Drew's Post

1. What, to your mind, is the most pressing challenge facing the global environment? Why?

2. Have a look at this piece that Stanley Fish wrote over the summer. Does it ring true for anyone? What does it mean to live in an "environmentally friendly" way in the modern-day US?

Answer to 1: Climate Change, because it is the most far reaching and it will require our culture, our economy, and our society to change to stop it, or change to adapt to it. It also requires extreme diligence. Climate change is the "all-encompassing" environmental issue, because it seems that any environmental challenge one can think of, climate change or its solutions relates to it.

Answer to 2: I have to say it doesn't ring true at all for me. While the evidence he gives is interesting, he makes no constructive conclusion and ends up just complaining. I was also dismayed by his constant use of religious language such as "belief" and "sin" to describe his situation. Being "environmentally friendly" is not at all about belief or religion. It's about knowing the truth (the hard, testable, scientific realities) and then acting on it. In my mind, his conclusion should be something to the effect of "It shouldn't be this hard to be green, we must demand from our government, our neighbors, our families, ourselves that things must change so this can all be easier."
Being environmentally friendly in the modern-day US means to have reducing, reusing, and recycling integrated into life, as much as possible. But the problems are so large that they can't be solved with personal action alone, and so it takes lots of people all demanding something better. A few people living entirely off-grid and eating all locally grown organic vegan foods is not good enough to save the world. It takes everyone changing culture, economy, and society so they do not deplete the environment further.