that is not from one of these large food corporations, that does terrible things to their meat, and the truth is you probably will not find meat from anywhere else. Even when the packages have different brand names they look like they come from different places. In reality all of these SUSTAINABILITY FOR EVERYONE 8
brands purchase their meat from the same place. The best way to be sure you are getting healthily raised and processed meat is to go to a butcher store. Most of the time butchers get their meat from local farmers who raise their cattle on grass, instead of corn. Other places that only serve organic foods and meats are Whole Foods and New Seasons. Whole Foods butchers only buy their meat from farmers that they know raise grass fed cattle. Although it is more expensive to shop at grocery stores such as Whole Foods and New Seasons, it will be worth it to a persons health in the long run. The more that people stop buying corn fed meat the less they will produce. The last category to living more sustainably is water. Everyone thinks that the Earth has an unlimited supply of water, this is far from true. In the movie Tapped it is said that less than 15% of the water on Earth is drinkable. Not only is our water supply decreasing but the amount of plastic water bottles is increasing. Because of all the bottled water there is a point in the ocean that is made up of mostly plastic. This is because of the oceans currents that push it all into one spot. There are also some beaches that are made up of basically all plastic instead of sand. People think that when you throw something into the ocean it is gone forever, but it is not. With all this plastic in the ocean the ocean life is going to start struggling to survive. The plastic that humans are putting into the environment is killing the resource that is food for a lot of people. Being sustainable with our resource of water is one of the easiest things to do. Buying a reusable water bottle is a great investment. Not only does is save tons of money on bottled water, it also eliminates a ton of plastic waste. With a reusable water bottle a person can fill it up all day SUSTAINABILITY FOR EVERYONE 9
long without ever needing to get a new one. This is the best option for drinking sustainably. Even if people would eliminate one or two plastic water bottles a week there would be a huge decrease in the amount of plastic waste. One more way to reduce plastic waste is at the grocery store. When a person is buying their organic groceries they can bring reusable bags. A lot of stores now sell these reusable bags for very little money and they can be used over and over again, unlike the plastic bags that often rip with just one use. Another alternative to plastic is paper, all stores offer paper and plastic. Paper breaks down easier than plastic so it is the better option. But the best option would be to invest in some reusable bags. All of these are easy ways to start being sustainable. The best way to make sure the pattern of sustainability keeps going is to get children involved with being sustainable. Children make up 50% of the population and they are the future. If children are raised on sustainability then it will be easier for them to maintain a sustainable life. Kids also are more likely to do things even if others are not. A lot of adult choose not to live sustainably because they feel like it will not help if it is only them. Kids do not have these thoughts, making them the best candidates for starting the sustainability trend. When these children grow up they will teach their children to live sustainably. It will start a sustainable life that will help the planet, environment and every species living on Earth. SUSTAINABILITY FOR EVERYONE 10
With children being the future they are the best group to start teaching about sustainability. Children are also able to adapt easier. A change such as carpooling or taking the bus will not make that big of a deal to them. When children are started on a healthy diet early it is easier for them to live a long healthy life. Living sustainably is the way to go. It helps the environment and everyone living in it. When people start living sustainably they start saving resources. These resources need to be saved if people want their grandchildren and great grandchildren to be able to live the life they did.
SUSTAINABILITY FOR EVERYONE 11
Works Cited Soechtig, S. (Producer & Director). Tapped. United States. Ellis, C. (Producer). Cheney, I. (Producer). Woolf, A. (Producer). King Corn. 2007. United States. Pearlstein, E. (Producer). Kenner, R. (Producer). Food Inc.. United States. What is Sustainability? Retrieved from: http://www.epa.gov/sustainability/basicinfo.htm
SUSTAINABILITY FOR EVERYONE 12
References Vermeir, W. & Corten, F. Fall 2005. Sustainable and Responsible Performance. Retrieved from: http://www.iijournals.com/doi/abs/10.3905/joi.2005.580555#sthash.fVujJZJc.dpbs Bossinik, B. A. G.. 25 August, 2010. The Strategic Function of Quality in the Management of Innovation. Retrieved from: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09544120120102432#.U34TursU-W8