Daily Archives: March 29, 2019

define “nature”

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I believe I am intimately apart of, and inseparable from, the natural world, in the sense that I believe the natural world is the only world that exists. To me, everything is natural because it is a product of nature; myself, a cell phone, or a book included. But nature, in the sense of what is divorced from human creation, is something I wish I was more connected with. Each time I spend time in an environment free from much human intervention, I feel calmer, happier, and humbler. It allows me to step back from the nitty-gritty stresses of everyday life and witness systems of earth that have been functioning for millions of years. As cliche as it sounds, it is so easy to lose sight of what really matters when you are stuck in the same cycle of life. Being outdoors, to a greater or lesser extent, puts life in a different perspective and often jars one’s sense of what they value. Camping, for instance, can shed light on things often taken for granted such as food, water, shelter, and going to the bathroom. And hiking, or any outdoor activity really, can leave one awe-inspired to the beauty and complexity of nature. This is why spending time in nature is so important; because it re-calibrates your values and your emotions. It allows one to reside in an habitat where our bodies were selected to live through hundreds of thousands of years of evolution by natural selection.

As a child, I spent innumerable hours rolling in the sand, rinsing in the ocean, and drying in the sun. In other words, I loved the beach and being out in the sun, I still do. I used to go home, rummage around around the woods, and make lean-to forts on the trees. This sort of childhood primed me for a livelong fondness of the outdoors. For obvious reasons, things have changed a little since my childhood and I haven’t been able to get outside as much as I’d like. In turn, I decided to do something about it and join the College of Charleston Outdoors club. And though I still don’t get outside as much as I’d like, the club has provided me with amazing experiences. Our most recent trip was to north Florida in Osceola National Forest. Simply being out in the woods with nothing else to do but converse and sit by the campfire was a feeling that assuaged all my petty stresses and worries. It was a wonderful trip consisting of pitcher plant sightings, hikes through the palm fronds, and cooking over an open fire. One of the things I noticed though was while we were driving to the National Forest the surrounding towns were very poor by American standards. Dilapidated houses, abandoned stores, and fast food chains lined most of their streets. It was a reminder of how millions of people in this country, and billions around the world, live in poverty. It’s easy to forget about the inequality facing our country going to such a privileged school and living in downtown Charleston.

 

“Chasing Coral” Review – 5/5 stars

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After hearing about the documentary “Chasing Coral” for months, I finally decided to sit down and actually watch it. The documentary starts out with the narrator, Richard Vevers, telling us how after spending ten years in advertising, working with some of London’s top agencies, he felt that there was something more he was meant to do with his life and later found himself in Australia doing underwater photography. Over time, Vevers noticed some of his favorite sea creatures were disappearing, which lead to the curiosity of what else was disappearing in the rest of the world’s oceans. In the last 30 years, the world has lost 50% of its coral reefs. Vevers acknowledged one of the biggest issues with the ocean being that it is “out of sight, out of mind” for the general public, which he called an “advertising issue”. The purpose for this documentary was for an assembled team of scientists, divers, engineers, and photographers to study and document the disappearance of corals in order to show the public what’s happening in our oceans. The ocean has an important role in our source of life; it controls things such as the climate and oxygen we breathe. With the increase in greenhouse gas emissions, more heat becomes trapped in our atmosphere and the majority is absorbed by the ocean which leads to an increase in water temperature. Throughout the documentary, Vevers traveled to meet with different scientists to learn more about the biology of coral and ended up exploring coral reefs that had turned white. After conducting studies with a team of coral reef biologists, they discovered turning white was a stress response to a 2˚C increase in temperature and ultimately ended with death. What was most interesting about this documentary was that this was the first time someone had captured this anomaly. In recent years, more people have learned of the damage several name brand sunscreens have on coral reefs and some cities have started enforcement of alternative sun protection methods. Like Vevers said, the ocean has an “out of sight” issue, so while people may know of the damage happening to corals, it is completely eye-opening to see the damage for yourself. Coral reefs are living organisms that provide habitat for many different species that becomes a resource of food for humans. For some countries, coral reefs play a big role in the economy because of the tourist attraction. The disappearance of coral reefs would completely disturb the oceanic ecosystem and the economic and social aspects of human life. The documentary ended with sharing the possibility of restoring the coral reefs through changes in human behavior. Overall, I believe the message of the documentary was necessary to share in order to get the attention of the general public and work together toward solving the issues of climate change. I highly recommend this documentary to anyone; it’s very informative and each scene is more captivating than the last.

https://www.chasingcoral.com/

 

Litter Sweep

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Over spring break my roommate and I decided to do a litter sweep at our apartment building. We had noticed that even though the maintenance crew routinely cleans at the apartments, there was still constantly trash laying around the parking lot, stairwell, by the dog park, and by the dumpster. The trash by the dumpster is the most annoying to me. It is right next to the place where you are supposed to put your trash, yet there were all kinds of litter sitting all over the ground and not in the dumpster or the recycling bins. For the sweep, we took two bags, one for trash and one for recyclables. We both wore gloves and my roommate was the one who wrote down our observations. We started out by walking around the parking lot area and collecting trash. In this area we found typical trash that was most likely things people had in their cars such as plastic and Styrofoam cups, food wrappers, napkins, straws, and aluminum cans. We also found many unused plastic dog poop pickup bags on the ground. There are many dog pick up areas around the apartment buildings. All the areas have trash cans and a dispenser for these plastic pick up bags. We found most of the unused bags laying near the trash cans. After sweeping the parking lot area we walked around the inner court yard and the pool. In this area we found plastic water bottles, aluminum cans, paper towels, and plastic straws and cups. The last area we swept was the area around the dumpster and by the dog park. This is actually the area we found most of the trash we picked up. In this area, we picked up water bottles, plastic cups, food wrappers and containers, paper towels, and plastic wrap. Also in the area by the dumpster there were 3 large garbage bags sitting on the ground. This is frustrating because since they were not in the dumpster they would not have been picked up by the garbage truck. Bags sometimes sit by the dumpster for weeks without being thrown into the dumpster. I am not sure why no one just picks it up when they take their own trash but I always try to do it if I see any sitting outside the dumpster. The bags were full of all kinds of trash including things that could have been recycled. We sorted through the bags as best we could and removed some of the recyclable items and we threw the rest of the garbage in the dumpster. The most surprising thing that we found all over the apartment complex was cigarette butts. While normally this would not be a strange thing, our apartments are a non-smoking community. If you are caught smoking on property they can fine you $1,000. However, we found cigarette butts laying on the ground in many places. Doing this litter sweep showed me how much pollution people can create in a small place. We picked up all this trash but this was after maintenance had already come through and cleaned the property. Picking up your trash does not take much effort and can make a big difference in how a place looks. I wish more people realized how harmful just dropping their trash on the ground and walking away can be. This makes me think about what we discussed in class that because people are not seeing the consequences of their actions when they are doing it, they don’t care. Dropping their trash on the ground means nothing to them at that moment, so they continue to do it.

Arts & Culture Blog Post

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https://www.google.com/search?biw=1440&bih=721&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=NYWbXOLIMI__5gK-4p3ABQ&q=climate+change+art&oq=climate+change+art&gs_l=img.3..0l10.4025.7287..7408…2.0..0.93.1246.16……1….1..gws-wiz-img…….0i67j0i7i30j0i10j0i7i10i30j0i19j0i7i30i19j0i7i10i30i19.38OyAngWVno#imgrc=6narYBQPEc1F1M:

These two paintings are extremely meaningful in present day discussion of climate change. Unfortunately, even if the entire planet stopped producing green-house gases right this second, we would still experience consequences of climate change. This is why we must make changes now to minimize the future effects of climate change. The comparison of the paintings provide a look into the future based upon how we act now.

The picture on the left portrays our future if we continue on the path that we are on now. The Statue of Liberty is covering her face because the air is so polluted that it is hazardous to breathe. In her left hand, she holds a barrel of gasoline because this is the main cause of climate change. Humans have been using fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution in the 1800’s, and tons of carbon dioxide is produced as a byproduct and pumped into the atmosphere.  In her other hand, she holds a gasoline bump to show once again, we must step away from fossil fuels because it is a limited resource, and the byproduct is harmful. The background is a musky brown, and even the clouds are dark. Smoke stacks produce large clouds of dark smoke that will increase the rate of climate change and the consequences. In addition, vultures are circling the Statue of Liberty symbolizing death. We are currently experiencing the Anthropocene Extinction, the sixth mass extinction. It is called the anthropocene because all of it is due to human activities. Biodiversity is plummeting, and species are going extinct before humans can even discover them.

The picture on the right is a different story. It gives hope that maybe humans will change, and there can be a positive, bright future. The air appears to be clean because of the blue sky and white clouds. In her left hand, the Statue of Liberty holds a solar panel, a renewable energy source. In her other hand, she holds up a wind turbine, which is another renewable, clean energy resource. This shows the future if humans make the change from fossil fuels to clean energy. In the background, it looks like little green bushes are growing, which shows life is thriving. Bald eagles are flying around the Statue of Liberty instead of vultures.

These paintings are powerful on their own, but when put side by side, it is appalling. Humans are going to have a frightening future if something is not done very soon about climate change. We are already past the window of completely avoiding the long term consequences of climate change, but we can control how bad the consequences are. These paintings only take on one of the harmful effects of human activities, and unfortunately, humans affect the environment in many more ways. There is a solution to this wicked problem, but people do not want to break away from fossil fuels. If we want a future for our planet, we need to make extreme changes right now, or we will end up like the left picture.