Hello fellow bloggers

So, as you know my name is Maggie and I know how to activate a blog (Add that to my resume)! I am also a senior here at AU but I transferred in last fall. I am from New York, the very eastern end of Long Island to be specific, and am currently undergoing beach withdrawal symptoms, as I live by the ocean. Growing up, my family had a membership to an organic farm down the road, where local farmers would plant crops and families in my town could harvest what they liked. I was raised to appreciate the time, energy, and lack of unnatural additives that went into the food I ate. Today, I try my best to eat organic, seasonal, and sustainable foods, but like most college students I have limited time and a limited budget, and sometimes can't help but to grab the cheapest, and easiest, meal on the go. The same goes for other environmentally-friendly habits. I turn the water off when I am brushing my teeth, I take relatively quick showers, I recycle, turn the lights off, etc, but even after the actions I take to do my part, I know that I could be doing more and trying harder. Besides the fact that I have never taken a class on environmental politics and was intrigued, I chose to take this course because I want to better understand the reality of the impact of my individual actions, and what role I can play in the future.

Stanley Fish wrote,"it is possible to believe something and still resist taking the actions your belief seems to require," and even though it sounds like a total cop-out on his part, I can relate. I believe that global warming is a serious and threatening issue and I believe that I must do my part in order to preserve the future for mankind. However, I drive my car more often than I use public transportation because it is faster and more reliable and I will toss an empty water bottle into a trash can on the street corner instead of waiting to recycle it. I am not defending my actions, merely recognizing the frustration Fish encounters. It is easier to abuse the planet's resources for our own individual comforts when we live in a part of the world where it is both possible and ubiquitous. I studied abroad my first semester of freshman year in the Dominican Republic and when I returned to the States I noticed the excessive nature of the people around me with new eyes. I resisted my home culture, the way reverse culture shock usually manifests, but after a few months I was back into the old routine and treated our resources no differently than the next person. It is frustrating, and as long as we are allowed to live in excess I don't think that we will be able to change enough to save our planet. I think that individual action is important, but I think that big change needs to come from policy prescriptions in order to force a shift in the way people live. It is effortless to choose the easy way and not change old habits, which is why the option to live in certain ways needs to be eliminated.