Presentation 4/17 Argentina

Dr. Taylor's class, please comment on my presentation I am giving today.

Education and the Proliferation of New (Old) Concepts (response)

This article talks about the U.S. educational system and its effectiveness in preparing children for their future.  For about a century, the U.S. educational system's main emphasis has been equipping children with the knowledge they will need for their future jobs.  Over the past few years, people have been fed up with the educational system because it doesn't prepare kids for life.  A lot of underprivileged schools stray from the frame of mind: equip our students with the knowledge they will need for their future jobs, and just worry about getting them into the next grade level.  Another important point that this article made was that the education system in America needs to teach more about sustainability.  "The Tragedy of the Commons" was a book written enlightening the idea about preserving natural resources.  Children need to know about the "Tragedy of the Commons" so they can know what our world is like as so they can fix it. Things like project-based learning, social reconstructionism, and community-based curriculums would be more applicable to real life and should be incorporated into the U.S. educational system is another point the article made.  These are old concepts that focus more on interaction, which is essential in order to be successful in life.  The emphasis for this article is that the old concepts that were just mentioned need to be mixed into the education in the U.S.

Reflection Indigenous Resistance

This paper talks about the Coast Salish people of British Columbia and Washington State.  The Coast Salish people have resisted modern education as a tool of cultural eradication.  The schools reject the indigenous discourse and it is creating problems with Coast Salish people.  Integrated public schools became worse for racism in the 1960's to 1970's.  Education from the North American perspective seems to only concern things within their borders.  From the Coast Salish people, looking in, they see the presence of multiple empires that we as Americans, cannot see.  There is currently a blending of language and culture in America, why can't there be a blend of education?  The Coast Salish people believe that they are a culture without borders unlike the Aboriginal people.  In the early 1900's, residential schooling helped keep other races from being in the schools.  When integration happened, the issue of racism became apparent.  Discrimination became worse and most adolescents were forced to go to boarding schools to escape the corruption.  The Coast Salish people represent the struggle to integrate indigenous people into modern education.

Meatrix

The idea of the meatrix is that consumers don't know where and how their food is being made.  I can relate to this as a consumer because on several occasions, I will eat fast food without wondering where it came from.  Consumers have the most power when it comes to what supermarkets are putting on their shelves.  Most people don't understand the steps that are involved in making a cheeseburger at a fast food restaurant.  I know that I didn't before I watched Food Inc.  If we make the public aware of this disturbing information then we can put a stop to the inhumane treatment of animals.  The public needs to know about the hidden meatrix.  Large food corporations don't want the public to know the truth because they fear that it will hurt their business, but the consumers need to stand up against this potential crisis.

Biotechnology

Biotechnology is an advancement that is helping to feed the population growth worldwide.  The biotechnology is being applied to the food sector, which is helping to create more modified crops for an ample supply of food.  Genetic engineering is a part of biotechnology that is really helping the advancement of the public sector.  This is made possible through genetically modified crops engineered for specific defenses or traits.  For example, if there is a crop that is needed in a region where insects are a problem, scientists can genetically modify the crop to be resistant to a particular insect.  In the past, scientists have also modified crops to make them grow larger and to the fullest potential.  This is essential to sustaining our growing population.  

Linking Fracking to Water Pollution

Water contamination is a serious issue in the United States right now and needs to be addressed.  Hydraulic fracturing has been used in the U.S. for over ten years and researchers just now identified contaminants in central Wyoming.  “Fracking,” short for fracturing, is what scientists call the seepage of pressurized liquid being forced to the earth’s surface, thus causing fractures in the rock.

             This is the environmental downside to America’s quest for oil.  The drilling industry is just on one big treasure hunt; drilling first, asking questions later.  Although excavating for oil and natural gas is important for the U.S. economy to grow, at what cost to the environment will the drilling companies go to in order to ensure economic sustainability?  And is economic sustainability more important than ecological sustainability? 

            The EPA’s findings of hydrocarbons and other trace contaminants in residents’ water supply shows that fracking could be polluting the environment.  Futhermore, the same chemicals that are in the fracking have been detected in the local water supply in Wyoming.  This concludes that fracking is linked to water contamination.  The drilling industry needs to take the environment into account before they start drilling everywhere.  I am curious about how the federal government addresses this issue.  Since it is so key to the U.S. economy, will they just overlook the underlying problem?  What the federal government should do is put a halt to further drilling and come up with a plan to reverse the damage and pollution from fracking.  

Cape Hatteras Environmental Artifact

An environmental artifact that I found is fairly close to home.  Cape Hatteras lighthouse, located in Buxton, North Carolina, has been moved a couple hundred yards up the beach to keep it from falling into the ocean.  Erosion is a huge problem in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  This is a form of history because when it was first constructed in the 1800's, there was plenty of land separating the lighthouse from the ocean.  Over the past 200 years however, the distance eroded has put the lighthouse in danger.  If the lighthouse had not been moved, we would be looking at history being put to death by nature.

Relationship Between Religion and the Environment

The relationship between religion and the environment should be balanced.  We should respect the environment and try to protect it as much as we can because it is the religious thing to do.  We must honor the world in which we live because in doing that we are honoring our creator.  Apathy is not an option for religious people.  It is impossible to not care about the environment at all and call yourself a religious person.  With that being said, we can't be consumed by the world because the world is a sinful place.  We are to honor the earth's beauty, but not be consumed by it because it is only our temporary home (most religions believe in an afterlife).  So the religious people should respect the environment because in doing that they are pleasing their god or gods.  Religion should be the most important thing in one's life.  But the environment should be important to because with it comes the life that you have been given by your perspective creator.  I found an article that talks about Multicultural Environmental Ethics.  In this interesting article, the author exemplifies different religions and the role they need to play in the environment.  Here is the link:  JSTOR: Daedalus, Vol. 130, No. 4 (Fall, 2001), pp. 77-97

Richard Kahn's "Towards Ecopedagogy" Reflection

The human population is larger than it has ever been in the history of existence.  This means that resources are being extracted from the earth faster than ever before.  The use of fossil fuels has damaged our environment by releasing harmful gases into the atmosphere.  American industry in general has devastated our environment because of the way we use the earth’s natural resources, leading to depletion. 

            Tree consumption is a huge concern because we can’t live without the trees providing us with oxygen.  About half of the earth’s forests are disappearing according to Richard Kahn.  Not only does this reduce the amount of usable oxygen in the environment, but cutting down forests also destroys habitats, which causes an ecological chain of destruction.  When a certain species’ habitat is destroyed, they are forced to leave their environment.  If this particular species is a keystone species, then all the other animals living nearby will die off.  Even if the species isn’t that important, the absence might alter the hierarchal order of the ecosystem causing a new dominant species to arise. 

            Another concern to environmentalists is the recent decline in fisheries.  We rely heavily on the fishing industry because it provides us with food to support our growing population.  Problems with overfishing is affecting the ecosystem in the North Pacific.  Off the coast of Washington, salmon are taken away from the wild  and are placed in fish farms where they can mature and multiply.  This helps our fishing industry a lot, but it is killing the ecosystem of the North Pacific.  The species mainly affected by the shortage of the salmon are the species that depend on the salmon in order to survive.  We depend on the salmon in order to survive, but we are not the species in immediate danger.  The species most affected are the Orcas, or most commonly called, the killer whales.  The Killer Whales are currently an endangered species.  This is just an example of how the environment is affected by human actions.

            While modern countries are disrupting the environment by consuming more resources, other countries are impacting the environment less by living off of less resources.  Why can’t everyone just use less than they have to so we can save what is left of our wonderful earth?  The answer is because no matter what, people either haven’t heard the news about our earth becoming less sustainable, or don’t care that the earth has a shorter timeline due to our mass consumption of fossil fuels. 

            The only thing we can do to slow down the rate of degradation is to create a generation more cautious of the harmful affects of extracting fossil fuels.  We need to educate our children to care for the earth so we can prolong our existence.  They need to learn at a very young age that everything of the earth is vital to human life.  Every tree and organism has significance on this earth and should therefore be protected.  Parents need to do a better job of setting an example for their children to follow and live by when they are grown adults.  It doesn’t matter what teachers tell their students, the kids will ultimately do what their parents tell them.  It is our job to teach our kids to take care of the earth.  This is the only way we can turn back the clocks.  The fate of the generations to come rests in our hands.  Our encouragement and example has the power to change the course of civilization from capitalistic to conservatism.

Who are police protecting?

This was an interesting topic that Derrick Jenson brought up in his talk about Endgame, or destruction of the Earth.  I believe that the police aren't protecting people but are rather protecting civilization.  Jenson defined civilization as being a way of life that is characterized by the growth of cities.  I believe that police are meant to protect and ensure the growth of cities.  The police are here to protect the citizens that contribute to the net economy of the particular city.  If a certain area within a city is beyond the point of repair, the police will transfer all of their energy towards protecting the civilized people within a town or city.  People that disrupt or hinder the imporation of resources into the city in any way will be expelled by the police.

Google Alerts Update

Google Alerts has been blowing up my e-mail these past few days and I just found an awesome writing topic for my paper.  I spent so much time brainstorming on ideas for my main topic, which is pollution, I forgot to answer a very important question: is it mostly a result of human activity or is it natural?  This article I found talks about the volcanoes in Hawaii contributing to air pollution.  I mainly thought that sulfur dioxide was a result of burning fossil fuels in industries, but I guess it relates to volcanoes too since fossil fuels are being burned naturally as well.  According to National Parks Traveler, Kilauea, a volcano located in Hawaii, has been releasing large amounts of potentially hazardous volcanic gases for nearly three decades.  That is emitting just as much, or more harmful gases into our environment as large industries.  It doesn’t seem like there is a solution to this problem currently because it’s not like we can just plug up the volcanoes.  I will look further into this topic as I begin my paper on sulfur dioxide pollution, natural and unnatural.

Source: http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2012/01/if-youre-hawaii-check-out-hawaii-volcanoes-national-parks-program-volcanic-air-pollution9380