I have a strong interest in sustainability before I take the class and I still learned a lot from this course. I wasn’t aware of the tipping point and the methods to escape the tragedy of the commons. After this semester I learned more about the carbon tax, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions. The math equations and calculation methods are very helpful in knowing how much carbon footprint does each of our daily behavior has on the environment. I am the president of Eco-Conservation Association, a student club aims to promote sustainable lifestyles. The unit factor method and the power estimation are very useful in telling others about how much carbon footprint we have more accurately and how much energy they can save by changing their lifestyles.
Through years of experiments, I realized living sustainably is not only individual choices. Corporations, governments, and even farmers are all responsible for sustainable productions, offering greener options. As consumers, our choices are sometimes limited. Therefore, after this semester, I become less confident in our ability to tackle climate change because it is a much more complex issue than I thought. Through many in the news post, I have also noticed that climate change is much urgent than I thought. On the other hand, I would be happy to join a public debate or decisions on issues related to sustainability, even though I am not so confident in achieving our carbon cut goals within a few years. As a member of SSAC, the Student Sustainability Advisory Council at Penn State, I worked on eliminating styrofoam on campus for switching to Green to Go exclusive’s feasibility. As the younger one is, the more attention one pays to sustainability, we have a hope for more and more “Penn State’s Green New Deals” coming forth. Through a few meetings with university officials, some of the plans are feasible but will take time. In short, public education and money are still two of the major obstacles facing our environmentalists. After learning the value of one project over the decades, I am more confident in persuading the university to make changes faster.
Lastly, I am more confident in assessing quantitative information and quantitative arguments. Using data to assess how much change do we need to make and how long it has to be is important. Deaths caused by climate change is increasing, by artificial natural disasters, by severer weather, by rising sea levels. We wish the day that “wherever is not submerged by sea is on fire” never come.