Overcoming the Triangle

The “Trinity of Despair” was a little daunting, but it did seem to make a little sense to me in some ways. I do believe that humans are selfish and self-maximizing. Yet I do agree with others in the class that a lot of people break that mold. Generalizations tend to get us in to trouble. Of course some people will only think of themselves, but the world is full or spectrum's. So, on the other end of the spectrum there are people who never think of themselves and always put others first. I do not think that human nature should be something that inhibits us from going forward with solutions to this problem. We should recognize that human nature is part of our buildups, and then find a solution to make it easier for people to start trying these environmental ideas. That’s where environmental strategies come into play.

I was a big fan of the environmental strategies group that says that we do not need a crisis to stop this problem; a few more people just need to be aware of it. This is also the side that represents small actions first. In our previous blog with Prof. Maniates, I disagreed with his points on environmental strategies. In combination with other things, and as a first step, I believe they are necessary. People need to know how to take shorter showers and buy proper light bulbs before they are going to start riding a bike 20 miles to work and back. We have to recognize that human nature will have an impact on some people’s reactions, and prepare for that.

The social change aspect was also very interesting. I do believe in social change, and we have talked so much in this class about being not a consumer but a citizen. I think that is so important, and people need to be mobilized to support a cause. I do not think we need a crisis in order for things to change, but I do feel that most people are just trying to get through the day. I hope a smaller group than 80% of the population would need to care about environmental issues before changes were made.

I thought the triangle was an interesting way to conceptualize the problem, but like Maniates, I believe we can beat the trinity of despair and truly solve this problem. Using methods that will work to counter all three points of the triangle, to make social change easier, and environmental steps faster. We have been talking about most of these points in class, so it was so interesting to hear about it from another perspective in which the concept truly came to life in the triangle. I would definitely recommend trying to schedule this teleconference again next semester, it was extremely helpful!