Sustainability

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of the words “sustainability” is the ability to keep something or sustain it, for it to be kept constant and within certain boundaries. When most people think of living sustainably can be found from the dictionary “Any lifestyle based on energy-saving and environmental responsibility” but I also think this term is limited to living based on saving energy and land but can be applied to government, or money and freedom. What I mean by this is if you look at the actual definition of the word “sustain” it means: to support, hold, or bear up from below; bear the weight of, as a structure. To keep (a person, the mind, the spirits, etc.) from giving way. If you apply this to a society it could mean being able to keep money within the community or distributed equally so no one is too drastically affected by poverty, or so the whole society’s money doesn’t lose value. It could also mean that government or freedom is kept throughout the community and that everyone is supported and happy.

When I think of my freedom the first thing I think of is the freedom my parents allow me to have. If you base it on that I don’t have much freedom due to my parents paranoia that I am going to get kidnapped and die… If you look at a larger scale like the freedom the government gives me compared to adults we don’t have a lot. We can’t vote for who leads our country, we can’t really drive freely, we aren’t allowed to drink, work most places, buy a house, stay out on the streets past 11 pm (well at least in San Diego) etc… If you compare our freedom to other countries we actually do have a lot of rights. Boys and girls are allowed to go to school, we can wear anything we want, we can have any religion, we are allowed to participate in numerous activities etc. It just depends how you look at it and from what point of view you are taking.

As a 14/15 year old I think I can live my life more sustainably by paying more attention to world issues and problems America or my community is having and trying to help them and play my part in the solution. If you look again at the definition of “living sustainably” : “Any lifestyle based on energy-saving and environmental responsibility” If you look at our world today we are obviously experiencing major issues with our environment due to global warming, pollution and lack or recycling. If I wanted to help that I could recycle more or pick up trash, try to convince my parents to buy hybrids.