Previously, the word sustainability was something that reminded me of things such as recycling and smart usage of water. For example, when a neighborhood would only allow home owners to water their yards once a week in the case of a drought. I saw sustainability as small scale conservation acts such as paper straws that dissolved in your mouth after the second sip of your drink and opting for the reusable water bottles as my family did in order to “play our part” in the minimization of plastic usage. However, recently my eyes have been opened to the widespread meaning of sustainability and the importance in creating a sustainable world. Having a mindful mindset can help lead to a more sustainable lifestyle. A practice I have recently discovered can help with this is meditation. I am now more mindful and aware of the truthful situations since recently beginning the practice of meditation. This involves different breathing techniques that will help ease my mind and stresses, as well as help increase my attention. Meditation is a new process for me so I still am not one hundred percent sure how to preform it and it does not feel natural or calming but rather very awkward. I hope that by watching videos and practicing it daily, in a few weeks I can reflect back and see change as it evolves into a part of regular day to day life so stay tuned for that. 

Some current worldly issues that can be considered wicked problems according to the knowledge I have taken from our lectures and readings thus far are deforestation and how much of our natural forests are gone due to overconsumption of our natural resources, as well as climate change. All of these can be considered a wicked problem because they all have either no clear fix, or no single solution to resolve the issue at hand, unlike your typical tame problem where the problem is clearly stated with organization such as the arrangement of a set of data values. Climate change avoids clear cut articulation and is impossible to solve in any simple and finalized way, which is why it can be considered a wicked problem. Wicked problems must be solved as parts of a solution that take steps in order to better protect our world. Some characteristics to check for in order to help characterize whether or not a problem is wicked are: no definitive formulation, lack of inherent logic that signals they are solved, solutions are not true or false only good and bad, there is no way to test the solution, cannot be studied through trial and error their solutions are irreversible, there is no end to the number of solutions, all wicked problems are unique, and can be deserved as the symptom of other possible problems.

A major question is: whose responsibility is it to set forth change? Each generation or each individual? Personally, I believe each generation leaves a carbon footprint as a whole and it is up to each individual to encourage one another to collectively do more and be more aware of the environment. My own carbon footprint came out to be 9 tonnes when divided into the amount I travel by car, food, and home electronic use. This is slightly lower than the typical American, however I am still making an imprint that adds up over time, this year I hope to reduce this number and encourage others around me to do the same. As of today, we are looking at increasing the world’s temperature even greater than that of previous years, at the rate we are going, soon there will be no more ice in the arctic, scary thought huh? Already ninety-five precent of natural forests in the United States are gone, leading to the future expansion of deserts. Within activity one and following the 11th hour video these issues of climate change and deforestation are discussed in detail, along with other wicked problems such as: biodiversity loss, population growth, and nonrenewable resource use. Easter Island is a perfect example as to what the downfall of a society looks like when there is an overuse of resources, increased competition, lack of communication and lack of understanding the concept of sustainability. Our wildest thing activity that we completed in class with a group of students who are in our same major, helped start a thought process resolutions of wicked problems to prevent events such as Easter Island related to the field of study we will be entering, which for me, is the fashion industry. This activity helps promote sustainable thinking for the future in order to avoid the further and continuous detraction of our planet, so that we do not end up the same way Easter Island did, or worse.