Sustainability is a lot like Santa Claus

It's the end of fall quarter here at DePaul, which means the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and winter break are upon us. The ink on grades is still drying, and it's a time to slow down and reflect a bit on the learning of the past ten weeks. ​I'd like to share with you a thoughtful end-of-quarter course reflection, written by Declan McInerney, a student in my ENV 151 Intro to Sustainability class.

Learning about sustainability is kind of like learning that Santa Claus doesn’t actually exist. You grow up with this very positive fantastical view of reality only to have it shattered by the behind the scenes picture. On the surface, modern society is the greatest thing to have ever existed. We’ve got all the cool gizmos and gadgets, the easiest access to food and clean water, and seemingly boundless energy. Well everything is just peachy until you realize the effect our lifestyles have on the planet. Learning about sustainability brings you to the sobering conclusion that things aren’t as great as you thought. Once you realize the global impact our actions have, you couldn’t unlearn it if you tried. You can always pretend that you believe in Santa Claus but deep down you know you’re just fooling yourself.

Before this course, the word sustainability brought images of dirty hippies living on vegan communes in huts made from recycled garbage. That’s not to say that it’s not an image I could get behind, but my feelings were that sustainability was reserved for those living on the fringes of society. Through this course I’ve come to realize that sustainability is actually something all of us should be thinking about and striving for. In fact, we don’t even have to sacrifice our urban lifestyle to do so. Sustainability is not about retreating to caveman technology in order to save the planet. Quite the opposite, sustainability is about redefining our relationship to technology and compensating our society for the needs of the planet. This doesn’t mean running off to the woods and becoming feral; it means constructing urban gardens, developing more efficient systems, utilizing new technologies and designing smarter products. Sustainability appears to be the wave of the future and I’m excited to ride it!
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Well said, Declan. And happy sustainable holidays everyone!