McKibben and the Quiz

The quiz that the English 101 class took is a quiz that can take everything one knows and make it seem truly useless. All the information on the quiz was probably know by most people 100 years ago. Now this data is not necessary to survive in today's world. The knowledge most people use today is of very little use outside of society and sometimes even a single culture. This quiz can make one want to forget all of the knowledge learned in school and replace it instead with knowledge on our local environment. 

The talk McKibben delivered spoke of how humans have a new reality created by humans. The fact that Americans are more worried about the economy than the environment shows how out of touch the culture is from the land. The economy is an invention of man and the economy seems to be the biggest force in people's lives today. The problems arising in the environment are not going away and could soon be getting the attention of people in a few years. Humankind must stop consumption of the earth and instead start living in the earth.

Bill McKibben's Eaarth

Last night I listened to an interview (but was really more of a conversation) with Bill McKibben for Scientific American on their podcast. I went through a bowl of popcorn and pot of tea through the course of it, but aside from my indulgence, the interview had a lot of points that I could resonate with. 

One that stood out to me is when McKibben stated that the economy is "more real" to politicians, than our physical world. He went on to say how the economy is such a factor in our lives today, that we often forget that it is just a man made system. I believe that we should take care of the environmental problems at hand right now. We do not know how much time we have to solve them and they are the problems that will take hundreds of years to reverse. It is sad how we have betrayed the land which we came from for our own creation. 

McKibben also spoke of the need to stop the mentality of "Growth" being the answer. America has long been a country of progress and this is a lot of people's answer to solve environmental problems. He speaks of the need for a halt of this growth. I came up with an idea a few months ago for a "Big Pause". This pause wouldn't just be sitting back and relaxing, but looking at what we have, what we are up against, and how to deal with it. 

Overfishing Our Oceans

       In today's waters, out of check fishing has put some species in great danger. The problem with overfishing is that it not only kills off a single species, but disrupts an ecosystem. For example the Indian ocean has seen a huge population growth in jellyfish, due to a lack of fish predators. The methods used for mass fishing today are rather questionable too. Huge nets are used to catch the fish and this often will trap other species such a turtles and sharks. Even though the stock of fish is in peril, a market still exists so people will still supply.

       The main force that is driving the fishing frenzy is greed. The fisherman know that populations are being depleted, but every company only thinks about the coming years haul and the fact that there are still enough fish to make a profit. This is a greed of the present, with no regard to the future. The fisheries just plan to move to a new fish once one is depleted. This business model is profitable, even if it a boom and bust for local fisheries. There is always going to be demand and then there will be those willing to meet it, no matter what the cost. A man can get rich off of a few good fishing seasons and then walk away from the business and leave the fishermen with out a job or fish to catch.

       The reason this can keep happening is the lack of regulation on the oceans. Past the coastline, the ocean is no one's territory and the only laws that can be put into effect are international laws which can be hard for every country to reach a settlement on. Even with laws in place, it is still hard to actually patrol an ocean for illegal fishing. An Island Civilization would stop the harvest of these fish because they would not be allowed to tamper with it at all. Bluefin Tuna was in serious danger of being depleted, with the population only 15% of what it was historically. There was a vote to determine a severe cut on the fishing of Bluefin in the Mediterranean. The cut was not enacted as most votes were against and a choice was made. The choice that was made was economy over environment. In an Island Civilization world, Nature would have rights over a situation like this. The selfishness here is putting human desires above planetary needs. Until the Earth is given respect for what it produces, selfish slaughter will continue till the point of no return. 

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bluefin-tuna-stocks-threatened-cites-japan-monaco&page=2

   

Summary and Reflection on Island Civilization

In Roderick Frazier Nash’s, Island Civilization, he addresses the problem of our planet in peril of environmental devastation. He presents us with a solution that is not so human centered and instead takes into effect the rights of our the earth itself.

Nash reminds us of something that many of us forgot our never actually realized; That we created the boundary between civilization and wilderness. The earth has no sanctioned land for development. It is only humans, who in our quest for organization and control deemed some places conquered. It was only when we became so powerful that we were now in control of the wilderness, did we realize the value of it. Nash says that Americans were generally surprised to find out that the frontier was closed. It seemed to be an unlimited resource, an abundance of wild fire that would never really go out. But in less than a century, it had been mapped, settled, and even had a railroad built across it. When the industrial revolution had set in, the wilderness changed from something to be feared and conquered, to a recreational destination.
It wasn’t until people perceived the wilderness to be valuable, did they attempt to preserve it. When people started to appreciate nature, environmentalism was started. Yet, even though laws and actions were being made to protect the Earth, it was only for the benefit and enjoyment of humans that we started too. We thought about our future and how the Earth wouldn’t be able to properly provide for us .
Nash introduces a plan that calls for priority to be given to the planet instead of humans. His solution of “Island Civilization” calls for all human development to be confined to closed off sectors from nature or “islands”. Natures process would not be interfered with except in the deemed areas of these islands. People and nature would be completely cut off for the good of the planet and the only contact would be someone choosing to venture out into the wilderness by choice. Even then, Nash goes as far to say that no permanent shelter or even small agriculture would be allowed outside the walls of civilization. Never has man put himself behind something. The value of the life of a single human being today is arguably at its highest in history with the medical technology available to sustain life longer and much money invest in life insurance. Death is a major inconvenience in the world these days. The question this raises is how much is a man worth compared to nature. Is a man worth a forest? How about a mountain range or river? Or is it just a single tree? All of these things will certainly be around longer than a man.
For the “Island Civilization” plan to actually work, man must first re-appropriate his value with the Earth’s. This will require a lot of new restrictions and boundaries that people are just not use to. For so long we have expected the Earth to provide for us and give nothing back in return. Now to be “good neighbors” to the planet, we must pull our weight in the global ecosystem. Will man’s inherent greed hold us back from realizing such a plan? Maybe we will never look far enough into the future to solve long term problems that span even longer than one hundred years. Either way, a solution needs to be agreed on soon, by the whole population and I believe the Earth will need to be granted certain rights of humans for it to be effective.