I’ve always known that humans are responsible for destroying the earth, but I had never really taken steps to do anything about it. By connecting what I learned in my Globalization class to the experiences I’d had as an EcoRep for four years at USC, I realized that we, as humans, can and should start changing our personal actions and lifestyles to reflect and correct what we know is wrong in the world.

 

Most people do realize that carbon emissions, plastic in the ocean, and mass murdering animals in factory farms are all terrible things, but then they are easily able to slide them to the back of their minds, forget about them, and pretend these problems don’t exist just because they can’t see them. Society teaches us to ignore suffering, because it’s too difficult for one person to really make a “big enough” change. Their mindset is that one straw out of billions wouldn’t matter in the grand scheme, and of course, they wouldn’t be wrong. But it’s this mindset that is detrimental. If everyone thinks this way, then billions of straws will continue being used, whereas if every person actually tried to save that one piece of plastic from the waste stream, there would be 7 billion less straws in the ocean. We know that if enough people share the same dream, then worldwide change can easily occur. It has to start with yourself, though. I’ve come to realize that, as Gandhi said, you need to be the change you wish to see, and then others will be inspired to follow you, too.

 

In Globalization and Business, or IBUS 310, we learned about world problems, including the issue of sustainability on a global level. One of the consequences of free trade as we learned in class is pollution, such as from factories in Southeast Asia, because global governance is nearly impossible. This is why the World Trade Organization and the United Nations are unable to enforce their own laws; countries would have to give up their own sovereignty in order to participate in any sort of global sustainability effort, and nearly all are unwilling to do so because different countries have different opinions and priorities about the subject. Governments and businesses, in the US for example, tend to disregard the environment in favor of their bottom line and popularity, so citizens tend to follow suit in believing that sustainability is unimportant and un-impending. The purpose of learning about these issues in class was not to tell us as students how we should act as future business people, but simply to inform us of what we will be up against on a global scale. We are then left to decide for ourselves how we would handle these global issues when we enter the business world. We will be able to accurately weigh the pros and cons that come with the ethics of it all, such as whether or not to make the decision of outsourcing production to China in order to reduce costs, but at the same time cause more pollution and have lower safety standards.

 

All of this- the issue of global pollution and not having any viable laws against it- connected at the time, as well as later on, to what I learned about ocean pollution and spreading environmental awareness as an EcoRep at USC. EcoReps is a peer-led organization that promotes sustainability in the residence halls through planning engaging and informative events to help students live their lives more sustainability. We’re sort of like a global agency, trying to get people in our world of USC to do things without having any enforceable rules. We have to find ways to convince them instead of forcing them. During each weekly meeting, we discuss and learn about different topics related to sustainability, such as plastic in the oceans leading to “trash island” in the Pacific. We do this to arm ourselves with facts so that we can show students clearly why they should care about sustainability and do something about it. Through EcoReps, I’ve created a plastic bag recycling program at my apartment complex and have been running that for the past three years to show students that it’s easy and convenient to recycle. I’ve also presented my reasoning at an EcoReps meeting to share the facts of how plastic harms the ocean and why plastic bags should be banned. If people think about how many sea turtles worldwide die of starvation from eating plastic bags, perhaps they might take the step to recycle theirs.

 

Learning about the amount of waste that humans make along with the lack of laws to enforce recycling and sustainable practices on a global level has made me consider changing my own lifestyle to zero waste. How can the problem of plastic in the ocean be solved if no one does anything? As an EcoRep, I know how hard it is to spread the word about sustainability and get other people to change their lifestyles and actions. This is why I’ve realized the best thing that I can really do is to lead by example. You need to be doing your best to achieve what you believe in so that others who believe the same thing will see that it can indeed be done. They’ll be inspired, and I think inspiration is the most important ingredient to spark a transformation. People need to be inspired to make a change, any small change, or else they’ll just continue on with their lives, not thinking about throwing away all the single-use plastic that they use on a daily basis. For global change, the first step is changing yourself.