PowerPoint Comments

EcoJustice Education

The whole point of this essay is to describe how the public school is not teaching kids the right things. Apparently, an "agrarian" way of teaching is what will set up the next generation for more success. While they may have good evidence for this, I tend to disagree. Our society is moving to a more efficient way to do absolutely anything and everything. So why is efficient bad? We don't need to go back to a primitive life style with no cell phones, no cars, right? So why would we take a step back and re adjust how we are teaching kids in public school. I think regressing is first of all impossible and second of all unnecessary. It's taken over 2000 years to get where we are today and even though our society is not the most perfect, it's still very advances and I don't know why we would want to take that away. Also, a lot of ideas in this essay has to result in more taxation which is absolutely ridiculous. Every time we turn around, we're getting taxed more and more. It's unfair for the people that actually work hard and get an education are taxed so that their money can be given to people that are lazy and don't want to work.

This Coast Salish Indian Tribe have had to fight for their survival in this borderlands place. Culture played such huge role is keeping the Coast Salish, essentially, alive.  British Columbia and Washington State are what separate this people group. The families had to often travel between these borders for difference family events, celebrations, etc. The biggest issue that came about for the Coast Salish was the issue of schooling. In order to resist division, the Coast Salish attended government boarding schools in order to flee assimilation and more importantly racism. All the Coast Salish wanted to do was to keep their traditions and culture and not have to assimilate.
I couldn't imagine being faced with this kind of lifestyle. America is supposed to be the "freest" state, yet this people group was not free at all. All a people grow has to pass down to their generation is their cultural traditions. That shouldn't be taken away from them.

The Meatrix

These funny yet insightful clips were really helpful in conveying the message about the dangers of factory farming. Although these clips mostly focused on the meat industry, eggs and even water are also at danger. Chickens play a large part in factory farming. The chickens are pumped with steroids so they can produce eggs faster and therefore make more profit for the company. Something I didn't realize until after watching these clips was that the environment around factory farms are very poor. Because of the fecal matter, the air and water becomes very polluted. These farming companies are very good at hiding what's really going into the food we eat. No one really thinks about. That's why I like these videos cause it explains simply what's going on. The only country I've visited that is somewhat poor is the Bahamas. Everyone thinks that the Bahamas is this tropical, beautiful land but in reality, the main land is very poor. The poor living conditions and whole environment in general does not seem safe. I don't know much about the Bahama's meat industry but I know that worldwide these types of conditions for animals are not only are for them but also to humans. This definitely needs to come to an end or many lives both animal and humans are going to be lost.

I completely agree and really like the biotechnology way of conforming an argument/essay. It is much like the way I would go approaching a controversial subject. I like how a moderate tone would be used when constructing this essay. It's very important to have your paper come off as snobbish because then no one would read it. In order to get your point across, you need a moderate tone. I also like how enough evidence needs to be presented before giving opinions on your topic. This is a very important step because for me I sometimes get carried away in putting my opinions in about a topic. But if I stick to presenting facts then I will surely not have this problem. Lastly, provide solutions. There's no point in writing a paper about something if you don't provide some kind of solution. I've been trying to do this all of my papers this semester. It really helps to try and think outside the box in trying to think of ways to help the environment. 

Response to Fracking Article

First off, I had to look up what “fracking” meant. It seems to be some made up word because it was not listed in the dictionary. When I google-searched it I finally discovered my answer. Fracking is a form of drilling in order to extract oil or gas from the ground. From my understanding of the article, fracking has been known to be a risky operation. The ones in charge of this operation have assured the public that it is perfectly safe. Well guess what? It’s not. 

Several people’s water has been contaminated very close to these fracking sites. But still, the “frackers” will not take the blame. Even though previous issues have come about earlier in time, the fracking site still assume that it is not their fault. I think the frackers are starting to get nervous. They’re starting to realize how unsafe this process actually is. It’s no coincidence that homes near the fracking site all of a sudden had contaminated water. In order to protect themselves, the fracking companies are choosing not to comment about the situation. They think that by not disclosing information, no one can blame them or prove that it is in fact them causing contamination.

It seems obvious to me that fracking has indeed caused some kind of environmental harm. It may not have caused water contamination directly but it definitely had something to do with it. There’s too much of a coincidence for it to have not had a play in it. The United States as a whole needs to be extremely careful when trying to better the environment. Most of the time, things are just being made worse. Just because we have all of this new technology doesn’t mean we can go harm the environment in order to try it out. Water is essential and if we no longer have access to clean drinking water, then I don’t know what our world has come to. 

Paper vs PowerPoint

I enjoyed creating a power point much more than I did a paper. Papers are often 4 to 5 pages minimum. It takes a lot of work to craft a thesis and each sentence precisely to end up with a decent paper. Power points have a much more creative side to it, which is why I really enjoy it. You can add pictures, slide designs, fonts, colors, you name it. A power point is much more representative of your style and work because you can express yourself in the way you design it.  A power point is often more informative because of the use of pictures, charts, and diagrams. Showing a power point holds someone's attention way longer than reading a paper. I enjoy creating power points. I am more likely to spend more time on crafting my power point than writing my paper. I will put forth more effort in creating my power point because I enjoy doing so. It won't feel like a boring paper assignment.

Deforestation in the US

This is an image of the progression of deforestation in United States. Each little dot on the map represents 25,000 acres. The image starts at the year 1620. Over half of the US was covered by forests. As time progresses to present day, we can see that the number of forests are astronomically less. There are almost no forests left today. Especially not on the Eastern side where it all once was. Deforestation can impact the US and its inhabitants on several different levels. The rate of expansion is getting almost too much to bear. Negative impacts of this have already revealed itself, whether it be climate change or extinct species.

Source: http://conservationreport.com/2009/02/24/deforestation-area-of-virgin-forest-from-1620-to-today/

Article related to Religion & Environment

http://www.jstor.org.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/stable/pdfplus/1386911.pdf?acceptTC=true

Don't worship the Earth

I believe that God created this Earth for His people to inhabit. Obviously, we should take care of what He's provided to us. We must be respectful of our planet. But I don't think we should go as far as to make a whole "religion" out of this environmental practice. If people start consuming themselves with saving the planet, and what-not, the focus starts to turn away from God and onto mankind and the planet itself. Planet Earth begins to be worshiped and seen as a sacred deity. That's really the main problem I have with this religion and environmental relationship. The Yale video condescends how "past religions" focuses on a personal relationship (with God). I still believe firmly that "religion" is, in fact, a personal relationship with God. There's no room for worshiping the Earth because God is not in the picture anymore, God created the Earth and gave us the Earth to live in. We should worship Him not it.

Lulu Lemon

"S*** Yogis Say" is a comical video making fun on yogis. Apparently, the stereotypical yogi is some environmentally friendly freak who drinks wheat shots and "ommmms" more than speaks. Lulu also talks about the contents of her yoga mat. She makes herself out to be a stupid, yet healthy individual. She is seen sipping on a wheat grass drink in which she coughs after she drinks because of the horrible taste, yet she still offers it to her friend. Yoga is a lifestyle to Lulu as she talks about her "yoga hair". She also makes fun of saying "Namas De" or however you spell that. It was a hilarious video!

Article

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/07/4245214/hertz-launches-global-sustainability.html

Towards Ecopedagogy

Richard Kanh’s article was very precise and convincing when it came to various arguments about destroying the environment. At the beginning of his article, he states that “a threat to either the organism or its environment is a movement towards the ecology of death” (1). His point being that if an organism is threatened, than the environment and vice versa. The reality of humans’ actions on our environment are made known with this sudden realization

What struck the most interesting to me was this environmental education. For one, I had never heard of such a thing. Secondly, it seems to help in other aspects of education such as social science and mathematics. I was fascinated when reading this. At first I was extremely skeptical about this so called Zoo School where “ high school-aged juniors and seniors attend school on the zoo grounds, treating the institution and a nearby park as an experiential learning lab where they conduct independent studies and weave environmental themes into their curricular work and projects” (7). The whole concept behind this school is that these students are actually learning HOW to do these specific tasks instead of just learning about them. It’s an education system like this that can save our environment. It’s all about the up and coming generation because the generation that is going to continue our efforts here on Earth. I personally think that all schools should implement this kind of education especially in an environmental crisis such as this. 

Khan’s article was very affective in that it posed a lot of great ideas with factual background to support it. His statistics, such as “1.2 billion people live on less than $1 per day and nearly 3 billion live on less than $2 per day” (4), really make you think about how much the world is in trouble. It really makes me want to help society and help the environment succeed. 


Source: http://richardkahn.org/writings/ecopedagogy/towardsecopedagogy.pdf

Response to Water & Google Alert

The “forum” we had in class on Friday about water was very interesting and thought provoking. The only thing that comes to my mind though is how can the consumers be blamed for using too much water. We need clothes and food to survive. We’re just purchasing it because we need it to live. The producers are the ones that should be blamed in my opinion. They’re the ones that are using all of the water to produce the product. But then again, they need to produce these things in order to survive and make a living. It’s really a vicious cycle and I wish I had knowledge to offer up in order to help the over usage of water but I just don’t know how to help the situation.

I was perusing my google alerts and came across an interesting article that was sent to me from my “environment” alert. It was about “Tourette-like symptoms” that have emerged from 16 teenagers in New York. All of these teenagers attend the same school and their symptoms consist of face jerking and sudden outbursts, like Tourettes. The cause of this is still being investigated but one of the suspects is thought to be the environment itself. There was a chemical spill about 40 years ago and investigators are saying that this could very well be the cause of these teenager’s disorder. The chemical spill contaminated the water and could have poisoned these kids. Specialists are saying that this kind of contaminated is more common in teenagers, especially girls. Of the 16 teens, all are girls except 1. I’m glad this article was sent to me because it pertains to water, as we were discussing on Friday. It’s sometimes hard to think that water isn’t a big deal in our society because nothing “bad” has happened or we’ve never run out. But water contamination actually does exist and to think that it could product “Tourette-like symptoms” is just baffling and vey scary. It makes everything seem more real. It puts environmental issues into perspective and makes me want to help with the issue of water in our world. 

I chose this video because it depicts how a polluted river really does affect the environment. It's called the New River and it flows from Mexico into the United States. The video thats that this polluted river is a health hazard to citizens, obviously pollutes the environment, hinders development. The New River, most polluted river in the world, contains "chemical waste" and "raw sewage". It's extremely dangerous is anyone were to drink water from this river. The Patagonia essay was an amazing depiction of how rivers could possibly be going "extinct". That is, who's taking care of our rivers? Certainly not us. I love this video because it really shows how bad rivers are and what they can be.

A Haiku

What were you thinking?

An indoor slope in Dubai

Look where that’s got us

Google Alerts!

I used Google Alerts for the first time yesterday and was pleasantly surprised about how the whole thing worked. I didn't even know there was such thing as Google Alerts but I am looking forward to using it a lot more now. I made alerts for four different topics: "electricity conservation", "environment", "overpopulation", and "food shortage". I got two very interesting articles that sparked by interest. The first article I cam across was from my "overpopulation" alert. This article entitled Adopt for the right reasons, not overpopulation fix was published on the Kansas State University website. The writer explored several reasons for adoption but mainly focused on the point that so many families adopt for the wrong reasons. Adoption is such a life changing thing that the ONLY reason to adopt should not be to help the overpopulation issue in our world. "Considering the number of children awaiting adoption, the idea of adoption as a way to alleviate overpopulation issues truly isn’t a bad one. If more couples adopt children, as opposed to having their own, a child will have a home without adding more people to the inevitable overpopulation issue. Though the idea is solid, I can’t get myself to believe that it’s a good enough reason on its own to forgo having biological children". Though this article didn't have as much to do with sustainability I thought it was an interesting thing to think about.
The second article I found interesting was from my "environment" alert. This article entitled Fungus has killed up 6.7M bats in potential extinction caught my attention immediately. Since 2006, a white fungus has been discovered to be killing off millions of bats. "The cause is a mystery. One theory is that humans may have introduced the fungus while exploring caves". Woah, what? Humans may have caused this? Although I'm not some kind of bat lover, the fact that humans could be responsible for killing 6.7 million bats is horrible. This is definitely an eye-opener when it comes to animal extension.
I also read up on what sustainability is and how us as inhabiters can help our planet. I didn't really know what sustainability was before this class. I never really learned about. This one article produced by the EPA website puts it like this: "Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony..." I like the way that this is put. "Productive harmony" makes me think that all things living on the Earth are helped by each other. Humans help the plants, plants help the humans, animals help the plants, plants help the animals, and so on. I completely agree that it is productive harmony that our Earth needs and I am definitely willing to contribute. I perused this EPA website and found a really awesome tool that tells you what products are environmental friendly. I love to shop for just about anything. I typed in that I was looking for household cleaners. "Design for the Environment" popped up as a brand that creates safe cleaners. Sustainability is actually an interesting subject to learn about and there is so much more that I am eager to learn more about.

Supply Shortages Coming Our Way?

One of the biggest issues that Nash recognizes is the fact that the world's population is entirely too big. With that comes one very HUGE issue: food and water shortages. It's hard to be that one person to make a difference but after reading this article, I learned that there are simple ways to help improve our environment.
With the population steadily increasing, it's going to be next to impossible to feed everybody. Lester Brown writes in his article, How to Feed 8 Billion People, that "the number of hungry people had fallen to 825 million" because food prices are so high. Not only is grain used for food, but also for fuel in cars. So with food prices going up, gas prices are increasing as well. "Shifting to a vegetarian diet cuts greenhouse gas emissions almost as much as shifting from an SUV to a hybrid vehicle does". If this quote doesn't make your "twinge-o-meter" (as Dr. Taylor would say) than I don't know what does. Brown even talk about how eating "less grain-intensive forms of animal protein such as poultry or certain types of fish can also reduce pressure on the earth's land and water resources". I love this article because a lot of times people feel like there's nothing practical that they can really do to help the environment. But I've learned from just reading this article that eating less grain makes an astronomical difference.


The article I used is called "How to Feed 8 Billion People" by Lester Brown

All expense paid vacation to a tropical island of your choice courtesy of Roderick Nash

I told myself I was going to begin reading this document entitled “Island Civilization” with an open mind. I have a tendency to pre-judge things before I know what they’re really about. When I first read the words “island civilization” I thought I was in for a Robinson Crusoe meets Star Wars type deal. Not even close. 

Roderick Nash has some interesting ideas about how to further help the civilization in which we live. I can’t blame the guy for wanting to fix our society. It’s extremely corrupt and I definitely agree that there are ways to go about making the world we live a better place. I enjoyed reading Nash’s version of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. What I liked most about Nash is that he encouraged others to create their own vision if they didn’t necessarily agree with his. I respect Nash in the sense that he isn’t trying to shove this “environmentalist” idea down anybodies throats, but rather challenging his readers to use imagination of their one to come up with ideas to better the environment. His main goal is to sincerely get as many people on board to want to help the environment, not to gain prestige and fame from writing this article. And I looked him up on Google; he’s not that famous. I trust he’s being sincere with this. 

Nash believes that nature should come before humans. Humans are here for nature, the nature isn’t here for the humans. He argues that humans have been “horrible roommates in the earth household” (377). Nash sees civilizations that existed thousands of years ago seemed to be more simple yet healthy for nature and humans. Nash wants to go back all the way to hunter and gatherer societies because it proved to be so successful. He acknowledges that if society could somehow regress back to this lifestyle, all technology breakthroughs could no longer exist. He suggests the solution of Henry David Thoreau that I find quite interesting actually. He says that Thoreau “wished ‘to secure all the advantages’ of civilization ‘without suffering any of the disadvantages’ ”(377). Boy do I wish this was possible. Coming from a technological nerd, I appreciate people that thing technology and advancement of that sort are actually a good thing. I like the fact that Nash doesn’t just deem all human advancement a negative and hurtful thing in society. After all, I’m sure he wouldn’t be wanting to write this article on a stone tablet. 

What Nash means by “Island Civilization” it to not live like Robinson Crusoe, but in a utopian type place free of war and even common transportation. A contained society in which the humans were part of the wilderness. No wonder Nash liked Henry David Thoreau so much. The other thing that Nash pointed out what that in order for his vision to work, the world population would have to be cut down by about...one fourth. Not really sure how that’s going to work and I don’t really want to know Nash’s solution to that but I do like Nash’s point about “only limited numbers of humans can enjoy unlimited opportunities” (377). There must have been a lot of good stuff in page 377...I just went back to make sure that not every page was marked 377. We’re good. 

Anyways, I think that Nash has a lot of inventive and creative ideas that I’m sure no one else has ever thought of before, but I don’t think those ideas would actually ever pan out. I mean obviously, you can’t just kill one fourth of the population, move them to an island that has no transportation, and expect no war to break out. The more I think about it, I believe the point that Nash is trying to make with this article is that he wants us, this generation, to be creative and stand up for what you think is right. Don’t be lazy and sit on your butt all day when you think that something can actually be done to improve our environment. Think of creative ideas and share them with others around you. Imagination can go a long way. Cheesy, right? I mean I could be wrong about the interpretation of Nash’s article. Maybe he really did plan on cutting Earth’s population by one fourth and creating his own little island, I don’t know. But what I do know is that even though Nash has some pretty crazy, far-fetched ideas, he’s definitely inspired me to be somebody and to take action when I know I could make a difference. It might not be an environmental issue you’re dealing with, but with absolutely anything. Be somebody and make a difference! 

Sincerely,

Megan T. Stahl






Roderick Frazier Nash, “Island Civilization: A Vision for Human Occupancy of Earth in the Fourth Millennium,” Environmental History 15 (July 2010): 371–380.