Hello everybody, my name is Shelby Epstein! Currently, I am living at Penn State University, University Park as a freshman. When applying to Penn State, I was not certain what major I wanted to pursue in, but taking all sorts of classes in the first semester helped me get a baseline of what I wanted to do. I now am taking steps to enter the Smeal College of Business, in hopes of finding a career in Supply Chain Management. My interest in this course is learning the different ways in which humans damage the environment and ways to prevent that from happening. Every single day something is impacting our environment and we as humans need to stop hurting it, or else there is going to be daunting consequences in the future.
While reading through the module 1 content, the issue of human-environment interactions stood out to me. This issue is very important because it involves natural hazards, which are natural events that disrupt human activity. This can be seen in California with the continuing drought that occurred and keeps reoccurring. The drought is a huge problem because it is affecting the people in California and the wildlife by the dryness and wildfire outbreaks. You may ask yourself… what decisions and processes can humans make in order to save the natural environment? This is where the concept of sustainability comes in. Sustainability try’s to understand how human activities can exist without disrupting the ability of natural ecosystems to function; governance can do this. Although constrained by outside forces, humans still make decisions whether they are ethical to their environments or not. We as a community need to stop making irrational decisions and save our environment together!
Hey Shelby, my name is Gershom Espinoza and my “world” (as in my world…of one) 😉 class writing skills can be found here http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/01/20/getting-to-know-you-gershom-espinoza/
First as a fellow student, just wanna encourage you to keep taking courses until you know you’ve found your niche and DONT settle for less! There is a course called EGEE 102 I believe which looks at minimizing one’s environment impact from the consumer side should you be inclined. Although I echo your statements, I realize that this issue of sustainability will likely take several generations (100+yrs) before people understand the responsibilities that come with being a producer and consumer populace. Also, as a hometown Californian, I can definitely say that the drought has had quite an impact but what may not be publicly addressed there is the lack of oversight by local counties or state government on what the agriculture sector’s water use is. Yes, there are pros and cons to this issue of scaling back, but would you rather have to lay off people or risk the local landscape having irreversible damages being done before one too realizes that agriculture no longer suits the area. As I say, why is the topic of efficiency being labeled “smart” if it’s really common sense because of the understanding that resources whether finite or renewable are to used as wisely as possible. Enjoy your time here and wish you luck (saving myself some 😉
Hi Shelby,
My name is Humna and I also living Penn State University Park. Here is a link to my post: https://wp.me/p3RCAy-aW3
I am a senior about to graduate from the SMEAL College of Business. I think you’ll really like it! There are so many resources and opportunities.
Another reason I wanted to comment on your post was your decision to look into Supply Chain Management. This class is so important for you and so relevant, in that case. Supply Chain is one of the strategies for a business to improve in order to help with sustainability. Carbon footprint is related to that as well. I really think you’ll use this class in that career, and I hope you plan to take even more energy classes. I have taken a couple, and it has been helpful even as an Accounting major!