Environmentally Friendly Holidays

Thanksgiving is supposed to be a time to be thankful for what we have.  This holiday, like most, has been much skewed from its original meaning.  Instead of being thankful for what we have, we instead over eat, over use, over indulge, and typically don’t do much to be thankful for the earth and all that it’s provided for us.  I want this year’s thanksgiving to be different for me and for many others out there.

I think there is many different ways to have an environmentally friendly thanksgiving.  My first suggestion I came up with when researching my last blog entry.  It is to plant a tree.  This is a great activity that gets the whole family involved and can become an environmentally healthy and fun sustainable tradition.  It would also be fun to remember past holidays by having different trees to visit in the future. 

One of the biggest ways I am going to change my thanksgiving this year is by trying to incorporate reducing, reusing and recycling into the holidays.  Instead of over eating, over using, and over buying I am going to try to work with what I have and buy and consume a much smaller amount than previous years.  I don’t believe this will be a challenge because for myself, and I’m sure many others, just being aware of my affects on the environment during the holidays is a change from previous years.  This awareness paired with trying to become more sustainable in a fun way, should make it a breeze. 

After recently watching, No Impact Man, he gave me the idea to buy locally grown food for the thanksgiving meal as well.  This way I know its fresh, local and one of the best ways to help have a more environmentally friendly Thanksgiving.  And lastly, I want this Thanksgiving to really have its original intent of being thankful for what I have.  This is going to be my biggest goal for thanksgiving to accomplish.  I want to encourage my family to talk about what they are thankful for and why.  I think this can be started by explaining why I want to do these different environmentally friendly holiday inclusions.  I hope my family isn’t too set in their ways with holiday traditions and will make room for new ones.

Tree Plantings Importance in Other Countries

After hearing you talk about Chief Jake Swamp and the tree planting ceremony, I wanted to learn more about why planting a tree was such a big occasion for different cultures.  The most interesting use for trees that I found was the people from the forests of India.  In their culture, trees have a special place in economic, cultural, healthcare, and especially in ceremonies. A number of tribes are known to exist in forests and forests are their sole livelihood as well.

 Both in rural and urban India, trees are worshiped in different forms. Many traditional ceremonies such as marriage, birth, death, and festivals are celebrated by either tree planting or by worshiping a tree. To give few examples, neem and pupil trees are planted during various occasions in every village, even people conduct marriages for these plants, which is known to bestow good times  to the village and families who live there. Marriages are performed under ‘the Ashwathakatta’ and pupil tree married together. The same exists in different forms in different parts of India. Tree planting on burial ground is another age old tradition, one that has many beneficial aspects for the environment.  These trees are planted with purpose and with the intent of saving and preserving them.

One of the first ways trees are used is in weddings.  In this tree ceremony, newly wedded couples plant native tree plants to mark their married life. These ceremonies are the important occasions, because over thousands of people from hundreds of villages have participated. In this culture people have chosen this type of tree planting ceremony as their way to register the marriage.

Tree planting ceremonies at funerals are also popular. Local people believe that after a person death, his body parts will decompose slowly and absorbed by tree roots. Then they worship the tree as a person by performing ritual pooja. They also believe that trees are the vehicle or messenger from earth to heaven and vice-versa. Different families select different tree species to plant for their loved ones.  Ceremonies like these bring people closer to nature and help the environment simultaneously.  I believe it would make significant improvements in our environment if we adapted some of these ceremonies in our society more regularly.

   

Where do the other phones and the Black Berrys go to Decompose?

After watching Terry Tempest William’s interview on campus, it made me want to learn more about e-waste, especially relevant to the use of cell phones.  From my research on the topic, I have realized that cell phones are giving computers and monitors some competition for the largest contributor to the world’s growing e-waste problem. It is becoming an extremely growing problem to have these toxic electronics clogging landfills and polluting our air and water supplies.

The average American gets a new cell phone every 18 to 24 months.  This is making old phones one of the largest toxic materials thrown out.  Many of these phones contain hazardous materials like lead, mercury, cadmium, flame retardants and arsenic.  According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Americans discard 125 million phones each year.  This means from cell phones alone, there is 65,000 tons of waste. I believe there needs to be more incentives available for people to keep their phones longer.

Luckily, like Terry Tempest Williams, there is a new breed of electronics recyclers that are stepping in to help.  Lee County has 731 tons of e-waste and there is no federal mandate to recycle electronics in Florida, but one place you can recycle your old cell phones is Call2Recycle.  It is a nonprofit organization that offers consumers and retailers in the United States and Canada simple ways to recycle old phones. Consumers can enter their zip code on the group’s website and be directed to a drop box in their area. Most major electronics retailers, like Best Buy also participate in programs that offer Call2Recycle drop-boxes in their stores. Call2Recycle recovers the phones and sells them back to manufacturers, which either refurbish and resell them or recycle their parts for use in making new products. This helps to reduce, reuse, and recycle; as well as properly disposing toxic chemicals.   

Neither the United States nor Canada currently mandates electronics recycling of any kind at the federal level, but a few states are getting into the act at their own initiative. California passed the first cell phone recycling law in North America. As of July 1, 2006, electronics retailers doing business there must have a cell phone recycling system in place in order to legally sell their products.  This is just a start to solving a problem that is in need of much attention.  We need more public policies on e-waste and consumers need to be more aware of e-waste.

Estero Bay- Field Trip

One of the most interesting things I found out on this field trip was that it is the first aquatic preserve to be established in Florida.  It is also one of the most productive estuaries in the state. The Estero bay preserve has a wide variety of wildlife.   Some of the wildlife includes: the bald eagle, gopher tortoises, fiddler crabs, slash pines, and live oaks. This preserve includes the water, inlets, and islands the surround the area. The preserve was beautiful and I hope to go on a bike ride that ends with a water front picnic there soon.  But my favor part of this field trip by far was listing to the elderly lady talking about the way Fort Myers Beach used to be. 

She made me realize how much damage and reshaping of land a hurricane can do.  It did make me worry though about how much more damage a big hurricane can do to the current Fort Myers Beach.  There is so much more growth and homes and people to be affected if a storm was to hit our area. 

It also disappointed me to hear how clear the water used to be on Fort Myers Beach.  Hearing that along with seeing the old houses reminds me of my grandparents’ house in the Bahamas.  All of my mom’s family lives in the Bahamas and in my time since a kid I have watched the water progressively get dirtier and harder to see through.  This has a lot of consequences for the sea plants and animals that depend on the sunlight for survival. 

I found this while research more about the early days of Fort Myers Beach.  "This land is free..." so the rumor ran."Come to Florida, come to Estero Island. Live on this land five years; clear it; farm it; improve it---and it is yours."

            Learning about the history of the island was much more interesting hearing it from someone who actually lived in that time and remembered it for how it was, rather than reading about it in a text book.  The sea grape jelly and lemonade was much appreciated too.  The only thing I would have changed was that I wish I had taken your advice and used the mosquito wipes.

Misunderstandings and the importance of Alligators in SWF

Alligators, in varying forms, have survived since the age of the dinosaurs and through extreme planetary and temperate differences.  They are one of the oldest and most powerful creatures on the planet but are now facing their biggest challenge.  Humans are taking over their natural habitats because they like the warmer weather.  The alligator is one out twenty five crocodilians in the world.  One common misconception about the alligator, that I also thought wrong, was that alligators aren’t green.  They are a combination of black, grey, and brown.  They just appear green because algae, vegetation or duck grass is covering them. 

One of the scarier facts I learned was that nearly all of the fatal alligator attacks have been in Florida.  I believe this is because this is one of the areas they thrive the most; and it is also one of the most over populated areas by humans.  We are literally building and moving onto their homes and they are attacking in order to protect themselves and where they live.  The American alligators are extremely important for the ecosystems in which they occur. Their nesting activities create peat and species, such as the Florida Red-bellied turtle, to keep their eggs inside alligator nests. By making alligator holes, the alligator helps a lot of animals to survive the dry season. Alligators also keep other predatory species in check.  

Many people ignore Alligators benefits to the environment because they are territorial, and they can and will eat just about anything that has meat on it.  Alligators have the capability to live up to 80 years in captivity and have so many ecological benefits that they are considered to be a keystone species.  This is because: it regulates animal pollution by being able to eat basically any prey, they dig holes in the dry season to provide irrigation, nesting birds use their presence as a place to lay eggs away from raccoons, turtles lay their eggs in alligator nests, and more.  Alligators are also highly important for our economy.   Their commercial use has made a lot of money in tourism and business.  And they have been a cultural influence because of their use in movies and as mascots.

Echo- Sustainable Living

What I took away most from our field trip to the Echo farm was the idea of using what you have to create what you need.  I found Echo’s ability to overcome challenges to be incredible.  They have to test their seeds/ food so that they can thrive in many different ecosystems.  To do this, they made six different areas to cultivate, harvest, and use its resources to the best of their ability.  These different systems include: Tropical Monsoon, Urban Gardens, Semi-Arid Tropics, Tropical Highlands, Tropical Rain Forest, and Hot Humid Low Lands. These different ecosystems each had their own difficulties to overcome.

 The interns found innovative, sustainable and extremely creative ways to find a multitude of food that can be shipped as seeds, grown in these areas, maintained by tools and techniques (which they provide) and provide education on how to make there food sustainable.  Some of the other things I found to be really interesting was their ability to turn cow manure into gas for cooking and lighting, the sawdust cooker, solar food dryer, and the use of bicycles for power. Echo also incorporated the used of local animals in these areas to help create and sustain their food.  Some of them include: sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, tilapia, and rabbits. They used these animals to help main tain the different ecosystems.  The idea of using what you have to make what you need is what Echo is all about. 

This type of education is necessary to help the poor the hungry and us.  I think the food source around the world is going to continue to decrease and we are going to need to start adapting these types of technology and resources for sustainable living. Having our own backyard of urban gardens would greatly reduce our carbon footprint, allow us to feel closer to nature, and become healthier.  This may also help to have people conduct their lives in a manner that is consistent with sustainability and better respect of humanity’s relationship with the Earth and its ability to take care of us as long as we take care of it.

Week 3- BP Oil Spill Needs to Not be Forgotten

It really bothers me that the oils spill seems to be almost forgotten.  Now since most on the oil is out of sight, it is also now out of most people’s minds.  The National Incident Command put out a report that said only 26% of the originally 205 million gallons of oil is left.  That 26% is bellow the water surface, deep in the sand, or evaporated in the atmosphere.  It hasn’t gone anywhere; it is now just “out of sight.”  One of the main problems with people not caring about the oils spill anymore is the lack of research that come from people giving up on the issue. These isn’t the first oil spill in our history and unfortunately, due to a lack of concern after the initial clean up, I don’t think it is going to be our last.  It also worries me that we don’t know the full multitude of the consequences we are going to face because of this spill.

After reading many articles on the cleanup efforts, I realized that there is not enough government involvement and research on oil spills and their clean up procedures.  I think this is in part due to the amount of government officials being closely affiliated and supported by big oil companies like BP.  I hope the public and media don’t forget about this issue to fast and demand more education on clean up and prevention of oil spills.  Unfortunately, both government officials and big oil companies are not trying to research ways clean up oil, instead they are counting on it not happening again.  That’s where I believe we come in as an environmental university.  I think it is our responsibility to step up where others have fallen flat, and conduct our own research on methods of oil clean up and research on oils consequences on our environment. 

There is still around 50 million gallons of oil left from the spill.  I hope this problem and it’s affect on Florida’s economy is not soon forgotten.  I believe we as a nation, especially Floridians (because of how much it was affected) are the ones responsible to make sure we don’t let oil companies get away with leaving 50 million gallons of oil and cleaning up the initial oil with chemicals.  More research and restrictions need to be implemented immediately.  We need to learn from our mistakes; otherwise they are destined to repeat themselves.