Enchanting experiences...

I must say I haven't had many "enchanting experiences" with the non-human world. I've grown up in a city my whole life, and my hometown Kiev is definitely not a place where nature is prevalent. Our botanical gardens may be the size of our classroom. However, in the summer of 2007 I went to Rapid City, South Dakota for about 3 weeks. I was in complete culture shock, but I knew I wanted to experience it. I'd say the most magical thing I experienced there was something I never really thought about. The fact that there were such wide open spaces, the sky actually turned black at night, and the best: I could taste the fresh air that hadn't been tainted with industrialized smoke and toxins.

At home, I'm not one to really go outside and look at the stars...mostly because I can barely see them, but when I was in middle America, I could actually see more than four stars, without a purple haze in the background. I had also never noticed the difference of air throughout parts of the world. It was so clean, crisp, and fresh...definitely not like home.

...nature

I realize that I'm somewhat of the under-voiced class cynic, but I figure we're past midterms...why change my tune now? I mean I guess if I try hard enough I can think of the view from Ireland's Cliff's of Moher, or the natural hot water springs on an island off the Amalfi Coast, or even the October drive home to Pittsburgh and the rolling orange and yellow hills. But when I think of my experiences with nature I most often remember the time I received 12 'enchanting' bee-stings in the same summer, one being on the very tip of my nose. I think of the delightful garden snake that found its way into my pillow case. I remember one magical moment where I lay on my trampoline next to my date whilst watching the stars as they shown through the leaves of the tree above. I also remember the fat-lip I received from the exquisitely placed acorn that fell from it's branches. I think of battle that goes on in my head before I lay out by my pool: suntan lotion, or bug spray? At one point this summer I had 18 mosquito bites...on my left foot!
But in really thinking about these things I can begin to understand that there were so many bee's around my house that summer because the woods and wildflowers were being worked over to make room for a new housing complex, and we became one of the few flowery areas within a couple acres. I can also understand that when we dug beside our house to make room for a new garage, we also destroyed the edge of the woods where that snake might have previously lived. There are so many mosquito's in my neighborhood because the small creek that used to run through our backyard sits stagnant for most of the time because the borough office tried to re-route it a half mile down to make room for their new fire-house and it's never been the same. I mean there is absolutely no excuse for the acorn, I am still upset about that.
But the conclusion I can at least come to is that we have profound impacts on nature...which just so happens to be the environment in which we live. So unless we want snakes in our homes, we probably shouldn't destroy theirs.

Humans above nature... A bit cocky for a bunch of primates...

If someone had asked me that question three years ago I would have probably laughed in their face. Asking me that question then would have been as inane as asking me the best breath of air I had ever taken. Unfortunately I can now answer both of those questions (I would of course say that my best breath of air has not been taken in DC). My answer to the real question though, is pertinent not because of its rarity or its “thrilling” quality, but my clarity in remembrance. I was probably about ten years old and I was sitting in a willow tree. I was watching the insects on the bark, when I heard something in the branch next to me. I looked over and saw a woodpecker (I’m pretty sure it was a male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker). I must have watched it for at least twenty minutes until it flew away.

Clearly saving “nature” is something that must happen as humans, being primates and not androids, rely upon it for our survival. The debate is most likely in degree. Do we want quaintly tamed and thoroughly domesticated fields (not that I have anything against fields, my parents did name me after one after all) with a hedgerow thrown in for good measure? Is that what gets to count for nature? Many areas of the world with histories of ungulate domestication look like this, and the people there survive just fine. However I would say that survival for just one species (humans) does not outclass the many species that would be there and thriving if not for our ridiculous need for dominance of space. I mean really it’s quite rude. “Hi, yes, I’m a human; I’m coming in and cutting everything down, or plowing it to oblivion. Once I do this I might repopulate it with those creatures that remind me of my deforested homeland…Or I might just a put up a shopping mall, hard to tell at this point. “

Of course we are learning the hard way that this sort of life on a large scale does not translate well. We are suffering with global climate change, desertification, pollution, and extinction after extinction of species. If that’s the best we can do, well you can find me in northern Canada. I’ll be chilling out on the Tundra in my deck chair and watching the permafrost melt.

The Forgotten Worth of Nature

Last May, I was offered a job by my father to direct the ecology program at a Boy Scout camp in Upstate New York. As a result, I was forced to endure a week at National Camping School, sponsored by the BSA, where I would learn the fundamentals of my job. While the logistics of the program made for an experience as pleasurable as licking an electric fence, I did have a rather amazing experience within the natural environment. One evening, a few of my colleagues and I went to the lake which this school sat on. Along the far edge of the lake was a levee which overlooked a valley, and allowed the excess lake water to spill over a dam and into a stream below. We sort of sat there, just listening to the sounds of the ecosystem which surrounded us-- frogs croaking, insects bouncing off the water, assorted creatures rustling through the nearby forests, etc. At the same time, a storm was rolling in, and the thunder crashed between the mountains within this valley in the middle of rural Pennsylvania. Lightning struck the ground a few miles off in the distance, and the rain began to fall heavily.

I consider this experience to be one of the most enlightening things I have ever personally been through. The meditative experience allowed me to truly concentrate on the natural environment which surrounded me, and the complexity of nature spoke to me on both a spiritual and scientific level. Furthermore, it proved to me that maintaining our natural environment and doing everything we can to ensure that such diverse, expansive ecosystems are preserved should be a top priority by all of us.

As my summer advanced and I performed the duties of my job, I further realized how important it is that we invest in saving nature. In today's day and age, children are too concerned with watching television or putzing around on the internet. Even I find myself more inclined to update my Facebook page than to go out and do something outdoorsy. We are becoming more and more detached from nature, and as this becomes a dangerous trend on a societal level, I fear that conservation efforts will be hindered. How are future generations going to save this planet if they have never experienced all that nature has to offer us? Looking at a picture of the Adirondacks on Google Images is imcomparable to spending a weekend climbing one of those mountains or camping in a nearby park. It seems impossible, to me, for people to value something when they do not know the full extent of its worth. Somehow, we need to reinstill the value and worth of nature into our growing generations-- a key step in conserving our natural environment and keeping in tact well into the next century.

Question on one of the id's

Hey, sorry to bother you all, but could one of you tell me what you know about ecological displacement? Or perhaps which reading it was mentioned in?
Thanks, good luck studying.

Food...

I hate to say this but no way do I think about where my food came from. All I worry about is that it's in the grocery store. I don't think of food and grocery shopping as a form of environmental harm...nor do I really want to because out of guilt I know I'd change what I eat.

On the list we made in class, it was mostly fresh produce and fish. My roommates and I eat A LOT of sushi, and I would think that's the food with the most environmental impact. The fact that I usually only have tuna is worse. Our fisheries are already overused, and my consumption only adds to it. I also eat a lot of fruit, especially the more exotic ones: pineapple, mango, etc. I can't imagine that the price of a pound matches the costs for fuel, shipping, packaging etc.

The fact that I just came home from grocery shopping isn't making this blog post any easier. But to think of it, I didn't buy any mangoes or pineapple, but I did buy apples and nectarines. I did buy a lot of fish too...but I swear I normally never buy this much fish - I just go out to dinner for sushi - which might be worse. I know this whole blog thing (especially this topic) is supposed to make me reconsider my habits as an individual, but I honestly don't think I could change what I buy because of the environmental impact. Everything has an impact, the most I can do is decrease the amount of what I buy, and maybe not to go to dinner for sushi every other day. We'll see how long that lasts...

Like most things we discuss on this blog and in class, I have never given food a second thought on the environmental level. I mean, I thought the worst that could happen was that we stress the land trying to grow too many vegetables. Man, was I wrong! Hitherto, grocery shopping was an delicate step by step process.

1. What can I get away with throwing on top of lettuce that will still qualify it as a salad? French Fries, check!
2. Of the brands provided, which frozen bag boasts the least calories?
3. Of the lower calorie ones, which is cheapest?
4. Oh! I forgot! I have a 'buy two get one free' coupon for the really fattening kind, I'll buy those instead!

Then I'm really lazy, so to ensure that I don't just eat the french fries alone, I purchase the prechopped, prebagged Giant brand lettuce that you just have to pour into a bowl, no work needed. Then I buy some oranges, bananas, apples and the like. (How I miss tdr when you could steal them!) The point is, the environment never enters as a factor and I cringe when I think, 'Really? do I have to shop at Whole Foods now? That's sooo expensive, and the old women who shop there are really snooty.

But then I think, I eat oranges and pineapple all the time. a truck, the kind you get stuck behind on the highway and roll your windows up for, had to lug this fruit half way cross the country just to get to me. And these french fries had to be bagged in a factory with a special kind of plastic that can go into the freezer. And who knows where this lettuce came from, but it wasn't the organic section! I'm basically learning that I suck as a consumer. But in all honesty, being environmentally aware is a privilege not all people can afford. Whole Foods we know is much more expensive than the average grocery store, and many families can't afford the prices or the time it takes to drive out to a farmer's market. A single mother working two jobs isn't going to come home and peel fresh carrots and steam them with freshly chopped brocolli and hand mashed potatoes. She's going to pop a bag out of the freezer and have a cheap dinner for four on the table in minutes. The mom that can afford to stay home all day can afford to stroll through Whole Foods and pour organic milk into her children's morning Kashi. So I don't think that it's a viable solution to have consumers make better choices, I think that it's up to the grocers to make more environmentally safe foods more available and at lower prices.

It's quite a conversation in there

As a vegan who tries (effort reduces considerably depending upon levels of chocolate craving and hunger levels) to eat locally grown and organic foods I spend considerable time thinking about the environmental impact of what I eat. Were organic methods really used? Was it grown on a small farm or one of those seemingly endless farms in the Midwest? Was irrigation used? Does the farmer use responsible crop rotation? How much petroleum or other fossil fuels were used to produce it and bring it from the farm to my fork? And why on earth is it wrapped in fifty yards of plastic? Why do I have to choose between 'conventionally' grown local foods and organic foods grown by a corporation in California? Should I really be buying fruit in the middle of winter? What would happen to my health if I did not? Wouldn't it be better to grow it in a greenhouse than ship it in from Chile or New Zealand, or would heating the greenhouse all winter use more fossil fuels than having it shipped?

As I have been sick recently, I have been subsisting mostly on crackers, watered down juice boxes, and the occasional cup of tea. Which is worse? Is it the crackers, produced by the dreaded "Kraft Foods Global, inc," with no hint as to where they were made, and of course with an extra dash of high fructose corn syrup? Is it the organic green tea, grown on Chinese "tea estates?" Or is the juice, produced by Apple & Eve LLC, and masquerading as 100% juice, when it has added citric acid and natural flavor? And the final question, and the most important of all, I would think, is the following. Does what I consume make any difference if the current global system of food productions remains unchanged?

If powder turns into coffee cake after 30 seconds in the microwave, is it really food?

So, coming from an economically distressed area, I had never really thought about the food I was consuming. We did not have Whole Foods or any other store that could boast locally grown organic produce. In the right time of the year, we would buy produce from neighbors who had little stands set up in their front yards, but I never really considered the environmental impact of food until I came to college. I have given up bottled water and soda in any form. I do indulge in the occasional Powerade/Gatorade type beverage during a tough rugby game or something. But I try to drink nothing but filtered water. As far as food, I spend a lot of time in TDR. I do not usually understand the intricacies of what their policy toward environmentally friendly food, but I assume they are focused on cost effectiveness. It seems like they have more locally grown stuff this year though, and I try to eat a few items from the farm to fork section.

I would say that on my list of consumed food last week, I would say that the one that caused the most environmental harm was probably this instant coffee cake thing that my mom sent me. It was basically a little dish with powder and water that you mix in, stick in the microwave and voila!- you have a coffee cake! I really am not sure where something like that comes from. I mean, does it even contain anything aside from chemical compounds? Probably not. But, it was shipped from somewhere to somewhere else and then from my mom in Ohio to me. I cannot imagine that instant coffee cake could possibly be safe for the environment...or me, for that matter. I also realized that I eat a lot of grains. A LOT of grains. I have really cut back my meat consumption to the point where I only have it once a week or less. Now everything I eat seems to be centered around wheat and rice. I guess now I know why we grow so much of those two. Throw in some corn and we've got a party.

The Environmentalist in Me Would Be Happy if I Starved

Before I started taking an interest in environmental issues, I never used to put much thought into my food choices. I would consume several bottles of water or soda daily, I would purchase food which was prepared on the other side of the country, and I never did any real research into what I ate on a regular basis. Roughly a year ago, when I became much more interested in environmental protection, I realized that I had a rather large impact on the environment, solely based on the food choices I made. I stopped drinking bottled beverages regularly, and began drinking water through a faucet filter and consuming soda from cans instead; I started to purchase produce locally; and I began researching which national companies are friendlier towards the environment than others. Additionally, I have stopped eating as much as I used to, and average between two and three meals with no snacking in between. This is not only a personal health choice, but a choice made to reduce my own environmental impact.

When I reflect on the list which we made in class, however, I cannot honestly answer which of my food options has had the greatest environmental impact. The reason why I am uncertain is because most of the food I consume here, at American University, is on a meal plan provided by the school. American University has a record of being an ecologically friendly institution; however, I am not sure if the food which is served at TDR, Block Express, or the Tavern is locally produced or purchased from around the world. Of the items I consumed which were not provided by the university, I would say that the Jolly Ranchers I have been slowly consuming over the past few weeks have had the most environmental impact. The package says they were processed in Illinois; from there, they were sent to upstate New York; next, my parents sent them to me through the mail; and now, I am consuming them and disposing of each individual plastic wrapper which will unsuredly survive a century or so in a landfill somewhere.