Final Project

Post # 15:

I have really enjoyed Colloquium. Learning about so many different topics has made this class a memorable one, more so than any other class I have taken this summer. By covering so much material in such a short periode of time, I have to be honest and say that with all my classes and working, I was a little overwhelmed at times. But I got through it and learned a ton, and that's all that matters.


 I would have to say that learning as much as I did about climate change was probably the highlight of the class for me. I couldn't believe how little I knew about our planet before this summer. Now, I am now able to educate others about the things I have learned. The video I enjoyed the most was "A Crude Awakening". I found it so incredibly interesting because I, like most people, had never even thought about what life would be like with out oil. It actually shocked me how much I took it for granted. We are so dependant on it that we don't even realize how much of it we actually use, or what we use it for. Although I don't think it will deplete within my lifetime, it wont be that far away and I am interested in what type of energy we will use as a replacement to oil. 


I believe that what I learned in this class will stick with me for quite some time. I have always been one who recycles, but now it actually makes me upset when people tell me they don't. I even talked to my old manager about starting to recycle at the restaurant I used to work at because it actually kept me up one night thinking about all the glass that gets thrown away instead of recycled. Colloquium has also inspired me to want to volunteer again in Africa, or somewhere else in need of help, after graduation in the Fall. It would be difficult to learn all of the things I did during this class and not let them affect me, or the way I live my life. The education I recieved in this class will stay with me for a lifetime.

Ding Darling

Ding Darling was another fun experience. Our tour guide was very well educated on the plants and animals that inhabit Southwest Florida. She was able to answer EVERY question that I or anyone else on the tour had and kept us all entertained. I had never been to a refuge center before, but was glad to hear that, acre wise, Florida is home to more refuge land than anywhere else in the country, and the United States is home to more refuge land than anywhere else in the world. Our guide did tell us that they have to keep an orange mesh fence around the site during tourist season because photographers were comming in and disturbing the wildlife in order to get pictures! This was shocking to me. It doesn't make much sense to kill the wildlife while you are trying to support preserving it. My favorite part of the tour was the location where the water gets pumped through from one side of the road to the other. Our guide told us that by doing that it keeps the mosquito population down. That sandbar that is created by the pumping of waterinterferes with the breeding grounds for mosquitos and where they lay their eggs. It is the most effective way to keep the population down as well as the least expensive. I thought that was very interesting. Also, being from Minnesota, land of 10,000 lakes and 10,000,000 misquitos I was shocked to hear that Florida has more! In fact, there are more types of mosquitos in Florida than anywhere else in the country! Our guide also told us that a couple years ago there was a flamingo spotted in Sanibel. I guess it decided it liked the other coeast better because it never returned.

Post #14: Service Learning

My service learning experience was at Koreshan State Historic Site on the corner of Hwy 41 and Corkscrew Road. During my time there I worked on many different projects. The first day I was there I did some standard upkeep around the historic site. I swept the walkways, steps and decks of the buildings, and raked the debris from the shell walkways around the site. I learned a lot about the Koreshans from reading the information boards around the site and watching a video on display during my break. Although I think that what the Koreshans believed in was ridiculous, I still found it interesting that they developed their own self sustaining environment. They had their own general store, bakery, laundry facility, work shop, water system and eventually their own electricity, thanks to Thomas Edison.

My second day there I organized some paperwork for Michael Heare in his office. After that I pulled air potatoes. Air potatoes, like Brazilian or Australian Pine, are not native to Florida. These air potato vines take over everything, and because they are not part of Florida's natural landscape the park does not want them there. I'm not gonna lie, this was not my favorite part of my experience due to all the mosquitoes, but I was glad to help support the park in maintaining Florida's natural landscape. 

All in all, I had a great experience. I learned a lot about the history of the Koreshans and the park itself. I also really enjoyed the trails and am planning on going back to do some kayaking.

Downtown Fort Myers River District

I had a lot of fun on the Downtown Fort Myers River District field trip. I have been living in Estero for three years now and have never taken the time to go up there. Little did I know, there is a lot of history in Fort Myers. I went there with my boyfriend. We had dinner at Ichiban and then did the scavenger hunt afterward. I had no idea there was so many things to do there. It is a very lively part of town on the weekends with lots of live music and places to eat and drink. It did take us a lot longer than expected, but we both got really into it and had a lot of fun. It started to rain quite heavily about an hour and a half into the hunt. We went inside some of the shops until the rain let up a little. By the time it did it was getting pretty dark so it took us even longer to find what we were looking for. We did the best we could and learned a lot about the area while doing so. My favorite building we went into was the Arcade Theatre. I had a good feeling while walking around in there, you could almost feel the history, kindve like being in an old antique shop. We didn't take any pictures because we were too busy looking for the items on the list and I'm kind of bummed about that. Some of the old buildings, like the old courthouse, look  to be in really good shape still. They are very pretty with lots of detail and hard work put into building them. 

Echo

Echo was a great experience for me. I learned a lot about the organization and love that they are able to touch the lives of so many people. Teaching others who are less fortunate to become self sustainable using the resources they already have is the best way to solve the hunger problem. Building a self sustaining farm is much cheaper than donating food, and it gives them an endless supply. The most interesting part of the experience to me was the Duck and Tilapia Pond. I found it so interesting that the combination of having those two animals sharing the same enviornment makes a self sustaining food supply. It requires very little effort to maintain and produces a lot of food. Another interesting thing I learned was how to purify water using solar energy. This is something that I feel everyone should know because you never know when you will have to use it. I think that by teaching this to people in thhird world countries it will solve a lot of clean water shortage problems. They can utilize this for drinking and cooking and never run out. I also though it was interesting how you could use solar energy, although I don't remember how it is done, to bake foods. If they are given the resources this could help from having to cut down a abundance of firewood. I think that this is a wonderful organization. Educating people is the best gift you can give them. It is knowledge that they can continue to pass on and improve the life of others. I think that it is organizations like this one that can help the most in solving the hunger crisis around the world.

Post #13: Endgame

It is unbelievable how little people, including me, know about politics. The majority of political information people get is from either the news or other people, both incredibly inaccurate. They don't want to take the time to do their own research so they blindly follow what others are saying, the problem being they are not listening to a credible source. Most people do not know what happens behind the scenes when plans are met, all they know is the outcome. And they tend to only hold one person accountable even though their are MANY parties involved. I have become to hold an increasing amount of respect for Al Gore due to the research I have done in this class. What really stuck out to me in this article was how quickly people turn on politicians when they don't have their facts straight. After all the hard work Al Gore put in trying to preserve the everglades people attacked him when they didn't get what they wanted.

Their is so much to take into consideration in politics it almost gives you a headache reading about it, and the plan to conserve the Everglades was no exception. Everyone wants to be kept happy, and everyone wants to keep everyone happy. Deals are being made, promises are being broken and politicians are changing their minds. Meanwhile, communities are going up in arms and blaming the wrong people and in the midst of all this the environment is suffering and no one can come to an agreement on what to do about it. I hope that eventually the Everglades will be as vibrant and full of life as they once were but it's going to take a lot of understanding on many different accounts.

Post #12: Love It or Lose It

In this excerpt Orr refers to being disconnected from nature as suffering from biophobia. He describes this as someone who surrounds themselves with constant technology such as television, internet, and video games. People like this usually live in cities or suburban areas where nature is very seldom. People who become accustom to living in these conditions are usually afraid of any sort of wildlife including water and land because of their disconnection. Biophilia, on the other hand, is someone who wants to be constantly around other forms of life than their own. Orr explains that there was a shift throughout the late middle ages that resulted in humans either being biophilic or biophobic, there usually is no common middle ground.

Biophobia is not a healthy way of living. First of all, it it not fair to leave all the work of preserving our planet to biophiliacs. Second of all, it can lead to a deformed childhood that results in an angry adult. I agree with this because of Louv's excerpt from the beginning of the semester. He talked about the importance of the outdoors in the lives of children in order to enhance their well-being.

I am confident that mankind has the power to love the planet. If not the planet in itself, I agree with Orr that we are capable of loving what "we can see, touch, smell and experience". The importance of keeping children continuously connected to the outdoors is crucial in deterring biophobia from happening in the first place.

Post #11: The Land Ethic

In this excerpt the author talks about the fact that ethically there is no tie between mankind and the land. In the beginning of the excerpt he explains how Odysseus hung a dozen female slaves for suspecting misbehavior while he was away. He uses Odysseus as an example of how we treat our land, which is nothing greater than property that is there to fulfill our needs.

We as humans do not take care of our planet the way we should. We do not take care of our waters, nor the animals inhabiting our waters. We cut down forests without thinking twice, ruining the habitat of many different species of life. We have driven animals to extinction. Although it has been said to protect our planet in many important scriptures dating as far back as Bible, we still have not yet grasped the concept. While many of our leaders do understand the importance of protecting our planet, conservation efforts are always put on the back burners. I think what the author is trying to say is that it doesn't matter how much you educate people about conservation; if there isn't a sincere, heartfelt connection made or values instilled in one another, change will never be made.

Human beings, as a whole, are pretty selfish creatures. Besides loved ones, they don't care a whole lot about things that hold no economic value. Nature can not pay our bills, therefore, we don't want to spend the time protecting it when we can utilize that precious time to benefit ourselves. The author claims that mankind has "outgrown" the land. We no longer hold love, respect, or admiration for the land, therefore, we do not value it the way we should. Instead we focus on the materialistic things of the world only value what the land does for us in an economic sense. I would definetely say that we have lost touch with nature.

Corkscrew Sanctuary

As I was walking up to the visitors center I noticed the interpretive signs. After reading them I learned that the endangered Wood Stork only inhabits the swamp during the dry months of the summer and early spring to mate. I have never seen any kind of stork in person so I was a little disappointed that we would not see them considering it is late June, but was excited to see other forms of wildlife and vegetation. After reading that the swamp is filled solely by rain water I was expecting the water level to be pretty low since we haven't had much rain yet this summer. I then learned about the Plume Birds being hunted almost to extinction for their feathers, at this point I knew that Corkscrew Sanctuary was someplace special. It is one of the last remaining functional parts of the Southwest Florida Ecosystem, and is preserved in order to maintain the existence of some very rare forms of life including the rare bald cypress. Inside the visitors center I learned that the strangler fig is a source of food and shelter for many wildlife creatures. It wraps itself around a host and it is unknown as to whether it feeds off the host or not. 

As we started down the boardwalk the first thing I noticed was a measuring unit sticking out of the ground to measure the water depth. There was no water, in fact it was almost completely bone dry, except for the little bit moisture that appeared to be in the soil. It appears that the changes to the drainage system in order to accommodate agriculture and population growth has greatly effected the natural wetlands of Southern Florida. Redirecting the natural water flow has caused wetlands to dry up, which greatly impacts the wildlife in the areas affected. Because the area is so dry, it cannot support wildlife. I saw no animals, only insects, because there is no food for them. The lettuce lakes were not lakes at all, but instead flatter areas of shorter vegetation growth where you could determine were once full of water.

While I was there I did get a very rare opportunity to see a Ghost Orchid. This orchid is endangered and only blooms once a year. Corkscrew sanctuary had a scope set up on the boardwalk to view the orchid since it was too far away to see with the naked eye. There were seven blooms and more buds ready. It was beautiful! I only wish that I could have seen it close up.

Corkscrew Sanctuary was a wonderful experience for me. However, it was very disappointing to see the lack of wildlife in an area that once thrived with it. To see everything so dry was very unsettling. Freshwater releases need to be made in order to sustain the life of our estuaries and the wildlife that depend on them for survival.

Untold stories of Fort Myers

I was very surprised by the information I learned about Fort Myers. Being from Minnesota, I know next to nothing about this area. Being a Twins fan, of course, I have been going to pre-season games since I moved down here. I found it interesting that they have been coming here for spring training since just after WWII. I didn't even know Minnesota had a team back then. Another interesting piece of information I learned was that this area was originally Monroe county, before becoming independent from Key West. My grandparents have always told me that I am a descendant of General Robert E. Lee so I was pleased to find out that the county was named after him. I visited Edison's home not long after I moved down here but was shocked at how many people were on record to have passed through his home. Not knowing that Edison's wife had dreams of having a college named after him, I am very pleased that was made possible in the 1960's. I had no idea that Fort Myers was such a historic city. Now that I am aware, I am looking forward to spending my evening there tonight. I love learning the history of historic cities. I enjoy visiting them and wondering what it would have been like to live during a previous time period. I live in Estero and rarely ever go to Fort Myers, let alone downtown Fort Myers. I think The furthest North I have gone is Edison Mall, which I was surprised has been around since the 60's.

Post #10: Bush 60 minutes

It's hard to believe how much politics play a part in just about everything. The fact that the government is trying to cover up, or mislead us of the dangers of global warming seems a little ridiculous when you think about it. With the internet and knowledge at our fingertips, anyone can do independent research on the matter. It also seems a little unfair for the government to lie or withhold information from their citizens. Why does George Bush think that he should be able to make the executive decision as to whether or not American citizens should be able to be fully informed about what is happening to their planet? On the other hand, I do believe that some Americans just plain don't care about the effects that global warming is having on our planet. Some people don't really want to know, while others don't understand it. I think that is a big part of why the government tried to cover it up for so long.  I think that the Bush administration didn't think that many Americans would understand  even if it was explained to them and were afraid that some may even panic. Whatever the reason, lying isn't fair or honest. As a society, Americans have become more informed of the dangers of global warming. The government has been honest about the importance of preventing it, now we just have to start doing something about it.

Post #9: Global Dimming

The idea that the sun is producing less solar energy when the temperature is increasing is puzzling. However, since global warming is caused by greenhouse gases neglecting to release heat back out of the atmosphere this is a good thing. If the sun were increasing solar energy simultaneously with global warming we probably would have fried like bacon by now. The idea of the pan evaporation decreasing sparks a memory of mine. Not long after moving to Florida from Minnesota I hung a wet towel outside to dry. Because the temperature was rather hot outside I assumed it wouldn't take long. After going to retrieve the towel several hours later I noticed it had not seemed to have dried even the slightest bit. I then concluded that it must have been because of the humidity, or amount of moisture in the air not allowing it to dry. It seems as though I was partially correct with this analysis of the situation. Evaporation levels are effected by both humidity and heat. As far as pollution being the culprit of global dimming, this does not surprise me. If pollution is not allowing as much heat to escape the atmosphere it is likely not letting as much in either. Thus, resulting in a decrease of solar energy. This decrease in solar energy affects the monsoon patterns in Africa, resulting in famine. Those who are busy criticizing scientists for being concerned with the planet while there are people starving need to look at the big picture. I' m not saying that ending global warming will feed the starving people in our world, but it definitely has a snowball affect, it has been proven over and over again.

Post #8: "As the World Burns"

Politics can be a little confusing at times. This article almost made it seem like a popularity contest, and not just with voters, but among the politicians as well. They go back and forth seeing who they can get on "their side", meanwhile they are betraying others in order to get ahead. It reminds me a little of the reality television show Survivor. Politicians will appear to be on a certain side, then switch at the last moment. In Obama's acceptance speech he claimed that "Energy we have to deal with today, health care is priority No. 2". By having six republicans on their side before voting took place for the bill they did not foresee an issue with it being passed, or so they claimed. So why was it not passed? How did climate change become so unimportant to Obama and the other lawmakers? Why have they decided to put it on the back burner? After all the hard work they put into developing the comprehensive bill that they did, it is hard for me to believe that they wouldn't do anything it took to get it passed, especially when they appeared to be so passionate about it. Or were they? All of the politicians involved in writing the bill, John Kerry, Lindsey Graham and Joseph Lieberman, seemed as though they had an alternative motive for writing it. They all had a negative stigma attached to them at that time in the eyes of their colleagues and voters. Maybe they did it to have a more positive persona, or make scientists and voters believe they are acting on the subject to shut them up for awhile. I personally think that behind all politics is just a popularity contest among greedy, self gratifying liars.

Post #7: Cognitive Dissonance

I really enjoyed this article and found it to be very interesting. It made me think of many times that I have fallen subject to cognitive dissonance, as well as others I know. I found it interesting how some people almost subconsciously fabricate things to excuse their behavior or make themselves look better with out thinking about it, or even so much as considering that what the other person said is true. I guess that it's considered such a social norm to respond that way when things reflect negatively on you, that I never really thought about in any sort of depth. I liked how the author talked about it from two different angles as well. He first talked about cognitive dissonance in terms of responding negatively to something that makes you look foolish and hurts your pride, for example, finding out you have been wasting your time stretching when it is not necessary. Then, the author talked about it in terms of something you are shameful of, like smoking. In both cases you got basically the same reaction, but for two different reasons. The author also talked about the difference between responding rationally and rationalizing. Responding rationally is when you welcome the information, look into the data yourself, and methodically choose to either accept or disregard the information. Rationalizing would of course be making excuses for, or rationalizing, your behavior, which is what most people do. Although most people would read this article and agree that kind of behavior is ridiculous and immature, we are all guilty of cognitive dissonance. This just shows how important our egos are to us Americans. However, I must say that I think men, as a whole, partake in this behavior more frequently than women. I believe that it is safe to say that males have a harder time admitting they are wrong than females do. Therefore, more often than not, men rationalize and women respond rationally :-)

Post #6: Global Warming

Global warming has been a debated topic for quite some time now. Some realize the dangers we face if we don't do anything about it, while others believe it does not exist at all. Before watching the National Geographic videos on the subject I really did not know the severity of the issue. I thought that it was something that we didn't need to worry about for quit awhile. I was wrong. If we do not start changing our behavior now it will be too late. It was very scary to see what will happen to our planet if the earth gets one degree warmer let alone two or three. Just knowing that the melting of Greenland will cause so many major cities to flood is enough to start making changes. Not to mention the effects of rising temperatures in Alaska and parts of Canada is having on the disappearance of polar bears, caribou, and on many other animals that live in these colder climates. We, as a planet, need to find alternative sources for burning carbon fuel, which is what is causing the global climate change. Right now the planet is warming too quickly for the animals to adapt to the change. If we do not stop the earth's temperature form rising it will be the end of many species, which could inevitably result in the end of our as well. Global warming is in fact very much a reality. If we continue to go on as we have been there will be detrimental effects on our planet that are irreversible. We will be forced to make change at that point, but it will be too late.

Post #5: A Tale of Two Farms

I think that it is ironic that this article was published in 2005, before the United States went into a recession. Hopefully The U.S. is only going through a minor decline, as opposed to a full-fledged collapse, as described in the excerpt. This idea had me wondering if in the future people would travel to the U.S. to experience what people today experience when traveling to Myan cities, Greece, and Zimbabwe. Will people visit the U.S. wondering what happened to us? Jared Diamond talks about these societies and how the abandonment was more often than not, triggered by ecological problems: "people inadvertently destroying the environmental resources on which their societies depended". This sounds like something that could definitely lie ahead in the future for the United States. We have been doing this for many years now and everyone seems to be ignoring all of the red flags and warning signs. Mr. Diamond also discusses climate change, both natural and unnatural, and how that has an affect on falling societies.  Global warming is an example of unnatural climate change because it is being inflicted by humans. I believe the earth can more easily bounce back from a natural climate change, like the Ice Age, than from global warming because a natural climate change occurs much slower. This gives the earth more time to adapt. Global warming is increasing at a rapid pace and neither the earth, or it's animals are going to have time to adapt. 

Post #4: Hope for Animals and Their World

I really enjoyed this reading by Jane Goodall, Gail Hudson and Thane Maynard. Their stories of restoration of wildlife is absolutely inspiring. This excerpt gives reality to the idea of must needed restoration all over the world. Not only do they provide the reader with heartfelt stories but also an idea of how to make it happen; repeating is easier than doing it the first time. Many times they spoke of the high cost of restoration, which is the reality of it. Restoration is extremely expensive but I think that  companies who destroy the land should be responsible for restoring it. One of my favorite stories was "The Man Who Restored Forests to a Mountain". In this story a young boy had a dream to restore the forest to Mountain that had lost all vegetation to an copper mine. After many years of dedicated work the man was able to get the Kennecott Company to clean up their mess. The Mountain now flourishes with trees and other vegetation single-handily planted by him and has brought back forest life. They went on with many stories of restoring life to fresh water sources such as lakes, rivers and streams. The dedication of the people involved in these stories has brought animal life back from near extinction. "The Amazing Return of the Coho Salmon" is a great example of how there is hope for these animals in the future, but that it is up to us to make it happen. When I read "Why Save the Endangered Species?" I'm not ashamed to say that I cried... numerous times. I guess what hit me the most was these peoples passion and dedication to the survival of these animals. How fulfilling their lives must be to experience what they have experienced and accomplish what they have accomplished thus far. It really makes your heart hurt reading these stories. How desperate these animals are for our help, and also how important their survival is for all walks of life. The more I read and the more I experience in this class, the more I cannot believe how disconnected I am to the earth and so connected to materialistic things. This class has really got me thinking how the majority of us live very shallow lives. I have to share the most heart wrenching words, by Rod Sayler, I found in this excerpt that really woke me up. "We are treading too harshly on the earth and consuming and degrading too much of the planet. If we allow extinctions to happen through ignorance and greed, then with the loss of each endangered species and unique population, our world becomes less diverse and strikingly less beautiful and mysterious. Our oceans, grasslands, and forests will echo with silence, and the human heart will know that something is missing- but it will be too late".

Post #3 Biodiversity

According to Vandana Shiva, Biodiversity means "the diversity of life". In other words, biodiversity is the variety of all life on earth. Biodiversity is very important because it boosts ecosystem productivity where each species, no mater how big or small, play an important role in sustaining life. Shiva states that the destruction of biodiversity will lead to none other than the destruction of livelihood to people of third world countries that make their living by farming or fishing. I found Shiva's words to be very powerful. I especially liked when he stated that "all life forms have an intrinsic worth and a right to evolve freely on their own terms". This is very true, and so, humans have absolutely no right to disrupt the natural cycle of things. Shiva states that we are just one of millions of species on this planet, therefore, we have no right to "push other species to extinction, or to manipulate them for greed, profit and power without concern for their wellbeing". This was very well stated, unfortunately that is precisely what we are doing. Shiva brings up another good point when discussing how people in the biotechnology business, as well as most of North America, do not respect plants and animals as they should. They merely see them for how hey benefit us and not as how important they are as part of our ecosystem. For example, in relation to farming, we view animals as food for consumpion. The lack of respect is initially what is ruining biodiversity in the first place. Biodiversity is also diminishing in an agricultural aspect as well. There are fewer crops because mankind has decided that only the appetizing ones are important to keep sustained. For example, in the Netherlands a single potato variety makes up 80% of potato growing. This shows that as a whole, humans are shifting closer towards monoculture and uniformity as opposed to diversity. This does not look good for our biodiversity.

Post #2 Predators

Not until recently was I informed of the importance of predators in our ecosystem. Most people view them as a threat when they are actually quite the opposite. Predators can be intimidating when they come too close to our habitats but are vital in keeping the ecosystem balanced and acting as it should. Most of us know that our technological advances, such as commercial building and road construction, have caused wildlife to diminish in numbers, but do not understand how it is detrimental to us. The extinction of wildlife in certain areas has disrupted the natural cycle of the environment by knocking it off balance. This happened in Yellowstone National Park in he 1930's when the wolves were hunted to extinction throughout the park because people viewed them as a threat. The depletion of the wolves caused changes to the park that no one ever thought possible! Because the wolves were gone the elk increased in numbers consuming all the vegetation because they lacked a predator. The lack of vegetation in the soil caused the trees to stop growing which impacted the whole ecosystem tremendously. Without growth of new trees there was no beavers building dams, which is very important in creating a healthy downstream ecosystem. Most people don't understand that the depletion of one thing in an ecosystem causes a domino effect disrupting the entire system. What happened in Yellowstone in the 1930's is beginning to happen now in our oceans. We need to start changing our behavior now or we are going to suffer the consequences later.

Post #1: Sense of place and the great outdoors

I believe that my "sense of place" is no different than the average college student my age, and that is what I like to call "in transition". At my age life is changing a little bit every moment. Everyday I'm a little bit older, smarter and well... wiser. The years of carefree play and zero responsibility are over. Back then having a sense of place came naturally, without having to define it, or even necessarily knowing you embodied it. College can be hectic, but even in the most confusing times everyone has things that they are sure of, for me, that's God, family, education, and life itself... all life. These things that I hold dear to me will always give me a sense of place, even when I'm unsure of everything else. Being a college student, it's easy to say that I value education, but not everyone can honestly say that they have a passion for it. I am not be a tree huger, but I do believe that education of our planet is important in order to protect and sustain the life on it, including ours. When I was young my parents couldn't keep me inside. I have always been intrigued by nature and other forms of life. There is endless knowledge to learn about our planet so why not start with southwest Florida? In today's world of chaos, confusion and uncertainty I find my "sense of place" in the things I love, and that includes the great outdoors!