Blog #4

The Life and Death of the Salt Marsh

In this excerpt, John Teal and Mildred Teal talk about the significance of the marshesto the environment and the ecological importance that they hold.   They start by describing in detail, an experience of what it’s like to walk in a marsh, but then goes to say how the salt marshes are being threatened.  “We destroy wetlands and shallow water bottoms directly by dredging, filling, and building…  The marsh would often have been much more valuable as a marsh than it is in its subsequent desecrated form”, as described by John and Mildred Teal describes how despite its destruction for human development, the marsh will serve a greater purpose than we could possibly construct in its place.   They propose using the same techniques as those implemented to save provincial and federal parks, which is to push for conservation efforts, saying: “The battle between the forces of development and conservation need to be won only once by the developers but must be fought and won every year for conservation to triumph.”

Ecosystems and Human Well-Being

The main focus of this article, done during the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2005, is the call for immediate action for successful environmental management.  They give the example that humans have rapidly changed ecosystems over the course of history in order to meet and for most parts exceed the needs of the planet.  This has caused significant, irreversible damage to the earths ecosystems, to quote the excerpt: “Humans are fundamentally, and to a significant extent irreversibly, changing the diversity of life on Earth, and most of these changes represent a loss of biodiversity”.  The excerpt goes on to say 60% of the examined problems done by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment are continuously being: “degraded or used unsustainably, including fresh water, capture fisheries, air and water purification, and the regulation of regional and local climate, natural hazards and pests”.  Regardless of the economic gains made from the ecological manipulation, the cost that comes from these changes, which the world seems to be cashing in now far outweighs, the rate at which we are recovering the environment, calling for immediate changes to our daily lifestyles.

Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment

Our Stolen Future

In this excerpt, Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson Myers talk about the potential threat that the chemicals released into the environment possess.  Examples of hormone mimics exist within the population currently, and the number of people becoming affected is on the rise. To quote the excerpt: “A number of pediatricians from various parts of the United States have expressed their concern about an increasing frequency of genital abnormalities in children, such as undescended testicles, extremely small penises, and hypospadias, a defect in which the urethra that carries urine does not extend to the end of the penis, but it is virtually impossible to document these anecdotal reports.  Rachel Carson once wrote: “Our fate is connected with the animals”.  This statement is becoming more and more clear as the chemicals we are releasing in the environment, affecting the biological cycles, which we ignored, have inevitably come full circle and are now affecting us, despite the warnings the other biological cycles have given us.

Environmental Justice For All

The term Environmental Justice was first coined c. 1980 during civil rights movements to call for the need that liberates, exclusively, poor (and mostly black) neighbourhoods from garbage dumps, land fills, incinerators and other things that might effect the health of those around it.  Starting in the 1920’s cities have been dumping garbage in poor communities.  Robert D. Bullard in this excerpt states: “Leaders introduced the concepts of environmental justice, protesting that Black, poor and working-class communities often received less environmental protection than White or more affluent communities”.  Specific examples, such as Warren County, are given, putting environmental racism on the map.   More nad more environmental justice networks and smaller community groups are making their voices heard, calling simply for the need for environmental justice regardless of where they are situated.

Blog #3

Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?

In this excerpt, Lester R. Brown explains the current agricultural, environmental and population crises the world is experiencing.  Brown specifically points to the falling water tables, eroding soils and the rising temperatures for examples as to why if we continue the trend we are currently on, civilizations cannot continue to survive.   Brown gives the example of grain, a main staple of the world, and it’s gradual decline in world production as a result of over consumption, resulting in higher grain prices all over the world.  Along with rising food prices, an even greater threat to civilizations is the amount of water consumption our world in its present state is requiring.  With the large population on earth, the water table is dropping and amount of fresh water available on earth is becoming scarce.   Brown soon states that the world is in dire need of a change, saying the world needs to move its investments into finding renewable energy sources in order to cut carbon emissions.  Brown also states that global population stabilization is required in order for poverty to become eradicated, and for the regeneration of crucial ecosystems.  Above all of this, Brown says the scarcest resource of all is time, for we cannot accurately predict how much time we have before it is too late. To quote Brown: “Nature sets the deadlines; nature is the timekeeper. But we humans cannot see the clock”.

Women’s Indigenous Knowledge and Biodiversity Conservation:

Vandana Shiva, in this excerpt states that the way for humans to preserve biodiversity and preserve our fertile lands lies in the education and the empowerment of women.  Shiva states: “The marginalization of women and the destruction of biodiversity go hand in hand”.   Shiva gives the example of women as ‘custodians of biodiversity’, giving examples as more conservative and therefore conserves balance and harmony.  To sum up, Shiva believes that the reason we are in such ecological crisis is stems from a tradition of men dominance over women, stating: “Loss of diversity is the price paid in the patriarchal model of progress which pushes inexorably towards monocultures, infirmity and homogeneity.”

Human Domination of Earth’s Ecosystems

Altering the environment around us in order for it to better serve our needs is nothing new to our societies.  In fact, about half of the worlds land has been altered in some aspect in order to accommodate humans.  This however, has not come without cost, which has caused global climate change and irreversible biological diversity.  Furthermore, this human impact has not been limited to the land, as our oceans, our atmosphere, and the cycles of life are being altered in ways we cannot see or even begin to understand.   The ocean are warming, the carbon cycle is being pushed beyond its limit, natural freshwater is on its last legs all due to human effort to alter the world for the needs of mankind.  Our careless efforts are causing careless mass extinctions and interruption of the natural world.  This ability as humans to shape our environment is both our boon and our curse.  To quote this excerpt: “…humanity’s dominance of Earth means that we cannot escape responsibility for managing the planet.”

Saving Life on Earth

O.E. Wilson in his Ted talk on Saving Life on Earth shows how even in our information age, much of the biological world is vastly unknown and even undiscovered.  Wilson gives the example of a simple bacterium, unknown for the majority of civilization, which has shaped the earth’s environment and made it habitable for most of the biotic organisms on the planet.  He goes on to say that despite what we know about how we are dependent on these organisms, human populations are still causing destruction beyond the earth’s capacity, saying that: “Within the next century, half of all species will become extinct”.   Wilson believes that by creating an “Encyclopedia of Life”, and by documenting the vast contributions of each species to the world, we can educate the population on the importance of each individual organism.

Food Systems:

What is nice about the food system we have access to, is the readily available access to virtually any food we could desire despite its growing season, and despite its price.  That being said, that availability does not come without cost, for most of the food is usually being altered in some way.  This is causing a loss of natural flavours, and less quality product than what should be expected of our foods.  But because of its low quality, that means it has a lower price than organic food, which would be of higher quality.   However, despite its low quality, the demand for this readily available food is on the constant rise, causing the degradation of land and loss of quality soil all over the world.  Overall, it is nice to have such a wide variety of food always available, but not so nice to have to eat lower quality if you cannot afford organic foods.

Zoos:

I believe zoos do not play a very crucial role in the studying of animals, as better research can be done in the field, however, zoos are important in terms of conservation of in danger animals.  The only problem with keeping at risk animals in zoos is trying to release back into the wild, as they might not be able to exercise the same survival factors that they would adapt in the wild.  In spite of this, I think it is ethical to keep animals in zoos, as animals kept in zoos are no longer being taken from the wild and put in zoos, and are instead either saved or kept within a zoo cycle.  That being said, the quality of the zoo is important, for small caged zoos do cause depression in some animals, but if all animals could be kept in open-range zoos the animals could thrive.  I personally enjoy visiting zoos.

Blog #2

A Sand Country Almanac

            This excerpt by Aldo Leopold, describes his first realization of the biodiversity of the environment and how our treatment of the land and organisms affects its biodiversity.  Leopold gives the example of the wolf and the mountain.  He says that man simply had a misunderstanding between the organisms and there interaction with their environment, or in his words “We have not learned to think like a mountain”.  Instead we ignorantly hunt to rid the world of its ‘pests’, without realizing the ‘pests’ are required organisms in the environment.  Leopold uses his poetic words to describe such despair: “Perhaps this is the hidden meaning in the howl of the world, long known among mountains, but seldom perceived among men…”

Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis

            Lynn White, Jr., a distinguished history professor claims the theory that Christianity, more so any Judaic belief, is to blame for the current environmental crisis we are in.  Lynn White explains that it is embedded in Christian belief that the world is here for the simple task of serving to the needs of humanity.  She gives examples of how instead of serving to other animals the majority of human existence has been spent using the environment around us to simply serve ourselves without giving anything back to the environment.  Other examples of religions describe the earth as a loving and caring entity, which requires a symbiotic relationship rather than a destructive relationship.  Lynn White proposes that instead of being consumers of the earth, we are instead called to be stewards of the earth.

The Physical Science Basis

            This excerpt by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) describes how and why the climate is changing and causing what we know as “Global Warming”. It gives the example of Svante Arrhenius, a Swedish chemist, who predicted the rise of dangerous CO₂ levels in the late 1800’s, but his research was put aside and ignored for nearly one hundred years.  The past few years have been labeled as the warmest in history, causing the rising of ocean temperatures, the widespread melting of snow, lower of the earth’s albedo and the rising of the global average sea level.  These are facts which can no longer be ignored and which require immediate action.  Unfortunately both the past and future emissions we have put into the atmosphere will still continue to contribute to warming of the earth for more than a millennium, because of the slow process of removing the harmful gases from the atmosphere.  The facts are presented, but still the question continues, when will our time to act begin? If not now, when?

A Path to Sustainable Energy by 2030:

            Mark Jacobson and Mark Delucchi propose the feasibility of redesigning the worlds energy systems to rely on alternative energy sources instead of fossil fuels.   They give the example that not only is our current main sources of energy (fossil fuels) very expensive, but they are also in decline.  They consistently refer to the preferred alternative energy sources as WWS (Wind, Water and Solar) power.  They admit to the facts that alone, none of these alternative energy sources have the power to provide the world with enough energy, but they are saying that combined they have the energy and the sustainability.  More than that, the world will require a political leader in the mission for a cleaner, more sustainable future in the power industry, and eventually change the way our entire country and the way our entire world runs.

Rob Hopkins: Transition to a world without oil

            Rob Hopkins, during his talk about “Transition to a world without oil”, shows how the world is becoming more and more oil less, and how this mistreated resource, which has only been truly discovered only a short time ago when looking back on history, became the basis of our entire lives.  He describes oil as: “the marvel of the modern age” and describes our generations as: “the generation that lived at the top of the mountain that partied so hard, and so abused its inheritance”.  He proposes a community-led initiative, which engages the whole community to participate in/innovate new ways to lower their own carbon footprint.  Some of these activities include transportation, food production and education.   I believe that Rob Hopkins proposes a very noble idea in terms of action against fossil fuel.  However, he really does not offer much option, as he gives no actual alternatives to fossil fuels, instead gives us a way to slowly cut down our emissions.  This will work in theory, but would require the lifestyle change of a good portion of the world in order for any substantial progress to be made.

Can parks meet its dual mandate of access and protection?

            I believe that this question is hard to address, as there are different types of wildlife parks.  Overall however, I believe that no, the ability for people to access these parks and the ability for the park to remain sustainable and biodiverse cannot be met.  For the idea of naming a wildlife area a “park” has an underlying meaning of human access, seen as a place where people can explore and interact in, instead of what should be done with wildlife parks which is protect the native species.  Although the latter of the two is intended for the parks, human interaction is innately prevalent in parks.

How can this be achieved in Wapusk?

            Wapusk is a special kind of park because it so remote.  This allows the park to be preserved and flourish the way it properly should without any major human contribution.  There are also fences to protect not only humans from harm but also the animal’s way of life and separate any human interaction at Wapusk.

What future would you like to see for the Alberta Tar Sands project?

            I think this is a simple question, as the Tar Sands has become such a major part of Canadian economy and a major part of the majority of peoples simple lives here in Canada.  Obviously the tar sands are causing substantial damage to the surrounding lands, which is a shame, but for the tar sands to stop completely is a ridiculous request.  In turn, I believe that some obvious steps need to be taken in order for the environment to be preserved, but also that to ask for the tar sands to stop is inconceivable.

#1

Activity

            I chose to watch the Ted talk: “John Francis Walks the Earth”.  John Francis tells his amazing personal story of his self-discovery.  John Francis starts by telling of how in his teenage years he witnessed first hand the effect fossil fuels has on our natural environment, which shapes his life forever.  He eventually gives up his dependence on fossil fuels, gets a degree and becomes a professor of environmental societies, all while not speaking to learn more about himself.

It is easy for most of us to recycle consistently, drive fuel efficient cars and use “green” appliances and tell the world that we are doing all we can to not harm the world around us, but after watching this video it is so apparent how little that actually does for our world.  John Francis really put his money where all our mouths should be, and became a true walking and talking inspiration.  This video hit close for me because all the time I tell myself that I care for the environment, and that when the time comes I will make the necessary sacrifices in order to save what I can of the planet.  However, after watching this video I realize that waiting around for professionals to give me a definitive answer to solving the earths problems is doing no good, and that if there was any time to start becoming a “true environmentalist”, this would be it.  Although, once again, it is easier said that done, for I know myself, and I know that I will still be dependent on fossil fuels, and I will still cause harm to my planet simply because it is convenient for me to do so.

1.     How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Jared Diamond tells the history of past societies that have either collapsed due to environmental issues or societies that have been able to thrive despite their environmental issues.  Diamond outlines eight categories that have doomed past societies that seem more relevant than ever in our day.  These categories include deforestation, habitat destruction, soil problems, water management, overhunting, introduction of non-native species, and human population.  Societies such as the Maya, Norse Greenland, Minoan Crete, and Angkor Wat are just a few of the examples where all that remains of these great civilizations are towering ruins that display their former wealth and affluence, which are now only overgrown remains.  Diamond compares these former isolated societies to the modern inter-connected world we live in today, which are still facing some of the major problems societies have faced in the past.  Diamond explains that the difference between the societies which have overcome their environmental issues to prosper, and those that have crumbled due to their problems are still unknown, and as it is right now, no one is sure which the category the world we know now will fall into.  All these uncertainties about the future make the choices we make today more and more relevant for tomorrow.

2.     Human Carrying Capacity

Joel E. Cohen gives the example of Easter Island to show the effect of carrying capacity.  Radiocarbon dating suggests that the island was inhabited by thousands of people for centuries, and during this time fantastic civilizations rose, but now all that remains are monolithic statues, remnants of this once great civilization.  It became also evident that one tree type dominated the vegetation in the area, but began its decline as more and more inhabitants occupied the land.  The introduction of a non-native species, along with the loss of vegetation caused major soil erosion, and the eventual down spiral of the quality of the land and the civilization itself.  Resources became ever more important and inter-tribal warfare ensued, famine became a problem, which led to eventual total collapse of the society.  One can then draw the comparison to today’s world and it’s carrying capacity, and how our resources from the earth can only sustain our ever-growing population for so long until our resources run slim, our earth becomes permanently damaged and our world becomes inhabitable. 

3.Tragedy of the Commons

Garrett Hardin

Reflection:

            “Is there a growing disconnect from nature?”

            I believe that many societies throughout history have risen and fallen, some which have a deep connection with nature, and some which do not.  Although our society as a whole may not feel a connection to nature, I think that there is still a major attempt to reconnect with nature again.  There are still small societies that feel connections to nature such as the Australian Aborigines’, or Native Americans, however nature is no longer something that the majority of western society deems important.