Hello, my name is Amir Paris-Hasan, I’m a senior studying civil engineering. I currently live in the Wilkes-Barre area in the Northeast of Pennsylvania, but I was raised all over the world. I lived in Spain, Dominican Republic, Jordan, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates. All of the places I lived in have shaped and influenced me in some way. I have a job lined up in Miami, FL with Hilti, inc. that I’m extremely excited about, it’s on the engineering side but it’s more affiliated with technical sales, which is a lot more to my liking considering my extroverted and outgoing personality. This company also does work all over the world, allowing my passion for traveling to stay relevant as well. As a part of multiple clubs relating to sustainability, that has become my biggest interest in the engineering realm, but as someone coming third-world countries, human development in impoverished areas is also really important to me. I enjoy paddle boarding, hiking, and other outdoor physical activities. I also enjoy the occasional beverage during my free time.
I believe the way people interact with their environment ties in heavily with how they’re educated on it. Although first-world nations like the U.S already follow certain “green” practices, I’d like to see these implementations make a stronger presence in third-world nations. I believe this has to do with educating communities on the subject matter, however, financial restrictions is most likely the general reason. I traveled to Panama last summer to help build a footbridge for a community in need. The community was fairly poor and conditions were rough. What frustrated me the most was that community members burned their trash as a way of disposing of it. It’s really the simplest way for the community to get rid of it since no one comes to get it for them. I also have to understand that most members are probably not well-educated on how these actions can negatively influence their environment. I’d like to see a global-scale push for a stronger education on sustainability, especially in impoverished areas.
Hello Amir, I see that you have been raised all over the world and in the United States as well which is neat and something many people can’t say. I strongly agree with you about implementations of “green” practices in third-world countries. Those countries are the ones that need the most education on how to conserve our environment and how they can help out the environment in positive ways. I believe that people all over the world and in the U.S. should be more aware of practices that are detrimental to the environment and “selfish” acts like burning trash instead of disposing it simply as you said.
I forgot the link to my blog post. Oops.
[http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/01/14/l-a-1-getting-to-know-me/]
Hello Amir! My name is Cody, and I agree that a person’s level of environmental knowledge influences whether their actions will be environmentally sustainable. I’ve actually been to Panama for similar reasons, for the schoolhouse in my host community, we built a fully functional, sustainable, bathroom with running water drawn from rainfall. Third world nations have an opportunity of looking at how the ‘first-world’ has created industry, and, if environmental education is a made a priority, they can create industry that is economically stimulating and environmentally sustainable.