Intro!

Hello, my name is Tanim Bin Awwal, a sophomore studying international relations. I am extremely grateful that American has an option to study environmental studies rather than just science. When I took AP Environmental Science junior year in high school, I loved the class but I wanted to know more about environmental issues. I continued my environmental education when I attended the Governor school of Public Issues and visited an environmental site in Asbury Park NJ, where a community was plagued by coal gasification waste. The place was only starting to be cleaned up recently after 30 years because a lot of poor primarily African American residents were kicked off by eminent domain in favor of richer residents moving into the higher real estate. This was an example of environmental classism if not racism. Fast forward to this the present, and my education hasn’t increased that much at all. I hope to learn more this class and reinvigorate my interest.

This leads to the article and the issue at hand. Judged by the efforts of the author to try to be as green as possible, I can understand his feeling of being dragged down by changing his life. Constantly being told that things that made his life more convenient, such as eating meat, is bad for the environment, can get annoying. Personally, I like eating meat as well, even if that does cause environmental damage. Does that mean I have to live as a vegetarian, have no children, or never travel to see my family? These are definitely questions to look at as I research more about what I can do and what choices I’ll make personally to produce less of a footprint.