Survey

Here's my survey, I've had 19 responses.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/K2N7DW5

Survey

My survey is about deforestation. It asks what deforestation is, and the feeling for deforestation. The survey also asks if people have ever participated in a protest for or against deforestation, and if they have been affected by deforestation. In general the results that I have collected so far show that people know what deforestation is, and believe it to be a negative thing. As soon as I get the rest of the results of the surveys after putting them on facebook I will integrate the information into my essay.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/K2N7DW5

Indigenous Resistance and Racist Schooling on the Borders of Empires: Coast Salish Cultural Survival

            There have been differences along the border between the Coast Salish people of British Columbia and Washington State.  Both the British Columbian’s and the American’s tried to restrain the aboriginal people, or the Indigenous people. The main way in which they tried to rid of the Indigenous people were through schools. The schools were designed to eliminate the memories of language and meanings that were associated with the Indigenous people. The goal of the schools was to remove the Aboriginal people from the land. The Coast Salish people have tried resisting this movement and retaining their beliefs and identities. They did this by reclaiming some of the schools, so to escape the racism of the public schools. The main goal was to keep their cultural differences and not mold into a single culture.

            It would be very difficult to analyze research across the borders for many different reasons.  For one with different policies and cultures, it would result in many different responses that would be hard to measure. It would be hard to get an accurate measurement of racism comparatively among the borders. “At one moment conditions appear very different in Canada than they are in the United States, and you begin to think in contrasts (Marker 111). The Coast Salish people that are across the Canda-Washingotn State border are aware of the conditions on the other side of it. According to Marker, a parent told him what some young boys told him that after fostering boys, they told her that there were physical fights in the US, and that in British Columbia, the children were trying to make themselves invincible so no one will notice them. 

Carter's Mountain

Carter's mountain is a vineyard, an apple orchard, a pumpkin patch and a peach orchard. This mountain has been used to not only attract tourists but to provide the city of Charlottesville, Virginia with grapes, apples, peaches, and pumpkins. However, over the years the once flourishing orchard has been deprived of space due to the constant upbringing of construction. The apple trees are greatly decreasing in their numbers as well as the grapes, pumpkins and peaches. In an attempt to bring more tourists there have been numerous projects sent underway. There are now numerous roads throughout the entire park, to not only make the mountain more accessible to the public but to allow hay rides for the visitors. There has been the construction of a large stage and seating area in which there are concerts held. These constant industrializations and developments are not only destroying the produces land, it is turning Carter's Mountain into a development. It is no longer the escape into the orchards in which one can pick the fruit and enjoy them directly off the tree. There has been the added pesticides that have made the fruit inedible until washed. Overall, Carter's Mountain is slowly being taken over. Eventually I think the orchard will be completely destroyed and it will be nothing other than a development.

Polar Bears

This is the artifact that I chose to bring in to portray an environmental issue. This picture portrays the damaging effects of global warming. As the temperatures continue to rise, the ice in the arctics continue to melt. The polar bears are slowly loosing their homes and having to struggle for survival.

EPA Claims

In this article the EPA claims that it will release whether or not hydraulic fracking is polluting drinking water or not by the end of 2012. Even though it seems they would already have more than enough proof to say that it is indeed polluting drinking water. Abraham Lustgarten and Nicholas Kushnetz expressed an area in central Wyoming in which people complained of foul water after fracking began. The waters were tested and it was concluded that there were chemicals that are known to be used in the fracking process in the water. The EPA says the final report will not be released until 2014. The process of hydraulic tracking involves the rapid high-pressure injection of millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals underground. This will release and extract any natural gas that is within shale rock. The EPA will focus on fracking sites in Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Louisiana, Texas and Colorado. For a long time the gas and oil industries have claimed that fracking is a very safe process. However, as Lustgarten and Kushnetz said in their article, the findings of the EPA in Pavillion, Wyoming, did not support this. It found fracking to be a harmful process that is indeed polluting sources of drinking water. The oil and gas industries also concluded that fracking is regulated enough and properly by the states. Environmental activists do not agree with this, they believe that fracking should have a joint regulation between the federal and state agencies. Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey said that the EPA study will provide information to the public and policy makers of the effects of fracking on the water. After the reality has been spread, I predict that the regulations on hydraulic fracking will become stronger. 

EPA: Natural Gas Fracking Linked to Water Contamination

            Federal officers of the EPA found that water contamination in central Wyoming is due to a gas drilling process. The EPA found this by doing a study to determine whether or not fracking harmed the water resources in the first place. EPA officials said that the contamination close to the town of Pavillion contained at least ten compounds that are known to be used in frack fluids.  A draft report that was released says that “the presence of synthetic compounds such as glycol ethers… and the assortment of other organic compounds is explained as the result of direct mixing of hydraulic fracturing fluids with ground water in the Pavillion gas field.”

            Due to these findings, there could be a significant turning point in the debate over whether or not there I contamination from fracking. This will also likely influence the how the country will regulate natural gas resources throughout the Eastern Appalachian states. These findings also contradict many of the arguments about why fracking is a safe process, which the drilling industry has been using for many years. For example “hydrologic pressure would naturally force fluids down, not up; that deep geologic layers provide a watertight barrier preventing the movement of chemicals towards the surface; and that the problems with the cement and steel barriers around gas wells aren’t connected to fracking.” Environmental advocates seized this opportunity to argue for tougher regulations of fracking.

            A policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council says that there is always a risk when it comes to fracking. There are many things that can go wrong and this is why we need strong regulations on fracking, so we can lessen the threat on drinking water. At first EnCana, the gas station that owns the Pavillion wells, did not respond to the invite for remark. When there finally was a remark, the spokesman Doug Hock said that nothing has changed since last August, and that there remains inclusive data.

            The EPA’s findings instantly caused an intense political dispute over the regulations of fracking. Senator James Inofe’s office challenged the EPA’s investigation in Wyoming previously as biased. In the mid-1990’s civilians around the Pavillion area began to complain of foul water, and things only got worse in 2004. They complained that there water turned brown, and for a time gas stations provided drinking water to the citizens. In 2008 water samples were taken from the drinking water and hydrocarbons and other contaminants that could be related to fracking were found. Then in 2010 the EPA drilled two water-monitoring wells that confirmed high levels of carcinogenic chemicals (such as benzene and 2 Butoxyethanol) which are known to be used in fracking. The EPA still did not draw conclusions from the tests, because agriculture, drilling, and old pollution from waste pits left by the oil and gas industry are all possible causes of the contamination.

            In the report released it was concluded that pollution from 33 abandoned oil and gas waste pits are responsible for some pollution in the shallow ground water. But they could not be responsible for the pollution found in the monitoring wells 1,000 feet underground. The agency finally concluded that the contamination had to be caused by fracking. These findings are specific to Wyoming due to the fact that the gas wells are being fracked at shallower depths. The EPA also concluded that sporadic bonding occurred in the cement in areas which led to the barrier that kept the chemicals in their intended zone had been weakened. Finally, hydrolic pressure was found in the Pavillion area that pushed fluids from deep geologic layers towards the surface. These barriers were not a proper barrier to the contaminents that were moving up.

            

Fashion Claims It's Victims

This example of visual rhetoric is portraying the issue of killing animals for their fur and using them in the production of clothing. This photo is trying to convey that even though we may not think of it to be a big issue, killing animals for their fur and other body parts is still a huge problem. As shown in the picture not only are the old targeted but the young as well. We must be careful before we kill off entire species for their furs and other body parts. Technology is a great way to inform people of the facts. Through the internet and phones and many other sources of technology the realities of our world could be taught to everyone. The word can be spread and then world awareness could be increased.

The System

Today's system it is set up to keep people in the same social class in which they are born into. It is difficult if not impossible to move up the social ladder. Kahn also believes that the system is trained to destroy the environment. "A threat to either the organism or its environment is a movement towards the ecology of death: the life process requires both and any process that so binds the one or the other so as to threaten “both” is in some sense courting death and moving away from the love of life" (Kahn). In order to fix this system there would have to be an equality throughout all schools. There could not be any different levels in schooling or special treatments for any students in anyway. Simply, there is really no true way to eliminate differences in social class. People who are wealthier will always be able to pay for their children to go to the better schools and those who aren't will go to the ones that are provided for everyone. There will always be different social classes and one will always begin where they are born into. In order to get into a higher social class someone will have to work twice as hard as someone who was born into that higher class. That is how it is and always has been. Something like this is not easily changed. 

Bioregionalism and Turtle Island

Gary Snyder focuses a lot on nature and how man is interfering with the land and using up its resources. Bioregionalism is based upon the preservation of the many different bioregions, and also protecting them from the overuse of man. Both bioregionalism and Snyder seem to have the same general idea. Both revolve around the idea of protecting nature and preventing man from interfering with it too much.

Turtle Island

In Turtle Island the poem "Facts" lists many realities that are terrifying to think about. It emphasizes that the United States uses so many resources compared to the percent of the population it takes up. The US is very greedy when it comes to the life style compared to that of places suffering from poverty. The United States consumes 1/3 of the energy on Earth, yet it only makes up 6% of the population. Snyder emphasizes that we do not use the energy naturally provided for us, like solar, enough. This is because the government subsidizes fossil fuels so much that nuclear energy cannot compete. "The Dead By The Side Of The Road," shows how humans are invading into nature. There are animals that once were living, that are now dead because humans have intruded into their home. What once was the animals and untouched wilderness is now intruded on by man. With growing populations mankind is expanding more and more into the animals homes. We are slowly taking over their entire habitat. We consume way too many resources and in the process we are taking over nature. "Anasazi"Snyder shows how parts of the world live in such devastation, while the United States lives a very spoiled livelihood. The US consumes so much, and wastes so much when parts of the world are living in such poverty.

Turtle Island Poems

The main theme of "Without" is simply the title. Nature could disappear, and we could be without it. We need to find the power within and help preserve the "silence" of nature. In "Pine Tree Tops" Gary Snyder talks about the beauty of the pine tops with the frost against the starlight. He then asks "what do we know?" Saying that there is so much beauty and serenity in the earth and yet, we know nothing about it in the big scope of things. "The Uses of Light" describes numerous ways that light can be used. For example it can be used for warmth and it gives you the ability to see.

Bill Mckibben's Podcast and Bioregional Quiz

The Earth has changed since this generation was introduced to the land. People do not understand what has happened and where the earth is headed. The population growth is increasing at a rate that is becoming unsafe and unsustainable by out Earth. In order to change the current path mankind is on, a transition is needed. Economies no longer need to grow. Growth has been the answer to all of the world’s problems before. People believed that if growth in our economy occurred then the world was headed to success. However, this though process needs to change. People need to know and agree that growth is no longer the answer. Here on Earth, mankind has reached the limits of growth. Taking the bioregional quiz clarified that most people do not know much about the bioregion in which is inhabited by our species. People need to become aware of the current state in which the Earth is in. The institutions that control the population also needs to change. For example, subsidies that make the process easier and very cheap to plant corn. So much land is wasted on corn, and runs many small farmers away due to the competition. Now is the time for people around the world to change in order to sustain the earth. 

Global Warming

Global warming is causing many problems throughout the world. Temperatures continue to rise and there seems to be no end in sight. Humans are the cause of global warming. Many people seem to believe that the rising temperatures are a natural occurrence. However, the pollution that we release into the atmosphere and the many trees and other plants that we cut down both contribute to the rising climate. We are presently following a path that is slowly destroying our planet.

       Looking into the future, there does no seem to be any sign of cooling temperatures. Island Civilization would ensure that the rising temperature, due to humans, would decrease tremendously. People would not be producing nearly as much pollution. Roderick Frazier Nash discussed the possibility of teleportation as a means of travel. This alone would cut down much of the pollution that currently, humans allow to be released into the atmosphere. Island Civilization would also decrease the number of trees and plants that are cut down. Living in “island civilizations” would detract humans from damaging contact with the environment. Man would no longer cut down the nature that absorbs the carbon dioxide and releases oxygen.

The rising temperatures are harming many different environments, from coral reefs, to the Arctic and Antarctic. In the Arctic and Antarctic the ice is melting rapidly. Animals such as polar bears are struggling to survive due to the melting ice. The ice is their home and their key to survival, without it the polar bear species will become extinct. If the global temperatures continue to rise, in the distant future there may no longer be an Artic or Antarctic.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/GlobalWarming/