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Education and the Proliferation of New (Old) Concepts: Agrarianism, the Commons, No-Growth Economics, and the Maximum Wage

The ecoeducation article by Paul Theobald and Hibajene Shandomo talks about idea that the way we approach schooling directly affects our economic standing. The idea is that children need to be taught a certain way from an early age so that when they grow up and are in control of what happens they will make the right decisions. The idea of limiting certain things in order to help society as a whole is also discussed. Such as limiting how much money any one person is allow to make or how much they are allow to own. In theory this would allow everyone to have a good life as opposed to certain people being extremely wealthy while others are stuck in poverty. All these ideas are pulled together by the idea that problems could be solved by improving our education system so that the adults of tomorrow will have the knowledge to be able to close the gap between the upper and lower class.

Indigenous Resistance and Racist Schooling on the Boarders of Empires

Indigenous Resistance and Racist Schooling on the Boarders of Empires by Michael Marker tells about the struggles that the indigenous people faced while trying to preserve their traditions in the late 1800s. During this time it was typical for parts of families to be located in Canada and others in America and these people didn’t really fit in in either place. Because of this their children were made to go to private schools, these schools were attributed with taking their culture away from. When it was realized that these schools were unfair the children were allowed to go to regular schools but once there were treated so poorly that they often chose to go back to the private schools. I think that it is wrong that these people were expected to shed their way of life to fit in with what others thought were right and I think it is great that they fought back the way that they did.

The Meatrix

It is crazy to think that the food industries are allowed to use images of family farms when in reality the animals are raised in huge factory farms that are nothing like a small family farm. Even if you don’t care about the poor quality of life that the animals have it is impossible to ignore the fact that the way they are raised results in health hazards to people. Everything from the antibiotics that the animals are given to keep them alive to the way that slaughter houses are ran creates a risk that could adversely affect the health of anyone who eats the meat. It is unreasonable to think that the traditional small family farms would be able to produce enough food to feed the entire population there is no reason why things should be done the way that they are now. The animals have a poor quality of life and in turn a poor quality of food is produced. I think that it is the consumers responsibility to not support companies that use the methods described in the videos and they will be forced to change the way they treat the animals.

http://www.themeatrix.com/ 

Food and Sustainability Issues

When buying food from a typical store it is likely that you don’t know exactly where it came from, it is also likely that if you did know then you would not want to buy it. One way the people of Jacksonville North Carolina solve this problem is by buying food from a local farmers market. The food is grown and harvested locally so it is fresher and healthier than many foods found in a typical store. Aside from benefitting themselves the people who chose to shop at the farmers market are supporting their local economy and not the huge food industries that are supplying us with less sufficient food.

Chapter 6

In chapter 6 Biotechnology: Building Consensus for Progress the portable rhetorical lesson is balanced arguments. The main focus is creating a balanced argument, it is important to have a balanced argument so that your entire audience is willing to listen and cooperate in order to come to a solution. In order to have a balance argument it is important to use a moderate tone, present evidence that everyone respects and understands, and provide practical solutions. These techniques are modeled in the chapter by readings about biotechnology. The reading describes different uses of biotechnology and the research that has taken place. It is obvious that there is a problem with food supply and something has to be done so that people don’t starve. But it is questionable if biotechnology is the best solution since in the long run it could have negative affect on people’s health. 

Fracking

Before reading “Feds Link Water Contamination to Fracking for the First Time”, an article on the Scientific American website, I wasn’t really even aware of fracking. After reading this article I think that is it ridiculous how much the fracking companies are allowed to get away with. If there is even a small chance that fracking is to blame for the water pollution I think that they should be more than willing to do what they can to help prevent it. From the results of the study I think it is completely reasonable to say that fracking is playing a part in the pollution of the water. While gas is generally considered a necessity we do not need it to live, water however is essential to life and anything that puts our water supply at risk should not be tolerated; especially when there are alternative ways to get the gas and even alternatives to gas. I do not necessarily think that fracking should be immediately put to a stop before it is confirmed that it is the cause of the pollution. I do think that the fracking companies should look for alternative methods to get their job done and at the very least strict guidelines should be set for them to follow. 

Environmental History

http://files.jumpo.gethifi.com/images/17_Bypass_night_CityScenes-Althouse-2008-09--025-process-sc650x261-t1294927468.png

This is a picture of a piece of the Hwy 17/Hwy 24 bypass that was built in my hometown of Jacksonville North Carolina. I chose this as my artifact because this road has changed the environment around it greatly since it was built. Some immediate affects were that people to have to move their driveways, allows people to avoid driving through town which leads to businesses losing business, and many trees were cut down in the process of building it. And over the years it has slowly brought other changes. 

Religion and the Environment

     Both religion and the environment have both been around since the beginning of time. To many it may seem that one’s environmental awareness and religion should be two separate things, but for me it is hard to separate them. The piece I read in Roger S. Gottlieb’s This sacred earth: religion, nature, environment about religion in an environmental crisis reinforced my thoughts.

     Gottlieb points out that a bible verse that calls man the “master of the earth”. I think it would be hard for anyone to disagree with this statement. Man does have the power to shape the earth and make it what he wants it to be.  In general each religion has a sort of higher power or god, in the case a Christianity God is the one who created the earth for us to live on. So as a follower of this religion it would make sense that you would want to take care of and protect what God gave you, forcing religion and environmentalism to be very deeply connected.

This sacred earth: religion, nature, environment (page 8-11)

What should be the relationship between religion and the environment?

I think that the relationship between religion and the environment should be a very close one; in fact I would say that you cannot have one without the other.

 In order to follow most religions one must participate in various rituals or ceremonies. Many of the ceremonies involve the use of something that comes from the earth, such as bread or wine. If the environment is not protected the resources needed to produce these things will not always be around. 

Environmentalism itself can be considered a religion if defined as a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe (dictionary.com). Even if environmentalism isn’t someone’s declared religion by being an environmentalist they are protecting other religions by preserving the environment and making customary ceremonies possible.

Towards Eco-Predoggy

By starting his essay off by comparing post-WWII social transformations to what we are going through today Richard Kahn is able to grab the reader’s attention and make his arguments seem very relevant. Even though it seems like he sometimes gets a little extreme with his opinions for the most part he makes good points, and the world would be in a better place if we took some of his ideas into consideration. After reading Kahn’s essay there are three words that have the potential to summarize the main points that he made: ecopedagogy, pedagogy, and ecology.

According to practicingfreedom.org “ecopedagogy is a discourse, a movement, and an approach to education that has emerged from leftist educators in Central and South America including Paulo Freire, Moacir Gadotti and Leonardo Boff that seeks to re-educate “planetary citizens” to care for, respect and take action for all life” which is the main idea that Kahn is trying to get his readers to buy into. If more people would practice this idea in everyday life as a whole we would do much less damage to the planet that we live on.

As defined by http://www.bcb.uwc.ac.za “ecology is the scientific study of interactions of organisms with one another and with the physical and chemical environment”. Kahn makes a valid point on this topic when he states that “a threat to either the organism or its environment is a movement towards the ecology of death” because if you harm an organism’s environment you are in turn harming the organism itself.  

Pedagogy refers to the method of which something is taught; in his essay Kahn states that “Just as there is now a socio-ecological crisis of serious proportions, there is also a crisis in environmental education over what must be done about it” and continues on to talk about the way things have been, are, and possibly should be taught in the future. I would consider this the most important topic that Kahn covered in the entire essay. It doesn’t matter if there are a few people who know what needs to be done if they do not successfully convey their knowledge to enough people then nothing will be accomplished. And on that same note if people are not taught about something in the proper manner they will either not be convinced that they to take action or they will not know how to take action.

Through all of his examples and explanations Kahn made a good case for something that he believes strongly in which is changing our ways to preserve the environment. In the end it is clear that weather or not you agree with everything he states the issues he talks about are real and they do need to be dealt with. The first step to dealing with our problems is to make everyone aware that there is a problem and educated them on how to fix it.

In class on Friday we talked about the videos we found for the homework assignment and discussed our thoughts on water use. Reading the assigned pieces along with listening to the class discussion really opened my eyes. Before this set of assignments I realized that we waste a lot of water but I did not realize the impact that our wastefulness has on the world. After reading an article I found through Google alerts it is easy to see why not much is being done to help preserve recourses such as water. http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech-mainmenu-30/environment/10692-ambitious-un-sustainability-conference-in-rio-to-avoid-climate-talk            

While looking for a video that relates to the Patagonia story I started out looking for a video of a dry river bed but then changed directions when I realized that many people have probably seen or at least heard of a dried up river before. I wanted to find something that would make people think about why it has dried up and maybe encourage them to do something about it. I like this video because if you really listen to what they are singing about you begin to ask yourself questions and realize that the world is changing (not for the best) and it is truly amazing how people can sleep at night knowing that we aren’t doing much to prevent it.

Haiku

This world we live in

It’s different than it used to be

We need to fix it

Google Alerts: Sustainability

When we were first told to set up Google alerts I was skeptical because I didn’t want my inbox to be bombarded with a bunch of results that I was never going to read. But after using it for a day or so I think it’s a neat system, I only get one email a day and when I sitting around with nothing to do I scan through and read the results that look interesting. I haven’t however ventured into using twitter yet, I can see how it could be useful but I just don’t think that it is for me.

So far from the readings on the EPA website and Wikipedia I have gathered that sustainability is very important and something that we should all be aware of, but does not have a set definition. The basic idea is we should work to live in a way that satisfies our needs while making sure that generations to follow us will be able to do the same thing. And over the years our methods of doing so have constantly changed. 

Environmental Issue- Automobiles

With all of the environmental issues nowadays it is easy to find many places to put the blame. You could argue that people are too wasteful, that we don’t take advantage of new less wasteful resources, and even that we just don’t care. Especially when so many of our recreational activities are so harmful to the environment. According to howstuffworks.com more people in America watch NASCAR than baseball, which is considered to be “America’s pastime”. With NASCAR being one of the least environmentally friendly sports you might wonder how American’s can preach recycling and “going green” when we uphold such an environmentally destructive pastime.

            It can be hard to wrap your mind around all the ways that automobiles pollute our environment each and every day. Of course there is the obvious air and noise pollution but automobiles also negatively affect our water, take up a significant amount of land space, produce tons of solid waste, and kill more wildlife each day than both hunting and trapping. Aside from pollution automobiles also use a lot of energy “Each year, the United States produces about 10% of the world's petroleum but consumes about 26% of the world's total production. Cars and light trucks are the single largest users of petroleum, consuming about 43% of the total. Overall, cars and light trucks consume about 16% of the total energy used in the U.S.”. After looking at these facts from bikesatwork.com I find myself asking “why don’t we just quit driving so much?” it doesn’t seem like it would be hard to do until you think about all the ways we utilize automobiles. We use them for transportation, work, and recreation. As much as I would like to do my part to preserve the environment in most cases I find myself driving a car much more often than riding a bicycle, and when Saturday night comes around chances are you will find me at a racetrack.

I feel sure that I am not the only one who struggles with the desire to help the environment without giving up the convenience of things that make life easier especially automobiles.  In the end we each have to ask ourselves what the environment is worth to us and what we are willing to do to help preserve it. 

My Response to Island Civilization

After reading the four quotes listed before Roderick Frazier Nash’s essay you might begin to think about your idea of “civilization” and how humans have impacted the earth in different ways since the beginning of time. Which is the perfect mind set to be in while reading this piece, as he is trying to raise awareness of what the world has come to because of peoples actions; and convince his audience that a change is needed to avoid completely destroying our planet.

 Nash starts out by stating how in the first millennium December 31^st was just a regular day and points out that the same date one thousand years later in 1999 is made into a big deal by many people. He uses this example to show how people are generally narrow minded in that they typically are only concerned with the near future and not how their actions now are going to affect generations to come after them. Through the next paragraphs Nash describes how mankind, particularly Americans, have focused too much on “civilizing” the land while not taking into account the impact we have on the entire planet. He plays around with the idea of wilderness and shows the word has no real meaning as it can be thought of in so many different ways. By using both quotes and examples from history Nash shows how people have realized for many years that our way of life has a negative impact on the planet and have to an extent made efforts to reverse some of the damage. But also points out that most of these efforts were actually more for our benefit than the environments.

By pointing out how life long ago was very different from that of the pioneers and our life today different than that of the pioneer’s Nash is able to transition into telling how he believes that in the future life needs to change dramatically in order for our planet to be sustainable. His idea of “island civilization” is that people will quit trying to draw boundaries around wilderness and instead draw them around the human presence. Most people would think that in order for us to lessen our impact on wilderness we would have to take a technological step backwards, but in Nash’s idea he explains how an island civilization would actually have the potential to be even more technologically advanced. He pictures a world where the greatest minds are put to work using technology to reduce our impact on the environment as opposed to trying to “civilize” it as much of today’s technology does.

Personally I couldn’t agree more with Nash, I think that people as a whole have little regard for nature unless it is convenient for them. And I don’t see any way that our way of life could be sustainable for much longer. I also agree with his idea of island civilization and truly believe that it would solve many of the problems that it is designed to solve. But a closer look quickly brings out enough skepticism for me to believe that it is not a probable solution. This conclusion comes from considering the way mankind has made decisions in the past, even upon realizing there is a problem with current methods a majority of the population is unwilling to change their ways until their current method has completely failed them. Looking at it from another angle in order for this idea to work everyone on the entire planet would have to agree to live this way. Requiring a lot of sacrifice and agreement from everyone, it doesn’t seem possible for things to work out.

Nash stated near the beginning of his essay that he wanted to open up people’s minds and make them think farther into the future than they generally do. By looking that far ahead and seeing all the problems we will eventually face we realize that we will need a solution. So he offers his solution, but makes sure to state that it is okay to disagree just as long as you create your own or provide evidence that there is no need for change. In my opinion there is definitely a need for change, but I do not believe that there is one cut and dry answer. It is going to take years of trial and error and require people to open their minds to a new way of life before we will be able to lessen our impact on the environment and be able to share our planet with the wilderness.