According to last week’s blog, my job this week was to find some solutions to what people could do to help this world become more sustainable. Thankfully, I did not have to research too much because I am taking AP Environmental Science. I have already learned so many ways that people are hurting this world and even more ways they could prevent it. For example, Dr. Tolmich, my teacher, has a huge problem with plastic water bottles. His claim is that not only is the excess plastic, which is essentially oil, polluting the environment, but it also causes people to waste their money buying it. The water inside the bottles is no cleaner than purified tap water, which can be found in the school’s water fountains. His solution is the reusable water bottle. Though some are also plastic, they will not be thrown away because people can keep using them.

            Basically, environmentalists want humans to just act more sustainably. They know that people will not suddenly stop using cars just because they pollute the air; they just want people to be smart about it, like carpooling or using a bicycle instead for short distances.  On the website 50waystohelp.com, I came across many other ways to help the world without being too out of the comfort zone we Americans enjoy for granted. Some that caught my attention were to turn off computers at night to save power and to use the internet and computers more to transfer, read, and write documents to save paper. Though this was truly inspiring, I did not understand the environmentalists’ approach. Why were they being so passive? I would be petitioning to only use electric cars in America or something. The reason why people are not really imperative about living in a way that does not harm the world at all is because most people think it’s impossible. For example, it is true that cars like the Nissan Leaf don’t require any petroleum; but the batteries needed to make these cars work are also terrible for the environment. We have become so dependent on nonrenewable resources that it is very difficult to get rid of them. So, environmentalists do the next best thing instead, and try reduce pollution instead of get rid of it.

            Next week I hope to learn of other aspects of the changing world in the future, perhaps politically or economically.