Orr

The whole time that I am reading this essay I couldn't help but think that this guy is completely nuts! He is without a doubt the most radical writer that we read this semester. I would never place biophobics on the same level as sociopaths. Some people just don't like nature, it doesn't make them a good or a bad person. However when I read something I cant help but play devils advocate for Orr. My family says its the defense attorney in me. In todays society we are so immersed in technology that most of us don't remember what it is like to be without it. One of my favorite things to do when I go home to Minnesota during Summer vacation is to unplug. I spend at minimum a week where I shut off my phone, unplug my computer, and cover the television and just enjoy living. And to be completely honest with you its one of the most rewarding times in my year. I get to enjoy the little things, like brushing my horse Peyton or walking out in the swamp with Indy. Spending lazy days floating down the Rum River on an inner tube fishing. Just typing this is making me smile. I cant imagine a world where nature doesn't exist to allow me a refuge. However I do understand that not everyone feels the same way that I do. I was just born a Biophiliac as Orr calls us. Its in my blood and it isn't going anywhere!

Field Trip Reflection

My favorite field trip this semester was without a doubt ECHO. It was so interesting to learn all the different ways that food can be grown. Growing up on a farm I never thought that urban gardens could be successful. When I saw those urban gardens where they used things like the pine needles and moss instead of soil I was amazed. It made me realize that as a culture we are so uneducated about methods to grow our own food. I think sometimes we use the fact that we live in cities as a cop out to not having to learn about ways to grow out own food. Something else about ECHO that really made an impact on me was their efforts to teach people how to live simply with what they already have. I think it is so cool that they will teach anyone how to institute the practices at ECHO at their own homes. In a world that is filled more and more with famine, starvation and food shortages we could save so many lives by just educating people about ways to provide themselves with their own food. A lot of the great civilizations societal problems that Shiva talked about could be solved through education. We need to start educating ourselves towards change lest we become just another page in the history books. That's why ECHO is so great! They created a zero cost system where we can use things like TIRES!! to build a hill to plant trees and reduce local flooding. There were so many things that I was amazed by at ECHO that I cant even think of them all at this moment. It truly was my most favorite field trip of the semester! Than you for taking us!!

Dry Walk Field Trip Make-Up

Wet Walk Field Trip Make-Up

Food Forest Field Trip Make-Up

Goodall

Jane Goodall and I could be soul twins. While reading her article I identified so much with her idealistic view of the world and the people in it. I loved reading the reasons why she has hope for the future of our world: our extraordinary intellect, the resilience of nature, the energy and commitment of informed young people who are empowered to act, and the indomitable human spirit (pg. 161). Reading these words just made me smile because they are exactly how I feel about the future of our world. As a political scientist I am trained to understand that social structures are not eternal and everlasting. They have a dawn and a dusk just like everything else. This allows us to visualize a world beyond tomorrow where a movement started by the youth of a generation can rise and change the shape of their destiny. Much like our founding fathers did during the War for Independence in 1776. Our planet too can see a rebirth from the ashes of human destruction, all it takes is for the youth to stand up and say enough. However its going to take work. The stories that are sighted in Goodall's article are proof of that.

Programs such as TACARE seek to redirect social problems that are causing environmental destruction. For example in the article Goodall show us how the education of women in underdeveloped countries leads to decreases in birth rates, which puts less stress on local economies and the environments. Instances such as this and others that Goodall stated in her office show us that just a little change can have a dramatic positive effect towards our efforts to help rebuild out world. Some people may ask why we should even bother to try and fix what mankind has destroyed (pg. 178). Beyond the obvious reason that increase consumption will result in the devastation of mankind as a species, we must also change our ethical view of our environment. While we have a moral responsibility to fix that which we have broken we also have an ethical responsibility to the land and the plants and animals that occupy it. The animals and plants were there long before man showed up, and they have the right to remain there. Much like the grey wolves in my home state of Minnesota, we don't help rebuild and reintroduce an endangered species to an area because it will benefit us somehow. We do it because the wolves have a right to be there and survive because it is their place just as much as it is ours, probably more so.

 

Like Dr. Goodall I see the world for what it could be and not what it is now. People have the power to make little changes with big results. That is why programs like colloquium are so important to the future of our world. We need to give future generations the knowledge and motivation to make positive changes that can help heal our planet.

Carson

Carson states that, "Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species-man-acquired significant power to alter the nature of the world (Carson 153). As children of the new millennia and the technology that it introduced sometimes I think mine and later generations forget about the state of the world that existed before the age of technological advancement. A little over a hundred years ago people lived with none of the modern advancements that we enjoy today. They had very little ability to alter the nature of the world beyond constructing buildings and establishing crop lands. However with our modern advancements that allowed us to alter the shape of our world, also came the consequences of those actions, things like acid rain, and the greenhouse effect to name a couple. People lived very simply at the turn of the 20th century and they relied on their land directly for their care and well being. However with the increase in technology and urbanization that came with the industrial revolution our society took a shift, forgetting about the environment that provides us life in favor of greed and industrialization. If we would bring someone from the 19th Century to ours they wouldn't recognize anything from their time. The rapid societal change we have seen in the last 100 years is unprecedented to anything that has come before.

According to Carson, "The rapidity of change and the speed with which new situations are created follow the impetuous and heedless pace of man rather than the deliberate pace of nature" (Carson 154). Man has tampered with the fundamental aspects of nature, taken those gifts and warped them to suit their own twisted purposes. Now we are spiraling towards disaster and are scrambling to find ways to fix what we have destroyed. However it is always easier and quicker to create a problem than it is to fix one. I'm reminded of a quote from the movie "Cold mountain" that actress Renee Zellweger says "They create they rain, and then they stand in it and say Crap! its raining". While Renee was talking about the actions of men during the Civil War I find this to be true in regards to the environment. We destroy the environment to fulfill our short term goals of greed and prosperity, however our actions have consequences. So we inevitably have to fix what we destroyed, however that costs us money, which upsets us. So we try and put a price tag on the environment to limit the amount of money we "have" to spend to satisfy our guilt. The whole thing is backwards. We need to think about the long term ramifications of our actions before we make decisions that could affect future generations forever. We must think about someone besides ourselves, its the only way for a society to survive let alone survive.

Shiva

In his article Shiva mentions that, " The erosion of biodiversity and the erosion of cultural diversity are related. Both have been threatened by the globalization of an industrial culture based on reductionist knowledge, mechanist technologies and the commodification of resources." (pg. 38). Greed has changed the way people relate to others and the environment around them. Quests for wealth and technological advancement have damaged the planet and the human race. Things that we designed to make our lives easier are threatening our future. Growing up on the farm my grandfather farmed with only organic seeds. In face I never saw him ever purchase seed. During the fall harvest

http://cdn2.collective-evolution.com/assets/uploads/2014/02/GMO.jpeg

he would harvest seed from the plants that we had grown, and replant that seed in the spring. He always told me that home gleaned seed grew stronger and healthier plants than purchased seed. He fertilized our fields with natural fertilizers, and we watered our fields from an underground natural spring. My grandfather was most definitely at odds with the reductionist farmers in our area because of his methods. When I moved to Florida I realized how much I took for granted living on the farm. It took me months to get used to store bought vegetables. They taste so different from the ones we grow at home. Moving to Florida was a complete culture shock for me. It took me quite some time to be able to relate to my classmates how grew up in front of televisions and video games. In fact I'd never played a video game until I moved down here. There just isn't time when you live on a farm. My view of biodiversity is strikingly different then theirs because of the place I grew up in.

 

We have learned that oftentimes the only way to get people motivated about conservation is to put a price tag on the ecosystems we are trying to protect. And that can be a daunting task. However what Shiva seeks to help us comprehend is the fact that, "biodiversity is not just a conservation issue, it is an issue affecting economic survival" (pg. 50). Without  biodiversity our food supply would not exist. It provides life and wealth to the impoverished people in our world. However as the wealthy harm biodiversity through gluttonous actions, there is little left for the poor and they are driven further into poverty and despair while the wealthy feel non of the ill effects of their actions. This is true in many social areas including nutrition and healthcare. If you think about it that makes sense. When we watch doomsday movies about the end of the world, who are the people that are collected and spared? Its not the homeless man that lives in the alley on 3rd and Main. Its the rich and powerful that make the cut because they have the resources to make their lives seemingly more valuable than others. Because our culture has eroded and values objects and wealth more than human life we continue to hurt other human beings and damage the planet that provides us with life and sustenance. If we ever hope to reverse the negative effects on biodiversity we need to begin through intensive education and cultural reconditioning.

 

At the end of the article Shiva makes quite a profound point that made quite an impact on me, "mono-culture of the mind: the idea that the world is or should be uniform and one-dimensional, that diversity is either a disease or deficiency, and monocultures are necessary for the production of more food and economic benefits (pg. 17). This is where biodiversity meets culture. Deep down I believe we all feel the most comfortable when we are around people that are like we are. Whether it is a social, racial, or ethnic similarity. We see the world in the same way. We are uncomfortable with cultures that we don't understand and seek instead to try and make other cultures more like ours because we see our culture as the superior one. The worlds intense periods of colonization confirm this throughout history. What we need to understand is that diversity is what makes life sustainable on this planet. Whether culturally or environmentally. Without the plethora of diverse ecosystems around the world we would not have the products that we enjoy daily. Not every environment can grow wheat just like not every environment can grow cotton. We need to embrace the things that make us different instead of letting them divide us. If we can ever master this simple idea we could change the future of mankind forever.

 

 

Diamond

http://cdn.onegreenplanet.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10//2012/06/Ecocide.jpg

Jared Diamond's article is a striking revelation about the decline of great civilizations. In his article Diamond seeks to reconcile ecological devastation with the decline of powerful ancient civilizations. " It has long been suspected that many of those mysterious abandonment's were at least partly triggered by ecological problems: people inadvertently destroying the environmental resources on which their societies depended" (pg. 20). As a political science student, when I study ancient civilizations I tend to focus on the political structures and augmentation of power when I try to understand why a society failed. It wasn't until I read this quote by Diamond that I thought about the ecological events that can have just as great an impact on societal decline as political events. I
particularly enjoyed the irony in his tern "ecocide". Great societies tend to rely so much on their political power and technological advancements that they forget to realize that the environment in which the live, when managed correctly, provides their population with health and sustenance. While mismanaging the environment may have been beneficial at the time, their societies were ultimately destroyed due to famine, plague and climate change. It really makes you rethink the things that hold a society together. Its not the kings, presidents or governmental bodies, its the ecological web that provides us with out daily needs because at our core we are primal beings whose main goal is to survive.

zestforlifetoday.blogspot.com 

"Many people fear that the ecocide has come to overshadow nuclear war and emerging diseases as a threat to global civilization." (pg. 22). I think our greatest fear as human beings is the threat of a mass extinction event. We see its theme present in many past and present films and works of fiction. I was shocked to discover that our society today is guilty of the same eight environmental catastrophes that once destroyed great societies. I was even more shocked to learn that to add insult to injury we have added four new environmental atrocities to the list of destruction. To be completely honest, when I read things like Diamonds article it upsets me to the point that a righteous anger grows within me and I find myself on my soapbox more often than not with friends and acquaintances arguing for a dramatic course in action to stave off catastrophe. Its impossible for me to ignore the signs. In my home environment I have seen a dramatic change since I was a child. Lakes that my grandfather once took me to have been over fished by the indigenous Native American tribes. In Minnesota we have become so caught up in political correctness, that we now allow Ojibwa and Lakota Indians to electroshock our lakes and take all of the fish within them. Its a practice that I find great personal and moral issue with. Its time that we as citizens of planet earth wake up and realize that without the earth we have nothing. Haven't we been exposed to enough movies like Wall-E to understand that we need the earth to survive. After all you cant eat a computer, or an Xbox, or a car. As Diamond said, "Perhaps we can still learn from the past, but only if we think carefully about its lessons." (pg. 23). We must look beyond ourselves at the larger picture and understand that while we are individuals we are also a part of a greater human family that transcends racial, social, political, national and economic boundaries.

Plan B 4.0




http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/chinas-green-walls-losing-the-battle-against-encroaching-deserts.html

Plan B. 4.0 is a startling read. Presenting to its reader the unspoken devastation that our planet currently is in. In America sometimes we immerse ourselves in our comfort bubble and forget to view the problems that are present throughout the world. We focus on political and military posturing while ignoring the much bigger more dangerous issues that loom over our heads. This limited worldview is dangerous during our era of increased globalization because we depend on other countries for products that we cannot produce here at home. We need to be invested in other countries ecological state because we rely as much on them as they do on us. Brown said, "China is now at war. It is not invading armies that are claiming its territories, but expanding deserts." (pg. 37). This quote really shocked me. I didn't realize that China was in such an ecological state of emergency. I understood they had population sustainability issues but not that they were faced with aggressive desertification. To me this is a prime example of the fact that as a society we have become so immersed in technology we have failed to protect their environment that makes our very existence possible. China prides itself on its advancements in education and technology, however even with all that progress they are unable to slow 1,400 square miles of their country that are annually turning into desert (pg. 37). Its time that we as human beings understand that we cannot continue to consume and destroy without repercussions. We cannot continue to destroy farmlands to build high rise condos because our population grows every year and we need a reliable way to feed these people. Someone once said that land is the most important resource on the planet because they cant make anymore of it. That person was right. Once the land is destroyed there is nothing we can do to replace it. We must take action to protect the viability of the land if we wish to continue to continuation of the human race                  


http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/chinas-green-walls-losing-the-battle-against-encroaching-deserts.html

  "The world has never faced such a predictable massive threat to food production as that posed by the melting mounting glaciers of Asia." (pg. 66). I think sometimes we like to think that we don't need to rely on anyone else for our survival. However China and India are the worlds leading wheat and rice producers (pg. 66). When US-China relations are mentioned on the news its always politically charged rhetoric about the battle of democratic and communists nation-states. However we never hear about the environmental crisis that China is involved in that will have a devastating effect on the food supply both in the United States and around the world. I think sometimes the news refrains from such speech because they don't want to scare people. However I think that a little fear is necessary. We have to know there is a problem if we ever want to be able to try and reverse it. Burying our heads in the sand until famine and Armageddon occur is irresponsible and just plain idiotic. I like to believe that if people understood the crisis that we were facing they may make changes to help reduce their impact and possibly stop the climate change that is plaguing out planet. Simply telling people that the polar bears don't have ice to play on anymore isn't going to spur the average Joe into environmental action, but explaining to them that without reducing the effects of global warming their grandchildren will starve for lack of food, could be just the trick. Sometimes directed fear can be utilized to prompt action for the hope of a better tomorrow.

Tobias MacIvey: My favorite character

http://patricksmithonline.com/Powers/daysend.html

While reading Tobias portion of "A Land Remembered" I instantly felt a kinship to him and his life. I understand what it is like to live in an inhospitable region of the world where waking up alive in the morning is a gift. Tobias MacIvey is the main character of the first generation in the book, essentially like the patriarch of the family. His wife is named Emma and his son is named Zechariah. He began his life and gained his wealth as a cattle rancher and later came to own an orange farm. I too come from a cattle and farming background so I can completely relate with the struggles and emotional toll that an occupation like farming and ranching can take on a person's soul.

When people are dependent on the land for survival they tend to cherish it more. Tobias had that sense of responsibility within him. He understood that the land only gives you as much as you give it back. If you misuse it and treat it poorly you have the ability of losing your life's work not to mention the lives of you and your families. He also understood that the harshness of an agrarian existence requires you to rely on other people for your survival. His friendship with the Indians is proof of his ability to overcome cultural differences and work together for basic survival. And this works out for him because after he assists the Indians they give him two dogs for his kindness which are named Nip and Tuck , further establishing Tobias view that the world will always reward those who do for others. He is a strong person but he is also surprisingly kind.

http://patricksmithonline.com/RickPowers/2010/08/01/a-new-beginning/

Tobias is the patriarch of the family. However the wealth that he amasses I believe plays a part in the downfall of his family. His son Zachariah has a child with an Indian mistress and his grandson Solomon who begins his life as a rich entitled snob until his soul is saved by Bonnie the waitress. She
awakens him to the destruction that his irresponsibility has caused to the land that his grandfather loved so much. Tobias legacy should have been that of hard work and a respect of the life that the land gives us. Instead we see the moral responsibility to care for the land decline in each proceeding generation, as a want for comfort outweighs the sense of duty to care for that which gives us life.

Tobias and I are kindred spirits, or I guess I should say my grandfather and Tobias are kindred spirits and I am the result of a proper transfer of moral responsibility to the land and the life it gives. My sense of place was shaped by the environment in which I was raised. In a place where snow and ice are present on the ground for six months out of the year, and temperatures can easily plummet to -60 below wind chill, without a respect and love of nature and place someone could not survive in an environment like northern Minnesota. The summers are brutal hot filled with mosquitos and humidity and the winters easily reach 10 feet of snow and temperatures with wind chills of more than sixty degrees below zero. Where Tobias dealt with hurricanes and wildfire, we struggle with tornados and violent snowstorms. However a love of place can make these things seem trifling and with an appropriate attitude existing in harsh environments such as Florida and Minnesota can be rewarding. The legacy that my grandfather passed to me and that I will pass on to my family is one of respect and indebtedness to the land that gives us life. I will teach my children to hunt, track, trap, and fish just as I was taught along with the conservation and restraint that is required to ensure that the wildlife, and the land that we are blessed with will be available not only for my grandchildren but for generations and generations to come. Conservation requires us to think beyond ourselves and remember that while we may want to shoot an arrow at every buck, doe and turkey that crosses our cross hairs, we must only take that which we can use, because if we become greedy and focus only on ourselves we will forfeit the very right we have to take that which the land gives us. That will be my legacy, not one of technologically addicted children who cant tell a bobcat scat trail from dropped choke berries.

Matanzas Park Field Trip Pictures

Grunwald

While reading Grunwald's essay about the Everglades restoration program I became increasingly angry over the power that politics has to create effective change. As a political science student at FGCU I have come to understand the political process and its tendency to favor backroom deals and political re-election posturing over the common good. Re-election comes in the form of monetary contributions and endorsements to campaigns. The Everglades Restoration Project was plagued by "Florida sugar growers, home builders, water utilities, and other economic interest groups" pg. 85 who cared more about their quarterly statements than the Florida their Great Grandchildren would grow up in. In our society today money is everything it circumvents any type of moral responsibility we feel towards our environment.

http://everglades.fiu.edu/reclaim/timeline/timeline6.htm

However I understand that its difficult to get people to care about something, especially if they have never seen it themselves. I understand that, "there are no alligators in New Hampshire" but "the Everglades seem to transcend state lines, just as they seem to transcend party lines. It has become a symbol of America's responsibility to make amends with mother nature." The Everglades aren't just a Florida treasure, they are an American treasure. And their destruction wasn't only the result of Florida politics, but federal politics, which makes it a national problem. It has the opportunity to stand as an everlasting reminder to future generations that nothing is hopeless, and even the worst man made destruction against nature can be rectified if we have the courage to move boldly forward and correct our wrongs.

 

Growing up my grandfather and I would travel to the small general store near our farm. Mr. Johnson had a sign hung on the door that stated "you break it, you buy it." It dictated to customers that any destruction of property whether intentional or not would not be tolerated. In the case of the Everglades I find this statement increasingly true when it comes to Grunwald's article.

http://www.gorp.com/parks-guide/everglades-national-park-outdoor-pp2-guide-cid8984.html

 

The Everglades were fine before man intervened. We broke it by draining it in the name of flood control and progress. It seems only right that we are the ones to fix it no matter the cost. Senator Baucus' statement that "its like the Vietnam War in a sense, we've got to keep pouring more money into it because it's gone this far. What's out exit strategy?" pg. 89 thoroughly enraged me. We didn't cause the problems in Vietnam, but we are the sole cause of the devastation of the Everglades. To simply claim that its too expensive to fix what we broke would be like refusing to pay Mr. Johnson for the Vase that purposely smashed to the ground in anger at not being allowed to buy a piece of candy. Its simply ridiculous. We need to fix what we caused regardless of the price tag. This isn't about money its about doing the right thing. We have an ethical responsibility to restore the Everglades to their previous glory.

Leopold

Picture of the Deer We Harvested last November

Ethics govern our daily lives. They give us an established baseline for our human understanding of the nature of right and wrong actions. Something I didn't understand until I read Leopold's article is that ecology has its own unique ethical definition. According to Leopold "an ethic ecologically, is a limitation on freedom of action in the struggle for existence." (pg. 58). What I understand this to mean is that ethics govern human interactions. They allow us to work co-operatively for the greater good. Growing up on a farm I was taught to understand the importance of land and farm animals to our survival and even though we "purchased" our land and animals in we had a responsibility to it to treat them with respect and reverence because they provided us items needed to sustain life. We are as much a part of the land and it is of us. We came from it, are nourished by it, and one day will return to it. Its the circle of life. On our farm we harvested the crops in the fall. My grandmother and mother would always keep a portion of the crop for ourselves and my fall weekends were spent canning fruits and vegetables with my family. Those canned crops would feed us for the next year. In fact I never actually purchased a vegetable in a supermarket until I moved down to Florida for college.

 Leopold postulates that "One basic weakness in a conservation system based wholly on economic motives is that most members of the land community have no economic value." (pg. 65). Growing up on a farm I was taught the importance of the symbiotic relationship between humans and nature. I learned to respect every animal from the ant to the timber wolf. However plants and animals don't have a way to communicate with humans to defend themselves against human action that may harm them and their homes. Even though eco based education programs teach us the roles that animals play they are unable to put a monetary value of the animals on the environment so therefore people often dismiss them because there is no emotional attachment to prompt protective action that may cost money.

 For example in Minnesota we had an outbreak of Chronic Wasting Disease that decimated the Whitetail Deer population in the 1990's. This outbreak was a labeled a direct result of the lack of apex predators in the ecosystem, in particular timber wolves. People were told that Wolves pick out and hunt the sick and weak in deer herds keeping the populations healthy, however when ranchers began a mass extermination of timber wolves to protect their cattle, wolf populations dropped to less than 20 breeding pairs left in the wild, and there weren't enough wolves to pick off the sickly deer in the population. However instead of trying to blame whitetail deer diseases on the lack of an apex predator to try and create support to rebuild wolf populations, ecologists should have stated that
wolves are "members of the community, and that no special interest has the right to exterminate them for the sake of benefit, real or fancied to itself." (pg. 66). We shouldn't have to prove an animals beneficial role to man to deem it worthy of protection. Ranchers move into an area and encroach of wolf lands driving prey away, so the wolf preys on the only available source of food, the ranchers cattle. In an effort to keep ranchers from killing wolves the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources now ill reimburse ranchers for any cattle the lose as a result of a predator kill, wolf or otherwise. The fact that its an animal just trying to exist in a world is reason enough to protect it. Animals may not have a monetary value
but you can put a monetary value of the actions that
need to be taken to fix the damage that we cause. 

Louv

I was one of the lucky ones. At least that is what my grandfather used to tell me. I was born and raise on a farm in the dense northern Minnesota forests. The woods were my schoolyard. I spent my days learning to appreciate the life that the forest gives us. He taught me to hunt and track; but also explained the woods are to be treasured and protected because if they are destroyed we lose our way of life.

The second opening paragraph of Richard Louv's article struck me so deeply. Especially his point that "physical and mental nature experiences foster mental acuity and concentration" (pg. 2). In America we are losing touch with nature. We spend so much time indoors that we forget the physical and spiritual healing nature can provide to us. Children are drawn to nature from infancy and studies have shown that children that with disorders such as ADHD can benefit substantially from the restorative environment of nature. However I believe we are beginning to move back into the right direction in this regard. Health initiatives such as First Lady Michelle Obamas Let's Move Outside Campaign are beginning to get kids outside and interacting with nature. Her online site contains links to outdoor parks and events that provide kids with activities that help them get active outside away from the Xbox and computer. Louv asserts that "contact with nature is as important to children as good nutrition and adequate sleep" (pg. 12). So we should take this warning with appropriate actions to help our kids have a better life. Programs like Let's Move Outisde and the NFL's Play 60 Campaigns ( View the inserted the commercial above) are great examples of people from different backgrounds coming together to encourage kids to get active and healthy.

Growing up on a farm there was always work to be done. Crops needed tending and animals needed feed and care. If I wasn't it school or doing homework I was outside taking care of the farm. At the end of each day I was exhausted and there was no room for excitability or excess energy. We as a society have become to stationary in our jobs. We sit at a desk all day, our children sit in desks all day and we wonder why they are bouncing off the walls with energy when they get home from school. According to Louv "Our brains are set up for a agrarian, nature-orientated existence that came into focus five thousand years ago" (pg. 5). Its no wonder our children are suffering.

I have always wondered why all kids beg their parents for pets. After studying Louv I think children crave a connection with nature and household pets are a way for them to be connected to a natural world that they are oftentimes deprived of. The family pets allow a child to experience being with a primal animal that sees its entire existence in terms of its place in the natural world. Animals have proven to be very therapeutic to children especially those who struggling with attention deficit disorders.

Douglas

When I moved to Florida from Minnesota one of the things that I really wanted to experience was the Everglades. They are an ecological wonder. When I imagined them I thought of it as a dense jungle, what a surprise I had when I was confronted with what looked like a field of grass similar to those in my home state. However closer examination revealed an ecological utopia unlike anything I had every seen before. Marjorie Douglas is correct when she saws that "There is no other Everglades in the world" It is a unique ecosystem that is unlike anywhere else in the world. Its muddy water, cypress tress and special wildlife make the everglades something that everyone should see at least one time in their life. It is one of the great ecological wonders of North America. 

Picture I took of a Florida Alligator that I saw in the
 Everglades on an Airboat Ride Last Spring

John Anderson wrote and performed a song entitle "Seminole Wind" in the song he address the ecological devastation that the glades have faced in mans attempt to control the annual flooding in southern Florida. Growing up I never realized that the places and problems that John Anderson sang about were real. If you have never heard his song, follow this link to YouTube and view the music video: http://youtu.be/KGoBQIhyFFM. The song really highlights how mans search for wealth and power is destroying the very environment that provides life to us. It also has a lot of great video taken of the Everglades to highlight their beauty and mystery.

According to Douglas the first Spanish that came to America called the Everglades "El Laguno del Espitu Santo" which translated means the Lagoon of the Holy Spirit (pg. 104). The Spaniards, like most men, saw the glades as a source of wealth they could extrapolate rather than appreciate them for the ecological wonder that they were. This has become the curse of the glades. Men have sought to control the power of the everglades through dames and draining projects by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Everglades began to drain. Man is short-sighted in his views of the environment and will cause tremendous devastation to save him a short term inconvenience. Homes flooding is an inconvenience, so how does man respond? He drains one of the most comprehensive ecological biomes on the planet not even taking a second to consider the ecological ramifications of their actions.

"So it is with the Everglades, which have that quality of long existence in their own nature. They were changeless. They are changed." (pg. 107). This quote by Douglas struck me because it is both constant and flux. To the animals that call the Everglades home the place is everlasting, never changing. The seasons come and go but the Everglades remain a striking reminder of the perseverance and strength of mother nature. Despite mans worst intentions the Everglades exist and thrive today, however not without its scars. There are some things that man does that we will never be able to rectify. However we are beginning to understand the importance of ecological conservation and protection so the future of the Everglades seems bright.