Survey 2

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PGTCJVC

I now have 21 responses to my survey. The results are still following the same format as last time. Many students are recycling, and others say they would recycle more off campus if it were easier. I am going to be closing my survey soon and using the data collected to draft my essay.

Survey

I have chosen to analyze recycling habits of college students using the theory of planned behavior. I created my survey on surveymonkey.com last Thursday. Upon completion, I posted a link to it on the NCSU Facebook page. So far, it seems that many college students care about recycling. Many students say that they will recycle as long as it is convenient, and others say that they almost always recycle, regardless of convenience.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PGTCJVC

Coast Salish Synthesis

The article "Indigenous resistance and racist schooling on the borders of empires: Coast Salish cultural survival" by Michael Marker talks about the Coast Salish people and how they have resisted assimilation through education. The Coast Salish people live in both British Columbia and Washington State. The people had to cross the USA-Canada border regularly for ceremonies and other important cultural practices. The United States and Canada attempted to assimilate the native people into the modern culture with schooling. Schools were set up in order to help blend the Coast Salish people in with the other residents. However, the Indigenous people wanted no part in this. Therefore, the schooling failed at doing away with the Coast Salish culture.

Food & Sustainability Issues in New York

When thinking about New York, we normally think of cities and pollution, not farms and other food sources. Parts of New York, such as New York City are extremely polluted, which can lead to health problems in residents. Besides this, New York City lacks farmland, which means that most of the food consumed is not locally produced. Importing food can be costly. In upstate New York, in cities such as Antwerp, there are more farms and less pollution than in New York City. However, it probably still would not be considered sustainable. In order to better the state as a whole, people need to start thinking about the long-term situation instead of just short-term goals. By doing this, perhaps they could come up with a solution to help make the state more sustainable and less costly.

Environmental History

I located an article that defines what "environmental history" really is. According to this article, environmental history is "the interdisciplinary study of human interactions with the natural world over time." Environmental historians try to understand many things, including how people modify the places and ecosystems that they inhabit, how nature sets limits for human actions, and how the natural world shapes values, economics, and cultures. However, the goals of environmental historians change throughout the world. They reflect the specific environment that is studied. Environmental history is most developed in the United States. 

Watson, Fiona. "Environmental History." The Scottish Historical Review 82.214 (2003): 285-294. Web. 30 Sept. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/25529721.pdf?acceptTC=true>.

Water Contamination & Fracking

Water Contamination and Natural Gas Fracking

Because of a contamination near the town of Pavillion, Wyoming, federal environmental officials have linked underground water pollution to hydraulic fracturing. Environmental Protection Agency officials concluded that the spill in central Wyoming had most likely seeped up from gas wells, because it contained at least ten compounds that are known to be used in frack fluids. There has been a debate about whether or not contamination from fracking is actually occurring. Drilling industries claim that fracking is safe and does not cause water contamination. The industries state that hydrologic pressure naturally forces liquid down instead of up, and that geologic barriers prevent chemicals from moving to the surface. The Wyoming contamination goes against the industries claims completely. However, the companies argue that the science to directly link fracking with water contamination is inconclusive. The finding of these compounds in this particular case could change the way that natural gas resources are regulated by the country. The Environmental Protection Agency concluded that the contamination had to have been caused by fracking.

To keep water from being dangerously contaminated, fracking should be strictly regulated. People that live around areas where fracking frequently takes place should not have to be concerned about whether or not their water is safe to drink or bathe in. The compounds used for oil drilling are unhealthy. Many of them are carcinogens that could negatively impact human health in a huge way. Therefore, stricter regulations on fracking could keep water sources safe, which would help keep residents of the area healthy. 

Richard Kahn

"In his book, Dominion, Matthew Scully estimates that nothing less than 103 million pigs, 38 million cows and calves, 250 million turkeys, and 8 billion chickens are slaughtered annually in America alone." 

This is a quote from Richard Kahn's "Towards Ecopedagogy: Weaving a Broad-based Pedagogy of Liberation for Animals, Nature, and the Oppressed People of the Earth." Prior to reading this, I had no idea that the number of animals killed annually for our consumption was so high. I do not believe many Americans really stop and think about where their food is coming from, or how it got to their plates. If environmental education classes were put into the curriculum in all states, people would be more aware of their surroundings, which include more than just these animals whose lives are sacrificed for our benefit. Possibly, these classes could decrease these numbers. They could also educate the public about water sources, nonrenewable resources, and other parts of the ecosystem that are hurting for us to thrive. If people knew what was going on, perhaps they would be more likely to stop it from continuing.

Extra Credit: Visual Rhetoric

This picture shows a deer that is made out of trash. It shows that animals cannot be recycled, but trash can. Recycling garbage could help the environment and the animals, such as deer, that live on the planet. By refusing to recycle, we are hurting the environment. Nature is dying, and it cannot be brought back to life. This picture uses technology to provoke individuals to recycle by showing what happens when we do not. It implies that we are throwing the environment away because we are not recycling the way we should be. Visual representations of things that are already obvious sometimes help to better get the point across, because they appeal to one's senses. That is what is happening with this image.

Poem Themes

In Coyote Valley Spring, Snyder talks about how life is simple in the wilderness in this area. He talks about how people are far from where the animals are living. His theme in this poem is that without humans involved, nature is simple and happy. In Front Lines, Snyder writes about bulldozers ruining the land. This goes back to the theme that humans negatively impact nature. The theme of Manzanita seems to be that nature is beautiful, like in Coyote Valley Spring. Gary Snyder was concerned with the wilderness this long ago, and it has only gotten worse since then.

Snyder Themes Forum

As a class, we discussed themes in Gary Snyder's Turtle Island. For the most part, the poems in Turtle Island have themes related to nature and the bioregion. In many of his poems, Snyder implies that humans have a negative impact on nature. In poems such as The Dead by the Side of the Road, the theme is that humans are wasteful when it comes to the environment. As a whole, humans take the wilderness for granted. This is negatively affecting the bioregion in huge ways. Snyder implies this in many of his poems.

Gary Snyder Themes

For this assignment, I read The Dead by the Side of the Road, Control Burn, and Two Fawns that Didn't See the Light This Spring. The themes of all three poems seem to be that humans intervene with nature more than necessary. In The Dead by the Side of the Road and Two Fawns that Didn't See the Lights This Spring,  Snyder describes animals that have died from unnatural causes, such as being hit by cars and shot. He seems to have sympathy for the dead animals, which shows that their deaths are not something to be happy about. Control Burn is about how much the land has changed since the Indians had control over it. He wants to help the land blossom and live to its full potential again by burning it. These poems show that Gary Snyder has a respect for the wilderness and that other humans do not. They change things in negative ways.

McKibben/Bioregional Quiz Response

          The bioregional quiz brought many challenging questions. For example, the course of drinking water from precipitation to tap is not something that is automatically known by most. The length of the growing season for a specific location is also something that is not so easy to answer. The quiz was very difficult and definitely would have required a lot of research. However, McKibben's podcast was much easier to understand. McKibben brought up a variety of valid points which are also most likely not thought of on a daily basis. McKibben said the earth is changing, and the altered earth is no longer able to support the population and economic growth which has been constantly taking place for years now. The overgrowth will eventually cause societies to collapse. This is a new way of looking at what is taking place across not only the nation, but the world.

Lack of Conservation of Wild Fisheries (Post 2)

Because one of Nash’s main points in the Island Civilization reading was to conserve and protect wildlife and wildlands, I decided to focus on conservation of natural fisheries. The ecosystems of the ocean have been not only overfished, but also polluted for many years. While this causes the amount of fish in the fisheries to decline, it also increases jobs for those that rely on fishing for his or her livelihood. According to my source, over half of worldwide fish populations are completely exploited, and close to one third are overly-exploited or collapsed.

            With that being said, I would say that the fact that we, as human beings, are not carefully conserving our natural fisheries could be a reason for an island civilization to be constructed. If all humans have their own designated areas, we will have much less of an impact on nature and wild areas of the environment. Therefore, fisheries, such as oceans and ponds, would not be able to be overfished. There would no longer be a shortage of popular fish, such as flounder, cod, or tuna. Also, if we are not able to access them, there will be much less pollution in the fisheries, as well.  The fish would be able to thrive in a cleaner, healthier environment. Here, they could also reproduce in order to become more plentiful.

            Obviously, I feel like this issue affects most water sources across the world. However, the first place that came to mind when I researched this subject was the Outer Banks of North Carolina. People are constantly coming to the North Carolina beaches to fish, whether it is for recreational purposes or more monetary purposes. Therefore, I feel that the coast of North Carolina is probably overfished. I also think that it must be polluted, especially during the summer months with the abundance of traffic and population. I hope that we continue to take the steps forward to better conserve our wild fisheries so that it is no longer an issue that could contribute to the need for an island civilization.

http://www.nrdc.org/oceans/conserving-fisheries/default.asp

Island Civilization Response

“When does success in too great a dose produce failure?” Roderick Frazier Nash poses this question when discussing wilderness in this excerpt from “Island Civilization: A Vision for Human Occupancy on Earth in the Fourth Millennium.” This question came from Nash’s idea that humans are constantly praising success in technological advancement. However, this advancement is hurting our natural environment, which means we are not reaching success after all. Nash brings up the idea that wilderness was actually conceived to be evil and cursed in the time of the first European colonists. Of course, this means that preserving the environment was probably the last thing on their minds. In the twentieth century, a newfound preservation and appreciation for the wilderness came about in the United States; although, the idea was not to benefit the wilderness, but the people, instead. More recently, we have come to the conclusion that the concept of wilderness protection should not be about us at all. Instead, it should be to the benefit of the environment, which has been abused by humans that were hungry for control over our planet. In 1973, the phrase “deep ecology” first appeared.  This phrase represented the belief that every life form has the right to function normally in an ecosystem that is shared. Acts were passed to ensure that nonhuman species, even those that did not seem useful to the human species, had rights to live. This seemed encouraging, but humankind continued to damage the natural resources that survive in the wilderness. This brought scientists to think about the fact that a great extinction is possible, especially if food, water, and soil issues keep making headlines. Nash agrees that the natural world could end due to various different causes in the next thousand years. Because humans were so eager to expand, the ecosystem has been negatively impacted. Nash brings up his scenario for helping the ecosystem get back on track – island civilization. This would mean that population growth would have to go down to a quarter of what it currently is. It would also cause humans to take up less space, in order to better share with the other species that inhabit Earth. We would occupy small densely populated circles around the planet in order to inhabit as little space as possible. Fences, dams, telephone poles, and other parts of our lives today would be nonexistent in island civilization, with the help of technology. Nash believes that if we take drastic steps to change, the environment and the species that live here could benefit in great ways.

I strongly agree that we, as humans, need to take actions that will help improve our environment, for us as well as the other species that live among us. However, I do not see the island civilization scenario working out. I do not believe that people worldwide will be willing to take the necessary steps for it to work. Personally, I do not really like Nash’s concept of island civilization. It would require drastic changes that would cause our lives to do a complete turnaround. Of course, I realize that it would not happen immediately. I just feel that there are other ways to help preserve our planet that would require less of a direct change to our lifestyle. I also feel that people today are more willing to conserve, preserve, and change for the benefit of our wilderness than they ever have been. There are numerous fuel efficient cars that were not readily available a few years ago. There are also a variety of “green” products. These can range from cleaning products to handbags. This helps keep our environment clean by recycling and reusing materials that we could just throw away to be put into a landfill. I realize that this does not directly help the fact that we are taking up too much space on the earth. I do think that if even more people are willing to help save the planet, and more directly, our wilderness, we can put our heads together and think of an idea that could quite possibly cause a faster, but less drastic change than Nash’s idea of island civilization. An individual can start this process and make a difference, but ultimately I believe that everyone (or at least the vast majority of the human population) must be willing to work together to impact the environment in the best possible way.