Before this workshop, I would have said sustainability has to do with preserving earth’s resources, so we don’t deplete them for future generations’ use, and also using renewables to meet needs
The second image in the slide show was what I immediately thought of of sustainability, shaping our environment so that the people are more connected with the earth, living more directly in it, instead of apart from it. Because I think bringing nature into the daily lives of people will help them care more. Also, I like the imagery of this drawing as sort of an amphitheater. It seems like a space where people can come to discuss matters and foster communication. After the sustainability workshop, I’ve definitely come to recognize that there is a large social aspect of sustainability. Creating equitable social situations will be of upmost importance to creating better relationships with the world’s people. It’s like the idea of interdependence we talked about last week; all the future generations of all the nations depend on what we collectively do today. It was clear that all the sustainability goals came together when we thought of a smaller problem like food insecurity, and social goals are as equal in importance to environmental and economic goals.
It’s exciting to watch you move past the ideas to “preserve” or “conserve” the environment and see how complicated these things can be. We can’t simply “maintain (something) in its original or existing state” forever. How do we develop things sustainability and help communities thrive? What do we want to sustain?