Enviornment in the News

Henry David Thoreau said “Thank God men cannot fly and lay waste the sky, as well as the Earth.” but men do lay waste the sky as well as the Earth and the Oceans. Evidence of this is apparent in our changing climate. Corals are an integral part of the marine ecosystem and the rising carbon emissions are driving them to extinction.

According to the article, “Coral Reefs Exposed to Imminent Destruction from Climate Change,” found in Science Daily, we will reach a critical level of CO2 by 2050 of 450ppm(Zoological). “At that point corals may be on a path to extinction within a matter of decades” (Zoological). If we can do anything to halt this destructive path now is the time to act. If corals are destroyed it will have a monumental effect on the environment. An entire ecosystem will be annihilated and no one can tell for sure in what ways the Oceans will be affected, the only thing certain is that it will not be good.

My boyfriend and I went to the keys this past year and did some diving and snorkeling. It is visually apparent that the climate changes have had a dramatic effect on the reef. We saw a lot of “bleached” corals; the reef just didn’t look like it had in years past.

The article states that Dr. Alex Rogers said “The kitchen is on fire and it’s spreading round the house. If we can act quickly and decisively we may be able to put it out before the damage becomes irreversible” (Zoological). The human race as a whole needs to take responsibility and change the way we live so that we can save our planet and ourselves. The earth is covered by 78% water yet no one seemed to think the fact that we are having an effect on the marine ecosystem as very significant. If you ask me that is even more significant! People live on land and the fact that our actions are destroying a part of the earth that we don’t even inhabit should be an eye opener especially since that part of the earth is the vast majority. We can’t continue with the “I can’t see it from my house” mentality. That’s the thinking that got us in this mess in the first place.

Zoological Society of London (ZSL). "Coral Reefs Exposed To Imminent Destruction From Climate Change." ScienceDaily 16 July 2009. 20 April 2010

Fort Myers and Southwest Florida Historical Museum

I was a little sketchy when I was driving through downtown Fort Myers. I felt that everything look really run down and it was kind of the ghetto. When I first pulled into the parking lot of the history museum, my first impressions of it weren’t that great either. To me, it looked like something you would find in an old deserted area of Texas. It just didn’t remind me of Florida. I guess I’m just used to the beach bum theme with all of the palm trees and sandy beaches.

I was surprised to find what I did inside. I thought that the paleontology exhibit was pretty cool and informative. I like how certain sections had the recordings going that told you about everything. I wish that would have been around the entire exhibit. I some of the stuff had no information on it, so I wasn’t sure why it was even there. I guess you have to pay more to get the recorded information. My visit there was pretty nice, I walked around a saw all of the different areas. I was being followed by two ladies with six little ones yelling and screaming, so I think I probably walked through it fast then I normally would have. I would definitely like to go back and bring my boyfriend with me, I think that he would really enjoy the exhibit as well, especially the fisherman part! For the second time this term, this field trip reminded me of the book, A Land Remembered! I took a picture with the scrub cow and thought about the scene where Tobias is knocked off his horse when he was chasing a cow. I thought that was pretty comical.

Another cool thing that I really enjoyed about the museum was the police and firefighter part. The first thing that caught my eye was the Dalmatian sitting in the fire truck. I adopted a Dalmatian about a year ago it was a devil dog! He was very protective and aggressive. I later found out that Dalmatians were originally bread to run underneath the horses who pulled the fire carriages to protect them from predators and such. That’s what the Dalmatian is always associated with the fire dept. They are a one person dog, and they can get pretty mean to you if you aren’t that one person. I ended up having to get of the dog because it kept attacking me!
One thing that I didn’t like about the Museum was the King Tut exhibit. Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was cool, but it just seemed really out of place. I wasn’t even sure why it was there until I asked the guy at the front desk. I felt like an idiot when he answered, but it still doesn’t fit right. There weren’t any informational readings on it either, just the figurines and such. There wasn’t anything to read or find out about, which I really didn’t like. I also thought that the King Tut exhibit looked tacky. Everything looked fake and it just didn’t give off the vibe that the rest of the Museum did.

I think that a lot needs to be done to improve downtown Fort Myers. I don’t know if was in the right place or not, but it all looked run down and trashy. Not like old and historical, just plain old run down! I think that they should start some sort of restoration to make it a better (and safer) place to be. Maybe I really just was in the wrong place….

My grandpa used to fix cash registures and he had one like the one above!

Those are awesome hammers, I would have never have thought that those shells could be used like that. People back in the day were so innovated!

Final Impressions

Originally, I hated the fact that I was required to take this course for FGCU. I thought it was going to be a stupid, busy work, Gordon Rule writing class and I really didn’t feel like dealing with it! To be honest, I took the internet class because I did not want to drive an hour and a half for this class.
That was my biggest mistake all semester!
Throughout the semester I have learned a ton of information about sustainability and the environment. Things that I knew were important, but I really had no idea what they were. I have already noticed a change in the way that I am living. Think about the environment when I’m grocery shopping; now I mostly buy organic, locally grown produce and I buy humanely raised chicken. I very rarely eat beef any more thanks to the video Food, Inc! I have been watching my water usage like crazy and started using refillable bottles instead of buying bottled water. I even get on my roommates all the time about their bad habits; they don’t like that too much. After l realizing my fuel usage I am actually considering buying a new, more sustainable and environmentally friendly car. The knowledge that I have gained has really changed my living habits.
As mentioned above, taking this class online was my biggest mistake. I really think that a lot of the emphasis and information was lost because of it. I did not like the self guided field trips. I feel that I did not learn much from them. If I could change anything, it would really be anything about the course, just that I would take it in person instead of online. I think that students planning on taking the course virtually should be warned of the requirements and the self guided field trips.
Even so, I think that this class, or one similar to it, should be required at every college, or even at every high school! The information learned is vital to the sustainability of our world and possibly the survival of mankind. If we do not learn to change or ways we will not have any ways! We will just be ashes in the dust, who wants to live like that?

Sense of Place Interview

For this interview I decided to interview my grandfather. My grandpa was born on March 8, 1940. As assumed, he grew up a lot differently that I did. Beside the usual “walking to school barefoot, in the snow, uphill both ways to school every day, ” jargon that I normally get from him, I learned that he was raised a lot differently than I was. “Things aren’t the same they used to be love,” he kept saying. We didn’t have all these computers and technology, we played outside.” I think this is why him and my grandma were loved their garden and yard so much. Before my grandma died, she would spend hours a day planning, transplanting and pulling weeds out of her garden. My grandpa is the same, always out in the yard.
Although it is obvious that they have a connection with a land, I don’t really think they are educated about it. I was telling my grandpa what I was learning in class, and he kept telling me the government schemes that were out there to get rid of all the people and blah blah blah. I don’t think he really understood what I was talking about. Although I believe the government is mostly at fault for letting things get to where they are, I don’t think they did it on purpose. I think that they were just focused on the money and I hope that if they knew the consequences of what would have happened, things would have changed.
My grandpa talked about how they used to play outside and not have to worry about all the things we worry about. Not so much the crime part of it, but the health effects of things like the sun and the pollution. My grandpa just had spots of skin cancer removed from four different parts of his body.

That really makes me wonder. It made me think about what skin cancer is cause from. Did he get it because he worked outside all those years without a drop of sunscreen? Or was it caused recently because of the depleted ozone layer? Is it just the sun’s fault and the missing education he had of the sun’s effects? Or did we make it that bad? Did we make it that bad with all the pollution and Co2 emissions?
My grandpa liked the fact that I was learning about sustainability and the environment, but he just couldn’t get over the government conspiracies’!



For more information about his conspiracy theories google "Fema Coffins" or Fema Concentration Camps.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxm8lB-V2uI

Enviornmental Education

I think that the most interesting thing that we have discussed this semester is environmental education. As the philosopher John Dewey said, “The belief that all genuine education comes about through experience does not mean that all experiences are genuinely or equally educative.”

I think that an effective environmental education needs to be experienced based, but the experience need to be good one. You can sit and tell me about something all day long but I won’t retain any of it. I need hands on experience, genuine experience. Not just unrelated activities. For example; instead of wasting money and sending schools on field trips to amusement parks, send them to the recycling center. First of all, I’m sure it would be cheaper than Busch Gardens. Additionally, they students would gain a huge amount of knowledge relating to recycling habits and resources. They would learn how the process goes about and more information related to recycling. I believe that if more students were exposed to this information that would be more knowledgeable about it and would more likely to use it in their everyday lives. Another great idea for a field trip would be the ECHO farm. I have gained a tremendous amount of information in only a few visits!

I think that environmental education should be taught throughout a child’s entire educational career. It is much harder to change someone’s way of living than it is to teach them the right way to live. Environmental education in higher levels should be more focused and detailed. The students should have already gained the knowledge that is taught in the University Colloquium class and they should instead be required to go into a deeper level of knowledge in a special area, like marine sustainability. Instead of just giving up the very broad view of sustainability focus on one part of it and going into depth. More depth than breadth is what higher education should focus on. I went to Florida Southern College in Lakeland and there was no Environmental class we had to take. We could take one as an option, but it was not required. I’m sure this is the case at many other schools. I think it should be required everywhere and at all grade levels.

The world’s biggest problem right now is that we are not educated about the environment to the extent that we should be. Yea... we all know what recycle means.... but what happens if we don’t do it? What happens if we don’t start using renewable resources? We run out... duh! But that does that mean? What is going to happen if we don’t open our eye and start living smarter? This should be the focus in environmental education at all levels.