Update on Survey

So far today, I have received 22 responses to my survey.  The results are accurate and provide a significant amount of information to produce the needed results in my paper.  The comment box provided for several of the questions allowed room for personal opinions to be incorporated into the straight-forward results.  Two of my questions I will be able to find scholarly articles to relate to and back up my results.  Overall, the survey has been successful and will clearly support my paper.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NJ7ZW7B

Progress on Paper 4

Up to this point, I have chosen both my topic and the theory I plan to use. The topic I plan to use is people's attitudes towards eating healthy and I am using the Social Cognitive Theory.  So far I have begun my survey and gathered ideas together to produce a variety of questions related to demographics and the influences behind eating healthy.  What I am working on now is narrowing down and perfecting the questions before publishing the survey.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NJ7ZW7B

Indigenous Resistance and Racist Schooling

In the article, Michael Marker talks about the forced integration of Coast Salish into the American and Canadian cultures.  When American's began taking their land, they were forced to learn the education styles of the two cultures.  Throughout the process, the Coast Salish began to lose some of their cultural heritage due to the educational decisions made by British Columbia and were placed in schools either apart from their culture or with whites only.  This all results in acts of racism and segregation, especially since the Coast Salish were unable to perform acts of their own heritage.  Families began to rebel and place their kids in the private schools consisting of strictly Coast Salish so that the racism was taken at a lesser degree.  I feel that by placing the students in the private schools made them much more comfortable of their surroundings and the overwhelming changes taking place in their lives.  Although both decisions were based off of racism-- both being unacceptable-- I feel that the American decision was better off in allowing the Coast Salish to keep more to themselves.  I think the best decision overall would have been to leave them alone and let them govern and educate themselves.  They knew what was necessary and what they needed to become better educated.

Food and Sustainability Issues

After watching The Meatrix, I realized how important it is to keep our foods following proper ways of processing and manufacturing.  The issue is that animals are being mistreated in the ways of obtaining the meat necessary to produce food.  It is an immoral issue found across farms and industrial farming around the country.  Animals are given chemicals and steroids, which essentially results in damage to the foods processed and often involves pesticides.  Health issues arise when faced with situations involving the processing of food.

Environmental Ethics: Fracking

Fracking has become a severe problem, mostly in the north/southwest regions of the country, but recent news has been released that drilling industries will begin fracking along the east coast as well.  Many companies are unlikely to admit the water contamination is caused from fracking, therefore EPA is conducting research experiments in order to gather liable evidence.  Although our country is in need of natural resources, the need doesn't outweigh the safety and protection of the people.  Contaminated water is not the proper route to substantiate the need for natural resources.  Unfortunately, until further evidence is released, fracking will continue.  The fracking must come to a stop though in order to prevent sickness and health problems from the contaminated water.

Environmental Ethics

This photo is related to the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.  Riley Gallup, author of the article, "At 40, Environmental Movement Endures, With Less Consensus," talks about how over the past 10 years, the population's concern for environmental problems has gone down.  One particular factor, the downturn of the economy, has played a major role in this decrease, but from survey's listed, "62% of people believe that the environmental movement has done more good than harm."  Do these factors equal out? The environmental movement is on the way to becoming a concern again, but there has to be more done to encourage people to become involved and active in the movement itself.  Although there has been a "rise in negative views of the environmental movement, there has been considerable stability in personal environmental behaviors and activism."  The need to promote and ground in the environmental movement has made progress because people are remaining aware of occurring problems.  What we need to focus on is making people realize there must be respect towards the land and the environment and an appreciation for what we have available. 

http://www.gallup.com/poll/127487/Environmental-Movement-Endures-Less-Consensus.aspx

Oil Fracking

Lustgarten's article consists of the contamination of water due to oil fracking.  Federal environmental officials have found contaminants in the water around certain areas, with assumptions that it is caused from the fracking in the area.  When oil drilling was tested as a cause for water contamination, it was proven to be true.  The EPA has conducted tests to determine whether fracking is as harmful to the environment as people say it is, even though the drilling industry says otherwise, but the results are not completely sure of yet.  Now that there is more evidence and proof given to support a threat to human safety, these findings will lead to further debate and discussion as to how serious the problem is.
The article focuses specifically on Wyoming, although since this problem has recently been thoroughly investigated, it has to be present in other areas around the country as well.  There are arguments brought up about how there is already water contamination in Wyoming, therefore the oil drilling has nothing to do with the issue.  The drilling industry also argue that the problems are related to natural causes, simply because they don't want to be responsible for such a problem.  On the other hand, environmentalists and researchers are excited of the news in hopes of preventing further damage and putting a stop to the threat to humans.  "Throughout its investigation in Wyoming, The EPA was hamstrung by a lack of disclosure about exactly what chemicals had been used to frack the wells near Pavillion. EnCana declined to give federal officials a detailed breakdown of every compound used underground. The agency relied instead on more general information supplied by the company to protect workers' health."  There has not been clear information provided yet to support the claim that oil fracking is the primary cause of water contamination, therefore an exact report will be published several months ahead.  The only concern now is the safety of the public health.  Further examination will provide news to the public soon.

Richard Kahn's 'Ecopedagogy'

"As a form of nonformal, popular education it has stirred many people to become self-aware of the role they play in environmental destruction and to become more socially active in ways that can help to create a more ecological and sustainable world." -- Richard Kahn

Kahn introduces the idea of ecopedagogy to influence the study of environmental education in both academic and nonacademic institutions.  The article explains how although environmental education has recently grown throughout the school systems, there still needs to be more action taken in order to make people fully understand the importance of the environment.  There are still people out there that can't understand basic environmental concepts.  The education is a start, and according to the statement above, has influenced people to become more self-aware of their role in the environment.  Kahn also states that personal interactions and experience must be a part of this learning.  People will not get a full, knowledgeable education from simply learning the concepts in various institutions around the world.  In order for this to become effective, I would create more institutions like the Zoo School where students are physically involved in learning different techniques and concepts important to conserving the environment.  In the article, it supported this institution by also saying that such a school has even increased test scores and helped students transfer unfamiliar knowledge to familiar knowledge in ways that are impossible in a regular classroom.  Learning the information is important, but being able to understand it and apply the information to every day situations is the point we have to get to.

Response to Gary Snyder's Turtle Island (3)

Gary Snyder's writings put significant emphasis on nature, including the air, water, and ground.  Each poem speaks specifically about one more so than the other, creating valid points behind each.  In the poem, For the Children, Snyder speaks of the coming age, focusing on the importance of learning the land and its functions in order to make it through the century.  His goal here is to fulfill a sense of peace.  His words stay together at the end of the poem stand out; they support Snyder's idea of creating change, starting with a single individual and working towards change from a whole population.  The poem, It Pleases, states that "It does what it pleases" in reference to the world.  To me, this contradicts what Gary Snyder talks about in the rest of his poems because his ideas support the fact that humans must be the ones to implement action in order to produce change.  Snyder's reasoning behind implementing this idea is to make us learn to respect the land and appreciate it more by learning about it.

Response to Gary Snyder's Turtle Island (2)

In Turtle Island, the poem The Call of the Wild really caught my attention.  Snyder neglects Americans in the sense that we destroy earth by dumping poisons and explosives around the world and feel no shame for doing so.  At one point in time, there was not damage done to the environment causing so much harm, but recently it has gotten worse.  As the poem states, "A war against earth, when it's done there'll be no place a coyote could hide."  This reflects on the theme of a fear of nature, implying that other countries use acts of nature against us, causing us to fear "the call of the wild" or either care less about what we do to destroy it.  The theme of this poem seems to be the basis for all poems included in the book.  Snyder works to illustrate the point that our actions are destroying nature and that at some point, nature could quite possibly be gone.  It's not going to last forever, and if these actions continue, that chance increases.  If by ironically 'fearing nature' the human population backs away from nature itself, then perhaps the destruction will decrease in intensity and allow for better things to happen.

Gary Snyder's Turtle Island: Theme

According to Gary Snyder in Turtle Island, change needs to be made.  That is the simple solution behind every poem written, although there may not always be a precise outlook on the future as far as what changes must be made.  The poems are intriguing, allowing the reader to become more interested in nature itself and ways to prevent the damage done so far.  Although they are direct and simple, they give way to meaning beyond what is printed on the pages.  The part that caught my attention was the fact that even though Snyder continuously makes a negative remark towards change, he throws bits and pieces into his poems that equate to hope and peace for the upcoming years.  It seems that a common theme is self vs. nature, referring to the fact that as humans-- as an individual in this society-- we must be willing to devote ourselves to producing change in this world.

Response to McKibben's podcast

In response to Bill McKibben’s “Eaarth” podcast, the fact that the modern human population has any understanding of the effects climate and infrastructure carries against the world is very little.  The podcast clearly states, “Relentless growth is fundamentally altering the environment.”  This growth may be seen as a problem to some, as it does not fulfill the needs that people have for the future of this nation, but to some the growth may produce a place for the better.  In order to save ourselves from the mess this nation is in, McKibben suggests converting back to a distributed economy.  By doing so, there could be an increase in resource consumption and waste creation, alternatively leading to continued growth that is the satisfaction everyone is looking for.  The natural phenomenon’s in the environment are processes that occur on or around a daily basis, but ones that humans fail to recognize to that degree.  So goes the same for the economy.  What this population does not realize is that the activities that take place, such as infrastructure, happens on such a common basis that the important factors of the environment, such as resources, are lost in the midst of everything.  Although growth is intentional and pursued, McKibben suggested that growth may not actually be growth every step of the way.  Growth can be achieved by keeping activity and the economy at a neutral level as long as there is room for continued growth.  The bioregional quiz allows the population to focus on these factors that are not as important.

Pollution

Environmental issues have grown largely over the past several decades due to human interactions and activities.  One of these that Roderick Nash mentioned in
“Island Civilization” is pollution.  It seems that we, as humans, take the world we have created (as far as keeping it clean and prosperous) for granted.  Is that acceptable?  In today’s society, pollution is acceptable to a degree, just not until major damage is done.  What we do not realize is that each little bit adds up, and eventually turns into a major problem.  Although our society has come to accept the fact that this type of environmental damage is much harder to control than something such as deforestation, there is still much that could be done on a regular basis to prevent such things from worsening.  Essentially, the issue of pollution will contribute to the idea of “island civilization” in the sense that it will be reduced in significant amounts by secluding humans.  Pollution also leads to other factors that could essentially become a huge problem.  The fear of health risks for both animals and humans is a major concern and one that people are more willing to pursue solutions to rather than simply pollution towards the environment.

            "As you see forest loss continue, as you see the depletion of rivers, you are undercutting the foundation for economic development in those countries," says the CNN news article related to pollution.  Third world countries, for example, are a prime example of increased health risks due to pollution, loss of natural resources, and the depletion of forest because of the lack of resources.  Due to pollution, these nations are at risk for the proper development and safety needed.  I think that if the idea of “island civilization” were to be implemented, pollution would be cut back and even diminished in some regions.  It comes down to the simple solution that humans are selfish.  We have to realize our actions cause this damage to the environment and that it has to take our actions to prevent it.

http://articles.cnn.com/2012-05-15/world/world_europe_wwf-living-planet-report_1_poor-nations-countries-footprint?_s=PM:EUROPE

Island Civilization

Island Civilization creates a mental picture of an idea that will intuitively provide a better atmosphere for generations to come.  Roderick Nash emphasizes the importance of the wilderness from the beginning, and as human nature, both physically and mentally has changed, so have our motives toward progressing as a whole union.  The wilderness was not proven to be effective and important to the lives of humans until change had been made.  Once gone, the realization kicked in and there were very few options available as to how it could be fixed at the time.  Roderick Nash makes sure we all understand that the environment is not only significant in general, but that it’s significant to us.  Without that understanding, change cannot be made large enough to have an effect on the entire world population.  Nash explains that people are now starting to realize the environment is a huge part of our daily lives, and that what we do is not always the most important.  Writers such as Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and Albert Schweitzer stressed the importance of preservation.  They wrote about ways to conserve and respect the environment, and by doing so their findings and personal views began to appear in modern culture and spread all through the human race.  Nature preservations, national parks, and environmental acts giving species rights of their own opened the eye of the public to a certain degree.  Although the new research brought out was encouraging in hopes of a brighter future, Nash indicated that there is still damage done/being done to the environment and problems still reside amongst our existence with nature.  If this negativity persists, in a century wilderness could disappear and the scattered remnants left behind would be all that was left.  From this point on, fixing this problem is up to us.  Nash explains that we have an impact on only a small portion of the world, but in order to do even that, we must become “self-willed.”  We haven’t done the rest of the world any favor by creating the world we live in today; our technological advances and creations have put a damper on the environment, so it is now our time to use these advances to create something worthwhile.  It is what we do with technology that will better our future.

Nash’s article inspired me in a way that really caught my attention.  Approaching the environmental impact in the way he did sparked my curiosity as to how our far future may be.  I think the ideas posed in the article regarding a future plan of improvement for the environment all seem slightly distant from today’s society.  The thought of concentrating humans in various areas around the world is so different than what we are all used to that it could not be implemented anytime soon.  I feel that as of now, Island Civilization is far too advanced for the world we live in, but quite possibly in the Fourth Millennium a change so drastic could be an option.  I was inspired by Nash’s response to using the technological advances in society to create a way to make our environment a better place.  We need these thoughts captured by the public eye in order to make a change, and by publishing and making a confident, valid statement there is hope that such an idea will be promised.  I do agree with quite a few of Nash’s statements, although there is much time needed and a dramatic increase in human motivation to complete such a task.