#4 Erik Assadourian

 After reading Erik Assadourian’s article, it has really put me on a slightly different point of view. On the stand point of ecological footprints, it’s hard to believe that we could possibly use more than what the earth is capable of producing, but reading all of the statistics, it may be believable and we are in a great downfall.  The more money we as humans have, the more we consume. We are in a depression right now, but we are still spending.  We are using and consuming more and more than what we should be demanding from the earth and sooner or later we are going to crash, not physically. On the norms part, it is hard for us humans to change.  We are not going to change, if we do, it will be a miracle. As stated by Mr. Assadourian, climate will change, and it is due to our heavy consumption.  A way to look at this is through consumerism. We want to compete with others in our social status with goods and services.  Each year it grows more and more.  People have to realize that these big consumptions will not always lead to success or well-being, which a lot of people fail to believe. You could buy everything in the world and still not be happy, but some people do believe this.  A lot of people try to take the easy way out, and I admit that I do sometimes as well. I rarely go to fast food restaurants, but on occasions, I do. This is the norm for most people.  Water is another. I try to filter most of the water I drink, but sometimes I get into  bind and am really thirsty, so I’ll purchase bottled water, which should be free.  It is hard to change, but if we don’t do something, then years to come, there may not be any hope. We have to start educating and letting people know that more is not always better, and elaborate more on the natural things in life.  We also have to start eliminating waste. In Assadourian’s terms “Cradle to Cradle. Things need to be completely recyclable and we need to start using renewable resources. We make the waste, not the animals or agriculture. So, we need to try to eliminate it.