A Sand Country Almanac excerpt summary

    Aldo Leopold discusses in his article the ignorance of man and how we try re-shaping nature without realizing that nature knows best how to maintain a balance. We used to kill off the wolves from mountains thinking that less wolves means more deer, which is a hunters paradise. However in reality without the wolves to keep the deer's population in check, their numbers explode. Thus leads to the deer eating every edible bush and seedling which in tern leads to the mountain side being barren of any new edible plant growth. Once the deer have eaten everything they start dying off for lack of food and ultimately the decline of the entire eco-system on the mountain.

    The problem with people and our outlook towards the land is that we value it strictly from an economic point of view. When we think about sustainable land use we are still thinking economically. If we could step away from the idea of land as an investment and instead think of it as a living being upon which we share a emotional and physical connection with we may be able to get a better understanding of its operation and come up with better land ethics. Individuals have realized the importance of land ethics for many years, however society still has not realized this. Today's conservation movement is the first step society has made towards coming up with proper land use ethics and hopefully will change society's current economic view of land into a compassionate understanding for land and all of its creatures.

Parks

    I believe it is possible for parks to meet their dual mandate of being accessible to the public and yet still protecting the ecosystem in which the park encompasses. The key here is to not disrupt the areas natural environment. Many parks "showcase" what people think as being the wilderness, meanwhile they rarely step foot off of a man made pathway of cement or gravel and are surrounded by souvenir and other tourist shops. We need to make it so that people get a true understanding and appreciation for the environment. However the most important job of a park should be to preserve the natural environment and its operation. To do this we need to start off by making parks large enough to be effective, and allocate areas of the park to being off access for people. This also means no roadways going through the park as they cause destruction of wildlife. If people want to explore the park they must do it in a natural way such as hiking or canoeing.

    In Wapusk national park i believe it could also meet its mandate for public access in a similar fashion. Have one area near the edge of the park where the general public could have access to. This area could include an observatory which looks over the park and have an exhibit with some of the local plants and wildlife. Some information about the different species would also help peoples understanding and appreciation. Also i believe a guided tour of some of the grounds would be beneficial. However the tour should be available to only those who are willing to step off a man made path and do some exploring and appreciate nature in its natural environment.

The Historical roots of Our Ecological Crisis summary

   Lynn White, Jr's article states that ever since humans have become a numerous species they have affected the earth and its environment in many ways. Some of which have had negative impacts for the environment. Partly to blame for our abuse of nature is religion. Judeo-Christian scripture brings forth the idea that God granted us dominion over the natural world "nature has no reason for existence save to serve man." This belief along with advances in technology including agriculture has resulted in our ever increasing impact and modification on the natural world. Presently there are many different religions and cultures that people follow, however many can be traced back to either christian ties or influence. It is Christianity that insisted that it is God's will that man exploit nature for his proper ends.
   If we are to get out of our current ecological crisis we must find a new religion or modify our existing ones, for technology and science alone will not be able to save us until we change are way of thinking and forget the old ideas of humans above nature. Instead we must learn to think of ourselves as being part of nature and of equality among all organisms including humans.
   I really enjoy and support Whites opinions, he raised many good points about peoples view on the world and regard for religion. I feel that society needs to start letting go of religion. We once depended upon it to explain the unexplained and to give people something to believe in. Religion also served as a basis for peoples morals. However I feel with today's modern technology and advances in science we no longer need religion because we can explain how and why things have happened. Through social networks and media we can portray are own basis for morals, without the use of religion. Therefore I conclude in saying that religion has become obsolete in today's modern society.

Refelction

   I have been in class for just under two weeks and can already feel the passion that our class has for environmental issues. Many classmates already have knowledge of current environmental issues and some are even actively involved in trying to change how people view and take care of the environment.
   I myself came into this class knowing very little about the philosophy behind environmental issues and about current issues around the world, I am more concerned with the mechanisms upon which are ecosystems and environment depend on. My main focus is on how things work and what we have done to change how the natural environment operates. However in the small amount of time that I have been in this class I have learned that there is much more to environmental studies than just the mechanics of it. There is also political and social aspects that need to be dealt with. Through our discussion's in class and the assigned readings i have become much more aware of the passion upon which people deal with environmental issues. I feel as though I'm getting much more involved with the issues and am that much closer to helping preserve our environment. I look forward to getting more in depth with current issues.

My Environmental Ethics

   My environmental ethics are mostly Ecocentric, I believe the integrity of the entire ecological system to be important not just the individual. I'm not saying that i don't believe in individuality and individual species as important because i do, but when it comes down to it individual animals ( Humans included ) are insignificant compared to the bigger ecological picture. We cannot concern ourselves with the well-being of every organism on Earth because it is impossible and would be exhausting to attempt to do so. Instead we need to concern ourselves with the bigger picture, the ecosystems themselves. If we ensure that the ecosystem as a whole is healthy then it will benefit all the organisms within it. Sometimes sacrifices need to be made like letting a species die out or letting nature take its course with a group of people, if it is for the greater good.

review of The Sacred Balance - Gaia Hypothesis and of John Francis Walks the Earth

   David Suzuki's The Sacred Balance includes a talk with James Lovelock about the origins of his "Gaia" hypothesis. Lovelock's hypothesis states that the earth is one organism, life depends on the atmosphere but life also creates the atmosphere and regulates it. Lovelock worked with NASA in search for life on other planets by atmospheric analysis and found that no other planet in our solar system contained an atmosphere like ours therefore making our planet unique and the only one capable of supporting life.
   I don't think people realize this, they take it for granted that this is the only Earth that we are ever going to have. If we destroy the living things that keep our Earth in balance then we will be left with nothing and we will be destroyed too. As Lovelock stated the Earth is one living entity, meaning that if we wan to take care of the Earth we must care for everything and help maintain this balance.

   John Francis a guest on TED Talks tells the story of his life and how he became an environmentalist.
He went for 17 years without talking and gave up riding or driving motorized vehicles. Instead he walked the United States and went to three different schools where he got first a bachelor's degree in environmental studies then went on to get a masters and finally a PHD. Francis continued his trek by foot and by sail sending a message to the world about environmental respect and responsibility. He became an ambassador for the U.N.
   Francis believes that the environment is about how we treat ourselves and each other because we are the environment. If we are to take care of the environment we need to learn to treat each other with love and respect.
   I support Francis in his idea because if we can't treat each other with respect and love how can we be expected to treat other living organisms with respect and care. I feel that the first step is learning to treat other people with love and compassion, if we do this we will in-tern show the same kind of love and respect for the environment because we are part of the earth just as any other living organism and together we all make up the living entity that is Earth.

The Tragedy of the Commons summary

   Garret Hardin's article discusses the fact that commonly owned resources are doomed to destruction. This is due to the fact that men are greedy, and instinctively pursue their own best interests. Given is an example involving a common pasture open to all, in which it is expected that every herdsman is going to try keep as many cattle on the commons as possible in-order to try make the most profit. However as the common is overgrazed productivity goes down causing each herdsman to add more cattle in an attempt to bring their profits back up. It is in this desire for self-interest that the tragedy of the commons arises.
   Hardin makes it clear that operating in the commons is not successful and people understand the logic of the commons because it is usually avoided. However there are still systems that operate in the commons such as National Parks, pollution, and freedom to breed. The problem is everyone views it as their right to use the parks, to discharge their wastes untreated, and to have as many offspring as they see fit, with disregard to others.
   In the pursuit of indefinite sustainability we must learn to not look at things from an individual standpoint but from a global standpoint. Unfortunately its practically impossible to get people to always think as if we were one global entity, therefore we must implicate discouragements to selfish acts such as parking in a downtown spot for a longer than necessary period of time. we do this by installing parking meters and tickets for going over the allotted amount of time. This means of control is effective because it doesn't prohibit anything but it makes it increasingly more expensive to carry out the act thus providing the person with carefully biased options which still allow the person freedoms but persuades them to do choose the morally correct one.
   I found this article to be the most effective of the three because it really opened up my mind to the idea of global consideration and thinking for the sustainability of the world as a whole along with the impacts of thinking only on a personal level.

Human Carrying Capacity summary

   Joel E. Cohen's article discusses the earth's carrying capacity and how we may have already exceeded it. He begins by telling of Easter Island and its near collapse due to its own undermining of their own ecological foundations. This is a good model for what could potentially happen to the world if it's carrying capacity is exceeded and we exhaust our resources. Joel then points out that if an absolute numerical upper limit to the amount of humans the Earth can support does exist, we would never reach it because it lies beyond the point of what humans are willing to tolerate.
   Joel also brings forth the fact that if the natural environment was to be looked at as a sort of control for population it would no longer apply due to the fact that we have modified the environment. This modification comes from the simplest of means such as when we learned to use fire for promoting a certain type of vegetation growth, to the building of massive cities and farms which has substantially modified the natural environment and allowed for greater population growth. With these modifications the environment has become partially a human creation and we must now regulate our population size and rate of growth based on the conditions we are willing to endure.
   This article raises the question for me as to whether population controls should be implemented and if so is it fair for a nation to be in control of its own population, or should this be dealt with in respect to the world as a whole. Would it be fair for one nation to contain a substantially larger population than another, even though the modern world is heavily reliant on trade between nations and the success of partnering nations. I believe that questions such as these need to be considered if we are to remain self sufficient.

collapse: how societies choose to fail or succed summary

    Jared Diamond's article is about how we need to analyze past societies that have collapsed and learn from them, why they collapsed and what measures we can do to prevent the same from happening to us.
    In most cases we can find that past societies collapsed due to ecological problems formed by societies destroying their environment and resources. Damage to the environment can be broken down into twelve categories; deforestation and habitat destruction, soil problems, water management problems, over-hunting, over-fishing, introduction of new non-native species, human population growth, increased per-capita impact of people, human caused climate change, buildup of toxic chemicals in the environment, energy shortages, and full human utilization of the Earth's photosynthetic capacity.
    However a societies collapse is usually due to more complex reasons than just environmental damage. Contributing factors can be climate change, hostile neighbours, trade partners, and the societies response
to its environmental problem.
   The issues of human environmental impact are controversial and peoples opinions regarding them can usually be sorted into two main groups. Either "environmentalists," who believe are current problems are serious and need addressing, and are current rates of economic and population growth cannot be sustained. Or "non-environmentalists," who believe that environmentalists opinions are exaggerated and that continued population and economic growth is both possible and desirable.
   Diamond then concludes with his standing on the subject stating that if environmentalists don't learn to work with big businesses then we will not be able to solve the world's environmental issues.

Growing Disconnection with Nature

   I feel that there is a danger to the growing disconnection with nature that is becoming more prominent. No longer are kids going outside for recreation but instead are spending most of their time inside. Video games have changed things so that you no longer need to go outside to play sports. This may be more convenient but it doesn't allow kids to connect with nature and learn an appreciation for the environment around them. The danger in this is that without an appreciation for nature how can we expect kids to respect and take care of the environment.