Articulating my environmental philosophy

For a long time, actually up until my Colloquium class, I never really thought about the environment or the earth. I knew littering was bad for the environment and also illegal. I knew the pollution in our oceans and water was life threatening to animals and to life. But I never really knew anything about global warming, carbon dioxide, or anything else that pertains to the environment and earth.

When it came to us [people] on earth, I don't really know what I thought. I would have to say that it was probably along the lines of we belong here, have been for many of years. However, after a few classes, I learned that we are causing the most damage to our home. We are not only putting animals and species in danger, but also ourselves. Does that make our a home a happy and healthy earth? How can it be healthy when WE are not cognizant of the pollutants that we are putting out? And, if its not healthy, how can it possibly be happy and thrive?

Maybe we are too comfortable with how things are right now. We have a sense of place and we don't want it to change. We don't want to go back and give up the technology or objects that we have now.  The question is, if we keep going down the road we are going, how much longer is our environment going to sustain what we put out?

Suddenly, I worry about little things. Like if I should endlessly drive my car just because I am bored. Should I start recycling more instead of only doing it sometimes, and should I be more aware of what is happening around me. Some may cause this a perspective, but I think it is just a beginning.

"What's the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?"- Henry David Thoreau