Age: 33
Residence: Boulder, CO
Gender: Female
Political Stance: Liberal
Highest Level of Education: Undergraduate Degree
What are your top three environmental concerns?
The interviewee expressed concern for many problems facing our species and the biosphere. Among her top three are issues dealing with toxicity, water and food. She chose to focus on these three issues because they are perceived in her immediate environment, leading her to call them “more intimate problems.” She compared these issues to other issues such as deforestation, climate change and rising sea levels and explained that the latter are harder to see and thus less threatening in her local environment. The interviewee worries regularly about the young receiving “exposure to unsafe toxins from placenta to puberty.” She feels firmly about this issue, and stated a principle of, “if we don’t know [what chemicals do] we shouldn’t use them.” Along with unsafe toxins, the interviewee said she feels concern about access to safe drinking water, given practices like hydraulic fracturing and the phenomena called desertification. Similarly, the interviewee expressed worry for transparent and healthy food. She believes that education and income lead to healthier food choices, and though fresh, organic food is readily available, she feels that the systems necessary to deliver it widely are not in place.
Do you see people being able to overcome these challenges?
The interviewee reported mixed feelings about this question. Although she wants everyone to succeed, she feels that some will not. Indeed, the interviewee stated that a lot of suffering is yet to come. She feels that scarcity of resources and disease will cause quite a bit of suffering for a majority of people around the globe, within her lifetime. These opinions are difficult for her to assimilate because she feels her purpose in life is to ease and end suffering. The compassion felt for others is overwhelming for her at times.
Does religion influence your opinions at all?
The interviewee expressed that religion definitely plays a role in the formulation of her outlooks and opinions. She perceives a connectivity between all humans, the planet and all of life on an overwhelming scale. Her psychedelic experiences have led her to experience the aliveness in trees, rocks, mountains, flowers and other humans, and she believes that this beauty is the spirit of the world. However, she feels that most people aren’t able to open up enough to experience this beauty, and instead succumb to materialistic satisfaction. Her opinion holds that inevitably this pursuit leads to the degradation of life on earth.
Will the quality of life improve for humans in the coming 30 years?
The interviewee shared mixed feelings about this question. According to her, things are getting better and worse all the time. She says her dog lives a better life than most people on the planet by being fed two organic meals a day. This seems absurd to her. She finished her thought process with a quote:
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” -MLKJ