ZERO waste

Zero waste is a really cool concept....and there are companies implementing it. I work at REI, and as a company, we try really hard to help out the environment. The company is trying to go to ZERO waste within the next few years. It is awesome to be seeing it happen. When we unload boxes at REI, we send them back the distribution center to be reused. How cool is that?! That's just a little part of whats going on, but there is a lot more for sure

Green Jobs

I liked Joe's lecture. But, was it about green jobs? He told us problems, and not enough opportunities and solutions. It seemed like we discussed alternative energy, but not too much detail in actual green jobs. However, I liked Joe's speech. It showed us a lot of good things, and as far as jobs go, at the very least we know where NOT to get a job.

EARTH DAY

I think that Earth day is something important. It gives our world a chance to exchange ideas in an organized fashion. It promotes awareness about our world. Good things come from Earth Day. Earth Day at Sierra College was really fun. I met a lot of good people doing good things. Next year, I want to help make Earth day even bigger and more impacting. Earth day can be a refreshing moment for some.....I try to live every day like Earth Day, but on the designated day, I really reevaluate and rededicate myself to our home.....EARTH

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Originally I was opposed to drilling in the ANWR (please forgive me for the acronym) due to sheer moral ideas. We were set it aside to protect it, so let's protect it. NOW, however, I have a different idea. The layout of the rigs and roads right in the calfing area........."only" 2,000 acres.....this would be devastating to this ecosystem. The water needed that would make the fish go extinct......insane! I wish the general public was educated on this, because I think it might change A LOT of people's minds.

When You Change The Way You Look At Things....

I am not sure how this class has affected me. I think that it let me know there are SOME people in our area that care about what's happening to our home, Earth. Like most things, I will know how this has changed me in the next few years, when looking back in retrospect. I gained some knowledge, however I feel like I am well versed in many of these subjects. Also, I really did enjoy a lot of the speakers. It's nice to hear from people who are well educated about diverse, yet similar subjects. I increased my knowledge here as well. In class, my goal is to increase my knowledge, and that goal has already been met in this class with a few more weeks to go.

How to Sustain Our Existance....

I think that this was a reasonably good speech. I do have a bone to pick with some things, however. Green energies and energies that save us money are both GOOD things. Much better than what we have now. But I think that we are missing something. If we could generate all the energy we need today by using green energy, I feel like everything would be covered by solar panels, every river would be dammed (or damned), and every open field would have windmills on it. We need an energy plan to reduce our energy. Technologies do indeed play an important role. But we as a society need to reduce our consumption of our energy. We can't leave our lights on just because they are compact florescent. We can't run the heater all day because our power is wind generated. We need to change our behaviors. Although windmills are a good way of generating clean energy, we still need to use land and invade habitats. Soon we will be fighting with ExxonWind to see if put windmills in ANWR. Green technologies are not THE solution, but rather a mere part of the solution. The biggest change needs to happen within us all and therefore, within society.

That being said, we can all benefit from green energies. It is very important for us as a community to support green energies and try to move away from dirty petro and nuclear energies to rally against global climate change.

BLACK GOLD!

Ughhhhhh. Can't we just use it all up so we don't have to hear about OIL anymore? Please make it stop! But honestly, oil is a huge issue in our world today. War, climate change, economic hardship, terrorism......it can be a contributing factor to all of these. Our speaker worked for exxon mobile.....funny. Although he seemed relatively neutral, we must ask our selves..."what does this person have to gain by me believing him...." as instructed to do so several times in our class. One of the best parts of this was the graph on plants that are most productive for making biofuels. I always thought ethanol from corn was a DUMB idea. So much of our grain goes to feeding livestock, and livestock is so subsidized by the government that it would be insane to give corn to our cars (unless we could all go veggie.......anyone? No? okay, just making sure people are still unwilling to give up their meat....). But seeing that certain plants might, and I say might, be able to lend us a hand with at least SOME kind of fuel addition.....thats at the very least encouraging. Lets grow that oil producing grass in Africa where it's native and promote a diverse ecosystem there while growing it, and having the people who own the land make money and make sure both parties on both sides are getting a fair trade. It's like shadegrown, organic, fair trade coffee, but for fuel and with grass. Now that's a decent idea. Our speaker told us that our energy needs are going to take REAL innovation. I am a optmistic realist. I feel like this will be hard, but.....uhhhh WE CAN FLY THROUGH THE AIR IN A F****ING CHAIR. We can go to the moon. Our cell phones talk to satellites in SPACE........in a matter of SECONDS. "Necessity is the mother of invention". Well, Earth, we need some new energy. Let's get our brains thinking

Sustainability

Medeiros is a great educators. Though not quite as strong as a speaker as Lynn, he is a wealth of knowledge and his enthusiasm runs deep. I think the overall feeling of his lecture was that humans have a responsibility to uphold the environment. This ties in well with the video we watched on consumerism and "affluenza". We have a responsibility to help our environment. He said in his speech "we forgot we need to care for Earth". I also liked "all for bling". The amount of what I call "gross" consumerism and greed in our society is horrendous. I don't think the free market was meant to cause this stuff, but it has. We have let our values change and become hollow. I always try to link for other people why things like a healthy environment is important for a healthy people and is important for a healthy economy. These things are all related. They are all intertwined. Just as we are all intertwined.....don't break the thread.........

Global Climate Change

I have a hard time swallowing the fact that there are still people who DON'T believe in global warming. It isn't hard to understand that we have an impact on our world. Why don't people just do a little research and figure it out? Please do what you can to change our world. Please. For our kids and grandkids. The worst thing that's going to happen if you try to lend a hand is you will have to wear a sweater instead of turning up the heater. It's obvious from the lecture that this SUCKS for the Earth. Our world is complex and hard for everyone to understand. That's why we have scientists. LISTEN TO THEM.

Lynn's Lecture

Lynn is a great public speaker. I felt like she kept me engaged the whole time. Her lecture was very informative as well. The intro was great, but the stats she gave out about people not believing the Holocaust happened or that half of America thinks slavery was moral, that blew my mind. I have taken a lot of critical thinking classes, and her prequel was very informative and instructive for someone who hasn't taken any critical thinking classes. "Every one is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts". I liked her thoughts on changing beliefs. We do need to re-examine our beliefs a lot. I also agreed how sometimes, people who cannot critically think should not have a "seat at the table". Especially on critical thinking. Her fallacies list was awesome. Having a background in education, she was phenomenal. Visual, audio, comedy, involvement. It was awesome. I do think everyone needs a course in critical thinking. It does change you and how you believe things. Great chat not only for our class, but for our lives.

Interesting Note On Keely's Lecture

Keely talked about Hetch-Hetchy, which is a resivor that provides San Francisco with water. A cool side note, wintering ducks have been staying there and contaminating the water with excess fecal mater. How can you get rid of ducks without impacting the environment? San Francisco hired a group of falconers (myself included!) to fly falcons over the resivor to scare the ducks off the pond. HOW COOL! And it works!

Views on the Environment

Out of everyone in my family, I am the only one that shares a deep passion for our world. It's hard for me to understand where this came from. My father did raise me fishing a lot. And I did go camping a handful of times. Other than that, I am not sure where the influence came from. When I was really young, I had a book about sharks I carried everywhere with me. As I got older, I got into dinosaurs. It was hard for adults to hear me correct them when they called a dinosaur a duckbill...."no, it's a Parasauralophus." What five year old knows that? As I got older, I caught critters around the neighborhood. Snails, slugs, moths, caterpillars, but most of all, lizards and snakes. In second grade I got an iguana, Iggy. She grew to be four feet in a few years and it was cool having this little dinosaur around. I went through numerous reptiles (no they didn't die, I gave them away). Chameleons with horns, nocturnal geckos, all sorts of snakes, Bearded Dragons. In seventh grade I started breeding lizards, and would make close to $1000 every clutch of eggs. On weekends I would hike through the hills, sometimes in company, sometimes alone, lifting up old logs and sheet metal for snakes. By eighth grade, the people in my neighborhood knew whose door to knock on if they had a snake in their yard. By highschool, I'd messed with more rattlesnakes than most people have ever seen. As highschool came and other things took priority, the snakes and lizards left my rooms and were replaced with friends, girls, and parties. After highschool, I applied for an internship at an outdoor school. The year and a half I spent there has shaped me as an individual more than any other factor in my life, with the exception of my family, solely because they raised me. I was shown new knowledge, caring, and respect for our natural world. I developed an undying passion for knowledge, and an extreme desire to share it. I started spending vast amounts of time outside in the natural world. After my internship, I moved to Tahoe, and experienced the marvelous Sierras year round. When I ran out of money (no more Top Ramen, please!) I moved back home into my parents house, and got a job at REI. Now I am enabled to explore the outdoor world in numerous ways. These are the only things besides divine intervention I can say shaped my view of the environment.

Mother Society

I thought this was a good lecture. It reminded me a lot of the book we are reading right now, Ishmael. As we live in this society, we do agree to certain unspoken and sometimes unrealized things. Money was a good example. These sacrifices however let us integrate ourselves into society and have things like friends, family, cell phones and online classes. Our problem is not consumerism, but rather where our values are. What are we buying? Why are we buying this? I have a problem with people wanting to buy things just to keep up with the Jones'. HOWEVER, certain brands do indeed represent different ideas, and I think that if we want to live in society and be part of this Globalized economy, then choosing the brands that represent the best ideas is a good idea. Volcom "Youth Against The Establishment". I like that. Marmot and North Face respresent a good idea, a good theory. Hollister....not so much. When people come to value any of these things too much however, any material or brand or whatever....thats a problem.

Biodiversity

I was so excited to listen to this lecture. No seriously. My favorite part is when he showed the video. Within a few minutes I knew the video was filmed in Costa Rica. The animals that were shown, the sounds of Oophaga pumilio (formerly Dendrobates pumilio) in the background, a species of poison dart frog, and the sound of the Chestnut Mandibled Toucan gave it away. I have been to Costa Rica and it really was amazing. But when he went to La Selva OTS, where I have been, it was awesome! I love fancying myself a nature nerd, and it was so cool to see a place I have been before. If You ever have a chance to go to the neotropics....PLEASE.....do it. It is amazing. It is like watching Discovery Channel all the time. Going to the tropics really let me see the fascinating amount of life that exists in our world. There is so much to marvel at in our world, and I promise you, it is worth protecting. It's worth is quite literally undefinable.

Just for fun, I am going to post some pictures from my Costa Rica trip for everyone in the group to look at. I am going to encourage everyone to really look into going to the tropics.
Chesnut Mandibled Toucan The bridge at La Selva, OTS

Oophaga pumilio, POISON Dart Frog Red Eyed Tree (Leaf) Frog

The giant buttress of a Kapok Tree San Fernando Falls

Toxic Sludge

Do I care that there are toxins in our environment? Of course I care. But do I think that we should try and clean up these toxins, specifically from mining? It'd be nice, but it would be ridiculously expensive and hard to carry out. Not only are these toxins still leaching into our system, they are also locked up in our system. Organisms have stored these toxins and continue to pass them on in the food chain. Heavy metals like mercury don't just go away, they have to go somewhere. Some are flushed into the ocean, others are absorbed by organisms. So I don't know if we truly could do something about the mercury pollution in our environments. How bad does it have to get before we do something about it? Unfortunately, pretty bad. We tend to be shortsighted and don't really give attention to areas that need it until they are screaming at us to do something. Where are we going to put these wastes if we do clean them up? Well, you could make a LOT of thermometers with all the mercury...........I'm not exactly sure where you would put a heavy metal like mercury. Lock it up and sink it? Shoot it to the moon? Store it underground? Who knows. The last question is my favorite. How can we avoid adding more toxins into our environment? There are a few simple things. Choose organic produce to minimize pesticide, fungicide, insecticides and other harmful chemicals. Use better cleaning products that don't have harsh, environmental pollutants. Make sure you are disposing of waste properly (ie, disposing of oil properly, disposing of batteries properly). It's all about prevention and each one of us has the ability to act responsibly.

Gold Fever

Mike's speech was nice. A lot of people don't realize what kind of harm gold mining does to areas. And certainly, we are not in the clear yet. Mining is a very invasive process. I grew up with a big field behind my house in the foothills, right be Sierra College almost. Secret Ravine Parkway didn't exist, and I spent a lot of days playing in the fields there and fishing in the creeks. Recently, there have been signs posted warning people not to eat the fish in the streams because they are contaminated with Mercury. If you want to see lasting impact, look at the fish in the sea that feed high up on the trophic levels. We have warnings on these packaged fish that say that we should restrict our intake because it has such high amounts of Mercury in it. In addition, has anyone heard about the story where this movie star guy ate too much sushi and was hospitalized for Mercury poisoning!? Google that S**t

Sierra Nevadas....Range Of Light

Gary's speech was pretty cool, and I would love to hear his full lecture one day. I used to have a hard time thinking about the "economy" of nature, but I realized prior to this lecture that it gives people who are otherwise unaware of its importance something to focus on. He brought up how the sierras have helped and influenced our lives, and how we have helped and influenced their journey. It reminded me of this book I read called Life Counts. No it's not a self help book. It's a book that shows a lot of the economical value of our nature world. Like how much work Earthworms do. How helpful rivers are. How much energy the sun produces for us to harvest. We really should be thanking the Earth more than we do, and especially our local Earth, like the Sierra Nevadas. Maybe if we do she'll give us a good snowpack this year!

Conservation of Species

How do we know which species to protect. Well, that's a pretty broad question. For me, the first thing is that the species must be NATIVE. It has to be a part of that ecosystem originally. Although a lot of people say that the "cute and fuzzy" animals get all the funding, it does sort of make sense. Apex predators keep wild populations of their prey in good health and in control. Without these predators, food would be overgrazed and there would be a population crash. Nonetheless, most species that are endangered are not the poster child we need it to be. Some of the species are absolutely essential to maintaining balance in an ecosystem. To me, these creatures took millions, or billions even, of years to carve out their specific niche in the world. Every nematode, beetle, bat, and frog is important to our world. We tend to ignore these guys, and give the big furry animals all the funding. However, many times, these big furry creatures need wide tracks of land, and conservation of these lands makes them available to other animals that may be suffering from habitat loss.
There is no way of truly knowing if we should be saving a species or not. But we do have to try. I feel like we are obligated to act responsibly to our fellow earth inhabitants.
Sometimes, an animal becomes endangered and the decrease in population is due to a change in nature (ie, evolution). The California Condor had an enormous range across the US, but when the ice age ended and the huge amounts of land animals (mammoths, sloths, etc) disappeared, the Condors range was significantly lessened. We can never expect the Condor to truly recover. In many parts of it's range, people have to put out carcasses for the birds to eat because there is not enough food for them. Coastal California has been promising for Condors, however. The large sea mammals/animals that wash up on the shore provide a good food source for them.
Introduced, invasive species should try and be removed. The damages these do are insane. From Starlings to Star thistle, kill 'em all
The needs of humans and animals can be met. But it takes some creative thought and yes, some effort. We need to start thinking more highly of nature. We need to think of it as a friend and our home rather than something to exploit.

How many Earths does it take to sustain a population of Zachs

4.88 Earths is to correct amount, according to this website. I was slightly surprised by this number. I thought it would be lower. I am more or less a vegeterian and do lots of work to help reduce my ecological footprint in the world. Although the test was fun, I don't think it can really be too accurate. There are so many little things that we as individuals do in our lives that can increase or decrease our footprint that was not accounted for in this quiz. Given that some of these factors, particularly relating to the household, were slightly beyond my control ( I live with some roomates who like things their way...alright they're my parents), I know there are still some things that I could do to decrease my ecological footprint. I love traveling and I am sure I waste a lot of fuel doing this. Just traveling for recreation and leisure I moved near 6,000 miles in 2008.
I think that everyone should care about their waste in the world. I once heard that Americans throw away more stuff than most people ever have. I consider myself frugal in my living, but every couple of months I have to purge my room of the crap that accumulates. I give it to GoodWill, or someone who actually wants it.
Should we be concerned about other nations? Of course. We are in a globalized economy and the welfare of all nations contribute to our own strength as a nation. How can we sell them crap they don't need if they don't want it? I think some countries would be appalled if they saw how we live on a day to day basis. I think it is important for us to try and be mindful about what we use, that way I can look my grandkids in the eyes and tell them "Well, at least we tried".

yadda da?