North America Brings the Wolf Back

A long road that the North American gray wolf has traveled in the past fifty years. Before being put on the endangered species list the grey wolf population had shrunk from covering many parts of North America to only covering a very small percentage of the areas in northern Montana, Canada, and Alaska. In the 1990's reintroduction projects brought the grey wolf back into wildlife reserves in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. The reintroduction proved to be successful as the wolf population quickly grew. Impacting the surrounding environment as well.

 Recently the North American Gray Wolf was taken off the endangered species act, a highly controversial decision that still continues to be debated.  One of the main question is; were the wolfs ready to be taken of the highly effective and useful endangered species list. Without the governments protection, the gray wolf could easily suffer. Farm members from the surrounding communities have always been worried about the wolves eating their life stock and without the governments protection the wolves could be killed by the farmers. This endangering the wolves once again. 

However, many environmentalists educate and protect the wolves without the help of the government. Conservation projects throughout northwestern Wyoming and southern Montana and Idaho keep the wolf protected. 

 

Sustainability In America

To keep up or keep going, the simple worded definition of sustainability. However in today's fast pace world to be sustainable is something much more than that. It is the ability to live for a long time and keep the resources we use, without running out. The meaning of sustainability to a lot of people is the ability to live the way the live until they die and continue to this without changing there way of living. In order to be sustainable the lifestyles of most Americans would have to change.  Most people in America today live in a world that they use a lot of resources and would be unable to survive if they had to rely only on natural resources this making them unsustainable.  The demand for energy is way to high to have sustainable living, in other words the fast pace average suburban lifestyle of driving to work everyday will eventually have to stop. This is because oil has reached a peak high and will eventually run out. 

Things that can be done to make current lifestyles more sustainable are growing your own foods or buying local foods, reducing the amount of energy used each day, and using alternative fuel sources when they are available. 

Best Green Companies In The U.S.

1. Honda 

2. Continental Airlines 
3. Suncor 
4. Tesco 
5. Alcan 
6. PG & E 
7. S.C. Johnson 
8. Goldman Sachs 
9. Swiss Re 
10. Hewlett-Packard

Worst Green City in U.S. = Pittsburgh

The Dirtiest city in the United States recently has been named Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  

Top Ten Green Cities

THE GREENEST CITIES IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

1. Portland, Oregon  

2. San Francisco, California 

3. Boston, Massachusetts 

4. Oakland, California 

5. Eugene, Oregon

6. Cambridge, Massachusetts

7. Berkeley, California

8. Seattle, Washington

9. Chicago, Illinois

10. Austin, Texas

TOP TEN DIRTIEST CITIES

1. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 

2. Los Angeles/Long Beach/Riverside, California

3. Fresno/Madera, California 

4. Bakersfield, California

5. Birmingham, Alabama

6. Logan, Utah

7. Salt Lake City, Utah

8. Sacramento, California

9. Detroit, Michigan 

10. Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C.

DO GLOBAL ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS SUPPORT SUSTAINBLE DEVELOPMENT?

Human attitudes throuhgout each state, country, and continent almost always differ according to lifestyle. However the want to be economically stable tends to unify all the world's countries. In my opinion a specific country's attitude directly effects how the country lives their life's.

Also influencing the attitudes and behavior of any person, is the mind set of the entire world in general. For instance economic wealth or development is prioritized over a well established sustainable development.  

The statistics found in the United States and in throughout the world seemed very surprising. When asked the question: Should human beings master nature or should human coexist with nature? The results showed a majority of people wanting to coexist with nature. This is very good, but my question is: Why don't humans act on this and coexist with nature? 

It seems almost obvious that a majority of the world is concerned about the environment and our attitudes toward sustainable development seem to be getting better. 

However the question the article left me with is why have our behaviors not acted on our attitudes? The only possible answer that I can think of is the entire other factor of money and material! These two things seem to keep the majority stuck in the attitude of economic wealth takes priority over sustainable economics and development!