Author Archives: brendlingercb

Ansel Adams

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Art is typically a visual representation of how a specific artist sees the world or possibly what they wish to say about a current issue. In a way, art has the capacity to go beyond a conversation because it creates power beyond simple words. A genuine and rare feeling can be invoked by viewing an art piece, which is an entirely personal experience. Many artists draw inspiration from a combination of their personal lives and immediate surroundings. The environment naturally influences and relates to art, whether classic or contemporary.

When I think of art interacting with the environment I think about Ansel Adams. He was and continues to be, one of the most influential people in both the arts and the environmental movement. He is a true example of creating a life around what you are passionate about, which for him was documenting his surroundings. Ansel Adams life became centered around Yosemite, which is where he found the Sierra Club and also his wife. In Yosemite, he developed his photography skills and began getting noticed as an up and coming photographer. The Sierra Club also helped him by publishing his work in their bulletin.

Ansel Adams photos capture beauty in landscapes that people tend to look over in their daily lives. This related to the environmental movement because his photographs managed to personify nature, making people relate to them. The emotional response to Ansel Adams work caused a feeling of responsibility or protection, which help to launch the environmental movement. On his official website, he is described as, “both the artist of the Sierra Nevada and the defender of Yosemite”. His personal connection to Yosemite transformed into a call for action in protecting the wilderness. He worked his entire life and formed his career around making the idea of wilderness relatable to those who did not have the first-hand experience of it. Adams himself described wilderness as, “a mystique: a valid, intangible, non-materialistic experience.” He has a unique lens of the wild, due to forming such a personal connection to it. Overall, Ansel Adams’ photographs have become a time capsule for true respect and dedication to the environment.Image result for ansel adams

Nature is Pretty Neat

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The importance of nature was a central theme of my childhood. I feel lucky to have been raised in a small mountain town. I am truly a product of my environment and appreciate where I come from immensely. Growing up, my family regarded nature in an almost religious way, or maybe more spiritual. For my dad, religion is not found in an organized group or building. His deepest connection to something outside himself is found within nature. This may seem like hippy-dippy spiritual mumbo jumbo, but I have found it to be true. Some of my earliest memories are driving up to ski every weekend with my dad. As we piled into the car, he would always say the same sentence before turning the key: “time to go to church”. For him, the mountain represents his religion and exploring it is a method of prayer. There are many ritualistic aspects of being outside and the preparation that goes into it. Overall being completely alone and surrounded by nature in an explicable feeling, and the closest definition I have found to religion. I have had several surreal moments in nature, where the environment you are in just seems to swallow you whole.

Clearly, nature has played a major role in my life, as I’m sure it does for everyone. I recently went on a trip to Banff, Canada where I got to do my all-time favorite activity: skiing. Trips like this one make the seasonal bum lifestyle even more enticing. I went with a group of around twenty CofC students, meaning there was limited alone time. One of the days I managed to ski around three runs alone after semi-purposefully losing the group in a tree run. Skiing alone has been a consistently meaningful thing to me. There is something about having complete control over how you get down the mountain, rather than stopping and planning out which run to take at every turn. Also, the solo chairlift rides are a few minutes of pure silence, allowing the focus to be solely on the surrounding views. The two or three minutes on the chair reminded me why my dad related this experience to a religious one and are almost meditative. Being in a mountain setting, surrounded by snow is when I feel most like myself. Nature has a way of making this sense of self possible.

Overall, nature has the ability to take you out of your own, seemingly large, but actually small reality. Spending time alone in nature gives you space to see past yourself and all your pointless worries. This I believe is why humans crave the natural benefits of being outside. It is an instant relief to sit in the sun, or under a tree, or in the grass. It is an attempt at connecting to our distant and ancestral ties to the natural world. We have, as a society, made an effort to distance ourselves from nature in the pursuit of comfortable lifestyles. Nature is now seen as something separate from us, rather than interconnected.

Cooked Documentary

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I recently watched the short documentary series Cooked on Netflix. Obviously, this series focuses on cooking, but more specifically the relationship that humans have with food and how it has altered over time. There are four total episodes and they are cleverly divided into the categories of fire, water, air, and earth. Although the focus is on food, it also outlined many significant environmental injustices and interesting human tendencies.

My favorite episode was the first one, which focused on how humans have adapted and captivated fire throughout time. We would not be who were are without fire because cooking is what originally separated us from other species. Fire is essentially what made us human. Eating raw has actually become unsafe for our health, meaning that fire caused us to become biologically developed to rely on cooked food. The importance of cooking is something that our society now takes for granted. The documentary talked about the meaning of tradition that is wrapped into a meal. The meal is essential to human nature and is critical to our well-being. I thought this sentiment was really interesting because in today’s society many typical families rarely sit down for a meal. We have given up an element of pleasure when it comes to having a meal, which was promoted through the introduction of fast food or tv dinners. The documentary utilized mouth watering and slow-mo food shots as a call to action to stop overlooking the act of cooking.

Another aspect that the Cooked addressed was that our society has become unaware of the cruelties happening in the meat industry, due to the companies covering it up. This became the trend when fast food created pressure on originally sustainable farms to produce more product at a faster pace. Factory farms are a product of the disconnect consumers have to their food source. This impactful portion of this series reminded me of the documentary we recently watched, Food Inc. The overarching theme of the food industry today is that most people have no idea how the food they are eating arrived on their plate. As corporations monopolized the meat industry, factory farms and mistreatment of animals became the norm. This a product of massive outsourcing, which turns the population into passive consumers.

Cooked also went on to explain how we have distanced ourselves from the gratitude we used to have for fire. Civilization began around a fire, yet we now view moving away from it as progress. Historically cultures survived because of fire, causing it to be tied to religious mentalities. For example, the Martu people in Western Australia who still incorporate a “fire baptism” into their religious worships. Now we have confined the element of fire to a simple aesthetic feature, hiding the use of it in metal containers. Another layer is that there are unseen fossil fuel fires burning everywhere, supporting our materialistic lifestyles.

Overall, if you can’t tell by my rambling of information, this documentary series in incredibly well done and I recommend it to everyone. Also, Michael Pollan is one of the creators of the show, so you know it is going to be good!

 

Here is a link to the series:  Cooked

Where the Water Goes by David Owen

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I have recently been reading Where the Water Goes by David Owen, which is a start to finish journey of the Colorado River, explaining the complex history and human influence along the way. I grew up rafting on the Colorado River, making me appreciative and also protective of it. Being on the river is the time that I feel most like myself. Despite this connection, as I grew up and learned more about it I realized I had been taking it for granted. While enjoying the recreational benefits of the resource, the history of the river never even occurred to me. I selfishly used the river for my benefit without wondering about what impacts were necessary for taking a trip down the river. As I grew older I also specifically became curious about the dams we passed on the way to the put in.

Through some research, I found out that the river used to run all the way to the Gulf of California, but the overallocation of water supply has caused it to dry up before it makes it. After reading an eye-opening book by Pete Mcbride about the subject, I wanted to know more. I was recommended the book Where the Water Goes by my dad’s friend who is a raft guide. I am a few chapters away from the end and so far it is one of the most helpful explanations of the massive wicked problem of water scarcity. This most beneficial aspect is that David Owen taps into his personal experience of rivers to weave a seamless explanation of why it does not reach the sea anymore. The inclusion of personal anecdotes successfully breaks up the sometimes overwhelming information on the legalities or sciences that make up the core of typical water conversations.

Another successful characteristic of the book is that Owen starts the story at the headwaters, which was a clever way to break down the complex problem. As the reader made their way downstream, they became familiar with the natural beauty and also the unnatural interruptions along the river. By doing this, the situation is more attainable and easier to keep track of. Overall, Where the Water Goes serves as a successful urge to protect this river, whether you are a well-informed hydrologist or a sunburnt river bum. Upstream human tendencies have caused the Colorado River to dry up, yet this is not a well-known dilemma. David Owen familiarizes the reader with the river in an extensive way, creating true empathy for the water. He manages all this while also making the message clear that, “water issues are never only about water,” (p. 105). It could have easily been a simplistic overview of the dams along the river; however, Owen investigated further by recognizing the many socioeconomic factors that are intrinsically included. Overall, this book is hard to describe in just a few paragraphs and I recommend it to anyone even slightly interesting in rivers. The holistic picture of the Colorado River allows Where the Water Goes to be applicable to countless water conversations, whether it is about hydrology or raft guiding.

Here is a link to the book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/317824/where-the-water-goes-by-david-owen/9780735216099/

Personal Change

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Recently I have been trying to lower my contribution to the overuse and misuse of single-use plastics. After emptying out about seven to-go coffee cups from my cars one day, I was confronted with the complacent way I have always viewed these items. The universal nature of these products allows their actual environmental impact to go relatively unnoticed. Also, there is a massive disconnect between us and where our trash goes after we throw it away. Single-use plastics are rarely thought of ever again after finishing whatever short-lived purpose they are intended for.

This problem is thankfully becoming more widely known, with an entire “zero waste” industry being created. A more minimalistic and low impact mindset has become the new fad. Although this might just be an empty trend, there are clear benefits in the message of single-use plastics harm being spread. The market has adopted this idea, with companies that have not made some kind of positive environmental change falling behind. While first trying to address my gross overuse of plastics I researched what products are available to curb the need for them. I first bought a collapsible stainless steel straw, which has been great! I also have been making an effort to bring my own reusable coffee mug to the library or cafes. I have found that many places in Charleston actually give a small discount off of your drink if you bring your own mug! Another product that is making waves in this industry is beeswax food wrap, which replaces plastic bags. This product is easy to use and has proved to be effective in keeping food fresh. I ordered a set of bamboo silverware, which I am excited to try out!

One of the hardest parts about this transition was remembering to bring the various zero waste products when I leave the house. I found keeping them in my backpack or purse helped to solve this. Also, it was hard to resist the ease and convenience of single-use plastics, especially when there was no other option. The amount of comfortability that comes along with an average life nowadays is amazing. Although the simple act of saying no to single-use plastics seems as though it would not make much of a difference, it truly does. If everyone made a simple and small effort towards cutting out this part of consumption, the effects would be successful. This would be an example of collective action, which is needed to attack the overwhelming and wicked problem. I found the transition to more conscious and eco-friendly products easy. With a simple lifestyle and mindset shift, there is no need to rely on single-use plastics. There are many advances in our consumer culture towards a more environmentally friendly society. Overall, the incentive to make this shift is clear and the products are readily available. For anyone wanted to make this transition I recommend the company “Package Free Shop” and also there is a ton of great stuff on Amazon! 

Marine Life and Governance in the Plasticine Era – Camden Brendlinger

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On January 28th, I attended a lecture in the Rita Center focused on marine life. This event was sponsored by the Biology department and the Environmental Studies graduate program. The impactful talk was given by Dr. Qamar Schuyler, who is an research scientist at CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere. She also graduated from the environmental studies program at C of C in 2004! Despite an extremely successful, and what she described as a “rabbit hole”, career path Dr. Schuyler made the talk easy to grasp for everyone.

The “plasticine era” is a section of the Anthropocene, focusing on the overuse and misuse of plastic in today’s society. Dr. Schuyler’s expertise was on marine debris and how it is affecting ecosystems and species. One major piece of the talk that was surprising to me was the size of debris in the ocean. I honestly imagined a massive and clumped together mound of trash; however, the exact opposite is true. Dr. Schuyler showed a picture of the densest amount of trash in the ocean, and it looked like a few specks floating around. This magnitude of this problem makes more sense now, considering the difficulty in rounding up all of this microscopic debris. Over 700 species have been proven to be affected by marine debris, from animals at the bottom of the food chain to predators. Typical interference is caused by either entanglement or digestion. Dr. Schuyler measured the lethality of plastic by recording and comparing sea turtles fatality reports. She shockingly found that if one piece of plastic is consumed, there is a 22% jump in the chance of mortality. As if this isn’t already terrifying enough, the chemicals used in the production of plastics can also soak into the tissues of marine animals and has the ability to alter their genes. If you are looking at this with an anthropocentric mindset, this also relates to any sushi lovers. Scientist still do not know if these chemicals can be transferred to our systems through fish digestion, but it is certainly possible.

Typically with talks addressing the subject of environmental problems, a sense of helplessness settles in. Dr. Schuyler combated this by offering possible ways to get involved in this complex problem. She described the “Plastic Pipeline” which is essentially the economic and social processes that are required for plastic to get to the ocean. Instead of leaving it at this, she explained all of the places where intervention is possible. This reminded me of the “Story of Stuff” video that we watched in class. Although this video addressed a different waste problem, it tied into the theme of overconsumption and disconnection in our industry. Breaking down these wicked and overwhelming problems into the sequence of events that creates them allows them to be understood. Dr. Schuyler ended the talk on a positive note, simply saying that it is possible to fix this problem. What is necessary is for everyday people to have empathy and become advocates for problems that might not directly affect them. The bottom up method works! I left the talk feeling impressed with the drive and knowledge Dr. Schuyler has put into this topic. It is comforting that there are people like her in the world.