Coming into this class I really did not have much idea of what sustainability or wicked problems were. If I’m being honest, I really was not interested enough to try to learn about them. Now I know that sustainability is an intergenerational responsibility, and we all need to care enough to learn and contribute to helping our world so that we can continue on in the future. The article we read on Easter Island really helped open my eyes to that fact. I feel like Easter Island was just a small scale version of where our world could be headed. Our population is growing to unsustainable numbers and we are not respecting nature. In The 11th hour video, what stuck out to me the most was when one of the men said that nature has no rights. Nature has given us so much, yet we just take and take from it and treat it as income rather than an asset.
A wicked problem is complex, nonlinear, and withstands traditional means of solving. It is a problem that is almost impossible to solve without creating other issues. Wicked problems are composed of six characteristics, they are vague problems, variable solutions, solutions have no end point, solutions pose irreversible effects, solutions require unique approaches, and they are urgent. Tame problems differ from wicked problems in that they can be agreed upon and solved by choosing and applying the correct solution.
My carbon footprint was 64 tons per year, which was 3% worse than the average. I would definitely be interested in looking for ways to reduce this number where I can.
