To decrease my impact on the word, I've decided to alter my lifestyle and commit to doing and refraining from doing certain things. Here are the changes I would like to make:

1. Eat less packaged foods
2. Refrain from eating meat
3. Use public transportation to commute as much as possible
4. Turn off lights when I leave the room for more than 10 minutes
5. Do not use the television for "background noise"
6. Take the stairs instead of the elevator
7. Decrease the time of my showers
8. Limit my consumption of products that satisfy my "wants" - such as brand name clothing, alcohol, cosmetics, etc.
9. Reuse products as much as possible
10. Recycle
11. Limit the amount of paper I use and focus on storing information electronically
12. Work out by going to group classes, instead of using machinery
13. Turn off my space heater when I leave the room for more than 10 minutes
14. Unplug items that I don't use or use infrequently

Ultimately, my goal is obviously to reduce my ecological footprint. I don't think that I can live a truly sustainable lifestyle since there are so many barriers to success. However, I can make choices consciously and with regard for the planet.

As much as I don't want to be pessimistic, I still do not believe that my individual choices make a difference. I think that change needs to start with governing organizations - it needs to start with those individuals who have the power to influence the thinking of masses. I, on the other hand, can only talk about the choices that I'm making and try to influence others to do so. I have been trying to do this for a while now. In fact, Saturday night, I started talking to my friends about my Sustainable Marketing class and describing the unfortunate impacts business and consumerism has on the world. I felt like the valid points I was making were ignored and the entire topic of sustainability was called "unfortunate" by one member of the party. This type of resistance made me shut up.... This experience further convinced me that change will not begin with me...