Affluenza Reflection

Affluenza is a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste from pursuit of more. This "more" is all consumer goods that our society is constantly buying in a futile attempt to make ourselves feel better. But happiness has been at a steady decline since 1957. I don't think i am suffering from Affluenza. I don't constantly have to buy the newest gadget, i still use the first mp3 player i ever bought. unlike the people who feel the need to replace there iPod every time a "new" one is released with a few modifications. I also don't try to load up on hours at work to be able to buy more "stuff". On the site http://www.pbs.org/kcts/affluenza/diag/have.html i took the affluenza test and my results were that i have " no dangerous signs of affluenza". I do see people around me that do show signs of affluenza. Some of my friends always seem to have a new shiny gadget. But I do wonder how our economy would be affected without affluenza.

Selection 39 Summary

Towards Sustainable development a chapter from Our Common Future talks about the attainment of sustainable development. It begins by defining sustainability, meeting our current needs without sacrificing future generations needs. it goes on state sustainability has 2 key concepts. the concept of need and the idea of limitations and social organization to meet present and future needs. It then goes further into the concept of sustainability. sustainability fulfills peoples needs food, clothing, shelter and jobs, but they also have further aspirations. Problems arise in developing nations because of overpopulation and inefficient resource distribution. to be sustainable development cannot threaten natural systems such as the atmosphere, waters, soils and the biosphere. improvement of technology and methods can increase carrying capacity but sustainability demands that we know limits are still present. It then explains how sustainability does not mean we should not nonrenewable resources. It does mean we have to recycle and conserve until a suitable replacement can be found. Biodiversity must also be conserved for the future to be able to weather disasters. It then touches upon equity and common interests. Environmental systems is not effected by individual boundaries and people must recognize this and enforce community controls over practices such as agriculture. this way one individuals actions won't impede others needs. Communities can solve this with laws and liability legislation. it then goes into strategic imperatives for sustainable development. technologies need to be reorientated to pay more attention to environmental factors. most technology presently is developed for market value. Environment as well as economics have both be taken into account when making decisions. To conclude sustainable development requires new ways of thinking in politics and business, constant research for new solutions and an administrative system that has flexibility.

Image from: http://www.sunschools.org/County_Management/Sustainability/images/Sustainability%203%20E's.jpg

Selection 24 Summary

In the article Restoring Rivers Margaret Palmer and J. Allen discuss the importance of water ways and how to preserve them. Water ways were getting cleaner after 1973 until 1998 when it again became worse. water quality and extreme extraction are both problems concerning the waterways. Disasters such as the creation of a dead zone in the Chesapeake bay have occurred because of the degradation of rivers and streams. These disasters could have been prevented by ecological restoration which is the repairing water ways that can no longer perform essential ecological and social functions. This includes actions such as mitigating floods, providing drinking water and removing excess nutrients from the water. They say that the U.S. needs regulations and federal policies to improve the effectiveness of restoration. Originally waste was dumped in waterways to solve pollution. they also cut down riparian vegetation and filled in wetlands. water quality got worse with increasing industrialization and the paving of cities. in 1960 two-thirds were polluted. pavement over land has changed the way water runoff behaves which in turn changes the behavior of rivers leading to flooding. Attempts have been made by starting projects all over the country such as the planting riparian buffers. Stricter standards on storm runoff has been implemented as well. despite an ever increasing amount of restoration projects the coastal banks continue to show degradation. The government needs to increase its standards of restoration projects. A lot is known about how to effectively restore waterways but this information has not been used in many projects. they the state that federal agencies must adopt standards for successful river restoration. A system to track the projects must be created. National studies must be taken to evaluate the effectiveness of projects. Funding must be used more efficiently and more funding is needed. They conclude by saying that waterways can be restored with proper government application of policies and funding.

image from: http://www.restoreuppertruckee.net/project_clip_image002_0001.jpg

Selection 23 Summary

this selection from Beverly Paigen's Controversy at Love Canal discusses the scientific and political aspects of hazardous waste controversies most notably the Love Canal incident. She found that the

controversy surround love canal was more a political matter than a scientific one. there is many known hazardous waste sites that pose a threat to communities. In 1942 the hooker corporation dumped hazardous waste in love canal and filled it in. Hooker corp. later sold the land to the board of eduction and developers who in built housing and a school over the hazardous wastes. People began to get sick and send complaints to the Niagara falls department of health who took no action. When action was finally taken only the houses directly on top of the waste site was evacuated. The other families were told they were fine despite many signs the chemicals were spreading past the area declared unsafe. she then explains the scientific processes she took to evaluate the cause of sickness in the community surrounding Love canal. she devised a questionnaire which would help her locate the sick. if the sick were clustered in families it was genetic, if it was clustered geographically it was the chemicals and if was random it had no relation to the chemicals. she found that illness were clustered in areas where there used to be waterways. Only pregnant and those with children under 2 years of age were evacuated. She then explains her elements of controversy. On faction may benefit from not resolving the controversy. New York state would lose money resolving the love canal controversy. Factions may not agree on what questions need to be answered. the commissioner focused on the effects on fetus health while the community wanted to know if they were all in danger. No one faction should be in control of all the information gathering. The research at love canal by the health department was kept secret to the general populace. minority opinion can not be cast out and ridiculed. scientists working for the state were harassed and demoted for disagreeing with the official stance. Scientists should follow social controls on behavior for the advance of knowledge and to detect error. All factions should agree on the facts that need resolving. there was failure to do this at love canal. She concludes by saying that when controversies arise scientist should follow the fundamentals of their profession, community insight and funds should given to communities to hire their own professionals.

Image from: http://hypothesizethis.wordpress.com/

Food Reflection

Day 1: cereal, orange juice, chocolate milk, ice tea, microwavable Philly sandwich, Granola bar, pudding,orange juice,water(bottle), banana, stir fry, yogurt, chocolate bar, milk.
Day 2:Cereal, orange juice, Tim Horton's coffee and breakfast sandwich, Mc. Donald's big mac and fries, beer.

Looking back at what i ate on those two days i can see that there are environmental concerns. first milk has a pretty big carbon footprint. The feed for the cow, the milking equipment, travel, processing, packaging and refrigeration all involve carbon emissions(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122304950601802565.html ). I could also cut back on the amount of meat i eat because like the milk raising the livestock has a huge carbon footprint. Clearing for pastureland is also an impact. i also eat to many microwavable foods that come in individual packaging. The amount of packaging in relation to the actual food is ridiculous though i try to recycle all i can the stuff i cant will end up in the dump. that is a problem with a lot of the food i eat, there is too much packaging. The fruit i eat such as bananas have to travel vast distances to reach my house. With beer apparently the biggest source of carbon emissions is refrigeration. Drinking bottled water is also a big source of carbon emission as we discussed in class the plastic and transportation adds a lot of carbon emissions to a drink of water when i could have just used a tap or drinking fountain.

Carl Fowler: One Seed at a Time, Protecting the Future of Food

In his speech Carl Fowler bring up the issue that a mass extinction of crop species is and has been underway. This mass extinction lowers the genetic diversity of our crops which in turn leaves them vulnerable to changes in the environment. With climate change happening, a high biodiversity would ensure that some crops would have unique traits that would allow them to survive and adapt. In case of a global disaster natural or of our own creation where the biodiversity is greatly reduced a backup has been created. A seed bank has been created in Svalbard Norway (picture of entrance in top left) that can store the seeds of most of the crops in the world in a safe secure spot. On their website (http://www.croptrust.org/main/arctic.php?itemid=211 ) they explain their mandates, strategies for the conversation of global crop diversity, how they freeze the seeds, layout of the establishment and more. We haven't gone into much depth in class about the loss of seed diversity. It was touched on when talking about G.M.O.s which are out competing natural varieties. Other than that it was barely talked about and being such a big issue I'm surprised. Besides being a good backup for the environment i think the seed bank is just plain cool. Its a Vault built in the side of a mountain on an island in the north it reminds me of a villains lair in a James Bond movie, but not evil.

Selection 41 Summary

Vandana Shiva’s article Women’s Indigenous Knowledge and Biodiversity Conservation brings up the concept that women’s knowledge is key to preserving biodiversity. She begins by drawing connections between the unequal treatment of women and how we treat the environment. Both are by-products of our patriarchal world view. According to Shiva this view leads towards monocultures, monocultures and homogeneity. She states that diversity is the cornerstone of women’s work and knowledge. Tribal societies that base their production on diversity are seen as primitive while crop uniformity is seen as progressive. Women are on the forefront of many third world industries because of their knowledge. She says that women are the “custodians” of biodiversity but their work has been discredited. Diversity is continued through the culture. Generally people do not excerpt this view because cultural knowledge did not come from a lab. She claims this cultural knowledge comes solely from women. She then compares third world women’s relation with the environment to that of corporate men. to women biodiversity has intrinsic value while companies just see it as a resource to exploit. She then discusses the issue of GMOs. Companies patent their seed which stops farmers from producing their own. She says that these GMOs steal biodiversity from the third world and the health and safety of the consumers.