Dear fellow bloggers,
My name is Tracey Swan and I’m a junior majoring in International Relations with a double minor in Literature and Justice Law and Society. I enrolled in International Environmental Politics to fulfill my core curriculum requirements for SIS. However the environment is an issue I’ve been passionate about since I was very young. I grew up in Portland Oregon, which I’m proud to say is extremely environmentally active and has one of the best public transportation and recycling programs in the US. Living in Oregon gave me the unique opportunity to grow up using many of the environmental techniques mentioned in Stanley Fish “I Am, Therefore I Pollute.” I grew up in a household with no paper towels, only wash clothes. I didn’t realize that people used paper towels for so many different activities until I came to college. I realize that this is hard to believe, but for my entire life my family has always used wash clothe for all household chores. I remember walking around downtown Portland with my mother once. She had bought me a soda and I drank the entire thing. Now I was stuck with this bottle. My mom refused to let me throw it out because their was no recycling bins around and I had to keep the bottle with me until I got home and could recycle it. I’m pretty sure it was a good three hours later. This is a prime example of the childhood I had.
I have found it very challenging to be environmentally friendly living in DC. Living with roommates and on a budget has significantly decreased my ability to perform many of the environmentally friendly tasks that I use to perform in Oregon. I am hoping to get out of this class smart realistic methods that are low cost on how to be more environmentally friendly. Additionally I am frightened by concepts like global warming and overpopulation. I grew up hearing all about global warming. I am hoping to get out of this class an idea of the best method to prevent and decrease environmental problems such as global warming. I would like to have a strong knowledge of smart realistic policies that can affect and change the US impact on environmental degradation. I would also like a stronger foundation of knowledge as to what the United Nations role is, in the fight against global warming and mass species extinction.
Stanley Fish’s view in “I Am, Therefore I Pollute” deeply annoyed me. Fish is a prime example of a typical American who is too lethargic to perform environmentally conscious tasks, and would rather waste than take 5 minutes out of his day to sort out his recycling and rinse out a washcloth. Buying environmentally friendly products can be more expensive, but they can also save a person a lot of money. Hydro cars saves a person a ton of money on gas, using wash clothes over paper towels saves money, unplugging your appliances saves money on energy, and buying environmentally washing machines give you a tax break and a person uses less water thus saving you more money. I think the thing that bothered me is how he has the luxury to be environmentally friendly but instead he views it as a battle with his wife. I find this frustrating because as a professor and scholar, I think he has a responsibility to lead us into being more environmentally friendly. Being a highly educated man taking on a teach position, gives you the ability to lead and the responsibility to shape the minds of the future. It bothers me that a intelligent, impressive man like Stanley Fish can be so lethargic over the environment.
I think what it means to live in a environmentally friendly way in the modern day US is to do everything you can to maintain an environmentally friendly household within your own capacity. Not everyone can afford to shop local food and buy hydro cars, but that doesn’t mean that they are not being environmentally friendly. I think people who make the effort to cut back on their waste, recycle, and use a few other normal environmentally friendly methods can be considered living in a “environmentally friendly” manner.
-Tracey Swan
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