Post #19 ECHO

Of all the field trips I was a part of the trip to ECHO was definitely the most interesting and most rewarding to me. Their general goals and mission to help the less fortunate through education, training, and assistance has proven to be an amazing foundation to grow this non-profit business. I found it to be an amazing feat that this foundation that started in 1981 is now helping and has volunteers in over 180 countries. I believe that this has been such a growing business because of how they run their assistance programs. Giving a person food, money, or seed is a great thing for a person to do but even in the video they show in the beginning they follow the old quote “give a man a fish, feed him for the day, teach a man to fish and feed him for a life time”. What they mean by this is that they don’t just go into these countries and give them supplies they give them education, education on how to grow better crops, education on what crops to grow, and education on utilizing resources. I am also glad that I waited towards the end to go on this field trip because the reading I did out of state of the world really touched basis with this field trip. I had an idea what the drip irrigation system was but it actually has one of these irrigations set up within the farm. Another type of irrigation they had that touched basis with the reading was the treadle pumps. The demonstration that the tour guide gave us showed how simple and cheap these irrigation systems can be. Around the world there are millions of people struggling with undernourishment, one country and one village at a time these volunteers from ECHO are educating and changing the quality of life for these individuals.

post #18 Downtown Fort Myers

The trip to downtown Fort Myers turned out to be a very exciting time followed by a lot of disappointment. It was interesting to see how everything has changed from the older days and also see how some of it has stayed the same. With in just the 2 block area of downtown that we had to walk through it was crazy to see the hundreds of different things that you could do from boating, to seeing shows, to enjoying a great meal. I believe without this scavenger hunt I would have missed out on so many of the little details of downtown. The scavenger hunt made me slow down and truly take in the scenery while developing an understanding of what was really here. My favorite part of the downtown experience was being able to compare images from the videos that we watched prior to the trip to what actually stands there now. With a favorite part of something always comes the least favorite. While walking around trying to find items on the list it began to hit me that the majority of the downtown Fort Myers history was gone or altered into something new. In the older days theatre was so important to the people and the growth of the city and now one of the major theatres down town was turned into law offices. It was saddening to see our history swept to the side while evolution of a new time takes over. Along with this evolution also came multiple empty business lining the streets of downtown. These empty business is a reminder that no matter how good something once was change is always lingering.

Post # 17 Service learning

The service learning that I was a part of seemed to be very rewarding. I split my hours between two separate locations, the food forest on Florida Gulf Coast Universities campus and Barefoot beach preserve. Of the two I would definitely have to say that the food forest was more rewarding then the barefoot beach one. When I participated in the food forest we were doing much of the physical labor of carving out paths and making mounds that would be used as the planting surface. The forest, once finished, is supposed to be a self-sustained garden that FGCU students can come and get free fruit and vegetables instead of having fast food or other unhealthy foods. It was interesting to find out what determines how and why foods are deemed organic to those that are not organic. The people in charge of the forest explained that because of the compost that they were using as the soil had such a high grade that the food can then be considered organic. Although I found the food forest to be the more rewarding of the two locations I did hours at, Barefoot beach had its plus side to it. When I arrived at the beach I saw signs that it was gopher turtle mating season. This was interesting because there were mounds all over the side of the road, 69 to be exact. These are all the burrows of the eggs that the turtles have laid, and these burrows are protected with in the preserve. Also while I was at Barefoot I was trimming plants and doing general clean up around the beach. About half way through the work day one of the park rangers took me on a tour through the backwoods of the beach showing me different plants and the modern use that we have for them. I truly enjoyed both of these experiences and am looking forward to doing more work with both in the future.

post # 16 Pre Fort Myers trip

To my surprise Fort Myers has such an extensive and interesting history that is most likely unknown to everyone who lives here. Fort Myers that was named after a Captain in to war was initially names after a general named Harvey. With the change of name many other changes were also implemented. One of the first changes recorded is the building of the first school in 1880. This school was the only school for the entire city, and at this time the city went all the way down to the keys. The school 2 years later was burnt down by a disgruntled student. The City then asked for assistance in rebuilding the school and they were not granted the help so they built it themselves. With the new school came a new county, Lee county named after Robert E. Lee.  A good 70 years later in 1950 there were then 12 schools in the city of Fort Myers, this may not sound like much but it was the stepping stone to the 72 schools that we now have in the city. As the town continued to grow so did the need for communication, in 1884 the first newspaper was started the Fort Myers press. This growth caught the eye of many big names Thomas Edison and Henry Ford are a few of the great people that came to Fort Myers and had a significant impact.

It is crazy to see the changes that occurred over 50 or 60 years in even just the economical stand point. The growth of the city in the late 1880’s and 90’s attracted many merchants that flooded the downtown Fort Myers area. The merchants truly accommodated the needs of the consumers, they would stay open late just to compensate for closing at noon so everyone could go fishing. In the 1960’s this all began to change when the Edison mall was built. This was the first time that all these department stores were together and that a person shopping could be indoors in the air conditioning. This soon took the place of being outside going from shop to shop and began to take a toll on the downtown economy. Fort Myers has grown in astronomical amounts and it is crazy to see what has come out of this town and the good that was created from inventors, entrepreneurs, and the general population.

Post #15 love it or lose it

A new issue that our younger and growing population is facing is biophobia. Biophobia can be labeled from discomfort in natural places, or hate towards things that are not manmade. There has been a growing trend of biophopia of the population that is growing up with a large amount of technology being introduced into their lives. People have not always had this biophobia, maybe not by choice but because in the older days people lived off the land and it was the life line for survival. The more knowledge we gain and the more technology that is created makes it easier and easier for humans to be biophobic. Although some may just have the idea of biophobia in their mind, many people act on biophobia due to what we have done to our planet. The pollutants that we have introduced into our environment are being shown it is the cause of pathologies within humans. With the increase of disease from nature it is understandable that less people want to spend all their time out side. It’s not a surprise that people do not want to go out and experience the wildlife now after we have hunted animals into extinction, or that we have destroyed animals environments, or that we have been selfish and created global warming killing of hundreds of ecosystems. To counteract this newly found biophobia or erase it from existance there must be a biophilia revolution of those who love our environment and nature enough to save it. To make this change from biophobia to a nation of biophilia we must eliminate the denial aspect that people have that our land is only good if it can do something for us. We must also be able to imagine a life of a biophilia centered world and believe that we are capable of sustaining it.

Post # 14 Endgame

Politics has always played a role within environmental needs since it ever seemed important to the people. Even our home land of Florida has been suffering from the un-sureness of our government on how they want to handle situations. A key item that environmentalist worry about is the preservation of the everglades. Conservationist have been doing many things to help protect the wetland; stopped plume hunts, preserved millions of acres of wetlands, mandated minimum flow to the everglades national park, and secured the largest nutrient clean up in history. With all this being done the everglades are still dying and the greatest enemy it faces is further delay. Despite the dangers of losing ecosystems and species forever there are always still nay-sayers that believe that it is just the course of life or that it is not important that we are losing it. These nay-sayers never seem to care until they see that taking a stand can benefit them towards an election or helping something they believe in.

                In the efforts the help the everglades the Clinton administration elevated an idea of nature over people and guaranteed 79 million extra gallons of water for the park. Many non-environmental interest groups though that this was ridiculous and unfair because it violated the original consensus process. With the uproar of the other interest groups the Clinton administration quickly backed out of their guarantee once again showing how politics play a role in the success or failure of our environmental needs. Although there are always people that oppose ideas that people have there are the other people that stand by and continue to fight for what they believe in. After a long traitorous road, the everglades bill to restore and preserve the everglades was finally signed.

Post # 13 Land ethics

Ethics has been touchy subject for many years through out all types of situations. One situation that is never really thought of is the ethics of the land. In the article it compares land to how Odysseus treated his slave girls as just property. To this day there still are no real ethic dealings between man and their relationship to the land, plants, and animals that all strive on this planet. Ethics is said to be a premise of that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. One of the topics that stuck with me through this article is the idea that everyday Americans pledge their allegiance to “land of the free and the home of the brave”. The article goes on to explain that we do not do what we preach, the land that we love we treat unfairly. We demolish plants and ecosystems as if it is nothing, we pollute our waters, and we infect our soils. If all our land was “human” or so called “useful”  we would have rules or ethics put in place to regulate these issues. Although there are not land ethics being implemented yet there are a few baby strides slowly taking place. The majority of plants or animals can not be “used” as something to eat, sell, or put to economic use. Because of this lack of necessity of these certain plants or animals they are casted to the side until they are in danger. Once these non-economical species are in danger people then find a way to make them seem important. An example that the article speaks about it the use of the songbird controlling insects, there is very little information or data on this but as long as it seemed economical it seemed important. I agree with Leopold when he speaks that land ethics cannot exist without a true understanding, love, respect and admiration for the land. Without these traits our country and our world will continue to be stubborn and our land ethics will never develop, education is the key to sucess.

Post #12 Corkscrew Sanctuary

Despite the excruciating heat and humidity the field trip to the corkscrew swamp sanctuary turned out to be a fun and very educational endeavor. When I first arrived at the sanctuary I wasn’t sure what to think, I had in my mind that it was going to be a small area of protected land with a few planet species along with a little bit of animal diversity. To my surprise when I got there this sanctuary was enormous, there were birds, bugs, plants, and trees everywhere. As I walked up to the front door of the entrance I saw the life-machine. It is very welcoming and scary at the same time to know that within the living machine the water in the first state of its cleaning is as clean as 90% of all drinking water around the world. To my understanding the natural fresh water on our planet is diminishing, we as a whole (man kind) must find a way to filter either salt water or other contaminated water. Seeing this living machine shows how our worlds technology is being put to good use and finding adaptive ways to conserve and elicit sustainability.

Once I made it on to the board walk I initially felt that I had almost taken a step back into the past. Seeing the lush vegetation and the birds flying around, it was great to see nature in its primal form, besides the board walk the swamp look like it not been touched for hundreds of years.  Continuing my walk down the board walk I began to notice some irregularities. For this time of the year “wet season” and this to be a swamp, there was not very much water. I took a picture of a measuring stick to see how much water this is but it was stuck straight in the ground with no water surrounding it at all to be measured. I did not think much of it until I came to two men that worked for the sanctuary and they explained how the wet and dry seasons are marked, and this is by hurricane season. Once the hurricanes begin hitting and precipitation is more frequent the water level of the swamp will begin to rise. These men also pointed out to me a female alligator lying in a puddle. I was instantly intrigued and this excitement grew even more when they pointed out that the female was actually a mother of 9 baby alligators resting on a log in front of her. I began to speak with these gentlemen more and the spoke of estivation, which is when an alligator is almost hibernating during summer. They mentioned this because the male alligator was performing this task in the nest that they had created. During this estivation the alligator lives off the fat that they store in their tails. Another unique thing that the men pointed out to me was a red shouldered hawk. At first they were looking to see if he was feeding but they came to realize that he was doing what they called “anting”. “Anting” is a term that they use when a bird spreads their wings while sitting in the sun in hopes to baked the insects and mites out of their feathers.

From this field trip I gathered a completely new appreciation for what our environment has to offer us. It was great being able to look out off the boardwalk at the lookout point and see nothing but vegetation. It is refreshing to know that we still have parts of our world where our environment hasn’t be tampered with or overcome with the growth of our societies.

Post #11 Ding Darling

On my trip at ding darling I experienced many different things, many that some people may never see. Although I may not have fulfilled my requirement of taking a picture at the area where the park pumps in and out the water (I asked the tram driver but he forgot) I feel as if I experienced a great deal of things. Within this refuge there are only two species of nocturnal birds, the yellow crown night herring and the black crown night herring, both of these were out during the day time doing their daily routine. Even more significant about one of these birds, the yellow crown night herring, is that it is now endangered but we were lucky enough to see a female protecting her nest with several eggs within it. Another bird that we were lucky enough to capture a view during its primal hunting of fish was the reddish egret, the reason this is such a lucky even is because there are only 3000 left in the entire world and only 300 of them live in the state of Florida. These birds are not entirely red or red at all they are mostly grey with a hint of red going up their neck into their head, hence the name reddish egret. The other thing that I found extremely interesting is that although the ground looked solid we would not be able to cross through that refuge without that manmade road. This is because the firm ground that looks like is there are actually just the roots of the mangroves sprouting up. Within the park there are two kinds of mangroves the red mangrove and the black mangroves. The red mangroves have long roots that stick up very high allowing it to be in an area of significant tide change but the black mangrove has short finger like roots that poke up from the water. These roots are used to gather oxygen for the mangrove from the air instead of from the water. Like all mangroves, the ones within this refuge al started in Indonesia and were then carried to the United States by natural storms and seeds were then replanted. This park made for an excellent field trip and allowed me to take in significant amount of information about a lot of the wildlife that we now have with in florida.

Post #10 Dimming sun

Millions of dollars are being spent on the effect of global warming leaving other environmental issues to be over looked. The work of one man, Jerry Stanhill, a biologist that was working in Israel setting up irrigation systems was responsible for determining how strong the sun shown. His study was used to determine how much water was need for the agriculture to survive. 20 years later Jerry thought that it would be a good idea to check his work to determine if there had been changes. To his astonishment there had been a reduction of sunlight by 22% in those 20 years. Jerry tried bringing his information to the public but was quickly out casted because it contradicted the idea of global warming. There are reports of a decrease of sunlight all over the world, 9% in Antarctica, 10% in the United States, 16% in the British islands, and even 30% in some parts of Russia. This decrease in sunlight technically should decrease the temperature on the planet but that wasn’t the case which led many to believe that the “global dimming” phenomenon was fake. Two men, Michael Rodrick and Gram Farquar, studied evaporation rates via the pan evaporation rate in Australia, which measures how much water is evaporated from one day to the next. The idea is that with the increasing temperature in the world that the evaporation rates would increase. This was not the case, over the last 30 years there has been an average of 100 mL difference.  With further studies being done it was determined that it is not the heat that causes evaporation but the overall sunlight that forces the water molecules into the air. This showed a decrease in sunlight that agreed with the idea of Jerry Stanhill. The first idea was to look at the atmosphere and what changes have occurred to it over the last 30 or so years.  Maldives Islands was the home of Endo-X, a study that was to measure the difference in polluted air to clean air. This study showed that there was a 10% decrease in sunlight in areas of polluted skies then the ones not polluted. The cause of this is because the pollution molecules bind to other molecules within the clouds producing a mirror effect bounce the sunlight back to space. Although there are changes taking place to limit the pollution and limit the global dimming effect this could in turn cause more of an issue. The combination between the loss of diming and the ever growing effect of burning fossil fuels is causing a “perfect storm”. This perfect storm could lead to outrageous effects on our environment due to the rapid temperature change that could take place.

Post # 9 Rewriting the Science

                Rewriting of science has been happening to our county for decades, but recently the Bush administration has been especially guilty for this. It is showing that our environment is dealing with a global warming that is accelerating at an alarming rate. A good testament to this is the melting artic and Antarctica; we are losing much of this ice that forms the land there to the sea due to increasing temperatures. In the video “rewriting the science” James Hanson talks about how humans are now in control of the changing environment and the burning of the fossil fuels we use is completely dwarfing the natural changes that occur. Hanson’s research shows that if humans do not change and begin to reduce their greenhouse gas emission within the next 10 years we may reach a tipping point of global warming where it will reach an unstoppable state. Our country has been constantly silencing those who wish to go against what the government wants us to think. Ralf Sisceron (atmospheric chemist) the president of The National Academy of Sciences has been trying to get his research out to the public but is being stifled but the government. The moment he made the announcement saying “I find a willingness to listen to only those portions of scientific results that fit predetermined and flexible positions, this I believe is a recipe for natural disasters.” NASA has had Sisceron under close watch. He has had opportunities to speak on national radio and many other interviews but he was always made to defer these offers to a NASA representative. The only reason he was allowed to speak to 60 minutes is because he had a NASA representative in the room recording the interview. Another significant way the government has been rewriting our science is by editing information. There is a report writing annually called “our changing planet” and every year that it is sent to the white house for editing it comes back with a large amount of edits hand written on the hard copy. These edits are not done by an environmentalist or a scientist but by Phil Cooney, a lawyer that works for the white house. Most of the time edits change a word here or there but Cooney has completely taken out anything on human health risk, raising urgency, and significant information on our melting ice sheets and glaciers. This information is then replaced with “straying from research strategy into speculative findings”. Without the help of our government our world will soon reach this 10 year tipping point that Hanson talks about. Once this tipping point occurs it will no longer matter if the government gives us their support of not, it will be too late.

POST #8 as the world burns

“As the world burns” it truly shows how politics play a large role with in the environment and energy consumption. With a possible bill approaching the point of passing that would change the American economy and the emissions of gases forever, McCain, one of the leaders of the bill was met with a challenge for his senate position in Arizona. With the fear of losing his senate position this challenge caused McCain to pump the breaks and slowly step away from his portion of the bill that would soon pass. This is a prime example to how the government recognizes that there is a problem that needs to be addressed, but when something else comes up environmental issues get placed on the back burner.

Even though a lot of people do place current issues on the back burner, when president Obama was elected he saw the urgency in addressing the climate issues of our nation.  Him along with many politicians took the step to determine what is important to our nation with health care and our climate issues. Obama’s staff planned to attack these simultaneously hoping that it would be the turning point that our nation needed. As time progressed Obama’s party began to follow that old path of pushing things off to the side. Once health care took the main spot light, his party began to focus its attention on this leaving the global environment issues to be once again pushed on the back burner. If our society and the rest of the world continue to do this it will be too late by the time they realize it is truly important.

Post # 7 6 degrees

6 degrees could change our world. When you talk about 6 simple degrees it doesn’t seem like a big change but as of right now our world is only experiencing 1 degree of global warming and it is effecting everyone. Australia being one of the driest continents already is experiencing the largest drought it has had in the last 1000 years. Ice sheets are melting taking the water supply for thousands away. All this is happening with only 1 degree of change, experts are expecting to see 6 degrees (11 degrees Fahrenheit) of change in the next 100 years. 6 degrees on a single day could just be the difference between shorts and pants, but globally 6 degrees on a regular basis could be the difference between fires, drought, death or the survival of all ecosystems. The temperature change although may help crops in winters or even allow other countries to grow different crops then they were once able to, it doesn’t not counter act the overall disruption that it goes on in the majority of all other countries.

All these damages that our world is seeing right now is with only 1 degree of change, our world is on the tipping point of having a 2 degree change. Although it doesn’t seem like much either but with this extra degree these tragedies become much worse and more severe. It becomes a wide spread “meltdown” of ice caps, fires spreading the across our planet, and further extinction of our wildlife. Steps are being taken to try and reduce the possibility of this 2 degree change by florescent lights, making our coal plants more efficient, and using solar energy but it may be too little too late. Without a change our world will soon have a new face to it due to the increasing temperatures.

Our world being just a few years from a point of no return, it is scary to see what 2 degrees can do to a planet but it will not stop there. Maybe not in 20, 30, or 40 years but our world will reach its 3^rd degree of temperature change and with this change it will bring some of our most saturated lands to a desert state. A 3^rd degree could cause a catastrophic chain of events that will change out world forever. There will be more energy in all aspects of super storms, hurricanes will be more often and be more sever due to the increase in power of our oceans. The tidal waves that have taken place are nothing compared to hwat we will begin to see without a change in our habits as a planet.

Post #6 Jared Diamond

Over thousands of years we have seen many societies come and go or suffer a serious collapse. There are eight main reasons why scientist believe that this happens beginning with; Deforestation and habitat destruction, soil problems, water management problems, overhunting, overfishing, effects of introduced species on native species, human population growth, and increased per-capita impact of people. These issues brought up a lot of interesting questions that were mentioned with in the article. Of these questions the one that stuck out the most was “Does it stand reason that today’s human population of nearly seven billion , with out potent modern technology, is causing our environment to crumble globally at a much more rapid pace then a mere few million with stone and wooden tools made it crumble locally in the past?”. I feel that a huge issue that our world has with the modern collapses of certain societies come from our new technology. Our technology being so advanced we have found ways to alter nearly everything to make it bigger, “better”, and more readily available. Smaller countries that do not have access to this technology or still live off the land entirely find it difficult to sustain life from a health perspective along with an economical one as well.         

Also with in the reading it talks about new findings those scientists have related to how forests have been destroyed or certain species have become extinct. Many people are turning it into racial attacks instead of seeing the underlying meaning behind it. People point the finger and attack one another or say the facts are now lies when it pertains to them. Instead of taking these new findings and using them to better own world today, people find the need to attack others. If we do not cope or find a way for us to learn from our past and keep modern civilizations from making the same mistakes our countries will begin to collapse all over the world.

            After considering some of the examples given I found my self in agreement with Jared Diamond (writer of this article) when he spoke about the reasons for collapse. Collapse of a society has historically been blamed on solely environmental damage. I feel that this is not true, although there may be environmental damage there is always contributing factors relating to that. Diamond developed a 5-point framework that a collapse of a society could be based off consisting of; environmental damage, claimant change, hostile neighbors, friendly trade partners, and the society’s response to environmental problems. With all society collapse you can find at least 2 or more of these factors contributing to the demise of the society.

POST #5 Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance, a drive or feeling of discomfort, originally defined as being caused by holding two or more inconsistent cognitions and subsequently defined as being caused by performing an action that is discrepant from one’s customary, typically positive self-conception. In plain terms, Cognitive dissonance is anything that makes you feel absurd, stupid or immoral. In the article they used the example of telling joggers that stretching does not help prevent injury but in fact it may actually harm. This brought out the cognitive dissonance it the joggers who stretch regularly. The reaction that they received is a normal reaction due to human nature of wanting to believe that we live and act the proper way and that what we do is always right. This cognitive dissonance can be a good trait sometimes but for the most part being stubborn and not seeing other sides may in fact turn out to be problematic with in society. There are ways to limit or reduce the cognitive dissonance that one may have, this is done by; changing behavior to bring it more in line with the dissonant cognition, justify our behavior through changing one of the cognitions to make it less dissonant with our behavior, and by attempting to justify our behaviors by adding new cognitions that work with our current cognitions.

            Another example that this article used proving how people change cognitions to fit there behaviors to limit cognitive dissonance is with smokers. Many smokers that have been doing this for years will argue that many of the facts are falsified or that the filters help keep out harmful chemicals. They will also try and use other examples of others who have lived a long life even while smoke a pack or 2 a day. This is a prime example of a person changing cognitions to make their behavior more acceptable and making them feel like they are not doing anything wrong.

            A person that is involved in the cognitive dissonance believes that they are being completely rational with their thinking but to an outsider this person looks ridiculous. A study was performed to view how these people actually thought when put into a situation where they felt cognitive dissonance. The people who were tested argued plausible ideas against them and soon forgot what they were all together but they remembered the arguments about them that really had no backing and were somewhat silly. On the other hand they remembered almost all the plausible details from their side of the argument and blocked out many of the silly ones to make them seem like they had the better argument. This just shows that humans have the ability to think rationally but at the same time humans have a history of trying to rationalize their behaviors instead.

Post #4

Jane Goodall’s excerpt from hope for animals and their world is exceptional and shows how many different ways that our world can be changed for the better. Although our tropical and old-growth forest, woodlands and wet lands, prairies and grasslands, moorlands and deserts are all disappearing at an alarming rate, there is still hope. When Jane talks about her reasons for hope it truly opened my eyes and showed me that there really is a chance for our world after all. These four points consist of; the energy and commitment of informed young people who empowered to act, our extraordinary intellect, the resilience of nature, and the indominitable human sprit. When all these points come together and co-exist it gives our landscape, animals, and plants a second chance just like they deserve.

All of the examples of stories that Jane gives is incredible to show how when true dedication is shown that it is possible to bring a species that is on the brink of extinction back to the endangered list. Even when on the endangered list there is still a risk for them to go extinct and many people wonder why we should even put effort into saving them. As Jane wrote, “it can be very simple; these animals just belong on the land.” Meaning that when looking into the wild u see that we share this land and each and every animal not only deserves to be here but the wild doesn’t look right without them. Another reason why it is important is to protect the biodiversity within every ecosystem. Even the government, that has taken many verbal blows, continues to see the importance of protecting every aspect of every ecosystem. The government supports those who are trying make a difference within our world from big picture(human race) to little picture(micro bacteria). These people are the people of the future and with help and determination they can change our world for the better one animal at a time.

POST #3

When you talk about biodiversity you are talking about the diversity in life with in the many different species and life forms that make up our ecological planet and how they co-exist. When humans find the need to change how things are grown or what materials are used, it has a huge impact on our entire planet. New items are being produced as substitutes for renewable sources of energy, fossil fuels are slowly taking over the world and leaving its mark behind. These fossil fuels are changing our claimant, threatening species through agrichemicals, causing soil to be infertile, and effecting over all human health.

For hundreds of years mankind has lived off the planet and has not had an issue but mankind is now being greedy. In order to make our lives better or to create a profit we have completely over looked that every specie should have the right to evolve freely on their own terms. The human race is only one of millions of species and if we do not change our way we will continue to kill other species at an alarming rate.

Although biodiversity is a conservation issue it is also an economical issue for millions. Creating substitutes or new forms for items that can be grown or raised on our land may seem to help some people but it is harmful to many people as well. Agricultural biodiversity is a means of life for two thirds of the entire world’s population. This population that lives off the land is struggling to support themselves and are in need to find another means to support themselves. Also with the new growth in using substitutes or creating new breeds to strive in adverse claimants, it is killing off many of the current breeds or species and cause them to be extinct.

I believe that biodiversity is an extremely important part to our entire planet and without it our world will soon become a world controlled by the rich and powerful. The world controlled by the rich and powerful will be a very uniformed world with no diversity with in it because they feel that they are helping the world but in return they are doing a lot of killing. Are planet will soon be a land of laboratory grown food and plant life with out a sever change.

POST #2

Modern culture that we have all become accustomed to does not come with out a price. The price that we pay may not exactly be noticeable off hand but when you look deeper and deeper into the environment you can see the destruction that our 1^st world countries are implementing or 3^rd world countries and their jungles. I feel that with almost every action there is an equal reaction. An example of this would be that in certain areas rivers are harnessed for their power to supply electricity to thousands of people, in return thousands of animals are losing their homes due to flooding. It is not only the smaller defenseless animals but even the larger predators losing their homes. Although this may be part of the reason that predators are not populated as much as they use to be, another reason is that humans have been removing, killing, and shunning away the predators for safety reasons. This may seem like a good idea but at the same time it allows their pray to run wild, become over populated, and to cause damage and stress to property.

            People may feel that these predators do nothing for them and do no good for the environment but that is far from the truth. In 1970 the wolf was placed on the endangered list and the environment began to show the change and the good that the wolf once did. Yellow stone national park is a great example of the good that a wolf can do. The park was beginning to have a diminishing number of aspen and willow trees that supplied many nutrients to the environment. Once wolves were reintroduced into the park number of trees began to increase and this is thought to be because the wolves hunted the elk that were eating and diminishing the shrubs. With the growth of the new trees and shrubs beavers are now able to rebuild their huts which create more water in an area along with extra nutrients.

POST #1

As I set forth into the world of Colloquium I have high hopes in the content I will be introduced to and that I will be able to learn. I hope to encounter many obstacles that will challenge my mind and give me the opportunity to think and to further develop my knowledge of not only South West Florida, but the entire state, country, or world. The out doors have always inspired me and I have always found myself to be in a better state of mind when I am out in the fresh air. This class will put me in a great atmosphere to learn and to grow as an individual. As I have read so far the curriculum is set up to where each student is required to do service learning hours to help the environment. I think this is an amazing idea, not only for my self but for everyone to further get acquainted with the environment and to learn how the environment can give back if you put time into it. Some people may have negative opinions of this class being required but I think it is of great importance due to the fact that our world is slowly breaking down and will soon be at a stand still due to a lack of resources. If we as students are to be the future it is important that we are aware of what is going on in the environment and what changes we need to make to ensure the longevity of our normal daily living styles. I am looking forward to an action pack semester filled with a plethora of knowledge.