Reflection: My main major takeaway from this class was that seeking alternatives to a harmful action should be applied to any situation in which risk is involved. Risk assessment is the current status quo in environmental decision making and alternatives assessment should be proposed as a replacement whenever possible. Risk assessment is used as a way to justify harm to the environment. It uses data to convolute and confuse the public, so they are less likely to dig deeper and ask questions. According to Mary O’Brien, “[she] contend[s] that the common reality underlying these divided stances with respect to risk assessment is that most risk assessments protect and justify business as usual rather than serve the environment and the public health” (O’Brien 102). Risk assessment allows for companies and industry to keep doing the harm they are doing to the planet instead of coming up with new and sustainable strategies. What is really important in environmental decision making is the proposal and implementation of alternatives assessment. Alternatives assessments seeks ways to make decisions that consider the environment as well as the public. One of the most important things I have learned about this is locality and community. When seeking alternatives, it is important to consider how the decision that is being made will affect the local people as well as the local environment. In regards to my research paper, this was something that constantly stood out to me. Throughout history, Native Americans have constantly been ignored and manipulated when it comes to decisions made about their land. If we want to be successful environmentalists and promote sustainability, it is important to consider the native perspective.
In this class, I felt that I was successful in incorporating social justice issues into our environmental scope. Environmental Studies require a vigorous multidisciplinary approach because everything exists within the environment. If the environment experiences damage, it will likely affect all other systems nested within it. When I chose the topic of Ecocide of Native Americans, I didn't fully realize how well it would apply to the Environmental Decision making Course specifically. While delving deeper into my research I realized that Native communities have been blatantly left out of the conversation regarding their own land. They used to make environmental decisions before colonization, but since then their land has been exploited and their people have experienced violence and death because of it.
Because I focused so heavily on the social implications of environmental decision making in the Native American scope, I think I could use some improvement on delving deeper into the environmental issues themselves. I also feel that I was lacking a deeper insight into the politics surrounding these issues. I did discuss voting briefly, but I think I could have learned more and explained more regarding the voting rights of Native Americans in North and South America. I think because my topic was so large, it made it difficult to fully explain each instance of environmental exploitation and everything that goes along with it. In the future, I hope to find a more specific subject and scope of focus, so that I am able to cover all of the bases of that particular topic. Overall, I am very grateful to be able to have taken another class with Rob Williams because I always learn something unexpected that I am truly passionate about.
Reflection:
ReplyDeleteMy main major takeaway from this class was that seeking alternatives to a harmful action should be applied to any situation in which risk is involved. Risk assessment is the current status quo in environmental decision making and alternatives assessment should be proposed as a replacement whenever possible. Risk assessment is used as a way to justify harm to the environment. It uses data to convolute and confuse the public, so they are less likely to dig deeper and ask questions. According to Mary O’Brien, “[she] contend[s] that the common reality underlying these divided stances with respect to risk assessment is that most risk assessments protect and justify business as usual rather than serve the environment and the public health” (O’Brien 102). Risk assessment allows for companies and industry to keep doing the harm they are doing to the planet instead of coming up with new and sustainable strategies. What is really important in environmental decision making is the proposal and implementation of alternatives assessment. Alternatives assessments seeks ways to make decisions that consider the environment as well as the public. One of the most important things I have learned about this is locality and community. When seeking alternatives, it is important to consider how the decision that is being made will affect the local people as well as the local environment. In regards to my research paper, this was something that constantly stood out to me. Throughout history, Native Americans have constantly been ignored and manipulated when it comes to decisions made about their land. If we want to be successful environmentalists and promote sustainability, it is important to consider the native perspective.
In this class, I felt that I was successful in incorporating social justice issues into our environmental scope. Environmental Studies require a vigorous multidisciplinary approach because everything exists within the environment. If the environment experiences damage, it will likely affect all other systems nested within it. When I chose the topic of Ecocide of Native Americans, I didn't fully realize how well it would apply to the Environmental Decision making Course specifically. While delving deeper into my research I realized that Native communities have been blatantly left out of the conversation regarding their own land. They used to make environmental decisions before colonization, but since then their land has been exploited and their people have experienced violence and death because of it.
Because I focused so heavily on the social implications of environmental decision making in the Native American scope, I think I could use some improvement on delving deeper into the environmental issues themselves. I also feel that I was lacking a deeper insight into the politics surrounding these issues. I did discuss voting briefly, but I think I could have learned more and explained more regarding the voting rights of Native Americans in North and South America. I think because my topic was so large, it made it difficult to fully explain each instance of environmental exploitation and everything that goes along with it. In the future, I hope to find a more specific subject and scope of focus, so that I am able to cover all of the bases of that particular topic. Overall, I am very grateful to be able to have taken another class with Rob Williams because I always learn something unexpected that I am truly passionate about.