Survey as of 11/19/2012

Link to survey: Deforestation survey

So far my findings are pretty consistent with what I generally thought to begin with. People are not as educated as they could be in one of the biggest threats to our globe today and these very same people often agreed that if they knew more about the lasting effects of deforestation, they would probably be more inclined to prevent it.

Survey Link

https://docs.google.com/a/ncsu.edu/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dFNMYTF6SEFLeUZnQnYtcG9hVk53MGc6MQ Survey on deforestation. Topic: Deforestation and its relation to sociology.

Ecological Movement Synthesis

Logan Adams

1 October 2012

 Ecological Movement Synthesis

            This article critically analyzes a couple of ecological movements that are occurring throughout society, their pros and cons, etc.  David Tomblin, a professor at Virginia Tech, begins his article by introducing these two environmental movements, the Environmental Justice Movement and the Ecological Restoration Movement. Tomblin cites the source of the EJ movement as based off of the,” considerations of civil and human rights and the health of people, their food supply, and the ecological deterioration of their neighborhoods.” What Tomblin also notes is a few of the topics the EJ movement didn’t quite acknowledge, that is the people who were affected as a result of various environmental activities such as resource collection. Tomblin says that they missed this as a result of the EJ’s connection with the mainstream environmental movement. Not long after though, the Ecological Restoration Movement sprang up and immediately began to receive criticism from the mainstream environmentalists. They ER movement saw it necessary to use technological means to help restore natural systems that humans had ruined, and overall it proved to be rather successful. It has been productive and effective in restoring green space and other natural landscapes back to urban environments. It has also done a good job of restoring the surroundings of those who depend on the environment such as Mexican Americans and Native Americans, seeing as the survive off of growing their own food, harvesting natural resources, etc. Without nature, they would not have a society.

http://oae.sagepub.com/content/22/2/185.full.pdf+html

Fracking Synthesis

Logan Adams

September 28, 2012

Scientific American Synthesis

            An article in the magazine, “Scientific American,” there is an article on fracking in Wyoming and how it is related to pollution in the area. But what is fracking exactly? Fracking is a term for hydraulic fracturing which is used for acquiring resources such as gas, which is what is going on in Pavilion, Wyoming. The problem in this area though is that the wells in the area are becoming contaminated with various pollutants that are known to be used in the fracking process. This has received notice from the EPA and has forced them to conduct a survey of the area.

            The EPA released a report that stated, “The presence of synthetic compounds such as glycol ethers...and the assortment of other organic components…” which are results of the chemicals used in the fracking process mixing with the groundwater in the area. There ended up being around ten total compounds that were linked to the hydraulic fracturing process in some way. This evidence seems more or less irrefutable, even when the locals in the area began complaining of their well water turning brown after fracking begun. But the spokesman for the company who owns the wells, Doug Hock, seems to think that the company is not at fault.

            Hock doesn’t feel that EnCana, the company that is responsible for the wells that are in question, is the source of this contamination in the region and says that, “Nothing EPA presented suggests anything has changed since August of last year--the science remains inconclusive in terms of data, impact, and source.” The company is essentially denying any blame for the problem. They also elaborate on how the fracking process is completely safe and that there is no possible way for contaminants to leak out into the ground.

Ecopedagogy Response

   In this piece by Richard Kahn, the subject is purely the environment and the education of the people who inhabit it. The problem Kahn attempts to present to the reader, and does so quite well, is that people are not very informed about their surroundings.  He brings up various,alarming facts such as 45 million Americans think the ocean is a source of fresh water. That very fact informs the reader, and me, there is a string need for more environmental education in our society. Honestly, it scares me even to think that such common knowledge is not exactly so common for a large sum of people. If we do not change our academic ways we will be facing a serious issue of sustainability on our planet in the near future. Kahn presented this serious argument and I totally agree with him because we wont be able to fix this problem if nobody knows there is one.

Today's Forum - Sept. 7th

    My thoughts concerning today's forum simply reaffirm what I had discussed in my previous blog post about the themes in Turtle Island. One of my classmates discussed a poem that he read that spoke of roadkill and how that kind of shocked me, but I would assume that's essentially what the author was going for. But the bigger theme that the poem is going for is how we have intruded upon the habitat of the wildlife around us. That was the poem that we discussed that stuck with me the most.

Themes in Turtle Island

In the book Turtle Island, composed by Gary Snyder, there is a constant theme that is repeated throughout every poem I read. The theme is not easily described in one word, but it can be described as an appreciation for nature, a love for the environment, a sincere respect for everything outdoors, etc. One poem that really stuck out to me was on page 11 entitled "Call of the Wild." In this poem, the narrator informs the reader of the coyotes and how the government trappers will use their iron-leg traps and , "Tomorrow, My sons will lose this music they have just started to love." That really sunk into me when I read it in that in such a small phrase, they described the coyotes being lost to trapping, and also how they will no longer be around for their children. We can even infer that the children even began to enjoy the coyote's howl at night. This type of theme/idea of conservation is present throughout this collection of poems/environmental thoughts.

Podcast Interview of Bill McKibben

In the podcast by Scientific American, the interview a man by the name of Bill McKibben. McKibben authored a book titled Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet.  Earths is spelled with two 'a' s to emphasize that Earth is no longer what it once was.  McKibben says that if we want to sustain life on this earth, some changes need to be made to our lifestyles as humans. In his book, McKibben elaborates on the differences between industrial and localized farming, and further details why people need to shift to more localized farming if the Earth is to survive. He says that if society as a whole wants to do without fossil fuels, or at least reduce dependency on such fuels, then we need to get more people involved in local farming. 

Enviornmental Issue - Air Pollution

                In our world today, there is a number of environmental issues that need to be addressed. One of these issues is air pollution. Air pollution is caused by a number of things, but one of the major causes can be traced to the byproduct of combustion engines. The byproduct that is emitted is carbon monoxide. This deadly gas is accumulating more and more in our environment and needs to be contained in some way. One of the places that are affected in a very apparent way is Hong Kong. The population of Hong Kong is very dense, which in turn causes the need for cars and buses to rise. But because of all this gas being put into the air, the sky is literally a hazy grey color all of the time.  Now, not every place is just like Hong Kong in terms of population. But in time, if we do not attempt to control our emissions, the skies all over the globe will be that very same grey color, if not worse.  Island civilization can help control this in that if we limit the space we use, the less need we will have to use mechanical transportation. If your job office was within the island boundaries, you may not have to drive there every morning; instead you could take the electric train, or walk even.

http://www.epa.gov/air/urbanair/

Island Civilization

            In Roderick Nash’s essay on society and its effect on our world, he begins by outlining his purpose in this writing. He states that he wishes to review the human-nature relationship in the past, how we treat the relationship now, and how we should treat it in the future. He feels that what we are doing now is not necessarily the best course of action if we want to sustain life and make any progress in society, but he proposes his own unique solution that will promote success for future generations of our planet.

            He starts his argument by reviewing what the word, “wilderness,” actually means. In old English, he informs the reader that for something to be wild was to mean that is was self-willed. The, “- ness,” portion of the word indicates a place, so in conclusion the whole word comes to mean “self-willed land.” In the past we treated this type of land as an obstacle. We tried to conquer it and make it our own, instead of trying to be one with the land. The wilderness was the home to predators and the unknown, which ultimately scared us as a community.

            Now that we are beginning to progress as a society and have made significant advancements that make clearing out the wilderness feasible, we realize that we are destroying one of our own precious resources as well as the homes of fellow species. The examples that are used to illustrate this point are various pieces of legislature such as, “The Endangered Species Act.” This is just one of the examples but what it allows is for other residents of our world to be entitled to their own variation of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.

            After the reader realizes how our lives as humans have impacted the world in the past, he covers a few possible outcomes theorized by various individuals. These theories range from views of totally trashed and poisoned world to those where we have overtaken the entire world and nature and wilderness no longer even exists. But Nash proposes his own solution known as, “Island Civilization.” This theory states that we need to limit the amount of births in the world while also setting boundaries on our individual societies. We would have to contain our population to these boundaries, but if we do so then we will be able to successfully preserve what’s left of nature and hold on to it for all of time.

            My response to this is made up of rather mixed feelings. First I will cover his theory on the birth control issue. I see this as a totally reasonably wish for our world, but it causes a few moral dilemmas. One of those problems being how do we choose who to limit and who not to?  Do we select the pairs of people who are allowed to breed based on intelligence, race, or some other defining factor? Will we have to meet certain diversity quotas by allowing X amount of African-Americans to breed, X amount of Caucasians, and so on? This limit causes all sorts or issues that I honestly would not be entirely sure how to deal with.

            As for Nash’s idea on boundaries for our societies, I am more agreeable. This thought on constraining the boundaries of a city to a defined “island,” as he called it, seems pretty straight-forward. Nash even said that we would always be allowed outside into the wild but we would have to live as one with nature if we wished to do so. Again, this seems fairly just. But I still have my problems with this idea. People are not always law-abiding, model people that we would wish for sometimes. That being said, I still see people going out and running amok in the wild, just as some do now. We would still need some sort of moderating force such as police in the wild. But if they are to moderate, they will need an advantage over perpetrators, and without technology it will be a lot harder to do that.

            In conclusion however, I seem to mostly agree with Nash’s idea for a better future, provided that my questions are appropriately answered. How they will be answered though will more than likely be a long and arduous process. But there is an obvious and necessary need for some sort of population control, and Nash’s is as good as any.