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

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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.