My name is Brett Cruz. I currently live in Washington State but I will be moving to Northern Virginia in a week because my wife is Active Duty in the Army. I originally grew up in San Antonio, TX where most of my family still lives. I’m currently in the Energy and Sustainability Policy degree field. This course is a prerequisite requirement for me but I’m additionally interested in human interactions with the environment and how we can positively influence it to preserve it for future generations to enjoy. I just recently just drove from Northern Virginia to Washington State and next week I will be driving back from Washington State to Northern Virginia. It’s very exciting to experience driving from coast to coast twice!

The concept of sustainability is obviously very important to me. This is why I choose it as my major. Over time it is becoming more and more politically significant and ecologically critical. Just recently in 2015, world leaders have met in Paris and came to some consensus on improving global emissions in an attempt to slow global warming. Now, the consensus wasn’t by any means enough to effect real change, but at least it was a start. Module 1 discussed human-environmental interactions and how human decision-making and processing shapes and changes the natural environment (Lesson1). I am excited to delve deeper in this topic as with the melting of the glaciers and changing of weather pattern it is becoming more and more imperative for us to produce effective change and once again have hope for future generations.