Questions for Ben Brabson

1. What is the government's role in limiting CO2 to reduce global warming?
2. For developing countries who do not have all the resources that the United States has, what should they do about reducing fuel emissions to slow down global warming?
3. How do you think us, as students, can and should educate others about global warming?

Journal Entry 3

As an environmentalist, I believe the government should always be doing more to protect the environment.  Obama did use much of the stimulus money towards green efforts, but he is not following through with many of his other campaign promises.  Of course, with checks and balances, changing policy is a slow process, but I do believe he could be doing more.

Obama came into the presidency at a difficult time; with the country in recession, he had to pick which battles to fight for.  He pulled really hard for the health care reform and then had to focus his efforts on the oil spill.   

I worry that environmental efforts are always in the backburner because they do not seem like pressing problems.  Yet, the problems just continue to get bigger and bigger, and one day will be an immediate problem which we will no longer be able to solve.

Journal Entry 2

The federal government needs to regulate environmental matters.  If it does not take on this role, most companies and individuals will ignore their responsibilities to the environment and instead focus upon living in ways that are most beneficial to them.  Sustainable practices (methods which strive towards balance between environmental longevity and economic growth while using available resources without exhausting them) can be expensive, and if companies want to be competitive, this is often not the best route for them.  If the government regulates all businesses, however, they are all on a level playing field.  Especially in a country as developed as ours, we have the capabilities to continue production with less pollution and we need to give companies incentives to find new sustainable ways of production.

There has to be direct consequences for people to really care about the environment.  For example, when gas prices were near $4 per gallon, I noticed my friends and family were much more conscious about where they were driving.  Although most everyone knows the harmful effects driving has on the environment, that thought alone does not limit many people from unnecessary driving.  They need immediate consequences to change their lifestyles, which the government can provide.  It must limit personal freedoms, which often end up hurting the whole. 

I think a mixture of traditional government regulation and other rewards incentives would be successful in limiting the amount of pollution.  This would require all businesses to pollute less, but also offer rewards for those who pollute even less. 

Journal Entry 1

I identify myself as an environmentalist because I support protecting the environment.  More specifically, I claim to be a holist because I believe that everything - animals, plants, etc. - is interconnected, interrelated, and interdependent.  The butterfly effect, which regards how a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the world can cause natural disasters on another, demonstrates my beliefs how even the smallest actions can have large ripple effects.  Because human kind's negative impact on nature surpasses that of any other species, I support limiting personal freedoms to deter harmful imprints in nature.

Our society is centered around the individual and is overly focused upon not taking away any one person's rights.  Because of this overemphasis on the self, people put much effort into 'standing out', 'finding themselves', and becoming self-sufficient.  Yet with these gains of independence, and a number of other reasons, we have lost the sense of community; we have lost the sense that we are apart of something bigger than ourselves.  Few people feel responsible for anyone other than himself or herself.  Without a second thought, people often do things which have detrimental effects upon both others and the environment.

I believe that the government must fill the role that community once played by ensuring the betterment of the whole.  I support government action to work towards both the common good of people and the natural world.  For the most part, I tend to support an increased government influence in economic matters and less influence in social matters.  Through promoting equal opportunities, open mindedness, and understanding, a government can work to improve the community.  It must hinder ignorance, prejudice, and actions which hurt the whole.  With restrictions upon and freedoms for individual actions, a government can promote lasting change in bettering the country, environment, and world.