Updated Results of Survey

My results have shown that most people eat meat more than three times each week and shop at a conventional grocery store. Convenience is moderately important when buying meat and this is probably the reason for most people shopping at conventional grocery stores. Almost everyone that responded said that they do not buy organically grown meat and that a higher price would deter them from purchasing organically grown meat. 60% of people said that they would not buy organically grown meat to help the environment, which I thought was very shocking. So far I have 12 responses. To take my survey follow this link, http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZK9FWV5.

Essay 4 Progress

For essay 4 I am using the theory of planned behavior to test peoples' attitudes towards buying organically grown meat rather than the conventionally grown meat. I have posted my survey and have had several responses. So far I have started my paper and completed the introduction and started on the theoretical frame. Below is a link to my survey.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZK9FWV5

Food/Sustainability

     Food is one of the most essential elements of a person's life. Everyone needs to eat whether it be meat or vegetables. As a population continues to increase, more food is needed to sustain that population. Being able to produce or import the food that is need to support the population provides a strain on the environment to grow or produce the products that are needed. Eventually, any given place is going to reach its carrying capacity and will then not be able to sustain the populations within its environment.
    The community that i came from is called Raft Swamp. It is not very big but contains many people for it's size. Resources within this community are limited due to the people that inhabit it. To obtain food and other resources, one must go outside of the community into the city to buy these essential goods. The amount of food needed to sustain the community can not be received there. Raft Swamp is not a sustainable community due to overpopulation and lack of resources. It is mainly composed of swamp land which restricts land use for farming and other types of agriculture.

Human Testing: Ethical or not?

A number of chemical pesticide manufacturers have been using human subjects in their pesticide studies. They are using humans to discover the exposure levels and the effects that these chemicals have on agribusiness workers. These studies are being presented to the EPA without their prior knowledge. They should not be performed without a complete review of poison control centers. This kind of testing is unethical and can be very dangerous to the subjects. Using humans to ascertain the risk and toxicity levels of a chemical does not benefit the environment or existing environmental regulations.

            The organizations that perform these studies recruit people who have an extremely low income. This ensures the organizations that the people will be willing to subject their bodies to the levels of risk that are reached during these experiments. These people are paid based on time spent and not the level of risk that is initiated. The results from these experiments are supposed to remain unpublished and confidential to the company. Another company would then duplicate the experiment and compare results. This procedure has not been followed recently and raises ethical concerns.

            The agricultural workers and their families can benefit from these experiments; however, the humans that are being tested reap no direct benefit from the experiments. Ultimately, these types of studies should only be allowed when no alternatives are available. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1637952/pdf/envhper00304-0010.pdf

Fracking Contamination

The Environmental Protection Agency found contaminants in the groundwater near Pavillion, Wyoming. IN the contaminants they found at least ten compounds that are known to be used in frack fluids. These findings are most likely going to shape how the government regulates and obtains natural has resources in that area.

            There has been an argument with the drilling industry for years about whether or not the fracking process is safe for the environment and the people that live near these drilling sites. These new findings allowed for the government to argue for stronger regulation of fracking. The residents in the Pavillion area began complaining about the odor and the brownish color of the water. The EPA took water samples and found the contaminants that are linked to fracking. To validate these findings, EPA investigators drilled two water-monitoring wells. The results from these two wells confirmed the water samples that were previously taken.  Investigators also conducted research on the cement walls that were meant to protect the well bore. They discovered that these cement barriers had become weakened and separated from the well. This caused leakage into the ground.  The company that lead the drilling operation would not provide the EPA with the exact chemicals that they used in fracking. This makes them look even more suspicious because if they truly believed that their operation was not causing the contamination, then they would release a list of the chemicals that they use in their process.

            In my opinion, this drilling company, EnCana, is completely responsible for the pollution in the groundwater in Pavillion. The EPA has acquired enough of results and evidence that link the compounds of the pollution directly to the fracking process. Being that they are the only operation in the area that frack, EnCana is the culprits. 

Richard Kahn

Robert Kahn stresses the need for ecopedagogy in schools. I agree with this statement. A stronger background in environmental studies would make many people realize the problems that the world has created. Robert Kahn gives examples of movements and programs for environmental education that have failed or lost their focus. These attempts at improving environmental education in schools have not made any changes in the way people had been living or treating the environment.  The world is in dire need of a new generation of human beings that have been thoroughly educated in the problems of the environment and ways to repair the damage that has been acquired over the years.

A way to motivate students to become educated in the environment and ways to improve it is to create more jobs with that field of study. Most students look at how easy it is to get a job in a field of study before anything else. The easier the job placement is, the more students there will be that would become interested in that line of work. The world needs more companies that dedicate their research to environmental improvements instead of having big companies trying to make themselves more efficient and “eco-friendly”. Agricultural programs in school should have more funding. With more funding, the teachers will have more resources to provide the students with hands on learning experiences. This is what makes students become active in a field of study. When they can experience the problem first hand and realize the impact that it has, students will work harder and smarter to develop ways to solve the problem at hand. This is what needs to happen in order to boost education in schools that is focused toward the environment and nature. 

Sept. 14 Turtle Island Post

In some of Snyder's poems he really targets hunters and their ethics. In a poem titled "Two Fawns That Didn't See The Light This Spring", he highlighted how hunters made poor choices and killed animals that were not supposed to be killed. If poor decision making becomes a common occurrence in hunting,   then eventually most animals will become endangered or extinct. I agree with Snyder when he attacks unethical hunting practices; however, hunting that is done correctly is better for the environment in the long run than no hunting at all. It keeps population numbers down that would otherwise be outrageous because some animals do not have any natural predators. I have also noticed that a lot of Snyder's poems are talking about places or people that are overseas. Many of the names and places that Snyder mentions in his poems seem to be African names. This leads me to think that either Snyder has spent a lot of time in foreign countries and this is where he felt more connected to, or these are the places that he is most concerned about in terms or environmentalism.

Gary Snyder's Themes

     In one of Snyder's poems he talks about how so many animals are getting killed by vehicles on the highways. If these highways were not so abundant or so intrusive of the wildlife's natural habitat then this problem would not be occurring. Invading our wildlife's habitats are one of the main causes of why some species are becoming endangered. Snyder talks about how he has never seen a specific animal until he seen it dead on the side of a road. This is not the way our nature should be depicted.
     In a lot of Snyder's poems, he describes nature. He describes how the animals act and then how people interfere. It is very obvious how that Snyder has a deep appreciation of nature and the environment. It is also obvious that Snyder sees a problem with humans interfering with the wildlife and their natural environment.

McKibben in-class blog

     Farming has become very industrialized. Farmers are growing certain crops not because they have a high demand but because they are being subsidized. Farms need to become more local and support the community. Locally grown food is cheaper and it does not cause as much damage to the environment as the huge industrial size farmer who uses numerous harmful chemicals. One of the outcomes of farms becoming smaller and more organic is better soil and more labor. As the nation keeps growing and becoming more industrialized, poor people and the less fortunate will increasingly feel the effects. A more low-impact and labor-intensive farm will provide more jobs, healthier food, and a safer environment. Grass-feeding our agriculture will help restore the nutrients in the soil and the meat that us consumed will be much more healthier to eat compared to the meat that was fed corn grown with harsh chemicals.
     The youth in today's society spends too much time indoors playing video games and and getting caught up in the cyber world. The youth today are becoming less and less connected to the environment. Getting youth involved in the outdoors will bring up a new generation that will be educated and have an understanding of the environmental problems that are reality.

Environmental Problem

     One of the many problems that contributes to the need for an island civilization is land management. The are many factors that are contributing to the disappearance of our land. From desertification to polar ice melting, land space is becoming limited. There is very little land left that is undeveloped. If we keep on with the increasing development of land, in the near future there will not be any land left for wildlife. Sea levels are steadily rising and that is also causing land space to diminish little by little.

     This problem contributes to the need for an island civilization. Something needs to be done to help control this serious problem. Apparently humans need boundaries because we have been invading and taking over the wilderness that will be extinct soon if we stay on the same track that we have been traveling. There are many global and environmental issues that need to be addressed. I have added this link that illustrates those issues.  www.globalissues.org

Island Civilization

I can remember as a child when there were huge tracts of land in my hometown. Now, there are housing developments and open-pit mining sites where luscious green forests once thrived. This is the same exact problem that has been occurring for hundreds of years, which Roderick Frazier Nash is identifying in his essay, Island Civilization.

            As Nash describes in his essay, wilderness is perceived to be something that is looked down upon. For years civilization had been succeeding but it mandated the destruction of the wilderness. Early colonists wanted to civilize the people and the land that they found once they arrived to the New World. Preservation of the wildlife and nature was not high on their priority list. The use of manmade tools and structures began dividing and destroying the wilderness.

            Later on in the 1800’s, Americans began to realize that maybe the wild nature was the only thing that could preserve the world. A few important individuals began to write about how humans had become the destructive force of the world and the elements that humans thought of as being successful could eventually lead to destroying the environment. Nature was eventually looked at as an “oppressed minority”. Two acts were passed in the 1970’s that would protect species in the environment that were endangered and very important to the biotic community. Although steps have been taken to preserve what is left of the wilderness, some damages will be felt long into the future.

            Roderick Frazier Nash depicts Earth in the Fourth Millennium as an “island civilization”. This means that humans will have drawn boundaries around their presence rather than nature. Humans will use technology to reduce their environmental impact and leave the rest of the planet self-willed. This change requires major compromises by humans. The birth rate will have to decline by fifty percent and humans will live in confined areas. The living space of humans will be predetermined and would only support approximately 1.5 billion people. The purpose of this Island Civilization is to preserve the wild and let grow into what it was supposed to become before human interruption.

            I agree with Roderick’s idea about preserving the wilderness; however, I think that there would be another way that the problem can be solved besides confining people into a few places all over Earth. I believe that if Island Civilization was implemented we would see the crime rate rise dramatically. There would be so much chaos and confusion authorities would not be able to handle the situations. I do support greatly his concern about nature and the effect that humans have had on the environment. I also believe that if something is not done there will not be any wilderness left and we would see the extinction of numerous animals that are of significant importance to the biotic community. If something is not done and humans continue to take more and more land from the animals that we live beside we will see more attacks on humans. The animals will have no habitat and will come into more contact with humans which will lead to the increased attacks on humans.

            Humans have continued to take over the land is supposed to be shared with the many species that once roamed. We are seeing an increase in the development of land for towns, cities, and housing developments. Island Civilization is one solution to the problem but I am sure there are others that do not include packing humans into a can like sardines. That is bound to cause problems but I would be willing to sacrifice a little living space if it meant that we could save the environment and help restore it. We as humans need to act carefully and start planning now for the future. Do we want more malls or a healthy and thriving wilderness? I would prefer the wilderness.