Journal Entry #5 Debriefing

I can honestly say that I went into this course not truly knowing what to expect out of it. I knew that it would be pertaining to sustainability and have environmental education but I did not know to what extent. Professor Muldoon told us on the first day of the course that he would make this class be one of our top five favorite classes here at FGCU. I did not believe him, I thought to myself that being a History major, this course was a useless amount of credits to me. In all honesty I was wrong. I enjoyed this course greatly and learned a great deal of information from it. I have always considered myself a person who is concerned with the environment. I have always recycled and have tried my best to conserve energy and water. I realized that although I did this myself, I really never educated anyone else on doing it or why they should. I often got discouraged as I saw myself as one person trying, and thought how much of a difference can one person make? This course taught me the importance of educating others about our fragile world. Yes, I said world. We need to know what is happening all over the world, especially the global food crisis and the crisis in Africa. These concerns are our responsibility as a whole.
I am graduating college with a degree in History, a subject that I am educated well in and that I have learned about all my life. This course may not seem to be related to my major, but I realized that it is actually related to all majors and professions. None of us will be able to to what we want to do in the future if we cannot come to terms with what is happening to the natural world. I was astonished to learn about the economic crisis of 2008 and I feel that this information will help me as a History major, as well as to help all of us understand the economic crisis that our country lives in currently.
I found the videos that we viewed in class awakening yet difficult. We became aware of issues that some of us probably did not even know existed. So then becomes the question of how we can help solve these issues. Weather they be overfishing in Africa or carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels. We leave this class with something very powerful and that is awareness, we also leave with hope. I say this all the time to everyone I know, hope is essential because once you have given up hope you have done just that-given up. I am so proud to be a future graduate of a university with a reputation for care of the environment and sustainability.