Before coming to college I had heard about ideas and ways to improve the climate but I did not realize the extent of the problem that needs a solution.  Earth’s ecosystems are suffering due to the issues implemented by the amount of wicked problems caused by the massive human population.  Wicked problems are complex problems that come with no real solution, such as climate change and deforestation. 

Wicked problems are first defined as being vague because they are difficult to target due to the diversity of people it affects and to the varying extent of the effect in each area.  Because of this diversity,  wicked problems have variable solutions, meaning there is not one key way of solving it.  Every person will have a different response to how the problem should be solved.  The greatest difficulty with trying to solve wicked problems is the fact that any solution will only create more problems as the climate and society continue to change.  For example, Genetically Modified Organisms developed in order to meet the food demand for an explosive population growth, but they now seem to be causing health problems and are being taken away.  The solutions to these wicked problems are also problematic because they then cause irreversible damage due to the fact that they are not tested in large quantities before put into place.  Wicked problems are also unique because even though the same issue might be occurring worldwide, the same solution will not work in every area.  The final thing that defines a wicked problem is how urgent they are.  If not fixed soon, they cause serious, permanent damage to our planet and the life on it.

The 11^th Hour video showed me that in the past, our ancestors seemed to believe that Earth’s natural resources were limitless.  We now have the insight that our planet is heating up half a degree every year and we have destroyed 95 percent of the natural forest in the United States.  We also see that our use of fossil fuels and waste production are causing harm not only to plants and animals, but people as well.  Global warming has caused a huge increase in natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, earthquakes, and severe droughts.  Our exposure to chemicals is also causing many more children to be diagnosed with things such as asthma, which just a few decades ago was uncommon.  We are now starting to realize that with our future generations being affected and the problems only getting worse that we need to make changes to stop what our ancestors started and create new sustainable ideas.  It is vital for the well-being of ourselves and our planet. 

The first activity allowed for us to get a look into how others want to change the degrading of our world and let us look into wild possibilities for eliminating them.  In reality, some of these ideas wouldn’t be too far off if it weren’t for the government being so driven for an industrial economy.  Each individual person needs to consider their carbon footprint, the amount of carbon dioxide released into the air due to their own use of fossil fuels.  Any person makes a difference in the damage being done to our ecosystems and the amount of waste created.