Learning Experience

     After listening to McKibben's podcast, and taking the bioregional quiz many questions regarding life around the planet come up. The quiz asks questions regarding the planet with questions asking about what types of grass and trees are around, where food and water come from, and other questions. These questions lead to more questions, where does food and sources of water come from? The quiz leads to many questions that help lead to investigation to answer thee questions. The podcast added to that yearn to investigate, in the podcast McKibben discusses how the world around has changed. The podcast ties in with the quiz because the quiz asks questions that would have been easily answered in the past. The new and current world does not care what kind of grass sidewalks are laid down on or where exactly the food found on the plate comes from. A lot can be taken from the combination of both the quiz and podcast, one of the big pieces being the realization that Earth has indeed greatly changed, and that the Earth is viewed differently then the past.

     One thing is for certain the combination of the quiz and podcast is an "eye-opener" in the fact that the combination questions the general view of the planet Earth. How much does the average person know about the food on the table, or the water in the cup, or the area around the shelter. The way the quiz describes the average person is that the average person would not be able to survive very long in the natural wilderness. Clear changes have occurred, the average person has forced themselves to become dependent on the current living style, there is no going back to a more natural lifestyle without serious changes that would have to occur over a large period of time.

Things Have Changed

     In many way things have changed. I came to this realization after I took a "Geo" Quiz (link at the bottom) and listened to both parts of Bill McKibben's Eaarth podcasts (link also at the bottom). Things have greatly changed in this world, when I took the quiz I realized how much I really don't know about the world around me it was honestly a shocker. It asked me questions about my bioregion and I honesty didn't know the answers to some questions. Some of the questions included asking what species of grass were outside of my shelter, what animals are endangered, and where is my food and water from. Just those handful of questions alone got me thinking, then I listened to the podcast which added on. Bill McKibben discusses some of his views which were expressed in his work Eaarth. He made many points about how the world has changed (thus the extra a in the spelling of Earth). He discusses different things that he thinks would help move us in a different direction and how the world could change. I would suggest looking at this links yourselves because it was certainly interesting and makes one think more.


Quiz: https://sites.google.com/site/plenzdorf/bioregionalquiz
Podcast:
(Part 1) http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=bill-mckibbens-eaarth-10-04-21
(Part 2)http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=bill-mckibbens-eaarth-conclusion-10-04-22&WT.mc_id=SA_emailfriend

Claiming Back Our Beaches and Oceans

          Floating around our oceans are massive “Garbage Islands.” These islands are made of tons upon tons of garbage created by the garbage that does not make it to the dump. All of this garbage comes from debris and liter thrown into the water and eventually ends up in our oceans. Currents from across the globe have pulled all of this garbage together and have formed actual islands that spans miles long. The current estimated guess is that the “islands” span the size of Texas, but research has suggested it could be larger.

            The “Island Civilization” could prevent this because everyone would have to be self-sustaining and take care of their garbage, but humans could still be too lazy to take care of their garbage properly. Though the “civilizations” that choose to live near the oceans would more than likely take care of the oceans and treat it with respect, the responsibility cannot fall on them alone. Other colonies could still dump their garbage into the rivers and streams that would eventually end up in the ocean. The beaches would not be able to handle all of this on their own; the “Island Civilizations” who live near water would have to take care of their water sources. IF the civilizations were to actually be self-sustaining and take care of their water source then the issue of the garbage islands could be taken care of and prevented from ever happening again. It would be a huge step in a cleaner direction.

            The place that would benefit the most would be the beaches, no more liter and garbage would wash ashore if all went according to plan and the beaches would be cleaner and the water cleaner. The wildlife nearby would also once again have a fighting chance without having to dodge sinking garbage and have to seek shelter elsewhere when the garbage ruins their homes and habitat.

Garbage Island Source: http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/translating-uncle-sam/stories/what-is-the-great-pacific-ocean-garbage-patch

Response to Roderick Nash’s Island Civilizations.

Roderick discusses in his piece Island Civilizations about his own ideas and thoughts on his vision of human occupancy on earth. He discusses his ideas regarding how we as humans could make changes in our society during the fourth millennium. The concept of moving into an age of being “future primitive” plays a serious role. This role would include taking both steps forwards and backwards in society. That may be a confusing idea, the writer was suggesting that we not only take steps forward to continue to help society but also go back to the more “primitive” times when we would live of the “fat of the land” as some would say. The writer does not simply suggest that we revert back to the simple times as primitives because he does argue that we are making serious advances in technology and medicine that would most likely help society continue to succeed in that aspect. There are some aspects, which we could tone down and go back.

The concept of “wilderness” is also mentioned numerous times. The concept has greatly changed in the past millennium. Once the woods would be considered easily safe and the rolling hills was a simple place, neither considered wilderness nor wild. The writer discusses how in present society we fear the wild and feel the need to tame it and control it. We feel the need to flatten the rolling hills and cut down the unknown.

The writer makes some bold remarks regarding society but was very straight foreword in his ideas and explaining his beliefs. The concept of an island community where society would only make small impacts on the wild and let the rest be self willed.

I though his theory was quite interesting, generally on subjects of social change I have not read where going back and going forward have gone hand in hand. There is a balance, we as a society can grow in technology and medicine along with other things and still convert back to the wild and free will of a natural society. The balance is what was key for me as a reader to hold on to, along with the clear message that did not directly attack the current society. The writer simply was suggesting and publishing his theory in a manner that could not be taken as an offence to current society, while making remarks about change

I very much agree with his theory, the term “wilderness” has drastically changed over the past hundred years. Society today seems to want to control everything and tame the wild. It wants to flatten the rolling hills, tame the lives of the wild creatures, and remove the unknown to make more room to expand the known world. Taking steps back is a good idea and let the earth make it’s own decisions for a bit, before we use up all that we have.

I also agree that even there are some issues with society, we are making steps in the right direction and it is essential that we continue to do so. We are making advances in technology and medicine that are also friendly to Earth. Also mentioned was that we are taking steps to protect our environment and to conserve the “wild.” Laws protecting land and endangered animals have ben signed and enforced. We have not lost all of our ideals regarding our planet and the things around us.

I strongly agree with the piece that Roderick Nash wrote. It was very well written and informative, he had strong ideals and they were clearly original. I enjoyed reading this piece and thought the balance of retracing our steps in history and moving forward was done in a way where it was balanced and understandable.


-John Walsh