Exploring Sustainability and Technology

Since the beginning, I had a strong idea of what sustainability and technology are. However, once I started to research more in-depth about how our planet is suffering to supply the unlimited wants of society, I felt disgusted with human behavior. What makes me so disgusted is that the keyword “want”, not need. People are so fixated on buying things to fill their void, that they are completely clueless of what can truly give them happiness. And what happens to all the garbage they bought? Soon enough it becomes obsolete, the void widens, and they are out shopping again. Is it ever going to stop? To make it worse, what do a lot of people do with their garbage? They throw their garbage on the streets, litter out of their cars, don’t recycle, don’t compost, they don’t reuse, just because there is no consequence, no reprehension, thus there is no care.  And, instead of people have a complete sense of urgency on this issue and attempt to change, they keep on living their ...

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has influenced greatly the efforts to make the lives of many communities more sustainable. A few videos from their website are good examples of how  advanced research and  such technology assisted in the progress of sustainability.  First, EPA provided innovative assistance to the Fond du Lac band of Minnesota Chippewa Tribal College to increase recycling rates and help expand their solar capacity. They used solar panels on the roof of the building facing south and created recycle bins using the tribe’s language to increase the amounts of recycled items while unifying their culture. The use of this technology supports sustainability and is very appropriated. The additions to the building produce an additional megawatt of clean energy, serving as a source of heating during the winter, and the recycle bins reduce the amount of waste generated. I would personally invest in these types of the technology descr...

Will Allen, in his book, The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities , shows how success can be achieved when people follow their dreams. From a farmer to a basketball player, pursuing other jobs, and back to be a farmer, Allen has taught America how to grow good food. As a basketball player, Allen did not expect success right away. Through steady practice, after many years he became proficient: “The benefits of the hard work that you do now may not be felt for a very long time. But if you plant seeds and continue to then to them – and keep faith in the harvest- good things can come” (73). As an innate urban farmer, Allen took on the challenge to try to heal the broken food system in the inner-city community and teach young people from the projects and the inner city of Milwaukee on how to grow food. (9) Allen found out that methods of growing food were neither profitable nor sustainable at the time, “the industrial agricultural system in this country has...

    The amount of waste generated by people is growing each day, and the likelihood is that it won’t stop. As population continues to grow exponentially, the newest mindset which is contributing to human demise is the high demand for services and products instantly delivered. While giant corporations like Walmart, Amazon, McDonald's, and many others, keep on serving our “needs,” the intrinsic connection amongst people and the land is being completely extinguished. Such unnecessary consumerism and misuse of our planet’s resources is not only causing us to lose our intrinsic connection with our land, but also our connection to each other as a community. The “corner store” is no longer there and “fresh food” is no longer fresh. We have been conditioned to live and accept food and products the way it is provided to most of us: buying it somewhere, fast and as cheap as possible. And, to make things worse, many people buy things they don’t even need or end up using! ...