Cognitive Dissonance - Journal #7 (7)

The entire time I was reading about the cognitive dissonance theory I could not help thinking about the environmentally destructive behavior people have developed in the past century and the recent research claiming their behavior is wrong. This must have aroused an extreme amount of dissonance in most people who have been living in environmentally destructive ways. While it is evident that change has started to come about and there is definitely pressure to continue this movement towards a sustainable world, I wonder what kind of cognitive changes people have been making to cope with their past behavior. Are they discrediting the evidence as false? Are they claiming to enjoy destroying the environment that has given them so much? These questions and many more will have to be answered by the numerous numbers of people who are beginning to feel dissonance as we continue to move down the path toward sustainability.

Hopefully as more and more people begin to feel cognitive dissonance about their past behavior they will attempt to eliminate their destructive behavior, but as with smoking and weight loss, this may not be possible. We can only hope for that those who try and succeed outweigh the number of those who try and fail. If that does not turn out to be the case, we will find ourselves in a world full of excuses and justification. This world will not only lack beauty, resources, and other things that contribute to our current quality of life, but will eventually cease to exist.   

The Dangerous Saharan Dust - Journal #6 (6)

The video by National Geographic Strange Days: The one Degree Factor was quite intriguing. It blew my mind to see all the interconnecting of phenomena’s happening around caused by an increase in CO2. It is going to be both interesting and frightening to see the effects of future global change on our planet. After all, we are experiencing faster global change than any other human beings have witnessed.

It is crazy to think that global temperature can have such a negative effect on an animal as large as a caribou. In the bad periods that happen sporadically, longer insect breeding seasons have caused the mosquito population to grow much larger than normal, driving the caribou to poor grazing grounds. It causes increased precipitation which increases snowfall in the winters making it much more difficult for the caribou to graze in the winters as well. Spring blizzards throw off migration patterns and make it much harder for the caribou young which are often birthed during the migration.  

Another troubling occurrence happening due to the warming global temperature is a decrease in the population of zoë plankton and species found in the tidal pools of the pacific. The population has been rising and falling due to the changing of changing water temperatures. If the water temperature continues to rise many of the species in the Pacific Ocean will either migrate or die.

The most interesting parts of the movie was the connection between a drought in Nigeria and an increased number of children with asthma and a startling numbers of coral reef destruction. They believe that the North Atlantic Oscillation has been stuck on an intense cycle for almost 30 years and has been sending increasing amounts of Saharan dust over to the Americas. This dust contains pathogens, malogens, and a fungus called Aspirigilis, a sea fungus known to cause sea fan disease.

Farms and Fragility - Journal #5 (5)

I really enjoyed the perspective Jared Diamond has on why different societies, both past and present, have succeeded or failed. He begins the book by telling a story of two farms, which in my opinion is always a good start, with pretty much identical strengths and weaknesses. At the end of the story he reveals that the two farms are from separate time periods and then analyses why one has succeeded and the other failed.

After the story, analysis, and in my opinion some rambling that had me on the verge of sleep, he arrives at his next interesting point: a five point framework made up of possible factors contributing to an environmental collapse. This was a nice change from the environmentalists views expressed in the other movies and readings we have done thus far. The five points are environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbors, friendly trade partners, and a society’s response to environmental problems. The most significant of the five points is how a society responds to environmental problems.

The first point refers to human’s effect on the environment. This is determined in part by the damage done to the environment, the fragility, and the resilience. Secondly, Diamond describes climate change, not only as global warming caused by human beings, but as the change in climates as they become hotter, colder, wetter, or drier and the variability involved due to natural forces. He then goes on to talk about relationships with neighboring civilizations and how possible environmental changes can affect these relationships. For instance, if your allies become weakened by an environmental change that decreases the amount of support they can provide you, you could also become weakened. Lastly, he talks about the way different societies respond to environmental problems and relates back to the beginning story with the two farms.   

Recollections of Jane Goodall - Journal #4 (4)

Jane Goodall’s excerpt was a very uplifting and encouraging thing to read, especially after the previous excerpt by Shiva which focused more on the damage we are doing than the recovery efforts being made. Jane believes there is hope for the future of our planet based off of four different reasons. They are the extraordinary intellect of humans, the resilience of nature, the energy and commitment of informed young people who are empowered to act, and the indomitable human spirit. She then begins recalling many of the environmental rehabilitation success stories she has witnessed throughout her career. These stories range from the reviving of an old quarry to the cleansing of the Hudson river and are all extremely uplifting.   

My favorite passage was Jane Goodall’s recollection of the efforts taken, not only protect the Gombe chimpanzee, but to better the lives of countless people living near the chimpanzees. By creating programs to help people living in these desolate areas near endangered species, we can not only better the lives of our fellow human beings, but protect and conserve our planet for future generations. Reading about Goodall’s experiences in Gombe is not only encouraging, it is heartwarming.

After reading many of the short stories about the recovery of desolate landscapes I am beginning to have hope for the future of our planet. Just because we have made mistakes in the past, does not mean our actions today do not adversely affect our home. We need to continue searching for ways to minimize pollution, to conserve and protect our endangered ecosystems, and just live an all-around sustainable lifestyle.

Biodiversity and sustainablity - Journal #3 (3)

Vandana Shiva begins her excerpt by describing bio diversity as “the rich diversity of life” and goes into much detail about the extent to which modernization is destroying the biodiversity of life. She has statistics on how many different species are going extinct every year, the lack of diversity of species found in supermarkets, and array of others. Her view of conservation differs from most. She believes in taking a bottom-up approach to conservation, not trying to protect the species most similar to us, but by protecting the microbes and small organisms that are the basis of life. She then moves from conservation of life of small organisms to conservation of the livelihood of third world countries. Much like in the National Geographic movie Strange Days on Planet Earth she talks about how international commercial fishing is creating a food shortage in fishing villages around the world.    

Shiva believes there are two primary reasons for the rapid destruction of biodiversity in third world countries. The first is the idea of an “empty earth” which needs to be taken over and colonized. The seconded comes from what Shiva refers to as the, “monoculture of the mind.” She describes this as the idea that the world should be uniform and one dimensional.

I agree with Shiva in her concept of beginning to conserve the smaller organisms in the world, but also think we need to continue to protect larger species as well. I think that we as humans have a desire to live comfortably and making money is a means of living your desired lifestyle. However I believe everyone should find a happy medium between living comfortably and sustainably.

A Negative Sense of Place - Journal #1 (1)

Sense of place, to me, is how a certain place makes you feel. This feeling is often created by a combination of two things: the physical features of a place and personal experiences involving that place.

As I am typing this journal, I am sitting in my room, at my desk, staring at the computer screen. In my three years of college I have developed a somewhat negative “sense of place” for the area around me. On numerous occasions I have missed a surf trip, a beach day, or a day on the boat because I have had to sit at my desk and study. I understand that 99 percent of the time studying will benefit me far more than any of the activities I could be doing, but there is something to be said for the firsthand knowledge that can be gained in the out-of-doors. In certain areas of study I have learned an exponentially greater amount by spending time outside, doing the things I love, than I will ever be able to learn in a book. I have learned the physics of casting a lure precisely where I want it to go, not by an exponential equation, but by spending hours perfecting my cast. I have learned when the waves will be good and when they won’t, not by reading a book on oceanography, but by seeing the surf build first hand and the weather patterns that cause the change in the swell. All of these things can be learned in books and classrooms, but the majority are impossible to implement without firsthand experience.

The learning that that takes place outside of my room, away from my desk, is what causes me to have such a negative sense of place whenever I am in my room, studying at my desk.