Assignment #4: Blog 3
1. Reading Summaries
Selection 29, 41, and 9 Summaries
The first selection summary for this blog is selection 29. This article compares organic farming with conventional farming. It brings to light the problems with heavy pesticide and herbicide use common in farming today. These chemicals end up in the rivers and streams, as well as massive amounts of fertilizer. The idea is to use multiple types of farming to benefit the other. Instead of manufacturing animals in factories, you let them graze casually over plots of land. The grazing acts as a natural weed killer and the manure acts as fertilizer. Another option is using legume based crops which are “green-fertilized” by winter cover crops. The myth that conventional crops are needed to “feed the world”, is shattered.
The second reading is selection 41. The main purpose of this article was to expose the tie between women’s role in society and biodiversity. In indigenous cultures women play a role that is as important as men. Traditional subsistence and native cultures live with the land, not off of it. This preserves biodiversity and maintains heterocultures in nature. With the industrialized capitalist mindset of nature, men are seen as more important. This goes with monocultural beliefs that do not work with nature. In fact, nature will try to stop monocultures (eg. disease or weeds).
The third reading for this blog is selection 9. All organisms on earth have an effect on their environment and ecosystem around them. Humans on the other hand, have done far more to alter their surroundings. Due to technology and carbon burning we have had seemingly irreversible changes. Not only has the land we live on been transformed, but the oceans, water cycle, and nitrogen cycles have been affected.
2. Activity
Al Gore’s new thinking on the climate crisis
Al Gore was a vice president of the U.S. under Bill Clinton, but he is probably better known as an environmentalist who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The video is a lecture/slide presentation where Gore details his action plan for the climate crisis. He begins by quoting M. Gandhi by stating that you must become the change you wish to see in the world. He wants to push the message of optimism by advocating for more than just belief – he asks for new behavior. Although he believes all the small changes like solar panels, energy efficient light bulbs, and geothermal heating are important, the only way there can be major and lasting results is if we change the laws. He uses the analogy of an all out global war that requires a new way to allocate resources, create new organizational models and mobilize political will.
Gore uses some very graphic example to get his message across. He shows how the polar ice cap has been shrinking at exponentially larger and larger rates. He compares the carbon levels for the earth and Venus which are roughly the same, but on Venus it is all in the atmosphere. The Earth now is 59 degrees but Venus is 855 degrees. A change from underground carbon to atmospheric carbon could raise our average temperature just like Venus. Another example that he uses comes from worldwide contest for eco-commercials. It enables us to see what it really means when the US put 6.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the sky in 2005. This would be the equivalent weight of 1.2 billion elephants!
Although the wealthy countries are the greatest users, the developing nations are catching up at an alarming rate. Gore believes that we have the technology and the brains to integrate plans that would not only assist in the struggle against poverty but also cut harmful emissions in to the atmosphere. He makes proposals like concentrating solar and renewable energy plants linked in a super grid between the wealthy countries and the poverty stricken nations. He advocates for a “price on carbon” that would see a CO2 tax replace the tax on employment. Gore suggests that investors move from portfolios that are crammed with carbon (like investing in the tar sands) to portfolios where capital is invested in alternative energy sources and conservation. He advocates for change now instead of a response to a catastrophic events like the drought in Australia.
Al Gore believes that we need a “hero generation” that creates a mission of change. He states that diverting the funds spent on one week on the war in Iraq to the environment would make an incredible start in eliminating the climate crisis. He hopes that we can rise to the occasion and show we have the capacity to respond to a great challenge. This change must be huge in scope driven by news laws and the will of every citizen to not accept anything less. He finishes with an old African proverb that states if you want to so something quickly – go alone, but if you want to far – go together.
3. Refection
The first blog reflection is about our current food system. I think that we need dramatic and fairly rapid changes to our diets, which starts with food production. When you go to the supermarket to buy food, you are getting vegetables that have been heavily sprayed and meat and dairy products that came from factory farms. Although growth hormones allow for huge productivity, they are monocultures, which are breading grounds for disease. To combat the problem livestock that are held must be given constant antibiotics. The low dosage is not only unhealthy for humans (as are the hormones), but they only kill of the weak pathogens. This could eventually lead to superbugs that could potentially create a pandemic in the food industry. Not only are these foods unsafe, but the nutrition of processed foods is much lower than organically farmed ones. I also think on the other hand, that shipping organic produce far distances is also incorrect. The transportation time and fuel are definitely cons. The way for the food industry to be sustainable is buying organic produce and livestock products from local farms, but also doing some backyard farming yourself.
The second blog reflection is about zoos. The ethics and education value of taming animals is a two sided coin. Scientists such as David Suzuki have been trying to get society to reconnect with nature, therefore we will respect it more. To see animals in the wild, especially exotic species is difficult. Zoos provide education and excitement for youth. On the other hand, some animals do not do well in captivity and some require large ranges in their habitats. Keeping a polar bear or caribou in a tiny zoo exhibit for pleasure seems cruel and unethical. I personally think that children should learn of exotic species in school. Then later in life, instead of going to California or Florida for crowded public beaches and Disneyland, they should take their families on trips to distant parts of the globe. There they can witness animals in the wild without disturbing the natural cycle of the species.
I was very intrigued by the chemical compound, Bisphanol A. It was sparked a lot of controversy around plastic bottles, especially baby bottles. I watched a CBC News In Review DVD that went along with what I had learned in class. According to the show, the compound is used to make hard but transparent plastic for liquid storage, but can also be found in the lining of cans and lids. Studies have found that though urine testing 9 out of 10 Canadians had BPA in their system. The substance only remains inside a person for 6 hours, so it is therefore constantly being added to your daily living. The substance has been linked to cancer, diabetes, and fetal development problems. BPA was banned in baby bottles in Canada, which was a radical step globally, but the compound can still be found everywhere in your home.
BPA baby bottles and water bottles
Glass jars with lids that contain BPA (white underside)
New “Nalgene” unbreakable water bottles without BPA
Recycling sign that means your plastic container has BPA in it
