The Making of an ENVS Star
by: Robert Nakihei
Growing up in Hawaii I was surrounded by lush tropical forests, majestic mountains, exotic wild animals, endangered species, and the Pacific Ocean. The thought of my home and all it has to offer vanishing because of an environmental catastrophe has never came to my mind until ENVS 160. I learned that it’s important to know that the materials we buy come from actual places with actual people and that each purchase has an effect on the places and people that, that material comes from. We shouldn’t just mindlessly purchase something without thinking of the outcome or affect it can have on the location it was produced. It’s easy for one to forget about these things when it comes to purchasing items because of how easy it is to buy something without knowing where it comes from. Doing the materials project and reading ‘Making a Modern World’ really illuminated this issue for me.
As some people are not aware of where their products come from, I also learned that some people are not aware of the importance of climate change. I learned through the climate change public opinion survey project that one of the top reasons people don’t place much importance on climate change is because of the lack of knowledge and awareness about how significant this issue is. Another main thing is a lot of people see it as an issue of the far future and don’t notice how much it’s effecting now especially if they don’t live in areas where it would drastically effect them. Other people thought that climate change isn’t that big of an issue and we have greater issues to worry about such as solving world hunger, disease, world peace, and poverty. It seemed like people were more focused on the equality and safety at home. Possibly hinting towards the threat of the new president. In the book, “Why We Disagree about Climate Change” also presents theories regarding religion, culture, media portrayal, etc.. (hulme,2009)
Another important thing I learned was the importance of policies and regulations that applied the science to ways that could really help the environment that is being damage by big cooperation’s. With so many big industries that pollute and introduce pesticides into the natural world, the best way to regulate them is through policy making. A successful form of policy making introduced in, “Who Rules the World” are ones that reduce the harm done by the cooperation gradually as to not create bigger issues of a collapsing market. One interesting way this was done was through the trading of permits in the lead industry because it gave companies a choice that lead to an overall decrease in the production of lead without suddenly ruining their business.
Works Cited:
Hulme, Mike. 2009. Why we disagree about climate change: understanding controversy, inaction and opportunity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Smil, Vaclav. Making the modern world: materials and dematerialization. Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom: Wiley, 2014.
Steinberg, Paul F. Who rules the earth?: how social rules shape our planet and our lives. New York, NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 2015.