Over the past few weeks, I’ve learned about a couple of new topics. For example, we read an article over market versus government regulation. I read an argument that argues for quick action to combat climate change through either a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade program. There were of course arguments for how both it could or couldn’t work that way. There was also a second proposal which was a call for a carbon tariff on imported goods from countries that do not regulate carbon dioxide. My only thing was that the way in which the article was written was not very clear and a bit confusing to read. After getting with my colleagues, we all came to the final conclusions as stated above simply by gathering what we each took away.  Aside from the reading was also a wicked problems website. I think a place like this is beneficial to society because they get the chance to look at some big problems happening all around us and what they can do to help stop or prevent them. We’re in a place where things aren’t looking great and we need to take some sort of action. Looking at the characteristics of a wicked problem you’ll see how there typically can’t be a definitive solution because of possible bad outcomes and problems can be unique due to the location on earth. As said in the 11th-hour movie, the generation we have now has the possibility to make that change and I do believe that if people get on board, we still have time.

There are many companies that have started to do such things as becoming non-profit or do something of the sort that will help others. One of the first that I noticed since I was younger is TOMS. Their shoes are both sustainable and are then sent to someone in need. Basically, their thing is if you buy a pair, they give a pair to someone in other countries who may need it. There are also others like Freebirds who sell sustainable shoes that both help the environment and your feet. I will continue to try to use less plastic seeing that it is one of the biggest problems today, small steps like using paper straws and reusable bottles can go along way with it being the first step.