As we come to the end of this term, I can't help but be amazed at how fast time has passed. I am so glad to have chosen this course and be a part of this learning journey with everyone! There were lots of ups and downs throughout the term. I was pleased to see innovations and new ways to save our planet, but more often saddened by the ugly sides of the Earth (plastic recycling, environmental racism, etc). I also learned that individual action alone was not enough - we have to find flaws in the system to create meaningful change. Everything week we learned content without the worry of memorizing every detail, which allowed us to focus on the stories, problems, and solutions and remember them for years. To me, I will not forget what I learned for a long time. In the end, I am going to envision a future, maybe one that's a little too idealistic, but I will say it anyways (maybe it;ll be set in a very distant future): I envision a future where people are not crowing over each other, where no one competes over natural resources. As such, people live in harmony with the Earth and take no more than what they need. There is a perfect, circular cycle between humans and nature. (In a way, I almost hope there are more rural populations and a much smaller population size. But I think that this change will take a long time to occur organically.) Thank you Kai and Dana for such a wonderful term! #UnleashValues

Vision: This week, I envision a future in which businesses are not a dominating force. Where there are no hidden actions and unexposed scandals deceiving consumers. Where government policies are not influenced by capitalistic forces. The stories we learned this week has taught me that businesses do not follow any ethic code, and will always take the course of maximum profit. Unless the entire planet is threatened and the situation is out of hand, I doubt these businesses will stop in their path of increasing shareholder values. There are far too few environmentally conscious corporations and in the far, far future, I hope there are fewer businesses in total such that we have as little conflicts of interest as possible (between the benefit of the business and the benefit of nature). Implementations: - Strong environmental laws should be enforced to require businesses to act transparently to ensure that there is no hidden actions going on behind the scenes. - More independent studies to avoid scandals like the VM case. - Advocate for the right things more often, and be more confrontational - this will drive direct action and systematic change #UnleashValues

In the past, I’ve come across fitness bloggers advocating for grass-fed beef because of its higher nutritional value, and while they’re not wrong, the negative effects of grass-fed beef seem to fairly outweigh its benefits. Compared to conventionally bred beef (which are already part of the harmful chain of animal agriculture), grass-fed beef have even higher greenhouse gas emissions and land use (as more forests must be cut down to make space for grazing). We saw really good examples of this in Cowspiracy, where the family farm of grazing cows are stating the humongous area that their cows are occupying like they don’t mean anything. In Cowspiracy, we also learned that the excessive North American diet takes up significantly more land than a vegan diet or mostly plant-based diet. In some aspects, the organic approach is the same: it benefits a select group of people who have the luxury of paying for costly organic produce at the sacrifice of taking up more land and emitting more methane. I think the notion of organic foods have been painted in an exaggerated manner, and their costly nature makes it more of a luxury for the elite instead of a commodity for the people. We shouldn’t be consuming these products if it comes at the expense of sacrificing precious land that we‘re losing so fast these days. For this week, I’m envisioning a future where the notion of “Organic” doesn’t exist. There wouldn’t be a difference between conventional or unconventional farming, because every crop would be farmed in the same sustainable way that feeds back into the land.In my envisioned future, Earth’s population size would have diminished, with every person well educated about the environmental costs of agriculture and a good system that is built on pillars of sustainability instead of profit. As such, the burden that our land will have to bear is much less, and it can support every organism in a well balanced circle of life. We can act on a daily basis to help. Since the state of the environment should be everyone’s priority, I believe we should choose our groceries in a way that limits the negative effects on our land. We can act specifically by: doing more research to find out which organic produce takes up the most land supporting farms that are doing more polycultures lower consumption of products that use an excessive amount of land (ex. grass-fed beef) Individual action alone will not be enough. In order to bring about large-scale change, the incentives of the agricultural industry needs to change. Too many people choose annual crops because there aren’t enough loans or subsidies that would support them to farm perennial crops. #UnleashValues

My biggest surprise from the readings this week is that people in developed countries take water for granted. It is a subconscious thing because our planet is surrounded with blue liquid, and we’ve been used to freely accessible water for all of our lives. Now, I feel that not giving water a price seems like a really unwise move - when people realize it’s true value, it will be too late for humanity. Today’s stories shared by Professor Chan showed us that governments and policy makers can influence environments to change in either direction, and push the fate of water towards sustainability or doom. Thus, it’s so crucial for decision-making authorities to take into account how to keep water accessible and clean and available to people. I also think that documentaries like the Brave Blue World are i because due to Netflix wide reach, there will be more people that learn about the current situation of water and become aware of ways they can start conserving. To me, the documentary acts as an advertisement for the technologies because they’re making themselves seen by the viewers, which might include potential sponsors; they’re promoting their product to every person who watch this documentary. I envision a future where the drinking water supply in never depleted, not because we’ve found an aquifer so large it could sustain millions of generations, but because every person understands the value of water and takes constant action to conserve their use. In order to achieve that, we must make people feel the pressure or fear of not having water. Cape Town’s Day Zero being postponed is the best example that we can all learn from. Propaganda is necessary to spread this across humanity and make as many people as possible see that if we take collective action, the most dire situations can be saved. Governments should consider environmental issues like water availability as a constant priority, but that doesn’t mean that individuals can be lavish and wasteful when it comes to water! Here are some methods that I think everyone (you too!) can start adopting today: 1. If it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down (this is a phrase that I’m borrowing from a retreat; the indoor toilets are only flushed after you 💩) 2. Close the tap when you’re washing your hands with soap, and turn it back on when you’re going to rinse your hands 3. Take faster showers! (I had friends tell me they think about life when they shower, and that takes a loooooong time) 4. When it rains, save up some for watering your plants! If these are not that realistic, please let me know what your suggestions are in the comments!

After watching the pre-readings, I realized that too many people are being displaced away from their land just because they do not hold enough power. In my vision for a just future, people who have ancestrally lived on a piece of land will have the right to continue to live with the land. There will be no division between anyone regardless of class or skin color because everyone and every culture is valuable. (Please correct me if this solution is unfeasible or impractical) To help eliminate the Procedural Dimension of Injustice, we can adopt councils as a new method of decision-making. This will allow us to include local or First Nations representatives so that every kind of voice is heard. I believe this is the most important dimension to tackle because once people start seeing a diversity of people taking part in decision-making, everyone will have a more equal position of power. Previously (even now), most people in the chairs of decision-making are Caucasian. This makes marginalized communities invisible because no one sees them on the media. By taking action in including more diversity in decision-making, we can equally distribute power to every group of people, and with the right allocation of power we can easily fix the recognitional and distributional dimensions too. I believe that in a utopian future where racism and discrimination are eradicated, my vision will easily come into reality. #UnleashValues

If I could pretend I was the Creator and craft a more positive future, I would imagine a future that has a lower carbon emission through minimizing the unnecessary wastes in our lives. Every household would hold on to pre-existing plastic bags and reuse them until they break, or even use fabric shopping bags. People would have significantly smaller wardrobes, and keep wearing garments for longer. If they would reuse broken clothing for cleaning rags, that's even better. I hope everyone would cook their own food instead of eating out, to nurture both their own health and the environment's health. For people who don't already own cars, they would bike or walk, or take buses for modes of transport. Even those who drive already can carshare to reduce carbon emissions. Not only does it help achieve carbon-neutrality, we would also help people emerge from a previous materialistic lifestyle that's damaging to their well-being. Basically, these are the pillars to my minimalist utopia: zero-waste minimalist fashion 80% at home eating, 20% restaurants more bikes and public transit #unleashvalues

Hi! I'm a 4th year biology student taking ENVR 430 at UBC and I am so eager to learn how to accelerate profound change towards sustainability while grounding in my beliefs and aspirations for the future. I am feeling a little anxious but more excited to learn how to create sustainable solutions! I hope that I can bring my previous technical knowledge to foster real change in this course! #UnleashValues