My thoughts on Earth Charter

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"We stand at a critical moment in Earth's history, a time when humanity must choose its future." This is a very important point. We as a world need to determine if we will hurt our world more or help it. If we let it get worse, it will greatly affect our well-being in the future. It will make people of the future's lives harder because of the mistakes made in the past. It truly lies in our hands, but we do not seem to notice the power we have to change the world if we work together. This is a pretty simple statement with a very weighted meaning and it not only refers to the environment, but all aspects of life. "To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny." We are a world full of many different cultures. We could learn many different ways to preserve our planet from many different cultures. If we do this, we are working as a team and our efforts will be more effective. No matter where you live on this earth, you are apart of this planet. We have to take care of this fragile place we live in instead of constantly hurting it. "The choice is ours: form a global partnership to care for Earth and one another or risk the destruction of ourselves and the diversity of life." It scares me to think of how careless we are being with our environment and in many ways we are killing ourselves because of it. I watched a video on global warming and it has definitely woke me up. I never knew how much our environment was in danger until watching that video.  I feel that if everyone saw this video, it would strike just about the same fear it stroke in me. I was finally educated on what our negative actions did to the community. It also showed just how dangerous it is to liter and what air pollution is doing to our communities and us.

My Response to Jane Goodall's Healing Earth's Scars: It's Never Too Late

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"We have shared stories of species that, although rescued from the brink of extinction, are still endangered by the lack of suitable habitat in the wild." (Goodall 161) This sentence caught my attention from the beginning. It is very true in so many ways. As a country we have evolved so much, but it has been at the price of so many different animals. If you were to compare the old time to now, we look completely different and we have become a world less connected to nature. If we want a new home or a  new development, we just cut down trees, instead of thinking how it affects our wildlife. In my presentation for class, I am discussing how we are all connected and how in some ways what we are doing is hurting us in the end in so many ways. When we cut down our trees-also our oxygen-we are killing the habitat of so many animals. When we kill this habitat, the animals have no choice, but to wander. Some wander into towns, some into our very backyards, and some into farms. When they wander into farms, they kill off the crops that the farmers are growing to feed consumers (us). We are affecting ourselves without even realizing it. This can also be very dangerous because if we come into contact with this wildlife, then they can seriously hurt us. Their habitats are there so they can stay away from us, but cutting down their habitats only makes it worse for us. Tropical and old-growth forests, woodlands and wetlands, prairies and grasslands, moorlands and deserts-all landscapes-are disappearing at a terrifying rate." (Goodall 161) This does not surprise me at all. We all have failed to realize the many ways we are hurting our community, but then again it leads back to the need for environmental education. The people that are cutting down these many different forms of nature are probably not aware of the dangers of their jobs. They are just working and performing their daily duties. Goodall did make an excellent point of how we can restore our land. "Why it is I believe that human know-how and the resilience of nature, combined with the commitment and energy of dedicated individuals, can restore damaged environments so that, once again, they can become home to many of our endangered species." (Goodall 162) If we all work together, we can make a huge difference in our world. If every individual does a little, we will all be doing a lot. We are smart enough and once a lot of us are educated on the matter, I feel we would all make a conscious effort to help.

My Response to Rachel Carson "A Fable for Tomorrow"

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When I first started reading this tale, I thought it was going to be a beautiful story written as a fantasy of an imagined, ideal world. "There was once a town in the heart of America where life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings." (Carson 150) We know that this world is not filled with harmony at all, so I felt it was a World that maybe she was hopeful of one day. Then it turns dark real easy crushing that dream. "Some evil spell had settled on the community: mysterious maladies swept the flocks of chickens , the cattle and sheep sickened and died." (Carson 151) This is all fallowed by many other deaths and problems. This can be seen as symbolic in many ways. We all want a more peaceful environment with people who live in harmony and get along all the time, but that would take an immense amount of work and could not easily be done. The darkness can be symbolic to all the problems we are facing today as a society. A lot of us are at war and we are killing each other all the time. We have yet to find harmony in this world. It would take to cooperation of all of us. She then brings it home and actually tells us that she is describing our world. "This town does not actually exist, but it might easily have a thousand counterparts in America or elsewhere in the world." (Carson 151) It is sad to know that all of this has happened somewhere in the world. We are such a hostile group of people and all this misfortune is because of us.

My Response to Vandana Shiva's 'What is Biodiversity and Why is it so Important?'

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"Biodiversity in its turn has shaped the world's diverse cultures." (Shiva 18) Shiva said that the diversity in life is the meaning of biodiversity, but that we are destroying it. In modern times, we have become more technologically advanced in many different aspects of life. While there are many pros to this, there are also some cons. As a society, we happily welcome many different types of technologies and absolutely can't wait until the next invention comes out. Although, we never really pay attention to how this might be affecting our community and our nature. Is this technology at the expense of nature and 'biodiversity?' This is something a lot of people do not even think about. When we all turn on our cars everyday, we are hurting the environment and when we flush our toilets, the waste sometimes end up in our bodies of water. That harms the habitat of many species that live in them. It is basically a cycle of pollution. " Both have been threatened by the globalization of an industrial culture based on reductionist knowledge, mechanistic technologies, and the commodification of resources." (Shiva 38) I agree when he gives different suggestions of how we can make substitutes that can help our environment in a much better way. One of those is exchanging our sources of energy for fossil fuels, but doing this also harms us in some way. "But fossil fuels have given us climate change; agrichemicals have threatened species, undermined soil fertility and human health; and synthetic drugs have had fatal side-effects." (Shiva 38) Even though we have made strives to help our environment, these strives are not all beneficial. People still have not given up. There are still people trying to make the world a better place to live in. I personally have found some alternative medicines work. I am Haitian and when I'm sick, I do not have a lot of money to go and buy over counter drugs, so I make a home remedy taught to me by my mom. We use herbs, plants, and some fruit. I found I feel much better then when I used prescribed medicine or medicine from a drug store. If my throat hurts, I know to squeeze a lemon or lime down my throat because it is a natural antioxidant. It always instantly makes it feel better. Many different cultures have many different ideas and remedies and with all this cultural diversity, others can learn more natural and healthier ways to advance in the future.

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Thoughts on Jared Diamond's 'A Tale of Two Farms'

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"Instead, my trips to Huls and Gardar Farms, thousands of miles apart but visited during the same summer, vividly brought home to me the conclusion that even the richest, technologically most advanced societies today face growing environmental and economic problems that should not be underestimated. (Diamond 17) I found this point to be quite interesting. Diamond previously wrote that even though Huls Farm is technologically advanced, it will 'collapse' in the future. In our generation or at least in America, we seem to think that we can fix everything with technology; but technology is not the answer to every problem. While it has helped America become advanced in many ways, we are still facing a lot of problems. There are a lot of farms having problems today because of technology. People do not want to do things the natural way anymore and are looking for all types of ways to do things faster or create new things with technology.

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"By collapse, I mean a drastic decrease in human population size and/ or political/ economic/ social complexity, over a considerable area, for an extended time." (Diamond 17) To me, Diamond seems to be saying that we are all connected and that the fall of one business can cause the fall of other businesses. I agree to this because many companies are connected or because you have one company, you have other companies. So, if one company falls, then a lot of others fall as well and that can also mean the fall of a society. We need a lot of companies to stay open for the community to survive and if they were to close, we would all generally be screwed. Some of the companies I am referring to are food companies and banks etc. If consumers do not like a certain company, then the company dies. If a show does not get enough viewers, then the show dies. We are all connected in every way.  

"It has long been suspected that many of those mysterious abandonments were at least partly triggered by the ecological problems: people inadvertently destroying the environmental resources on which their societies depended." (Diamond 20) I totally agree with this statement because we are all destroying our planet, but a lot of us are not aware that we are doing. A lot of us probably think that one person could not possibly destroy the planet by our actions; but if all of us are that one person then we are definitely destroying the planet. This ties back to the many other excerpts from the book that state that we as a community need to become more educated on the environment. If we do not know what we are doing, then how can we fix the mess we have created. A lot of us do not even know that the world is a mess or that there is a lot that needs to be fixed.

Cities For Peeps

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"The evolution of modern cities was tied to advances in transport, initially for ships and trains." (Brown 145) I find it pretty interesting how developments were made solely for the purpose of ships and trains. I feel like back then, they knew that advances needed to be made. They knew that there had to be a better way for all these people to get around. Trains and ships help people get places in a matter of minutes or hours instead of months and years like before.

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"Cities require a concentration of food, water, energy, and materials that nature cannot provide." (Brown 145) I disagree with this statement. I am a vegan and I feel I have way more energy and I feel 10 times better because I am getting a plant based diet. It provides me with food, energy, and water. I feel this statement was just made to help him make his point and was pretty biased. It also is recommended by many doctors that people do a plant based diet because it has way more nutrients than you can get from eating any dairy or animal products. Although, I have to agree that there are a lot of people who do eat a lot of bad food and a lot of it gets wasted or thrown into the wrong place causing pollution. When we throw these things in the garbage and sewage, it is affecting our communities greatly. With billions of people doing it everyday, I can see how it has become harder for city managers to handle. 


"Early cities relied on food and water from the surrounding countryside, but today cities often depend on distant sources for basic amenities." (Brown 145) This adds on to the point on how even though we have made many advances today, we have also made negative advances today. I feel like before they made better decisions about what they ate and did not have places like McDonalds and Burger Kind to fatten them up. These are many of the struggles we face today. Even If people wanted to live a better lifestyle, it would be pretty hard because of the environment we live in.

A Land Remembered Character Analysis

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Tobias MacIvey is the head of the MacIvey family. This family started off as being a poor family living in Florida, but then became wealthy and well-known for their real estate. Tobias is a 30 year old man who moves his family to Florida from Georgia before the beginning of the civil war. During his journeys, he becomes friends with Seminole Indians and a slave on the run. He seems to be a very caring and giving man in this book who has a lot of integrity. He relates a lot to the natural world and the environment in many ways. He builds a new house and rounds up cattle which are apart of the environment and takes care of them until he wants to sell them. During the book he becomes apart of the wilderness and he makes it an obligation to preserve it and the cattle. He probably did not even realize what he was doing was preserving the environment and nature. I think that he felt a sense of place more at the new house he built then the old house. When the old house burned down, it was a chance for him to start over and give his family a better life. Since he spent so much time taking care of the cattle and his home in the wilderness, I felt that he really loved it and felt a deep connection to it. This book goes on 3 generations of this family, so it depicts their struggles with the wilderness, so the next generation will know of this family will know of the strength and courage of their family and this will also inspire them to be great just like them. I personally feel that he left a legacy of courage and generosity. I picked this character because I felt he had traits that both I had and some other traits that I want to have. I am a caring and loving person and I felt because of that, I could relate to him.   

Opinions on EndGame by Michael Grunwald

I felt that the excerpt was pretty bland and boring. It did talk about the history of the Everglades and how the year 2000 was a very important year for it, but besides that it did not keep my interest. I do not know if it had to do with my exhaustion with the Everglades or the fact that I am 'Evergladed' out. It probably was because I read Marjory Douglas' The Nature of the Everglades already and in her excerpt, she stated everything there was to know about the Everglades. I did feel that when he wrote this, it was specifically written for people who are well-educated with the Everglades. "Senator Chafee had promised to hold a field hearing on the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan at the Naples conference, and Senator Smith agreed to respect his late predecessor's wishes." (Grunwald 79) I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

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 In Marjory's reading, I found that she wrote it in such a beautiful way as if you were reading a book. While it was also a long excerpt, she was able to keep my attention. I have never been to the Everglades, but Marjory wrote so you can picture yourself there.  A lot of the terms that Grunwald used were not universal and by that I mean, not everyone would be able to understand his writing. The first section had a lot to do with the restoration, but besides that he completely lost me. Another example of this would be when he stated, "Defoor set up a meeting between Audubon activists and sugar growers at Paul Tudor Jones's estateon the Keys, and both sides agreed over stone crabs to support the governor's funding bill." (Endgame 80) I understand that this was kind of a history lesson, but no one said history had to be boring. His style of writing is not good in my opinion and a keeps throwing all these different people at us without really telling us who they are or their significance.

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  As the new millennium dawned, the Everglades was not yet saved." (Grunwald 103) Maybe if he led with this sentence, the reading would have been more interesting, but I highly doubt it. If you want people to care about what you are writing, then you at least need to make the reading interesting or write it in a way that people have no other choice to care. While I am not all about the environment, Marjory made me want to be. You kind of fell in love with it because she was in love with it. This was the most  important lesson that I learned in Journalism and it has helped me to write very successful pieces. When you write, it is like an open canvas for a painter. You can spin what you write anyway you'd like and it can sound pretty interesting.

Response to The Nature of the Everglades by Marjory Stoneman Douglas

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"There are no other Everglades in the World." (Douglas 104) Just by the opening of the excerpt, you can see the amount of appreciation and love Marjory has for the Everglades. She even goes as far as saying there is no other place in this world as beautiful as the Everglades. She then dives in to telling the history of the Everglades. I thought it was interesting that people thought of it as a fantasy or something that really was not there for the mere fact that they did not know what to call it. They did not know how to name something that contained many different forms of nature. When you look at it, it does kind of look like a beautiful fantasy. It is as if it is too beautiful to be real.

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"So it is with the Everglades, which have that quality of long existence in their own nature." (Douglas 107) Douglas compares the Everglades to wholeness. When you think of it, they are. It was here long before humans came about and has been here for a long time. I am sure it has changed over time and looks different then how it used to look, but it is still whole. This adds to their beauty because it is an aged beauty. Just by looking at it, you get a sense of piece and tranquility. It has not been harmed by human hands and it sits quietly. The Everglades represent all nature because it contains a body of water, grass, and rocks, along with different species. It makes me think if we all preserved our environment, would it look this beautiful?


"Small or great jungles, they loom out of the brownness of the saw grass in humped solid shapes, like green whales and gray-green hangars and domes and green clouds on the horizon." (Douglas 128) When reading this excerpt, I felt like I was reading a book. There was so much detail and I was able to picture everything she was saying as if I was actually there. She used a lot of metaphors and imagery to show her love for the Everglades. It also shows why we should continue to conserve the Everglades. She is almost convincing the readers the best way she knows how as if to say 'Hello don't you see how beautiful this is?' Some people might think she was a little too descriptive instead of being more direct with it. She is so passionate about what she is telling is, that she thinks to break it down into 3 different sections, the grass, the rock, and the water.  

My Response to The Land Ethic (Excerpt from A Sand County Almanac) by Aldo Leopold

"This sounds simple: do we not already sing our love for and obligation to the land of the free and the home of the brave? Yes, but just what and whom do we love?" (Leopold 60) These questions really do make me think. I sing the national anthem with my country, but what is it that I love about my country so much. What is it that we all love about the country so much? After this question, he then uses a sarcastic tone and asks how can we love this planet so much if we are constantly hurting it.


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We litter and we are constantly polluting our country, so we cannot possibly like it that much. Not only are we polluting our environment, but those beautiful animals that we also claim to love so much. How many of us actually take care of our environment or have actually contributed to it. Not many of us, but we sure do love our country. I do not think we love it that much. It just takes one person to take a stance and then others will follow, but what if we all took a stance. I do not think that people realize that if everyone contributed a little in the world, that actually means the whole world contributed and the whole world will become a much better place to live in.

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"The usual answer to this dilemma is 'more conservation education.'" (Leopold 63) Now that I have discussed how we should be helping the environment we love so much, I know that is impossible if we are not educated on it. How are we going to show something love that we know little about. If everyone was more educated on simple ways to help the environment and what actually happens to the environment when we do not do certain things, then I strongly feel we would be more proactive in doing so. We do not all realize that we are actually killing the environment and there will be no more environment if we continue. I am just as guilty of doing this as others, but I have made some changes over the years.

"We have no land ethic yet." (Leopold 65) He says this as if he has hope that we change and actually show love for our environment in action and not just by words. We are co-existing with the land, but do not seem to see the value of it and how much is contributes to our present and past developments. All of these had to do with the environment in some way. We are not educating everyone on this, so the value of it depreciates day by day. The environment has become the least of our worries and we continue to hurt it. Although, do not ever think that we will not say how much we love it. That is something that we will continue to do even though we are lying.  

 

 

My Response to Richard Louv's Nature-Deficit Disorder and the Restorative Environment

In the second paragraph of Louv's essay he talks about the decrease in Physical Education (P.E.) classes in school. I find this to be a huge problem that is only adding to the obesity of kids. I understand that children need to work harder in school and acquire higher test scores, but how about maybe extending school hours and adding just a class for standardized test practice. I remember when I went Beverly Hills High School in California, P.E. was a big deal. You had to run everday and we had fitness tests you had to pass throughout the semester. At the end of the semester, that is when you would have the big fitness test. We had 2 different instructors a semester, We played basketball, did weight training, swam in our olympic sized pool, did track, and danced. At the time, I did think this was  way too much work, but I was always fit and healthy so it definitely benefited me.

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If you make this mandatory for students and stress the importance, they will do the work. They might not want to, but they do not want to fail P.E. After a while, they will not mind doing the exercise. It is important that this starts when they are in elementary school. Kids love to play and have a good time. I have never heard a kid say that they do not want to play. This will keep them active and they will be a lot healthier, especially since they are not watching what they eat. This is  great way for them to burn off all those unwanted calories. What sense is there to study if you are overweight and lazy? This is what is going to happen and of course their test scores will decrease. If kids are running around and exercising, they will obtain way more energy and their test scores will probably be a lot higher since they have more energy to study.
In the "Resotrative Environment" section of the essay, it discusses how kids with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)feel more calm outside. They are not as stressed and act better after playing outside. This could be for many reasons. When you are a kid, there is so much to explore outside and so much you can do. You can builld something or even have a scavenger hunt.

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Regardless, you will be totally occupied. Since one of the main problems with kids of ADD and ADHD is their ability to focus, playing outside might be the best therapy. They are focusing on playing without even realizing it. This can help them focus more in school and in other aspects of their lives. This can be a natural way to help improve their disorder without taking medication.
In the "Nature's Ridalin" secion, it discusses the benefits of nature to kids with these disorders. This might be a cure. No one knows for sure, but there are a lot of benefits of nature and these kids might even have a deep connection with it. It could even be a spiritual connection that some of us will never be able to understand. If we think about, the ADD or ADHD kid is the only one who can tell you how nature makes them feel.

Thoughts on David W. Orr's Love It or Lose It: The Coming Biophilia Revolution

I found David Orr to be heavily biased in his views of people and the environment. It seemed that he was trying to classiy everyone into a certain category when relating to biophobia, biophilia, and the environment in itself. However, he did make some valid points that we true and others that I would consider to be partially true. This is evident when he starts his essay talking about the filmaker Woody Allen. "Allen's aversion to nature, what can be called biophobia, is increasingly common among people     raised with television, Walkman radiso attached to their heads, and video games and living amidst shopping malls, freeways, and dense urban or suburban settings where nature is permitted tastefully, as decoration." (Orr 186)

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I feel this is a partially true statement. I am a victim of the materialistic world, but I love nature as well. I am a suburban and city kid who loves shopping and my electronic gadgets, but I also love going camping and bike riding. I am pretty sure there are other kids who are just the same. I am a tomboy at heart and love playing sports and being outside. It gives me a sense of peace and makes me feel like I am one with nature. According to Orr, my childhood should have made me one of those people who is scared of nature or uses it as decoration, but that is not at all true. I love long walks outside and hearing the trees ruffle up when the wind hits them and hearing the birds chirp; but you will also see me in the shopping mall buying a bunch of clothes I do not need or on my cell phone as if I am detached  from the world. I feel that it has a lot to do with the person and what they feel comfotable around and partially to do with where they grew up. Materialstic things do not neccessarily make you hate nature or not want to be around it. There are even many celebrities around the world who love nature and being outdoors even though they are very materialstic. You can be both.
I feel that he is 100 percent true when he states, "Biophilia is innate and a sign of menal and physical health." (Orr 187) I agree that people are a lot healthier when they are outside being active instead of sitting in the house all day. Some might not agree, but when you are playing in nature, you are exercising without even realizing it. Throughout my life, I have noticed that people who say they love the outdoors are always fit and healthy. I also feel that it is internally healthy for you to be outside. It is relaxing and you are more calm and at peace and not sitting in front of the tv for hours.

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What ends up happening, when you sit in front of the tv all day, is you start getting bored and then you start stuffing your face with all types of unhealthy foods. That is when the pounds sneak up on you. Nature is a good distraction from that because you are having fun and not sitting there in complete boredom.
"The attempt to encourage biophilia will not amount to much if we fail to decide to reshape these kinds of places so that we might become deeply rooted." (Orr 205) This is very true in many ways. People who did not grow up around nature are more likely to not have experienced nature. Not because they never wanted to, but simply for the mere fact that they were never given the oppurtunity to be around nature. If there were more programs or classes around schools that gave them this opportunity, they probably would find that they like it or even love it. There definitely can be a fear of the unknown, but hey, there is only one way to get over that fear right?