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.