Chris Piazza

Without focus toward sustainability, the lower-class societies and countries will continue to grow worse in terms of health, social violence, and job opportunities for those in need of one. From pollution to resource scarcity, these poorer cultures struggle toward economic expansion. However, the implementation of micro energy solutions, such as micro wind turbines, are great methods of slowly fixing this problem. First off, tons of money would be saved overtime throughout the entire wind turbine industry. According to Project Drawdown, their accumulated savings (after their initial costs) come out to approximately $20-$27 billion saved toward electricity production. Meaning, these turbines are able to be used in many various locations, create efficient amounts of electricity without contributing to greenhouse gas build-up, and even save money long-term (by the end of each wind turbine's useful life). 

All of this is important to me because creating sustainable environments where struggling areas can have a chance to build off of resources (that they couldn't utilize before) is crucial. It's not just opportunistic, but its fair and human. There wouldn't be as much cultural violence between nations if these struggling nations could utilize these sustainability resources. The conflict here is that the start-up of these wind turbines is high, so many stay away from them and look for alternatives. I feel, however, that this industry is looked down upon too much and needs greater social/political support in order to expand over the upcoming decades.

My vision of a sustainable community looks like a society composed of a wide variety of cultures interacting with one another to help solve humanity's problems. A large amount of diversity, to me, is a healthy aspect of society as it can create a highly-accepted environment for others to become a part of. Overall, sustainable communities can occur in many forms, from town, businesses, and neighborhoods. 

In order for these groups and their ideas to become a reality, there needs to be a safe environment for people to live in, both ecologically and socially. The social reality behind this is that people will have to accept one another along with their ideas, criticisms, and values (even if they differ completely from another). Ecologically, a residence/community should be habitable and lack any dangers that could cause long-term problems. For example, excess industrial expansion have led to increased pollutant output as well as other environmental conflicts including deforestation and land-based degradation. In other words, an environment needs to be restored to a natural, safe state in order to support a sustainable community.

This change in my diet wasn't too hard, however it was a bit more difficult to cut off chocolate as it is one of my favorite desserts. I do not have a sweet tooth and do not often crave chocolate products. Palm oil and coffee products I rarely use to begin with so giving up both of these was easy for me. All in all, this is a lifestyle I can continue to live by!