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“What do you think you will find on this trip about the sustainability of resources and relationships?”

June 7, 2005 American Southwest Discovery trip

  Caroline
One should strive to preserve both.  Resources can only sustain life for as long as they are made to last, and without relationships, life is empty.  Resources sustain life, and relationships enhance it.  Preservation of both will result in a healthier and happier existence.     

Dirk
I expect that sustainability will require wise management of resources. I also expect that relationships will be easier to sustain if the resource use is managed wisely.

Drew
I expect to find that an effort must be made both by various governments and individuals to effectively sustain natural resources and preserve positive relationships between various people. I think I will discover that governments at various levels must put legislation in place to preserve our country’s resources. The government will also have to work with other governments and private people and organizations to maintain good relationships with various stakeholders involved with our nation’s resources. Individuals in our country will also have to work to conserve various resources, such as water and fossil fuels, as well as maintain good relations with their neighbors, keeping good relationships between various stakeholders intact.

Dustin
On this trip, I think I will find out more about how resources are not being used quite as efficiently as they should be.  Some people are probably wasting them and other people may not be able to use enough as they need.  Issues with immigration can cause changes in the relationships between countries and different racial groups.  We will probably find out more about the issues and how they affect the feelings of different groups towards each other.  The issues surrounding these subjects are hard ones to resolve, but maybe we can come up with some possible solutions.

Gabriel
I think that I’ll find out more about the way our country’s resources are being used, and how we could possibility sustain them better.  Also, I hope to find out more about our relationships with the peoples in and around our country, and the ways we can overcome the diversity that separates us.

Ian
Resources are often hard to come by. Those that are many times the easiest to attain are the ones that will not be around later. Renewable resources are often harder to get but last nearly indefinitely. I expect to find lots of info that support my statements above but wouldn’t be surprised to find some to the contrary.

Relationships, like resources, range from easy to hard to make work. Often the ones that require the most effort have the largest payoff. I again expect to find info to back up my statements but I would be surprised to find things to the contrary.   

Jenny
        On this trip, I think I will find that Americans are not doing a very good job of sustaining resources.  It seems like we are wasting and consuming so much, and we hardly think about sustaining what little resources we have left on earth.  I hope to find new relationships on this trip and hopefully sustain those and keep them lasting after the trip is over.  I get the chance to build relationships that I normally would not make.

            Thinking on a broader level about relationships, I want to find out how Mexico and the U.S. stand on their relationship.  I want to find out what Mexicans think of Americans and vise versa. 

I think I will find out how people have helped sustain resources and what they are doing to keep sustaining them for generations to come. 

Joel
During this long trip, I think I’ll learn how much natural resources America really has.  I believe that we don’t have that many resources left to spare.  Americans use so much gas in their automobiles, just like we are doing now.  When it comes to relationships, I am looking forward to learning more about others and myself.  Surely everyone will have to give and take a little during this trip due to the lack of privacy.

Jordan
On Discovery 2005 I think and hope to find how the native people use and sustain their resources.  I think I will find that the people use their resources given greatly.  The people who use their resources the wisest will greatly prosper.  On the other hand if we do not use our resources wisely they will deplete and while we may prosper for a while, in the long run we will run out of resources.

Josh
            I expect to find multiple results about sustainability during this trip.  I expect somewhat bleak results about resources.  I expect that the picture for resource sustainability will not show a current sustainable system, and that reform will be needed sooner than later.  I expect that the places we study will show that the U.S. is not providing a sustainable resource system.

            However, I expect a better picture for resource sustainability.  I expect that various places we go will show that we are not currently using a sustainable relationship system, but the relationship system will be more easily remedied than the resource system.  I also expect to find that we should focus first on resource sustainability, and then relationship sustainability.

Katelyn
I think that on this trip I will learn that sustainability is a current issue that the US is dealing with.  We will find that the US has misused its resources such as water and land.  Hopefully we can discover how to address this issue and better our earth. I think that relationships have to do with the resource issue.  Relationships are probably strained because of the lack of water or land, and so debates over how to use and who can use these resources occur.  In order to sustain relationships we must sustain our resources.  Maybe the relationships will have to work out before we can resolve the resource issue

Leah
On this discovery trip, I believe that I will find that both the sustainability of resources and relationships are essential in a prosperous and healthy life.  First of all, my eyes will be opened to the problems and challenges that we face as global citizens.  Ironically, our coach bus just passed some smoke stacks.  However, our main focus relating to natural resources will be studying the Colorado River and the sustainability options in preserving this water resource.  In the case of relationships, I will need to work on sustaining the relationships of my family and friends back home while I’m gone for 26 days.  I will also need to sustain the relationships that I have with the other people going on the trip.  Living in close quarters with 22+ other people for a long period of time will prove to be a challenge for each of us at one time or another.  In summary, I will find that sustaining resources is crucial for the earth and that sustaining relationships is crucial for the world.  

Mary
I believe that during the Discovery trip I will learn lots about relationships and resources.  I think that the fact that relationships are often more sustainable and more easily able to be renewed over resources will be impressed upon me.  While often resources take much more effort to be restored after use, relationships can be “fixed” with a simple humbling of self.  Perhaps, though, all that truly needs to be done for most of the limited resources to be renewed or alternative energy resources to be found is a humbling of self for the proud scientists and economists who refuse to be wrong.  I hope that I will learn more about solutions to the sustainability of resources and relationships; I hope that I can think of creative solutions and as a whole, the group can learn enough to truly make a difference in our world today.   

Mattias
I think I will find out that we will learn that it is very important to make changes in the near future or our resources will not sustain.  I think all of us will think more about the glass of water that we drink and not take it for granted as much.  I think that all of us will become much closer on this trip.

Max
The relationships and resources intertwine.  As our world ages, resources will be used up and waste will continue to build up.  The environment will become more polluted as time goes by.  However, as care takers of this world we have an opportunity to maintain our resources and help prevent as much pollution as possible.  Having good relationships with people will help humanity work together to manage our environment.  There are many examples where an owner of huge industry is causing pollution by pumping toxic gases into the atmosphere or dumping waste into water systems, and then there is the earth lover who does not want the environment to be in danger of contamination.  A lot of times the business owner is focused on money and profit and he or she does not pay attention to the people that want to keep the environment clean. The earth lover tries to make a difference by demonstrations and speeches.  A lot of times change does come from this, however there is a lot of inconvenience brought to both groups.  Good relationships would help to alleviate the issue.

Monika
            I think I will find many different themes of sustainability of resources and relationships.  Because of the extreme weather conditions in the South West (dry and hot) water, lumber, and other resources are hard to come by.  We will see how native peoples and others manage the Colorado River and other water sources to make sure they have water for drinking, household and irrigation.

            On the relationship level, I hope to build sustainable and new relationships on this trip, especially among different grades.  I also want to discover relationships are between Mexico and the United States

Nathan
I expect to find out that on the whole, we’re pretty terrible at sustaining resources and relationships.  As always, there are exceptions, and there are key people working to change things.  Those people are always inspiring, and really, really cool, but the task of changing the way people think about such huge issues is overwhelmingly daunting.  People on both sides of these issues make them seem black and white but gray space in between always exists.  I hope to come out of this trip optimistic, but right now I have a pretty pessimistic view of that happening. 

Nick
            One main thing I’m learning about sustainability of relationships is that being cramped into a small area with other people can potentially influence each others relationships.  Also, the sustainability of intelligent conversation can be greatly hindered when one is lacking in the wonderful resource of sleep. 

            Anyway, the main resource that Disco05 will be focusing on is water. Our trip to Vegas will supposedly help to clarify our opinions on the issues of water conservation and such.  Water is technically a renewable resource, so you might not think it would be such an issue, but the people at the end of a river will suffer if water is overused from the river upriver.  This is a major issue in the southwest, as many states and two different countries depend on water from a single river.

Risa
During this trip I think I will find out more about how our resources aren’t always going to be there.  In Las Vegas I think I will see how the water we have is being misused and how if we keep it up things are only going to get worse.  Also I think I will be reaffirmed in the idea that relationships are very important.  I think we will find out that when we have good relationships with our neighboring countries and groups within our nation thins will go smoother and it will strengthen our country.

Steven
I think I’ll learn a lot more about our current situation with sustainability.  I think as of right now, we’re on the beginning of an upward trend.  In the last several decades, we have not done very well as far as sustainability of resources and maintaining relationships.  However, I think that in the last couple years we’ve started to realize what’s going on, and we’ve begun to do something about it.  I hope to find out exactly what we are doing, as far as finding alternative sources of energy.  And hopefully we’re starting to heal relationships with the natives in the Southwest, because we also haven’t done in that area either.