Monday, September 27, 2010

Engaging "The Environment"

As we begin our section on American arguments concerning our environment, I want you to reflect on your own experiences engaging with the natural world around you.... or the built world. Natural landscapes and built cityscapes are both unique and communicative "environments." When you think of your own experiences with "environmental protection," about which kind of environment are you thinking? Can you relate an anecdote about this personal experience?

20 comments:

  1. I understand that the question is asking about the values of protecting the built environment, that is, humanity's civilization. The thing is, our current cities and buildings and clothes and food are products of our culture...a culture which really doesn't have much to do with natural resources and renewability. Well, we live on planet earth. I don't think that there's a person alive who would say that they don't enjoy breathing oxygen and eating food and not getting fried by solar radiation. It's very clearly more important to protect the natural world over the man-made world. No one disputes this--conflict arises from when people don't believe that the natural environment is in danger. Personally, I think the natural environment is in grave danger--so that's what deserves protection, far more than maintaining buildings, or the economy, or whatever else it is that humans like doing.

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  2. I agree with shojunkayoi, but I also think it's not that simple. Yes the environment does need protection, but so many people rely on things like maintaining buildings and the economy. You can't just forget about those things in order to live like Thoreau and be 100% eco-friendly. It's impractical. Personally, I like having man made things, like being able to take a shower with hot water or being able to cook my food in a microwave. In order to have these things, we need big buildings and the "built world." There are also many good things, like hospitals for example, that rely on new advances in the man-made world in order to save lives. In the end, yes we should definitely worry about the natural environment. Earth provides us with all of our resources. At the same time, we cannot focus all of our attention on the natural environment and forget about the much needed built environment too.

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  3. Megatron is correct: the balance between industry and nature is never simple. The things we all take for granted are man-made yes, but even most of these things come from the land, and they will return to the land given enough time. Both enviroments must be maintained, and improved to help the world as a whole. The loss of nature may be catastrophic to the way we all live our lives, but no less so than the urban enviroments in which we live. For example, yes the fields where crops grow are worth protecting, but can you imagine a day without electrical power? How about a week? A month? A year? We have all become so used to our high-tech, industrial world that to lose it would be just a catastrophic as the loss of nature. Both world must be preserved, protected and maintained or humans as a species run the risk of their own extinction.

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  4. On every occasion that someone has mentioned "environmental protection," I instantly associate it with the natural world. I also recognize it as the only true environment, albeit the less desirable of the two for everyday living. I've spent a great deal of time backpacking in northern NM and other areas, and its actually quite a stretch to imagine that the built world is derived from the natural world. This highlights the enormous divide between the two worlds. One comes from the other, but we rarely admit to it, save for in neglected statistics and environmental reports. To have one demands the other, a simple fact which most have lost sight of.

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  6. My parents tell me that when I was little (and we lived in Vermont), they used to take me hiking and I would eat the blueberries straight from the bushes.

    From then to now, my parents have taken me hiking, swimming, backpacking, rafting, canoeing or kayaking at most of the state parks across North Carolina (where I lived for most of my life).

    Now, I love to be outside. I love to do anything, that gets me out in the middle of nowhere. Most of all, I love to Backpack. I love to go out for a few days and be completely self sufficient. I love it when everything I need is on my back.

    This love of the outdoors is one of the main things that brought me to NMT. I wanted to be somewhere where I could go five miles and be out in the middle of nowhere.

    In fact, this love is one of the things that has made me who I am and will keep influencing me throughout my life.

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  7. In response to the people above Sam, Everyone must realize that no matter what is said about how our cities came to be, they are the direct influence of the culture today. And before someone quickly jumps to assume I'm referring to the sprawling metropolis, look at an area such as Santa Fe. Santa Fe (as a geographic location) has been essentially terraformed by the culture that lives there. New York, Atlanta, Wisconsin the same way. Each culture adapts its "resources" to their needs. Similar behavior is seen in the termites from Africa, they take and modify their living space to match their needs. Ants build elaborate underground tunnels. In reality, the environment is not there to support itself. The environment exists only to satisfy the needs of the top species in applicable niches. And thus nature and the environment's purpose is realized. The environment exists not to be gazed at, but to be adapted to whatever is needed. Preserving tracts of land in order to save species or keep a history of the land serves only one purpose, hindering the expansion and growth of the top species.

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  8. When being asked about the environment I typically think about more natural things, such as trees, oceans, or mountains. It is rare that I think about modern structures such buildings when talking about environments. To me nature is something to be respected and treated as a gem. We as humans really depend on our natural world, without it we wouldn't have any of the luxuries we have today. And if those materials run out then we will cease to have not only our luxuries but our necessities as well. I have personally been camping many times and it always disheartens me when I come across a camp site that has been ruined by previous campers. Trash flung everywhere, trees damages, scorched ground. When one sees these kinds of destruction, one begins to see all the death and despair that is caused by human influences in nature.

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  9. This topic really sticks out to me because I was the president of our school's Environmentalists' Club back in high school.

    When I think of environmental protection, my thoughts can spring right to the obvious-- think: pathetic rainforests-- but also to to the not-so-obvious-- think: public safety and the prevention of pandemic in bars or clubs, public swimming pool facilities, etc.

    There is such a disregard for environmental protection because the effects of our behaviors don't ignite instantaneous, catastrophic events... but they ARE still detrimental to the environment. When people read an article that tells them "greenhouse gases will damage such-and-such in as little as one hundred years!", it's easy for them to think, "I will most definitely be dead by then... why the Hell do I care?".

    On the flip side, what about a more industrial, people-inhabitted environment? I think public health has a lot to do with environmental preservation even though the two are not often connected. If more attention was put on public facility maintainance, the replacement off less-efficient mechanisms with more-efficient ones, CLEANLINESS, et cetera, then all the other stuff would follow. It doesn't really stop at driving Hybrids and changing your lightbulbs. It's got a lot to do with actively stopping the spread of diseases from people to people as well and people to animals, and vice versa, and a whole plethora of seemingly unrelated other things. Butterfly effect type things.

    I wish I could articulate my point a little better; I hope other bloggers get the gist of what I'm attempting to say... I can't really seem to find the words, references, or examples at the moment.

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  10. When I think of the environment, I think of my surroundings. Pick a place, anything works. Parks, buildings, cities, my home, all of them are affected by the environment. If the environment changes, buildings are changed to accomodate people in a safe and adequate manner. Plant life changes, road quality changes, transportation methods change, even clothing styles change. I do not have an anecdote to relate to the environment that I envision because a story about my encounters with all of my surroundings over the course of my life would take way to long to describe.

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  11. When I think of the environment and "environmental protection" I think of the natural world. Forests, oceans, lakes or deserts all fit inside this view i have. It is not mans place to go out and destroy these natural wonders, because they will soon be nonexistent if we continue on this path of destruction. Man made cities are a key part in the growth and survival of human civilizations, and it will always be this way. However, we can learn to protect the environment and make the world better for the future.

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  12. Environmental protection is a huge issue in Alaska. There is always a battle being waged between companies wanting to expand and protection agencies wanting to stop them. The biggest example in recent years is the Pebble Mine project. Pebble Mine is to be an extremely large open pit mining operation unearthing large pockets of copper, gold, and molybdenum. This mine, were it to open, would boost Alaska's economy but a very large and noticeable margin. However, the mine is to be built on one of the most important watersheds in Alaska. This watershed is the breeding ground for one of the largest populations of sockeye salmon on earth. If even a small amount of dangerous toxins were to be released from the mine into this watershed, millions of salmon would die. If large amounts of toxins were released, accidentally or otherwise, the salmon population would be devastated and would take decades to recover.
    Fights such as this has created a very middle mentality in many Alaskans. I, an many others, are for urban and economic growth, but see the need for extremely tough regulations to be placed on all projects. This is something that has found great results.
    The two environments in this world, both natural and man-made, have to coexist. We cannot raze nature in order to expand, however we should not be afraid to destroy things that are necessary in order to support our growing population. Both sides are part of this Earth and must be in as near perfect harmony as we can achieve.

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  13. The environment that I think of when I think of "environmental protection" is mostly the natural environment. This is not say that I think everything man-made is bad, but rather we need to try and find a balance between the uban and natural environment. I have to agree with the other bloggers that while we should not completely destroy nature in the name of progress, I do feel that some destruction of nature is nessesary to help advance humanity as a whole.

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  14. I can personally relate to the "environmental protection" portion of this section... My dad owns 50 acres in a beautiful and highly desirable portion of Santa Fe, NM. The city of Santa Fe has been trying to buy his property for as long as I can remember. But the thought of giving up that land would just be giving in to plague of environmental destruction.

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  15. The instances that I think of when you say "environmental protection" are when something has happened to someone in nature. Mainly, since not much has happened to me or my family, when my sister got stung by a bee and we made a huge deal out of it, or when my brother fell on a cactus. the only precautions I can think of are from hindsight, they would not have occurred to me before either of these facts.

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  16. I also feel that it is important to protect the environment, though possibly for different reasons that stated above. As of right now we (humanity) only have one planet to live on so it does us no good to trash the planet as it's not like we can just up and leave. Severely ruining the natural ecosystem would have a very dramatic effect on the lives of millions of people and it simply should not be seen as an option.

    That being said I also feel like one day we have to leave Earth regardless for the sake of the survival of our species but that's a road best left untraveled for now!

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  17. I really connect to the city. That is not to say that I do not enjoy being outdoors camping or fishing, such past-times are very enjoyable and I do admire the natural beauty around me in such an enviroment. The city however is where I feel most content. I love the city, Phoenix specifically. It is exciting and I find it enjoyable to be in such an exhilerating enviroment. I enjoy the lights, the sounds, and so many different peoples in one giant place.

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  18. When I think of environmental protection I think of the natural environment. I personally do not enjoy living in the “urban environment” that we, as humans, have created. I look around at the “industrialized” world that we have created, the “improved” environment, and I’m sickened. I long to go and knock it down, let us start over. We can learn to coexist with the other entities around us, we are not special! There is nothing amazingly unique about us! Emotion, elephants have that. Intelligence, even enough to commit violence, dolphins have that. Uses of tools, monkeys have us there too. How is it that we humans seem to believe that we have some pre-ordained right to destroy the world when we are not the only ones here! You would not walk into your neighbor’s yard and burn their house down because it’s not yours to destroy. How can people walk into the forest and burn hundreds of creature’s homes down!? No, the man made environment can vanish completely for all I care, it is the true, natural environment that I want to see saved.

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  19. I am an extremely urban youth but I do respect that there are some parts of nature that should remain untouched. We as human beings impede on the natural beauty of the world. It is our desire to expand but as we do this we destroy the natural environment. I believe that "environmental protection" is referring to the protection of the natural environment not the man-made environment.

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  20. I believe that there needs to be something done in order to protect nature. However, i do not agree with certain actions or opinions people have on the subject. But that is what opinion's are for. I think that the over dramatic view of lets say "global warming" for instance is taken way too seriously. Refer back thousands of years to the ice age for instance, there were no cars then. I believe that there is a rotation made by earth which causes the earth to get hotter than normal (such as before the ice age) and the earth to get very cold (ice age). It is a process that keeps repeating itself and there is really nothing we can do about it..

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