I used to think that being buried (anti-ecological burial) was the primary way of handling the deceased. However, especially after COVID, I have a lot more news on people being cremated, just because there was not enough space or time for people to be buried. I have also found that it is a lot more expensive to have a burial rather than cremation which is why many people are leading towards creating bodies if they cannot afford burials. Anti-ecological burials and cremation both contribute negatively to the environment and people need to be aware that there are other eco-friendly options for handling the deceased. One method of cremation is to freeze corpses using liquid nitrogen which then disintegrates the body and does not release green house gases like the traditional way of cremation (burning bodies). Hopefully an increased awareness of this method would decrease the amount of cremations done by burning bodies in the future. #UnleashValues

I envision a future where everyone is mindful of sorting their garbage, recyclable items, and compost. Recycled products are not as good in terms of quality which is steering companies away from using non-plastic materials to package products. This is one of the reasons why plastics are widely used for packaging all sorts of products (ex: food). For the future, recyclable plastics should not be mixed up with other types of plastics so that it can actually be recycled. Proper waste management should be a top priority for the future to prevent recyclable plastics from becoming unrecyclable due to sorting contaminations. A solution could be to ban non-compostable plastics and ban all plastics that are not truly biodegradable or recyclable because that complicates the waste sorting issue. Another solution could be to hold people accountable and punish those who do not properly sort their household wastes and plastics. This may encourage people to take waste management seriously and would make sure recyclable wastes are not contaminated with other wastes.

I envision a future where I can eat as much sugar without being as risk for various diseases. I dont think I could ever give up on sugar to even a healthy limit. I know it's bad but to me, enjoying desserts is a big part of my life. I know the risks of eating too much sugar (ex: obesity, type 2 diabetes, etc) but that doesn't stop me from my tea time sessions when I eat some dessert with tea to balance it out and it doesn't stop my friends and I from going out to get desserts after eating a meal. Unless sugar is later determined as a drug, I don't think I will be able to decrease my sugar intake. Therefore, I think a solution could be to make a law that declares sugar to be a drug and allow people to only buy it in very limited amounts like over the counter drugs, or not at all. #UnleashValues

Large scale fires have become more of an issue now more than ever. I envision a future where there are no longer uncontrollable amounts of forest fires especially during the hot summers. Although fire itself is natural and important for the ecosystem, any more than the necessary amount of fires needed causes a lot of harm to all the living organisms on Earth. All the air pollution created by forest fires during the past few summers impacts the human health especially for those who have respiratory conditions such as COPD or asthma. Something to decrease the risks of large scale fires could be to give tree planters more specific instructions to plant trees further away from each other so the tree replanting is less dense. To catch outdoor fired early on, perhaps there could be several fire detectors in in fire prone areas/forests that would alert firefighters to extinguish the fire before it gets out of hand. Also smoking should not be allowed in any areas with bushes or trees that can burn easily. #Unleashvalues

I hope to see a future with sustainable agriculture to counteract food shortages. It seems to me that not only is modern farming working against ecosystems, but also the systems for farming that has put into place for many many years also work against the ecosystem. So much soil is becoming unusable and nothing much is being done to replenish the soil. The current systems/policies were made based on past knowledge on the environment and it just isn't a good guideline to follow. Policies need to change based on the new knowledge people have acquired over the many years. Farming using perennial plants could induce some positive changes in agricultureal sustainability and although we do not know if this could provide food for the entire world, we do know that it would probably lower the amount of undesirable products (carbon emissions). To allow more farmers to be able to produce perennial crops, it would be ideal to make it easier to take out loans with lower interest rates for perennial farmer since it does take years for those types of plants to grow and produce products. Those farmers would not be able to produce much revenue for at least a few years, and if the interest rates are high, it would be difficult to pay off what they owe. This would ultimately drive farmers away from having farms mostly based on perennial plants. Something that could stir-up change in the right direction could be to raise awareness for a more effective types of farming. Online learning programs such as Khan Academy could provide lessons cater to farmers so that they can learn how to farm more sustainably and also learn more about farming in general from experts since farming is a very physically and mentally taxing profession.

I think the market is unreliable because it's always changing according to the current needs/wants of consumers. The Panama canal situation was a rare success and it just so happened that the market was reliant on the shipping services which basically gave large corporations an incentive to contribute to resolving the canal problem. Getting those ships through the canal without troubles was the most ideal situation for shipping companies and large corporations who relied on shipping since there may be other issues for them if the canal was no longer available to use. Trading ecosystem services on the market would only work if the problem largely affects the current market and also affects those who are able to provide resources or funding so that they would actually want to solve the issues. I do think it's necessary to not take water for granted and getting municipalities to value natural assets such as water could be a way to proceed towards a positive future. Perhaps to make people value water more, the price of water for things like consuming/cleaning could be set based on one's household income so that everyone can still have relatively equal access to water. It's more difficult with drinking water but maybe income could be programmed into a citizen card (BC service card) so that when people purchase water for drinking, the price would be based on the person's income. For example a bottle of water for someone could be $5 per liter if they have a low income and $50 per liter if they have a high income. We should make sure there's a limit to how much one can buy in a day to prevent hoarding. This idea would need to have many preventative components to overcome corruption and inequity. The sad reality is that this is much too difficult to implement for now and there is a possibility for illegal activities which may prevent equal access to water. #UnleashValues

In terms of the Indigenous community they should have equal opportunities to express their views and have their concerns be addressed in policy making especially related to environmental issues. This could be done by setting aside a select number of positions of higher authority to Indigenous people. I don't think those with an immense amount of wealth should feel obligated to donate to those who are of a lower social status/underrepresented, but it should be appreciated when they do donate their wealth/resources to the public. People who are underrepresented and in need of financial aid are not necessarily suffering only because they don't have money, but because social and government systems are some of the main contributors to their issues regarding inequality. Just money cannot solve their problems. Instead of billionaires purely just giving resources and money to the less represented people, they could continue focusing on creating new technologies/inventions for the development of humans, and it is the government that needs to focus on providing justice and creating policies to remove the injustices in society. A law to diminish planned obsolescence could be to have technological products have an expected lifespan of at least a certain amount of years so the products can be used longer. Another law could be to only allow companies to release new products after a certain length of time because having too many new products come out in a short amount of time can cause people to upgrade their devices more often than needed. #UnleashValues

For the future, I feel it would be ideal to disconnect the idea that materialistic things and values/status are related because there shouldn't be a need to "flex" one's status. I have witnessed many people of a lower socioeconomic status save their money just to buy a designer product and show off that they can buy expensive things. There are also people who will buy designer products just for the name/logo and not because they actually appreciate the design. These kinds of things are happening because companies and influencers have promoted the use of designer products which is causing unnecessary consumption, especially for the people who need to save up money in order to buy an expensive product. #UnleashValues @cosphereproject

Hi, I'm Sharon a 5th-year Biology student enrolled in ENVR 430 at UBC. Wanting to make a change was always in the back of my mind but I didn't do anything about it because I didn't know how to begin. Through this class, I'm excited to broaden my perspective regarding the environment and hope to make an impact not only for my generation but for future generations to come! #UnleashValues