Blog Entry #4

Ecosystems and Human Well-Being
    Everyone in the world depends completely on Earth’s ecosystems and the services they provide, such as food, water, disease management, climate regulation, spiritual fulfillment, and aesthetic enjoyment, but over the past 50 years, humans have changed these ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable period of time in human history, largely to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fiber, and fuel.Past actions to slow or reverse the degradation of ecosystems have yielded significant benefits, but these improvements have generally not kept pace with growing pressures and demands. Ecosystem degradation can rarely be reversed without actions that address the negative effects or enhance the positive effects of one or more of the five indirect drivers of change: population change (including growth and migration), change in economic activity (including economic growth, disparities in wealth, and trade patterns), sociopolitical factors (including factors ranging from the presence of conflict to public participation in decision- making), cultural factors, and technological change.

In what ways does damage to ecosystems affect human well-being?
Agriculture
Removal of production subsidies that have adverse economic, social, and environmental effects. Investment in, and diffusion of, agricultural science and technology that can sustain the necessary increase of food
supply without harmful trade-offs involving excessive use of water, nutrients, or pesticides. Use of response polices that recognize the role of women in the production and use of food and that are designed to
empower women and ensure access to and control of resources necessary for food security. Application of a mix of regulatory and incentive- and market-based mechanisms to reduce overuse of nutrients.
Fisheries and Aquaculture
Reduction of marine fishing capacity. Strict regulation of marine fisheries both regarding the establishment and implementation of quotas and steps to address unreported and unregulated harvest. Individual transferable quotas may be appropriate in some cases, particularly for cold water, single species fisheries.
Establishment of appropriate regulatory systems to reduce the detrimental environmental impacts of aquaculture. Establishment of marine protected areas including flexible no-take zones.
Water
Payments for ecosystem services provided by watersheds. Improved allocation of rights to freshwater resources to align incentives with conservation needs. Increased transparency of information regarding water management and improved representation of marginalized stakeholders. Development of water markets. Increased emphasis on the use of the natural environment and measures other than dams and levees for flood control. Investment is science and technology to increase the efficiency of water use in agriculture.
Forestry
Integration of agreed sustainable forest management practices in financial institutions, trade rules, global environment programs, and global security decision-making.

Living Downstream
    The research from the book "Post Diagnosis" which resulted in the writing of "Living Downstream". Steingraber (the author) then explored the numerous sources of environmental pollution that she was personally exposed to while growing up in central Illinois. The book contains a detailed discussion of W. R. Grace and company's role in the pollution of the water in Woburn, Massachusetts; a town where a cluster of fatal childhood leukemia cases has occurred. Sandra goes on to mention the illness that she had as well as the ones that affected other members of her family. Years later, Steigngraber possessed a bulging file of scientific articles documenting an array of genetic changes involved in bladder cancer.  These concern the ongoing presence of known and suspected bladder carcinogens in rivers, ground- water, dump sites, and indoor air. For example, industries reporting to the Toxics Release Inventory disclosed environmental releases of the aromatic amine o-toluidine that totaled 14,625 pounds in 1992 alone. Detected also in effluent from refineries and other manufacturing plants, o-toluidine exists as residues in the dyes of commercial textiles. Cancer incidence rates are not rising because we are suddenly sprouting new cancer genes. Rare, heritable genes that predispose their hosts to cancer by creating special susceptibilities to the effects of carcinogens have undoubtedly been with us for a long time.

What is wrong with the present system of regulating the use, release, and disposal of known and suspended carcinogens?

    In full possession of our ecological roots, we can begin to survey our present situation. This requires a human rights approach. Such an approach recognizes
that the current system of regulating the use, release, and disposal of known and suspected carcinogens rather than preventing their generation in the first place, is intolerable. So is the decision to allow untested chemicals free access to our bodies, until which time they are finally assessed for carcinogenic properties. Both practices show reckless disregard for human life.

Our Stolen Future
    Researchers in the Great Lakes region, as well as in Florida, on the West Coast of the United States, and in Northern Europe, had observed widespread evidence of serious and frequently lethal physiological problems. These problems included abnormal reproductive development, unusual sexual behavior, and neurological impairment, and were exhibited by a diverse group of animal species. . In examining our place in the evolutionary lineage, humans tend to focus inordinately on those characteristics that make us unique and living in a man-made landscape, we easily forget that our well-being is rooted in natural systems. Our regrettable experience with persistent chemicals over the past half century has demonstrated the reality of this deep and complex interconnection. All of us have accumulated a store of persistent synthetic chemicals in our body fat. Through this web of inescapable connection, these chemicals have found their way to each and every one of us just as they have found their way to the animals. At the end of the session, the scientists issued the Wingspread Statement, an urgent warning that humans in many parts of the world are being exposed to chemicals that have disrupted development in wildlife and laboratory animals, and that unless these chemicals are controlled, we face the danger of widespread disruption in human embryonic development and the prospect of damage that will last a lifetime.

What is an environmental hormone mimic, or disruptor?

 The causative agents were identified as more than 50 synthetic chemical compounds that have been shown in laboratory studies to either mimic the action, or disrupt the normal function, of the powerful hormones responsible for sexual development and many other biological functions.

Environmental Justice For All
   In the following selection, Bullard describes the history of the environmental justice movement, argues that even though environmental racism has been recognized for a quarter of a century, it remains a problem, and calls for government to maintain its commitment to protecting the environment for all Americans. In 1991, a new breed of environmental activists gathered in Washington D.C., to bring national attention to pollution problems threatening low-income and minority communities.  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. More than three decades ago, the concept of environmental justice had not registered on the radar screens of many environmental or civil rights groups. Since then, plenty of voices have been heard regarding environmental justice and discrimination, including that of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who went to Memphis on an environmental and economic justice mission in 1968, seeking support for striking garbage workers who were underpaid and whose basic duties exposed them to dangerous environmentally hazardous conditions.

Does the environmental movement neglect issues of concern to the poor and minorities?

The environmental Movement does address the inequitable treatment of African Americans and other minorities in environmental planning and decision making, and he has taken an active political role in working with both political leaders and grassroots organizations to combat environmental discrimination.

Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services
    Ecologists think the loss of biodiversity is a problem because it threatens the stability of ecosystems and the potential ability of life to adapt to changes in climate and other conditions.  Human-dominated marine ecosystems are experiencing accelerating loss of populations and species, with largely unknown consequences.  Changes in marine biodiversity are directly caused by exploitation, pollution, and habitat destruction, or indirectly through climate change and related perturbations of ocean biogeochemistry. Although marine extinctions are only slowly uncovered at the global scale, regional ecosystems such as estuaries, coral reefs, and coastal and oceanic fish communities are rapidly losing populations, species, or entire functional groups. Experiment were performed and positive relationships between diversity and ecosystem functions and services were found using experimental and correlative approaches along trajectories of diversity loss and recovery.   By restoring marine biodiversity through sustain- able fisheries management, pollution control, maintenance of essential habitats, and the creation of marine reserves, we can invest in the productivity and reliability of the goods and services that the ocean provides to humanity.

  Why are commercial fisheries in decline?

Reserves and fisheries closures showed increased species diversity of target and non-target species, averaging a 23% increase in species richness. These increases in biodiversity were associated with large increases in fisheries productivity, as seen in the fourfold average increase in catch per unit of effort in fished areas around the reserves. The difference in total catches was less pronounced, probably because of restrictions on fishing effort around many reserves.  Community variability, as measured by the coefficient of variation in aggregate fish biomass, was reduced by 21% on average.

What are your primary concerns about the oceans?

My main concern is pollution and the amount of garbage that ends up in our oceans especially plastic garbage, which decomposes very slowly, is often mistaken for food my marine animals. High concentrations of plastic material, particularly plastic bags, have been found blocking the breathing passages and stomachs of many marine species, including whales, dolphins, seals, puffins, and turtles. Plastic six-pack rings for drink bottles can also choke marine animals, as well as bottle caps being found in wildlife's stomachs after mistaking it for food.

What is anything do you plan to do about it?

The obvious answer would be to make sure everything you discard ends up in the right place, most importantly plastic. Taking the time to pick up whatever waste you can find lying around, because it all eventually ends up traveling in our waterways and finding its way to the ocean because the plastic particles are too small and are ignored by a water treatment plant.

Waterlife Documentary - The Great Lakes

This documentary highlights how important water really is to life, not just for humans but for literally everything on this planet. Chemicals appear in abundance within the everyday water we drink and use, because water treatment plants are designed to bacteria, metals, and solids. However they are unable to filter out the new class of chemicals from industrial to pharmaceuticals found in the water. The identification of these chemicals are of grave concern for many because the Great lakes contain the last remaining supply of fresh water left on the planet. When we drink the water, we are a part of that water, and as we are all a part of each other. The water unites us all together. 35 million Americans rely on the water from the great lakes everyday, 30% of the Canadian and 10% of the United States populations call the great lakes basin home. Each day 100 billion gallons of water evaporated from the great lakes, 25x more than all humans consume, we don't have the ice that we used to have which lowers the water constantly each year. Water is everything.

Blog Entry #3

Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civiliazation
     One of the hardest things for people to do is anticipate sudden change. This chapter summarizes the shortages and the probabilities of the world going short on food in years to come. As demand for food rises faster than supplies are growing, the resulting food-price inflation puts severe stress on the governments of countries already teetering on the edge of chaos. Further, States fail when national governments can no longer provide personal security, food security, and basic social services such as education and health care. Our global civilization depends on a functioning network of politically healthy nation-states to control the spread of infectious disease, to manage the international monetary system, to control international terrorism and to reach scores of other common goals. If that doesn't happen, humanity is in trouble.This article goes on to mention a new sort of food crisis regarding agriculture and and the ever growing demand for grain.  People in low-income countries where grain supplies 60 percent of calories, such as India, directly consume a bit more than a pound of grain a day. In affluent countries such as the U.S. and Canada, grain consumption per person is nearly four times that much, though perhaps 90 percent of it is consumed indirectly as meat, milk, and eggs from grain-fed animals. And in other agriculture news as water tables have fallen and irrigation wells have gone dry, China’s wheat crop, the world’s largest, has declined by 8 percent since it peaked at 123 million tonnes in 1997. Whats next, is a plan to help stop the decline of production and ubiquity of food by protecting the soil, recycling our water, and transitioning from fossil fuels to a more renewable form of energy.

According to Lester Brown, what is the greatest threat to global political stability?
     When governments lose their monopoly on power, law and order begin to dis- integrate. After a point, countries can become so dangerous that food relief workers are no longer safe and their pro- grams are halted; in Somalia and Afghanistan, deteriorating conditions have already put such programs in jeopardy.
Failing states are of international concern because they are a source of terrorists, drugs, weapons, and refugees, threatening political stability everywhere.

Women's Indigenous knowledge and Biodiversity Consevation
      This chapter goes over women's knowledge and intelligence and how it plays a crucial role in the biodiversity and preservation of the planet (from a women's perspective in a way) in agriculture, forestry,industrialization, etc. The marginalization of women and the destruction of biodiversity go hand in hand. Diversity is the principle of women’s work and knowledge. This is why they have been discounted in the patriarchal calculus. Yet it is also the matrix from which an alternative calculus of "productivity" and "skills" can be built that respects, not destroys, diversity. When speaking and talking about the production and preparation of plant foods, women need skills and knowledge. To prepare seeds they need to know about seed preparation, germination requirements and soil choice. Seed preparation requires visual discrimination, fine motor co-ordination, sensitivity to humidity levels and weather conditions. There are a number of crucial ways in which the Third World women’s relationship to biodiversity differs from corporate men’s relationship to biodiversity. Women produce through biodiversity, whereas corporate scientists produce through uniformity.

What is an Ecofeminist?
Ecologically focused feminists who call themselves ecofeminists see important connections between the domination of women and the domination of nature under the patriarchal social and political framework that characterizes most of the world’s human cultures.

Human Domination of Earth's Ecosystems
     This chapter takes you through an overview that illustrates the extent to which human activity has exerted a global impact on the Earth’s ecosystems during the past century.  They consider the consequences of land transformation, alterations of marine ecosystems, modifications of major biogeochemical cycles, and biotic disruptions.
     Oceans Human alterations of marine ecosystems are more difficult to quantify than those of terrestrial ecosystems, but several kinds of information suggest that they are substantial. The human population is concentrated near coasts about 60% within 100 km,and the oceans’ productive coastal margins have been affected strongly by humanity. .Many of the fisheries that capture marine productivity are focused on top predators, whose removal can alter marine ecosystems out of proportion to their abundance. Water is essential to all life. Its movement by gravity, and through evaporation and condensation, con- tributes to driving Earth’s biogeochemical cycles and to controlling its climate. Very little of the water on Earth is directly usable by humans; most is either saline or frozen. Altercations in the biochemical cycles, the modern increase in CO2 represents the clearest and best documented signal of human alteration of the Earth system. There is no doubt that this increase has been driven by human activity, today primarily by fossil fuel combustion.
     They report that almost 50% of the Earth’s land surface has been transformed by human endeavors.  All of these changes are ongoing, and in many cases accelerating; many of them were en trained long before their importance was recognized. The rates, scales, kinds, and combinations of changes occurring now are fundamentally different from those at any other time in history; we are changing Earth more rapidly than we are understanding it. We live on a human dominated planet and the momentum of human population growth, together with the imperative for further economic development in most of the world, ensures that our dominance will increase.


Would it help to reduce the impact on earth if we were to reduce the population?
      Recognition of the global consequences of the human enterprise suggests three complementary directions. First, we can work to reduce the rate at which we alter the Earth system. Humans and human-dominated systems may be able to adapt to slower change, and ecosystems and the species they support may cope more effectively with the changes we impose, if those changes are slow. Our footprint on the planet might then be stabilized at a point where enough space and resources remain to sustain most of the other species on Earth, for their sake and our own.

What role, if any, should zoos play in conservational education?
    Relying on captive populations lulls us into a false sense of security, drawing attention away from threats to wild populations and habitats which, if not protected, could be destroyed leaving no viable location to return to. The substantial costs of captive breeding could be used more effectively to protect these wild species and habitats.
Is it ethical to keep animals in zoos?
     After seeing the life span of animals in zoos compared to in the wild it is astonishing. Not only from illness or natural causes, but from man made causes such as automatic doors. Animals were created to roam free with their other animal counterparts.
Do you enjoy visiting zoos?
  I do enjoy visiting zoos, one of my passions is animals and although captivity may not be the best place for them. It's really the only real chance a ordinary person has at seeing exotic and amazing animals up close.



King Corn
King corn managed to make me think a lot more about what i'm putting into my body, and this soft spoken movie gets its point across by settling in among its rural Iowa subjects and following the lead of its goofy every man c-producers/stars, as they attempt to farm a single acre of corn. The film starts from planting corn seeds and progresses to what is made of corn and the effects that has on all of us. Where this documentary distinguishes itself, however, is in the unusual amount of warmth it lets into the mix. With respect, refraining from sarcasm, superiority, or a,bush. King Corn insists what we recognize the corn belt's beauty and intelligence along with its somewhat self-induced plight. it's air to say that a meaner documentary might have packed more punch. King corn will put you off corn or a while, but this is as much a thoughtful mediation on the plight of the american farmer as it is a rant against our expanding waistlines. It was an informative and thought provoking documentary about corn.

Blog Entry #2

Textbook Summaries & Critical Thinking
The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis
Lynn White begins this article by saying that all forms of life modify their contexts, and mentioning several examples. Ever since man has become a numerous species he has affected his environment notably.  The hypothesis that his fire-drive method of hunting created the world’s great grasslands and helped to exterminate the mammals of the Pleistocene, such as giant sloths and numerous species of mammoth,  from much of the globe is plausible, if not proved. The history of ecologic change is still so rudimentary that we know little about what really happened, and it is also hard to find solid information and evidence. Lynn goes on to talk about the middle age scientists contributing to modern technology, and siding with the West. Our science is the heir to all the sciences of the past. However, in the Latin West by the early 13th century natural theology was following a very different bent. It was ceasing to be the decoding of the physical symbols of God’s communication with man and was becoming the effort to understand God’s mind by discovering how his creation operates.
Sources: L. White, The historical Roots of our Ecological crisis, Selections in Environmental Science P. 19-23.

What is the Purpose of nature?
 By revelation, God had given man the Bible, the Book of Scripture. But since God had made nature, nature also must reveal the divine mentality. The religious study of nature for the better understanding of God was known as natural theology. In the early Church, and always in the Greek East, nature was conceived primarily as a symbolic system through which God speaks to men.

A Sand County Almanac
The following selection was taken, is a collection of Leopold’s lyrical, philosophical writings about nature. It begins with a short story of hunting a pack of wolves.  "I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view." It is inconceivable to me that an ethical relation to land can exist without love, respect, and admiration for land, and a high regard for its value, of course meaning something far broader than mere economic value;  meaning value in the philosophical sense.

What is the basic lesson of Aldo Leopold’s “Thinking Like a Mountain”?

I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view. Wolves are like a keystone species, without them every aspect of the environment, quite literally, will become more pronounced and eventually the environment will deteriorate, starting with the deer population overpopulating, and the plant life beginning to drop.

A. Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, Selections in Environmental Science, P. 11-13.

Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis

 The Arrhenius prediction that the average temperature on Earth will rise four to six degrees Celsius is likely to come true before the end of the twenty-first century if present fossil fuel use and forest destruction trends continue. Most atmospheric scientists agree that such a warming will be accompanied by changes in the world’s weather patterns and a significant increase in sea levels. The data on which these conclusions are based, as well as the conclusions themselves, have been vigorously debated for years. In 1988 the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (I.P.C.C) was established to assess the available scientific, technical, and socioeconomic information regarding greenhouse gas-induced climate change. Thousands of meteorologists and other atmospheric and climate scientists have participated in periodic reviews of the data. 

What consequences can we expect from global warming?

 The primary source of the increased atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide since the pre-industrial period results from fossil fuel use.Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level. 

  The average atmospheric water vapour content has increased since at least the 1980s over land and ocean as well as in the upper troposphere. 

  Observations since 1961 show that the average temperature of the global ocean has increased to depths of at least 3000 m and that the ocean has been absorbing more than 80% of the heat added to the climate system

 It is likely that increases in greenhouse gas concentrations alone would have caused more warming than observed because volcanic and anthropogenic aerosols have offset some warming that would otherwise have taken place.

IPCC, Climate Change 2007: The physical Science Basis, Selections in Environmental Science, P. 107-115



A Path to Sustainable Energy by 2030
Our plan calls for millions of wind turbines, water machines and solar installations. The numbers are large, but the scale is not an insurmountable hurdle; society has achieved massive transformations before. Renewable energy comes from enticing sources: wind, which also produces waves; water, which includes hydroelectric, tidal and geothermal energy (water heated by hot underground rock); and sun, which includes photovoltaics and solar power plants that focus sunlight to heat a fluid that drives a turbine to generate electricity. Our plan includes only technologies that work or are close to working today on a large scale, rather than those that may exist 20 or 30 years from now.
Three components could pose challenges for building millions of electric vehicles: rare-earth metals for electric motors, lithium for lithium-ion batteries and platinum for fuel cells. Although electric vehicles is a very good start, German engineer's are some of the first to produce such (all electric) vehicles from Volkswagon to BMW. The main challenge with wind and solar energy is that the wind does not always blow and the sun does not always shine in a given location.

What is the most effective way to cut back on Greenhouse Gas emissions? 
 Nuclear power results in up to 25 times more carbon emissions than wind energy, when reactor construction and uranium refining and transport are considered. Carbon capture and sequestration technology can reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal- fired power plants but will increase air pollutants and will extend all the other deleterious effects of coal mining, transport and processing, because more coal must be burned to power the capture and storage steps. Similarly, we consider only technologies that do not present significant waste disposal or terrorism risks. To ensure that our system remains clean, we consider only technologies that have near-zero emissions of green- house gases and air pollutants over their entire life cycle.

Sources: Mark Z. Jacobson & Mark A. Delucchi, A Path to Sustainable Energy by 2030, P. 58-61

Can parks meet its dual Mandate of access and protection?

I think is depends on people and certain restrictions and laws to prevent any unwanted activity that leads to the degradation of the forest. There is an old-growth Forest located in Europe that I read about in "The World Without us" called the Bialowieza Forest, the entire area of northeastern Europe was originally covered by ancient woodland until about the 14th century. Travel through the woodland was limited to river routes, roads, and bridges appeared much later. Limited hunting rights were granted throughout the forest in the 14th century, and it remains one of the largest remaining old-growth forests left in the world.

How can this be achieved in Wapusk?

Wapusk National Park is subjected to a lot of tourism, and because of that, the parks native inhabitants like polar bears have started to decline in numbers, and the environment that they live in is also degrading. Conservation can attempt to preserve the existing park, but laws and regulations need to happen before the park begins to grow again.

Lisa Margonelli: The Political Chemistry of oil

We are 4% of the worlds population (US) and we use 25% of the worlds oil production. Oil is a stew of hydrocarbon molecules, and sometimes other metallic elements that are very toxic to water and marine life. Oil floats and it spreads out when it hits the water and becomes very thin to its hard to coral it, and when the waves hit the asphaltenes (molecular substances that are found in crude oil) it whips them oil into a very viscous compound almost like mayonnaise. When the chemistry of the oil and water hits our politics its very explosive, and for the first time Americans and consumers will finally see the oil and supply chain in front of themselves and suddenly understand oil in a different context. Americans also assume that the oil prices are a result of a conspiracy rather than the vicissitudes of the worlds oil market. When an oil spill occurs, people start the realize not just the environmental consequences but the economic consequences, but still feel helpless about the amount we consume and don't bother to make a change. 

Student #7777649

Blog Entry #1

Textbook Summaries & Critical Thinking
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Going into further detail about perhaps future and past abandonment's and people inadvertently destroying the environmental resources on which their societies depended on for so many years as a consequence of deforestation and habitat destruction, soil problems (erosion, salinization, and soil fertility losses), water management problems, overhunting, overfishing, effects of introduced species on native species, human population growth, and increased per capita impact of people. Rethinking the decisions and solutions that had worked in the past to preserve and perpetuate the earth for future years.

What does it mean, according to Jared Diamond, to say that a society collapses?
According to Jared  By collapse, he means a drastic decrease in human population size and/or political, economic, social complexity, over a considerable area, for an extended time.
Sources: J, Diamond. Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed, Selections in Environmental Science P, 184-189

Human Carrying Capacity
 History of Easter Island, the Polynesian residents maintaining life,isolated from everywhere else in the world and their struggle with the environment and declining resources. Likewise, estimates of the human carry- ing capacity of the Earth are indicators. They indicate the population that can be supported under various assumptions about the present or future. Human carrying capacity is more difficult to estimate than some of the standard demographic indicators, like expectation of life or the total fertility rate, because human carrying capacity depends on populations and activities around the world.
J.E. Cohen. Human Carrying Capacity, P 169-172
What is "Carrying Capacity"?
The maximum amount that a specific ecosystem can support, without being overworked or overused, in this case "human carrying capacity" related to the planet earth.

Tragedy of the Commons
 Hardin relates a nineteenth-century tale about a common pasture becoming overgrazed and destroyed because each of the herdsmen whose animals grazed on it considered only the advantage to his own family of increasing his herd. From this parable, Hardin draws a general conclusion: that all resources, such as the oceans, which are held in common and are therefore not anyone’s private property, will be overused and ultimately degraded.
G, Hardin. Tragedy of the commons, P 24-28
What promotes human connection to nature?
This includes understanding nature, and caring about it to let it positively influence you throughout life. Learning and connecting with nature through classes, or seeing a documentary on television can all help to get a better perception of the environment.
What promotes human disconnection from nature?
Modern technology and development of commodities to take our eyes away from nature, some may not see a trace of nature throughout their day if it were not to be on a desktop screen.
Is there a danger to growing disconnection from nature?
A disconnection take the focal point away from what we need to survive, if we're too busy worrying about keeping society running, we aren't paying attention to what our actions reflect on to the environment.
Where do your environmental ethics lie?
-Anthropocentric?
-Biocentric?
-Ecocentric?
We need to consider the non-living world as incorporated with the way that we live and everyday life. Humans have become so abundant around the world and we are so caught up in modern day technological advances, and life within our city bounds that we have lost track of the one essence that's keeping us alive and well, the environment. It is around it everywhere we go, the ground we tread and the air we breathe.

HOME  
This hour and a half long film gave the realization of what the earth has become from what it was billions of years ago, growing up and living the city life for most of my years gave me an appreciation of the sights an d landscape that is unique to earth. It is a true wake up call. The film injected an essential sense of wonder within the tragedies ensued among the earth. Watching even the first 10 minutes gave a certain uneasiness that rarely develops realizing that this is our home that is slowly getting ripped apart, we have caused more damage within the lifespan of one human than the entire planet has caused in a matter of centenaries. If humans keep growing at the rate which we are this planet is going to be desiccated to the point o no return.


Student #7777649