Levester Williams
Reed Esslinger-Payet
ADP 250:Technology and Environment

Having both talent and strong interests in fine art and electrical engineering, I had to decide which major I would pursue. Since I was raised on a very limited income from my grandmother, I had the aspiration to find a job that will lead me to a financial stable career. Also, since my fortes in school, besides art, were mathematical and science courses, I wanted to pursue engineering—specifically electrical engineering since their starting salaries are generally higher than the other engineers. However, I creating artwork since it allowed me to express myself and free myself from the worries from home and school.
To decide to major in fine art frightened me at first since I was deciding not to choose a career that was financially stable and has a high salary. Moreover, choosing art, according to my family, seemed a waste of intellect. Also, I wanted to be able to support my future family. However, I choose art because I knew I am capable of helping my community out, whether it is on a local or global scale. Instead of being selfish to a certain extent—I could still help my community out by being in engineer—I sacrificed a stable career to pursue a path of community involvement. Eventually, I was ignorant that artists could be successful and that art is not constrained to such painting and drawing yet it is ubiquitous. If I had chosen to become an engineer, I would have ended up not enjoying my career as much since I am only doing it to ameliorate my lifestyle and the immediate people around me.
Montana, however, failed to make the correct choice when the government did not admonish nor delegated the mining corporate owners to “bear financial responsibility” (Diamond 36) for disposing of the waste from the mine. Now, toxic metals are leaking into the environment without anyone taking responsibility (Diamond 36). This habitat destruction is one of the eight categories that Diamond refers to as being ecocide—“environmental suicide”—that precipitated the collapse of past societies (Diamond 6). The past societies that could be compared to the decline of Montana’s environment are the Pitcarin and Henderson Islands.
Montana has a small population (Diamond 30), compared to the rest of the states, and its economy cannot support the lifestyle of its inhabitants; thus, Montana is interdependent to rest of the United States (Diamond 74). Similarly, due to the limited opportunities—such as limited natural resources and hospitable living condition—on both the Pitcarin and Henderson Islands (Diamond 123-124), these islands were interdependent to Mangareva that was capable of supporting a large opportunities (Diamond 122). Unfortunately, since Mangareva committed ecocide by deforestation of trees that effaced all the trees used for the manufacturer of canoes, trades stop among the islands. Therefore, the other islands could not receive the needed resources, so their population was extirpated (Diamond 132).
Since Montana’s main industries and agriculture are declining (Diamond 34), it unlikely will be capable of supporting itself if assistance from the rest of the other states ceased. However, the inhabitants of Montana could become more self-sufficient if the citizens of Montana begin to place pressure of the corporations as Diamond mentioned (Diamond 35). This will cause the companies to take responsibilities for how they interact with the environment. They will be more cognizant and precarious of how the handle the environment since the citizens would strive for a common goal of saving the environment. However, the care of the environment must be instilled in the citizens.

Works Cited
Diamond, Jared M. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York: Viking, 2005. Print.