After reviewing my survey, I added a couple questions more pertaining to my theory surrounding my paper. I'm using the Broken Glass Theory to prove that littering is more likely to take place in certain areas rather than by certain people. In my original survey I thought it was weird some people agreed it was bad, yet still did it. So, I added location questions like: where are you most likely to litter in a run down neighborhood? or a relatively rich neighborhood? My results lined up better with my theory and proved people are more likely to litter based on their location rather than just because.
(There is no link provided to my survey because I did my survey with paper and pen)
Monday, November 19, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
Survey Results
After analyzing the results, everyone I asked agreed littering is harmful to the environment. Even though everyone agreed littering is harmful, a few people admitted that they still littered. Everyone agreed that students should be educated about littering and everyone in the survey recycles. On the question regarding whether or not they would pick up someone else's trash, the results were split. Some would while others would not.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Sustainable Food
No matter where you live or how you live, food is a necessity. Food is staple in every culture and simply put, we cannot live without it. As humans have developed over time, food has become increasingly questionable. What we define as food, such as a hamburger, we may not actually know what is put into this food. We have lost the link between the actual animal or crop to our dinner table. Our quest for fast, easy, and cheap food has created a downward spiral in the meat and crop industries. The valuable nutrients of these foods are being lost in translation. In order to restore this balance, we should revert back to natural, organic foods that our bodies were actually made to digest. All these chemicals and preservatives are not what we were designed to break down. However, saying that we must switch our diets and actually switching our diets are two very different things. It's hard to change set eating habits. I feel though the only way to set our ecosystem back in balance.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Artifact: Pollution
This image depicts smog located in a small town. Pollution can come in many forms, however smog is the most noticed one. The ethical dilemma with pollution is how can we completely stop it, without ending the use of fossil fuels? Even though fossil fuels are harmful to the environment, we depend on them entirely too much to really get rid of them all together. In order to reduce the usage, we must develop renewable resources that do not cause pollution. For example we could switch over to wind power or solar power. Many people do not want to change their ways though. So, pollution remains.
Monday, October 1, 2012
Climate Change Article
Many different terms are used to define this
phenomenon such as climate change, global warming, and global change. Climate
change refers to a distinct change of climate that lasts for a long period of
time. It can effect any number of things. Global warming is an average increase
of temperatures near the earth’s surface. Global change is a broad term used to
define the global environment. The global temperature has risen 1.3 degrees
Fahrenheit over the past 100 years. Scientists have been able to link 90% of
this issue to human activities releasing more and more greenhouse gases into
the atmosphere. Scientists predict if we can continue to live the lives we
live, we will see a 3-7 degree increase by the year 2100. Climate change and warming affects humans in
many ways. Increased frequency and intensity in heat waves are prone to cause
many more heat related illnesses or death. Vegetation and forestry are expected
to decline due to drought in many areas and increased heat and decreased
precipitation. Events such as floods and
droughts are more likely to become more common in increased climates. As stated
above, adjusting to such changes is extremely costly and could drive the
economy into even deeper turmoil. Fragile ecosystems could be damaged and could
cause long lasting affects on almost every ecosystem in the world.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Fracking
The process of fracking
is a fairly new process that has caused controversial uproar among Americans. Fracking
is essentially drilling into the shale and then harnessing the natural gas that
is released. Recently many natural gas companies have started fracking all
across the United States in order to obtain this valuable resource. The
nation's massive shale and tight gas reservoirs are spread across the
Northeast; in the upper Midwest; under Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas;
and north into the Rocky Mountain region.
Natural gas and fracking has supplied many jobs for big
corporations helping to bolster the economy. It also is another alternative to
help ease America off of its dependence on foreign oil. Because of the points
above, natural gas is becoming increasingly popular and forcing some coal
companies out of business completely. Many consumers believe that natural gas
is much cleaner and safer than coal and oil, but this is not the case. Although
it produces half the carbon emissions that coal does, it releases many
greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The increase in fracking is definitely
contributing to the current global warming situation and is also causing health
hazards. Many companies drill into the shale that is near citizens homes. This
infects their air and water with pollutants such as methane. The methane is so
strong in certain water that you can light the water on fire. Another major
problem is that the drillers of this oil and natural gas are not being required
to test for these problems or to even fix them. Many are outraged and want
stricter regulations on these drillers.
Richard Kahn
In Richard Kahn's article he discusses current environmental issues and their impacts on the world. He then shifts his attention to education and the education system. Kahn believes that the current education system has set students up to be nothing more than average. Which, in some respects could be seen as accurate. However, I believe education is what you make it. If you want to do well and succeed in life, then you have to put the time and effort in to be successful. I say his theory may be right in some respects because I do feel certain people have a better chance for success than others. Those who can attend private schools have a better chance of doing well. Like I said though if you do not care about the opportunities, and do not make the best of them, then there really is no advantage. Rather than trying to change the school system, I think the teachers have to change. I feel too many teachers do not want to be teachers or do not always have their students best interest at heart. If more teachers started really pushing their students and attempting to challenge them with engaging classes, more students would be eager to learn.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Snyder's Themes
After reading multiple of Snyder's poems I still feel his main theme is that we should respect everything. Snyder's poems depict every day objects in a new light. He uses articulate imagery to draw the reader into his poems. The poems then depict the tree or dead animal as something much more than that. The poems make this objects come to life and show the real life value behind these creatures. Snyder wants the human race to understand we are not the only living things out there. We must learn to value and cherish everything or else we will eventually self-destruct.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Gary Snyder Poems
After reading some of Gary Snyder's poems I feel his writing is really geared towards making people understand the environment is a living thing. He uses very descriptive language when describing places and objects like pine trees. The descriptive language really drives the reader to understand these objects as more than that. The reader has to focus on them as living, breathing, entities that deserve our respect. I think a huge theme within all these poems is respect for everything living thing.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Mckibben's Podcast
Bill Mckibben's podcast discussed his new book Eaarth. Eaarth is a book discussing the main differences between the Earth then and the Eaarth now. Which is why Earth is spelled Eaarth. Some of the issues discussed include the fact that nobody wants to take on climate change. All the politicians in office are more focused on economic issues rather than environmental issues. What many politicians fail to realize, is the environmental issue cannot be solved without the economic issues being handled and vice versa. Another large issue is the lack of cohesiveness. The Earth is less of a community than it once was. People no longer have to rely on one another for food or basic human needs (for the most part). People can live their lives perfectly fine without having to rely on anyone else. As well as not having to depend on each other, many people feel they do not need to depend on the Earth either. Although the Earth is necessary to survive, many people do not know anything about the bioregion they live in. In order to be able to use the Earth at all, one must understand how it works and the regions in which a person lives in.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Over Using Food Resources
There are tons of
reasons why we would need a drastic idea like Roderick Nash’s “Island
Civilization” to change our planet. I feel the most important one is the over
use of our food resources. We are depleting the nutrients in the soil for crops
and overfishing at alarming rates. John Locke wrote in the Tragedy of the Commons about this issue. He believed we should
divide the land to provide enough for everyone to live sustainably. In other
words if you only need one cow to survive, don’t over take the common space by
having three cows. I completely agree with this notion. This whole problem
could be solved if people just lived off of what they needed and not what they
wanted. This notion of living sustainably also ties nicely into Nash’s ideas of
decreasing population and taking what is needed.
To me the biggest concern is overfishing. The ocean is a
very fragile place, but a very important place as well. Overfishing is causing
a large unbalance in the marine ecosystems. The decline in bait fish has caused
the apex predators of the food chain to starve. Slowly these important
ecosystems are disappearing causing the ocean to become a very tumultuous environment.
In order to restore this place, everyone has to be willing to sacrifice their
steak and lobster dinners. Like both Nash and Locke stated in their papers, we
must all give up our wants for the common good. In order to change anything we
have to be reduced to just our needs.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Island Civilization
Island Civilization starts out as an idea to better the
world for future generations. In order to explain this idea, Roderick Nash
first explains the history of how things came to be. He defines wilderness and
its importance to man through the centuries. Wilderness has always been viewed
as bad or harmful to human progress and growth. Nash however suggests that the
wilderness is exactly what we need for progress and growth. Rather than
destroying it and making room for cities and technology, we have to conserve
it. Once the frontier had been nearly destroyed, people began to realize that
wilderness and the environment were important. However, Nash makes sure we
understand that people found the environment important to them, not just important. Preservation began to set up parks and
recreational sites for people. Within the last 50 years people have begun to
understand the significance of the wilderness and that it is not about us at
all. The essay then begins to talk about many famous environmental writers such
as John Muir, John Locke, and Henry David Thoreau. Their writings began to tell
people ways to conserve and create a better future. Many new phrases popped up
in popular culture as well such as pollution, environmentalism, and deep
ecology. These words brought a better understanding of the real situation going
on environmentally to the world. New Acts put in place by the government gave
species other than humans the right to life. These acts did not pertain to only
animals that humans found useful, but to animals whose very existence was
important. Although many good changes have begun, many bad changes are still occurring.
Nash continues to point out that our population is surging, we are somewhat
responsible for global warming, and fresh water/soil problems are occurring daily.
Nash then suggests we can do something to fix this by using technology. Rather
than creating technology to harm the environment, let’s use technology to improve
how we do things. He suggests we give up the lavish life style that many of us
lead and live more aware of our environment.
I personally really enjoyed this essay. I’ve always been
very interested in helping the environment and conservation issues. One quote
that I found particularly important was, “When does success in too great a dose
produce failure? (pg 373)” This quote really makes you question if you’re
trying so hard to produce success, how do you know you aren’t creating failure
in other ways? Humans have tried so hard to make the land “civilized” and prosperous
so that things are easier for us. However, I believe we’ve made things much
harder. We’ve created a sea of problems that we really don’t have the answer
for. Therefore, I believe Nash’s point of utilizing technology to improve this
situation was a good point. We have so many resources and new things are being
invented everyday, if we could use these inventions and technologies to improve
the environment, our problems would not be nearly as bad. Although I agreed
with many points Nash made in his essay, I felt the whole clustering concept is
too advanced. For our population today I think it’s too visionary and people
would never agree to it. I agree humans have taken up way to much of the
planet, but not many people would be willing to sacrifice the space they have
created for themselves. There just isn’t the motivation needed behind this idea
to really make it work and flourish. Perhaps in a couple hundred years people
will begin to understand that we have to do something to change the way we are
living. But as of right now, I don’t believe we have enough support and
understanding to really put this plan into action.
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