Thoughts on Jared Diamond's "Collapse: How societies Choose to Fail or Succeed- A Tale of Two Farms"

Page 23 of colloquium reader
"We differ from past societies in some respects that put us at lower risk than them; some of those respects mentioned often include our powerful technology, globalization, modern medicine, and greater knowledge of past societies and of distant modern societies. We also differ from past societies in some respects that put us at greater risk than them: mentioned in that connection are, again, our potent technology, globalization, the dependence of millions of us on modern medicine for our survival, and our much larger human population. Perhaps we can still learn from the past, but only if we think carefully about its lessons."

I like how Diamond lists our advantages and then bashes them and lists them as disadvantages. I've always wondered how we got to this point. It seems like our "potent technology" has spiraled out of control. I understand that our economy relies on globalization, but I don't see globalization as an advantage. We are killing the earth and shipping what it provides around in oil burning machines. I really believe people should rely on local resources to support their civilization. Modern medicine is an industry. Modern medicine could be an advantage. It definitely leads to a lower death rate. A lower death rate means an increasing population. So do the goods outweigh the bad? A global population of about 7 billion people. It sounds harsh, but maybe more people should be dying of natural causes. I'm very skeptical about modern medicine because I think it is poison. Humans are animals and we came into existence before modern medicine. We should only take things into our bodies that can be found naturally in other biological systems. The earth used to provide us with more than we could ever need. The answers are obvious but I don't think the average modern cares anymore. Perhaps they care, but there's no way to revert back to the local communities because technology has taken over. We are caught up in our day to day lives trying to fend for ourselves and make a living. There's too much competition and not enough collaboration. I certainly care and would love to live like the MacIvey's. I know there are plenty of others who feel the same way. There's no God's Earth left. Its all owned up and being managed poorly by big business and wealthy land owners. Sometimes I wonder if the only way to fix things is a collapse of modern society. It's a scary thing, but its something we must discuss as a global species.

Also, I saw this in the mail this week. More development

Page 34 of colloquium reader
"My view is that, if environmentalists aren't willing to engage with big business, which are among the most powerful forces in the modern world, it won't be possible to solve the world's environmental problems."

This is sad and only partially true. It's up to the environmentalists. Its up to the big business owners and everyone else as well. Yes, environmentalists should voice their opinions but that doesn't mean things will change. Big money always wins the battle.  We can't continue with our "business as usual" lifestyle. I might sound a little crazy to a lot of people when I say I believe in a revolution, but I don't care. The system we rely upon is clearly not working. The political process is broken in my opinion. People can become politically involved, but to be heard you've got to have capital. My view is that, there is no room to argue about our environment. There's no room to engage with big business. Big business and large corporations are responsible for much of the land abuse. Nature is in a panic and I feel it as well. I can see it and I can sense it. So environmentalists must speak out, but the world has got to listen and come together instead of seeking personal benefits.

Page 22-23 of colloquium reader
"When we deplete one resource (wood, oil, or ocean fish), can we count on being able to substitute some new resource (plastics, wind and solar energy, or farmed fish)?"

The answer is no. Ocean fish rely on wild food sources. Farmed fish rely upon what humans feed them. Why are we killing our wild earth and domesticating tiny subsets? Plastics are stacking up in landfills. Miles of plastics are creating floating islands in our oceans. Polychlorinated Biphenyls are accumulating in biological systems of fish and other sea life. Then they are passed down the food chain to us. PCB's are building up in us. We drink our water from plastic bottles! Solar energy is not nearly as efficient as burning fossil fuels. If we could power cars on sunlight alone then we'd be doing it. The top of a typical car has about 5 square meters of available surface area. If this entire surface is covered with 12% efficient solar panels (a typical efficiency for a silicon solar cell), and the sun strikes the panels with an intensity of 1200 watts/square meter (typical intensity of sunlight on Earth's surface) the solar panel can generate 720 watts of power. 720 watts converts to 0.97 horsepower, not nearly enough to power a car. I do like the idea of green energy. We should convert to strictly green energy. But how many of us are giving up our cars?

Thoughts on "Plan B 4.0" by Lester R. Brown

Page 5 of Plan B 4.0
"The first trend of concern is population growth. Each year there are 79 million more people at the dinner table. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of these individuals are being added in countries where soils are eroding, water tables are falling, and irrigation wells are going dry"

Why are people having so many children? Exponential population growth is the root of many problems. People should be smart enough to realize that there are too many people for this Earth to support. People should make the conscious decision to have less children. If everyone has only one child then population would be declining. Having two children simply keeps the population the same.  I don't know if population growth is controllable.  People want to reproduce. I know that laws wouldn't help with population. People do what they want and there is no way to enforce a law to prevent people from having children. There are no ethical or humane ways to enforce laws. I wouldn't want someone telling me how many children I was allowed to have. What about the days before modern technologies? Days when you could only have as many children as you could support. Emma and Tobias MacIvey only had one child. Zech was all they could support because they lived only on what the land provided. I hope people start realizing that over-population is an important issue before modern civilization collapses like the Sumerians.

Page 59-60 of plan B 4.0
"In 2003, the searing heat wave that broke temperature records across Europe claimed more than 52,000 lives in nine countries. More than 18 times as many people died in Europe in this 2003 heat wave as died during the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001."

I am shocked by the numbers. Record high temperatures causing small crop yields, melting glaciers, increased flooding, more destructive storms, drought, and more-frequent wildfires. If we are intelligent enough to see the global climate changing, then why are we still burning coal and other fossil fuels? Why are we building an economy that relies upon the burning of fossil fuels? Imagine all of the carbon monoxide we are breathing in from our polluted atmosphere. I made a vow to myself that I would limit my car usage as much as possible this year. I ride my bike to school as often as I can (usually 3 out of four days a week I bike). The sad truth is that I want to abandon things like vehicles in order to reduce my environmental impact, but these things are kind of forced on me by society.  I try hard to turn off lights, take short showers, and shop at local food stores.  I wish everybody would resort back to local communities and local civilizations.

Page 74 of Plan B 4.0
"Mercury emitted from coal smokestacks literally blankets the earth's land and water surfaces. In the United States, virtually every state warns against eating too much fish taken from fresh water, lakes, and streams because of dangerously high mercury content."

Then why do we burn coal? If burning coal is directly impacting the fish, as well as us, then why do we do it? I think many of the modern luxuries we are used to now are going to have to go. Planes can't burn jet fuel indefinitely. Same goes for other vehicles. We can't burn coal to generate electricity indefinitely. These "resources" are finite. Our Earth is finite, and we can't keep raping it like we do. What makes me the most upset is the majority of the people have no say in the building of the smokestacks, and the power plants, and the oil rigs. All these things existed before I was even born. Now I'm the one stuck with polluted fish in my water. I want to change this. I don't want my children's fish to be loaded with mercury.

Character from "A Land Remembered" by Patrick D. Smith

Tobias MacIvey is the father of Zecheriah MacIvey and husband of Emma MacIvey. Originally from Georgia, Tobias is pushed into Florida because of an ongoing civil war. In the Florida wilderness, Tobias builds a life for he and his family. Starting from absolutely nothing, no home and no food, Tobias ends up owning land, a home, cattle, and money. Everything Tobias accomplishes in his lifetime can be linked to the land. His home is built from cypress trees. All of his food and money supply came from raccoon, wild cattle, koonti biscuits, swamp cabbage, frogs, snakes, rabbits, deer, collards, and his orange grove. He learned how to drive cattle when forced to by the Confederate army, and he turned cattle driving into a business. Driving cattle to Punta Rassa to be sold, Tobias saves enough money to leave his son Zech with land, horses, guns, and a home. He lived a rough life, but an interesting one. Many times he and his family had nothing more than raccoon and a lean to. Tobias was a good honest man, not a racist like many white men of his time. He was friends with the Native Americans (Keith Tiger) and he had a black friend (Skillit). He wanted nothing more than to make his wife Emma happy. Mosquitoes gave Tobias malaria which was cured by the medicine man in Keith Tiger's village. Tobias later died during cold season while looking after his orange trees.

Both me and Tobias have lived in Florida our entire lives.
Everything I eat also comes from the land. However, Tobias' diet was more hunter-gatherer than mine is. I shop at the store. Tobias hunts and grows his food, none of it comes in a box or a bag.
Tobias was fighting to make a meaningful life for his family. This is something I am also trying to do, just in a completely different way. I too wish to leave my children and family with a good life.
I'm an honest person like Tobias is, and I want to help everyone.
We both build our lives right here in the Sunshine State.

Reading the book reminds me of my hikes and all the things I've seen in Florida over the years. I've had a chance to see the cabbage palms, the cypress trees, prairies, swamps, the scrub, lakes like Okeechobee and Kissimmee, and rivers like the Estero and the St. Johns. I'm from Florida and everything I know about the land around me is about Florida land. It defines who I am as a person just as it defines Tobias. I'm jealous that I didn't grow up in a time like Tobias before Florida's land was all developed when there were thousands of cows to be herded. His life was much more rugged, but he never had to look at this computer screen. I think Tobias' connection to the Earth is much deeper than mine or most modern Floridians.


Here are some pictures I've taken from many different places in Florida

Lake Wales State Preserve- Arbuckle Tract



David Allen Broussard Catfish Creek Preserve Scrub 

                                                                                                        (unique succulent plant)

        Big Cypress-            strangler fig on cabbage palm              



 

 Lake in Jacksonville                                                Sea oats on Lovers Key

FGCU trails

 





Thoughts on Micheal Grunwald's "Endgame-an excerpt from The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise"

 The Everglades are an important feature to not only Florida, but the entire world. Marjory Stoneman Douglas wrote, "There are no other everglades in the entire world." The Everglades is an important wetlands area home to many filter feeders which purify the water as it enters the underground aquifers. It is home to many unique aquatic birds, amphibians, and the endangered Florida Panther.
This reading was entirely about the three way tug of war between the government, ecology, and economy. A classic example is when gas prices rose, we considered drilling for oil in the  Arctic National Wildlife Refuge of Alaska. Drilling for oil in one of our few national sanctuaries would only solve the short term economic issue of high gas prices. When economic crises hits people search for immediate answers. Often, the ecological impacts are not realized until we destroy another conservation land, accidentally ignite the polluted Cuyahoga river, or have another oil spill like the Exxon Valdez in Prince William Sound, Alaska or the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. I own a book by Rachel Carson called "Silent Spring". Rachel Carson tells about the accumulation of DDT in the biological system of animals and how it led to a silent spring which was once full of the chirps from birds. DDT accumulation in the birds led to improperly calcified eggs and a decrease in the bird population. The building of FGCU is another example of the three way tug of war. Environmentalists protest the building of the school, but many saw it as a chance for southwest Florida to grow economically, so government officials and big money step in and make the choices.

Page 85-86 of colloquium reader
" Sugar growers, home builders, water utilities, and Florida's other economic interests were all determined to make sure CERP did not favor nature over people...the Seminoles ran a $500-million-a-year gaming business as well as cattle and citrus operations, and the Miccosukees had just opened their own casino overlooking the Everglades."

I dream of a day when the world can create a "land ethic" when people stop arguing over their share of economic interest. In the past, Dixie Crystals sugar cane farmers have dumped fertilizers into the Everglades, changing water flow patterns and negatively impacting filter feeder organisms. Phosphate mining is another huge industry in Florida that destroys natural land. Even native American tribes don't want to lose their economic worth. Until people unite and quit making policies I think we're making no progress towards effective environmental protection and conservation. People must develop a sense of respect for the land they live on and quit seeing it as a resource to be owned and abused. However, I do understand the importance of government and economy. Many of our National parks we're made possible through government funding. So without that, there would be no Yellowstone National Park etc.. The government is also responsible for passing laws like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, which led to the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency. So there is a place for government intervention, but does passing laws and approving CERP really help protect the environment? No, environmental protection can only come from a society that is not thinking about the Earth as a resource from which man is separate, but a land which we are an integral part of. I agree with Graham who, "wanted to restore the Everglades because it was singular, because it distinguished south Florida from other sprawling concentrations of tract homes, strip malls, CVS, and KFC." We must give the land emotional value and not just economical value.

Page 101 of colloquium reader
"Would politicians and engineers begin to consider the needs of birds, bears, and bays in addition to the needs of man, or would water continue to flow uphill toward money?"

Again, money is the issue. People compete for their share of money instead of thinking about long term sustainability and environmental impact. In order for sustainability to work politicians, engineers, farmers, fishermen, and all people must unite and come together. The land needs healing and when we are so divided it seems impossible to accomplish.

Page 100 of colloquium reader
"The twentieth century had been an era of mess-making; the twenty-first century could be a time to clean up the mess."

It upsets me to know I was born into a period responsible for cleaning up a mess made by previous generations. A heavy burden was dropped onto my generations shoulders. I do think a lot of people my age, or at least many of the people I've met, care about protecting our world for the future. That being said, I would love to leave the next generations after me with less of a mess and I think we are capable of doing it. Sometimes I feel like I was born 100 years too late. There has been so much development in technology in the past 100 years and I blame the majority of my stress on that alone. If my generation continues down the path of previous generations we are only repeating past mistakes.