"Why Isn't The Brain Green" By Jon Gertner

"Two days after Barack Obama was sworn in as president of the United States, the Pew Research Center released a poll ranking the issues that Americans said were the most important priorities for this year. At the top of the list were several concerns — jobs and the economy — related to the current recession. Farther down, well after terrorism, deficit reduction and en­ergy (and even something the pollsters characterized as “moral decline”) was climate change. It was priority No. 20. That was last place. "

I was looking on the New York Times Science section recently and came across this article from the New York Times Magazine. I found it extremely interesting and thought it relates greatly to our class. I thought it an excellent opportunity to discuss why is it so hard for us as human's to think in a "green" mindset. The author Jon Gertner actually sat down at a conference at Columbia University on the environment and examined "decision science focuses on the mental proces­ses that shape our choices, behaviors and attitudes." He actually took it to a level I don't believe anybody has before. Everyone comes up with reasons of why turning green is so difficult, but I don't believe anyone has ever focused solely on the reasons associated with our brain function and decision making process. I truly believe this is a revelation. A lot of the article talks about our automatic biases and how we are prone to making the easier decision or the decision that affects our immediate future as opposed to years down the road. The problem is that we are making decisions that do not take into account our future...aka more severe environmental problems as a result of our actions.

We need to begin to change our ways of thinking and functioning in society to take care of this problem. We need to understand that if we cannot conscientiously put an effort into a better future than there is no reason to exist today. I'm being a little dramatic here, but I truly believe that if we do not start to act now and change for the better that our future is doomed and what is the point of what we are doing right now? It will come back to bite us in the ass if we do not start acting now. I understand it is our human nature to take the easy way out or to make decisions that impact our lives currently. But we really need to change that. I understand that our brain has part to do with this issue as discussed in this article. I think we need to develop a passion for this subject in order to really create any change. When we are passionate about something it is always on the forefront of our minds and we think and act on it all the time. I believe we need to educate people at a younger age on these environmental issues at hand. And it must be done repeatedly. I think maybe if we can embed these issues into a younger person's brain it wont be so hard for them later on in life to change their lifestyle. Ultimately what Dr. Hirsch is teaching us now needs to be taught to younger people in a way that would be more understandable to their learning level. This class has definitely made me more aware of a lot of issues that I did not even know existed. If only this course and all of the issues we have learned in this class could be summed up into a page or two newspaper article so that the whole world could learn. The emotion and passion that Dr. Hirsch delivers this material with would not be visible. I truly believe that people would change if they could all take this course. I believe people would become a lot more passionate about the subject and maybe when the next presidential election comes around global warming wont be last on the poll of issues.


Source:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/magazine/19Science-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=magazine