Reflection

In this class I learned a lot about the environment. Although I have already taken three classes centered around the environment with this class marking my fourth, I still learned a great deal in this class. For example I had no knowledge on fracking and that seams to be a big controversial issue these days it seams to be in the news very often. Fracking is said to be clean and safe energy source by proponents. This might be the case in perfect situations but this kind of perfection does not exist in real life. Fracking has the dangers of associated with the chemicals involved. Many gallons of water a required and are mixed with over 600 chemicals to be pumped. These chemicals leak out and contaminate the water of the surrounding region. Only 30 to 50 percent of fracturing fluid is recovered with the rest being left behind causing more problems.

I also learned a great deal about my hometown and various other places. With the hometown PowerPoint assignment and project 3 of the class. I learned about the air quality of these places and various concerns of these areas. I especially enjoyed learning about Raleigh I am here for another 3 years so I would benefit greatly in gaining knowledge of this place.

The blogs were a great addition to the class it allowed for an adequate use of our hybrid days in the augmentation of the class. I liked it mainly for the freedom it provided and as a way for me to participate as I rarely talk in class. The blog was also useful for the responses to others creating a discussion like environment similar to the classroom that one would not be able to get by just completing an assignment and emailing to the teacher. The blog fostered the creativity of the blogger displaying the method by which a person views the world. With the opportunity to personalize the blog and post not just for the class for a continued love of the environment by blogging after the end of this class.

Comment here i guess

Education and the Proliferation of New (Old) Concepts

In Education and the Proliferation of New (Old) Concepts Paul Theobald and Hibajene Shandomo profile the education systems of the world as nations move from agrarian based economies to industrial based ones. Education was once a highly values resource, something that only the most wealthy families could afford. Children that attended these schools considered their classes a privilege, chance to move away from the rural towns of their childhood and make a name for themselves in the large, growing cities. Today children view school as work, something that is forced upon them and takes away from the fun of their childhood. This eventually leads to a decline in the overall education for students. If you go ask many students in public schools if they actually wanted to attend classes your response would be a resounding no. If students do not begin to value their education again the standards of the world’s education systems will continue to decline. The US, once an educational superpower, is now ranked in the mid 20’s in the world.

Survival response

Indigenous Resistance shows the issue of assimilation of the Salish people into British Columbia and Washington State. the salish occupied a region on the border of both countries. The children of these indians were forced to go to boarding school or face punishment and criticism in public schools. In the schools they were trained into white culture and sent to white foster families never seeing their family again. The natives were treated with racism and the americans did all to destroy their culture. They wanted their land and used assimilation to both take away their culture and take their property.

The Meatrix

I enjoyed watching the meatrix. It was very entertaining while also bring light to the meat industry. It shows how the family farms of the past are no longer and are virtually non existent similar to the matrix and showing the lie and the resistance. This would be very good for children and young adults who might not already know much about the meat industry of the day.
The meatrix ties in various things from the matrix and adapts them well to show the meat industry. With the antibiotics being shown as the red pill blue pill from the matrix.
something that the meat industry reminded me of was organic farming. In a quote i remember from somewhere, its been said that organic can only sustain around 4 billion people. So for any real progress to occur we must first reduce our population drastically.

food inc response

Genetically modified foods hold promise to end the worlds hunger problems. The catch is that there may be health risks associated with these foods. Long term testing has not been done to see the effects and they could be very damaging to ones health in the long run. These foods are genetically modified to have higher crop yield and resistance to disease and pests.
While GM crops could help the food crisis some think that its not the amount of food that's the problem but, rather that food distribution and politics are to blame.
I believe that GM foods are a viable option for solving the growing food crisis but, we should be careful that we don't modify too much that we endanger our health. This is hard to do for people strapped for money and can't afford organic foods void of genetic modification. 

Fracking and Water Contamination

Hydraulic fracking uses large amounts of water and chemicals pumped through underground rock to cause fractures to extract natural gas. Recently though federal environmental officials have investigated pollutants linked to these practices. In Wyoming people have begun to have a noticeable effect on their tap water. These researchers have linked fracturing to pollution of water causing toxic drinking water.

There are running debates on if fracking is a viable method in the extraction of natural gases or if it creates too much pollution irrepably damaging the area. Fracking companies stand by their claim that fracking is an overall safe process and that it would not pollute the water supply. They claim that if there is water contamination it is rather a fluke than a common occurance.

The EPA has found a different story, they have found hydrocarbons and contaminates that they believe is linked to fracking. This was later confirmed by a second round of sampling. The EPA released their findings and noted how they found chemicals used specifically in the fracking process. The fracking wells are far underground which lead the fracking companies to believe that there is no way for chemicals to reach drinking water. Even though these are far below some of the chemicals will always find its way into the drinking water.

I believe that fracking is an unsafe process; the name fracking just sounds bad involving the fracturing of the underground rock. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s found that fracking causes geologic instability to accompany its water pollution issue. Fracking causes evident dangers in the method used today. Better techniques need to be figured out if fracking is to be a viable energy source.

Environmental History artifact

The map shows the deforestation of Mato Grosso an isolated area in the amazon of Brazil. The grey beige regions show the heavy deforestation between 1992 to 2006

Relationship between religion and the environment

I beleive that the relationship between religion and the environment should be one where they are tied together. The environment can be thought of as a major component of religion and vice versa. The Native americans and early humans used the world in a sustainable manner, taking only what they used and being cognisant of their effects on it. In essence they made mother earth or gaia their religion. In modern society we need to learn to respect the earth and count it as sacred to be able to live sustainably and in fairness to the earth and its environment. The tying of religion into the environment would do just that.

In class viedo response

After watching this video I was very confused. I thought what is the purpose of this and why are we watching this in class. Taking queues from the shi people say meme. It seemed very random, following things some yoga doing girls says. I believed it to be idiotic and dumb but in a hilarious way. It has no semblance of a reason other than entertainment value and this is what makes it great. Its made to make people laugh and be the next popular viral video of the day.

Under this exterior of a funny hilarious video is what the video is really about. This is noted when you check who the sponser to this video is. A canadian yoga clothing company Lululemon. It turns out to be just an ad for "stuff".

Kahn response

In Richard Kahn’s Towards Ecopedagogy: Weaving a Broad Based Pedology of Liberation for Animals, Nature, and the Oppressed People of Earth Kahn notes the ongoing problem of people not realizing the effect we are having on the world. People are not conscious of how close to global ecological catastrophe we are.  Kahn in his article points to  his idea of Eopedagogy, defined as a movement and an approach to education to teach children literacy in the environment.

Recently the earth has been experiencing a mass extinction of many species. This extinction being the greatest in the last sixty-five million years. All of this in the past 30 years with no trend of slowing down. This is all do to the massive growth of humans. Take the rainforests for example. We are rapidly clear cutting those forests for our own purpose with no care for the many different organisms we are driving to extinction, many left never to even be discovered. Also some of these might hold keys to the cures for modern diseases and even diseases that are yet to arise.

Kahn gives note to how the human race is actually very ignorant to the environmental issues and problems we are enacting to the earth. Some facts stated about Americans on page 6, which I believed to be very well educated, 45 million Americans s think the ocean is a fresh source of water, 125 million Americans think that aerosol spray cans still contain

stratospheric ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) despite the fact

that they were banned from use in 1978, 123 million Americans believe that disposable diapers represent the

leading landfill problem when they in fact only represent 1% of all landfill

material and 130 million Americans currently believe that hydropower is the country’s

leading energy source when, as a renewable form of energy, it contributes

only 10% of the nation’s total energy supply.

These numbers are very troubling as we our one of the most educated societies on earth and we are this ignorant. This means that it’s even worse for other countries where people have little to no access to education, even on the elementary level.

I believe that Kahn is right in that we must make a move towards Ecopedagogy and is necessary for our future and the future of the earth as we know it. We need to better inform the public of what our effect and consequences are on the earth. Schools such as the “Zoo School”, would be a great way to teach students the necessary knowledge for a new environmentally conscious society.

Presidential Remarks on BP Oil Spill reimagining

Patrick Imperial

Presidential Remarks on BP Oil Spill reimagining

A different speech where Obama admits that the federal Government was to slow to act on the spill and apologized for the slow response would have a different effect then the speech that exists now.

The speech as written acknowledges the same concerns in a different fashion. He displays his understanding of the situation and states the work that has been completed towards the cleanup. He diverts any dissatisfaction toward the government’s slow response back toward BP as the real culprit and fully responsible. He leads people to feel comfortable in their government as capable of solving the crisis. Finally he ends with a call to arms type reaction with, the containment and cleanup of the oil spill.

If Obama were to give a different speech, instead admitting to Federal Government’s slow action towards the Oil Spill with an apology for the slow reaction, there would be an altogether different effect perceived by the audiences of Obama’s speech. People would not feel a call to action, they would be left with more disdain for the government and think of the Obama administration as incapable and ineffective bureaucracy. I personally would not find this speech as effective in getting trust in the systems in place. In the other speech Obama does not even mention the Federal Government as being slow to act he only gives the positives and displays what has been accomplished. At no point does he apologize to the audience. This prevents people from thinking that they are under an inept administration. In the case of this speech an outright apology would be a bad choice, it would give the idea that federal Government is inefficient and trying to control the damage of their ineptitude.

This speech reimagined would be harmful to Democrats up for reelection as they would be seen as part of the bureaucracy that failed the people. Candidates running against them would have a field day with this and this speech could very well lose the Democrat their seat in government. This would in turn be damaging to the Obama administration as the candidates taking their place would be a Republican, mortal enemy of the Democrats. This would weaken the Democrat numbers in government and thus make the Obama administration less effective.

BP oil executives would be able to take this speech and have their responsibility lessened of financial burden. They would be able to seem less at fault for the damages to the gulf and adjoining states.  They could in all possibility, shift blame toward the Federal Government and their slow response.

Engineers working to stop the oil spill might respond to this reimagined speech with, as opposed to the increased vigor of the real speech, a dislike for the lack of acknowledgement of their hard work in fixing the problem. As with the other speech Obama gives clear note to the progress being made to remedy the situation. They may change their perception of the problem and be less focused on fixing the problem and start thinking back to if they had been able to get at the situation sooner they might have been able to fix this problem with much more ease.

Still the main audience of the people hit the hardest by the Oil spill, people of the Gulf Coast states, would not feel their economic distress properly dealt with. 

Water forum

In Fridays class we discussed Water the article and the videos we linked to in our blog posts relating to the Patagonia story. Water is the only natural resource that cannot be replaced and has no substitute in life. We can replace our sources of energy coal, petroleum, natural gas, and nuclear power can all be replaced with other sources of energy such as solar and wind and other renewable techniques.

From a Google alert I received I learned about Chicago water sampling showing high levels of lead. These sampled showed more than 15 parts per billion of lead, a level that can trigger regulatory action by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA says that there is no safe level of lead exposure and have a running goal of zero exposure. This goes along with another article about toxic chromium found in drinking water.  The chromium levels found being more than 11 times higher than health standard. This shows how we are polluting our water and requiring our water to be more and more necessary for filtration.

Link http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-met-epa-lead-tests-20120131,0,4490886.story

Dried up amazon

This video details the drying up of the amazon as a consequence of a drought. It talks about stranded river boats, communities becoming cut off, and the dead and dying fish from starvation and lack of oxygen. This has an effect as fishing communities cannot find adequate drinking water or fish to eat.

This is affected majorly by deforestation and subsequent greenhouse gases from the cutting and burning of forests. With less trees there is less moisture rising to the air.

This cycle is not sustainable and will continue to get worse without intervention. This type of thing will just get more and more common as we continue on the path we are now.

I like this video as it shows one effect of the way humans are treating the world and is a call to action and a changing of ways.

Link: 

http://youtu.be/g7gpAy4ivZ0

Bill Mckibben Haiku Exercise

Damaged earth
Old Habits no longer
Build anew we must

Google Alerts Initial Experience

In my initial try with Google alerts I came across several different sites. In my clicking through of these sites I came across one about Virgin Airlines offering carbon offsets to consumers traveling with them. The scheme goes as follows, the passenger is first given the option to donate in offsetting their own carbon footprint of the trip ­­during the ticket purchased procedure, during the onboard orientation Virgin shows a presentation of how much carbon emissions the plane will have in the process of the flight, they go on to detail how the money will be used, to plant trees in a south American country. At this point Travelers are given a second chance to donate. The idea is to shame people into donating to the offset when they notice others donating.

I feel that this is a very productive step for sustainable practices and the changing of people’s mindset to a more globally sustainable world. I feel that there are still leagues to go before this can happen and there are some problems with this idea, one being that what happens to all that stored carbon if the tree is later cut down and burned. I do commend Richard Branson and his company on this step though.

Land Degradation

There are many environmental issues that are leading to the need for an Island Civilization. One of those is the ever increasing problem of land degradation.

Land degradation is the deteriation of the quality of land, topsoil, vegetation and water resources. This is usually caused by the exploitation of the land by people and big corporations. The majority of land degradation spawns from various unsustainable agricultural practices. Slash and burn farming techniques causes severe land degradation. Deforestation and clear-cutting are also major issues that cause land degradation. Overgrazing depletes the soil of nutrients. Other causes include urbanization, waste or garbage, and the quarrying of rock for precious ores and minerals.

The principle consequence of land degradation is reduction of land productivity. With this vulnerable land also facing increased soil erosion from weather, acidification and alkalization of the soil, flooding, and surface runoff. Also human population increases causes increased pressure on the use of arable lands and as we continue growing we send more and more land to a degraded state.

Land degradation would be easily fixed by the Island Civilization plan as the degraded land would be able to return to its pre-human state.

Here is a link to a paper by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. It goes into further detail on the amounts of degraded land throughout the world.

http://soils.usda.gov/use/worldsoils/papers/land-degradation-overview.html

Nash Reading response

            In an essay by Dr. Roderick Nash titled island civilization: a vision for human occupancy of EARTH, Dr. Nash conceptualizes a world in the fourth millennium. In his envisioned future Dr. Nash proposes island civilizations entirely self-sufficient and environmentally friendly, surrounded dense wildlife left to its own will. In this plan the world population has been throttled to a mere 1.5 billion, this is nothing compared to the 7 billion of today and the billions more our growth rate suggests. Dr. Nash moves to a more detailed possible version of “Island Civilization”, with humans being scattered in five hundred habitats with a 100 mile radius all self-sufficient, having food, energy, and waste dealt with in this radius. With this new style of living societies architects and engineers would create very technologic and futuristic environments with giant floating sky metropolises similar to metro city in the 2009 movie “Astro Boy” or barge like metropolises over oceans. Goods would not need to be exchanged or traded only cultural exchanges. Dr. Nash envisions a futuristic version of the Greek-city states of old.

            In doing this Nash hopes that problems of modern society will be mended and a new system with a more utopian society will be created. Nash notes how some people might not live in these dense metropolises. The option given would be to live in the wilderness as a movement back to old hunter gatherer ways. These people would live off the land in what Nash calls “future primitive”. Furthering this ideal young people would be encouraged to take a two year mission in the wild.

            I believe that Dr. Nash’s   theory of “Island Civilization” is a commendable idea with many very earth friendly aspects. By leaving the majority of earth to its own devices the polluted and overworked land would be given a chance to heal itself of the parasitic human race of decades and centuries of the past much like earth was left fallow in the movie Wall-E. Plant succession would begin anew, slowing taking apart our old buildings and growing over them, turning back the clock to the forestland that existed before humanity laid it to waste. If this plan were to work both humans and the environment could live in peaceful harmony.

            While a good theory I believe that Dr. Nash’s plan will never come to fruition at least not in the way he thinks it will. People will never want volunteer their freedoms and land to live on island metropolises. Also Big Business, who has the majority say of what goes in our society, will try every possible way to prevent this. Anything short of the governments of the world combining into one giant governmental body to force this new system into effect, would lead to this plan being an epic failure. Nash fails to account for humans’ inherent greed and self-interest.  Even if this system is actually successful it would take only a few generations for people to forget about the ideals of their ancestors and for business and expansion to start up anew. The world in another few hundred years or so after the creation of the Island Civilization society would be back to the mindset and conditions of modern day society.

            I feel that Nash’s system is admirable and if successful, would be wonderful for both the earth and humans but, it would ultimately fail as humans would start expanding and taking advantage of the earth all over again.

            I personally believe that people will ultimately always take advantage of the land over time and that we will keep expanding until we have exceeded the Earths carrying capacity and probably start colonizing other planets and moons taking advantage of their resources also. In a never ending cycle.