Blog #13

Sustainable consumerism involves minimizing the use of resources, toxic wastes and pollutants to ensure that the needs of future generations will be sustained. Globalization and capitalization are positive drivers because they are expanding and raising the economy, especially if it's sustainable production we're talking about. I wouldn't pay a premuim for organic or fair trade food, but local would be something I would invest in, because I think it would be good for our local economy and also much healthier. I prefer mom and pop places for food and groceries but I wouldn't buy merchandise or like home-made crafts because they always tend to be very overpriced. I think the concept of green washing is really sad. Like why take a positive concept and corrupt it just to make millions? I guess thats just the typical way of our government though so I'm not surprised.

Blog #12

My overall opinion of the Estero Island Cottage was that it was really cool. I enjoyed learning the history and seeing pictures of the olden days when times were simple and the population wasn't so crowded. To be honest, I didn't get to pay much attention in the boardwalk because I was being swarmed by mosquitoes. But a nice young man in our class did me the honor of fanning me off with a ponfrom just like they did back in the day! So that was a little nod to history! I took a bite of a salt wart and it was disgusting haha. I felt like a sac of salt exploded in my mouth and it wasn't very delightful. I grew up in Punta Gorda, Florida, until I was 12. We went from being one of 4 houses on the cul de sac to being surrounded by houses in a matter of 10 years. So thats when we moved out into the country. So yes, I would sell my childhood home for 300% and develop it into condos because it's already infested with people anyways! haha, but as for my home now on the acreage, I definitely wouldn't even think about doing that!

Blog #11

My ecological footprint wasn't too good. It would take 10.5 earths to support my lifestyle. My main issue was mobility but theres really no way around that unless I moved. I live a hour and a half from school, 30 minutes from my work and 20 minutes to the nearest grocery store! I guess I need to relocate.

Blog #10

I don't think that energy is too cheap, but I think we, as consumers use it at too mindless of a pace. When I think of conservation I think of turning off lights, carpooling, turning the air conditioning up when you leave and so on. I don't think that it's a dirty word, just maybe a tad played out. If I could talk to Jimmy Cardigan I think we would get along just fine. He had a simple solution to a lot of issues and I think thats the way things should be handled. He cut a lot of worthless needs, like 5 limousines and FBI bodyguards and tried to live as normal as any other human. He saw the need to conserve energy, back in 1977, and I think if we would've maybe followed his way a little more, we might be a bit better off.

In my opinion I think that waste is our most potential renewable energy source. There will always be waste, and lots of it. And to be able to make energy with it is a blessing. Steps that I should probably be taking is to pay more attention to appliances that I leave on. I always leave my computer on and sometimes my closet lights. My air conditioner is always set at 74 degrees and ends up running the majority of the night so that I can sleep like a baby! I also have a bad habit of leaving the water on while I brush my teeth, but at least I only shower every couple days, haha.

Blog #9

When I hear the word downtown it brings me to my hometown in Arcadia, Florida. They have an old opera house, really old traffic lights (without cameras), an old train station that has been made into a real estate office but still looks original. Basically, a shootout could bust out in the streets at anytime between the cowboys. Heres some photos so you can get the idea....




Downtown Fort Myers has somewhat of the same historical feeling to it. Down some of the streets where it was quite and old fashioned looking kind of reminded me of Arcadia. Fort myers is experiencing somewhat of a renaisance because I feel like they're trying to get that old fashioned downtown feeling back. By encouraging walking, eating outside, and providing you with some historical monuments to look at. Like the Edison fountains and the big black statue guy from the war. Theres also the Art Museum building which the front and some of the sides were made out of coral, which was really cool. I think a lot of the buildings had their own nods to history, the buildings outside of the pizza place we stopped at looked really cool, like really old buildings that were abandoned, which I think should be made into apartments. I also thought that the Olympic building we visited was very cool. It's only downfall is the lack of knowledge that the place even exists! Another thing that really connected with me was the fact that the area was where the people in the book 'A Land Remembered' brought their cattle to ship off. I think downtown Fort Myers has potential, they just need to do more to get the people engaged to get out and walk around, but with how lazy people are these days, I don't see that happening, at least until the cooler months of the year!

Blog #8

I believe that climate change is natural but that all the hype and supposedly disaster it's going to cause is man made. The media, and Al Gore to be specific have turned climate change into a huge pressing issue that is only to scare us Americans into buying all their green products that they make millions of dollars of profits on. I've watched an episode of 'The Conspiracy Theory' with Jesse Ventura and it actually had a guy whose identity had to be concealed because he had already had his and his families lives threatened by speaking out about the conspiracy behind the whole climate change ordeal. Just today on yahoo news there was a article that discussed how the earth's atmosphere is releasing more heat than what has been projected. So basically, a mini truth in the huge lies of the climate change masters who are trying to make a booming business out of it, and are succeeding. I think that the world isn't going to change too much for the effects to be too prominent in the years of my children, if I ever accidentally have any. But that doesn't mean that we should live carelessly and waste resources.

Blog #7

My main concern would be that because it is a genetically mutated plant, there is basically no control over the growth, or it's effect on other plants that are home to this ecosystem. It could potentially be very dangerous to it's surrounding plants and trees. My only issue is that I would want it to be tested out before just replacing the pines that inhabit the areas of the southwest. It does have a lot of benefits though, including that they can live and grow for many years, but theres also the genetic split that restricts the reproduction so I guess over population wouldn't really be an issue. In an article is states that the United States is behind the times since these trees have been abundantly being used and genetically engineered in different countries. I'm somewhat on the fence as to whether the benefits outweigh the risks or not... I don't want to be like a green freak and think that genetically engineered plants should never happen but I don't want to just start using these advances without knowing for sure the effects it could have.

Blog #6

Sustainable farming means that you're using the land for your benefit but not to the point that you disrupt or harm it for the future. You utilize the land in a manner that it can replenish itself and still be beneficial in the future. Too much plowing or using combine machines damage it in different ways, but they both harm the nutrients that are normally found in the soil and by over plowing or whatever, it depletes the richness of the soil and it cannot be revived. I don't really buy organic products. I think that they are overpriced and a tad overrated. I know that in order to be USDA organic they have many laws and regulations but I'm not quite convinced that it's as great as they try to make it sound. My mom grows her own tomatoes and cucumbers, because I eat myself lots of cucumbers, and you can totally tell a difference between store bought cucumbers and the home grown ones. If you eat a slice of a fresh homegrown one then a store, it tastes like you just took a handful of pesticides and ate them. I know theres like a list of things that you SHOULD buy organic but I feel like everything else in the world is pretty bad for you anyways so whats all the hype about? I feel somewhat disconnected from the current food system, I don't really eat fast foods. My mom has always cooked out of the 'eat clean diet' book so those ways have somewhat been passed onto me. I always cook with whole grain gluten free noodles or the leanest ground beef . I try to eat a lot of fresh things but I also eat a lot of salmon, which is frozen but I think it's nutrients outweigh the fact that it's frozen. I work in the restaurant industry so theres a lot of items that I just flat out won't eat due to the fact I know how it's preserved and then cooked, for the however many time.

Blog #5

I was very impressed with our trip to ECHO, I think that they are accomplishing many good things. They also utilize the property very well and grow many diverse crops in a small vicinity. I was shocked to see that it was possible to grow plants out of a pile of cans and thought it was cool how they utilized every aspect to benefit the crops, like placing the duck hut above the pond to help the tadpoles which in turn helped the plants lining the pond. I think it's very cool how widespread ECHO is, that different countries can simply ask for crops that are good for their location and climates and get seeds shipped directly to them, or have representatives from ECHO go over to educate and demonstrate ways of sustainable farming. I ended up doing my service learning hours here and was again impressed by discovering how much hard work and effort goes into the farm. I see why they are very happy to have volunteers to help with the dirty work.

Blog #4

In my opinion, the biggest environmental issue we are facing today is with water. Water scarcity, pollution, over-fishing, the obstruction of water ways are just a few to name. It is said that water will be our most scarce resource in the days to come but yet not many actions are being done to ensure that doesn't happen. There are issues in both salt water and freshwater that worry me. The big dump out in the ocean that seems to collect all the plastic and objects that aren't biodegradable. All the things that mankind are doing disrupts the natural flow of things, no pun intended, but it causes animals migration trails to be messed up and is wiping out species that are vital for other species to survive. The pesticides being used that make it into our drinking water, the list is pretty much non-ending. If I was given 100 billion I would disperse it across these issues, because I don't think that solving one issue alone will have any effect when it is all the different water issues that compile to make the disastrous problems we see today.

Blog #3

Our field trip to Corkscrew was pretty cool, the living machine was a eye-opener at how the plants are both necessary and beneficial to the cleansing of the environment naturally. The three prominent and diverse ecosystems started with the pine flatlands which was mainly dry and obviously, full of pine trees, which is the highest elevation. The second ecosystem was the Wet Prairie, which is kind of a dead giveaway of what it is, it's at a lower elevation which causes it to be a little wetter.





This photo to the right is of an actual marsh mellow plant, which of course, isn't where our marsh mellows come from today, but nevertheless is where the inspiration came from!






The third prominent ecosystem is the Pine Cypress, which was much wetter than any that we had passed through and was home to alligators, and other species that thrive in that environment. I didn't get an actual picture of the wetlands but you can see how obvious the separation is from one ecosystem to the next. This preserve homes the largest bald cypress forest in North America.







Conservation and Stewardship are both huge roles in this preserve. Conversation is the concept of conserving something so that it doesn't get ruined, or built upon in this matter. And Stewardship is the actual action of doing something to make a change. This was seen in the plume bird situation, where the feathers of the plume birds became such a high status symbol that they we're getting massacred left and right to make the ladies hats. This kicked off a movement to ensure that the plume birds wouldn't become extinct because they were extremely close to it.The role of private non-profits have a role in both conservation and stewardship by not only acquiring a parcel of land to conserve but then to also raise awareness to the public and within the community of the issues that are being faced by these ecosystems if man doesn't take the appropriate steps to ensure it stays intact. This is what civic engagement entails, engaging the community and informing them of these issues and hoping that because it is an ecosystem prominent in their individual communities they will want to be involved in taking the steps of action to make sure it isn't destroyed. Corkscrew is a 14,000 acre sanctuary that is home to not only ecosystems but many plants and animals that wouldn't have much of a chance moving on to find a prosperous environment to live in. If this land was bulldozed and built upon, it would basically be a catastrophe that many people probably wouldn't think twice about doing. I think the main issue here is education, not many people know how important it is that there are preserves like this to help keep the environment alive and it it's natural state. I don't think the government has any role in this, except maybe they gave the land to be preserved. Like-minded people are the reason that anything gets preserved, if nobody cared and didn't fight for places like these, the world would be in worse shape than it already is.

Blog #2

The university's mission statement is all about being "eco-friendly". Although they have put forth some effort, I don't think they necessarily went about it the right way. From the discussion in class I learned about the damaging effects that just the choice of placement caused. The fact that we have solar panels that are only like 9% effective when there are others out there around 40% just goes to show that it's basically a half-ass way to "go green". One thing I've noticed is that they try to encourage people to bike, and ride their long boards to class, but really, when you live on campus, I don't think it makes much of a difference to walk or drive the quarter mile. Along with the solar panel trash cans being in the shade, some areas where water falls off the roof not having rocks, and others that do, it all just seems a tad inconsistent. The campus trail was pretty nice, I thought it was kind of strange that other students were out catching the baby turtles, cause that just seemed like disrupting wildlife. I did think it was pretty cool that there was a little picnic area underneath some big oak trees. My background of being exposed to a lot of land with not a lot of manipulation by man may make me a little biased. I feel like the University has gone a little overboard with certain things, like the big new building by Lugert Hall, that the construction will be completed but after losing the funding it won't be able to be furnished. I don't really think that it's fair that they can keep increasing our tuition by 15% every semester to cover those costs that they probably should have already had set aside before the construction even started. All in all, I believe that they may have the right state of mind, they just need to figure out a more consistent, and effective way, to change things for the better.

Blog #1

To me, sustainability means to use and replace. To not overuse our natural resources that we could very well run out of. My expectations for this course were pretty mediocre, I wasn't thrilled to have to take it, but then again, I didn't have much of an issue with it. I've grown up in Arcadia, Florida and spent my childhood roaming around 230 acres on four-wheelers or horses. My parents worked very hard to preserve the old huge oaks when clearing to build our house. A few trails have been cleared to have a route from the house to the campsite on the creek, but the majority of the land has been left in its raw form. Growing up out here has given me an appreciation for nature and the beauty of letting things be. Almost every morning theres about three or four deer in the backyard by the pond and it's cool that we can walk outside and they don't even bother to run off. Being a psychology major, I was very interested in the 'Nature Deficit Disorder' from the colloquium reader. Being that I studied Abnormal Psychology in summer A and learned about ADHD it was fascinating to me that it could possibly be linked to having lack of exposure to nature. I think it makes complete sense. I have a six year old niece and five year old nephew that live with me and although he loves to be outside helping "papaw" work, she can sit in front of the television for hours if we let her. She doesn't get to watch much television at all but you can see a difference in their behaviors. She is much more fidgety and whines when she doesn't get her way. When she watches a movie she is glued to the screen like a zombie and you can't get her to take her eyes off of it. There are other ways psychology plays into the environment. Stress for example, is one of the leading causes of health issues. And there are many reasons to stress about what is going on with our planet. All the talk about global warming, running out of water, prices of food sky-rocketing, natural disasters occurring more frequently and people saying it's the end of time. If you dwell on any of these issues, you're bound to drive yourself a little crazy. Looking at myself, I'd like to think I'm pretty sustainable but I drive a camaro with a v8 engine, and live an hour and a half away. So I guess burning fossil fuels isn't too sustainable, but it's something I don't really have a choice in doing. I don't recycle, and I'm guilty of shooting many armadillos. So I guess I could improve on a few things. Although I recently shot a hog that was about 350-400 pounds and gave it to someone to eat. So I'm not doing too bad!