Session 1 Blog Post For Feb 3

Question:  From the reading entitled: “Conservation is Good Work”, what are the most appropriate and effective ways in which consumers can prevent the ongoing degradation of natural resources by the human economic system?

While reading this segment, I was struck by the clarity employed in the presentation of the many negative effects of human intervention in the world. However, I was equally if not more surprised by the simplicity of the answer to this global market that we have created and allowed to grow beyond our control.  In my understanding, it would seem that since it is the individual that supports this global demand for foreign created goods, it is the individual who must be assigned with the task of changing the current monopoly of this global market so as to prevent the ignorance employed towards workers of corporations and towards the natural resources that are so easily pilfered away.  Furthermore, it would seem that humanity must step seemingly backward to progress forward without causing major catastrophe in our near future.  This means that individuals must invest in local production and creation of goods and services.  We must reignite an interest in independence and self-reliance that pushes us to grow gardens, invest in local parks and outdoor recreational centers, buy and support local markets and refrain from a dependence on the institutions that seek to take advantage of our ignorance and tendency to over-value convenience.  At first such “sacrifices” to our over-all way of life will seem like too great a task until we reap the benefits of a local community that is healthier and more active in terms of economic productivity and realize that to live within a community means to also support that community.  Ultimately, if we support our individual local environments, we will see a decrease in not only monetary costs for the individual but also a decrease  in environmental costs which will in turn sustain our livelihoods and our contentment as a society and as a species for generations onward.