Places that we do not care about have become desolate. There are parks and plazas that have been built that no one uses. They are beautiful places but are never used. When people try to fix them or make them usable, the architect or the city usually complains and nothing is ever done. People in other cultures go to these unused places on their own. There does not have to be a fair going on to use these places.

 We have built cities and towns that we do not care about, because the past couple of decades all people wanted were houses and towns to call their own. There was never any thought put into slowing down or maximizing the area we already use.  For example, the Lincoln-Way schools in Frankfort, Illinois prove this point really well. There used to be only two Lincoln-Way schools now there are four. The last one they built is enormous and is only half-way full. How can a multi-million dollar school be built and half of it is used.

My hometown of Orland Hills, Illinois is a place worth caring about. We are a small town in the south suburbs of Chicago. We are only about five thousand people in population. There have been no major crimes in Orland Hills history even when it was named West Haven.  The town has developed its youth baseball and football programs into really good teams. The town is a great place to raise a family. The biggest place in my town is Super Wal-Mart. The town does many things for the residents. They redo streets every year and put on events. One major even is for the fourth of July. It is the weekend before the fourth. No other town I know does this. The celebration is all weekend long. There are live bands and many festivities for people of all ages.

The major reason why Orland Hills is worth protecting is because of the people. The residents would do anything they could for another resident. During the winter, there are always the younger children out shovels the elderly peoples driveways and sidewalks. During a real bad snowstorm, local snowplow trucks helped the city keep the streets cleaned. During the spring, summer, and fall, the children are out mowing the lawns of the elderly. Everyone knows they do not need to help but they still do. It is like an unwritten law that you will help out Orland Hills people. Many people do not respect Orland Hills as a town because we are so small. We are small but we are also a close knit town that always stays together.

Smill’s argument, through his reading, provides support for technological sustainability. It shoes this because he talks about new technologies to help with energy. For example, he talks about forests of wind turbines and using crops as a fuel source. All of these are technological and shows the nature needs to keep up with technology.  If it does not than it could be passed and ruined.  He also explains that modern societies are based on huge flows of energy. We need more technology to make this happen. If we do not have more technologies to fulfill this need, than we could run out of resources.

                In 2112, we could very well be running out of resources. Our need for energy will not be fulfilled. Many people will go hungry and not have a way to get food. Our houses will be cold and hot depending on the temperature outside. There will not be any lights on at night. All of our gadgets and televisions will be useless. The temperatures will be unbearable and many people will struggle to live. Food will be hard to grow and harvest without energy sources. People will become scavengers and start to steal anything and everything they can. The police will not have any way to stop this and the laws will be useless. Everyone will be on their own and the strongest will survive.

                In 2112, we have met our energy goals. People have cut back on energy consumption. We still have all of our gadgets but use the sparingly. The earth has gone back to the normal cycle and the temperatures are going back to normal. We still have some hot spells but they are bearable. We have enough food for everyone and people have cut back on being overweight.  Cars run on water and emit no green house gases. Permafrost in the poles has once again begun to freeze and methane is not going into the atmosphere.  Hurricanes are weaker when they reach land and water levels are back to where they were hundreds of years ago.  Companies are using water as a power source and emitting hydrogen gas. This helps bring down the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. With this brings more rain and fewer droughts. The crops are growing better than ever. We have corn knee high by the fourth of July and do not use fertilizers. It is such a great place to live now.

Ecological footprint is a term used to describe the impact of humans on Earth. The startling fact is that if everyone lived like an American, we would need four earths to handle all the resources consumed. This is absolutely absurd. How can Americans use so many resources? We need to really find some way to control this.

            It is possible to use more than one year’s worth of biocapacity because of all the industries we have. Ever since the industrial revolution, we have been consuming more and more as Americans. Most of us do not really know we use this much. When you really put your mind to it, you can discover a lot about how much we use. For example, having electricity at the switch of a button adds a lot to the biocapacity. Driving, television, lights, iPod charging, and many more use some form of energy that adds to the biocapacity. Add this along with all the coal and natural gas power plants and you get a very high biocapacity.

There are many consequences to using this much biocapacity. The major one is adding to the greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide is a gas that is the major contributor to global destabilization. Carbon dioxide is the major gas that is given off when all of these energies are produced. With this happening permafrost is becoming unfrozen. With this happening methane is being let off and into the atmosphere. Methane is a worse green house gas than carbon dioxide. It is about 24 times worse than carbon dioxide is. This means that methane holds in the sun’s radiation a lot more. With more radiation being held in, the earth heats up and cause global warming or global destabilization.

If we do not stop all this energy consumptions, it may be the downfall of humanity. Reversing this trend will become increasingly hard because more and more damage will be done. Many scientists believe that if the earth raises two degrees Celsius, we may never be able to turn it around.  The earth would become hotter in many places that are not supposed to be hot. The storms will get more severe. Climates will change throughout the world. Droughts and heat waves will become more common; too. With all of this happening, reversing them would be a long hard battle and probably would not be successful. This is why we need to control what we use and how much we use.

In David Orr’s reading, he said sustainability is technological or ecological. There were many arguments he put up on both sides. People who believe in technological sustainability say that every problem has a technological answer or an economic answer.  They also believe that nature should change with the humans.  When new technology comes out, nature should evolve with it and become better with it.  They also believe that man should not have any limits due to nature. It is almost as if man is above nature and nature should keep up with man. Technological advocates according to Orr also believe that economic growth is more important than ecological growth. Nature is not anything without man and his money. Orr also says that since technology keeps growing and man keeps getting better, how it can harm nature in the end.

Ecological sustainability is pretty much the opposite of technological sustainability. Orr says that advocates of this believe that nature is on top of man. Nature was here before man and will be after man.  He also says that ecological is a moral issue with man.  Before all this new technology man lived fine before. Man has to break away from this and go back to thinking about nature being on top. Along with this, man needs to control what he wants and needs. We are consuming so much more than ever before and this harms nature. Without nature we are not anything. So Orr says that we should watch what we do and take from nature.

Orr and Robinson created this typology because they want to show people different ways of sustainability. If I did not read this, I would have never known that there are two types of sustainability. I would not have known how people think man and nature are related. Orr and Robinson are showing how two sides disagree on how to become sustainable. People are always open to their opinions. These two readings show what is happening to the world. People should become more involved and try to understand how to help the world out.

An “in-between” scenario is nuclear power and how sustainable it is. It is considered to be one of the cleanest forms of energy and is recently new. It is a new technology and does not really affect nature. It can be considered between the two because of how it helps both out.  Nuclear power helps nature out because it is elements being transformed into uranium.  This is also a relatively new technology. The only problem is man has to be smart with it. This is an “in-between” scenario that could bridge the gap between the two sides. In the end everyone really needs to sit down and think about nature. Nature is what produced us. If we do not take care of nature; nature could take us out.