Introduction
Your Community

Taking an environmental science course can be a very sobering experience for many people. The seemingly constant bombardment of data detailing environmental hazards and dangers throughout the world can cause even the cheeriest person to go into a serious funk. In the midst of this state most people ask, "What can I do to change this?" The most often heard response to this question is "I don't know." With billions of people, governments, and multinational corporations involved, it seems as if the task is too daunting for any one person to get anything done.

While it sounds cliche', "Think Globally, Act Locally" is one of the best descriptors of what can be done. This can mean something as simple (some people would say that it is the hardest) as changing your lifestyle so that you have a smaller impact on the environment. In the scheme of things, this is the one area of the environment over which you have the most control. It can also mean getting involved in organizations in your community that are working toward making a smaller impact on the environment or even being a voice within the organizations to which you already belong to make a smaller impact.

Seattle: An Example

In 1990, a group of leaders in Seattle attended a conference sponsored by the Global Tomorrow Coalition. The purpose of the conference was to bring together a broad based group of people to discuss the issue of sustainability and how a community might go about developing ways to measure its long term health. Out of this conference was born the Sustainable Seattle project, which grew into a non-profit corporation that developed a set of measurable indicators of the city's sustainability. This idea of sustainability took hold, and in 2000, the executive branch of the city government was re-organized to create an Office of Sustainability and Environment.

The websites below provide some information about Seattle's move to sustainability, as well as providing links to information about becoming sustainable.

Seattle

City of Seattle
Sustainable Seattle


Sustainability and Planning Resources

Izaak Walton League of America
Terraserver Satellite Photographs
Environmental Footprint (LEAD)

After reading through these and any other sites that you might find, answer the following questions

Use the Terraserver website to find aerial photographs of you local community. Most of the photographs on this website are from satellite pictures taken of the U.S. during the 1990's. Some locations have multiple coverage, with pictures from different years. If they do, study how your local community changed between the pictures. You might wish to download close up maps of your local neighborhood and surrounding area. After viewing these, take a trip through your local community, looking for places that are different from what you found in the satellite photographs.

• How has your local community changed from when the last satellite photograph was taken and today?
• What are the implications of the change that you found, if there were any? Would this change account for an increase in roads, electricity-generating capacity, water treatment, etc.?