Tree Spirits: The Nurturer of Harmony

Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest is an animated movie about the fragility of our natural ecosystems.  The movie follows Christa a fairy who does  not believe that humans are extinct or something told only in fair tales.  One day a bat who claims was tested upon by humans tells Christa that humans are very well alive and that Christa should stay away from them.  Christa, in her curiosity, goes out to search for these humans and she eventually follows the smoke to find humans marking territory.  One of the humans, Zack, accidentally marks a tree where a great evil, Hexus, was once hidden away by Maggie.  In order to protect Zack, Christa changes the size of the human through which the human is able to explore the forest.

In order to change Zack back they embark on an adventure to go see Maggie.  Meanwhile, Hexus is released by the other humans.  Eventually all the fairies and Zack realize that humans are not here to protect the forest instead they have destroyed large swaths of the land by cutting down the trees.  Within moments Hexus and the humans reach to clear the last piece of land that there is.  Thanks to the bravery of Zach the tree cutting machine is stopped and Hexus starts to dissipate.  However, Nexus only returns more powerful than aever and it takes Christa realizing the extent of her power to ultimately defeat Hexus.

In the end Zack returns to his normal size and decides to stop further destruction of the rain forest and regrow what has been lost.

The movie shows how significant our human activities are.  What takes thousands of years to grow is destroyed within minutes by humans.

The Story is in the Ice

The bigger picture is the picture that we always told to consider.  Chasing Ice is a documentary by Jeff Orlowski which focuses on the photography of James Balog and the story which it tells.  Balog believes that is not numbers or figures that can convince people, it is visual evidence that will make people see and listen. Balog wanted to capture the affects of global warming and he believed that capturing ice and the melting of ice would be the best way to get an audience to believe in the impacts of global warming. There have been more rare events occurring and most scientists attribute these events to warming global temperatures. The photography gives us a glimpse of what we are having to face on planet Earth.

One of the locations where Balog decided to take pictures was Greenland.  In Greenland he witnessed the glaciers calving which is a normal process in which glaciers split.  However, one thing he pointed out was that the whole ice sheet of Greenland is thinning.  Within one hour of a location in which they decided to take photos they witnessed a an ice chunk the size of a few football fields collapse and rotate.  In total they installed about a dozen cameras throughout Greenland, about 5 in Iceland, 5 in Alaska, and 2 in Montana.  

Balog describes some of the dangerous conditions in which he had to go through.  For example, the water in the areas where he works is so cold that in it he can only function for about 5 minutes until his body starts taking a toll.  There are also technical failures such as problems with timers which setback real work from getting done.  While some cameras turned out to be unreliable others were able to take breathtaking photos.  One thing Balog noted was that many of these landscapes may not occur again.  One glacier, for example, has retreated nearly 11 miles and has thinned by about the height of the Empire State Building.  In the glaciers of Greenland was Cryoconite which is a combination of natural dust from central Asia, carbon, and algae.  This forms a black substance on glaciers.  Since it is black it absorbs more of the sunlight thus warming the surrounding area.  Eventually, these holes get bigger and melt more of the ice.  Melting such as this can increase sea levels by 1.5-3 feet of water.

Balog captured just how much of a difference there has been in glaciers in short periods of time.  Using time lapses we can see how deflation slowly takes place.  Rivers are formed and the rocks and ice tumble and the heat cause them to melt away.  Some glaciers are retreating so rapidly that the cameras had to be re- positioned because the glacier moved beyond the frame of the camera.  As Balog says glaciers are like a canary in a coal mine.  They are foretelling the deterioration of the environment.

It is true that some glaciers are getting bigger.  However in the movie they use the example of the Yukon Glaciers.  Within 50 years only 4 of the about 1400 glaciers got bigger, over 300 dissipated, and nearly all the rest got smaller.  Balog's team was able to capture the biggest calving event ever recorded on camera which lasted nearly 75 minutes.  

One of the main problems, according to Balog, is perception.  Not enough people recognize what is happening and he is attempting to spread the message using pictures.

Tapped Out of the Water Tap

Mahatma Gandhi once said "There is enough water for human need, but not for human greed".  If you were to tell people a few decades back that while most people have access to a fresh water, they still drink bottled water they would probably not understand why we would do such a thing.  Do we understand why we decide not to drink tap water and spend insane amounts of money on water bottles?  By the year 2030 2/3 of the world will have a limited supply of drinkable water.  Water has become a commodity which has led to corporate control on water.  This may answer that question to some extent.  Since it has become a corporate issue profits mean that the public must remain interested in bottled water and continue to consume it in order to ensure profits.

Tapped a documentary about bottled water goes deeper into the issue of bottled water and what it does to communities.  One of the focuses of the documentary is defining who has the rights to the water.  Since, water is a basic human right, the movie asks, why is it able to be controlled by one major corporation.
Local communities feel they are outnumbered and outgunned.  Some believe it is a corrupted process.  One example was that a nursing home was not able to access water and needed fire trucks to bring in water while Nestle simply kept on pumping more and more water.  Many citizens of small towns have tried to stop big companies from abusing the natural resources of their small towns and cities.  However, when a billion dollar company is in the neighborhood it is hard to get much accomplished.

Companies have a tendency to worry about profits over environmental  sustainability.  In North Carolina, when they were facing a drought, Pepsi continued its bottled water operations even at the height of the drought.  About 400,000 bottles were bottled every single day.  There was not even a temporary halt despite that the state was running out of water.  Many states which once believed they had plentiful water found out how wrong they were such as Atlanta, Georgia.  In states such as these normal citizens are told to limit their usage of water.  However, large companies continue their everyday operations and ship this water throughout the country.

According to Joe Doss who is the president and CEO of International Water bottled water only accounts for 0.02 percent of groundwater; however, this extraction takes place in select areas which amplifies the affect of water extraction in that area.  In addition, local habitats are being destroyed by these water companies.  As we have learned in class, plastic is not biodegradable.  The same locations where water is being bottled the trash, plastic bottles, now pollute the water supply.  Once healthy communities of lakes and rivers have now become fragile.

Bottled water is bad not only for the environment but also for our wallets.  The water market is a $800 billion industry.  Bottled water is sold at 1900 times the price that tap water costs.  This trend started in the 1970's with the introduction of Perrier.  In 1989 plastic bottles came into the market and ever since then water bottles have become more trendy.  What bottled water does is it provide convenience and individualization.  Also adding the fact that millions has been spent on advertising, of course people are buying more water.  It is this convenience that people are really paying for.  In fact much of the water that is bottled is simple tap water which is being bottled and being sold for a profit.

We all know that plastic itself isn't exactly pure natural substance.  Plastic itself contains many different types of chemicals which can potentially have an adverse effect of the water inside the bottle.  We are still unaware if the contents of a plastic bottle can produce unhealthy affects or not.  There are many chemicals in bottles which contain controversial ingredients which harm the environment and pose a danger to pregnant women, children, and many others.  Some bottled water has actually had to be recalled because it was it had contents such as microorganisms which could make people sick.  In fact, 714 million gallons of oil are used to create all the plastic water bottles annually.  The plastic manufacturing itself has a negative effect on its local communities.  People within the community are becoming sick from the by products of making the plastic.
Many scientists have repeatedly voiced their concerns and conducted studies of the chemicals in water bottles which are potentially dangerous.

In America only about 20% of our beverage containers are recycled.  This is less than the worldwide average of 50 percent.  One way to encourage recycling is by having a tax on bottles.  I have found this system to be quite effective.  People are encouraged to recycle because of a financial incentive.  Even if someone doesn't care about the five cents well there are other people that do.  One thing I have personally noticed is that many individuals such as students and homeless people actually go around the city and pick up bottles!  What a smart way to reduce our pollution?  These people have an incentive to pick up every single bottle they see and they will even help us make sure that bottles thrown in a general trashcan are taken out and recycled properly.  When I visited India, where there are little to no recycling initiatives, you will see that people will throw bottles just about anywhere whether it be the beach or into some mountain ravine.Perhaps we should increase incentives such as these in other states and countries.

This documentary shows us that a basic human right has become a basic human commodity.  Pretty soon we may begin to see bottled air.  Their are many apparent dangers of water bottles over all stemming from the plastic to where it is bottled.  While I will not eliminate my usage of water bottles entirely I will definitely try to avoid using plastic water bottles after discovering the possible dangers that it contains.

Attack on the Farmageddon

There are different types of calamities that we must face when it comes to food security.  Many of us are aware that perfectly good food is wasted everyday.  Farmageddon: The Truth About the Food Industry directed by Kristin Canty shows another way which food is wasted under pretenses to protect certain organizations.
One of the driving points of Farmageddon is that we are disregarding thousands of years of human experience with agriculture and animal husbandry.  Instead, the government is promoting regulations and policies which put smaller farms at a disadvantage.  For example, small farmers have to go through an inconvenient amount of paperwork in order to be able to sell their produce.  Are the farmers supposed to farm or should they be required to go through an unreasonable amount of bureaucracy?

There is also a certain amount of bullying that smaller farmers have to face.  For example, a family farm which was milking European sheep had to face tests and waiting periods to be able to use their sheep.  These sheep were eventually slaughtered under false pretenses.  These farmers were threatened  and warned not to go to the media or speak about the issue to anyone otherwise the farm would be shut down.  The owner of this farm believed that the power is in the reigns of the people who have the money such as the packers and slaughters.  Eventually it was found these sheep had no connection to Mad Cow's disease or any way that they could be related to the disease.

According to the movie we have seen many of the small family farms be replaced by large farms due to government policies.  For example, 88 percent of the dairy farms have been shut down.  By favoring processed food instead of a more natural diet we see that 70 percent of the country has become obese.  What I found surprising is that raw milk does make your body stronger such as helping people with asthma and allergies.  It would make sense since humans have been drinking this type of milk for thousands of years.  However, we have been led to believe that if we do not drink pasteurized milk then it is not safe for us. Thus, while we are allowed to eat fast food, smoke, and consume other harmful substances we are "protected" from consuming raw milk.  The only farm crop more regulated than raw milk is marijuana.  Is something that we have been consuming for so many thousands of years suddenly so harmful?
What many want is the simple choice to understand what raw and pasteurized milk are.  If they so decide that raw milk is better then they should have the ability to buy and consume such milk.

An interesting fact for me is that if raw milk is legal to sell and consume in some states then it is still illegal to transport it across state borders even for personal consumption.  When I first heard this I thought of alcohol and even that is legal to transport across state borders.  In fact people do it regularly to save on taxes in some states.  There have also been a lot of raids on farms with suspicion of having the ability to sell raw milk.

There are many chemicals we can avoid consuming.  Chickens in big farms are forced to live in small confinements where they live with their own excrement.  Since many of these areas are unhygienic and not cleaned properly the chickens end up breathing in the evaporated feces.  This is one reason so many antibiotics are needed to give chickens.  I was surprised to see what a real grass-fed, free range chicken looks like.  While I may be a vegetarian I still have reason to be concerned about the eggs which these chickens produce.  While small farms are being put through inconveniences, there are many citizens who are concerned that the United States Department of Agriculture(USDA) is not doing enough to actually inspect the food.  Instead, farmers are just having to do formalities while nothing is actually being accomplished.  

Obviously, we all want to be able to consume healthy and safe food.  However, we are not even doing that right now.  The processed food which we eat now, though the effects are not immediate, is detrimental to our bodies and our society.  As California moves towards legalizing marijuana for recreational use will we legalize raw milk.  As Ron Paul says in the conclusion of the documentary, it is up to the people to get fed up and make it in Congress' favor to produce change.

The One Which Ties Them All

In environmental science there are multiple pressing issues which we, as residents of planet Earth, have to face in order to ensure the long term sustainability of our planet.  Throughout the semester I have learned about many of these issues and come to realize the importance of being aware of not only how the global community is affecting the environment, but also how as an individual I am affecting mother nature.

Courtesy of destination360.com

If I were to pick the single most important environmental issue it would be pollution caused by humans.  There is no doubt that humans have more of an impact on our local environment than any other species combined.  The reason I consider pollution to be the greatest environmental issue is because it the cause, directly or indirectly, to all the other major environmental issues.  For example, our gas emissions are driving global warming.  The different types of toxic chemicals which we dump into our water systems is driving species to extinction.  The different types of nuclear tests we have conducted have driven organisms to have mutations.

As a society is our responsibility to stop ourselves from from slowly devastating our environment.  Some of the many actions we can take is advocate for cleaner regulations on the political level.  If some of our policies were to change then it would greatly reduce the negative impact that we have on the world.  If certain companies and other organizations continue to behave in a detrimental behavior then we can use the greatest power in the world to make them change their ways, money.  By appropriating our money responsibly we can punish those who punish the environment and reward those which are more sustainable in their practices.

Courtesy of tgeink.com

Many of the factors that affect and changes I suggested are on the macroeconomic level.  However, change starts at home with the individual.  The average American produce about 4.5 pounds of trash a day.  If we can't change our own habits then how can we expect larger organizations to?  As an individual some of the actions which I can take is to reduce the amount of plastic I use.  Now this a statement when stated usually means plastic bottles.  But as I learned in class even small items such as straws contribute greatly to the amount of pollution which we produce.  So by reducing or eliminating items such as those I can help reduce the severity of this issue.  Another act I can take is by reducing other resources.  Reducing warm showers means less energy required to heat up the water.  Consuming locally grown food equates to less energy needed for the transportation, less energy and chemicals needed to grow food, and overall healthier food.  Changes such as these can be done by individuals and produce real change.

Courtesy of californiathroughmylens.com

Throughout the course I gained various different types of knowledge.  I learned that my phone had gold and had components and constructional parts from nearly all the continents of the world.  I also learned the extent of our subsidies for major farms and crops such as corn.  It is due to these subsidies that we have an abundance of corn.  Locally, I discovered something called  Community Supported Agriculture(CSA) which provide fresh food to local residents.  This is something which I have personally become interested in. Going further into food I was surprised at how much food we truly wasted and much of this food was perfectly edible food. Perhaps one of my greatest educational moments of the class was that as country we can never really be energy independent because we would also want to see energy to other countries in order to grow business here.  

Courtesy of Flickr

While much of the information I came across in the class was not new, it was the fact that we went in-depth that I really learned a little about how our economic, political, and cultural systems work in regards to the environment.  I intend to use many of the new types of information and opportunities which I learned about in my personal everyday practices.

A Possible Escape in the Event of the Rise of the Walking Dead

On May 17th I awoke from my slumber in order to examine a local farm which, from what I had heard, still practiced the "old ways".  This was not one of the big farms where much of my produce came from.  Nor was it a farm located somewhere in Chile where my food had to be traverse distant lands through various modes of transportation.  No, this was a small local farm which I have always believed to be an expensive venture into environmentally conscious eating.

When we reached the farm we were greeted by a student who also attended the same college as myself.  This really showed how locally supported the farm was.  This student who also worked on the farm gave us a tour of the various components which comprised the farm.  Much of what the student reiterated was that this farm was indeed one which the local residents would come and work in.  Local restaurants would purchase their produce in order to supply their customers with fresh produce.  The chickens were not kept in small cages where they had to have their claws removed to prevent from injuring each other.  Instead, they were allowed to roam within an enclosed area.  There were even some that were free range.

One of the biggest surprises for me was the various types of pigs which were present.  I had assumed that all pigs which were used for consumption were the big pink ones.  However, there were pigs of different pigmentation and different sizes abound at the farm.  There were also various types of cows some from milking and some which would be for consumption.  The tour guide clarified that if a cow is for milking it is not slaughtered for consumption.

Some of the practices that the farm engaged in included composting.  The dead waste products of the produce and the manure of the live animals was reused to fertilize the soil.  This component was one of the aspects which made the farm so sustainable.  In comparison to big farms where they use pesticides and herbicides to kill insects and other pests, at Amy's farm they actually wanted more insects to be present in the farm.  Insects determined the healthiness of farms.

The owner attempted to be as sustainable as possible.  He avoided using plastic to help the plants grow and instead experimented different ways to promote healthy agriculture.  The farm also planted certain crops at different times in the year according to the seasons.  This was a natural way of growing and did not require excess resources for a product which was not meant to grow at that time.  Some sustainable methods which the farm had not implemented as of date was a system to reuse water.

As someone who is always curious about the finances of a situation decided to look at how the farm was able to sustain itself financially.  The farm was not subsidized by the government unlike big farms.  To compensate for this the farm sold its own produce to local residents at a higher price.  One way that the farm did save money was by using volunteer labor.  As stated by our tour guide these volunteers were given an abundance of food that they helped grow to compensate them for their efforts.  Another way was having locals pitch in to take care of some of the livestock such as cows.    Their would be about 16 people who would collectively take care of a cow financially, and in the end they would receive some of the produce from the cow.

In all aspects Amy's farm is a sustainable farm which is able to thrive by remaining local.  The work they do reduces the amount of pollution produced drastically since they do not use harmful chemicals and their produce does not have to travel hundreds of miles and touch numerous hands to finally get on a plate.  After visiting this farm I am more interested in volunteering at a local farm and even being a part of a local CSA.

Let it Go, Let it Go, The Heat Never Bothered Me Anyways

Thousands and even hundreds of years ago the human species roamed the planet with one goal in mind, survival.  Fast forward to the future and we discover that our very survival depends on the availability of energy and technology.  In fact, widespread loss of electricity is considered just as dangerous as the use of a weapon of mass destruction.  Humans simply can not live without electricity!

So, one can imagine how detrimental to my living it must have been the decision to limit my energy usage for a 24 hour period.  As a way to make it less burdensome for myself I decided to have the 24 hour period a day where my commitments would be least affected, which happened to be the Sunday prior to Memorial's Day.

The first decision I made to reduce my energy usage was to sleep as much as possible on this day in order to reduce the amount of appliances I would have to use.  Second I targeted the air conditioning which was an energy guzzler.  I made sure the house was shaded in order to reduce the heat accumulation inside the house.  However, seeing how the temperature was around 90 degrees Fahrenheit I had to at least use a fan.

Showering is one of the areas where a lot of water and energy is expended.  For this part I am too used to taking warm showers.  However, I waited till later in the day where I would want to take a cooler shower and once I did take a shower it was a much shorter shower than I am accustomed to.

To minimize energy expenditures I made sure to only walk to the destination I needed to go to.  Considering that I decided to save energy on a weekend I didn't really have to go places which were far away.  Instead of eating out like we do on most weekends, we cooked at home.

One area where I could save very little energy was my phone and laptop usage.  It was not that I needed these electronics for my leisure activities I required their use for school work and other commitments.  At the very least I tried not to use electronics for leisure which in turn saved the amount of charging that needed to be done.  I also drastically reduced the amount of communication I had with friends in order to accomplish such a feat.

The area other than air conditioning where I probably made the biggest impact was unplugging all electronics not in use.  This included our televisions, toaster, microwave, and even the small objects such as lamps.

Overall, even though I conducted this experiment on a day where it was supposed to affect me the least, it still changed the way I was able to conduct myself throughout the day.  Without having ready accessibility to a microwave I feel like I ate less that I usually would.  I also gravitated towards eating more fruits since they needed no preparation other than washing.

While many of the changes I made, such as transportation, are not feasible in the long run the smaller changes are something that I can implement.  Unplugging electronics, for example, is enough to make a small impact.  The air conditioning is also not as necessary when I can close the binds and darken the house enough to make it cooler.

To prevent using electricity I would like to find more ways which I can position furniture in the house in order to allow natural light to brighten the house.  This would save a lot of energy and be beneficial for our health.  Another change I can make is to get acclimated to taking shorter and cooler showers.  If I can accomplish taking cooler showers they will automatically translate to taking shorter showers.  It is through small changes such as these that every home can become energy efficient and we can all do our small part in preventing excess pollution from harming our environment.