Initially, I think individuals should spread the awareness once they have grasped a basic understanding of climate change. The more people that know about the severity and importance of the issue, the greater the likelihood of creating positive change increases significantly. After establishing the awareness in our families and community, the individual should consider voting for a promising politician that will work tirelessly to provide government aid. Individuals could purchase shares in wind turbines, solar panel systems, or alternative gases for their vehicles.
Personally, I believe that spreading the awareness is the greatest action I can pursue at my age, whether it be through verbal message or leading by example. In the next presidential election, my first opportunity to vote, I plan to take into consideration the candidates’ position on the environment and particularly global warming. Simply joining the discovery team and traveling to the numerous awe-inspiring locations has made me more conscience of preserving the world’s future.
After spending the major part of a day climbing through a valley and up a mountain shaped by glaciers and seeing the remnants of the ones that shaped the terrain, I have a newer, stronger sense that we need to step forward and start making new decisions for how we treat the environment around us. To think that humans could have so large an impact on the beauty of the waterfalls and streams that once flowed so fluidly through the valley puts a pit of guilt despite the fact that I’m not responsible for most of the destruction. I am basically completely convinced that we, humans, need to really take news measures to stop this mindless (and yes I mean mindless) destruction of the beauty (and life) that surrounds us.
I think that the world needs to get a new way of thinking; not thinking about whether an adventure can make you a millionaire, but rather whether what we are doing will be sustainable for later generations and good for the Earth. Things that can be done by the government and larger money-holders are using solar panels, wind turbines and other renewable energy providers. But, on a smaller level, we can ride our bikes or walk to the picnic down the road, or into town to pick up a small bag of groceries. A person can recycle the paper that he normally would throw away and take his groceries home in his own bags instead of the store’s plastic bags.
I admit that I don’t know exactly how much of this I am going to do right off the bat, but I already work on recycling things that can be and turning the lights off when I’m not in the room, but I won’t lie by saying that I’m going to turn into a energy-saving, global warming stopper right when I get home, because I’m sure I’ll still drive a car to places and still throw some things away simply because it’s the easier thing to do at the time. But, I will say that I am going to try.
Environmental issues have never really touched me emotionally, mainly because the results of our mistakes aren’t directly noticeable. Driving my car or riding my bike- the only difference to me is that one allows me to be lazy. Which one am I going to choose then? DUH- my car!
So what did it take to finally get these issues to become a part of me? Maybe is was going on a run through the welcoming streets of Boulder, or singing hymns deep in the rocks of Arches National Park… or maybe it was peeing in the Colorado River on our 2-day rafting trip. I mean, what better way to become a part of the Earth (hah hah)? Whatever it was, though, I now look at the world in a completely different way.
So what now? Am I supposed to go home and only use my bike from now on? My new obsession with my license and my freedom will most likely inhibit me from doing that. So where do we start? Honestly, I think it’s pretty normal to make a list of things to change and then go home and not do anything differently. The best place to start, I think, is focusing on getting people involved. For me, I’d start with my family and work my way up. I think that’s a reasonable goal to set. I want to get people involved and I think that’s something I can do. So instead of going home with a list of things I’ll struggle doing, I’m going to concentrate on spreading what I’ve learned.
I feel my individual responsibility for combating global climate change is to try my best to become ‘greener’ in order to make my footprint on this earth less noticeable. This means riding my bike more often, turning off the lights when I leave a room, and even putting a brick in the upper part of a toilet to use less water. When hydrogen cars become cheaper and fueling stations become accessible, I wouldn’t mind owning one of those to reduce carbon emissions.
I realize it will be difficult for me to carry out all these ‘green’ actions. It is easy for me to follow whatever the rest of society is doing. Also, since I live on a hilly, dangerous road to bike on, I will most likely not bike everywhere I go, and taking my bike with me is an inconvenience. Becoming ‘green’ is an inconvenience, but after all I have learned on Discovery, I am willing to give it a try.
What should I do to help the environment?
I think it is important for everyone to do their share in helping to protect our environment. It is easy to look at one person and think that they are so small and that one person riding a bike or one person using a different kind of fuel will really make a difference. The problem is that if everyone thinks that about themselves in that way, nothing will happen with the problem of climate change. If people decide to work together and if everyone does one small part, it will end up having a great impact on our earth. There are many small things that we as individuals can do to help the environment. Some of them include riding our bikes, using energy efficient light bulbs, and recycling. I do believe that it will be hard to remember to put these things into practice when I return home because the rest of the world will still be the same, continuing with their regular routines.
One thing that I have noticed in the past is that if one person makes a bold move, others are likely to follow. When I return home, I’m going to try and put some of these new ideas to practice and hopefully, others will see the good that is being done and will want to help with the good that is being done. I want to do this because not only will it help the environment, it can be fun as well. When people see others being enthusiastic about riding their bike they may want to join in the fun, and it could be effective in more than one way.
Brook Hostetter
I believe we each have an individual responsibility to combating climate change. I think this responsibility is different for each person, and that each person should decide for themselves what their responsibility will be. For some people this will be to reduce their impact on the environment as much as possible. For others their responsibility will be much less.
Some actions that I could take are to purchase more local foods, recycle even when it isn’t convenient, ride my bike instead of driving, and reduce the amount things I consume in general. I don’t think I will be able to take all these actions right away. For example it is very hard to ride my bike anywhere from where I live. I live on Mt. Clinton Pike, and it is very dangerous to ride there.
The government should be responsible for promoting environmentally friendly practices by giving tax cuts for purchases such as solar panels. They should also work at making themselves environmentally friendly. Instead of wasting energy on large houses, and private jets for themselves they could individually conserve energy.
I believe our individual responsibility to combating climate change is to do as much as we can. It's hard as an individual to feel like you're actually doing something, but even a small group of people can get something accomplished in their school, organization, or even city. Once that happens, the group increases in size and gains more power to get more done.
To reduce carbon emissions, we can do simple things like turning off lights and unplugging things not in use. I saw a tv ad once that gave some large number in energy savings is everyone would unplug their television when the weren't using it. Also, individual households can switch to fluorescent light bulbs, which use less energy than the traditional light bulbs. People can also save oil and gas, by biking and walking to nearby places instead of driving.
I might start riding my bike more, because it recently got fixed. I think I'll try to change the way I live and I hope the practices will stick. I tend to be doubtful that I’ll be able to change because I've felt the need to change in these ways before, but I never have. Maybe three weeks will have had an effect on me this time.
I believe that global warming is happening, but I am yet to be convinced that it is humanity’s fault. I think that humans just help the natural act of global warming along, pushing it a bit faster. Even though I don’t think that humans are the cause, we still need to take responsibility and try to take care of what we are doing to the earth. Since we know what we should change to combat global warming, why aren’t we taking action? We need to practice sustainable living, like the Village Homes, using less energy and more renewable resources. The sun and wind are free, we need to take advantage of these resources, we can’t keep using un-renewable resources, soon they will be depleted and we won’t have anywhere to go. We don’t have to make huge life style changes, we can do simple things like, using florescent light bulbs, or just getting dimmers on your lights, riding your bike, or using public transportation and insulating your house. We produce way to much trash, if we can recycle or re-use things, then the landfills will not be as full. These are very simple but they save a lot of energy and un-renewable resources. There are many other things that people can do that won’t change the comfort of their house, but it will help our environment.
I have fluorescent lights and dimmers on some lights, my house is insulated and we recycle everything possible. I re-use plastic bags, sandwich bags and throw away containers so that we don’t have to throw them away. I would love to ride my bike, but Harrisonburg isn’t really set up for bikers. If we could get more bike paths installed then I would be happy to ride my bike. I think that more people, including me, would do things to help our environment if we could see the direct effect. Going on this trip has really helped me see the effects of what we do to our environment.
Our individual responsibility to combating climate change is that we need to care for the world in which we are only visitors. God put us on the earth to take care of it and all of the life on it as well. We, as humans, are polluting the earth and, in doing so, are destroying parts of it. We need to take better care of the earth and take responsibility for our actions and improve on our habits that are destroying parts of the earth.
Some actions that we can take to reduce our carbon emissions are pretty simple. Most of the things that we are doing to put carbon n the air are simple luxuries. We don’t need to drive a car everywhere, we could use a bike or even walk to the places around town or nearby. We could also find better ways to produce electricity through other rescources such as wind turbines, hydro electricity, solar panels, or just not using electricity at all. I think that if we do these easy things, then we can begin to lower carbon emissions.
I think that I should take these actions but I doubt it will happen. I’m only one person and I can’t really do much about the problem. I don’t think that doing this stuff will change people’s opinion and convince them to give up their luxuries. I think that if a group or team formed at our school that we could make a difference, at least a little, in our community.
I believe that we can reduce carbon emissions ourselves, but will it help? I believe the only thing we can do is use our voice. Even if we can reduce carbon emissions in our own personal lives, the businesses are still pumping all that CO2 in the air not giving a care. We need to reach out to the businesses, especially the coal plants and car manufacturers. I know there are thing we can do that would help a lot like riding a bike or car pools, but I know in Harrisonburg there are no bike paths and it’s hard to get around. We can get the government to make a bike path. We just all need to ride our bikes. It’s the same with this global warming issue. We all need to start getting with the program, well most of us then the government will realize. I do believe thought that fluorescent light bulbs are unnecessary because coal plants will still be putting out the same amount of CO2. Now helping build wind energy plants and other eco friendly power sources is a different story. Money is always the issue. If something goes wrong its usually because of money. The reason we aren’t doing very much is because of our greed. If you just contribute a little and get others to do the same it makes a difference. I believe global warming is going to be hard to deal with and at a point I think that we aren’t going to do much about it and when it strikes we’re in for it. I need to help out in some way. Riding my bike doesn’t seem like bad idea now that I think about it.
I feel as though it is not humanities fault that there is Global warming. I understand our contributions however I don't believe it's solely based on our bad habits. I think we need to start taking some actions to reduce green house gasses and CO2 build up in our air. To start, I think we need to take baby steps, as in living satiable for instance recycling and carpooling. If we go straight to the government and ask them to take the initiative it won't stand out. However, if the local people take action first and made and impression it would stand and it would give us more of a chance to get the government to help. Since my experience on Discovery, I feel as if I will now be conscious of what I'm doing to the environment and that I need to do my part. Global warming is a huge, controversial topic right now, weather we believe in it or not we still need to be aware of what we are contributing to the environment.
This beautiful world that God has created for us is much more fragile than we sometimes recognize. As issues such as global warming are becoming more prevalent to our generation, the question is asked if it is our individual responsibility to combat climate change. Thanks to the many view points that I have received from Discovery, I have personally concluded that it is everyone's personal responsibility to take care of the earth in which we live. The actions that we make in helping our earth could be as simple as recycling a tin can or taking a shorter shower. If further inclined, we could take on the responsibility of buying hybrid vehicles or using environmentally safe energy sources as well.
After Discovery, when all 29 of us are at home, the final test of this great adventure is if we will be taking what we learned and putting it to use in our day to day lives. I believe that we have much potential to carry out our new found knowledge. Each of us learned what needs to be done for our environment to flourish. If we rise to the challenge and carry out what we have learned, I believe we could truly make a difference.
I believe that our individual responsibility in combating climate change is to do as many things as possible. For example, one should turn off lights when leaving a room. Some actions that people can take to reduce our carbon emissions are carpooling with others, when going to buy a new car buy a hybrid or one that gets really good gas mileage, and when possible ride a bike. I think that I will try to be more conscience of what energy I am using. One reason that I will try to do this is that I believe that how we use our resources is important.
Combating Climate Change on an Individual Level
While taking care of our planet is ultimately something the individual has to decide is on their priority list, I don't believe combating climate change places all the responsibility on us as individuals to do it all. I believe it is our individual responsibility to elect into higher power those who can make a difference on the larger scale, speak up in our churches and schools, and encourage our own families to do what they can. I think smaller scale is where we can make a difference on our own.
Goals we set for ourselves should be small and reachable. I think a few good ideas to reduce carbon dioxide emissions are carpooling, changing to better lighting systems with fluorescent light bulbs, and wear warmer clothing in our houses during winter instead of blasting the heat. The biggest one to me is turning off appliances when they’re not in use. My computer and television are often on when no one is using them, and energy is being wasted like crazy.
I hope that I can take these actions and put them into practice immediately when I get home, but I'm not entirely convinced it will happen. I think in order for me to be successful, I need to measure my actions. I need to be aware of my successes and reminded of my failures. Baby steps might be the thing that will work for me, and I think that will be what will work for everyone else as well.
During this trip I have learned that we all have a responsibility to combat climate change. There are so many more things that we can each do individually than I thought. Some of the things we can do to make a difference would be things like using different forms of energy that don't add to global warming. I will start small in my effort to combat climate change and then I will hopefully learn more ways that I can keep taking good care of the earth.
Not until Discovery 2007 did I realize the effects of climate change. Before, I heard it on the news, at school and saw the consequences with gas prices but it really didn’t make me think about how I was living my life. Now after seeing the rapidly melting glaciers in Glacier National Park, I can truly understand the issue of climate change and how it is changing the Earth and the resources we depend on.
The main part of the issue of climate change is how us as humans are contributing and increasing the problem. In my opinion, it all comes down to money and efficiency. We use cheap and easy ways of energy, which are polluting our air and destroying land. To make our lives more efficient and easier, we are forcing other species to change and adapt. An example of this is the Bonneville Dam in Washington. This dam, along with many others in the area, create a great amount of hydroelectric power but disrupt the salmon’s natural instinct to swim upstream and spawn.
An individual cannot stop climate change by themselves, but by doing those small actions like recycling and reusing paper, riding a bike or petitioning for more sustainable resources in your city can create a movement. When I get back to Harrisonburg, I want to start making people aware of climate change and do those simple actions. It's going to be hard but I think we need challenges in our lives. I LOVE to drive anywhere, but even when I want to ride my bike, I don't feel comfortable riding on the streets in Harrisonburg. We may not see the effects of climate change right away but I know there are consequences and I don't want my children to suffer because of my actions, or lack there of. As individuals, we have to stand up and make the right decisions so that others will hopefully join to create a community. Larger cities like Boulder, Colorado and Portland, Oregon have managed to live more sustainable with the support of the community and I see no reason that Harrisonburg and other cities cannot at least try to do the same by creating bike paths, conserving energy, improving public transportation and educating members of the community. God gave us all we need to survive, but for us to keep living, we need those resources to also survive.
We are humans. We come and go, knowing our time is short. But in this short time, we do a huge amount of damage. This damage is unintentional but not excusable. We all do it, but we need to change. As humans, our individual responsibility to combating climate change is to leave as little damage as possible. Some small things that everyone of us can do to help us with this goal are such things as: turning off lights in rooms we’re not using, putting a brick in the back of our toilets, taking shorter showers and driving slower. These are all things I'm going to try to do after this trip among others. I like to think that I’m not naïve but I am. If I had been asked two weeks ago about an environmental issue, I wouldn’t have taken the time to answer. Discovery has been a huge eye-opener for me. I am more aware of the seriousness of global warming and that each one of us holds a part to fill. I've really been sparked in an interest to do my part in conserving energy and taking my role in slowing down global warming.
Question: What actions can we take to live sustainably?
By what we have learned so far, I have changed my opinion about global warming. I think that climate change is happening, but not because of us. We have sped up the process, but ever since the last ice age the earth has been warming up and fr some reason now is when we are worry about it. My individual responsibility to help global warming is hard to do because I feel like I am just 1 piece of a big puzzle. I would really like to do radical things like buy solar panels, and ride my bike everywhere. Since I jus received my license I drive everywhere and to just stop and ride bike is dumb.
Because I live so close to school it seems reasonable for me to ride my bike to school. In the future I would like to try that on good days maybe 1-2 times a week. If I can convince my siblings to ride bike too then it would be easier. Now if I actually do this is a different story. As I said before I like to drive my car, and to just stop and ride bike seems silly. The reason that would get me to do this would be to try to get others to follow. If I wasn’t the only one doing it I would seem more likely to ride my bike. This would be my way of helping the environment even though it is small.