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.