Future Consciousness

To be perfectly honest, before this class I had hardly thought about sustainability and its affect on the future. Though I try to do my small part in staying "environmentally-friendly," I had the mental mode that I was just one person, and what I did personally wouldn't have an actual affect on the environment. I felt like it wouldn't even matter if I did recycle or tried to live more sustainably because there are so many other people who ignore these issues entirely, that I couldn't possibly outweigh them. This is a definitely a pessimistic view of looking into the future of our environment, and the future of sustainability. As Tom Lombardo discusses in his article, Thinking Ahead: The Value of Future Consciousness, viewing the future pessimistically and without any hope for change and determination for a positive outcome, the pessimistic views will in turn come true, as a self-fulfilling prophecy. If I believe that I will have no positive impact on the earth, I will definitely have no positive impact on the earth. However, if I can change my way of thinking to a more optimistic view of figuring out a way that one person can have a positive impact, it is very possible that I can have a positive impact.

My vision of a sustainable future, is to have a more universal awareness of sustainability and the ways that individuals as well as companies can change their ways to lessen their negative impact on the earth. As an apparel design major, it is very important that all designers are aware of the different impacts textiles have, so that they can choose to use products and textiles that are better for the earth. Alan Durning warns of the perils of overconsumption in his article, Limiting Consumption. He discusses the huge impact and consumption of advertisements in today's society. Advertisements today try and popularize the idea of having whatever you want, when you want it. This is a huge problem for our resources. If we could take the advertisement industry from being a problem to a solution by using it to create a greater awareness of ways to consume less, and to have a less negative impact, it would greatly reduce the issue with advertising. Oki and Kim also support the argument about the ignorance of many people today when it comes to sustainability in their article, Visioneering: An essential framework in sustainability science. Many people don't have a vision for sustainability because they don't truly understand what it means and what affect they have as individuals on it.

The main mental mode that people need to think about for my vision is the idea that even one person can have a positive impact on sustainability. Although it will often require an extra effort on the part of the consumer, or even a sacrifice ( such as less consumption, more effort to recycle, inconvenient shopping experiences, etc.) it will be worth their time. The key to this is communication, and spreading the word of ways to live more sustainably that are not difficult to manage. This could be done by all mediums of advertising and incentive programs from different companies, and possibly even the government.