Nature: a work of art

My most magical experience with the non-human world has to be my trip down to Patagonia in the southern tip of Chile. I had never seen nor do I think I will ever see a more beautiful place in the world. The landscape, so untouched by human society was picturesque. Everywhere I turned, every scene I took in was a work of art. No one on earth can create something as asthetically breathtaking as the landscape of Patagonia. Dotting this landscape, of rolling hills, calm streams, massive glaciers and towering mountains, was a plethora of wild animals, rarely seen elsewhere in the world, such as a variety of llamas.

Of course we should save nature. First, as evidenced above, nature provides man a work of art upon which to observe. In all corners of the world nature provides us with beautiful images and creations that cannot be reproduced by any human. Second, many plants and animals provide humans with services both directly by food, clothing or medicine or indirectly by maintaining the delicate balance in nature (which was mentioned in previous posts). What we do can destroy that balance if we are not careful. Once it is gone it will never be back. The earth belongs to all living things not just humans. We need to make sure we live and let live.

Nature is the Greatest Therapist

I had a similar experience to what Zaina had in Africa. I went to Zambia for a volunteer work when I was a high school student and I felt that wild nature, which is “the non-human world,” was something that cannot be replaced and explained with technology and economy. Green trees, animals, and landscapes in Zambia reminded me scenes from Lion King. They are exactly the same images in the movie. In particular, I had an interesting and thrilling engagement with baboon, an African and Asian World Old monkey, on the way to the Victoria Fall. A lot of baboons, zebras, and prairie dogs were around me and they were hiding in the trees and shrubs. A tour guide told me in advance that it was dangerous to show food and drinks to animals because they know they were tasty. However, my friend was holding a bottle of juice and a bag of potato chips in her hands. A big baboon (I think it is a boss) approached us from behind and shockingly, it scratched my friend’s bag pack. She freaked out and threw juice and potato chips into the air. The baboon took them and opened the bottle of juice using its hands like human beings do and drank all of it in front of us. I was surprised that it knew how to open the bottle. It was a thrilling and scary moment because the baboon could attack us as a group to take our food. Luckily, he was satisfied with juice and chips and left without harming us. The picture that I attached is the baboon I am talking about. It was the most thrilling engagement with a wild animal that stays in my mind forever.

I argue that we should definitely concern “saving nature” because we cannot live without beautiful and powerful nature. As stated before, nature is irreplaceable in our lives. I was so sentimental and emotional when I had engagements with the wild nature in Zambia. My eyes were full of tears when I saw a beautiful sunset at the horizon. Also, I had an interesting experience watching wild animals eating food and walking in front of us. The nature gives me power. I was full of energy after a trip to Zambia. In fact, I was having an exhausting life in high school because of a lot of assignments and exams. However, after I saw the sunset and had interactions with wild animals and nature, I felt like school work was nothing compared to greatness of nature. I would say that it is the greatest therapist in the world. I do not think this phenomenon can be explained with technology and economic activities. This simply comes from the bottom of the heart. It is true that technology and economic activities are beneficial and helpful for our lives in many ways; however, nature is more important than them. In fact, many wild animals are disappearing because they lose their habitats and food because of selfish human activities. We are destroying nature because of egoism. This is sad. We need to realize how much power we get from nature and appreciate the fact that we are fortunate to have beautiful nature. In other words, we cannot live without nature, so we have to save it. I will do my best to save nature with various effective ways. I will start researching facts of extinct animals and methods to save them. This blogpost is a significant one to reconsider how great nature is.

Biodiversity Please

This past September I was on vacation in Fiji. I was staying on a tiny island resort in the Pacific. The "resort" was a collection of miniature huts build on the sand. In the mornings the staff would scan the water around the island for manta rays. When they saw them, they would ring a large bell. On the second morning I was staying on the island, the manta rays were spotted and I went rushing down to the water. We climbed into small boats and went out to where the manta rays were swimming. I put on my scuba gear and jumped into the water. Beneath me there was an entire school of manta rays. Each animal was the size of a small car. They were the most amazing color blue and made little clicking noises as they swam along. They were communicating using echolocation like a dolphin. I could not believe that I was able to interact with these animals in such an intimate manner. They were easily the most beautiful creatures that I have seen in person.

There is no question that we should save nature. Firstly, there is such an amazing variety animals on our planet. From polar bears to manta rays to centipedes every animal on our planet has some value and should be cherished. We have lost many animals during the last couple decades and we are on the path to loose many more. We should protect these animals simply because they are miracles of nature and part of our environment. Secondly, we need many of the animals in our world. Besides the animals that we eat, animals like bees are an intrinsic part of our ecosystem. Without bees and animals like them our ecosystem would cease to function as we know it. We must work to save our ecosystem and saving our animals is an intrinsic part of it.

Monkeys, Zebras, Elephants! What more could you ever want?

The monkey stole my banana! I was packing my bag for our hike to the peak of Mount Meru, the second highest mountain in Africa reaching 15,000 feet in height, located in the Arusha region of Tanzania. I left a couple of bananas on the top of my bag to remind me to have one before the start of our hike and then pack them. I went to ask our leader a question about the hike, when I heard some of my classmates (who were on the trip with me) laughing. I went to see what was so funny, and there was a monkey eating my bananas! From that point, I knew this hike was going to be an interesting and adventurous one. So the question “What's the most thrilling/magical/enchanting engagement you've had with the non-human world? “ can be answered by saying: reaching the top of Mount Meru was the most exhilarating thing I’ve done. You know that accomplished feeling you get when your done with a 25 page paper and you have it printed out, perfected and ready to hand in? Multiply that feeling by 1000 and add a beautiful view. I felt like I was alone- and honestly I felt like I appreciated nature. My trip to Tanzania made me realize that there is a certain feeling nature gives us that cannot be replaced with any technology in the world. Being on a safari and seeing elephants and giraffes in the wild, made me realize that nature is all we have- and we’re ruining it.


I went back to Jordan, I shared my pictures and memories, but then totally forgot about that feeling of serenity and calmness that nature provided me with. Is "saving nature" something we should concern ourselves with? Why, or why not? The answer is YES, we should concern ourselves with nature. Truthfully, before this class- I prioritized the economy. I never took the environmental concerns THAT seriously. I knew we were depleting the earth’s resources, but I never knew what we were really doing was destroying the nature to build tall skyscrapers. I know that we have discussed technologies that can help us with the damage we’ve already done. But we need to stop damaging because those technologies won’t give us the same satisfaction that nature would. Imagine walking down the street and not seeing a single tree- but instead seeing those big artificial trees that are just machines? If we don’t concern ourselves with nature- we will lose it. And when we do lose it , we will realize that we miss it and want it back; but then it would probably be too late.

In conclusion – I never really thought of the environment- but when I saw the beauty of nature, I never wanted to let that moment go. I was walking down the street this morning and picked up a leaf because its colors were so beautiful. If continue giving priority to the economy and technology over the environment- each one of may never see the site they shared with us over these blogs again.

Recycling Minerals From Used Electronics in Japan

"Japan Recycles Minerals From Used Electronics"
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/business/global/05recycle.html?ref=earth




Kosaka, a small city in Akita, Japan, has a brilliant recycling system of minerals. Many technological devices come from China to Japan nowadays but China decided to block exports of all rare earths to Japan two weeks ago. This gives a huge impact for Japanese industries because Japan is poor in natural resources. Japanese companies need to find new ways to find natural resources because natural resources are necessary for technological development and creation.
It is a superb idea to recycle minerals from used electronics. In fact, Tetsuzo Fuyushiba, a former land minister and now opposition party member said “We’ve literally discovered gold in cellphones.” Many Japanese companies, such as Dowa holdings and Hitachi Ltd, support environmentally friendly activities by committing their CSR obligations. As we discussed in class, we need to use natural resources wisely and recycle them since we have a certain limited amount left. I hope this recycling system will be used in the rest of the world and help saving resources.

Foundation For Wind Power

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/science/earth/12wind.html?ref=technology

The article announces a plan to construct an underwater electrical transmission line. The proposed line would run from northern New Jersey to southern Virginia. This is one of the most congested electrical grid areas in the country which means that a new transmission line would greatly reduce the energy lost in the current inefficient system. While the new line will be used to transmit dirty energy for the moment, the new transmission line would easily allow for the construction of offshore wind farms. These wind farms offer continuous green energy that when coupled with an efficient transmission system could greatly reduce pollution from energy production. It is with new transmission lines like these that our grid makes the first steps toward green electricity!

Environmental legislation that works!

http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/04/news/economy/DC_bag_tax/index.htm

As many of you know, when you go to the store in DC you have to pay $0.05 to get a plastic bags. The amount of revenue that the tax is generating is way lower than what legislators expected to receive from the tax. That's a good thing! The tax is dissuading people from using plastic bags. Eventually when the US is out of these economic times, DC can serve as a model for other cities for adopting a bag tax policy, which will decrease plastic bag usage across America.

Baby Steps- We're getting there!

It’s pretty hard trying to find something uplifting after this class taught me all of the things we’ve managed to do to our environment. Looking through my blog posts I feel like a point I’ve tried to make is that small steps are required in making a drastic difference. People need to realize what I have realized in this class to start making a difference. Publicitiy is a huge deal – people need to see the actions that others are making in order for them alter their way of living. People never want to be the “odd one out” so if everyone’s doing it why shouldn’t they. So I came across some ideas that people are doing to become green.

In class we were discussing how sports stadiums consume ridiculous amounts of energy, well fellow classmates- they are doing something about it!

http://www.nrdc.org/media/2010/100908.asp

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/08/sports-stadiums-turn-to-s_n_755462.html

Football, hockey and baseball stadiums all want to incorporate solar panels to reduce their energy consumption. They have realized that without the environment the sports they play wouldn’t work (iced ponds to skate on, fields of grass to play on, etc..) . I feel like sports influence a lot of people in the American culture, and if publicized properly, many people would want to replicate what the sport stadiums are doing. California has already implemented solar panels but now so are the Seattle Seahawks! Hopefully all the teams will, that way their fans would probably do it to because they want to be devoted fans!

There were two other articles which I really enjoyed. What I really like about the environmental revolution, is that people are becoming really creative. They realize that people don’t want to find green solution inconvenient, so they are making these new technologies which wont effect people’s ways of lives. In Europe they are using body heat from public transportation to heat up nearby apartment buildings. An example of this is in Paris in this article: http://www.enn.com/energy/article/41765

Lastly, we discussed windmills in class, and how a lot of people in Nantucket were against them because they don’t look nice and ruin the natural aesthetic. People are now creating new, modern ways of making environmental methods look cool and trendy.
Check out this site to see some pictures of new and improved buildings that your jaw would probably drop at the site of! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/12/green-technology-the-most_n_758552.html#s154112

Grab and go: Convenience VS Environmental Impact

I have never had to make a food choice until I attended American University. When I lived in Jordan, I used to go the vegetable market with my mother, I remember I used to marvel at how the fruit and vegetable were placed and I remember asking her, how do you choose which ones you get? She would give me a break down of which fruits/vegetables would come from neighboring countries then she would go on to explaining pesticides used and how she doesn’t want our vegetables to be sprayed with chemicals or genetically modified. At this point I was off in la-la-land, thinking of what I was going to do later on that evening or what movie I wanted to watch. It wasn’t until I came to college, and I went grocery shopping for the first time, I remembered what my mother was trying to teach me. I was SHOCKED at the size of a cucumber here. It was nearly a foot long! In Jordan cucumbers were tiny and full of taste. So that alone makes me think of genetically modified food, I personally do not enjoy the taste AT ALL. So basically when I’m choosing my groceries, truthfully I don’t really have the environment in mind (after this course I assure you I will). As a college student I have convenience in mind. I buy things I like to cook when I’m craving a homemade meal, along with the easy to make/grab and go snacks.

When I grocery shop, I feel the items with the greatest environmental impact are the meats and poultry, along with the water bottles. Growing up with Jordan, there was a huge water problem. If you would drink tap water you were bound to get sick. Restaurants wouldn’t give you the choice of tap or bottled, you had to buy the bottle. So when I came to DC I bought the Brita filter, but for some reason out of habit always bought bottled water, which I found more convenient and enjoyable.

Another big environmental impact is DELIVERY! My friends and I would joke around saying that people sleep to dream and in college we dream to sleep. If that’s the case- when do we have time to make our own meals! So we use our computers to order the food, then they get the message and fire up their ovens, they then put the food in disposable plastic containers, throw in 5 or 6 sets of plastic utensils (even though you just ordered one meal), and put the meal in its own plastic bag and the drink in the other bag and then put it all in one large plastic bag, then they drive it over to your apartment, and keep the car running while they run up to your floor and wait for your payment. You then eat what you can and throw everything else away.

If there’s one thing I noticed in this class is everything that has a huge environmental impact is convenient. We’ve based our lives around convenience and now the green dream is trying to make us change our methods. Saving the environment is key once people notice it (it took me a SIS course with depressing books to realize we’re punishing future generations by our actions) but until then they are just going to continue doing what easiest for them: People will eat imported foods and wines, buy huge amounts of meats and poultry and stash it their freezer just to buy some more the next time they go grocery shopping, and lastly like me- buy more and more plastic bottles because it taste better and is easier to just grab and continue with your life.

We Consume Far More Than We Eat :-(

Like Aya and Chris I do not consider the environment when I make food choices. I usually go grocery shopping about once every two weeks. An average shopping trip would probably include: 1 loaf of bread, 2 onions, 2 tomatoes, 2 cans of corn, 2 batches of asparagus, 3 boxes of pasta or a bag of rice, a gallon of milk, a box of relatively healthy cereal, 1 wedge of cheese, 12 eggs, 2 packets of chicken (under 6 pounds total), 1 jar of peanut butter, a pound of deli turkey, 1 jar of grape jelly, 2 jars/bottles of tomato/teriyaki sauce, 1 to 5 bottles of foreign wine, and/or 1 two liter bottle of juice/tonic water. In addition to this, I usually buy about three meals a week from some sort of takeout/restaurant (be it the ward cafe or cafe deluxe). Normally, when I purchase food I am thinking about taste, health, ease, price. I believe that I eat relatively healthy minimally processed food. This is better for the environment than highly processed prepackaged food. The distance that my food has to travel does not factor at all into my decision in the food that I purchase. The fact that I choose chicken or turkey over beef is much more a matter of personal preference than any environmental concerns. Often when I purchase some form of food from a restaurant or takeout.

I would imagine that either the chicken or the wine that I have consumed over the past week has had the largest environmental impact. While the chicken is most likely a domestic product, the animal requires and consumes a lot of food to grow and develop before it can be slaughtered. Normally the wine that I drink is from France, Spain, Chile, or Argentina. All of these locations require that the wine be shipped over vast distances before I bring it home. Before this, however, the vineyards have to burn mountains of fossil fuels growing, harvesting, and processing the grapes.

I am ashamed

When I am making food choices, I have to admit that environmental concerns is the last thing on my mind. There are basically three things I consider. I, quite sensibly I think, buy things that taste good. That's number 1. Number 2 I buy things that I can cook. I consider myself a beginner in that field so the majority of the things I buy is boxed, canned or frozen. Finally, I buy reasonably priced food for a college student. In other words, cheap food. I do one stop shopping at Giant, try to buy tasty non-brand food that's quick and easy to make. The environment sadly doesn't cross my mind.

Most of the food I've eaten in the past few days is pre-prepared and not locally grown. That means there is a lot of preparation that goes into my food after it is grown or killed and put in the store for me to buy. For example the environmental impact of me buying corn at a local market is very low because it is just pulled from the stalk, washed and sold. The canned corn that I usually eat needs to be transported from the farm to another place to add additives and packed away in a can and then transported to the supermarket.

My Food Choice...relatively good for the enviornment?

When I make food choices, I do not have particular environmental considerations. However, I believe I make environmentally friendly food choices unconsciously because I seldom eat junk food, such as hamburger and pizza, and have soft drinks, such as coke. To be honest, I sometimes eat McDonald’s but it happens only approximately three times a year! I believe that food which is bad for health is bad for the environment as well. My view is that eating locally grown organic food is healthy and helps saving the environment. Thus, I try to eat organic food as much as possible.

I ate pasta with Japanese (kind of teriyaki) sauce last night and I had Japanese rice with miso soup for today’s lunch. I rarely eat meat because I was a vegetarian when I lived in Switzerland. Later, I quit being a vegetarian because it was hard to live as a vegetarian in Japan. However, I still hesitate to eat meat because I feel so sad when I think about how animals are slaughtered. Thus, I basically eat carbohydrate and vegetables. I chose cheese and milk for consuming protein. I drink at least two litters of water using Brita and a tumbler, which helps saving the environment rather than using plastic bottles and paper cups.

I do not think my choice of food and beverage has had the greatest environmental impact because I do not eat meat frequently. Eating beef is bad for the environment and I just found out an interesting fact about it. The article “How Our Food Choices can Help Save the Environment” by Steve Boyan, PhD (http://www.earthsave.org/environment/foodchoices.htm) says that people can save 3,000 to 5,000 gallons of water for every pound of beef they avoid to eat. This article talks about how much fossil fuel is used and carbon dioxide and wastes are exhausted when people consume beef. According to the article, it seems my food choice is not bad for the environment.

However, one bad thing for the environment regarding my food choices is consumption of coffee. I drink coffee at least four times a week. It is bad for the environment because coffee is shipped thousands of miles and contains huge amounts of embodied energy and pollution. I should find another source of caffeine to keep me awake then.

In sum, it is interesting to analyze my food choices because now I am conscious about what kind of food I eat everyday. Eating is a daily activity that people can never stop; therefore, it is important to make wise food choices for the environment.