Ecological sustainability means that we conserve the productivity of the waters, soils, and the ecosystem, reducing our impact on the natural environment and peoples health to a level that the natural environment and humanity can handle. A true phase shift in societal thinking will have to occur if we hope to integrate this concept into practice, weighing environmental factors more heavily in the valuation of assets to provide more incentive for the preservation of biological diversity. I hope our discussions this quarter have given you the time to reflect on how 1) sound science will be essential for a sustainable global future and 2) issues such as water, food, and energy sustainability are deeply interconnected. This has not been a prescriptive course, outlining for you the everyday steps you need to take to be more sustainable. Instead, I encourage you to take an evidence-based approach to explore the science behind different environmental challenges intertwined with your everyday lives. You have practiced that precise skill repeatedly in this course and you can, with some strategic and critical assessment of open source content, become very well informed on any sustainability issue.
Please watch this short video and provide a final reflection. It can directly relate to concepts highlighted in the video or you can provide a more general reflection if that is more relevant for you.
