Reading Response #4
Ashante K. Charles
Professor: Juanli Carrion
Thursday, February 28th, 2019
Sustainable Systems
Group Screening: Debate of This Changes Everything
Throughout our years of elementary, we were educated to be aware of the environmental disasters occurring in our community and globally, affecting the species in the ecosystem, and most importantly ourselves through these changes happening in our landscape and atmosphere. The environmental documentaries were repetitive, introducing new issues, more than solutions or changes, it became a normalized problem. I was asked during the group screening if I retain any hope for the future, it’s difficult to believe or admit because it has been years of accumulating environmental affairs, however, communities continue to take action, being environmentally conscious, and finding alternatives to systems that impact our environment less, especially our ongoing celebration of Earth Day annually. Taking into account of this generation’s influencers and designers it is possible to have a positive outlook on the future considering the sophistication of our technological advances subsequently.
The immense plastic discarded, occupies our oceans and the system of fast fashion are two that I believe have caught my attention. I believe when we are attached to a product in our community that becomes a traditionally valued necessity, once it impacts our environment we attempt to find a solution as damage proceeds.
New York is an awfully condensed city, buried in pollution while my hometown back in Canada, Ottawa, was environmentally spacial and consistently filtered. Living in New York has opened my eyes to areas of environmental issues that I was not conscious of or have ever encountered. I believe depending on the structure of an environment you inhabit, you are more or less concerned about the state and balance of your ecosystem. To my knowledge, I have not had much concerned about my health until I settled here in New York.
