Hey all,

So…I’m Lauren. And there’s not a whole lot to tell about myself really, but as far as the questions Nicholson asked us to answer, I’m definitely excited about this class. I’m a senior and throughout my years at college I’ve become more and more concerned about environmental issues. Being from Colorado, preserving the environment is something that hits very close to home for me. Though I haven’t been in an environmental studies course until this semester, I was always trying to self-educate. I work at a farmer’s market here in DC and I’m always reading lots of books on the topic (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is my current one and so far so good if you’re interested). My friends (two of which were Environmental Studies majors), my mom (who is always bragging about her Prius), and my boyfriend (who works in outdoor education) are all pretty involved so I learn a lot from them. But I know I’ll get a lot out of this class and I’m really excited about having an in-depth understanding of all the issues that we’re facing, not only in order to be educated on the issues, but also to know how to best play my part. I always recycle and buy locally and organically as much as possible, turn off all the lights, ya know, the basic stuff but I know there’s more I could be doing or even improving on how I’m doing the things I’m already doing. So I guess that’s why I’m in this class. Also, I know this guy that works for the EPA and when he told me he and his boss don’t “believe” in global warming (whatever that means…) I was just totally shocked into silence. I guess I hope to come out of this class with a good amount of information to spit back at him and hopefully wake him up. Ridiculous. So that’s really all there is to say about all that.

As for the article, my first thought is, come on man, a seatbelt? Really? It’s almost funny how lazy you have to be not to put on your seatbelt. So it comforted me a little bit because I believe him to be a little bit of an extreme example. A lot of people won’t go through the hassle of dissecting all their recycle correctly, but they’ll still turn off their appliances right after use. But at the same time, it kind of hit home. I am often saying to myself things like, “hey, it’s so hot today and I’m tired of the heat. I’m leaving on the fans so it’ll be cool when I get back.” And there the fans go, sucking up energy all day just so I can be cooler when I get home. Honestly, so much of this is habit and what we’re used to. Frankly, as a white middle class American, I have grown up with luxuries that a large chunk of my fellow Americans can relate to. And this luxury is hard to give up in the name of something that does not return any obvious, direct positives to our daily lives. Unfortunately, I think we have to work on making “living green” stupidly easy. I do think that recycling needs to more straightforward to get more people on board and there needs to be a larger investment in local companies so that people don’t have to sacrifice months waiting for the wood because they decide to go green. That being said, the better argument is that people have to learn to be patient and change their lifestyles because they know how important it is. But since that seems unlikely, financial stimulus for local businesses and green lifestyles is definitely helpful. All in all, I can definitely understand where the author’s coming from; I think a lot of people can and that’s a big problem that much more educated people than I am are spending their lives trying to figure out.