I can remember, even as a kid on the playground, I would get mad at my friends if they threw their trash on the ground. Even at the age of about 12 I would either pick it up and throw it in the trash myself or sneak it in their backpacks with reminders to throw away their trash. I come from a really small town in southeastern Oklahoma where no one really worries about their environmental impact or about making sure they throw thier trash away. What does it matter to them if their are ditches full of trash. My family, on the other hand, taught me and my older sister from a very early age that polluting the environment was a very bad thing and that we should keep as much trash off the ground as possible. As I have grown older I have started to realize that trash on the ground is only the surface of the problems that have come to face our environment. The production processes of textiles, apparel, and other goods; carbon emissions and high quantity consumption ; chemical spills, pesticides, and other runoffs are even bigger problems and they are problems most people do not think about.
I think that one of the biggest threats to the environment that can be helped easier than most other problems is consumption and packaging. According to the article on limiting consumption, we throw away 462 pounds of packaging each year per person. This is because most of what we buy is placed in packaging that we just throw away after we get it home. TV dinners, cameras, hard candies, and most kitchenware are all unnecessarily packaged. I know they want to protect the products to make sure they don't break, but there is usually more packaging than necessary.
According to the reading over Visioning, it is not enough to just vision a change to make it so. You have to manage those wants and set goals for yourself so that you can actually make that vision a reality. Once you start making sustainable decisions, it will be easier to turn those decisions into habits. More and more people are becoming aware of the impacts we have had on the planet, but many do not do anything to try and reverse the damage. The more people who make it a habit to be sustainable will raise more awareness for how and what can be done to erase some of the environmental footprints humans and our way of life has left on the earth.
I think that what all of us can do is change our mindset to making sustainable choices. If we make good decisions in the products we buy and places we support than corporations will have to make the shifts to more sustainable practices so they can appeal to the consumers. If we choose to not buy harmful products than companies will be forced to stop making them. We as consumers have this power and things will not change unless we do as Lombardo says in the Thinking Ahead article, and change our mindsets and become more optimistic. The simple truth is that we cannot just wish to be more sustainable, we have to act on those visions and make shopping decisions that reflect our wants and needs. Shopping for things you want and need that have less packaging and less to throw away when you get home is only one of the many things that we can do to help the impact humans have had on the Earth.
This chair is from crate and barrel and they claim that it is environmentally friendly. They tell us that it was Eco-friendly constructed and that it is made from a certified sustainable hardwood. They have also stated that it is upholstered with 100% cotton; in last weeks blog I talked about how cotton is not as sustainable as synthetic fibers because of all the dyeing and water used to make textiles from it. All of their claims are very vague and do not really tell us how the products are environmentally friendly. I feel that they are just trying to target customers who feel they should be environmentally responsible.
This is a couch from The Sofa Company and they have a whole page on hier website that tells you all of the ways they are environmentally friendly. They even tell you how you can customize your furniture and how your choices can make it even more environmentally friendly. I thought this was a good company and they are being more responsible than Crate and Barrel. (http://www.thesofaco.com/furniture-articles/Eco-Friendly-Green-Sofa-Options.aspx)