Blog #1

What I want to get out of this class is an expanded, clarified view of what it means to be green.  I'm one of those people that are often personally taxed by the daily choices and just the way of modern life in the first world that does not add up to be environmentally sustainable.  Take the choice to get a coffee for dine-in or to-go, for example.  That decision means potentially using wasteful Styrofoam of plastic for the convenience of your morning coffee.  But is it really our decision in the first place to skip out on the waste and make the planet more "green"?  What about the coffee shop's decision to buy the materials in the first place - won't they just use them on someone else?  These kind of situations reveal to me that the problem is much bigger than to be solved by our individual actions.  The solution must lie in society, in culture, in values as deeply rooted as freedom is to the American spirit.  And through  what forum do we demonstrate our civic values?  Through politics.  And that is precisely why I want to explore the topics of this course, to learn more about the history of green values in political thought and it's progress, discrepancies, counterarguments, and current place in our political atmosphere today.  I want to be able to defend my arguments for my personal political opinions about the way our world should functions against proponents for mass consumerism, free market economics, and a world free of regulations...all arguments that I believe take us away from a "green" society in many senses of the word. From my internship at the learning center and former residency in the GLC, I am familiar with the term "green" as more than environmental sustainability - it denotes an entire paradigm with specific social values, a manner in which to live our lives.  So, to sum it up, I'm excited to begin refreshing my memory and expanding my interaction with these values.