Read the assigned chapters above, and then:
1. Provide 3 SPECIFIC observations about Ethics and the Environment, using 2-3 sentences combining the book and your own IYOW analysis.
2. Finally, ask ONE specific question you have of ethics and the environment after completing our reading.
1. Provide 3 SPECIFIC observations about Ethics and the Environment, using 2-3 sentences combining the book and your own IYOW analysis.
2. Finally, ask ONE specific question you have of ethics and the environment after completing our reading.
Chapter 7.
ReplyDelete1. Deforestation is one of the most harmful things occurring on our planet right now. Not only do trees produce oxygen that we need to survive, they also house many species of animals. When we take away the forests, we are depriving our ecosystem of biodiversity which the world needs to stay in balance.
2. With the improvement of technology in our society, it has only provided us with more ways to destroy our environment instead of giving us new ways to protect it. If we focused technology development to create new ways to save the environment rather than make things more convenient for us, it would be more beneficial for the planet in the long run.
3. There is an extreme amount of pollution in both our air and water. Both of these problems are taker-caused and could be solved if we just realized what was around us.
Chapter 8.
1. Our environmental impacts don't just affect us, they affect countries all around us. Radioactive particles as well as greenhouse gases both have affects on the ozone layer that will eventually affect our whole planet. Yes, some issues are more local, but if we don't try and stop them, they will only spread and become everyone's problem, like they have lately.
2. Takers have been adding harmful gases to the atmosphere for years. These greenhouse gases deplete our ozone layer and ultimately will cause extreme climate change. The UV radiation will eventually cause damage to crops, and because agriculture is such a huge part of our nation, it will be extremely harmful to our society.
3. We like to pretend that everything is okay when it really isn't. When a book was published in 1962 about the state of the environment, one of the first times it had ever come into view in popular culture, firms involved in agricultural fields and even branches of the government protested its publication probably because they didn't want it to be made known what harm they were doing. We see a lot of the same thing happening today.
Question.
How can we get out the message on how to protect our environment more efficiently and how can we get people to care?
Chapter 7
ReplyDelete1. The creation of new, more advanced technologies fueled the Taker exploitation of the world. These technological advances also furthered pollution. The ability to use oil as fuels rapidly transformed the world by revolutionizing transportation and starting mechanized agriculture. Resources and manpower now could be transported across great distances relatively quickly. Farming was sped up agriculture and allowed greater quantities of food to be produced with less work. With the ability to produce more resources with less work and time, the Takers increased production because it was easy to do so.
2. The technological advances increased the rate at which resources were gathered. This resulted in the Earth’s natural resources being depleted much faster. The invention of the chainsaw cut the time required to cut down a tree from about two hours to about two minutes. Chainsaws played a major role in the logging industry which now could fell many more trees in the same time it previously took to cut down just one. The result of this was deforestation at a much higher rate than had ever been seen before. Forests had been cut down in the areas surrounding cities ever since Takers had begun settling, but never with such efficiency. These extra resources were used because they were widely available in surplus. Because they were used, production continued. The next big problem with faster gathering is that the Earth’s natural resources take far longer to accumulate than they do to harvest. A tree can be cut down in two minutes, but to grow to a suitable size will take decades.
3. Observations of certain phenomenal landscapes led to the protection of certain pieces of land so resources could not be used from them. These protected areas such as the Grand Canyon and Yosemite usually became national parks. However, as Takers always think about profit, the parks were designed as tourist attractions. The parks were also intended to protect the wildlife that lived on the land. This took effect much later, because predatory animals were exterminated for sport or just to reduce the number of predators. Eventually these practices ended and many of the previously hunted predators became protected endangered species.
Chapter 8
1. Pollutants such as pesticides, fertilizers, other chemicals, and various forms of waste found their way into water. These chemicals ended up in water due to runoff from agriculture and because they were dumped into the rivers as a method of disposal. The polluted water results in the death of countless fish and wildlife that either lives in or uses the water. Not only salt water has been contaminated by chemicals, fresh water has too. The polluted fresh water supply is a severe issue because humans and other life-forms depend on water for drinking.
2. Human environmental pollution is on a global scale and every country is in it together. The pollution done by one country can easily impact another. One nation’s factories or another’s nuclear testing will impact another’s environment in some way. There is no greenhouse gas amount allocated to a particular country as they are just contributing to the world’s greenhouse gas accumulation, not their own.
3. Taker society is very resistant to change. We like the status quo because it makes sense to us to keep doing what we are used to doing. Takers do not like working together with each other and doing so is required for solving environmental issues. A single country can become green, but then others (and developing countries) will take the place of the pollution created by the green country. Humanity has made many impressive scientific and technological breakthroughs since we can be creative. What remains to be seen is if Taker society can apply this aptitude to our environmental problems.
Question: What will happen once we deplete some of our most critical resources that we currently depend on for everyday life?
Chapter 7
ReplyDelete1. Takers in the past century have exploded in population numbers and in environmental destruction. This destruction has caused the formation of many conservation groups amongst the Takers. In an attempt to preserve nature and its beauty, Takers such as John Muir have gone out of their way to make sure that our civilization at the very least protects some of the ecosystem that it is compelled to destroy.
2. Takers throughout the 20th century have used dams as a means of controlling rivers. This eventually became a concern with the Colorado river which is famous for the creation of the Grand Canyon. In an attempt to preserve its natural beauty (as well as the ecosystem thriving in the canyon), Theodore Roosevelt as well as Muir pushed for the Grand Canyon to be a National Park. Teddy, upon his first visit to the Grand Canyon said “Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it… What you can do is to keep it for your children, your children’s children, and for all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American … should see” (Hughes 170).
3. The Aswan High Dam is regarded as a modern engineering marvel; Egypt takes great pride in this and treasures it, however, the damn brought along many severe environmental consequences that will in the end harm Egypt. For starters it stops the yearly flood of the Nile, preventing the very foundation that has allowed Egypt to thrive for thousands of years. It also increases diseases, flooding near the reservoir, and the silt that doesn’t flow down river piles up in the dam itself. With Egypt’s already burgeoning population along with its political problems today, this dam will spell nothing but trouble for the future of its people.
Chapter 8
1. Hughes starts off the chapter with a fairly long section regarding Takers and the destruction they have brought upon their environment. He gave many examples such as CFCs, clear cutting, extreme water and air pollution and over fishing. In showing all these cases, Hughes was trying to show that Takers have a much larger role in the destruction of their own environment than previously thought. Takers had finally begun to realize that they were not exempt from the laws that govern the community of life.
2. In Willamette, Oregon, the logging industry is a behemoth example of Taker power over nature and Taker civilization’s neglect of our environment. With the clear cutting of more trees than was sustainable, it was obvious that the old growth forests would soon disappear. While conservationists and environmentalists fought diligently against the hungry lumber industries to protect these forests and the organisms that live there, their battle was not very successful. While it did end up happening, it took far longer than it should and much of the old growth forests were decimated at the expense of many organisms who needed them to survive.
3. Chernobyl has always been seen as a disastrous example of what happens when you don’t properly handle radioactive isotopes. A more recent example is the near meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan. Both of these share a trait that tells a lot about Taker culture and our impact on the environment. We Takers often disregard the environmental impact of what we do when we start doing something new and it isn’t until decades later that we begin to even start correcting the problems which are now so ingrained into our culture.
Question:
The environmental impact we Takers have on the planet is evident regardless of where you go. If this is the case, then why is Taker civilization so ignorant to the fact that they must change or face the very real threat of our own destruction?
Chapter 7:
ReplyDelete1. One factor that added to the human exploitation of the planet was technology. Generation of power from fossil fuels expanded in quantity and in kinds. Much of the new energy was generated and transmitted in the form of electricity.
2. Another force that impelled the human exploitation of the natural world was economic growth, which had its ups and downs. However it proceeded at a rate exceeding the increase in population considering the period of 1890-1960.
3. The most visible of the major impacts on the ecosystems of the Earth caused by human exploitation in the 19th- 20th centuries was deforestation. It occurred to varying degrees on each of the six continents that had forests and on many islands.
Chapter 8:
1. In 1950, many of the Earth’s ecosystems had been altered by human intervention. By the end of the century, almost every ecosystem was either degraded or seriously threatened.
2. Agriculture became more intensive and more productive in the late twentieth century due to trends in agricultural technology. This included the dissemination of high-yielding genetic strains of basic food crops, and the application of industrial fertilizers and pesticides.
3. An example of the danger of pollution to freshwater resources is Lake Baikal in Siberia. It is the oldest, clearest, and deepest fresh water lakes in the world, and contains about one-fifth of all fresh water on Earth.
Question: Where would we be today without the advances in agricultural technology?
Chapter 7:
ReplyDelete1. Between the last decade of the nineteenth century and the 1960’s, human exploitation of the natural world increased on a very large scale. The human population increased from 1.57 billion to 3.02 billion. Thus growth in human kind escalated both the economic activity as well as a widespread depression.
2. Urbanization was another major area of growth. By 1890, there over 9 cities with more than 1 million people living there. In 1960, 60 cities reached a population of over 4 million each. With the increasing production of urban areas, the destruction of natural ecosystems and agricultural acreage increases substantially.
3. Another factor that added to the exploitation of the planet was technology. The generation of fossil fuels to power was a major aspect of this. The Coal production industry increases from 500 million metric tons in 1890, to over 2,600 million metric tons in 1960. Although it was passed by oil who can be refined into petrol and diesel.
Chapter 8:
1. A current environmental factor in today’s world is smog, a grayish haze in the air, which photographs from space have shown very clearly. Air all over the world has a layer of pollution that be traced to many major countries. In the late 20th century, it became clear that pollution problems affect the whole Earth.
2. During the last 20th century, there has been an increasing knowledge and growth in learning about the workings of the biosphere. Although at the same time, the activities that harm the biosphere were increasing rapidly.
3. In 1950, many of the Earth’s ecosystems had been altered by human activity. But by the end of the century, nearly every ecosystem was either threatened or seriously destroyed by human activity. There are sections of the world that no evidence of human presence of change.
Question: Is there any way that we could have slowed the process of human exploitation of the natural world?
Chapter 7
ReplyDelete1. No matter the policies in place, it does not stop the Takers from taking all they can get. The Grand Canyon is a place of natural beauty and yet we found a way to exploit it, as we do so many natural things. To keep the canyon at bay from further deterioration seems unlikely given the threat tourists impose.
2. Much of what technology offered was providing an easier way to live and gain revenue. The takers are stuck in a society that, “compels them to destroy the world.” Some people try to make a positive change and be more self-sufficient, but with big corporations and the fact that we've lost sight of the Leaver ways, it seems more and more difficult to try to make such changes.
3. Was there honestly nothing that could be taken from the downfalls of previous civilizations? Regardless of the knowledge that technological activities cause detrimental problems, many people continued their lives in environmentally harmful ways.
Chapter 8
1. Regardless of the opportunities technology provides, we must tread conscientiously, we are still dependent on the Earth's natural system. Considering the burden we have placed on the ecosystems and thus ourselves and the small efforts we put into restoration, much of the damage is irreversible.
2. “Late twentieth century humans played dice as never before with the systems that support life.” This is obvious, but for some reason it struck me. To think of keeping our environment healthy as being in the hands of gamblers is a scary way to look at it, although very true at the same time. Had we listened to the “doomsayers,” we likely wouldn't be in such a devastating position.
3. Our ever growing population has resulted in major advancements in technology and has led to fast paced destruction of the land. At the time, main concerns were to be sustainable and improve the quality of civilized life, but even after being made aware of such environmental impacts, only small efforts were made to create a positive change. We are supposed to learn through trial and error; there were many other opportunities for us to have learned before reaching the point we are now at.
Was the reason for implications of such fast paced technology that caused such environmental destruction ever due to attempting to provide a better quality of life with concern of peoples best interests or has it always been about money and power?
Chapter 7:
ReplyDelete1. Urbanization played a role in changing the environment. The spreading of urban population changed the environment and altered the ecosystem.
2. Technological advancement helped aid human exploration. Fossil fuels were being increased nd inventions like the combustion engine came about.
3. Economic growth helped increase human exploration during this time. Having a universal market made it easy for people to buy and sell which helped stimulate the economy.
Chapter 8:
1. Having human interactions playing such a big role in shaping the biosphere led to an ecosystem that was beginning to deteriorate. Little was known about the effects of human interaction at first, but as evolution and expansion progressed the damages were slowly becoming uncovered.
2. Due to advancements in Agriculture technology, agriculture began to pick up again. Having machines capable of producing big yields and industrialized soil lead to increased productions.
3. Nuclear weaponry affected the biosphere by exposing the world to radioactive isotopes. Having this radiation in the ecosystem kills everything in its vicinity which leads to a huge environmental problem.
Question: If technological advancement was slowed down, would it have prolonged the impending destruction to the ecosystem?
Chapter 7:
ReplyDelete1. One of the most destructive impacts that humans had on the ecosystem was deforestation throughout the 19th and 20th century. Trees produce oxygen and also filter the carbon dioxide that we breathe out, without trees; we are creating a carbon trap for ourselves. We are literally suffocating ourselves.
2. Technology was another major impact that impelled the human exploitation our environment. We took natural resources and turned them into energy moneymakers that provided the growing population with electricity and power.
3. Another form of energy that humans took full advantage of was the use of dams. Humans controlled rivers to collect the energy of running water, like the Aswan High Dam and on the Colorado River. But trying to control the environment like that causes issues such as flooding and silt build-up.
Chapter 8:
1. Pollutants from agricultural runoff flow into near rivers and streams, which leads to the death of wildlife. Pollutants like chemicals, pesticides and fertilizers are not only killing animals and destroying ecosystems, but that same runoff is going into human drinking water and reserves. So if we don’t care enough to save our ecosystem, we can at least be selfish enough to try to keep the water clean.
2. Agriculture has become much more aggressive and intensive in the late 20th century because of advances in technology. This also impacted the polyculture farming into a more monoculture farming method where we can get high yields of crops for mass produce.
3. Over population is definitely one of the major causes in the destruction of land. We are clear-cutting our land, whether it be through deforestation or farming, and we are moving past the ability to change. Eventually there will be no land to reserve or preserve.
Question:
It is impossible to go back to the point where some leavers became takers, but what could we change now to preserve what little we have left of their culture? What lessons could we take for the future?
Chapter 7
ReplyDelete1. Over the years urbanization grew more and more popular. This caused the cities to not only grow in size but to take up more of the natural resources. Population doesn’t just affect the natural resources but it also alters the weather pattern of the city ecosystem as a whole.
2. Due to technology the natural resources are being consumed at a rapid pace. Nonrenewable resources are the ones that are taking the biggest hit, like fossil fuels. We use them for almost everything in our day to day lives and in order to extract the fuels we are destroying lands that could be used for other possibly positive purposes.
3. A lot of the blame for the lack of biodiversity in the world can be blamed on deforestation of the rainforest. The Amazon is the most diverse place in the world and everyday acres of the forest are destroyed leaving animals and insects extinct that were never even discovered. A piece of the world is lost due to the Takers selfishness and standard of living.
Chapter 8
1. Deforestation not only affects the biodiversity in the world but also the air. Photosynthesis occurs in plants, like trees, and produces the oxygen we breath. Without plants the oxygen in the atmosphere will go down. Deforestation also leads to depletion in water and soil conservation along with climate regulation. Without the forests the world would be a dry monoculture world.
2. Water pollution is becoming a problem all over the world not just in developing countries. The run off from the farms, the cars, even the salt in the winter causes a serious impact on the available drinking water. I would not argue that developing countries have it worse because if our Taker society had to rely on natural water sources and not have it filtered for us we would be in the same position.
3. The introduction of pesticides has only benefited the Taker culture and is one of the reasons Takers are not apart of the community of life. The pesticides are ruining the local water supply, killing birds and insects, and ultimately the aquatic life as well. The food chains are being affected as well, if anything consumes a pesticide that chemical is passed down the food chain until it hits humans. We are putting foreign chemicals into our bodies to make our grass greener and our food more plentiful.
Question:
With all the land being destroyed now for reservoirs and even consuming other natural resources, what will we do when the population grows and we have to decide what's more important, consuming natural resources or providing places for people to consume those natural resources?
Chapter 7:
ReplyDelete1.) The rapid, continuous growth of the human population is one of the largest contributions to the exploitation of nature. Urbanization, technology, vehicles, and airplanes were all major factors that humans brought to the exploitation of nature. Even the economic growth pushed the human exploitation.
2.) Water, soil, and air pollution are not any new problems. We have been polluting water since day one by using it as sewage, to bath, and to start civilizations. The 1930s brought a huge expansion or agriculture, which polluted the soil when we used it to start producing our own food. 1948 and 1952 brought huge episodes of air pollution and we pollute the air every second as a species. So we clearly have some explaining to do.
3.) The Grand Canyon, one of the most beautiful natural places on earth, has too, been exploited by humans. Along with many other natural places and things, we pose a threat that nature can seem to do little about.
Chapter 8:
1.) The effects industrialization brought to the ecosystem were relatively new problems recognized by humans. Along with this came the depletion of stratospheric ozone. Around 1974, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) started adding chlorine to the atmosphere and it started destroying the ozone. An obvious issue.
2.) The 1986 explosion of Chernobyl sent 50 tons or nuclear fuel into the atmosphere along with 70 tons of other fuel and 700 tons of radioactive graphite. This human error brought an almost unexplainable amount of destruction to the environment, yet another effect industrialization brought.
3.) Denver, Colorado was once a place where the people depended on the ecosystem to survive. Industrialization ruined that when it brought airports, restaurants, buildings, and other Taker involvement.
EATE Question:
Why is it taking the human population so long to at least attempt to fix what they broke when they started attacking the environment?
Chapter 7
ReplyDelete1. “Urbanization was a major process of change” (154). Statistics keep saying that the population is growing at an increasing rate. I have never put the ideas together that the reason takers create cities and suburbs is to house all of the people that live on this Earth. If we did not have 10 story apartment buildings with a foot in between them, where would all these people go? When I think about the amount of people that actually live on this Earth it blows my mind. It seems as though there is nothing we can do to prevent things like cities to form because people need a place to live.
2. “Severe episodes of air pollution made hundreds of people ill, and killed many…” (158). Air pollution is one of the biggest environmental downfalls today. It is sad to think that when air pollution started to really build up it was actually killing people, and it still continued to exist. It is even sadder to think that now our bodies have been accustomed to this pollution and we can survive while breathing it in.
3. “Some aggressive non-native species have damaged natural ecosystems in the Grand Canyon” (172). When I read this quote it really made me think about the creatures that live on this planet. I always just assumed that humans came to the planet after animals and just took them over. I never thought about the fact that other animals could be dangerous to certain areas, like takers are to forests and mountains. The same goes for invasive plants. The question is, were the animals and plants always here and invasive or is it because of takers that they are the way they are?
Chapter 8
1. “The use of farm machinery instead of human labor had already begun to decrease the agricultural work force in the United States by 1920” (189). This is something that I have noticed is becoming a concern for people in more than just the farming industry. Farming, it seems, that there is only so far that you can go with machines, and some work just needs to be done by hand, but in many other fields, machines can do the entire job. This lowers the amount of available jobs and makes a lot more very lazy people. It is concerning to think that with the technological advances that have been seen recently, that machines may be created for every job.
2. “The various stages of the agricultural year have rituals that go with them” (196). Religion and agriculture have continually been linked together in many of the cultures we have been reading about. It makes me wonder if having the push to fulfill the wants and needs of the Gods helped to motivate farmers and keep their farming organized or if their rituals just happened to fall during the agricultural calendar stages. Nowadays, agriculture does not seem to be as closely linked with religion and that may be due to the fact that religion has changed greatly since then.
3. On page 206, the author begins discussing nuclear power and warfare throughout the world. I have done much research on events like Hiroshima and it always scares me to know that we are not the only ones with that sort of power. It even scares me to know that the U.S. has that sort of power. The amount of technological advances that have come up in the recent years is astonishing, especially when it comes to weaponry. The fact that the reason for creating these machines is to kill other people is heart breaking and terrifying to think that people have the mindset to create these weapons for that purpose. Nuclear weapons are the most destructive of weapons that the world has seen to both people and the environment.
Will our lives soon be overruled and controlled by machines and robots with the huge technological advances that have been seen in the recent past?
DeleteChapter 7
ReplyDelete1.Population growth is not only detrimental in the sheer increase of natural resources needed to fuel the ever growing flame, but also has negative cumulative effects on the environment such as ecosystems and weather patterns being altered.
2.One of the first and worst problems we have created in our taker system is deforestation. Trees provide habitats for all sorts of life and also serve as a filter for turning carbon dioxide back into oxygen.
3. The amount of fossil fuels being utilized started off small, but has grown exponentially since. The burning of these fuels has already caused untold environmental devastation and will surely have terrible effects which have yet to unfold.
Chapter 8
1. CFC's are one of the major issues Hughes touches upon in the chapter. These dangerous gases literally burn holes in the ozone layer, allowing for the infiltration of too much sunlight, thereby heating the planet and giving animals and plants alike far too much UV radiation.
2. The invention of new agricultural tools led to an increase in food production, and ultimately, as Ishmael says, an increase in population, which furthers all the problems Hughes mentions.
3. An interesting piece of the chapter made me think about how we all need to work together in order to solve the issue of climate change and other environmental concerns. Because we all share the planet, we all share the negative effects caused by one another.
Question: When will environmentalism become THE major issue of the world?
Chapter 7
ReplyDelete1. Since the Takers have been on the Earth there has been major changes in the natural environment. We have caused pollution , deforestation, animals to go extinct, and more! The source of these problems stem from three causes the over use of resources (especially fossil fuels), population growth, and mass production .
2. Throughout the 1960’s our influence on the environment and the changes it caused became more and more evident. A few conservation measures were set in place but they weren’t even close to countering our negative effects. Much of the destruction we caused wasn’t even full known or understood yet.
3. The Grand Canyon: preservation or enjoyment is an exact analogy of or relationship with the Earth itself. The more we continue to “enjoy” it and its resources the less there is to preserve; and unless something is done we will drive it into disrepair and it will be gone forever.
Chapter 8
1. I find the scariest aspect of this entire book, and especially this chapter, is the acceleration of it all, from our population to the mass scale negative effects on the environment. It correlated directly with our population and our cultural and technological advancements. This applies greatly to the comments in the beginning of the chapter on World War 2, the more advanced we became the more lethal and toxic or products and chemicals became.
2. More and more pollutants have gotten into our water ways. Agricultural runoff is one of the largest contributors to this problem; fertilizers and pesticides are left to drain into the river. Ecosystems are destroyed due to this carelessness and the lack of fresh water affects not only the animals but humans as well.
3. Something I find myself writing about in almost every blog post is over population. It is a result of deforestation, habitat destruction, pollution, and more! More focused on this chapter is deforestation whether it be for wood or farming.
Question: Can the solution to our environmental problems be found in more technological advancements? Or is this just human kind feeding more into the taker thunder bolt?
Joshua Popielarczyk
ReplyDeleteChapters 7 & 8
Chapter 7: observation 1
“The seas, 70 percent of the planet’s surface, were depleted almost as critically as the land”. I find it disturbing that a part of the earth humans can’t even survive is still affected by humans. The paragraph goes on to explain how species became extinct due to poaching and pollution. I wonder when the resources on earth are consumed, how the takers will sustain their lust to conquer.
Observation 2:
“Air pollution escalated through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with the spread of coal burning industry to many parts of the world”. This answered my question posed by my first observation. No part of the world, even to its atomic level is safe from the human effect. We have literally polluted or effected every part of this world and its surroundings. And considering taker culture has only been around for 10,000 years, we did it pretty damn fast.
Observation 3:
On page 167 referring to the picture of the tree. This image is not only a beautiful shot of a rare tree, but a picture of hope for the future. The subtext explains how villagers protect these Devaravattikan sacred groves since the time they came upon them. This small act of preserving this species of tree and the many rare animals that survives because of them is a complete necessity. If this mindset spreads, it wont take some monumental event to change, it will just take the masses of people doing their part.
Chapter 8: observation 1
“In 1992, almost 1 billion people had no access to safe water supplies”. This is a terrifying statistic considering it was our pollution that caused most of water borne infections, leaving a billion people out of safe water. Our desire to conquer has literally been prioritized over the existence of our species. Weather or not the companies take responsibility, its foolish for them to not acknowledge that whether or not they want to hurt people, they are.
Observation 2:
I thought the description of Bali sounded ideal for a taker to deplete. The soil’s “good texture” would advocate great crops. The hot weather and often rain means faster growth. The book goes on to explain how much of bali is indeed occupied by wet rice fields or other crops. I thank that if we keep destroying all the most plentiful lands, we will be left with a baron planet stripped of a natural reasources value.
Observation 3:
When reading about Clintons reaction to the environment destruction, he appointed a team to access and create reservations. Theses teams create Late Successional Reserves to safeguard habitat for old growth related species, embracing 3 million ha, or 30 percent of federal forest lands”. Yet this act was fought by the timber companies so that they could suck more profit out of timber sales. They used their connections to get congress to attach “the Salvage Logging Rider to the Rescissions Bill of 1995, exempting logging in the national forests from all conservation laws through 1996”. This is a prime example of profit interests being held above the interest of our planet.
What can we do to implement saving the planet in our lives and those around us?
Chapter 7:
ReplyDelete1. While levels of deforestation increased at startlingly high rates across the planet, some environments were spared the mass destruction of trees due to religious beliefs and practices involving the gods and ancestors in connection to the groves. In the Western Ghats of south India, the practice of honoring sacred groves was part of a pattern that helped to create a sustainable way of life within forest ecosystems. By protecting the forests and ensuring the expansion of groves, the people of the Western Ghats were safeguarding the survival of a continuing supply of important biotic resources.
2.The Grand Canyon’s main purpose is viewed in two very different and competing ways: one belief upholds that the purpose is to conserve the park, and the other lens looks at the park through a much more recreational and enjoyment based manner. With the amounting evidence of negative environmental impacts caused by humans, it is becoming clearer how important a preservation based purpose is, not just for the Grand Canyon but for all national parks.
3. With the reliance on perennial irrigation in countries such as Egypt, the natural system of the watershed is being disrupted. Consequentially, fertilizers are required at a rate that has increased exponentially. The production of fertilizer by factories takes large amounts of power from the dams that are contributing to the erosion and salinization of the land. Fertilizers and pesticides pollute drainage, the very water that is to be pumped to new croplands. This destructive cycle continues to contribute to the disruption of Egypt’s landscape and overall biosphere.
Chapter 8:
1. As substances pass through the food chain, they accumulate in the tissue of plants and then animals, resulting in a higher presence of radioactive and chemical materials that is ingested by top predators. This subjects creatures that exist at the higher end of the food chain, including humans, to increased levels of toxins.
2. While environmentalism became a popular movement in the US, Europe and various other parts of the developed world during the later years of the twentieth century, people in the developing world were less able to get behind such movements. Economic deprivation was a deciding issue for countries in the developing parts of the world. With the economic, educational, and political situations in many of these countries, people saw less of an opportunity to impact decisions of governments and corporations. So while developed countries like the US were able to focus attention on environmentalism, countries with lower economic standings were forced to lag behind.
3. After the Second World War, deforestation became even more essential to the United States’ economy, resulting in a detrimental impact throughout the country’s environment. Industrial forestry dominated the landscape of the national forests, and trees were sold and cut in vast quantities. The US Forest Service considered the timber industry its most important user, validating the clear-cutting that was occurring and thereby leading to the reduction in biodiversity throughout the states.
Question: The Second World War clearly caused an influx of deforestation to occur in the US. Does war make it okay for our country to use up so many resources in such a short amount of time, without paying heed to the immediate and long term damage being done?
Chapter 7
ReplyDelete1. Fossil fuel allowed the exponential growth of the human population, the internal composition engine allowed more food to be grown, and fossil fuels allowed the new surplus to be distributed to the millions. From 1890 1960 the population went from 1.57 to 3.2, and this boom was a result of new petroleum technology.
2. The increase in human population had several effects on the environment, the petroleum based agriculture need more land to grow crops on, which resulted in deforestation, erosion and irrigation led to salination. This factors led to environmental problems such as dustbowls. Another pollution from Petroleum made city living conditions unhealthy and dangerous. Petroleum had catapulted the human race forward, but with a price.
3. Throughout time humans have tried to preserve the environment they were developing. The Indian subcontinent is covered with “Sacred groves”, sections of wood land totally set aside for conservation. This was based on the belief in nature spirits. In America we place large tracts of land in the name of conservation. While both of are under threat, the Sacred groves are falling to a need for wood, and the national parks encourage development at their edges. On both sides of the globe, conserved area are under threat.
Chapter 8
1. The early 21st century was the first time the environmental damage caused by the taker expansion became apparent. The damage was also affecting the entire globe that takers could affect ecosystems that they didn’t live in.
2. Urban environments have a natural impact all their own. Urban centers affect their environment from the animals that can survive in it to changing the weather. Urban centers allow small scavenger species such as coyotes, skunks and raccoons. The urban environment doesn’t allow predators to exist, limiting biodiversity.
3. Humans have gone beyond normal environmental change, we have added things in to the biosphere that were never seen before. CFCs have thinned the ozone layer, and created a hole over the Antarctic continent.
Is Bali’s stable and low impact farming achievable on a global scale, or is it only possible on a local scale?
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Chapter 7 - Exploitation and conservation
ReplyDelete1. There were many factors that contributed to taker exploitation of our biosphere, but one that stands out particularly was the idea of, "increasing spatial separation of production and consumption. Increasing individualistic freedom, by having the infrastructure to allow for easy transportation across long distances, made us able to branch out into frontiers that were previously woodland and wild. It also allowed us to ship food far distances, and separate the consumer from the production aspect of things, so that they don't know what, where, or how their food is being produced. This allows for production to progress to unhealthy scales simply, because it is out of the public eye.
2. We still place importance on woodlands, and the natural world, but it is more for the sake of recreation and aesthetic beauty than utilitarian, or the appreciation/respect for the natural world. We've fenced it off, and designated areas to be conserved, when it should've been the other way around where we should've fenced off, and designated specific areas to be developed. We are an imposition on the planet, because at this point, we've built on, or affected more land than not. If you see taker culture and infrastructure as a cancer of the Earth, well then the prognosis would not be good.
3. There is a heavy focus in taker culture today on economy, with ecology being but an afterthought. With these values, our economy has prospered, while our environment has been suffering. Now the negative effects our conduct has caused in our environment are affecting the sustainability of our economy. We must balance the two to survive.
Q: What are some programs and systems of thought we can implement in the societal machine today to stress the importance of our ecology, demonstrate to takers that their economy is dependent on our ecology, and that without the well-being of the environment- all systems will fail?
Chapter 8 - Modern environmental problems
1. We have the technology and intelligence present in our society to revive and conserve our failing ecosystems, but instead they are being used with economic advancement and financial gain in mind. There are computers so smart as to map the human genome, but we cannot use these technologies to decipher to the intricate rhythm and patterns of our own environment, to better understand and protect it.
2. The coastline is a place were many plants and animals call home. The tidal and coastal ecosystems are crucial to our worlds' well-being. But these places are also the focal points of our economic system. Humans choose to live close to the shoreline, because it is easier to get around and the aesthetic beauty of it is captivating. The paradigm here is that the things that make it so beautiful are aspects of the natural world, that are being endangered by us settling there in such numbers.
3. Some taker cultures, especially eastern cultures, put much stock in the natural world, how we treat it, and the relationship with it, but with the onset of a globalized society, these people are able to see the socioeconomic advantage of exploitation, and by the masses, societies are converting to the capitalist model to try and meet the demands of a globalized economy. While technology is connecting us, we should use that connection to promote conservation, preservation and symbiosis with the environment- not its exploitation.
Q: How can we teach second and third-world cultures how to prosper both economically and ecologically? We have a blank slate with these people and their cultures, and we should use this opportunity to teach them new ways to deal with these problems (in experimentation), so that we may alter our own model and use their successes as ways to stress the value of ecology.
Chapter 7:
ReplyDelete1.Throughout the 19th and 20th century, the wide spread of urbanization took a heavy toll on the environment. It was through heavy exploitation of fossil fuels that in turn increased the demand for the ever growing taker population.
2.The deforestation of trees was still ever present even in this modern era where Takers were well aware of the ecological impacts they were causing to themselves as well as other organisms.
3.The Grand Canyon does serve a similar purpose to that of how the Ghats of India respected as well as admired sacred areas of land. If we continue to show the same level of respect to the earth as they did, maybe there is some hope of preserving what earth we have left.
Chapter 8:
1.In this chapter particular I found that all of the horrors that come with the Taker way of living were exposed. Especially pertaining to our technology and how we continue to make the world’s most deadly toxins.
2.The biggest wake-up call the takers got in the present century was that we may not be affected by the resources we use, but other neighboring countries or states are. It was this time that Takers really understood that we are all affecting each other and it could risk those peoples very way of living if it continues.
3.With things lie pesticides and the use of fossil fuels elsewhere, its places like Bali that are running the risk of losing all they once held dear. With all the rice fields popping up and more forests and lush land is depleted, eventually nothing will be able to live or grow there.
Question: Do governments really have the power to change, or do the corporations bully them into submission
Chapter 7:
ReplyDelete1. Renewable resources can only be used so much until they may be exhausted. The growth of the human population does not help the use of our renewable resources unless people start caring and paying attention to what they use during their daily routine.
2. Technology is a huge factor of adding to the human development. Technology has come a long way from the use of fossil fuels to coal production to diesel to natural gas and now all of the gas powered tractors and chainsaws.
3. There has been a decline in biodiversity. “The rate of extinctions has increased with each century, and in the twentieth it began to increase noticeably with each decade” (157).
Chapter 8:
1. It is now known that environmental issues affect the Earth. “Almost every ecosystem was either degraded or seriously threatened” (187). Human activities harm the earth as well and can cause earthquakes.
2. “Agriculture became more intensive and more productive in the late twentieth century due to trends in agricultural technology” (189). Farmers were trying to get high yields out of their crops as well as using industrial fertilizers and pesticides.
3. Deforestation was a huge issue in the twentieth century as well. In the Tropics especially, they were losing their natural forests. Timber started to be under priced.
Question:
Would Denver’s history of the environment be different today if they cut back on pollution back in the day?
Chapter 7
ReplyDelete1. The increase of human population was more than the Earth can handle due to human impacts upon the environment. Not even just using resources, but urbanization took its toll when cities were changing climates. The use of technology, such as airplanes, helped transport sicknesses and invasive species easier.
2. Sacred groves were a traditional way to preserve areas. However, it backfired when the British came to India and only saw the sacred groves as resource lands. Tribes even ended up worshipping their groves by cutting down the trees to create temples, so as to not seem animalistic in worshipping.
3. The High Dam of Egypt was thought to have improved agriculture, however it was also built for political purposes, such as being a monument. The water released from the dam causes the land below it to be eroded by the forceful, yet clean water. Additionally, the area for farming decreased due to urbanization and salinization.
Chapter 8
1. Humans have realized their impact on the environment affects the whole world, and isn’t just a local effect. Events such as disease, climate, and earthquakes can be caused by human influence. Many natural events are no longer entirely natural.
2. The explosion of population causes people to naturally want to expand to create more food. Whether they have the area to do that or not doesn’t matter, as humans will do what they can to maximize food production. The Green Revolution was a big food genetic modification experiment.
3. Radiation is a huge problem that humans are a catalyst of. Chernobyl’s effects are still talked about. It’s shown by food chains and the amount of radioactivity in predators. Radiation effectively moves around the world, such as when plants are burned and their ashes spread.
Question: If religion wasn’t a factor, how would that have affected how humans treated the environment? Would it have slowed down or sped up the destruction of the environment caused by human impact?