Take Aways

I took this course concurrent to being president of EcoSense, American University’s environmental club on campus. This was a very interesting experience as I was able to participate in actions and organizing that related to the issues that we were discussing in class including climate change, food justice, and tar sands. I was thankful for the class as it allowed for me some space to reflect on environmental issues and how best to create change. When you are part of any political group which shares an ideology or concern, issues, like climate change, can start to seem self-evidently important. “Of course climate change is an issue, duh!” “Of course we need to move away from fossil fuels.” While this might be truth it is important to remember that not everyone in world sees it that way and to forget this is to get lost in your own sound bubble. Thus I really appreciated getting a perspective on the wide variety of different solutions and ideologies that attempt to address perceived environmental problems. I believe that it made my own ideology and beliefs more coherent as I could articulate where they stood on the spectrum and thus better defend them.

I also really took away many things from the section of creating social change. In particular I found the Meadows piece to be particularly insightful. I liked how she broke down “systems” into leverage points at which one can intervene in order to change a system. It was interesting to see how different points can be easier to access but less effective at producing change then other ones which require more work. This type of analysis is simultaneously depressing and uplifting, as it indicates that environmental problems are systemic, meaning that they are broad-based and deep-rooted in society, but also reveals that this is not the way it has to be. Change can be created but it requires thought, perseverance, organizing and self-reflection.