Guest Speaker: Joe Medeiros

Joe Medeiros came to class to talk to us about sustainable careers. Starting off by giving us facts about the world and sustainability. These facts were alarming, if we dont start practicing sustainability, we will continue on this crash course of destruction. Joe told us that each day, 250,000 people are added to the world, 116 square miles of rainforest is destroyed, 15 million T of carbon is added to the atmosphere through excessive burning of fossil fuels, and 50 to 100 species will go extinct! This is not okay! The reason for all of this destruction is due to anthropogenic influence on the world and through us not practicing sustainability. We consume more than can be reproduced. Joe talked about how we not only need to practice sustainability in our environment, but also in our society and our economy [the three p's: people, planet, profit]. Our environment provides us with numerous ecosystem services that we need in order to survive on this planet. So not only are we destroying our planet, but we are also destroying the future of our species. Earth Day was first practiced on April 22, 1970, however even 40 years later with all the knowledge we have about our negative affects on our planet, we do not treat every day like it is Earth Day, as we should. With all of the processes we have begun that cannot be reversed, there are even more processes that can be stopped before they get worse. We need to practice sustainability globally to stop the overconsumption of our planet's resources and to stop global warming. With all of this work that is required to reverse the affects of our ignorance, the future lies in sustainable careers. Green energy/alternative power, such as windmills, water, and possibly nuclear power are our future. Also, changing company's practices to be more ecologically friendly by reducing their wastes involved in production. Our future is in sustainable careers, and it is necessary to try to save our planet.