Week 7

I guess you could say that I'm not really into the natural world that much. I went to the Grand Canyon once, and it was all right.

That said, there are many good reasons to preserve nature. As Meyer discusses in The End of the Wild, natural environments support diverse life systems, many of which we have little understanding of. The species preserved in nature can be useful to us psychologically, pharmaceutically, and through their relationships with other species. Biodiversity helps us and enriches our lives, so contemporary environmentalism should focus on natural environments as it does on sustainability and climate change.

After hiking 5k, the last thing my classmates and i wanted to do was leave the trail to the nearest lake and climb to the top of a steep hill, but our tutors wouldn't let us continue until with did. The hill wasn't too tough, but roots and branches from eucalyptus tress obstructed the small path to the top. Each person paused when they reached the peak, forcing everyone behind them to grab onto the nearest tree to keep from sliding back to the bottom of the hill. Still, no one could stop themselves from pausing in awe once they saw the view. At the top of this hill, the forest we had been hiking through abruptly turned into massive sand dunes that peaked at just the right angle that we could leap from the top and roll all the way to the bottom on the finest sand I had ever felt. We played in the dunes for hours, forgetting how tired we were, simply enjoying the purity of the setting, and leaving, as cliche as it may sound, only our footprints.

With that in mind as well as countless other experiences, saving nature is certainly worthwhile. The fees we paid to enter the preserved area were fairly minimal, but the simply joy and awe of moments like that are priceless. Nature, even ignoring consumptive services, has value in the fact that it exists, that it can bring sustainable yet infinite enjoyment to many.

My most thrilling experience with nature dates back a few years ago when I decided to climb Mt. Fuji in Japan with a good Australian friend of mine. Although before the climb I had my doubts of the beauty left in that industrialized country, the further I got up the mountain the more I realized that this mountain was cliimbed my hundreds of thousands of people per year for good reasons. Climbing to the summit and watching the sun rise was one of the most unbelievable experiences of my life. Growing up in the city, climbing Mt. Fuji taught me that beauty truly does still exist in the world and that it is often right around the corner. I began to look at the environment in a different way from that day on.
Saving the environment should obviously be a chief concern. If not for the the great things the environment provides us with every day, it should be protected solely based on the fact that we do not know what will happen if the environmental situation gets any worse than it already is.
Why not protect what makes human life so great for us all? This needs to be of great concern for contemporary environmentalism and as time passes, we are slowly beginning to see that it is becoming more and more of a concern every election year. Eight years ago no one could have imagined Bush even mentioning the environment in a serious way, but now all candidates seem to make mention of the issues as much as they can afford to. That being said, I don't promote setting SUV's on fire or extremism.

Question #7

It is hard to pick THE most thrilling/magical/enchanting experience I have had in nature because I feel like I have had so many. I love the ocean and always have. I was born on the shore and I have always felt a great connection to it. I don't get to go to the ocean nearly as much as I would like to (aka every day) but when I do that is when I feel the most comfortable and happy. This may seem weird to other people but one of my favorite things is getting caught up in a bigger sized wave and having it toss me around to the point where I am not even sure which was is up or when I will get out. When humans talk about nature, many times it is what part of it they own or would like to own or how they are going to use it for their benefit, (for example, making a house out of wood.) When I am getting thrown around by a wave it is more than clear to me who is actually more powerful and I like that physical reminder that nature is ultimately what dictates our lives and it should not be the other way around. A lot of people who travel out into the ocean away from the shore unfortunately do not know how the ocean works and how incredibly powerful it is. I have seen a man die on the beach because he had a heart attack out in the water because he got stuck out there by the current and didn't know how to get back in. People try to fight the ocean currents because they think they can over-power it when in reality they can't. The rip-tide and the currents move in a specific way that no one person could change and therefore in order to survive a situation like that you must not fight the force of the water, instead you need to go with it. Again this seems to sum up what the relationship between humans and nature is or at least should be. People are constantly trying to fight nature when in the long run it is better to just go with it.

something worth saving because if for no other reason, without nature there is no "us". Of course we humans and animals and plants, etc are not going to be here forever but for as long as we can be here we should make sure that we are here. What I mean by that is that billions of years from now the earth will be engulfed within a SuperNova and will be destroyed and this is something that we cannot prevent, (like our death). But for as long as we humans are in this world or for as long as we individuals are alive, we should make sure that we are as healthy as possible and in order to be healthy we need to take care of ourselves and therefore the environment that nurtures us. The more I have read in this class the more I have been worried by the possibility that we cannot do anything to save the earth because we have already done too much damage. Especially from reading The End of the Wild I have become discouraged but if anything maybe we can at least work to make the human-caused destruction of nature and the world slower than it is at the moment.

Nature

It is hard to pick the most thrilling experience I have had in nature, but one near the top is probably the time I climbed to the top of a mountain in New York state. It wasn't a big mountain and only took about two hours to get to the top, but finally reaching it and seeing the view was amazing. While this particular experience did not teach me much about the world or myself, except perhaps the feeling of accomplishment, this experience combined with all my other experiences in nature have taught me a lot about life. The main thing I have learned from growing up in one of the last remaining rural sections of New Jersey is how just one small human action can affect an entire ecosystem in that area.

Saving nature is definetly something worthwhile. For those who believe that humans have the right to everything, one good reason to save nature is that scientists believe dozens, if not more, cures for common diseases are still out in nature, mainly in the rainforests, waiting to be discovered. By losing nature, we lose these cures forever. Another reason to save nature is that it keeps the natural cycles of the planet in balance and regulates the planet much better than humans ever could. Without trees, plants, and wild animals, the entire planet would suffer fromt he vegetable-industrial complex. For me, nature is worth saving because it is the most important thing on this planet and is responsible for the continuation of all forms of life.

Over break, I got into a conversation with my roommate about the human impact on environmental change. She knows I'm an environmental studies major, and since we disagree on some fundamentals of environmentalism, she tends to moderate her own opinions and avoid arguments on the subject. This time we discussed the ability of technology to compensate for human impact. This debate is complex, I even know some environmentalists who believe technology is the answer. As the conversation evolved, it turned more specifically to alternative energies, which made me realize that though we disagree fundamentally, we both have the same goals. We both want to move away from dependency on oil. I promote alternative energy because of the negative impact of fossil fuels on the environment. She promotes it because our gas is expensive. Same end goal, different motives.

In all, perhaps one of the most essential techniques in environmental advocacy is framing the debate. Environmental issues effect every aspect of life: social justice, economics, politics, education, culture... the list goes on. The more flexible environmental advocates are when framing the discussion, the more we find common goals. We may have different reasoning for striving for these goals, but these differences should not distract us from getting things done.

Environmental Conversation

Over break I had a surprising conversation about environmental issues with an unlikely person. However, she did not disagree with my position on the matter but instead suggested some ideas that I had not fully considered before she mentioned them. While sitting down to lunch at a Whole Foods cafeteria, my dad's friend's older sister from Ohio, without any kind of prompting by me to discuss the environment, began to talk about the concerns she has for her family's health with regards to food packaging and treatment in the agricultural industry today. One example she gave was her fear of the effect that plastic could be having on food when, coincidentally she looked down and noticed that the salad she was eating was in a plastic container. As a possible solution to this she told me about her plans to start her own garden because she was tired of driving all the way to the supermarket where the produce was bound to be suboptimal anyhow. I thought this rather progressive from someone who grew up in a different era and who is part of a generation that did not consider environmental concerns to the extent that mine does now. It gives me some kind of hope that, if the issues being advocated by younger folks can somehow transcend generations, there is the possibility that they can also span across other societal gaps as well.

Environment Discussion

I was unable to talk to anyone over break about the environment who had really different views than mine. I did however talk to my mom and sister about the sustainable living communities. When I was abroad in Costa Rica I got to stay at one called Durika for a few nights one weekend and I had a great time there. I really respected the way in which they lived and the fact that they were a hard-working a tight-knit group of individuals who seemed very interested in the environment and in touch with nature. I discussed this type of living with my mother and sister and mentioned how I might like to live in one of these communities at some point in my life. My sister gave me a website to visit that was about one she knew about in Montana where she lives. Through my mother's facial expressions and comments I was able to see that she was quite skeptical of these types of places. She had joked with me when I was in Costa Rica and about to go and visit Durika that I better not join their "cult." She was just joking but the truth is is that she does have some skepticism about communities like those who claim to live off of the land and refrain from wasting water aka taking showers. She told me how my father used to live on one of those hippie communes up in New Hampshire. He eventually got sick of it because that sort of lifestyle ended up being an excuse for people to be lazy and he was the only one with a job and was therefore financially supporting everyone else. She was not saying that every community like this is full of lazy individuals but it is something that you have to be careful about it. After bout ten-twenty minutes of quiet thinking I ended up telling my mother and my sister that I was not going to live in one of those communities. My mother asked why and I said that I didn't want my nieces and nephews at family reunions to be asking why Aunt Neile's kids were so weird and why their names were plankton and mulch. When it comes down to it, if I were to become seriously interested in living in a self-sustaining community, I would have to do much more than look into how they were living in a sustainable way, I would also have to do some serious research on the group dynamics because the social life would end up being just as important especially since there would be very little privacy amongst the individuals of the community.

Environmental Discussion

Over break I went to Cairo, Egypt. While on a tour, I had a chance to speak with our tour guide about the subject of agriculture and water in Egypt. Since a lot of the traditional agricultural land is being converted into residential land, the Egyptian government is working on an initiative to "reclaim" the desert and grow crops on land that was never meant to grow food. This struck me as odd since it would require a vast amount of water to accomplish such a project, not to mention energy in pumping the water and building the infrastructure to do such. A much more logical plan, in my opinion, would be to keep traditional growing land for growing and put houses in the desert. I saw no good in trying to convert a desert to a farm.

My guide, being Egyptian, had a different opinion. He viewed this "reclaimation" of desert as a step forward for Egypt to become economically strong and not as dependent on other countries for food supply. He seemed to think there was nothing environmentally wrong with reclaiming desert and exhausting the Nile River to do so. In his opinion, the Nile was endless and even if it ran dry, he assured me the high dam held enough water to keep Egypt going for 14 years.

We were able to converse with each other respectively; however, I found the whole conversation very frustrating. I don't understand how one can believe farming a desert sounds like a good or natural idea. Building housing in the desert and saving the fertile land for growing seems like a much better and pratical plan. At the end of the conversation, neither one of us had changed our views though I did learn a bit about urban, rural, and desert development.