Sustainability

To me, sustainability means being able to live without creating more waste and being able to reuse and recycle any waste that would be created. One reason why we are unable to live sustainably is because of affluenza. Affluenza is the assumption that buying more and more things will bring us happiness, if we keep buying more and more goods we are just creating more and more waste. Another issue that is holding us back from being able to live sustainably is the theory of Tragedy of the Commons. Tragedy of the Commons is the idea that no one takes responsibility for a shared place, like the environment and so people keep assuming someone else will pick up the garbage and fix the pollution problems in the environment. Inorder for the human population to live more sustainably, people need to take responsibility for the destruction and waste they are putting into the environment and need to reuse and recycle more goods instead of just buying new ones.


I learned that there are over 5.1 billion pounds of plastic bottles that are available for recycling. But only about half of this is actually recycled. I learned that is is not only economically cost effective but also environmentally cost effective to buy and use a reusable water bottle instead of constantly purchasing plastic water bottles.









Garbage Island in the Pacific Ocean was formed due to the North Pacific Gyre or ocean currents. Every time garbage and plastic
                                                         waste is put into the ocean it comes here. Before taking APES I never knew there was such a thing as garbage island, I thought all the waste that  is put in just floats around in the ocean.

                          



The human population is growing at an astounding rate and it is the number one cause of environmental problems. Pretty soon the Earth will not be able to support us because we have exhausted all resources. Most population growth is happing in developing countries because life expectancy is still lower and mortality rates are still high. If developed countries like the United States helped the developing countries like India establish themselves, then we could slow down the growth of the human population.