Eaarth Ch. 3

Thankfully, Eaarth started to take a turn from all the disheartening facts and statistics and started to lightening up. I understand that some people have trouble listening to arguments and seeing facts, and the only way to grab their attention is by bringing out the most startling evidence; however, just as the chapter states, “backing off” is important for reflection on the issue.

The most memorable concept from chapter 3 of Eaarth was definitely that we should try to start downsizing and saving what we have rather than to continue obsessing over this idea of growth.

“After a long period of frenetic growth, we’re suddenly older. Old, even. And old people worry less about getting more; they care more about hanging on to what they have, or losing it as slowly as possible… Growth doesn’t matter. Security and stability count more than dynamism.”

Everyone can understand the concept of growing old on a human level, and I think relating personal aging to our planet aging makes the need to cut back more personal. The idea of attempting to remain secure with what we have may be surprising to some people since exponential growth seems to be such a strong value, but just like older people start to focus on retirement and restoration, so do we about our Earth.

Grand Rapids Farmers Market

We can be kinder to our Earth by taking steps in our own lives to aid this process. Something I have always been interested in (as far as cutting back is concerned) is buying more local food and buying more of my groceries from local stores and markets. I’m from the Grand Rapids area, and we have a pretty nice farmers market, but I never looked into anything like that in Kalamazoo. Recently I found there’s not only a market in Kalamazoo, but Portage as well! I’m always open to looking into more ways to use less and invest in more long term options, and I hope to spread that mindset as this class progresses.

Eaarth Ch. 2

To be honest, most of Chapter two had me feeling hopeless. On page 52, McKibben talked about how if we raised prices on fossil fuels and banned together to “build a movement more powerful than the energy industry” we could really be making a difference. Unfortunately, my experience with people has shown me many people are stuck in their ways and are not willing to change a few things in their life to better the community. Shannon said something last class that really stuck with me: People seem to value stability more than change, and I’m afraid many people really do thrive on that outlook.

With American people being so individualistic, it’s no surprise that we may not see this change as fast as we want to. While it is natural to think of yourself and family first and thrive off convenience, our world is at stake. I don’t think people realize the magnitude of this situation. McKibben talks about how America could end up like a Third World country in a few decades, but I don’t think enough Americans could even wrap their minds around that concept to realize what this could do to our country. While I don’t think collectivism works for everything, I would hope that we as Americans could get together with a collective mindset for the sake of saving our planet. However, I just don’t know how realistic that really is.

The last line in chapter two, “We’re moving quickly from a world where we push nature around to a world where nature pushes back— and with far more power” really struck me. McKibben keeps showing us all these signs and statistics of how our planet is deteriorating, and if we continue this trend of ignoring the blatant evidence in front of us, we may get pushed back so hard that it could become impossible for us to recover. I hate to be so cynical, but from what I’ve read so far, I’m afraid we’re going to be stuck in a selfish, unproductive cycle for a while.

Eaarth Ch. 1

Prior to this reading, I always knew climate change was an issue. I believed it was a totally valid threat and something had to be done to change, but never before had I realized the magnitude of it all. That being said, McKibben’s first chapter was terrifyingly serious.

Startling statistics revealed our planet is exponentially being consumed by carbon dioxide, and if things keep going at the rate they are, we may not have the most basic need of food available to us. McKibben made it very clear that the damage done really is not reversible. I know people who think recycling and carpooling will bring back the clean green Earth we all expect to have, however it’s not that simple. If we work hard enough, we may be able to slow down or stop the process of this destruction, but we can’t be fooled: what’s done is done.

I was curious about the rate of rising CO2 levels, so I searched for some graphs and information. This one interested me, so I went to the source to read more about it. Surprisingly, the author of the article was trying to argue that climate change isn’t effecting the Earth as much as everyone claims, and that we can all calm down. In my opinion, just because it may not be hitting us right this second (although, has anyone else noticed the lack of snow this January?), doesn’t mean we should ignore the problem! As McKibben brought up, how will we be able to look at our grandchildren when our planet is deteriorating and say we didn’t realize this was a problem?

In the midst of all this chaos, it is comforting to know that there are some efforts being put forward to slow our Earth from being destroyed completely. McKibben brought up the Copenhagen Accord which the U.N. put together in hopes of saving the place we call home. My hope is that we will all start to do our part, no matter how small, to try to slow the process of destruction to our planet.

"Walking" Thoughts

While he is a very respected author, I have to admit I really knew nothing about Thoreau going into this reading. I enjoy writing more than reading, so when I noticed this story would be almost 20 pages, I thought “Oh great, time to try to decode some old English I probably won’t understand.” However, I take every thought I had back. I was pleasantly surprised, and I must say, I loved every bit of “Walking”.

Thoreau had so much to say on the importance of nature and  society and how it impacts us all. I wrote down many quotes from this piece, but this one stood out to me the most:

My sister and I hiking near Tahquamenon Falls

“My desire for knowledge is intermittent; but my desire to bathe my head in atmospheres unknown to my feet is perennial and constant. The highest that we can attain to is not Knowledge, but Sympathy with Intelligence. I do not know that this higher knowledge amounts to anything more definite than a novel and grand surprise on a sudden revelation of the insufficiency of all that we called Knowledge before,— a discovery that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy.”

If everyone was conscious about sympathy with intelligence rather than focusing on obtaining pure knowledge, we would treat not only each other with more kindness, but the Earth under our feet too! I think people focus so much on trying to be the smartest and coming off as well read, and that can take away from trying to talk to and learn from others.

Not only could we learn a thing or two from each other, but by taking a walk and taking in all the nature around us, this would surely help us develop an appreciation for the serenity of our world. Pictured to the left is a plaque from the upper peninsula I found on a hike with the poem “Prayer of the Woods”. (I’ll admit the picture quality isn’t the best, but you could listen to it here.)

If we really tried to be at peace with nature every now and then, maybe we really could hear the trees whispering “Harm me not”.

Thoughts on "The Audit"

I think the whole concept of having a Global Climate Audit is intriguing. While it did remind me somewhat of 1984 or “Harrison Bergeron” in the sense that the government could get so much information about you, I still think the idea could be truly beneficial. I don’t think gathering the numbers needed to calculate someone’s carbon footprint is that intrusive, and it’s for a good cause: Getting the Earth back to a healthy state.

Having some sort of setup like this is very attainable for our society, and I think we could benefit from at least knowing what our carbon footprint is, how it compares to the rest of the world, and what we can do to reduce it.

I was interested in trying to calculate my own carbon footprint, but I live in an apartment complex and didn’t have all the information to accurately finish the questionnaire. However, if you’re interested in finding out your own, you can check it out by going to this website.

In regards to the story, I found it crazy that pretty much everyone in the story knew about the GCA and its rules except Bill. However, this isn’t so far fetched when it comes to information about climate change and the way people hear about and react to it now. While most of us in this class know some information about climate change and the effects it has on the environment, there are still plenty of people who are probably shocked by it.

One positive thing about Bill’s revelation of his effects on the environment included him getting more information on the GCA and how his carbon footprint related to the rest of the world, as well as how it affected the environment. I think pollution seeps into our daily lives more than we realize. I found a very interesting article about how the simplest things, like where we buy our food form, can impact our carbon footprints. You can read more about it here. The graph here corresponds with the article, giving a visual representation of all the things we do that include us making our very own carbon footprints.

I think looking into little ways we can reduce our own personal pollution is very important, and just as Bill did some self exploration, imagine how much healthier the world could be if we all tried to do it too.

Introduction

Hello! My name is Jessica and this is my blog for Our Place in Nature. I will write about my thoughts on the readings and activities we do in class. I'm new to the whole blog thing, so I look forward to using this and figuring everything out as I go.

As far as introductory posts go, some basic things about me include:

• I am a Behavioral Psychology major and a Writing and Rhetoric minor (hoping to change that to a double major)
• I am a second year student at WMU
• I grew up in a suburb outside Grand Rapids 
• My favorite place to be is Mosquito Beach in the upper peninsula (pictured below)

I look forward to learning more about environmental issues and incorporating the reading and writing from an english class perspective in with it as well!