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.