Natalie Hinderliter- Economy vs. Environment (Class Reading Reflection 1)

     The topic of sustainability and the environment tends to be a polarizing one. People stand strong in their beliefs and values and compromise tends to be rare. Often, the debates are divided between two sides, the economic and the environmental. This can be partially attributed to the effects that environmental protection measures have had on businesses. These effects tend to be mainly negative and effect smaller businesses most heavily. One example of this can be found in the Rotten: Cod is Dead Documentary that we watched in class. The government implemented specific caps on how much fishing boats could catch and bring in. This ended up not effecting the larger fishing enterprises much, but it put the majority of smaller fishing companies out of business. This allowed the larger businesses to take over the areas and fish quantities that the smaller companies had previously had. 

    So how can we shift the perspective to a non-polarized one? There are several initiatives mentioned in the textbook that promote environmentalism without harming economic profits. One such example is that of the IMC-Agrico Company. The company was encouraged to plant grasses on their uncovered outdoor waste material stacks as a means of reducing water waste and runoff. The initiative was successful, water runoff from the company was reduced by a third and the company's profits actually went up. By using small but impactful changes to address big problems, we can work towards depolarizing the issue of environmentalism.