Crude Awakening

I thoroughly enjoyed the videos on oil drilling and was pretty much amazed at how crooked the entire system really is.  I think was astounded me the most, in general, was the fact that nobody seems to think that it is important to notify the public about how we are producing less and less oil from our normal drilling areas....this means something important that isn't being broadcast! The thing about it is that these oil companies continue to lie about how much oil they still have in these reserves, in order to keep increasing the amount of oil they can remove from their reserves....however, this is just giving people false information about our current standings with oil and when we will run out! I know that there are ways to really find out how much oil we have left, but obviously nobody thinks its important enough to discuss, especially since oil is such a money maker.  It completely amazed me when they discussed that they outright lie to people just to continue to make money--don't they see the importance of the situation? I guess not....

Another issue they covered is that our most important drilling areas are running dry; they pictured these places that were once rich drilling areas that are now desolate and dry.  The machinery is all rusted and no good anymore and the view is forever obstructed by what was once a town/state/country's wealth.

The videos were eye-opening to say the least.

Human Impact on the Planet

This is a very broad topic, but after being in this class for as long as I have been, I think I have a pretty strong opinion on it.  I really only know my own impact and the impact of those around me, so within that small population, I am of course generalizing.  That being said, I think we are having a horrendous negative impact on our planet, and that if we continue to behave in the manner in which we are, our planet will be destroyed quickly and there will be nothing positive left for our great-grandchildren and their grandchildren.  So this is what I know about my small population's negative impact: nobody that I am close with recycles anything, nobody I know closely invests in energy efficient appliances or vehicles,  nobody I know drives a hybrid, nobody I know walks or rides a bike to work/school, nobody I know tries to eat organically or grow their own food, nobody I know tries to reduce their consumption of water and/or electricity.  I can say these things with complete honesty, because I sat and tried to think of even one person that I am close with that might do any of these things, and I couldn't come up with anyone, including myself!  We have no real consideration for our environment or the population of wildlife, to be honest, we don't even think about it on a daily basis!  You know what we think about regularly? What we are going to take out to dinner, without thinking about the dwindling fish population; we think about what handbag we want to purchase next, without thinking about how it got here from Italy; we think about how we're going to afford that Ford F-150, without thinking about how much gas we are going to have to buy to fuel that truck.  We are a consumerist society and it is going to take a long amount of time and a ton of effort to try and change that!  Until we make the environment a top priority and start treating our planet with the respect it deserves, I don't think anything will change.

Service Learning

I did my service learning at Virginia B. Andes Volunteer Community Clinic, and it was absolutely wonderful--so wonderful that I've continued to volunteer there! It is a free clinic for Charlotte County residents who have no health insurance; it is a semi-urgent care clinic so they handle colds, flu, small injuries, etc.  It has been a rewarding service learning experience because I am a Community Health major and I will someday be working in a hospital or clinic as an Occupational Therapist.  This service learning experience provided me with the knowledge and insight (to an extent) of how a health clinic is run, from policy and procedure, to protocol and practice.  It was so amazing to see all of the different volunteer nurses and doctors who came to give their time in the evenings after they'd already worked a full shift at their day jobs.  These doctors volunteer their time from 5pm-9pm and see anywhere from 10-20 patients an evening, completely free of charge.  They also have specialists that come several times a month, including a chiropractor, a dermatologist, and a heart specialist.  These patients are generally very poor, don't have insurance, and I have seen plenty who are homeless walk into the clinic.  In this economy, with so many people out of work, this clinic is a vital part of Charlotte County and should be implemented in counties all over the US.  It has been an enriching experience to volunteer with Virginia B. Andes Volunteer Community Clinic.

Aldo Leopold

This article really made me think of our environment from a completely different point of view; like the article said, we always think about land as property, with no obligations to it, a stricly economic relationship.  But Leopold begins discussing a concept called land-ethic, in which our "community" is enlarged to INCLUDE our soil, plants, animals, etc.  That way instead of being "conquerors of the land-community" we become members, with a responsibility to help it thrive.  I've NEVER viewed the land (soil, water, plants, animals etc) as a member of MY community; I've never really felt as though I had any responsibility or obligation to it and I've always viewed it as being there to meet my needs.  I think it is safe to say that many people view it this way, and it was only after reading this article that I even thought to think about the land in any other way.  It kind of makes sense as to why our environment is being so mistreated and depleted; if no one feels responsible for it, but feels that they are entitled to any/all the benefits that come from the land, then who is there to take care of it and defend its continued existance? Until people start viewing the land as a part of their community, and each one partake in the responsibility of caring for it, then the environment is going to continue to perish.

Weaning Ourselves off of Energy

There are many things we could do to try and wean ourselves off of energy; it is just a matter of sacrifice.  This is not something most of us are too familiar with, especially myself.  The first thing that we could all do (if it was remotely feasible) was to invest in electric cars; I know that electricity is a form of energy, but compared to oil, it seems to be the lesser of two evils, don't you agree?  If we can we ourselves off of oil, it will reduce our consumption by staggering amounts.  The problem? We aren't prepared to make that transition, not even close to making it;  there is no way that most of us can afford a fully electric car, and even if we could, where are my public charging stations?  Another thing we could all do to try and decrease our dependence on energy is to go natural; what I mean by this is hand wash our clothes to conserve water--hang dry our clothes to conserve electricity; how about we buy our food from farmers markets and grow our own gardens so that we can reduce the amount of transit that our food takes.  These are habits that may take awhile to root, but can make astounding changes towards our goal of being less dependent on energy.

Tragedy of the Commons

So, I did like the journal prompt said, and I typed in Tragedy of the Commons into Wikipedia search bar; what came up was a summary of Garrett Hardin's 1968 essay about how the concept of individual gain, short term gain, can have long term negative consequences.  His example was about how a group of herders sharing a "common" grazing area will keep adding cattle to the "common" because he reaps 100% of the benefit, but the consquence is spread out among the group and eventually the common is depleted for everyone.  This concept can be applied to many different "tragedies" such as pollution, water supply, forresting, energy sources, etc.  It made me think of how selfish people really can be with resources and how most of what we do and consume is for our very own benefit, without thinking much of the greater good or how it may turn out it the end for everyone involved.  I've never really thought about it in this way before, and this concept seems very accurate to our way of living.  Tying into this concept is the free-market issue; if we continue to all have free for all on our resources with very little government intervention, the rate at which our varying "commons" is greatly increased. 

My Ecological Footprint

Soooo I was pretty horrified when my results said that if everyone lived the way I do, we would need 7.25 Earths; that is so ridiculous!! It was a short, simple quiz that spoke volumes of my careless lifestyle and my nonchalant attitude towards the environment.  Its scary to think of how many "me's" there are out there!  Some things that I could do to reduce my ecological footprint would be to eat more organic foods with less packaging and to eat less meat; according the quiz results it is estimated that up to 18% of all greenhouse gases are from meat consumption.  I didn't even know that! I can't think of a meal where we don't eat meat, we are definitely carnivores! Pork chops, tacos, chicken alfredo, etc.  Chicken sandwich or beef burrito for lunch....it never ends!  It actually seems odd to me NOT to have meat at a meal....if I even take meat off my menu for one day a week, I could make a difference.  Another thing to do is to walk or ride a bike more, or try to use public transit; where I am located, it is somewhat difficult to arrange that, but only because a 45 minute bike ride to work seems extremely unreasonable to me.  There is little in the way of public transit for my area, especially since I live on county lines;  I live in Sarsota County but work in Charlotte County, and I don't think the sarasota county transit drives into charlotte county, so this proves to be a problem.  I could also flush less often, brush with the water turned off, turn off all the lights, use energy efficient light bulbs and appliances.  There are so many things we can do to reduce our ecological footprint, and most of them aren't that difficult!!