Writing 3 and Reading Comments

For my sustainability pact, I have decided to calculate how much I have recycled (by weight and sum of product items). I can use the internet and/or a scale to help with the calculations. I hope to find that I have recycled more items than I normally would had I not made an effort to change.

The Value of Nothing:
A sentence that caught my attention- They turned to the only thing they had left, they sold their labor.
A question I have is why Pakistan allows foreign trawlers to fish their shores if it is killing their people and communities, despite the economy boost?
I was upset by the fact that the article said all people are rapacious and cannot control themselves. Definitely untrue.
I realized as I read the article that learning about the commons and how people treat one another really upsets me. BUT also how scientists and other communities are trying to blame other people or communities for the downfall of things such as fishing. If people have been fishing for AGES why is it all falling apart now? It can't just be due to the people...who have inhabited the planet ...for a very very long time.

Recovering the Commons
A sentence that caught my attention was "

"Whenever the bond that binds the living creature to his environment is broken, there is nothing that holds together the various factors and phases of the self "
A question I have is why are people so confused on how to deal with the commons. Could a set of laws not be laid down to further protect the common area?
I was interested in the approach this article took compared to the previous article. A lot of referencing was used, possibly to the detriment of the article.
Again, I felt upset about how people are treating their environment when I read the information provided by this article.

App State has a go with sustainability...

When viewing the Sustain Applachian website, the first thing I thought was "hmm...this looks really plain and boring". While that may be true, it is also true that the website is very informative on a variety of topics relating to sustainability.

It took a while for me to find the 3 categorys: Energy, Travel, and Waste. I ended up clicking on every tab on the left side of the page to try and find these pages. It ended up being under Campus initiatives...how was I supposed to know that though?
The energy page seemed to be pretty good. It was really simple and straight the point.
The waste reduction page was alright. It should have given more information about how they came up with those figures.
The travel page was neat becuase it actually realted to the viewer on a personal level by telling stories of other students and their travel to Whales. The calculator was a great gadget to include.

I was really disapoined with the transportation page, especially the Boone Bike Initative link. There was hardly any information. It told you to email for more info. You shouldnt have to do that when your on a website. All the info should have been posted for you to read right there and then- like who to contact, who started it, how to rent or buy a cheap bike. I'd like a bike! but wait...where do I begin??!

Overall the site was good but lacked in places.

Personal Sustainability...what a toughy!

     Implementing some of my "promises" are simple, while others are not as easy. It's easy to rinse a can out and throw it in a bin for recycling. It's even easy to recycle other random products, like carrot bags and plastic tomato pints. However, the community connection is not as easily achieved. Unfortunately my church is in Charlotte, I am not able to be there every Sunday to make pastries for the refreshment table.

     On a positive note, I have started all of my objectives in some way. I walk everyday to class and I take jogs when possible between work and classes.

     To measure my "non-green" activities before I started, I monitored what my average weekly recycling was. I recorded that and I am now keeping track of what I am recycling on a green-scale. I cannot really measure how much electricity I am using but I do know that I am keeping my lights, tv, and chargers off when they are not in use. I cannot control everything because I have roommates.

     Sometimes it is difficult to stick to the golden rule, but I know it is worth it. As time goes by, people will notice my efforts and in the end there will be more respect between me and the relationships that I have with others on a daily basis.