During this last lecture we talked about how large the corn industry is and how the surplus in America affects the world. And then also you had us read the “Steers Life” which talks about the cow industry. When in and English class last year we learned a lot about how these two things interconnect. I just wanted to make a comment about this. The corn industry is a large part of the US economy but that doesn’t necessarily mean this is a good thing. The corn industry is having a negative affect on the people. Corn is now being put in everything. Peanut butter, juice, fruit wax, plastics, anything, you name it. Certain things are ok but things like high fructose corn syrup and feeding cow’s corns really isn’t good for human beings. Corn is being used to help cows gain weight at a faster pace so that they can sell more. Problem with this is that the cows are not getting as much nutrients as they would just eating grass so us being the consumers of the cow we are getting even less nutrients from the meat. We are not getting as high of quality as we used to. Cows have a fantastic ability to be able to digest grass and yet we spend a lot of energy producing corn. Corn being used as a sweetener is part of the reason why America is having such a large problem with obesity. Corn syrup unlike other fast by passes the body sensory that tells us when we’re full. This allows the body to consume more and then we cannot work of all those calories in enough time. The human body then takes those calories and stores them and then obesity arises. The corn industry is complicated in the fact that it is a miraculous crop that can easily be produced in the tons but in the fact that it doesn’t have a whole lot of nutritive value. Corn is generally used as filler. For example dog foods will generally have corn in the first few ingredients to help make it cheaper, problem is most dogs and other animals are allergic to corn. Corn is such a complex crop that it’s too difficult to sum it up as good or bad. We can save a third world country with corn or we could completely kill a civilization through artificial sweeteners.
“This Steer’s Life” documents the life of a modern day male cow unfortunate enough to be born into the life of the American meat industry. The article is both shocking and upsetting due to the graphic descriptions and the depressing, unchanging ways of contemporary meat production. Author Michael Pollan shares his experience with a baby cow he purchased in order to document the average life of a steer. The first stage in beef production is called “cow-calf operation” in which baby cows are born to female with “successful” genetics. The life of these powerless female baby-producing animals is quiet depressing. The females are now more than ever artificially inseminated in order to guarantee optimum births per cow. After a couple weeks of living dependently off of their mothers baby cows are separated and begin the second stage of their short lives. The author sent his baby steer to a location called “Porky Feeders” where young cows are fed excessive amounts of unnatural, anti-biotic loaded food. Startling information about the life-span of a modern day beef cow exposed in the article. In present day an average meat-producing cow’s life is typically 14-16 months, while in the early part of the 20th century meat cows were often not killed until after 4-5 years of life. With high request for beef in America cows are rushed through life in order to produce an unnecessary amounts of meat in demand. When reading the feeding habits of many of the farmers that produce meat cows I couldn’t help but recall the story of Hansel and Gretel where an evil witch who lived in a house made of candy and ginger bread forced the children to eat an obscene amount of food in order to “fatten” them up so she could cook them for dinner. The children did not realize the witch’s evil plan because she made them all of their favorite meals and let them eat all the sweets they wanted. These cow-care takers are essentially doing the same exact thing. Baby cows eat whatever is in front of them and always seem to want more. Once a cow meets a certain weight they are shipped off to slaughterhouses. The inhumane ways the animals are killed in is heinous. The article goes into great detail describing step by step the process in which the animals are killed. An interesting, but still saddening fact I learned was that when a cow is scared of startled before it dies it produced adrenaline that makes the “meat dark and unappetizing.” Because of that knowledge slaughterhouses have come up with ways of stunning and then killing the animals so that they are unaware of their doom. The bleeding process described was absolutely disgusting and inhumane and needs to be changed. After reading the article I looked up videos and other articles about slaughterhouse and slaughterhouse reform. This article, although upsetting, had a lot of interesting information and I feel more enlightened on the subject.
In our discussion session today, I felt that the first 50 pages of A Sand County Almanac did not receive adequate discussion time. So, here is where I will pay a small, insufficient tribute to those brilliantly artistic 50 pages. First, Leopold’s writing deserves credit for its ability to naturally tap into the beauty and spirituality of nature. Second, I’d like to discuss his suggestions that nature is potentially just as good a teacher as our education system. Third, there is a connection to be made between his writing and a famous quote by McDonough and Braungart. Lastly, the little time we did spend discussing this text got my wheels turning, and I would like to record my trailing thoughts.
While A Sand County Almanac may be called dry, slow, dull, or boring, it is thickly detailed, and if one takes the time to slow down and digest those details, it becomes infinitely more riveting. Yes, it’s not a fast-paced page turner, but it is a page turner nonetheless. You just have to get used to a slower frequency of page turning. For example, page 38 has details of a fly-fishing expedition. I once had the privilege of learning to fly-fish under the guidance of a professional fisherman in a Colorado river. I spent six hours in the water that day, learning how to cast, false cast, dry a fly, strip and roll line, and, most importantly, land a trout. In all this, my tutor could not manage to describe the mindset and subtle techniques that Leopold described in just a few paragraphs. The whole passage seems poetic.
On page 25, Leopold speaks of a spring flood bringing strange objects from an upstream farm. He talks about how one can learn a great deal from these artifacts. One of his more poetic lines, “an old board is a kind of literature not yet taught on campuses,” is a line that seems to develop meaning as it inevitably echoes in a reader’s mind. And as this line echoes, you start to realize that yes, in fact, we don’t learn the literature of nature and natural processes. We leave that to scientists and archeologists. On page 46, he compares a weed to a book, and, in a subtle way, suggests that it may be more important than our precious books. While I don’t feel that Leopold truly believes nature is a better educator than our established system, I think that he does have a few valid points. Should we start paying a little more attention to our current natural surroundings and a little less time with noses in the books that may be dated?
And maybe if we spent a little less time memorizing the things that have already mastered by someone else, we would start to notice new and innovative things on a regular basis. On page 27, Leopold talks about how engineers did not discover flameproof insulation so much as they found an example of it in nature and copied it. Oak trees have fire resistant bark. We couldn’t have learned that for the first time from a book. In this I find an interesting connection with that quote. “Nature doesn’t have a design problem. People do.” It stuck with me from the moment I heard it. No wonder we take so much inspiration from nature. Nature takes time and makes careful decisions. Hasty ones get eliminated, and well-thought, tested ones prove victorious. Now, my only question is this: Why haven’t biologists bred this flameproof bark into the lodgepole pines in Colorado that dry up and threaten to spread massively uncontrollable forest fires across the state?
Lastly, I will sign off with this thought. The silphium plant was destroyed in an effort to make a highway, and the geese lost their swamp because we demanded a classy shopping center. These environmental manipulations do some serious damage. Maybe the problem is that, in a globalized world, people stop recognizing local ecosystems and start forcing unfitting culture and design where it doesn’t belong. Its like putting a tube-top on a chubby kid. A flock of geese squeezes out there, a roll of fat over there…
“This Steer’s Life” I found to be a far more interesting read than A Sand County Almanac. The article on the process of meat from farm to factory was a fascinating one, by far more interesting and thought out than A Sand County Almanac. My dislike for this book is immeasurable. I feel as if I’ve wasted hours of my life and I will never get them back. I enjoyed reading and learning about where beef comes from, it was interesting to know more about our diets. There was conflict and well thought out points brought into that article that will continue to make me question my choices in foods even now. The additional hormones and anti-biotic that are fed to beef cows in today’s factory farms are quite alarming. Although this article will not stop me from eating beef, it will make me think twice about how much I eat and I will also think about healthier choices. Unlike the Pullen article, Leopold’s book has no conflict, no resolutions, and no point. The entire book is basically him describing things on his farm. And even though he has a genuine skill for description, the endless narrative grows tired, and boring. I found myself more excited for the next sketch in the book than the actual text itself. I am sure that the “point” of this book was to make one more aware of our surroundings and enable us to take further interest in nature, but I do not believe that the endless ramblings in this book really achieved that. Needless to say, I was not impressed with the book A Sand County Almanac.
As I was reading A Sand County Almanac, I could not help but think about the amount of personification used in Aldo Leopold’s writing. Each plant and animal encompasses many qualities of a human. This technique not only makes the writing richer with description, but by relating simple structures such as plants to human beings, it gives the plants more life and capabilities and makes it easier for us, as the reader, to relate to these living organisms. Whether a dog acts as a professor while hunting, patiently awaiting its owners direction, and never judging when his or her student makes a mistake, or the wind that makes music in November corn that is in a hurry, things found in nature share many of the same qualities that we are capable of as humans. Earth is all interconnected and therefore humans share similar patterns with plants. Leopold decided to discuss three types of pines and their reproductive habits, relating the white pines habits to that of Anglo-Saxons. He spoke eloquently of the seasons changing and the trees signing off with yellow penmanship that turns to brown before the first snow falls. He makes sure to incorporate grouse and rabbits and how their existence circles around that of the pine trees which he loves so much. He describes the white pine to be his favorite because of its golden tint and its ability to last through the winter, never shedding a leaf. Leopold’s personification is subtle enough where it is not obvious the characteristics given to each plant and animal are not conventionally theirs, but rather those of a human, but descriptive and interesting.
I think that the most interesting thing that we talked about in lecture this week was the Haber-Bosch process. The fact that one invention can flip the entire farming industry inside out is amazing; it shows the true power of creativity. The process of creating ammonia and then creating fertilizer made farming a lot easier. Before this process farming took so much more work and long processes and although this process seemed to change farming for the better it still has its repercussions. The farmers had to spend a lot of money on fertilizers and it took jobs away from people because it took less labor to grow crops. This invention influenced other areas besides farming. The unfortunate timing of the invention during World War II led to the invention of bomb production and the death of many Jews. This one invention had many bad intentions and outcomes but it also created a stimulus for the economy in the United States. There was infrastructure added with the building of the interstate and highways, home mortgages, the GI bill and others. This invention also spread to other areas of the world. China was experiencing a time of great poverty and after the invention of fertilizer was so successful in the United States Nixon took the invention to China and aided in the building of thirteen fertilizer plants. This helped to decrease the poverty in China and they were able to feed their own people and even export goods. In this way the invention lead to a boost in China's economy and ads another good aspect to the invention. I think it is interesting how one invention can spread around the world and lead to both tragic and uplifting outcomes at the same time. I think this correlates to the main focus of our class as well, we need to realize that what we do affects so much more than what is in our own little bubble. We are being forced to look at the affect that we have on the world and then see how we can change that affect for the better. As designers we have the ability to help change the processes that people go through in their everyday lives with cell phones, designing buildings, and even billboards to inspire greener living. We can help choose the factors that go into these new designs and the processes in which they are made so it is our job to be informed. I think that understanding how one decision can lead to so many areas of the world is a very important part of our being informed as artists and designers because it forces us to think about our own creations and what we put into them. The example of the Haber-Bosch process helps point out that everything we do can be both beneficial and have repercussions and we need to be wary of both.
Over the summer I did quite a bit of research on several things. One of the things I looked into was studying abroad and learning which culture would best suit me as well as my dietary habits. Whenever I go home for the summer my eating changes dramatically, actually for the worst. Since my father is always abroad with myself away for college and my little sister starting her first year here, there hasn’t been a need for my mother to cook any meals, except for meat. Whenever I visit home my mother often takes a look at me and worries nonstop about how much leaner I look from all the studying and exercise I do. I normally don’t eat meat because I never have time to prepare it and when I do have time, I never want it. My nutritionist dubbed me as vegetation when she started looking over my food chart for the last two weeks. I look out for what I put into my body if I can absolutely help it, but half the time I pick up groceries certain items out there lack any nutrition labels as well as ingredients. Even though I can tell if Chocolate cake is terrible for me, I still would like to know specifically what I am ingesting. The idea of looking at what is in our food has been a habit of mine for about 4 years now. I try my absolute best to maintain a healthy atmosphere by purchasing things like Trail Mix and Soybean Protein bars as well as a decent selection of fruit for a sweet tooth. The reading This Steer’s Life was something I ready to read after finding out that I have a severe protein defiance in my regular diet, but to actually understand what is in the beef from this reading changes the idea of what they literally put in the meat in terms of their diet, before it is butchered rather than what is mixed with the butchered meat. I feel like the ingredient list that makes an appearance on the slab of meat is almost lying to me. The idea that cows, chickens, and pigs go through their short lifespan with food that is unnatural then fed with antibiotics makes me question whether the nutritional value list is true to it’s word or not. Does that list only apply to what is mixed with the meat while being prepared for the store? Now I wonder about all the possibilities of what is actually in my food other than the ingredients that are already inside the box. I didn’t realize that apples were buffered with corn oil to give that shiny look to them nor did I realize the health hazard of consuming corn syrup or how common it actually was in food, even those that don’t really need it have it for the sake of having it just for the taste benefit. It’s also very alarming to hear that 70% of the US’s antibiotics are used to fed livestock. It’s bad enough that people rely on medicine for small problems like headaches or a small sinus problem, but to have our food consume it is bound to cause problems over time. The lectures this week have been alarming and truly showed me how unknowing I really am despite my attempts to check the ingredients on the label as well as why certain things like corn syrup isn’t so good for you.
There were a few portions of lecture this past wek that seemed to interest me more than others. One of these topics was the information about our world's environmental statistics. When I saw the counter on the screen at lecture, I couldn't believe that these were real numbers. I guess that even just of the actual numbers increse every second astonished me because they were so real and exact. The most shocking things were probably the amount of livestock that were being killed every year, every day, and even as I type these words.
These numbers also made me think a lot about the article we read for last Tuesday. While reading the article, I was reminded about the book, "Fast Food Nation", which I read in one of my classes last year. Reading about the methods of killing the livestock and the things that are really in the food that we eat really makes me think about the reality of what we put in our mouths on a daily basis, and the long term effects they will have on our bodies.
In "Fast Food Nation", the author describes in detail the process of slaughtering the cattle, and the route that same cattle takes throughout the factory and eventually into the packaging we could find at the grocery store. The fact that we usually only see the meat after it has been in nicely packaged and labeled containers in a grocery store, or even until it is served on a plate, causes a certain disconnect between the idealized meal and the much too gruesome truth about how that food got into that package or onto that plate. For me, knowing where meat, or anything else I eat, has come from makes me think twice.
I won't lie though, I occasionally enjoy a nice steak or burger for dinner. But since I have been somewhat exposed to what goes on behind the curtains of meat production, I pay more attention to what I spend my money on at the grocery store and elsewhere. It may not be much, but it's a start. And everyone has to start somewhere.
There are some beautiful quotes in this section of A Sand County Almanac. I want to respond to just a few of them for this week’s response. “Hard years, of course, come to pines as they do to men, and these are recorded as shorter thrusts, i.e. shorter spaces between the successive whorls of branches. These spaces, then, are an autobiography that he who walks with trees may read at will.” Trees, plants, greenery in the natural world wear their hardships, age, or abundant growth. The experiences they go through become part of who they are visually. If a storm comes through, a tree will lose one of its precious branches, or if the season has been dry, flowers will crack and fade, twisted stems will lean to reach the sun. They have a visual storytelling. This creates the image of the natural world. From town to town, plants visually tell the story of time, of weather, of events. Humans, though, although they may have suffered hard years, as plants have, do not always show it. Walking down a crowded street differs from walking through a forest. By only looking at a human ‘s exterior, you can’t always tell what a person has been through; hardships or light days. Because to know the way a human feels about time, or weather, or his or her company, there must be communication. To learn about, to care for, and to love a human, you must get to know them through conversation and stories. But to grow to love a piece of nature, you must only spend time with it visually, and tacitly.
“…And it conveniently begs the much important question who is more thoroughly acquainted with the world in which he lives?” Who is more acquainted with the world? The plants that grow from it, that becomes alive because they are a part of it. The plants that are literally and figuratively rooted in the earth. Making due with the rain that falls, the sun that shines, and the carbon dioxide in the air, they nourish and sustain themselves. Humans live off of the land and from it, but not in it. They take what they need and often times more. But they also create so much out of it. They use so many resources to do things like create new medicine and power machines and buildings.
This past week when we have been talking about Factory Farming and CAFO and organic verus local versus the mass-produced miles away, my mind kept taking me back to seventh grade. In seventh grade, a classmate did a presentation on factory farming and organic fruits and vegetables. She brought in an organic banana and a regular store bought (Chiquita) banana and showed the two to the class. The Chiquita banana was a vibrant yellow and unnaturally large, the organic banana was a little rough around the edges and significantly smaller. Obviously the Chiquita banana had been treated with some sort of steroid type product in order A) preserve it during travel and B) make them more appealing. That simple demonstration says a lot, if you think about it. This Chiquita banana was picturesque and as a result unnaturally “perfect”, where as the organic banana appears less appealing is really better for you and the environment. Since that moment in seventh grade, a new door was opened to something I was completely unaware of. I was slightly mortified, especially about the factory farming, yet after a few months it was mostly forgotten about. During highschool, I read Fast Food Nation, but the same thing happened where about a year later I was back to eating fast food again. This course will be the third time that these issues are presented to me, and hopefully we will learn how we SHOULD be eating instead of just learning what happens to the environment and people and what we shouldn’t be eating/consuming.
While reading A Sand County Almanac, I realized how observant Aldo Leopold is. He notices things around him that no one else would unless they spent a lot of time outside every day of every season. I especially like when he talks about how his dogs point is different with all the different animals he hunts, though I did not see the author as a hunter because it seems that he likes to observe nature as it is without any human interventions. When reading this book I also begin to wonder how the world would look if there were no human interventions. What would happen if we lived just as animals do? Or what if there were no humans at all? I wonder if it would be completely overgrown here in Michigan like it is in the rainforest or if there would be forest fires and most of the land would be prairie. Either way it is strange to think of a place without a single road or light or building anywhere to be seen. When I wrote my observation paper for this class, I tried to be as descriptive as Leopold and see the world through his eyes. I feel that by doing this, I realized things about my plant that I would not have if I didn’t take the time to look very closely and be as descriptive as possible, such as how the bark becomes smoother as your eyes travel up the tree. These things I never paid any attention to before.
It was extremely hard for me to get through the assigned reading in A Sand County Almanac for this week. My mind kept trailing off thinking about other things I had to do this week. I can’t even remember a lot of what I read as I try to think about it right now. It was almost completely description flooding the pages of the book. It moved from one plant to another, from one season to the next simply describing them with as much detail as possible. There was no plot, no conflict, and no resolution, but purely description. Then I realized why I couldn’t pay very much attention to it. It was because I wasn’t there experiencing the things that Aldo Leopold had experienced. After looking for a plant for the assigned paper this week, I absolutely fell in love with one particular plant that I felt a huge connection with. I took countless pictures, wrote a long list of descriptions of it, and was then almost excited to sit down and write a paper about it. I then thought about how Aldo Leopold must have felt while he wrote his book. He must have been so in love with nature to write a whole book purely describing his natural surroundings. I am happy that he felt so excited about nature, but I simply cannot share his feelings about the things incorporated into his book because I cannot see the colors, feel the warm sun or brisk wind, or smell the fresh scents of the trees and flowers. The thing his book does make me want to do is go outside and experience nature for myself. It makes me want to make my own inferences about the different kinds of trees and animals. It makes me want to gather my own understanding of nature and then use that understanding to create something of my own, like a poem or a painting expressing my feelings about it. I don’t want to sit inside wasting a few hours of my life just reading about nature and its greatness. I want to experience it for myself. That is the only way that I can gain a better perception of nature in order to respect it more. Every time after a day in the Arboretum, I go home and feel like I love nature a little bit more than I did before. But I do not feel that I will gain this respect after reading a section in Leopold’s book. Therefore, I think our assignments should be more interactive with actual nature and less reading descriptions of nature out of a book.
ADP III Response Two: Part One of “A Sand County Almanac”
Although the book has proven quiet hard to get through, its contents are invaluable. The key principal is simple: the world is changing and humans need to recognize what is important and natural before we are consumed by an artificial society. The book is a compilation of journal entries and thoughts of Aldo Leopold and his experiences in nature and the world transforming around him. The book was released in 1949, even though some of the tools and ideas are a bit dated, the over all idea of natural conservatism is even more prevalent in today’s modern society. Aldo Leopold’s writing in my opinion is quaint and lovely. He seems to really take time to appreciate what is around him and notices small details. He is knowledgeable about the plants and animals that affect him and takes pride in his comprehension of the world. In a section of writing Leopold describes the migration of geese. He observes and understands that geese although they do not directly affect him or provide anything really resourceful but it is simple pleasures and understanding that make the human life interesting and worthwhile. The book is organized by months/ seasons of the year. Aldo explores the physical changes in the world around him as time passes. Reading the book proves to be difficult at times because it is not entertaining in the actions that occur. Instead it is entertaining in it’s simplicity and appreciation for simple pleasures and sights. I do not know that I would have chosen this book to read on my own for pleasure but I am satisfied with how relaxed and tranquil the writing makes me feel afterward. The book is important for young people to read especially because we have grown up in a much different world than Aldo Leopold and his generation. It is upsetting to me that U am more familiar with corporate logos and celebrity and political gossip rather than the natural world around me that affects my life just as much. Aldo’s generation knows what plants and animals are around then and knew about the physical world and enlightened their person mentally. Technology has made my generation defenseless and unintelligent about nature because it is not as important to our day-to-day life as it once was. Even the book itself speaks words about modern society. I find this book boring at times and hard to get through because there is not enough action and the information does not entertain me or affect me heavily. My generation demands to be entertained by sex, violence, and commercial subjects. It is a shame. I personally stay clear of commercialism and believe I do my part in attempting to conserve nature and natural beauty but it is difficult at times because the world is changing so much every day it is hard to keep up with society, culture and technology.
This weekend, I went to ArtPrize in Grand Rapids. I am from Grand Rapids and I have been downtown many times in my life, but I have never been so intrigued by downtown Grand Rapids as I was this weekend. By the time that I went, the contestants had already been narrowed down to ten finalists. I knew I had to see these top ten, plus I wanted to stop at all the art pieces that caught my attention in between. I was impressed by most of the top ten pieces and by a lot of the other pieces along the way, but some of the top ten pieces did not appeal to me. The first on I saw was the giant table and chairs piece sitting on top of the walking bridge entitled “The Furniture City Sets the Table for the World of Art”. I understand that the creators made this because Grand Rapids is a large furniture-producing city, but there was something about this piece that I just did not like. I think it might have been the style of the dining set. I feel like I have seen a similar, normal-sized version of this set in some rich house of a person who doesn’t have very good taste. I think if it clashed more with its surroundings instead of containing the same color as the bridge, it would have stuck out more making it seem more extraordinary. I think I would have liked it better if the table and chairs looked more old-fashioned and weren’t painted. One of the top ten pieces that I did like was the moose made entirely out of nails entitled “Moose”. I am not exactly sure why I identified with this piece so much. Maybe it is because I am a huge animal lover and a moose was an interesting animal to choose. The realistic size of the sculpture and the way the rusty nails portrayed the color of a moose was impressive. I also liked the idea that a moose is a type of animal that is sort of intimidating and scary and an animal that one would be very nervous to touch. The rusty nails, similarly, make the viewer reluctant to touch it because of the danger of cutting yourself and furthermore, getting tetanus. I saw a lot of pieces that day. Some were absolutely fantastic, some were good, and some were not worth taking more than a few seconds to look at. I wish I had gone the previous weekend, however, because I heard that a lot of the pieces had been taken down by that point. The overall display set up downtown did impress me though. It made me proud to be from a city that supported such a large art fair that attracted so many people from around the world.
Today, Professor Trumpy spoke a lot about cargo ships and cargo containers. He mentioned that designers and architects are beginning to incorporate cargo containers into their architecture in an attempt to make use of these enormous resources instead of allowing them to sit around and take up space. This interested me so I began reading up on this eco-friendly idea. Turns out, building with used cargo containers could actually reap even more rewards than simply recycling. The durability of these containers would create living spaces that are very safe; the homes would be resistant to fire and add an additional layer of safety from storms. Also, building homes out of cargo containers in termite-populated areas would be beneficial because the termite problem would virtually be solved. These homes would be nearly indestructible. Cargo containers could also be used as emergency housing after natural disasters. People in Armenia have lived in shipping containers for 20 or so years, since the 1988 earthquake. I think that this is an interesting solution that proposes countless possibilities. We could make great use of these cargo containers that are just sitting around, there are hundreds of extras sitting at the ports because it is cheaper to buy a new container than ship them back to places such as China. These cargo containers could go into renovation and be kept until needed after natural disasters in America and around the world, ready made housing for those suddenly displaced. Or, I keep thinking of the slums in India, these bug free and indestructible containers would be far cleaner and hold less disease than those slums these people are living in. It’s like the design with the water barrels Trumpy showed us a few weeks ago to help civilizations in Africa simply get water for the day, why not go in and make an effort like that and help to house these people around the world who lack the most basic necessity, shelter? College dorms could even begin to be constructed out of cargo containers...then maybe housing costs would decrease!
Today Joe Trumpy was talking about the children's book The Lorax by Dr Suess. I remember it being one of my favorite books as a kid and never had any idea that it had to do with the enviornmental movement. I was surprised to find that Dr Suess was a political cartoonist before he was the author of numerous famous childrens books. I was also shocked to find that The Lorax was banned from some schools. I still dont really understand why and im even more surprised that there was another book, The Truax, mocking it. The other part of lecture that i found interesting is when Trumpy was talking about countries like china that hide their poverty and pictures aren't allowed to be taken. I found it strange that a country would hide something like that from the rest of the world simply because id expect them to want to create awareness so that other countries could come to their aid. But now that i think about it When i went to China over the summer, i did not see them as the type of people that would ask for help from other countries. they were too prideful. While i was there, i saw both sides of the spectrum: the incredibly wealthy and those living in poverty. i noticed there was next to no middle class. Either people were really rich or really poor and when i say really poor i mean they barely had homes. There were no toilets. they were living among disease and the rich people would not go near the peasants. As far as i know their communist government is not doing anything about it which is sad compared to our government who cares so much about its people.
Adp today was very interesting to our generation I feel because of the cultural reference to Dr. Sues. I feel as though all of us had seen that friendly book before, yet never knew about it's underlying meaning. If Joe had not shown us that and brought it to my attention, I certainly would never have known about it. I don't agree with the ending of the story however. How is it fair to put so much pressure on a young child? I feel as though the Lorax is kind of a representation in a way of our parent's generation. For me personally, I tend to get the feeling that all of this pressure is put onto our generation to "make the world a better place," and we are now some how responsible to clean up the mess everyone has created. This to me is just not fair. The Lorax had the seed all along, why couldn't he go and plant it and grow a whole new generation of trees? Why is he passing the burden onto the younger generation when it was his generation that screwed things up? It seems as though we are forced to deal with all of these problems in our environment now, when in reality it wasn't our fault to begin with.
A few discussions ago when we were talking about Sand County Almanac and the Meat Industry article, I brought up the fact that the reason we eat and consume what we do is because that is the way in which we were brought up; the same goes for our need in the aspect of the Dr. Sues book. If we were not programed at birth to act, eat, buy, do what we do with our lives everyday, we would be living in a completely different world, that would probably have less environmental problems, and therefore would not have pressure from our elders to do something about it (aka cleaning up most of their mess).
I also found the photographs about E-waste that were shown in class today very interesting, although at the same time kind of propaganda-esque. Not that I do not sympathize with the people in these countries that are having to dig through battery factories, and the horrible conditions, but for all I know these pictures could be completely contrived to make a statement, and to capture a problem in order to shock people. However, I am shocked because I am American, and because I am human, therefore I do sympathize with these families situations to make a live for their children, even if that does mean having to rummage through garbage. It's a horrible fate that I would otherwise never learn about. I understand why their government does not want our people coming in a taking photos because they are worth a thousand words, and we are a very politically driven country who do not believe in that sort of lifestyle. It is a sad truth that Joe has brought to our eyes.
This discussion post isn’t exactly related to our lectures or previous discussion, but these ideas were spurred while talking about the concepts and motions taken to further help our environment and the people in it. My sister is in an organization called Engineers Without Borders, and is working to create a clean water system for a small town in South Africa. A water system that she has considered is a PlayPump. Through research I found that, “More than one billion people worldwide don’t have access to clean water,” and “Accumulatively, women and children spend 40 billion hours retrieving water.” These statistics is only striking because it doesn’t have to be that way. With the technology, transportation, and collaboration that the world is capable of, this shouldn’t even be a problem. The Play Pump is essentially a merry-go-round connecting to a pump in the ground. As kids play on the pump, the turning motion pumps water up from the ground into a tank and then out into a pump that is accessible to the public. This system can produce up to 1,400 liters of water. The benefits to these pumps are endless. The reason I am posting about this is because it seems like such a feasible way to get a community involved in helping themselves. I am trying to thing of a project along these lines for our fields group project.
I think that we should focus more on environmental issues throughout our schooling. It seems as though the only times that there is an environmental focus in the K-12 curriculum is during elementary school, for the initial introduction to recycling and green living, and then not until college when students choose to have an interest in environmental studies. Keeping our environment safe and clean is a major problem for our generation. I think that because this is such an important issue that it should be a regular subject studied throughout our schooling and the schooling of future generations. We discussed Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax" in lecture yesterday and how it gives children an important role in the process of recreating environments of the past. It gives children a very large and demanding role but it also helps to inspire children to have big goals and to show them that they can make a difference. When thinking about the other books that I read throughout my K-12 education the only book that I can think of is Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle." The book discusses the meat industry in the beginning of the industrial boom and how the poor working conditions were in these factories. I think that after the past lectures I can see how food and the environment are related to each other so it is important for us to know where our food comes from. I think that if there is more of a focus on environmental studies throughout children's schooling that there will be more interest in the subject once young adults reach college. Once children are introduced to the subject at an early age then we can start to change our lifestyles at an early age. It is always easier to develop habits at a young age because you have more time to create those habits. And interesting book that could be added to the curriculum is Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma." The book follows four different meals from their origins all the way to your dinner plate, much like "This Steer's Life." Once you follow all of the products that you eat and consume you can see how the process works for the development, harvest, packaging and shipment work. Then you can see how the food that you are eating relates to the environment because you see what the factories do with their waste and how the farmers use pesticides to grow their crops. There are many different aspects of environmental studies that can be studied even at a young age. So I think that it should be implemented into schooling as its own subject because this is a life-changing subject for my generation and generations to come.
Discussing the book, "The Lorax" yesterday in lecture made me really interested in how we are taught about the environment and taught to look at the environment. When I was in elementary school, I don't remember doing very many things involving education about sustainability. I remember learning that recycling was better than throwing things away, but that was pretty much the extent of it.
Right now, I have a younger brother in 4th grade and a younger sister in 5th grade. I remember during last year they came home from school when I was home for my spring break, and they told me that they were learning about taking care of the environment. They explained to me many of the things they were learning about, such as taking care of plants and nature, using energy saving lightulbs, and saving our paper and plastic bags from stores.
Thinking back upon this situation makes me happy that elementary schools are being taught more about the environment and sustainability. Like in "The Lorax", I agree that it is up to us and younger generations as a whole to make a difference in the choices we make everyday. Unfortunately, when I think about certain lifestyle choices that we have become so dependent on, I realize that this will not be as easy as it sounds.
One step to getting closer to a more sustainable earth is more education about what damage is being caused by our daily routines. The photos we saw of the children in piles of toxic metals and materials had great impact on me and they inspired me to create artwork to educate and effect people's opinions as much as those did for me.
I don’t know if I missed my chance at the beginning of discussion today, but I had come prepared with art and design news, and I didn’t get to share it with everyone. So, in an attempt to share this interest with others, I will post it to the blog.
In recent gaming history, a new type of video game has surfaced among the typical war, fighting, and competitive games that define virtual entertainment. This new type has been coined “Zen Gaming” and it takes advantage of new technology to attain its fundamentally different purpose.
Zen Gaming is not about winning or losing, or killing, or fighting, or racing, etc. Instead, it is about playing to play, explore, and experience. The games of this genre feed off of intense graphical beauty and highly intuitive user interfaces to create non-competitive experiences. They are focused more on how you play the game, rather than the final outcome. This foundation results in puzzle games without a time limit, games about being the wind and collecting flower petals, and a variety of relaxing iphone apps.
The positives about Zen Gaming are that it is innovative, non-competitive, and relaxing. The negatives, though, seem to be bridging the gap between technology and the environment in a scary way.
Take, for example, the game Flower. This is the game where you control the wind, picking up flower petals, and progressively creating a more and more beautiful landscape in your wake. While this seems like a great attempt to get away from guns and fighting, and into the peace of nature, it is still technology. This game is offering people a way to acquire and experience the beauty of nature without being there. It is an instant serving of nature, and I fear that it will become the fast and easy way to escape from the urban world without really escaping.
The design challenge with technology and the environment is tough, and while I feel that this game is a valiant attempt at addressing nature, I fear that its effects will be more negative than positive. Accessing nature through technology sounds like the epitome of the artificial world. Why leave the comfortable couch to walk a field, when you could effortlessly glide the hills and see a fantasy world of color and vibrancy that only the highest-quality LCD could capture?
While I feel that Zen Gaming is not a good answer to our nature problems, I am still very excited to see an attempt to push away from combat and violence. I definitely plan on roaming the plains, collecting flower petals, when my budget finds room for a Sony Playstation 3.
On the first observation paper, I wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of sitting out in the middle of the woods for an hour. Although once I motivated myself to go out there I ended up having a good time. It took me about an hour to walk out and find the plant I desired but by the time I found it, I felt for the first time in such a long time that I began to enjoy myself. Almost every day feels like a race, a race to finish homework as soon as possible and move on to the next task. It has become a normal habit to excuse myself from friends just to catch up on my readings for my Russian history course, but for this particular assignment it felt very nice to actually sit back and casually take notes of my sudden exposure to the green atmosphere way back behind Bursley. I felt at ease and very peaceful as I spent time with the reeds near the river creek. I had two papers due by the end of the weekend but during those two hours outside I didn’t seem to care at all of what lied in store for me at the end of my session. As a matter of fact, I didn’t think about school at all, but rather I reflected on my most personal memories and how happy I truly was even if I didn’t show it during my 8:30 classes. The book Collapse reminded me of how exclusive this feeling was during the first chapter when the author was describing how infatuated he was with the big sky coming back and forth to Montana every summer. There was an intimate relationship that was sparked because of fly-fishing, and this relationship that was developed helped him realize what was actually going on in the environmental world. Bonding with nature helps you feel more sensitive and grateful to your surroundings and that’s something I’ve began to notice as I lived on North campus. I participated in the Explorth event just a few weeks ago and it turned out to be a great time. I went to the far west side of the North campus and saw many new places that I have never noticed. I didn’t realize how beautiful North campus truly was until I made the time to walk around on it. There is a pond near the music school and I’ve never noticed or have I noticed the beautiful scenery near Huron road. But one thing in particular I notice whenever I walk around North campus is the big open sky above me. Like the author was describing in the book the amount of blue is what lures me every year to living on North as opposed to Central. The quiet and serene surroundings around me are what inspire me to push through college work. Last year I purchased a small blanket to lie out on the field and do my readings under when the weather is just right. I picked a room with a window that scales from the ceiling almost to the floor and placed the side of my bed against it so I can focus on my readings next to the open sky as my associate.
Samantha Levy Weekly Comment #4 The difference between doing environmental work in a mass group setting in comparison to an individual setting is cause for much debate. While both may be essential to improving our natural world, which is more important? What should people be doing to better their surroundings? It seems like lately, the individual environmentalist has been the focus in a phenomenon that can be called “green living”. Green living from a critical designer’s point of view truly seems to be an advertiser’s dream. Slap a green leaf on a bottle of cleaner and explain that it doesn’t harm the environment and your product will sell before the average-joe cleaner, even sometimes at a higher price. Whether these products are legitimately helpful or unaffecting to the environment is always uncertain, but the main point is that companies are pushing for the individual to go green. The drawback of emphasis on individual environmentalism in comparison to a mass effort is the lack of impact. While it is necessary that everyone take individual steps to help protect the environment, the impact is not always strong enough to help make significant change. In lecture when we discussed The Lorax, Trumpey explained it as using “the responsibility of the individual”. He continued by posing questions and making us think about whether or not it is truly possible that a child could single-handedly revive the truffula tree population. Today its green vs. regular, paper vs. plastic, electric hand-drier vs. paper towel: it is in the power of the individual to make these choices. While in many cases, individuals have a difficult time making a huge impact, Wangari Maathl (as discussed in class) founded an entire green belt movement in East Africa by planting trees. With this example, it is obvious that there does need to be individual work done in order to preserve the environment. The only issue now is the unbalance of individual work to mass effort. In order to truly make a positive environmental impact, I believe that the government and other major organizations should begin pushing for people to participate in mass efforts to preserve our Earth. Sure, it is easier to just buy green and work as an individual, but the influence will remain undetected. People need to start questioning what companies are branding “environmentally friendly” and possibly take into consideration that it could all be a marketing scheme to exploit the need for environmentalists. We need to start working both alone and as a whole to revive the environment.
Samantha Schulman 10/12/09 Collapse Chapter 10 Post #5
In Chapter 10 of Jared Diamond’s collapse, Diamond goes into detail about the genocide in Rwanda and some of the effects leading to the ultimate collapse of the society. I was always aware of the poor living conditions in Africa and the constant civil wars over land, but I had very little knowledge on how these disputes and problems came about. Though there are many contributing factors, including racial difference between the Tutsi and Hutu tribes, there is an enormous environmental factor that is rarely talked about. The population density of Rwanda is extremely high, meaning that many people must share the land. But because Africa has yet to modernize like industrial nations such as the United States and Europe, citizens of these lands are subjected to using plows, rakes, and handheld objects, making food production much slower. Most families provide only for themselves and their own families, sometimes with a slight excess to sell. Because the land wasn’t developed properly (plants planted over the crops to keep the soil fertile in the off seasons, etc.) there is now a huge problem with soil erosion. Because the citizens were not informed of the proper way to work their land and took little time to explore options, they have badly damaged their land, leading to not only shortages of food, but also genocide. I am aware that there are environmental problems, especially things such as global warming which has become a highly disputed and publicized issue, but it is easy to forget that even simple things such as farming done in the wrong way, can severely damage and change the land that we live on. Literally everything we do affects our environment in some way and it is so easy to miss the big picture in events such as the problems in Africa. Another problem is that while some farms succeed, growing larger and therefore buying the land from smaller farms in dire need of food, making the big farms bigger and the small ones smaller. This is leading to a few problems including stealing and other fraudulous behavior due to the threat of starvation, and also the division of “rich” and “poor” without an equal ground in the middle. In conclusion, if ever able to organize or stop fighting, there are ways that this African nation can stop problems such as soil erosion. With proper planting and farming techniques adapted to the environment on which they live, citizens can make a difference.
I read the new post about water consumption and i remember having that same question: how do you waste water if it just keeps going in a cycle? I've always disregarded people when they say im "wasting water" by flushing the toilet too much or leaving the water on when i brush my teeth. Now it makes more sense to me. There are just too many people using too much water at once. I also never knew that only one percent of the worlds fresh water was accessible to human use. what happens to the rest of it and why isnt it accessible? In any case, i will be more aware now when the sink is running and make sure to turn it off and conserve as much water as possible. It seems as though people have gotten pretty wasteful in general. Professor Trumpy was talking today about how Us material goods and consumption has more than tripled since WWII and house sizes are about 3 times bigger with fewer people living in them. We have 2 times the cars since then and 20 times as much air travel. Thats only since WWII. If we keep going at this rate we will run out of space and resources especially since the population size is only increasing as time goes on. It is up to our society to do something about it and solve these problems so we know what to do when they arise otherwise our society will slowly collapse.
Weekly statement four I was shocked when I read the chapter about China in collapse. I grew up in China, experienced the one child policy, as most of my friends are only child. The air pollution is really bad in big cities. I didn’t realize that till the first time I went back home from the States. The sky is in a more grey color. I guess for most of people In China, they are used to this kind of environment, they don’t even think about how to help with the environment problems unless it starts to affect them personally. The population is a big problem too. China has the world’s largest population. Although there are a lot of resources in China, average per person usually end up being below world average. Things I learnt in this class, about resources and how individuals can make a difference in the world makes me think what if everyone learns more about the environment. Education is important. If the government in China educates all the citizens about pollutions and environment, it will make a difference. With such large population China indeed is going to make a huge impact in the world. But if all the people work collectively to solve the environmental problem, they will change the world.
We have read about how many economies have poor farming practices that end up ruining the soil and polluting the water. These are some of the events that lead to a social, economic, and environmental collapse. I found an article, through a friend on facebook, on the NPR website by Richard Harris, “Prairie Pioneer Seeks To Reinvent The Way We Farm,” about a man in Kansas who is trying to find more sustainable farming practices.
Initially the project was "devoted to a search for sustainable alternatives in agriculture, energy, shelter, waste management." But after realizing that this was too much to handle, he devoted the project to one main goal, figuring out how to maintain the richness of soil while we keep replanting crops every year. The solution that they are testing came from nature. They looked at how nature annually grows plants without depleting the richness of the soil. The answer is perennial wildflowers, “Perennials are plants that put down strong roots 10 feet or more into the ground and hold the soil in place. Perennials live year-round, unlike annual crops that get planted every year. In Kansas, perennials survive the harsh winters and the blazing hot summers” (Harris). Obviously we would want our crops to emulate the wildflowers and their ability to grow yearly and to survive harsh weather conditions. Another bonus to the wildflowers according to Harris is that “In contrast to fields that get plowed every year, native prairie vegetation actually improves the soil year after year. The amazing variety of plant life in this prairie also makes it resilient against disease.”
I think it is obvious that we should look to nature to see how we should practice our own farming and growing of plants. Plants in nature have their own way of evolving to their environment. We can learn how to use these same methods by studying the plants and then applying them to our own practices. I think that we can apply this process to other systems in our environment and our social practices.
Nature has evolved over so many years and there are plants that have been around for thousands of those years. It is the same way that we study the history of past economies and social groups to apply methods that do or don’t work to our society today. We can use these same methods with plants and animals in nature.
Harris, Richard. "Prairie Pioneer Seeks To Reinvent The Way We Farm." NPR. 22 Oct. 2009. PBS, Web. 22 Oct 2009. < http: // www.npr.org/templates/story/storyComments.php?storyId=113766846&pageNum=2&pPageNum=2>.
Watching the movie today in lecture has given me a good look as to what our modern society is up to. The fast and furiously growing country of China is modernized at such an alarming rate that through them we see how out society will end up. Some of it good and some of it bad. The idea of industrialization now is seen as too much, but in the earlier days when everything was done by hand industrializing was a dream everyone strived for. The problem I feel we struggle with modern day industrialization is where do we draw the line? How much is too much? This access to the consistent amounts of technological changes has improved life through convenience and timesaving methods. On top of that, social and economic methods have improved too. You can retrieve the news now through gossip, television, radio, newspaper, magazine, and the Internet. It’s possible to own an entire closet full of clothes or appliances at the ease of cheap labor and mass-production and the family setting changes to a nuclear family due to the convenience of cheap housing as well. The modernization of a society influences serious change, but how much of it is really good?
One thing that I found amazing was how quick and efficient the workers were in the factory. Every close-up to their hands revealed a precise and thoughtful process of how to mass-produce items like irons. Their employers to motivate them to work hard and not make mistakes yell at the workers. Some of the photographs of the people at work made them look less human and more like machines. I stopped thinking of that when the pictures showed the worker looking straight at the photographer, making them look human once more. It’s sad to think that for just a second that I thought that they were less human than anyone else, but you cannot help but blend these workers as a part of the machinery due to their focus on their work and the countless lines of workers they have as a normal setup. I worked in a factory for two summers during high school and while this job grew listless and dull, I was paid close to 10 dollars an hour for doing the same task for 7 hours straight and an hour worth of breaks throughout the day. On top of this, we were social to each other occasionally if we all stood on the same line. Conversation we all participated in, even with my superiors who patrolled the area. Everyone worked hard and they knew we did. It was interesting to compare the factory labor in China to mine in America because of the extreme differences I noticed. While factory work is not considered the most “glamorous” of career choice my job paid well and treated me very well on top of it. I was treated like a human being not literally, but I felt like I was just because of how much I stood out and kept much of my personality within the tedious factory work I did.
Consumerism in society has sky rocketed. Many people think having more stuff means you are higher class in our society. In truth, I think many of these high class, rich people are minimalists. Its not about who has more. Its about who has BETTER things: who has the most expensive car, who has the biggest, most high tech house, who has the most advanced computer, the best security system, who can afford a maid, a chef, a driver, a private jet. Things like that have become increasingly more important in our society. sad? im not sure. I think i would be happy to be in their position. Most of these people are not pack rats. they dont necessarily own a ton of stuff but the stuff they do own is nice. they dont really need to own more stuff if one really nice thing takes care of the job and makes a good impression on the person that owns it. I think more problems arise when people have too many things. over-consumers (pack rats)just keep buying more and more things and make it impossible to regulate consumerism. These people are not considered high class. There's nothing appealing or attractive about hoarding a bunch of stuff, so in conclusion, i think that societies standards rely more on having nicer things rather than having more things.
Prior to visiting Herman Miller’s Design Yard on Friday, October 30, I spent a week researching and learning about the environmentally conscious mentality of the Michigan-based furniture design company. Since their foundation in the early 1900s, Herman Miller has valued environmental advocacy. Today, they are ahead of the game in sustainable design, and they continue to push themselves with ambitious environmental goals. By the year 2020, Herman Miller will have zero pounds of waste. To read more about their goals and company policy, visit www.hermanmiller.com.
I was fortunate enough to get in contact with Gabe Wing, the Project Manager for the Design for the Environment team. As a Chemical Engineering graduate from U of M, Gabe was very friendly, understanding, and helpful toward my research project. He met me at the Design Yard in Holland, Michigan. This is where Herman Miller’s Environmental Design takes form with displays of new materials, critical questions posted on the walls, and plenty of plant life incorporated into the space. The facility was amazing, and truly inspirational.
So that’s where I went, and that is what I did. Here is what I learned.
Sustainability is not simple. First and foremost, the definition itself depends on what part of sustainability interests you. For Herman Miller, sustainability is about creating closed material loops that are safe to people and the environment. This means that they spend most of their sustainability efforts by communicating with material suppliers, and designing their furniture to contribute towards the closed loop cycle. However, for someone else, sustainability may be about emotional durability. This person might spend their efforts focusing on creating timeless designs that people will indefinitely. For another person, it might be about modularity, customization, or minimalism.
Take a step deeper into any of those definitions, and you run into a very complex set of issues. If you think designing something that someone will love is challenging, imagine designing something that someone will love now and five, ten, one hundred years from now. For Herman Miller, contributing to closed material loops means finding sustainable suppliers, and choosing materials that can be recycled. It also means finding ways to design furniture that can be disassembled easily with simple tools. On the health and safety side, it means finding new solutions to old manufacturing problems. What glue can we use? What machines operate safely? How do we eliminate chemical output? The challenge is to answer these questions, and to answer them in a way that is economically viable.
The most interesting thing that Gabe taught me about Environmental Design is that there are no perfect answers – at least not yet. Whatever fixes one problem often creates another. With advancements in technology and an increased expectancy for sustainable design, we will get better at closing loops, perfecting emotional durability, and manufacturing safe products.
For discussion, I was in charge of creating a template for Chapter Fourteen in Collapse. This chapter centered around the different decisions that societies make or don’t make, and how these can ultimately lead to a collapse of that society. It also addresses why societies make these decisions. I really began to think about these “problems” that societies and cultures encounter, and how they begin small, but change the course of progression of land and people. For example, in discussion we talked about the Easter Islanders. These people knew there was a problem-they were cutting down all of their trees. But as a society, they were failing to even attempt to solve or stop this problem. Finally, the last tree had been cut down. We look back on this now and wonder what they could have been thinking. But then we realize that we are doing the exact same thing today. We are using up our oil resources in the blink of an eye. People are aware of this- there are articles in magazines and reports on news stations. But this is all talk. There is little action being done and hardly any planning. People keep using oil, knowing full well that it will be gone soon. I realize that to completely conserve oil, Americans would have to overhaul the way they live their lives. There are a few simple things we can do though, that I think many people just don’t know about. To conserve gasoline while driving- 1)Park your car so that you can drive forward. Reversing requires more gas. 2) Remove extra stuff from your car and trunk. Heavy weight increases mileage. 3)Don’t exceed the speed limit. 55 mph gives you 21% better gas mileage than driving at 60 or 70 mph.
I found these tips at http://www.howtoadvice.com/savinggas
I absolutely loved the Penny Stamps lecture this Thursday featuring Shana and Robert Parkeharrison. I believe the theme in their photography/sculptures has much to do with the theme for ADP III. They explored the relationship between humans, nature, and technology. Whether it is humans destroying nature with technology, or humans trying to save the Earth, Shana and Robert portrayed the idea in a beautiful way. They had an eerie quality to them, which I loved and the colors they used in their color series were amazing. I am so excited to see the prints in person in Slusser Gallery. I liked how the images weren’t supposed to answer questions of how to actually go about saving the planet, but they were merely made to evoke questions and ideas from the viewer. It makes the viewer have to stay and look at the piece for more than three seconds. It gets their brain working and they have to add ideas to the piece in order to complete the puzzle. Not only did I love the artistic qualities of these pieces, but I am also so glad that they incorporated the most important problem we have today into their work. We need as much awareness as we can get on the issue of the triangular relationship of humans, nature, and technology. One of the pieces that really struck me was the one with the huge pile of tires with the man in the corner running across them in their black and white series. It obviously reminded me a lot of Edward Burtynsky’s photograph of the massive pile of used tires. It was such a great photograph visually with a lot of contrast, which I love. The composition was also very unique and interesting. I was trying to think in depth of this piece trying to figure out what they had in mind when producing it. What I came up with was that possibly this man running across the tires has given up on transportation with the use of cars and took it upon himself to run instead: a no emission form of transportation. He has overcome the repetitive task of driving everywhere without thinking about the outcome of the situation and is now “above the influence” as he is running on top of these tires. Another piece that I really liked and could not stop staring at from Shana and Robert’s color series was the piece where Robert is trying to pull all of the cords coming from the wall down. I tend to be entranced when I see colors that I really like and the color of the wall in this photo is probably one of my favorite colors in the entire world. That sounds like a statement that a child would say, but I truly felt that way when I saw this photo. Also, the textures and the other complementing colors just added up to make this piece one of my favorites. It also has a great message included. The message I took from it was a simple question: Why do we have so many cords coming out of our walls? They are controlling our lives. Almost everything we use in our homes is powered by electricity. But it wasn’t always that way, and it doesn’t have to be that way. In this photo, it seems that Robert is trying to pull all of these cords out of his wall because he is wrapped up in them and he needs to pull them out before he is suffocated by all of them. So many of the photographs that Shana and Robert Parkeharrison showed at the lecture this week made me think very deeply about. The beautiful artistic qualities sucked me into the picture, and then the unfinished story made me stay to think about them for a while. Their projects surely have a lot in common with this class and with the most important issue in the world today. I hope that their works become more and more popular and that more and more people will see them to bring about awareness and also beauty to this planet.
While reading Culture Jam, I have become increasingly aware of the advertisements and promotion of consumption in our daily lives. Just today, I was reading Culture Jam and working out. I realized I was using a Whoppers wrapper as a bookmark, the television was on in the workout room, broadcasting commercials every few minutes and at the end of my workout, the screen on the machine read, “You have been fueled by Octane Fitness”.
We, as a population, would have to walk around with blinders on if we wanted to avoid advertisements. The spray-chalk advertisements on the sidewalks along campus and the Diag say a lot about our consumer “culture” and lack of connection with nature. The fact that student groups and Ann Arbor restaurants advertise on the ground implies that we spend a lot of time walking and looking down at our feet. Avoiding contact with other people, avoiding nature? Media and advertising are out of control, especially when products are still being promoted to the person who has already bought into the product.
Samantha Levy Weekly Statement 8 I found the lecture about homes across the world to be very interesting. The most striking part of these examples is the ability of the homes to execute both beauty and function simultaneously. In a country where the ‘best’ homes are the largest and most luxurious, it is difficult to imagine living in some of these homes. I personally found the way that people connected with their environment to create their specifically structured homes was refreshing. As explained in lecture, there are many different adaptations the builders of the homes used to cater their structures to the needs of its inhabitants. White washes and light-colored materials are often used on the exteriors of buildings that were exposed to intense heat. Other homes are raised on stilts, which re used for protection of food against vermin, flood damage prevention, and keeping living quarters at bay from mosquitoes. I did not know that there were such things as sod roofs, which are described as being great for insulation and water catchment. Some homes were built into the mountainside or out of local materials. Both of these methods were not only cost efficient (in comparison to how we buy materials from a hardware store) but they create beautiful camouflaged networks of buildings. All of these traditional building techniques have evolved to create extremely efficient homes using local resources and practical construction to create some of the most unique buildings I’ve ever seen. Perhaps the most unusual of the homes we were shown was the man-made islands both in Lake Titicaca, Peru and in Madan, Southern Iraq. These people not only created adaptable homes, but they formed the land on which they live. While it would be hard to transition from how I live here to living in some of the houses used in the lecture, I was still left curious of the places and cultures that formed these homes. This lecture gave me yet another reason to travel and experience different cultures.
Although I think some of Lash’s views in Culture Jam are extreme and based on anger, I agree whole-heartedly with the section on “grounding the corporation”. Lash explains that the only goal of a corporation is to generate income. The corporation does not care who it hurts in this process because it is inanimate. “When a corporation hurts people or damages the environment, it will feel no sorrow or remorse because it is intrinsically unable to do so. (It may sometimes apologize, but that’s not remorse-that’s public relations.)” (157). I feel that this detachment that is intrinsically present in corporations often is prevalent in the heads of the corporations as well. I appreciate that this detachment may be important to running a successful business, but I don’t think it’s necessary. Corporations and even small businesses cut corners and slip by rules just to get ahead. ROC-United is an organization that works to improve working conditions for employees through national policies. ROC-United at the University of Michigan is currently working on protesting the wages and overtime laws that are less than satisfactory at Andiamo’s in Dearborn. Bertha Rosales was recently fired for protesting for her rights. It is believed that the firing has to do with her protest. I think that this story brings Lash’s ideas closer to home. It’s easy to imagine these huge corporations in big faraway cities, but seeing it in a neighboring town is different. It makes the public realize that these injustices are happening all around us.
Long ago… in a galaxy far away… there existed a space program, a very primitive and underdeveloped space program. It’s unfortunate that I’m talking about Earth. The US in particular seems to have a space program that is both underdeveloped and underfunded. The Augustine report is basically a summary of NASA’s current options for space exploration and how none of them are properly funded. Or at least that’s what it said to me.
I believe our current government would more properly fund our space program, but exactly how much will it take? Lets look at some numbers. NASA currently has an 18 billion dollar annual budget. That’s quite a bit of money to spend on trying to get to other planets when our own planet needs so much work. That money would pay for food for so many starving people in other countries, not to mention our own.
So why give NASA more money? Why is space exploration important? Many people do not recognize the technologies that have been developed thanks to our space program. So many of the useful technologies we have today come from our space program, its not as if the money is just sent aimlessly to drift into space.
I feel like we as people are naturally very selfish. Our wants and needs come before the wants and needs of other people, other countries, the environment, etc. The theory of the green revolution for instance is a nice idea and has many supporters but those supporters are fickle when it comes down to their own needs vs environments needs. It's kind of like people who say they're pro-life but when it comes down to them getting pregnant, they'd get an abortion. No matter what you believe, actions speak louder than words. People live their lives by convenience. The US still supports child labor laws by importing goods from countries that work kids day in and day out for a few cents pay. In that case its not our responsibility to intervene in another countries matters but its pretty convenient that its suddenly our responsibility to intervene in Iraq for the good of the people when we coincidentally started running out of oil. I feel like we could help the environment if a)everyone cared about it and b)if no slacked off and did what was more convenient for them when it came right down to it. otherwise we're kind of screwed. no one cares enough about future generations to sacrifice the conveniences handed to them in their lifetime. Thats the cold hard truth.
“Wow.” The term repeatedly used throughout the reading, Nature at the Mall, by the author to describe his feelings towards the baby-boomers generation of purchasing, spending, and consuming. He begins by describing movements in recent years for stores in the mall to sell things recreated of other things found in nature. Replicated animals, sounds, posters, and more line the walls of nature stores that have received high acclaim and strive with popularity. Our homes and personalities described by the possessions in them and the amount of stuff we have.
It is a theme that we’ve seen many times this semester, pounded into our brains if you will. But yet, every article, though somewhat repetitive, continues to strike a nerve in me. I find myself looking around my room at the numerous items I have that haven’t been used in months and thinking, “What do I have this for?” It has been imprinted in my brain that people will befriend me based on how I look or what I have, and the awful truth is this is pretty realistic. Yes, there are music interests, talents, athletics, and more, but the author of Nature at the Mall makes some striking points about shopping. Two things that really caught me off guard were that 1) people put shopping as their second favorite activity only after TV watching, 2) that many people prefer shopping to sex. Sex is one of the most talked about, powerful, and controversial topics known to humans, but still shopping overpowers it.
Though there are many negatives to our consumerism, namely the trend of nature stores at malls, there are some positives. For children or adults that may not normally venture outdoors or seek interest in any natural activity, stores such as the nature store do provide some form of education on the environment. Whether it is completely accurate or not, stores such as the endangered species store, can still broaden ones horizons and effect the subject matter in which one is interested in. It can never hurt to turn a consumers attention to the outdoors, whether it involves marketing tactics or not.
As we approach the end of this semester, I find myself looking back and re-evaluating the name of this course. “ADP III: Technology and the Environment” is about using historic and current examples to understand how humans respond to their environment through the use of technology. Technology is defined by what our environment demands, because, as this course has proven to me, environment is something much bigger than the humans who occupy it. Conversely, the environment is defined by everything that lives and exists within it. The environment in which we live is defined by what we do, but also by the relationships of all living things and how they interact with the non-living foundation. This course is about understanding that relationship and understanding how humans fit in the bigger picture.
Today in lecture, Joe brought up the recurring question: “What did the logger think as he cut down the last tree?” This time, unlike before, he offered us three possible answers. All of these answers reflect the argument that opposes all worries about environmental degradation. First, “Jobs, not trees.” Second, “Don’t worry, technology will solve it.” And third, “We don’t have proof that there aren’t more trees somewhere else. We don’t have proof that cutting down this tree will harm us. We need to do more research to make any conclusions.” Let me start by saying that the final response, while a seemingly educated response, is utterly ridiculous. While I don’t know the exact level of “proof” that we have on these topics, I do know one thing: I don’t want to live in a world with no trees. Sometimes that should be enough evidence, shouldn’t it? A world with no trees would be a horrible place. Imagine what life would be like if we killed all of the nature in the world and lived an entirely synthetic life? Imagine if we continued to detach ourselves from nature.
The first and second responses seem to be more common, as people get overly wrapped up in their lives and the technology that fills them. These responses seem to hold firm to the ignorant desire to pretend that problems do not exist. Maybe this comes from an early stage of life when our parents always tell us that everything will be all right. Or, maybe this comes from the realization that our problem is so huge that we would rather act like it doesn’t exist. Whatever the case, these responses are very common amongst many people I know.
Technology is an interesting thing. It has essentially allowed us to manipulate our environment in ways that are beyond our own abilities. No other animal can do this, and this is why we have risen to be the superior species. Our advanced ability to manipulate nature puts us on a different level compared with other animals, because this inevitably changes our relationship with the environment. This course suggests that we learn to control this relationship, because losing control can be dangerous to the environment and ourselves. This puts humans in an interesting position by making us a species that censors itself, because it understands how its own power can be harmful if misused.
I guess what I’m getting at is that this course has made me aware that if we want to learn to live in harmony with our environment (which is something that humans have yet to do), we must learn to make wise choices. We must design with total awareness of how it affects our environment, and carefully consider the shape of our future before we get there.
The Penny Stamp’s guest lecture Stewart Brand has exposed me to the beauty of Earth. “The Earth is an island, surrounded by a lot of inhospitable space. And it’s so graphic, this little blue, white, and green and brown jewel is an icon amongst a black vacuum.” This quotes was about the first image of the earth made in 1968 and it was just the quote said to emphasize one’s enthusiasm for such a sight. The images shown in Professor Trumpey’s lecture has introduced me to our environmental issues on a real life scale.
“We are as gods and have to get good at it.” It’s difficult to see what we are doing to the earth. Sometimes it’s hidden and we may never realize it unless we see an actual visual. The images I saw were beautiful and made me develop an interest to continue looking at the Earth on a large scale. Google Earth is a useful tool for this mission. There have been countless times that I have played on the program just to see my town on a large scale. I’ve mapped my running and walking routes just to understand how far I’ve travelled. Seeing the distance you travel on a large scale gives helps you understand how little you actually walk in comparison to the actual scale of the earth. While technology can be seen as a method to destroy and separate us from nature, it can also be used to create and help us learn through a completely different perspective. Technology is meant to be used as an aid. We should use it for learning purposes rather than just personal use. If we thought this way more often, we would rely less on technology and probably be impressed when we did use it.
This Christmas I wrapped all my gifts to good friends in newspaper. I carefully searched used newspapers for any foreign substances inside them and then used the most colorful pages to decorate the item enclosed. I didn’t do this with everyone because I figured they would think that I was giving them trash or was too cheap to use real gift-wrap. The problem with this is that why would you waste paper as gift-wrap? Gift-wrap is used to contain an object in secrecy for about a month and torn away once given permission to. The entire process of gift-wrap is poor design and lacks much function. A simple bow or ribbon can make a gift more decorative and look new, but it hurts to think how much paper is used every year on gifts. The waste my family produces at my grandparent’s house is enough to fill a 12 gallon garbage bag. Taking a more creative approach to solving this scenario is difficult, because naturally children, friends, and family want to be surprised by what they are about to receive Christmas morning. It’s not necessarily a need for gift-wrap but rather want. “I want to be surprised Christmas morning!” Alternatives I have done in the past for birthdays, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day is reusing boxes and baskets. My parents receive wine in beautiful boxes every year with the wine still inside. I take these wooden crates and braid string or thin ribbon and use it to tie the box. Other times I use a basket or cigar boxes for decorative gifting too. Another alternative (And might be one of my best ones) I came up recently is sewing cloth bags with scraps of fabric. Cloth has a lot of interesting prints and textures to it and can be just as good as wrapping paper, if not better. These cloth bags I made as an additional gift for my friends for them to reuse for jewelry, art supplies or also as “gift wrap.” The point of these small bags is meant to encourage and expose people to eco-friendly gift-wrapping. It makes the gift seem more special if I take the time to create the decoration from scratch.
The group project that my group and I have created was a little bit frustrating to work on because it was yet another project due for the class, but after completion, I am glad that we did it because of the effect. Our group decided to tackle an issue that probably no other group would think of doing, which was the bushmeat crisis going on in Africa. This issue had an effect on us because of the images shown and the facts discussed in lecture. All of us also seem to be animal lovers and it was so hard to hear about these things going on. Our project consists of a set of posters showing images of African animals under the threat of bushmeat along with a brochure speaking of all of the facts, groups working to help this issue and things that each individual can do to help. We also wrote up a petition that we are going to send to the senate that anybody can sign at the project exhibition. The petition asks for help on this issue through research on more sustainable food option, aid for the people of Africa who need it, and a general spreading of the awareness of the bushmeat crisis. I think the creating this petition is one of the best things we could have done with this project. I have never been a part of creating a petition before, and it feels really good to do something that a politician could possibly see and in turn ultimately make a difference with a serious issue. Our senator also has a past history of trying to tackle environmental problems, which has a huge advantage. I know that I have learned a lot about trying to make a difference in this class, just as I am sure a lot of others in this class have also. It is also nice to work with others on a project so that you can create an even more powerful presentation with the collaboration of ideas. I don’t think our project would have been successful if I would have worked on it alone. And with projects that are supposed to enact change for such an imperative issue, it is important that you get different inputs from different people in order to make sure you are not excluding anything and that the presentation has its full potential to get people’s attention. I am so excited to see all of the different ideas and implementations of different projects presented by my classmates on Monday for the group project exhibit. I know there will be a wide variety presented because there were so many topics discussed in class that have had a different impact on every one us. There were so many other issues that have changed my point of view on life completely, and I know I could not handle another project this semester, but I would like to work with these important issues that have had such an impact on myself down the road to express my concern for them and to bring about awareness and change.
After spending an entire semester learning about the possibilies of what “could” happen the images of those desolate islands with cultures no more make me fear for what might be in store. Those images of Easter Island made me feel uncomfortable. The book Collapse gave great examples of societies that strived for decades even centuries, but as technology evolves so do the people and their habits. These habits lead to revolutionary changes in food, travel, medical practices and people begin to change and “forget” about their environment. People become indulged in lives and don’t realize what happens to the stuff they throw away or how large their carbon footprint is. The Mayan society is an example of a top-notch society of its time. They had reached multiple scientific breakthroughs, script writing, architecture, warfare, and developed their own take of the yearly calendar, but despite all these revelations they crumbled due to the depletion of their resources and held many enemies. Ideas completely change on a monthly basis. By the end of the year that idea may have merged with another or left in the dust. The USSR is an example of a recent short-lived society, but the difference between the Soviet Union and the Mayans was that it was bound to fail once it started because of the change in political leaders and their inconsistent morals and ideas with every new leader.
I feel after reading all the books, it pains me to say that if we do collapse it’s probably inevitable at the rate we are going. People care less about the change in weather, animals going extinct, or where our foods comes from unless it directly affects their personal life. Our December weather makes me feel worried for December in 20 years in Michigan. It feels like it’s the beginning of fall more than it does winter and it seems unnatural when just a year ago we celebrated Christmas snowed inside my house. This class has shown me the importance of caring for the world around me and that every little thing does count. One would think that taking public transportation instead of using their car isn’t “saving” the environment but prolonging our demise with Global warming it still counts as effort. This effort can be used to influence and encourage other people to take part in this noble cause. It’s a matter of time before this idea picks up and attracts more people to participate. I’ve joined the Sustainable group on campus as a result of this class. What I have noticed from their e-mails is that they do picket signs in front of Consumer’s Energy and write letters to the State Congress. Every little thing does count – because in the long run it adds up over time, and like what happened to Easter Island and the extreme deforestation that it endured we can become them next. The important thing is to be alert and do your part to help the world – even if you feel alone in helping the world we allow the environment to live another day longer because of us alone.
Weekly statement 10 I’ve never been to any of the nature company store before. But I have similar experience. I remember those gifts in souvenir stores in the zoos or botanical gardens, the gifts are not only seen as souvenirs but also give visitors a feeling of taking nature home. I agree with the author’s opinion that nature and human cannot be separated. Nature is closely related to our consuming society nowadays. Nature is the primary producer, which is the base level of the trophic pyramid. No matter the concept of the nature store or the material needed to make the goods in the store build relationship between nature and people. The nature teaches people knowledge about wild lives and deliveries a message that suggests us to spend more time in nature. However it is also like taking a sentence out of the context. It is man made nature; the meaning of nature has been manipulated. The knowledge about the nature is true, but the experience is different. How possible is it to experience true nature in a crowded store in a gigantic mall by looking at pictures of real animals and listening to new age music. It would be interesting experience, but definitely not the same as a walk in the woods. No matter how close to nature the nature company is, it is still a store. It wants costumers to buy stuffs. Also I thought about the invisible cost behind making all the goods. It can be harmful to the environment, especially the usage of plastics, packaging and shipping. To enjoy the nature we don’t have to pay a lot of money to get something at the nature store. Best things in life are free. First hand encounter with nature will not only save a lot of resources but also will give us a new experience.
Weekly statement 13 My first impression after reading Collapse is we are so messed up. Especially after finishing the last chapter when Diamond talks about how the collapse of societies he listed in the beginning can apply to our society nowadays. The most frightening thing for me was when he talks about how most of the ancient civilizations collapsed right after they reach the peak. It could be the same case for us too. In chapter 16, diamonds listed 12 environmental issues we are facing nowadays, 8 are from the past, and 4 are just starting to emerge. What made it different from the past is our world now is so globalized that one country’s problem becomes the whole world’s problem. I was shocked to see how much more energy developed countries consumes than that of developing countries. Developing countries like China and India are catching up on a lot of things, such as trades and manufacturing. Once all the people in developing countries reach the first world living standard and consume the same amount of resource per capita now it will be a disaster. But it doesn’t mean we have to stop third world countries from developing or give up everything we have now. We should come up with a way to develop in a sustainable way and live like a global citizen. It makes me want to do something to help. Before taking this course I wouldn’t think I as an individual can do anything. But if I start to do certain things, such as conserve energy, consume less goods, and educate others to do the same there will be a big difference.
Samantha Levy Weekly Statement 12 I know that we have discussed the environmental element in almost every collapse of a civilization. The one that seems to continuously pop up is deforestation. When talking about Hispaniola, the main difference that separates Haiti from the Dominican Republic is the level of deforestation. Haiti’s leaders decided that there was no reason to make logging laws and kept cutting down their forests to boost the economy. Eventually, the trees ran out and Haiti is still struggling with its economy. The leaders of the Dominican Republic recognized the long-term effects of logging ahead of time. While the Dominican Republic is not free of its issues, there were logging laws set in place that preserved their forests. Haiti is much closer to the verge of collapse in comparison to the DR, as a result of their ignorance in preserving their forests. Another major collapse took place on Easter Island. Research shows that the land used to be covered in trees, and the ‘dead’ island is now barren. Trees used to provide the people with canoes (an iconic form of transportation for all Pacific islands), timber, clothing and wild animals. Once the environment for wild animals was destroyed, the people of Easter Island began to starve. There is evidence that they traveled to different islands just to get food. In class we discussed why the forests didn’t re-grow, and the answer was that the soil was not fit to replant. The trees on Easter Island were not a renewable resource. Had the people preserved their forests, their civilization may have survived. If a present day society, such as Haiti, has the knowledge of other places like Easter Island self-destructing due to deforestation, one would think that they would take caution. Preserving forests not only helps to maintain a society’s economy but it is an obvious way to protect the environment. Trees provide us with resources even without using them once they are cut down. I went to the meeting for Joe’s Madagascar trip and we discussed that the group will be going to a deforested area. I am curious to see the effects of this first hand because even in conversation we learned that the destroyed environment couldn’t support the larger lemurs. How can destroying forests seem like a good idea if the results affect both us and other forms of life? I know that there are organizations that tell people to “save the rainforests”, but we rarely hear about protecting our local forests. It is important to save forests everywhere.
During this last lecture we talked about how large the corn industry is and how the surplus in America affects the world. And then also you had us read the “Steers Life” which talks about the cow industry. When in and English class last year we learned a lot about how these two things interconnect. I just wanted to make a comment about this. The corn industry is a large part of the US economy but that doesn’t necessarily mean this is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteThe corn industry is having a negative affect on the people. Corn is now being put in everything. Peanut butter, juice, fruit wax, plastics, anything, you name it. Certain things are ok but things like high fructose corn syrup and feeding cow’s corns really isn’t good for human beings. Corn is being used to help cows gain weight at a faster pace so that they can sell more. Problem with this is that the cows are not getting as much nutrients as they would just eating grass so us being the consumers of the cow we are getting even less nutrients from the meat. We are not getting as high of quality as we used to. Cows have a fantastic ability to be able to digest grass and yet we spend a lot of energy producing corn.
Corn being used as a sweetener is part of the reason why America is having such a large problem with obesity. Corn syrup unlike other fast by passes the body sensory that tells us when we’re full. This allows the body to consume more and then we cannot work of all those calories in enough time. The human body then takes those calories and stores them and then obesity arises.
The corn industry is complicated in the fact that it is a miraculous crop that can easily be produced in the tons but in the fact that it doesn’t have a whole lot of nutritive value. Corn is generally used as filler. For example dog foods will generally have corn in the first few ingredients to help make it cheaper, problem is most dogs and other animals are allergic to corn. Corn is such a complex crop that it’s too difficult to sum it up as good or bad. We can save a third world country with corn or we could completely kill a civilization through artificial sweeteners.
Weekly Response: One
ReplyDelete“This Steer’s Life” By: Michael Pollan
“This Steer’s Life” documents the life of a modern day male cow unfortunate enough to be born into the life of the American meat industry. The article is both shocking and upsetting due to the graphic descriptions and the depressing, unchanging ways of contemporary meat production. Author Michael Pollan shares his experience with a baby cow he purchased in order to document the average life of a steer.
The first stage in beef production is called “cow-calf operation” in which baby cows are born to female with “successful” genetics. The life of these powerless female baby-producing animals is quiet depressing. The females are now more than ever artificially inseminated in order to guarantee optimum births per cow. After a couple weeks of living dependently off of their mothers baby cows are separated and begin the second stage of their short lives. The author sent his baby steer to a location called “Porky Feeders” where young cows are fed excessive amounts of unnatural, anti-biotic loaded food.
Startling information about the life-span of a modern day beef cow exposed in the article.
In present day an average meat-producing cow’s life is typically 14-16 months, while in the early part of the 20th century meat cows were often not killed until after 4-5 years of life. With high request for beef in America cows are rushed through life in order to produce an unnecessary amounts of meat in demand. When reading the feeding habits of many of the farmers that produce meat cows I couldn’t help but recall the story of Hansel and Gretel where an evil witch who lived in a house made of candy and ginger bread forced the children to eat an obscene amount of food in order to “fatten” them up so she could cook them for dinner. The children did not realize the witch’s evil plan because she made them all of their favorite meals and let them eat all the sweets they wanted. These cow-care takers are essentially doing the same exact thing. Baby cows eat whatever is in front of them and always seem to want more. Once a cow meets a certain weight they are shipped off to slaughterhouses.
The inhumane ways the animals are killed in is heinous. The article goes into great detail describing step by step the process in which the animals are killed. An interesting, but still saddening fact I learned was that when a cow is scared of startled before it dies it produced adrenaline that makes the “meat dark and unappetizing.” Because of that knowledge slaughterhouses have come up with ways of stunning and then killing the animals so that they are unaware of their doom. The bleeding process described was absolutely disgusting and inhumane and needs to be changed. After reading the article I looked up videos and other articles about slaughterhouse and slaughterhouse reform. This article, although upsetting, had a lot of interesting information and I feel more enlightened on the subject.
Second Weekly Statement
ReplyDeleteJim Christian
9/15/09
In our discussion session today, I felt that the first 50 pages of A Sand County Almanac did not receive adequate discussion time. So, here is where I will pay a small, insufficient tribute to those brilliantly artistic 50 pages. First, Leopold’s writing deserves credit for its ability to naturally tap into the beauty and spirituality of nature. Second, I’d like to discuss his suggestions that nature is potentially just as good a teacher as our education system. Third, there is a connection to be made between his writing and a famous quote by McDonough and Braungart. Lastly, the little time we did spend discussing this text got my wheels turning, and I would like to record my trailing thoughts.
While A Sand County Almanac may be called dry, slow, dull, or boring, it is thickly detailed, and if one takes the time to slow down and digest those details, it becomes infinitely more riveting. Yes, it’s not a fast-paced page turner, but it is a page turner nonetheless. You just have to get used to a slower frequency of page turning. For example, page 38 has details of a fly-fishing expedition. I once had the privilege of learning to fly-fish under the guidance of a professional fisherman in a Colorado river. I spent six hours in the water that day, learning how to cast, false cast, dry a fly, strip and roll line, and, most importantly, land a trout. In all this, my tutor could not manage to describe the mindset and subtle techniques that Leopold described in just a few paragraphs. The whole passage seems poetic.
On page 25, Leopold speaks of a spring flood bringing strange objects from an upstream farm. He talks about how one can learn a great deal from these artifacts. One of his more poetic lines, “an old board is a kind of literature not yet taught on campuses,” is a line that seems to develop meaning as it inevitably echoes in a reader’s mind. And as this line echoes, you start to realize that yes, in fact, we don’t learn the literature of nature and natural processes. We leave that to scientists and archeologists. On page 46, he compares a weed to a book, and, in a subtle way, suggests that it may be more important than our precious books. While I don’t feel that Leopold truly believes nature is a better educator than our established system, I think that he does have a few valid points. Should we start paying a little more attention to our current natural surroundings and a little less time with noses in the books that may be dated?
And maybe if we spent a little less time memorizing the things that have already mastered by someone else, we would start to notice new and innovative things on a regular basis. On page 27, Leopold talks about how engineers did not discover flameproof insulation so much as they found an example of it in nature and copied it. Oak trees have fire resistant bark. We couldn’t have learned that for the first time from a book. In this I find an interesting connection with that quote. “Nature doesn’t have a design problem. People do.” It stuck with me from the moment I heard it. No wonder we take so much inspiration from nature. Nature takes time and makes careful decisions. Hasty ones get eliminated, and well-thought, tested ones prove victorious. Now, my only question is this: Why haven’t biologists bred this flameproof bark into the lodgepole pines in Colorado that dry up and threaten to spread massively uncontrollable forest fires across the state?
Lastly, I will sign off with this thought. The silphium plant was destroyed in an effort to make a highway, and the geese lost their swamp because we demanded a classy shopping center. These environmental manipulations do some serious damage. Maybe the problem is that, in a globalized world, people stop recognizing local ecosystems and start forcing unfitting culture and design where it doesn’t belong. Its like putting a tube-top on a chubby kid. A flock of geese squeezes out there, a roll of fat over there…
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteStephany Schafer
ReplyDelete9/27/09
Weekly Response
“This Steer’s Life” I found to be a far more interesting read than A Sand County Almanac. The article on the process of meat from farm to factory was a fascinating one, by far more interesting and thought out than A Sand County Almanac. My dislike for this book is immeasurable. I feel as if I’ve wasted hours of my life and I will never get them back.
I enjoyed reading and learning about where beef comes from, it was interesting to know more about our diets. There was conflict and well thought out points brought into that article that will continue to make me question my choices in foods even now. The additional hormones and anti-biotic that are fed to beef cows in today’s factory farms are quite alarming. Although this article will not stop me from eating beef, it will make me think twice about how much I eat and I will also think about healthier choices.
Unlike the Pullen article, Leopold’s book has no conflict, no resolutions, and no point. The entire book is basically him describing things on his farm. And even though he has a genuine skill for description, the endless narrative grows tired, and boring. I found myself more excited for the next sketch in the book than the actual text itself. I am sure that the “point” of this book was to make one more aware of our surroundings and enable us to take further interest in nature, but I do not believe that the endless ramblings in this book really achieved that. Needless to say, I was not impressed with the book A Sand County Almanac.
A Sand County Almanac
ReplyDelete9/27/09
Sam Schulman
As I was reading A Sand County Almanac, I could not help but think about the amount of personification used in Aldo Leopold’s writing. Each plant and animal encompasses many qualities of a human. This technique not only makes the writing richer with description, but by relating simple structures such as plants to human beings, it gives the plants more life and capabilities and makes it easier for us, as the reader, to relate to these living organisms. Whether a dog acts as a professor while hunting, patiently awaiting its owners direction, and never judging when his or her student makes a mistake, or the wind that makes music in November corn that is in a hurry, things found in nature share many of the same qualities that we are capable of as humans. Earth is all interconnected and therefore humans share similar patterns with plants. Leopold decided to discuss three types of pines and their reproductive habits, relating the white pines habits to that of Anglo-Saxons. He spoke eloquently of the seasons changing and the trees signing off with yellow penmanship that turns to brown before the first snow falls. He makes sure to incorporate grouse and rabbits and how their existence circles around that of the pine trees which he loves so much. He describes the white pine to be his favorite because of its golden tint and its ability to last through the winter, never shedding a leaf. Leopold’s personification is subtle enough where it is not obvious the characteristics given to each plant and animal are not conventionally theirs, but rather those of a human, but descriptive and interesting.
Weekly Response Two
ReplyDeleteEmily Maier
I think that the most interesting thing that we talked about in lecture this week was the Haber-Bosch process. The fact that one invention can flip the entire farming industry inside out is amazing; it shows the true power of creativity. The process of creating ammonia and then creating fertilizer made farming a lot easier. Before this process farming took so much more work and long processes and although this process seemed to change farming for the better it still has its repercussions. The farmers had to spend a lot of money on fertilizers and it took jobs away from people because it took less labor to grow crops.
This invention influenced other areas besides farming. The unfortunate timing of the invention during World War II led to the invention of bomb production and the death of many Jews. This one invention had many bad intentions and outcomes but it also created a stimulus for the economy in the United States. There was infrastructure added with the building of the interstate and highways, home mortgages, the GI bill and others.
This invention also spread to other areas of the world. China was experiencing a time of great poverty and after the invention of fertilizer was so successful in the United States Nixon took the invention to China and aided in the building of thirteen fertilizer plants. This helped to decrease the poverty in China and they were able to feed their own people and even export goods. In this way the invention lead to a boost in China's economy and ads another good aspect to the invention.
I think it is interesting how one invention can spread around the world and lead to both tragic and uplifting outcomes at the same time. I think this correlates to the main focus of our class as well, we need to realize that what we do affects so much more than what is in our own little bubble. We are being forced to look at the affect that we have on the world and then see how we can change that affect for the better. As designers we have the ability to help change the processes that people go through in their everyday lives with cell phones, designing buildings, and even billboards to inspire greener living. We can help choose the factors that go into these new designs and the processes in which they are made so it is our job to be informed. I think that understanding how one decision can lead to so many areas of the world is a very important part of our being informed as artists and designers because it forces us to think about our own creations and what we put into them. The example of the Haber-Bosch process helps point out that everything we do can be both beneficial and have repercussions and we need to be wary of both.
9/27/09
ReplyDeleteWeekly Statement #2
Over the summer I did quite a bit of research on several things. One of the things I looked into was studying abroad and learning which culture would best suit me as well as my dietary habits. Whenever I go home for the summer my eating changes dramatically, actually for the worst. Since my father is always abroad with myself away for college and my little sister starting her first year here, there hasn’t been a need for my mother to cook any meals, except for meat. Whenever I visit home my mother often takes a look at me and worries nonstop about how much leaner I look from all the studying and exercise I do. I normally don’t eat meat because I never have time to prepare it and when I do have time, I never want it. My nutritionist dubbed me as vegetation when she started looking over my food chart for the last two weeks. I look out for what I put into my body if I can absolutely help it, but half the time I pick up groceries certain items out there lack any nutrition labels as well as ingredients. Even though I can tell if Chocolate cake is terrible for me, I still would like to know specifically what I am ingesting. The idea of looking at what is in our food has been a habit of mine for about 4 years now. I try my absolute best to maintain a healthy atmosphere by purchasing things like Trail Mix and Soybean Protein bars as well as a decent selection of fruit for a sweet tooth. The reading This Steer’s Life was something I ready to read after finding out that I have a severe protein defiance in my regular diet, but to actually understand what is in the beef from this reading changes the idea of what they literally put in the meat in terms of their diet, before it is butchered rather than what is mixed with the butchered meat. I feel like the ingredient list that makes an appearance on the slab of meat is almost lying to me. The idea that cows, chickens, and pigs go through their short lifespan with food that is unnatural then fed with antibiotics makes me question whether the nutritional value list is true to it’s word or not. Does that list only apply to what is mixed with the meat while being prepared for the store? Now I wonder about all the possibilities of what is actually in my food other than the ingredients that are already inside the box. I didn’t realize that apples were buffered with corn oil to give that shiny look to them nor did I realize the health hazard of consuming corn syrup or how common it actually was in food, even those that don’t really need it have it for the sake of having it just for the taste benefit. It’s also very alarming to hear that 70% of the US’s antibiotics are used to fed livestock. It’s bad enough that people rely on medicine for small problems like headaches or a small sinus problem, but to have our food consume it is bound to cause problems over time. The lectures this week have been alarming and truly showed me how unknowing I really am despite my attempts to check the ingredients on the label as well as why certain things like corn syrup isn’t so good for you.
There were a few portions of lecture this past wek that seemed to interest me more than others. One of these topics was the information about our world's environmental statistics. When I saw the counter on the screen at lecture, I couldn't believe that these were real numbers. I guess that even just of the actual numbers increse every second astonished me because they were so real and exact. The most shocking things were probably the amount of livestock that were being killed every year, every day, and even as I type these words.
ReplyDeleteThese numbers also made me think a lot about the article we read for last Tuesday. While reading the article, I was reminded about the book, "Fast Food Nation", which I read in one of my classes last year. Reading about the methods of killing the livestock and the things that are really in the food that we eat really makes me think about the reality of what we put in our mouths on a daily basis, and the long term effects they will have on our bodies.
In "Fast Food Nation", the author describes in detail the process of slaughtering the cattle, and the route that same cattle takes throughout the factory and eventually into the packaging we could find at the grocery store. The fact that we usually only see the meat after it has been in nicely packaged and labeled containers in a grocery store, or even until it is served on a plate, causes a certain disconnect between the idealized meal and the much too gruesome truth about how that food got into that package or onto that plate. For me, knowing where meat, or anything else I eat, has come from makes me think twice.
I won't lie though, I occasionally enjoy a nice steak or burger for dinner. But since I have been somewhat exposed to what goes on behind the curtains of meat production, I pay more attention to what I spend my money on at the grocery store and elsewhere. It may not be much, but it's a start. And everyone has to start somewhere.
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ReplyDeleteAnnie Hyrila
ReplyDeleteThere are some beautiful quotes in this section of A Sand County Almanac. I want to respond to just a few of them for this week’s response.
“Hard years, of course, come to pines as they do to men, and these are recorded as shorter thrusts, i.e. shorter spaces between the successive whorls of branches. These spaces, then, are an autobiography that he who walks with trees may read at will.”
Trees, plants, greenery in the natural world wear their hardships, age, or abundant growth. The experiences they go through become part of who they are visually. If a storm comes through, a tree will lose one of its precious branches, or if the season has been dry, flowers will crack and fade, twisted stems will lean to reach the sun. They have a visual storytelling. This creates the image of the natural world. From town to town, plants visually tell the story of time, of weather, of events. Humans, though, although they may have suffered hard years, as plants have, do not always show it. Walking down a crowded street differs from walking through a forest. By only looking at a human ‘s exterior, you can’t always tell what a person has been through; hardships or light days. Because to know the way a human feels about time, or weather, or his or her company, there must be communication. To learn about, to care for, and to love a human, you must get to know them through conversation and stories. But to grow to love a piece of nature, you must only spend time with it visually, and tacitly.
“…And it conveniently begs the much important question who is more thoroughly acquainted with the world in which he lives?”
Who is more acquainted with the world? The plants that grow from it, that becomes alive because they are a part of it. The plants that are literally and figuratively rooted in the earth. Making due with the rain that falls, the sun that shines, and the carbon dioxide in the air, they nourish and sustain themselves. Humans live off of the land and from it, but not in it. They take what they need and often times more. But they also create so much out of it. They use so many resources to do things like create new medicine and power machines and buildings.
9/28/09
ReplyDeleteWeekly Response 2
This past week when we have been talking about Factory Farming and CAFO and organic verus local versus the mass-produced miles away, my mind kept taking me back to seventh grade. In seventh grade, a classmate did a presentation on factory farming and organic fruits and vegetables. She brought in an organic banana and a regular store bought (Chiquita) banana and showed the two to the class. The Chiquita banana was a vibrant yellow and unnaturally large, the organic banana was a little rough around the edges and significantly smaller. Obviously the Chiquita banana had been treated with some sort of steroid type product in order A) preserve it during travel and B) make them more appealing. That simple demonstration says a lot, if you think about it. This Chiquita banana was picturesque and as a result unnaturally “perfect”, where as the organic banana appears less appealing is really better for you and the environment.
Since that moment in seventh grade, a new door was opened to something I was completely unaware of. I was slightly mortified, especially about the factory farming, yet after a few months it was mostly forgotten about. During highschool, I read Fast Food Nation, but the same thing happened where about a year later I was back to eating fast food again. This course will be the third time that these issues are presented to me, and hopefully we will learn how we SHOULD be eating instead of just learning what happens to the environment and people and what we shouldn’t be eating/consuming.
Weekly Statement
ReplyDeleteWhile reading A Sand County Almanac, I realized how observant Aldo Leopold is. He notices things around him that no one else would unless they spent a lot of time outside every day of every season. I especially like when he talks about how his dogs point is different with all the different animals he hunts, though I did not see the author as a hunter because it seems that he likes to observe nature as it is without any human interventions.
When reading this book I also begin to wonder how the world would look if there were no human interventions. What would happen if we lived just as animals do? Or what if there were no humans at all? I wonder if it would be completely overgrown here in Michigan like it is in the rainforest or if there would be forest fires and most of the land would be prairie. Either way it is strange to think of a place without a single road or light or building anywhere to be seen.
When I wrote my observation paper for this class, I tried to be as descriptive as Leopold and see the world through his eyes. I feel that by doing this, I realized things about my plant that I would not have if I didn’t take the time to look very closely and be as descriptive as possible, such as how the bark becomes smoother as your eyes travel up the tree. These things I never paid any attention to before.
Weekly Statement #2
ReplyDeleteIt was extremely hard for me to get through the assigned reading in A Sand County Almanac for this week. My mind kept trailing off thinking about other things I had to do this week. I can’t even remember a lot of what I read as I try to think about it right now. It was almost completely description flooding the pages of the book. It moved from one plant to another, from one season to the next simply describing them with as much detail as possible. There was no plot, no conflict, and no resolution, but purely description. Then I realized why I couldn’t pay very much attention to it. It was because I wasn’t there experiencing the things that Aldo Leopold had experienced.
After looking for a plant for the assigned paper this week, I absolutely fell in love with one particular plant that I felt a huge connection with. I took countless pictures, wrote a long list of descriptions of it, and was then almost excited to sit down and write a paper about it. I then thought about how Aldo Leopold must have felt while he wrote his book. He must have been so in love with nature to write a whole book purely describing his natural surroundings. I am happy that he felt so excited about nature, but I simply cannot share his feelings about the things incorporated into his book because I cannot see the colors, feel the warm sun or brisk wind, or smell the fresh scents of the trees and flowers.
The thing his book does make me want to do is go outside and experience nature for myself. It makes me want to make my own inferences about the different kinds of trees and animals. It makes me want to gather my own understanding of nature and then use that understanding to create something of my own, like a poem or a painting expressing my feelings about it.
I don’t want to sit inside wasting a few hours of my life just reading about nature and its greatness. I want to experience it for myself. That is the only way that I can gain a better perception of nature in order to respect it more. Every time after a day in the Arboretum, I go home and feel like I love nature a little bit more than I did before. But I do not feel that I will gain this respect after reading a section in Leopold’s book.
Therefore, I think our assignments should be more interactive with actual nature and less reading descriptions of nature out of a book.
Noelle Littler
ADP III Response Two:
ReplyDeletePart One of “A Sand County Almanac”
Although the book has proven quiet hard to get through, its contents are invaluable.
The key principal is simple: the world is changing and humans need to recognize what is important and natural before we are consumed by an artificial society. The book is a compilation of journal entries and thoughts of Aldo Leopold and his experiences in nature and the world transforming around him. The book was released in 1949, even though some of the tools and ideas are a bit dated, the over all idea of natural conservatism is even more prevalent in today’s modern society.
Aldo Leopold’s writing in my opinion is quaint and lovely. He seems to really take time to appreciate what is around him and notices small details. He is knowledgeable about the plants and animals that affect him and takes pride in his comprehension of the world. In a section of writing Leopold describes the migration of geese. He observes and understands that geese although they do not directly affect him or provide anything really resourceful but it is simple pleasures and understanding that make the human life interesting and worthwhile. The book is organized by months/ seasons of the year. Aldo explores the physical changes in the world around him as time passes. Reading the book proves to be difficult at times because it is not entertaining in the actions that occur. Instead it is entertaining in it’s simplicity and appreciation for simple pleasures and sights. I do not know that I would have chosen this book to read on my own for pleasure but I am satisfied with how relaxed and tranquil the writing makes me feel afterward. The book is important for young people to read especially because we have grown up in a much different world than Aldo Leopold and his generation. It is upsetting to me that U am more familiar with corporate logos and celebrity and political gossip rather than the natural world around me that affects my life just as much. Aldo’s generation knows what plants and animals are around then and knew about the physical world and enlightened their person mentally. Technology has made my generation defenseless and unintelligent about nature because it is not as important to our day-to-day life as it once was. Even the book itself speaks words about modern society. I find this book boring at times and hard to get through because there is not enough action and the information does not entertain me or affect me heavily. My generation demands to be entertained by sex, violence, and commercial subjects. It is a shame. I personally stay clear of commercialism and believe I do my part in attempting to conserve nature and natural beauty but it is difficult at times because the world is changing so much every day it is hard to keep up with society, culture and technology.
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ReplyDeleteWeekly Statement #3
ReplyDeleteThis weekend, I went to ArtPrize in Grand Rapids. I am from Grand Rapids and I have been downtown many times in my life, but I have never been so intrigued by downtown Grand Rapids as I was this weekend.
By the time that I went, the contestants had already been narrowed down to ten finalists. I knew I had to see these top ten, plus I wanted to stop at all the art pieces that caught my attention in between. I was impressed by most of the top ten pieces and by a lot of the other pieces along the way, but some of the top ten pieces did not appeal to me.
The first on I saw was the giant table and chairs piece sitting on top of the walking bridge entitled “The Furniture City Sets the Table for the World of Art”. I understand that the creators made this because Grand Rapids is a large furniture-producing city, but there was something about this piece that I just did not like. I think it might have been the style of the dining set. I feel like I have seen a similar, normal-sized version of this set in some rich house of a person who doesn’t have very good taste. I think if it clashed more with its surroundings instead of containing the same color as the bridge, it would have stuck out more making it seem more extraordinary. I think I would have liked it better if the table and chairs looked more old-fashioned and weren’t painted.
One of the top ten pieces that I did like was the moose made entirely out of nails entitled “Moose”. I am not exactly sure why I identified with this piece so much. Maybe it is because I am a huge animal lover and a moose was an interesting animal to choose. The realistic size of the sculpture and the way the rusty nails portrayed the color of a moose was impressive. I also liked the idea that a moose is a type of animal that is sort of intimidating and scary and an animal that one would be very nervous to touch. The rusty nails, similarly, make the viewer reluctant to touch it because of the danger of cutting yourself and furthermore, getting tetanus.
I saw a lot of pieces that day. Some were absolutely fantastic, some were good, and some were not worth taking more than a few seconds to look at. I wish I had gone the previous weekend, however, because I heard that a lot of the pieces had been taken down by that point. The overall display set up downtown did impress me though. It made me proud to be from a city that supported such a large art fair that attracted so many people from around the world.
Weekly Response #3
ReplyDelete10/5/09
Today, Professor Trumpy spoke a lot about cargo ships and cargo containers. He mentioned that designers and architects are beginning to incorporate cargo containers into their architecture in an attempt to make use of these enormous resources instead of allowing them to sit around and take up space. This interested me so I began reading up on this eco-friendly idea.
Turns out, building with used cargo containers could actually reap even more rewards than simply recycling. The durability of these containers would create living spaces that are very safe; the homes would be resistant to fire and add an additional layer of safety from storms. Also, building homes out of cargo containers in termite-populated areas would be beneficial because the termite problem would virtually be solved. These homes would be nearly indestructible.
Cargo containers could also be used as emergency housing after natural disasters. People in Armenia have lived in shipping containers for 20 or so years, since the 1988 earthquake. I think that this is an interesting solution that proposes countless possibilities. We could make great use of these cargo containers that are just sitting around, there are hundreds of extras sitting at the ports because it is cheaper to buy a new container than ship them back to places such as China. These cargo containers could go into renovation and be kept until needed after natural disasters in America and around the world, ready made housing for those suddenly displaced. Or, I keep thinking of the slums in India, these bug free and indestructible containers would be far cleaner and hold less disease than those slums these people are living in.
It’s like the design with the water barrels Trumpy showed us a few weeks ago to help civilizations in Africa simply get water for the day, why not go in and make an effort like that and help to house these people around the world who lack the most basic necessity, shelter? College dorms could even begin to be constructed out of cargo containers...then maybe housing costs would decrease!
Today Joe Trumpy was talking about the children's book The Lorax by Dr Suess. I remember it being one of my favorite books as a kid and never had any idea that it had to do with the enviornmental movement. I was surprised to find that Dr Suess was a political cartoonist before he was the author of numerous famous childrens books. I was also shocked to find that The Lorax was banned from some schools. I still dont really understand why and im even more surprised that there was another book, The Truax, mocking it. The other part of lecture that i found interesting is when Trumpy was talking about countries like china that hide their poverty and pictures aren't allowed to be taken. I found it strange that a country would hide something like that from the rest of the world simply because id expect them to want to create awareness so that other countries could come to their aid. But now that i think about it When i went to China over the summer, i did not see them as the type of people that would ask for help from other countries. they were too prideful. While i was there, i saw both sides of the spectrum: the incredibly wealthy and those living in poverty. i noticed there was next to no middle class. Either people were really rich or really poor and when i say really poor i mean they barely had homes. There were no toilets. they were living among disease and the rich people would not go near the peasants. As far as i know their communist government is not doing anything about it which is sad compared to our government who cares so much about its people.
ReplyDeleteWeekly statement #3
ReplyDeleteAdp today was very interesting to our generation I feel because of the cultural reference to Dr. Sues. I feel as though all of us had seen that friendly book before, yet never knew about it's underlying meaning. If Joe had not shown us that and brought it to my attention, I certainly would never have known about it. I don't agree with the ending of the story however. How is it fair to put so much pressure on a young child? I feel as though the Lorax is kind of a representation in a way of our parent's generation. For me personally, I tend to get the feeling that all of this pressure is put onto our generation to "make the world a better place," and we are now some how responsible to clean up the mess everyone has created. This to me is just not fair. The Lorax had the seed all along, why couldn't he go and plant it and grow a whole new generation of trees? Why is he passing the burden onto the younger generation when it was his generation that screwed things up? It seems as though we are forced to deal with all of these problems in our environment now, when in reality it wasn't our fault to begin with.
A few discussions ago when we were talking about Sand County Almanac and the Meat Industry article, I brought up the fact that the reason we eat and consume what we do is because that is the way in which we were brought up; the same goes for our need in the aspect of the Dr. Sues book. If we were not programed at birth to act, eat, buy, do what we do with our lives everyday, we would be living in a completely different world, that would probably have less environmental problems, and therefore would not have pressure from our elders to do something about it (aka cleaning up most of their mess).
I also found the photographs about E-waste that were shown in class today very interesting, although at the same time kind of propaganda-esque. Not that I do not sympathize with the people in these countries that are having to dig through battery factories, and the horrible conditions, but for all I know these pictures could be completely contrived to make a statement, and to capture a problem in order to shock people. However, I am shocked because I am American, and because I am human, therefore I do sympathize with these families situations to make a live for their children, even if that does mean having to rummage through garbage. It's a horrible fate that I would otherwise never learn about. I understand why their government does not want our people coming in a taking photos because they are worth a thousand words, and we are a very politically driven country who do not believe in that sort of lifestyle. It is a sad truth that Joe has brought to our eyes.
This discussion post isn’t exactly related to our lectures or previous discussion, but these ideas were spurred while talking about the concepts and motions taken to further help our environment and the people in it. My sister is in an organization called Engineers Without Borders, and is working to create a clean water system for a small town in South Africa. A water system that she has considered is a PlayPump. Through research I found that, “More than one billion people worldwide don’t have access to clean water,” and “Accumulatively, women and children spend 40 billion hours retrieving water.” These statistics is only striking because it doesn’t have to be that way. With the technology, transportation, and collaboration that the world is capable of, this shouldn’t even be a problem. The Play Pump is essentially a merry-go-round connecting to a pump in the ground. As kids play on the pump, the turning motion pumps water up from the ground into a tank and then out into a pump that is accessible to the public. This system can produce up to 1,400 liters of water. The benefits to these pumps are endless. The reason I am posting about this is because it seems like such a feasible way to get a community involved in helping themselves. I am trying to thing of a project along these lines for our fields group project.
ReplyDeleteWeekly Statement #3
ReplyDeleteI think that we should focus more on environmental issues throughout our schooling. It seems as though the only times that there is an environmental focus in the K-12 curriculum is during elementary school, for the initial introduction to recycling and green living, and then not until college when students choose to have an interest in environmental studies. Keeping our environment safe and clean is a major problem for our generation. I think that because this is such an important issue that it should be a regular subject studied throughout our schooling and the schooling of future generations.
We discussed Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax" in lecture yesterday and how it gives children an important role in the process of recreating environments of the past. It gives children a very large and demanding role but it also helps to inspire children to have big goals and to show them that they can make a difference.
When thinking about the other books that I read throughout my K-12 education the only book that I can think of is Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle." The book discusses the meat industry in the beginning of the industrial boom and how the poor working conditions were in these factories. I think that after the past lectures I can see how food and the environment are related to each other so it is important for us to know where our food comes from.
I think that if there is more of a focus on environmental studies throughout children's schooling that there will be more interest in the subject once young adults reach college. Once children are introduced to the subject at an early age then we can start to change our lifestyles at an early age. It is always easier to develop habits at a young age because you have more time to create those habits.
And interesting book that could be added to the curriculum is Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma." The book follows four different meals from their origins all the way to your dinner plate, much like "This Steer's Life." Once you follow all of the products that you eat and consume you can see how the process works for the development, harvest, packaging and shipment work. Then you can see how the food that you are eating relates to the environment because you see what the factories do with their waste and how the farmers use pesticides to grow their crops.
There are many different aspects of environmental studies that can be studied even at a young age. So I think that it should be implemented into schooling as its own subject because this is a life-changing subject for my generation and generations to come.
Alexis Newton
ReplyDeleteWeekly Statement #3
10-6-09
Discussing the book, "The Lorax" yesterday in lecture made me really interested in how we are taught about the environment and taught to look at the environment. When I was in elementary school, I don't remember doing very many things involving education about sustainability. I remember learning that recycling was better than throwing things away, but that was pretty much the extent of it.
Right now, I have a younger brother in 4th grade and a younger sister in 5th grade. I remember during last year they came home from school when I was home for my spring break, and they told me that they were learning about taking care of the environment. They explained to me many of the things they were learning about, such as taking care of plants and nature, using energy saving lightulbs, and saving our paper and plastic bags from stores.
Thinking back upon this situation makes me happy that elementary schools are being taught more about the environment and sustainability. Like in "The Lorax", I agree that it is up to us and younger generations as a whole to make a difference in the choices we make everyday. Unfortunately, when I think about certain lifestyle choices that we have become so dependent on, I realize that this will not be as easy as it sounds.
One step to getting closer to a more sustainable earth is more education about what damage is being caused by our daily routines. The photos we saw of the children in piles of toxic metals and materials had great impact on me and they inspired me to create artwork to educate and effect people's opinions as much as those did for me.
Fourth Weekly Statement
ReplyDeleteJim Christian
10/6/09
I don’t know if I missed my chance at the beginning of discussion today, but I had come prepared with art and design news, and I didn’t get to share it with everyone. So, in an attempt to share this interest with others, I will post it to the blog.
In recent gaming history, a new type of video game has surfaced among the typical war, fighting, and competitive games that define virtual entertainment. This new type has been coined “Zen Gaming” and it takes advantage of new technology to attain its fundamentally different purpose.
Zen Gaming is not about winning or losing, or killing, or fighting, or racing, etc. Instead, it is about playing to play, explore, and experience. The games of this genre feed off of intense graphical beauty and highly intuitive user interfaces to create non-competitive experiences. They are focused more on how you play the game, rather than the final outcome. This foundation results in puzzle games without a time limit, games about being the wind and collecting flower petals, and a variety of relaxing iphone apps.
The positives about Zen Gaming are that it is innovative, non-competitive, and relaxing. The negatives, though, seem to be bridging the gap between technology and the environment in a scary way.
Take, for example, the game Flower. This is the game where you control the wind, picking up flower petals, and progressively creating a more and more beautiful landscape in your wake. While this seems like a great attempt to get away from guns and fighting, and into the peace of nature, it is still technology. This game is offering people a way to acquire and experience the beauty of nature without being there. It is an instant serving of nature, and I fear that it will become the fast and easy way to escape from the urban world without really escaping.
The design challenge with technology and the environment is tough, and while I feel that this game is a valiant attempt at addressing nature, I fear that its effects will be more negative than positive. Accessing nature through technology sounds like the epitome of the artificial world. Why leave the comfortable couch to walk a field, when you could effortlessly glide the hills and see a fantasy world of color and vibrancy that only the highest-quality LCD could capture?
While I feel that Zen Gaming is not a good answer to our nature problems, I am still very excited to see an attempt to push away from combat and violence. I definitely plan on roaming the plains, collecting flower petals, when my budget finds room for a Sony Playstation 3.
10/10/09
ReplyDeleteWeekly Statement #4
On the first observation paper, I wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of sitting out in the middle of the woods for an hour. Although once I motivated myself to go out there I ended up having a good time. It took me about an hour to walk out and find the plant I desired but by the time I found it, I felt for the first time in such a long time that I began to enjoy myself. Almost every day feels like a race, a race to finish homework as soon as possible and move on to the next task. It has become a normal habit to excuse myself from friends just to catch up on my readings for my Russian history course, but for this particular assignment it felt very nice to actually sit back and casually take notes of my sudden exposure to the green atmosphere way back behind Bursley. I felt at ease and very peaceful as I spent time with the reeds near the river creek. I had two papers due by the end of the weekend but during those two hours outside I didn’t seem to care at all of what lied in store for me at the end of my session. As a matter of fact, I didn’t think about school at all, but rather I reflected on my most personal memories and how happy I truly was even if I didn’t show it during my 8:30 classes. The book Collapse reminded me of how exclusive this feeling was during the first chapter when the author was describing how infatuated he was with the big sky coming back and forth to Montana every summer. There was an intimate relationship that was sparked because of fly-fishing, and this relationship that was developed helped him realize what was actually going on in the environmental world. Bonding with nature helps you feel more sensitive and grateful to your surroundings and that’s something I’ve began to notice as I lived on North campus. I participated in the Explorth event just a few weeks ago and it turned out to be a great time. I went to the far west side of the North campus and saw many new places that I have never noticed. I didn’t realize how beautiful North campus truly was until I made the time to walk around on it. There is a pond near the music school and I’ve never noticed or have I noticed the beautiful scenery near Huron road. But one thing in particular I notice whenever I walk around North campus is the big open sky above me. Like the author was describing in the book the amount of blue is what lures me every year to living on North as opposed to Central. The quiet and serene surroundings around me are what inspire me to push through college work. Last year I purchased a small blanket to lie out on the field and do my readings under when the weather is just right. I picked a room with a window that scales from the ceiling almost to the floor and placed the side of my bed against it so I can focus on my readings next to the open sky as my associate.
Samantha Levy
ReplyDeleteWeekly Comment #4
The difference between doing environmental work in a mass group setting in comparison to an individual setting is cause for much debate. While both may be essential to improving our natural world, which is more important? What should people be doing to better their surroundings? It seems like lately, the individual environmentalist has been the focus in a phenomenon that can be called “green living”.
Green living from a critical designer’s point of view truly seems to be an advertiser’s dream. Slap a green leaf on a bottle of cleaner and explain that it doesn’t harm the environment and your product will sell before the average-joe cleaner, even sometimes at a higher price. Whether these products are legitimately helpful or unaffecting to the environment is always uncertain, but the main point is that companies are pushing for the individual to go green.
The drawback of emphasis on individual environmentalism in comparison to a mass effort is the lack of impact. While it is necessary that everyone take individual steps to help protect the environment, the impact is not always strong enough to help make significant change. In lecture when we discussed The Lorax, Trumpey explained it as using “the responsibility of the individual”. He continued by posing questions and making us think about whether or not it is truly possible that a child could single-handedly revive the truffula tree population. Today its green vs. regular, paper vs. plastic, electric hand-drier vs. paper towel: it is in the power of the individual to make these choices.
While in many cases, individuals have a difficult time making a huge impact, Wangari Maathl (as discussed in class) founded an entire green belt movement in East Africa by planting trees. With this example, it is obvious that there does need to be individual work done in order to preserve the environment. The only issue now is the unbalance of individual work to mass effort. In order to truly make a positive environmental impact, I believe that the government and other major organizations should begin pushing for people to participate in mass efforts to preserve our Earth. Sure, it is easier to just buy green and work as an individual, but the influence will remain undetected. People need to start questioning what companies are branding “environmentally friendly” and possibly take into consideration that it could all be a marketing scheme to exploit the need for environmentalists. We need to start working both alone and as a whole to revive the environment.
Samantha Schulman
ReplyDelete10/12/09
Collapse Chapter 10
Post #5
In Chapter 10 of Jared Diamond’s collapse, Diamond goes into detail about the genocide in Rwanda and some of the effects leading to the ultimate collapse of the society. I was always aware of the poor living conditions in Africa and the constant civil wars over land, but I had very little knowledge on how these disputes and problems came about. Though there are many contributing factors, including racial difference between the Tutsi and Hutu tribes, there is an enormous environmental factor that is rarely talked about. The population density of Rwanda is extremely high, meaning that many people must share the land. But because Africa has yet to modernize like industrial nations such as the United States and Europe, citizens of these lands are subjected to using plows, rakes, and handheld objects, making food production much slower. Most families provide only for themselves and their own families, sometimes with a slight excess to sell. Because the land wasn’t developed properly (plants planted over the crops to keep the soil fertile in the off seasons, etc.) there is now a huge problem with soil erosion. Because the citizens were not informed of the proper way to work their land and took little time to explore options, they have badly damaged their land, leading to not only shortages of food, but also genocide. I am aware that there are environmental problems, especially things such as global warming which has become a highly disputed and publicized issue, but it is easy to forget that even simple things such as farming done in the wrong way, can severely damage and change the land that we live on. Literally everything we do affects our environment in some way and it is so easy to miss the big picture in events such as the problems in Africa. Another problem is that while some farms succeed, growing larger and therefore buying the land from smaller farms in dire need of food, making the big farms bigger and the small ones smaller. This is leading to a few problems including stealing and other fraudulous behavior due to the threat of starvation, and also the division of “rich” and “poor” without an equal ground in the middle. In conclusion, if ever able to organize or stop fighting, there are ways that this African nation can stop problems such as soil erosion. With proper planting and farming techniques adapted to the environment on which they live, citizens can make a difference.
I read the new post about water consumption and i remember having that same question: how do you waste water if it just keeps going in a cycle? I've always disregarded people when they say im "wasting water" by flushing the toilet too much or leaving the water on when i brush my teeth. Now it makes more sense to me. There are just too many people using too much water at once. I also never knew that only one percent of the worlds fresh water was accessible to human use. what happens to the rest of it and why isnt it accessible? In any case, i will be more aware now when the sink is running and make sure to turn it off and conserve as much water as possible. It seems as though people have gotten pretty wasteful in general. Professor Trumpy was talking today about how Us material goods and consumption has more than tripled since WWII and house sizes are about 3 times bigger with fewer people living in them. We have 2 times the cars since then and 20 times as much air travel. Thats only since WWII. If we keep going at this rate we will run out of space and resources especially since the population size is only increasing as time goes on. It is up to our society to do something about it and solve these problems so we know what to do when they arise otherwise our society will slowly collapse.
ReplyDelete-Stephanie Blank
10-12-09
Weekly statement four
ReplyDeleteI was shocked when I read the chapter about China in collapse. I grew up in China, experienced the one child policy, as most of my friends are only child. The air pollution is really bad in big cities. I didn’t realize that till the first time I went back home from the States. The sky is in a more grey color. I guess for most of people In China, they are used to this kind of environment, they don’t even think about how to help with the environment problems unless it starts to affect them personally. The population is a big problem too. China has the world’s largest population. Although there are a lot of resources in China, average per person usually end up being below world average.
Things I learnt in this class, about resources and how individuals can make a difference in the world makes me think what if everyone learns more about the environment. Education is important. If the government in China educates all the citizens about pollutions and environment, it will make a difference. With such large population China indeed is going to make a huge impact in the world. But if all the people work collectively to solve the environmental problem, they will change the world.
Letao Zhang
Weekly Statement 6
ReplyDeleteWe have read about how many economies have poor farming practices that end up ruining the soil and polluting the water. These are some of the events that lead to a social, economic, and environmental collapse. I found an article, through a friend on facebook, on the NPR website by Richard Harris, “Prairie Pioneer Seeks To Reinvent The Way We Farm,” about a man in Kansas who is trying to find more sustainable farming practices.
Initially the project was "devoted to a search for sustainable alternatives in agriculture, energy, shelter, waste management." But after realizing that this was too much to handle, he devoted the project to one main goal, figuring out how to maintain the richness of soil while we keep replanting crops every year. The solution that they are testing came from nature. They looked at how nature annually grows plants without depleting the richness of the soil. The answer is perennial wildflowers, “Perennials are plants that put down strong roots 10 feet or more into the ground and hold the soil in place. Perennials live year-round, unlike annual crops that get planted every year. In Kansas, perennials survive the harsh winters and the blazing hot summers” (Harris). Obviously we would want our crops to emulate the wildflowers and their ability to grow yearly and to survive harsh weather conditions. Another bonus to the wildflowers according to Harris is that “In contrast to fields that get plowed every year, native prairie vegetation actually improves the soil year after year. The amazing variety of plant life in this prairie also makes it resilient against disease.”
I think it is obvious that we should look to nature to see how we should practice our own farming and growing of plants. Plants in nature have their own way of evolving to their environment. We can learn how to use these same methods by studying the plants and then applying them to our own practices. I think that we can apply this process to other systems in our environment and our social practices.
Nature has evolved over so many years and there are plants that have been around for thousands of those years. It is the same way that we study the history of past economies and social groups to apply methods that do or don’t work to our society today. We can use these same methods with plants and animals in nature.
Harris, Richard. "Prairie Pioneer Seeks To Reinvent The Way We Farm." NPR. 22 Oct. 2009. PBS, Web. 22 Oct 2009. < http: // www.npr.org/templates/story/storyComments.php?storyId=113766846&pageNum=2&pPageNum=2>.
Weekly Statement #6
ReplyDeleteWatching the movie today in lecture has given me a good look as to what our modern society is up to. The fast and furiously growing country of China is modernized at such an alarming rate that through them we see how out society will end up. Some of it good and some of it bad. The idea of industrialization now is seen as too much, but in the earlier days when everything was done by hand industrializing was a dream everyone strived for. The problem I feel we struggle with modern day industrialization is where do we draw the line? How much is too much? This access to the consistent amounts of technological changes has improved life through convenience and timesaving methods. On top of that, social and economic methods have improved too. You can retrieve the news now through gossip, television, radio, newspaper, magazine, and the Internet. It’s possible to own an entire closet full of clothes or appliances at the ease of cheap labor and mass-production and the family setting changes to a nuclear family due to the convenience of cheap housing as well. The modernization of a society influences serious change, but how much of it is really good?
One thing that I found amazing was how quick and efficient the workers were in the factory. Every close-up to their hands revealed a precise and thoughtful process of how to mass-produce items like irons. Their employers to motivate them to work hard and not make mistakes yell at the workers. Some of the photographs of the people at work made them look less human and more like machines. I stopped thinking of that when the pictures showed the worker looking straight at the photographer, making them look human once more. It’s sad to think that for just a second that I thought that they were less human than anyone else, but you cannot help but blend these workers as a part of the machinery due to their focus on their work and the countless lines of workers they have as a normal setup. I worked in a factory for two summers during high school and while this job grew listless and dull, I was paid close to 10 dollars an hour for doing the same task for 7 hours straight and an hour worth of breaks throughout the day. On top of this, we were social to each other occasionally if we all stood on the same line. Conversation we all participated in, even with my superiors who patrolled the area. Everyone worked hard and they knew we did. It was interesting to compare the factory labor in China to mine in America because of the extreme differences I noticed. While factory work is not considered the most “glamorous” of career choice my job paid well and treated me very well on top of it. I was treated like a human being not literally, but I felt like I was just because of how much I stood out and kept much of my personality within the tedious factory work I did.
weekly statement October 27
ReplyDeleteConsumerism in society has sky rocketed. Many people think having more stuff means you are higher class in our society. In truth, I think many of these high class, rich people are minimalists. Its not about who has more. Its about who has BETTER things: who has the most expensive car, who has the biggest, most high tech house, who has the most advanced computer, the best security system, who can afford a maid, a chef, a driver, a private jet. Things like that have become increasingly more important in our society. sad? im not sure. I think i would be happy to be in their position. Most of these people are not pack rats. they dont necessarily own a ton of stuff but the stuff they do own is nice. they dont really need to own more stuff if one really nice thing takes care of the job and makes a good impression on the person that owns it. I think more problems arise when people have too many things. over-consumers (pack rats)just keep buying more and more things and make it impossible to regulate consumerism. These people are not considered high class. There's nothing appealing or attractive about hoarding a bunch of stuff, so in conclusion, i think that societies standards rely more on having nicer things rather than having more things.
-Stephanie Blank
Eighth Weekly Statement
ReplyDeleteJim Christian
11/5/09
Prior to visiting Herman Miller’s Design Yard on Friday, October 30, I spent a week researching and learning about the environmentally conscious mentality of the Michigan-based furniture design company. Since their foundation in the early 1900s, Herman Miller has valued environmental advocacy. Today, they are ahead of the game in sustainable design, and they continue to push themselves with ambitious environmental goals. By the year 2020, Herman Miller will have zero pounds of waste. To read more about their goals and company policy, visit www.hermanmiller.com.
I was fortunate enough to get in contact with Gabe Wing, the Project Manager for the Design for the Environment team. As a Chemical Engineering graduate from U of M, Gabe was very friendly, understanding, and helpful toward my research project. He met me at the Design Yard in Holland, Michigan. This is where Herman Miller’s Environmental Design takes form with displays of new materials, critical questions posted on the walls, and plenty of plant life incorporated into the space. The facility was amazing, and truly inspirational.
So that’s where I went, and that is what I did. Here is what I learned.
Sustainability is not simple. First and foremost, the definition itself depends on what part of sustainability interests you. For Herman Miller, sustainability is about creating closed material loops that are safe to people and the environment. This means that they spend most of their sustainability efforts by communicating with material suppliers, and designing their furniture to contribute towards the closed loop cycle. However, for someone else, sustainability may be about emotional durability. This person might spend their efforts focusing on creating timeless designs that people will indefinitely. For another person, it might be about modularity, customization, or minimalism.
Take a step deeper into any of those definitions, and you run into a very complex set of issues. If you think designing something that someone will love is challenging, imagine designing something that someone will love now and five, ten, one hundred years from now. For Herman Miller, contributing to closed material loops means finding sustainable suppliers, and choosing materials that can be recycled. It also means finding ways to design furniture that can be disassembled easily with simple tools. On the health and safety side, it means finding new solutions to old manufacturing problems. What glue can we use? What machines operate safely? How do we eliminate chemical output? The challenge is to answer these questions, and to answer them in a way that is economically viable.
The most interesting thing that Gabe taught me about Environmental Design is that there are no perfect answers – at least not yet. Whatever fixes one problem often creates another. With advancements in technology and an increased expectancy for sustainable design, we will get better at closing loops, perfecting emotional durability, and manufacturing safe products.
For discussion, I was in charge of creating a template for Chapter Fourteen in Collapse. This chapter centered around the different decisions that societies make or don’t make, and how these can ultimately lead to a collapse of that society. It also addresses why societies make these decisions. I really began to think about these “problems” that societies and cultures encounter, and how they begin small, but change the course of progression of land and people. For example, in discussion we talked about the Easter Islanders. These people knew there was a problem-they were cutting down all of their trees.
ReplyDeleteBut as a society, they were failing to even attempt to solve or stop this problem. Finally, the last tree had been cut down. We look back on this now and wonder what they could have been thinking. But then we realize that we are doing the exact same thing today. We are using up our oil resources in the blink of an eye. People are aware of this- there are articles in magazines and reports on news stations. But this is all talk. There is little action being done and hardly any planning. People keep using oil, knowing full well that it will be gone soon. I realize that to completely conserve oil, Americans would have to overhaul the way they live their lives. There are a few simple things we can do though, that I think many people just don’t know about. To conserve gasoline while driving-
1)Park your car so that you can drive forward. Reversing requires more gas.
2) Remove extra stuff from your car and trunk. Heavy weight increases mileage.
3)Don’t exceed the speed limit. 55 mph gives you 21% better gas mileage than driving at 60 or 70 mph.
I found these tips at http://www.howtoadvice.com/savinggas
Weekly Statement #8
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loved the Penny Stamps lecture this Thursday featuring Shana and Robert Parkeharrison. I believe the theme in their photography/sculptures has much to do with the theme for ADP III. They explored the relationship between humans, nature, and technology. Whether it is humans destroying nature with technology, or humans trying to save the Earth, Shana and Robert portrayed the idea in a beautiful way. They had an eerie quality to them, which I loved and the colors they used in their color series were amazing. I am so excited to see the prints in person in Slusser Gallery. I liked how the images weren’t supposed to answer questions of how to actually go about saving the planet, but they were merely made to evoke questions and ideas from the viewer. It makes the viewer have to stay and look at the piece for more than three seconds. It gets their brain working and they have to add ideas to the piece in order to complete the puzzle. Not only did I love the artistic qualities of these pieces, but I am also so glad that they incorporated the most important problem we have today into their work. We need as much awareness as we can get on the issue of the triangular relationship of humans, nature, and technology.
One of the pieces that really struck me was the one with the huge pile of tires with the man in the corner running across them in their black and white series. It obviously reminded me a lot of Edward Burtynsky’s photograph of the massive pile of used tires. It was such a great photograph visually with a lot of contrast, which I love. The composition was also very unique and interesting. I was trying to think in depth of this piece trying to figure out what they had in mind when producing it. What I came up with was that possibly this man running across the tires has given up on transportation with the use of cars and took it upon himself to run instead: a no emission form of transportation. He has overcome the repetitive task of driving everywhere without thinking about the outcome of the situation and is now “above the influence” as he is running on top of these tires.
Another piece that I really liked and could not stop staring at from Shana and Robert’s color series was the piece where Robert is trying to pull all of the cords coming from the wall down. I tend to be entranced when I see colors that I really like and the color of the wall in this photo is probably one of my favorite colors in the entire world. That sounds like a statement that a child would say, but I truly felt that way when I saw this photo. Also, the textures and the other complementing colors just added up to make this piece one of my favorites. It also has a great message included. The message I took from it was a simple question: Why do we have so many cords coming out of our walls? They are controlling our lives. Almost everything we use in our homes is powered by electricity. But it wasn’t always that way, and it doesn’t have to be that way. In this photo, it seems that Robert is trying to pull all of these cords out of his wall because he is wrapped up in them and he needs to pull them out before he is suffocated by all of them.
So many of the photographs that Shana and Robert Parkeharrison showed at the lecture this week made me think very deeply about. The beautiful artistic qualities sucked me into the picture, and then the unfinished story made me stay to think about them for a while. Their projects surely have a lot in common with this class and with the most important issue in the world today. I hope that their works become more and more popular and that more and more people will see them to bring about awareness and also beauty to this planet.
Weekly Response 9
ReplyDeleteWhile reading Culture Jam, I have become increasingly aware of the advertisements and promotion of consumption in our daily lives. Just today, I was reading Culture Jam and working out. I realized I was using a Whoppers wrapper as a bookmark, the television was on in the workout room, broadcasting commercials every few minutes and at the end of my workout, the screen on the machine read, “You have been fueled by Octane Fitness”.
We, as a population, would have to walk around with blinders on if we wanted to avoid advertisements. The spray-chalk advertisements on the sidewalks along campus and the Diag say a lot about our consumer “culture” and lack of connection with nature. The fact that student groups and Ann Arbor restaurants advertise on the ground implies that we spend a lot of time walking and looking down at our feet. Avoiding contact with other people, avoiding nature? Media and advertising are out of control, especially when products are still being promoted to the person who has already bought into the product.
Samantha Levy
ReplyDeleteWeekly Statement 8
I found the lecture about homes across the world to be very interesting. The most striking part of these examples is the ability of the homes to execute both beauty and function simultaneously. In a country where the ‘best’ homes are the largest and most luxurious, it is difficult to imagine living in some of these homes. I personally found the way that people connected with their environment to create their specifically structured homes was refreshing.
As explained in lecture, there are many different adaptations the builders of the homes used to cater their structures to the needs of its inhabitants. White washes and light-colored materials are often used on the exteriors of buildings that were exposed to intense heat. Other homes are raised on stilts, which re used for protection of food against vermin, flood damage prevention, and keeping living quarters at bay from mosquitoes. I did not know that there were such things as sod roofs, which are described as being great for insulation and water catchment. Some homes were built into the mountainside or out of local materials. Both of these methods were not only cost efficient (in comparison to how we buy materials from a hardware store) but they create beautiful camouflaged networks of buildings. All of these traditional building techniques have evolved to create extremely efficient homes using local resources and practical construction to create some of the most unique buildings I’ve ever seen.
Perhaps the most unusual of the homes we were shown was the man-made islands both in Lake Titicaca, Peru and in Madan, Southern Iraq. These people not only created adaptable homes, but they formed the land on which they live.
While it would be hard to transition from how I live here to living in some of the houses used in the lecture, I was still left curious of the places and cultures that formed these homes. This lecture gave me yet another reason to travel and experience different cultures.
Although I think some of Lash’s views in Culture Jam are extreme and based on anger, I agree whole-heartedly with the section on “grounding the corporation”. Lash explains that the only goal of a corporation is to generate income. The corporation does not care who it hurts in this process because it is inanimate. “When a corporation hurts people or damages the environment, it will feel no sorrow or remorse because it is intrinsically unable to do so. (It may sometimes apologize, but that’s not remorse-that’s public relations.)” (157). I feel that this detachment that is intrinsically present in corporations often is prevalent in the heads of the corporations as well. I appreciate that this detachment may be important to running a successful business, but I don’t think it’s necessary. Corporations and even small businesses cut corners and slip by rules just to get ahead.
ReplyDeleteROC-United is an organization that works to improve working conditions for employees through national policies. ROC-United at the University of Michigan is currently working on protesting the wages and overtime laws that are less than satisfactory at Andiamo’s in Dearborn. Bertha Rosales was recently fired for protesting for her rights. It is believed that the firing has to do with her protest. I think that this story brings Lash’s ideas closer to home. It’s easy to imagine these huge corporations in big faraway cities, but seeing it in a neighboring town is different. It makes the public realize that these injustices are happening all around us.
Stephany Schafer
ReplyDeleteADP3
Weekly Response 7
Long ago… in a galaxy far away… there existed a space program, a very primitive and underdeveloped space program. It’s unfortunate that I’m talking about Earth. The US in particular seems to have a space program that is both underdeveloped and underfunded. The Augustine report is basically a summary of NASA’s current options for space exploration and how none of them are properly funded. Or at least that’s what it said to me.
I believe our current government would more properly fund our space program, but exactly how much will it take? Lets look at some numbers. NASA currently has an 18 billion dollar annual budget. That’s quite a bit of money to spend on trying to get to other planets when our own planet needs so much work. That money would pay for food for so many starving people in other countries, not to mention our own.
So why give NASA more money? Why is space exploration important? Many people do not recognize the technologies that have been developed thanks to our space program. So many of the useful technologies we have today come from our space program, its not as if the money is just sent aimlessly to drift into space.
I feel like we as people are naturally very selfish. Our wants and needs come before the wants and needs of other people, other countries, the environment, etc. The theory of the green revolution for instance is a nice idea and has many supporters but those supporters are fickle when it comes down to their own needs vs environments needs. It's kind of like people who say they're pro-life but when it comes down to them getting pregnant, they'd get an abortion. No matter what you believe, actions speak louder than words. People live their lives by convenience. The US still supports child labor laws by importing goods from countries that work kids day in and day out for a few cents pay. In that case its not our responsibility to intervene in another countries matters but its pretty convenient that its suddenly our responsibility to intervene in Iraq for the good of the people when we coincidentally started running out of oil.
ReplyDeleteI feel like we could help the environment if a)everyone cared about it and b)if no slacked off and did what was more convenient for them when it came right down to it. otherwise we're kind of screwed. no one cares enough about future generations to sacrifice the conveniences handed to them in their lifetime. Thats the cold hard truth.
Sam Schulman
ReplyDeleteWeekly Post #11
11/30/09
Nature at the Mall
“Wow.” The term repeatedly used throughout the reading, Nature at the Mall, by the author to describe his feelings towards the baby-boomers generation of purchasing, spending, and consuming. He begins by describing movements in recent years for stores in the mall to sell things recreated of other things found in nature. Replicated animals, sounds, posters, and more line the walls of nature stores that have received high acclaim and strive with popularity. Our homes and personalities described by the possessions in them and the amount of stuff we have.
It is a theme that we’ve seen many times this semester, pounded into our brains if you will. But yet, every article, though somewhat repetitive, continues to strike a nerve in me. I find myself looking around my room at the numerous items I have that haven’t been used in months and thinking, “What do I have this for?” It has been imprinted in my brain that people will befriend me based on how I look or what I have, and the awful truth is this is pretty realistic. Yes, there are music interests, talents, athletics, and more, but the author of Nature at the Mall makes some striking points about shopping. Two things that really caught me off guard were that 1) people put shopping as their second favorite activity only after TV watching, 2) that many people prefer shopping to sex. Sex is one of the most talked about, powerful, and controversial topics known to humans, but still shopping overpowers it.
Though there are many negatives to our consumerism, namely the trend of nature stores at malls, there are some positives. For children or adults that may not normally venture outdoors or seek interest in any natural activity, stores such as the nature store do provide some form of education on the environment. Whether it is completely accurate or not, stores such as the endangered species store, can still broaden ones horizons and effect the subject matter in which one is interested in. It can never hurt to turn a consumers attention to the outdoors, whether it involves marketing tactics or not.
Thirteenth Weekly Statement
ReplyDeleteJim Christian
12/7/09
As we approach the end of this semester, I find myself looking back and re-evaluating the name of this course. “ADP III: Technology and the Environment” is about using historic and current examples to understand how humans respond to their environment through the use of technology. Technology is defined by what our environment demands, because, as this course has proven to me, environment is something much bigger than the humans who occupy it. Conversely, the environment is defined by everything that lives and exists within it. The environment in which we live is defined by what we do, but also by the relationships of all living things and how they interact with the non-living foundation. This course is about understanding that relationship and understanding how humans fit in the bigger picture.
Today in lecture, Joe brought up the recurring question: “What did the logger think as he cut down the last tree?” This time, unlike before, he offered us three possible answers. All of these answers reflect the argument that opposes all worries about environmental degradation. First, “Jobs, not trees.” Second, “Don’t worry, technology will solve it.” And third, “We don’t have proof that there aren’t more trees somewhere else. We don’t have proof that cutting down this tree will harm us. We need to do more research to make any conclusions.” Let me start by saying that the final response, while a seemingly educated response, is utterly ridiculous. While I don’t know the exact level of “proof” that we have on these topics, I do know one thing: I don’t want to live in a world with no trees. Sometimes that should be enough evidence, shouldn’t it? A world with no trees would be a horrible place. Imagine what life would be like if we killed all of the nature in the world and lived an entirely synthetic life? Imagine if we continued to detach ourselves from nature.
The first and second responses seem to be more common, as people get overly wrapped up in their lives and the technology that fills them. These responses seem to hold firm to the ignorant desire to pretend that problems do not exist. Maybe this comes from an early stage of life when our parents always tell us that everything will be all right. Or, maybe this comes from the realization that our problem is so huge that we would rather act like it doesn’t exist. Whatever the case, these responses are very common amongst many people I know.
Technology is an interesting thing. It has essentially allowed us to manipulate our environment in ways that are beyond our own abilities. No other animal can do this, and this is why we have risen to be the superior species. Our advanced ability to manipulate nature puts us on a different level compared with other animals, because this inevitably changes our relationship with the environment. This course suggests that we learn to control this relationship, because losing control can be dangerous to the environment and ourselves. This puts humans in an interesting position by making us a species that censors itself, because it understands how its own power can be harmful if misused.
I guess what I’m getting at is that this course has made me aware that if we want to learn to live in harmony with our environment (which is something that humans have yet to do), we must learn to make wise choices. We must design with total awareness of how it affects our environment, and carefully consider the shape of our future before we get there.
Weekly Statement #11
ReplyDelete12/08/09
The Penny Stamp’s guest lecture Stewart Brand has exposed me to the beauty of Earth. “The Earth is an island, surrounded by a lot of inhospitable space. And it’s so graphic, this little blue, white, and green and brown jewel is an icon amongst a black vacuum.” This quotes was about the first image of the earth made in 1968 and it was just the quote said to emphasize one’s enthusiasm for such a sight. The images shown in Professor Trumpey’s lecture has introduced me to our environmental issues on a real life scale.
“We are as gods and have to get good at it.” It’s difficult to see what we are doing to the earth. Sometimes it’s hidden and we may never realize it unless we see an actual visual. The images I saw were beautiful and made me develop an interest to continue looking at the Earth on a large scale. Google Earth is a useful tool for this mission. There have been countless times that I have played on the program just to see my town on a large scale. I’ve mapped my running and walking routes just to understand how far I’ve travelled. Seeing the distance you travel on a large scale gives helps you understand how little you actually walk in comparison to the actual scale of the earth. While technology can be seen as a method to destroy and separate us from nature, it can also be used to create and help us learn through a completely different perspective. Technology is meant to be used as an aid. We should use it for learning purposes rather than just personal use. If we thought this way more often, we would rely less on technology and probably be impressed when we did use it.
Weekly Statement #12
ReplyDeleteThis Christmas I wrapped all my gifts to good friends in newspaper. I carefully searched used newspapers for any foreign substances inside them and then used the most colorful pages to decorate the item enclosed. I didn’t do this with everyone because I figured they would think that I was giving them trash or was too cheap to use real gift-wrap. The problem with this is that why would you waste paper as gift-wrap? Gift-wrap is used to contain an object in secrecy for about a month and torn away once given permission to. The entire process of gift-wrap is poor design and lacks much function. A simple bow or ribbon can make a gift more decorative and look new, but it hurts to think how much paper is used every year on gifts. The waste my family produces at my grandparent’s house is enough to fill a 12 gallon garbage bag. Taking a more creative approach to solving this scenario is difficult, because naturally children, friends, and family want to be surprised by what they are about to receive Christmas morning. It’s not necessarily a need for gift-wrap but rather want. “I want to be surprised Christmas morning!”
Alternatives I have done in the past for birthdays, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day is reusing boxes and baskets. My parents receive wine in beautiful boxes every year with the wine still inside. I take these wooden crates and braid string or thin ribbon and use it to tie the box. Other times I use a basket or cigar boxes for decorative gifting too.
Another alternative (And might be one of my best ones) I came up recently is sewing cloth bags with scraps of fabric. Cloth has a lot of interesting prints and textures to it and can be just as good as wrapping paper, if not better. These cloth bags I made as an additional gift for my friends for them to reuse for jewelry, art supplies or also as “gift wrap.” The point of these small bags is meant to encourage and expose people to eco-friendly gift-wrapping. It makes the gift seem more special if I take the time to create the decoration from scratch.
Weekly Response #13
ReplyDeleteThe group project that my group and I have created was a little bit frustrating to work on because it was yet another project due for the class, but after completion, I am glad that we did it because of the effect. Our group decided to tackle an issue that probably no other group would think of doing, which was the bushmeat crisis going on in Africa. This issue had an effect on us because of the images shown and the facts discussed in lecture. All of us also seem to be animal lovers and it was so hard to hear about these things going on.
Our project consists of a set of posters showing images of African animals under the threat of bushmeat along with a brochure speaking of all of the facts, groups working to help this issue and things that each individual can do to help. We also wrote up a petition that we are going to send to the senate that anybody can sign at the project exhibition. The petition asks for help on this issue through research on more sustainable food option, aid for the people of Africa who need it, and a general spreading of the awareness of the bushmeat crisis. I think the creating this petition is one of the best things we could have done with this project. I have never been a part of creating a petition before, and it feels really good to do something that a politician could possibly see and in turn ultimately make a difference with a serious issue. Our senator also has a past history of trying to tackle environmental problems, which has a huge advantage.
I know that I have learned a lot about trying to make a difference in this class, just as I am sure a lot of others in this class have also. It is also nice to work with others on a project so that you can create an even more powerful presentation with the collaboration of ideas. I don’t think our project would have been successful if I would have worked on it alone. And with projects that are supposed to enact change for such an imperative issue, it is important that you get different inputs from different people in order to make sure you are not excluding anything and that the presentation has its full potential to get people’s attention.
I am so excited to see all of the different ideas and implementations of different projects presented by my classmates on Monday for the group project exhibit. I know there will be a wide variety presented because there were so many topics discussed in class that have had a different impact on every one us. There were so many other issues that have changed my point of view on life completely, and I know I could not handle another project this semester, but I would like to work with these important issues that have had such an impact on myself down the road to express my concern for them and to bring about awareness and change.
Weekly Statement #13
ReplyDeleteAfter spending an entire semester learning about the possibilies of what “could” happen the images of those desolate islands with cultures no more make me fear for what might be in store. Those images of Easter Island made me feel uncomfortable. The book Collapse gave great examples of societies that strived for decades even centuries, but as technology evolves so do the people and their habits. These habits lead to revolutionary changes in food, travel, medical practices and people begin to change and “forget” about their environment. People become indulged in lives and don’t realize what happens to the stuff they throw away or how large their carbon footprint is. The Mayan society is an example of a top-notch society of its time. They had reached multiple scientific breakthroughs, script writing, architecture, warfare, and developed their own take of the yearly calendar, but despite all these revelations they crumbled due to the depletion of their resources and held many enemies. Ideas completely change on a monthly basis. By the end of the year that idea may have merged with another or left in the dust. The USSR is an example of a recent short-lived society, but the difference between the Soviet Union and the Mayans was that it was bound to fail once it started because of the change in political leaders and their inconsistent morals and ideas with every new leader.
I feel after reading all the books, it pains me to say that if we do collapse it’s probably inevitable at the rate we are going. People care less about the change in weather, animals going extinct, or where our foods comes from unless it directly affects their personal life. Our December weather makes me feel worried for December in 20 years in Michigan. It feels like it’s the beginning of fall more than it does winter and it seems unnatural when just a year ago we celebrated Christmas snowed inside my house. This class has shown me the importance of caring for the world around me and that every little thing does count. One would think that taking public transportation instead of using their car isn’t “saving” the environment but prolonging our demise with Global warming it still counts as effort. This effort can be used to influence and encourage other people to take part in this noble cause. It’s a matter of time before this idea picks up and attracts more people to participate. I’ve joined the Sustainable group on campus as a result of this class. What I have noticed from their e-mails is that they do picket signs in front of Consumer’s Energy and write letters to the State Congress. Every little thing does count – because in the long run it adds up over time, and like what happened to Easter Island and the extreme deforestation that it endured we can become them next. The important thing is to be alert and do your part to help the world – even if you feel alone in helping the world we allow the environment to live another day longer because of us alone.
Weekly statement 10
ReplyDeleteI’ve never been to any of the nature company store before. But I have similar experience. I remember those gifts in souvenir stores in the zoos or botanical gardens, the gifts are not only seen as souvenirs but also give visitors a feeling of taking nature home.
I agree with the author’s opinion that nature and human cannot be separated. Nature is closely related to our consuming society nowadays. Nature is the primary producer, which is the base level of the trophic pyramid. No matter the concept of the nature store or the material needed to make the goods in the store build relationship between nature and people. The nature teaches people knowledge about wild lives and deliveries a message that suggests us to spend more time in nature. However it is also like taking a sentence out of the context. It is man made nature; the meaning of nature has been manipulated. The knowledge about the nature is true, but the experience is different. How possible is it to experience true nature in a crowded store in a gigantic mall by looking at pictures of real animals and listening to new age music. It would be interesting experience, but definitely not the same as a walk in the woods. No matter how close to nature the nature company is, it is still a store. It wants costumers to buy stuffs.
Also I thought about the invisible cost behind making all the goods. It can be harmful to the environment, especially the usage of plastics, packaging and shipping. To enjoy the nature we don’t have to pay a lot of money to get something at the nature store. Best things in life are free. First hand encounter with nature will not only save a lot of resources but also will give us a new experience.
Weekly statement 13
ReplyDeleteMy first impression after reading Collapse is we are so messed up. Especially after finishing the last chapter when Diamond talks about how the collapse of societies he listed in the beginning can apply to our society nowadays. The most frightening thing for me was when he talks about how most of the ancient civilizations collapsed right after they reach the peak. It could be the same case for us too.
In chapter 16, diamonds listed 12 environmental issues we are facing nowadays, 8 are from the past, and 4 are just starting to emerge. What made it different from the past is our world now is so globalized that one country’s problem becomes the whole world’s problem. I was shocked to see how much more energy developed countries consumes than that of developing countries. Developing countries like China and India are catching up on a lot of things, such as trades and manufacturing. Once all the people in developing countries reach the first world living standard and consume the same amount of resource per capita now it will be a disaster. But it doesn’t mean we have to stop third world countries from developing or give up everything we have now. We should come up with a way to develop in a sustainable way and live like a global citizen.
It makes me want to do something to help. Before taking this course I wouldn’t think I as an individual can do anything. But if I start to do certain things, such as conserve energy, consume less goods, and educate others to do the same there will be a big difference.
Samantha Levy
ReplyDeleteWeekly Statement 12
I know that we have discussed the environmental element in almost every collapse of a civilization. The one that seems to continuously pop up is deforestation.
When talking about Hispaniola, the main difference that separates Haiti from the Dominican Republic is the level of deforestation. Haiti’s leaders decided that there was no reason to make logging laws and kept cutting down their forests to boost the economy. Eventually, the trees ran out and Haiti is still struggling with its economy. The leaders of the Dominican Republic recognized the long-term effects of logging ahead of time. While the Dominican Republic is not free of its issues, there were logging laws set in place that preserved their forests. Haiti is much closer to the verge of collapse in comparison to the DR, as a result of their ignorance in preserving their forests.
Another major collapse took place on Easter Island. Research shows that the land used to be covered in trees, and the ‘dead’ island is now barren. Trees used to provide the people with canoes (an iconic form of transportation for all Pacific islands), timber, clothing and wild animals. Once the environment for wild animals was destroyed, the people of Easter Island began to starve. There is evidence that they traveled to different islands just to get food. In class we discussed why the forests didn’t re-grow, and the answer was that the soil was not fit to replant. The trees on Easter Island were not a renewable resource. Had the people preserved their forests, their civilization may have survived.
If a present day society, such as Haiti, has the knowledge of other places like Easter Island self-destructing due to deforestation, one would think that they would take caution. Preserving forests not only helps to maintain a society’s economy but it is an obvious way to protect the environment. Trees provide us with resources even without using them once they are cut down. I went to the meeting for Joe’s Madagascar trip and we discussed that the group will be going to a deforested area. I am curious to see the effects of this first hand because even in conversation we learned that the destroyed environment couldn’t support the larger lemurs. How can destroying forests seem like a good idea if the results affect both us and other forms of life? I know that there are organizations that tell people to “save the rainforests”, but we rarely hear about protecting our local forests. It is important to save forests everywhere.