End of Suburbia - Movie Reflection

Can you imagine living without air conditioning during summer seasons in Taiwan? I can't. But this is what we might have to face in the future!

We watched a movie called "End of Suburbia" in class last week. The movie says that suburbia is a false promise because as this kind of life-style expands, more energy and resources are needed. There are also many issues being discussed in the movie: over consuming, oil and natural resource depletion, energy depletion, and etc. The pollutions suburban life-style create are just a tip of an iceburg. I think these problems occur not just in the US, but also the world. Not only Suburban life-style pose threat to the environment, but the overall life-style we have now needs to be changed to suit what our earth can sustain.

I lived in Long Island (two hours outside of NY City) when I was back in the US. The place I lived was not necessarily a suburb, however, it still requires a lot of car driving to get to buy goods. Although there are few smaller grocery markets around my house, but if you want to shop for some new clothes or things you would not normally get in a small grocery stores, you'll need to drive for at least thirty minutes. I know that US is a big country; however, I questioned why my father have to drive so far to get what we need for daily life.

The difference between the US and Taiwan, in regard of shopping, is that it is very convenient to buy things in Taiwan. Taiwan is a small country with crowded population. People in Taiwan does not need to drive for a long time before reaching a restaurant or shopping mall.
However, when talking about transportation, Taiwan has some similarities with the suburban life style in the US. Taiwanese people relies on scooters a lot because it's very convenient. One can get around the town with a scooter very easily and they are not too expensive. Massive scooter population pollutes the air. However, Taipei and Kaohsiung, the two cities, provide more developed and convenient public transportation system. With well-designed public transportation system, people will have less chance to drive their own cars. Another really good example would be Tokyo City, Japan.

In now days, pretty much everything we buy were manufactured and/or shipped from another city or another country. For example, we've read about how a can of coke was made, where did the materials came from, and etc. This is a big problem because long-distance shipping requires a lot of energy and leaves massive amount of ecological footprints. Unfortunately, this is hard to change the situation because we all want things with cheaper prices. I totally agree that we must have more small-sized and localized retail stores!

This whole movie talks about sustainability. The effects are never one-sided. Every impact we made will influence the economy, the society, and the environment--- it's a chain reaction.
Although it is up to us to decide how we want to use the resources; however, we also need to be thinking about the next generation, and next, and next...
Like Al Gore said "we have entered a period of consequence." If we do not try our best to fix the problem, we will be doomed.