The Final Assignment

Sustainability is the ability to live in a constant, natural way of life, without degrading the environment. But in today’s world there are many obstacles that are problematic and preventing us from living sustainably. The overall root of each obstacle is the increasing population. Mother Earth can only support so many intruders. With overpopulation comes poverty, with poverty comes lack of education, and the reaction continues. If every one learns to live with the environment then there will be a more sustainable way of life in our future.



Poverty is perhaps the major environmental problem facing the world today. As seen in the picture poverty causes large amounts of pollution. In developing countries there is not enough money for the government to create or enforce laws pertaining to pollution such as the Clean Water Act. Because of this developed countries are putting there industries in developing countries so they will not have to worry about pollution fines and they are able to have cheap labor. Another problem with poverty is that the people do not realize and are not educated that they are degrading the environment.


APES really opened my eyes to indoor air pollution. Usually one only thinks about how we are contributing to outdoor air pollution. But what ourselves when we are sitting on the couch watching TV? We are breathing in all these man made chemicals, coming from sources you would have never thought of are slowly destroying are health. Some of those chemicals are methylene chloride, found in paint strippers and thinners, styrene (carpets, plastic products), and many more. So before spraying your free breeze freshener not only think about what it is doing to the environment but to your own health.






The last topic that struck my mind was energy use. With the environment such as key issue today one would think people would start turning to all the available renewable resources. The world as a whole needs to wean it self off oil, it will not save money but also the environment. Although renewable resources are not always the cheapest way to go, but should give incentives for using such resources.

Victoria Pittman