October 27th- Reader (Leopold & Douglas)

In today's class, we discussed two chapters from the Reader.

Leopold:

• Aldo Leopold was an author, scientist, ecologist, and an environmentalist. He was very influential in the development of modern environmental ethics and in the movement of wilderness conservation. If it were not for his push for this, the environment would be much worse than it is today. He has a foundation named after him that sets out to raise awareness for the environment. 

Douglas:

• Marjory Douglas was a writer, feminist, and an environmentalist. She wrote the book called "The Everglades: River of Grass", which is her most famous piece of writing. It defined the popular conception of the Everglades as a treasure of Florida, rather than a useless and worthless swamp. The excerpt from her book that was included in the Reader was very interesting, and although I had previously visited the Everglades and had an appreciation for it, this made me realize just how special it is. Overall to was a great excerpt and I would love to read the entire book. 

September 1st- Earth Charter & Ecological Footprint

Today we went over the document titled "The Earth Charter" and our ecological footprints. The "Earth Charter" is related to principles that we should all keep in mind about the earth, such as respect the earth and care for the community. The document was very interesting and presented information that I did not know, and had never considered. The other thing we did was review our ecological footprint. Even though I don't travel much, nor do I eat meat everyday, my ecological footprint was still 4.2 planets, which means that if everyone lived like me, we would need an additional four planets to support our lifestyle. This is ridiculous owing to the fact that we only have one planet. These two things, the reading and the activity, were eye opening and a shock. We need to change our ways if we want to survive.

September 22nd- Plan B 4.0 Chapters 3 and 4

In today's class we heard two presentations of chapters from Plan B 4.0, Chapters 3 and 4.

Chapter 3: Climate Change and the Energy Transition

• Chapter 3 was in regards to climate change and the changes that it is causing on our planet. These climate changes included rising temperatures, melting ice, and the decline of oil and coal burning. All of these factor contribute to the changes in our climate and the the decrease in the ozone layer. If this continues in future years will end up destroying the human race. The group that presented this chapter did an excellent job in inserting the information into their presentation without simply writing everything on the slides. Overall it was a great presentation.

Chapter 4: Stabilizing Climate: An Energy Efficiency Revolution

• Chapter 4 was about how we can stabilize the climate to avoid future climate changes that can potentially be life-threatening to our population. These energy-efficient technologies include lightbulbs, zero-carbon buildings, and smarter energy grids. Hopefully, if we could all transition to these energy efficient technology then we could help make the situation better and not use as much energy as we are. Group 4 presented this chapter and they did a great job of doing so. They included great information and really presented rather than reading from the slides or just pointing to the information. 

These two chapter and groups were very informational. I learned a lot more about the climate situation and how we can be more energy efficient, and that, in the long run, can help us survive.

December 1st - Final Presentations

Today we presented our final presentations on various topics. Each group had a different topic, which they chose from a list that was provided to us. These were interesting and insightful topics into some sustainable practices and native plants, animals, and other organisms.

Reducing Energy Use (Group 1)

• An important factor and step towards sustainability is reducing our energy use, not only in the United States, but also worldwide. Some ways that we can be more energy efficient is by having energy efficient machines, such as dishwasher and washing machines. With these technologies, we also have to be more mindful of energy. In order to do so we should load up the dishwasher and washing machine rather than having one or two plates or a couple shirts in a load. By loading the machines up we can reduce the number or loads that we need to do and reduce the water usage in our homes. Other ways we can be more energy efficient include installing solar panels or using LED lights, insulating our homes to keep them cooler, walking, biking, or using public transportation in order to save gas, and using water-efficient toilets. There are various ways to be more energy efficient and we presented just a few ways to do so. 

Native Plants (Group 2)

• This presentation was very interesting. I actually didn't know a couple of plants that they presented and what they could be used for. They also explained what popular plants that are seen in Florida are used for, such as making pancakes and rubbing it on infections as an antibiotic lotion. White water lilies, for example, are used for bronchial problems and dermatological issues. Most of the plants that they introduced have medicinal qualities and can be helpful to know what each plant can be used for in case something happens when you're out in nature and that is the only thing you can find. 

Biomimicry (Group 3)

• Biomimicry mimics patterns that naturally occur in nature and in animals in order to be more sustainable. The goal of biomimicry is to create products, processes, and policies that are well-adapted to life on earth. One of the examples they provided was a building in Zimbabwe that mimics a mound of termites. These patterns are not only seen in animals but also in agriculture, such as the Colombian Coffee Farm System and Land Institute's Natural Systems Agriculture Project. The latter is a model of food production that focuses on sustainable methods that deviate from GMOs and other "unnatural" production of foods. 

Beekeeping (Group 4)

• Bees are very important in the ecosystem. The Queen Bee is at the top of the hierarchy, then come the worker bees, and finally the drones. The Queen Bee is responsible for reproducing for the entire hive. Bees are important because they pollinate the flowers. Apiary, or bee yards, can differ in shape and size depending on the beekeepers preference. Beekeeping is done in order to collect the honey that bees make in order to jelly and beeswax for sale. Protective clothing is necessary in order to not get stung by the bees and beekeepers use smokers in order to calm down agitated bees so they don't escape or sting the beekeeper. 

Permaculture (Group 5)

• Permaculture is a system of agriculture and social principles that focus on simulating the patterns that are observed in natural ecosystems. On our field trip to ECHO we saw exactly how permaculture works. This includes sustainable ways to grow food and techniques to have different kinds of plants growing side by side so that they can work together. Permaculture practices include rainwater harvesting, sheet mulching, and fruit tree management. Within South Florida, permaculture is extremely important since we have a variety of plants that have different needs, such as high or low temperatures, and require more water than others. 

November 24th Class - Lee County Waste to Energy Plant

In today's class, we visited the Lee County Waste to Energy Plant. This field trip was cool because the main idea behind the plant is that this facility takes wasted garbage from all of the residents of Lee County, who put trash on their curb, and burns it up to make energy for the residents who make up Lee County. This facility processes 1,873 tons of waste per day and processes that waste into 57.3 megawatts clean energy. Most places around the nation have landfills that sit in residential communities, produces pollution and odors that residents that live near the fills breathe, and are atrocious toxic dumps that don't look good. Covanta, the company that makes these plants, saw landfills as a waste and took an innovative approach and created a system that recycles a substance that most people wouldn't think to be recyclable. The United States has a goal for 70% reduction of waste productions. With the innovative technology and development of Waste to Energy plants, Lee County was able to reach 65% reduction, while most counties and states sit around 30%. The plant essentially takes all of the garbage, burns it up, processes all of the heat through a turbine that produces the energy and processes it through multiple acting filters that clean the energy. 50 megawatts of the 57.3 megawatts produced get sold to Seminole Electric Cooperative, while the remaining energy that isn't sold is used to run the facility. This facility does more than just process waste into energy. The Lee County Waste to Energy Plant also processes materials to make tires and other metals that can be recycled and put back into the market to be sold. This multi-use facility has a model that should be present in counties and states all across the nation. There a countless landfills that exist in the United States that could be produced into clean energy and make recyclable products instead of sitting at a landfill being used for nothing but pollution. This type of facility will change the future and make energy accessible to everyone.

October 13th Class - Plan B 4.0 Ch. 9 & 10

With there being a lot of starvation in the world, chapter 9 talks about what is need to be done in order to feed the 8 billion people that Plan B wants to stabilize the planets population at. The first thing that the book talks about is raising land productivity, raising water productivity, localizing agriculture, and strategic reductions in demand. Before the 1950s, farmers were everywhere. In countries all over the world, farmers made up a good percentage of the population. This trend started to die as there became less and less farmers and more people working in the corporate world. As the number of farmers fell, so did the amount of food being produced, and the amount of local agriculture fell with those. The one important variable that didn't change with that is the population growth. There has been a huge increase in fertilizer uses from 1950 to 2008. Fertilizer use grew from 14 million tons to 175 million tons within that time. In order to grow the grains that we require, we need an abundance of soil moisture from irrigation and rainfall. It takes 1,000 tons of water to produce 1 ton of grain. 70% of the worlds water use is dedicated to irrigation. In order to raise irrigation efficiency, we need to switch less effective methods of irrigation and adopt more efficient methods of irrigation to increase the yield. We need to switch from flood and furrow systems into drip irrigation and overhead sprinkler irrigation systems. This will reduce water usage by 30% and reduce the amount of water lost by evaporation. The next thing is that we need to localize agriculture. Farming has recently been increasing over the last 5 years or so. As local food markets and movements are rising, so are the local diets. Diets are becoming more seasonal and local based on your location because there are so many different types of climate conditions that can grow certain crops better, faster, and more abundantly, in certain seasons as well. The last thing in this chapter was strategic reduction. The first thing that would need to be done in order for Plan B's method to work would be an all out educational effort to educate people of the plan. Plan B would halt the population growth at 8 billion people, and everyone would need to be educated in their efforts and follow the methods for it to work. We need to shift from more grain intensive use to less. Reducing the amount of grain use would also put less pressure on earths land and water resources. We should be eating less beef and more vegetables. When we do eat beef, we should be paying the full price of it and eat the higher quality beef that would come from grass-fed livestock, as opposed to grain fed livestock. This would greatly reduce the mass number of grain usage and waste to make livestock bigger to produce more beefs.

Chapter 10 talks about the actual movement itself and if we can mobilize fast enough. If there is one thing that history has shown in the past, it is that massive change is inevitable. Humans have an amazing ability to adapt to new things and lifestyles. It is a survival instinct that we have as the human species. We are heading toward death to our civilization and that massive change is needed if we are to get off that road. First we need to get rid of the corruption in government so government representatives won't be held up by businesses so they can make true decisions that can benefit the people and save the planet, like shifting taxes and subsidies. We need to stop lower taxes on income while raising those on environmentally destructive things. For example, a tax on coal incorporates increasing health care costs that come with the people mining the coal who breathe in that mined coal. We could just invest in clean energy sources such as wind and solar methods to create energy. The next big problem with mobilizing and making changes is changing our use of coal. Coal is the beginning of the end. Our coal consumption is a massive producer in air pollution. Coal plants have produced so much air pollution that 23,600 people die in the United States alone from power plant pollution. There are three main aspects to the mobilization effort; wartime mobilization, mobilizing to save civilization, and what we can do on the individual front. Wartime mobilization is the idea that drastic change will not occur until a big event occurs and really changes the human mindset. Like world war 2 changed from industrial to war mode to help war efforts instantly. If we waited too long to make a change, then something like that would need to happen. The next thing is we need to want to change. We need to want the change so we can adapt our lifestyles, make the proper movements to change things in the government and in legislation and restructure the economy to stabilize the climate, eradicate poverty, stabilize the population, and restore/preserve environmental support systems.

September 15th Class - Plan B 4.0 Ch. 1 & 2

Plan B 4.0 Mobilizing to Save Civilization is a novel written by environmentalist Lester R. Brown. Our world has been shaped into a monetary system that is run in the most cost efficient manor to make things as cheap as possible. This way of thinking in today's day and age is catastrophic to our futures, our children's futures, and the future of our planet. As resources are being depleted and climate change is darkening our future, we have shifted toward a new industrial revolution by investing in new sources of energy and changing how we live. Our planet is dying. The average person uses between 3-4 planets of resources to fund and provide the lifestyle that we live. This book explores the new lifestyle that our society is trying to conform to so we can survive on this planet. Chapter 1 talks about the weak links and the main problems that are causing states to fail, people to go hungry, and talk about what Plan B actually is. The world is struggling to feed the people that live in it. With food demand, there are three main components that make up this side of the equation. Those components are population growth, consumption of grain-based animal protein, and mass use of grain to fuel cars. On the supply side of the equation, soil erosion is decreasing food productivity down around 30% of the worlds croplands and depletion of top soil has been a growing problem over recent years. These factors are making it hard to plant and harvest food. In the past, people feared states that possessed too much power, like Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and Imperial Japan. Now there is worry about a lack of power amongst estates and this is cause civil wars, laws to no longer be followed, charisma lost among state leaders, and growth of terrorist groups. The book lists the top 20 states that are failing. Of those 20 top failing states, all but few are having more population growth than they are food production. Plan B has a lot in store for how to change our ways to stabilize the planet. Some of the components of Plan B are to get more energy from wind turbines, repairing and protect the natural systems that support mankind, cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2020, stabilize the population at 8 billion people, and eradicate poverty.


Chapter 2 talks about two imperative aspects to support life. Those two things are the two main components that make up our green and blue planet, land and water. Land is important because the top layer of land is top-soil. Soil erosion of that top layer has been growing with the integration of mass livestock agriculture, natural destruction from storms, and failure to keep the soil fertile. The next big thing concerns water, where the water tables are falling. Agriculture irrigation is shrinking and this mainly due to the fact that there are less farmers today than there were fifty to sixty years ago. The land is being dried out and lacking water with the climates raising temperature. We are also pulling a lot of water from aquifers and those aquifers are depleting. There is such a demand for water in cities that farmers aren't getting enough water to farm their crops. It is the governments issue to handle the distribution of water in local areas and, due to corruption in the government system with buyouts, they are giving corporations and cities the water that farmers need in order to provide food for citizens.

September 8th Class - FGCU Food Forest

Today we visited the FGCU Food Forest. The FGCU Food Forest is a student run permaculture garden that was first established in 2011. Permaculture is essentially the idea of plant agriculture that is organized and put together so that the different crops and plants compliment each other and help each other grow. There are a lot of different aspects to the Food Forest that make this garden beautiful. The founders of the Food Forest studied the land that they were given for a full year before they even planted a single crop or laid out the design for the garden. Things to consider when creating a permaculture garden include, but not limited to, land elevation, plant growth, root strength of crops, amount of crop production, irrigation demand for each crop, etc. For example, crops planted in low areas of elevation are planted there so they will receive more affixation that other crops because the low elevation works as a run-off to allow water to flow more abundantly to them. Another example is that there are crops that have weaker roots that other and are placed on the inside of the forest so they won't suffer from heavy winds. Crops that are planted along the perimeter of the garden are generally stronger in root strength so they can withstand heavy winds to help plants that aren't as resistant to those winds. The crops that weren't harvested correctly or fell too soon won't be wasted, but instead used along with mulch to make compost soil that can be placed around crops to keep the soil rich and consistently provide nutrients for plants that make up the Food Forest. Some of the plants and crops that make up the FGCU Food Forest are Papaya, Cranberry Hibiscus, Bananas, Jack Fruit, multiple species of berries, and multiple plants that act as natural medicine.

September 29th Class - Koreshan State Park

September 29th:

Today we visited Koreshan State Park. The Koreshan's founded the area in the late 1800s where they imported different trees and plants into the community for no purpose other than that they were aesthetically pleasing. They came from Chicago to Florida because they wanted to enjoy nature and escape the cold, harsh winters up north. They fished in the Estero River, dug canals, and were even one of the first electric providers in the area.

We started our field trip by taking canoes in groups of two and rowing down the Estero River. On our tour we saw a lot of Mangrove trees, but mainly Red Mangroves. Mangroves are important to our ecosystem because they provide nurseries for baby fish and other aquatic creatures. The roots of the mangroves protect them from harsh light and birds. There are also white and black mangroves, which filter salt.



Then we took a tour on foot and saw all kinds of other plants including Rosary Peas which are extremely toxic and can kill you, Beauty Berries, Cesar Weed which sticks to clothing and is where the idea of velcro came from, Resurrection Ferns, Cosa Nervosa (Wild Coffee), Air Potato which grow along a vine, drop to the ground, and then grow new again, Saw Palmetto, which has berries that benefit men with an enlarged prostate, Lichen (Algae and Fungus symbiotic relationship), Cabbage/Sable Palm (Florida's state tree) which has something called heart of palm that only grows once and if you harvest it the tree dies. It is surrounded by fire resistant coating to keep the tree alive and the rest of the tree burns at a low temperature. There was also Mother in Laws Tongue, Running Bamboo which can be used for construction and protection from the wind, Air Cactus, Key Lime Trees, Monkey Puzzle Tree, Grey Ghost Eucalyptus which glows in the moonlight, Red Pineapple, Mango Trees, and many more.

We also saw a few animals including Yellow Belly Sapsucker which is a type of Woodpecker that makes a line of sap come out the of the tree and bugs get stuck in the sap and they come back and feast later, as well as a Gopher Tortoise that was a 60 year old female with a burrow that went back 25 feet. They primarily eat grass and people can even eat them, tossing them on the fire and cooking them right in the shell.

Overall, this field trip was a blast, despite the threat of a torrential downpour raining us out. There was so much to see and we learned about so much, and you can't beat getting to canoe for a class!

October 20th Class - Calusa Nature Center

Today our class took a field trip to the Calusa Nature Center, which is a 105 acre sanctuary with nature trails, a museum, and planetarium exhibits. We started off our trip with a presentation on different kinds of snakes as well as a snapping turtle. We were shown two types of pythons (Ball and Burmese) and they were both relatively young. A lot of the snakes that they have at the Nature Center are rescues that they take in either in the wild or from people who do not want them anymore. A lot of people let their snakes go because they cannot keep up with feeding them as they continue to grow, which is where the Center steps in. We noticed they have chickens on site and we could only assume they were for the snakes. After the snakes they brought out a full grown Snapping Turtle, and we were all surprised by how small it was considering it was full size. Snapping turtles are much smaller than gopher tortoises but the snapper turtle has an incredible bite. It has the ability to bite your finger clean off if it catches it with the right amount of force. They also could not emphasize enough how important it is to be able to tell the difference between turtles and tortoises because so many tortoises die because people put them in water thinking they are helping them but they are actually killing them!


Unfortunately the gentleman who was supposed to take us on our tour of the Calusa Nature Center never showed up, so we were sort of left on our own to tour the location. There was a nice woman who had just moved to Florida a few years ago who also helped us with the tour. We first walked through a butterfly garden but sadly we only saw one butterfly in there. Then we walked over to the atrium which housed many different kinds of birds. There were hawks, vultures (which we learned clean themselves with their own vomit), a Bald Eagle who will reside there permanently, and a few other birds.









Then we started making our way through the forest where we saw a lot of familiar trees and plants that we had seen on our other field trips (slash pines, beauty berries, air potatoes, etc.). It was pointed out that there are at least seven layers in that forest including the emergent layer, the canopy, the understory the shrubs, the forest floor, the shells, the dirt, and possibly even more. As we continued down the nature trails we came across the biggest cluster of Alligator Flags I have ever seen. These flags signal deep water and is usually where alligators go during dry season because it has the most water left.

Despite the Nature Center being so close to the road, it was so quiet in the trees. There was a real sense of being in touch with nature there, and everything was so calm and peaceful. It felt so nice to get away from a busy schedule and just walk through the woods.

November 10th Class - ECHO

Today (11/10) our class visited ECHO, a location that aims to help solve hunger problems in the world and promote sustainable farming techniques, nutritional plants, and appropriate technologies. Their aim is to inform and educate people on how to feed their families and communities in an effective way. Although it poured on us in the beginning, it was an awesome trip and we learned a lot!

The first thing we saw was their tanks of Tilapia. We learned that fish need protein to grow bigger, and usually they do this by eating smaller fish. Tilapia, however, are mainly vegetarians and feed on plants like duck weed. They also have Tilapia that live in a warm, freshwater pond. Ducks also feed in this pond, but usually not on the Tilapia for two reasons. For one, female Tilapia are very protective of their young and carry the eggs in their mouth until they hatch. Even after they hatch, they are still small enough to swim back in the mothers mouth for protection. For the other, when they get older they can swim deeper and avoid the duck's reach. There is a pump in this pond used to oxygenate the water so the fish won't die, and there is also a pump that was created by an Indian engineer and it works like a bicycle.

As we continued on our tour we came across a metal drum, which we learned in the best way to make charcoal (which is actually made from wood in other countries). Next to this drum there was a lot of bamboo, and we learned that they have 14 different varieties on site and they are clumping plants. Then we came across their pigs, which we learned did not give off a strong smell because the materials that are built into the dwelling as well as what they eat. Then we came across rice paddies and there were two separate fields of them. On one side they grew them in freshwater and mud. The other side planted them in an SRI method, which harvests more, but people do not use it because 1) culture is slow and difficult to change and 2) not all countries have crop insurance for farmers, and the SRI method is more risky.

We continued down the path to the low, humid wetlands where there were a lot of raised beds to keep plants from getting too much rain. They told us that if you continually mulch these beds then you won't have to keep redoing the beds, which is more time and cost effective. We saw goats, which were in cages because they are very destructive to plants, as well as a bunch of free roaming chickens.

The last things worth mentioning are that between planting seasons it is important to plant another crop in the place of what you just harvested to fertilize the land. Then we also saw a lot of what we had seen in FGCU's own food forest; Chaya, Cranberry Hibiscus, and a few others!

Overall this field trip was extremely educational and really cool. It was especially interesting to go to it after already visiting the Food Forest because it was basically the same, but on a much larger and more organized scale.

November 3rd Class

Today we had presentations from University Colloquium: A Sustainable Future. The first presentation was from the chapters about Rachel Carson. The chapter opens with a story about a world where humans ran out of food because they did not live in a smart and sustainable way. It talked about how man is polluting and destroying the environment and that things that were once minor threats are actually major ones and if we do not start paying attention it is going to kill us. It talks about the dangers of pesticides and the chemicals they carry are dangerous to both
the environment and people.


The next presentation was on the chapter about Jane Goodall, and she talks about her four reasons for hope: our extraordinary intellect, the resilience of nature, the energy and commitment of the informed young people who are empowered to act, and the indomitable human spirit. She believes that the youth of this world can make the change our planet needs to survive. A few things worth mentioning in the chapter are the transformation of a five-hundered-acre "wasteland," off the coast of Kenya. This wasteland was created by quarrying but Rene Haller restored it to a self-sustaining habitat for wildlife. There was also Paul Rokich who wanted to put the trees back on the mountains as a kid and when he grew up, he did this through a restoration project in the Oquirrh Mountains. Goodall was passionate about the importance of women and how education is key and worked with an organization called TACARE. Family planning and counseling can help reduce the amount of children women in third-world countries have. They also provide scholarships to girls and some are now in college. Goodall also helped to endure that every village is required to create a Land Management Plan to help protect and restore forest cover. She had strong feelings that animals belong on the land and it is important to save endangered species.

The third presentation was on David Orr. He is passionate about the biophilia hypothesis, which is the belief that people have an innate need to be in nature and be in touch with it. He believes we are bound to living things and this starts in childhood. There are even studies that have shown that people in hospital rooms recovered faster if they were overlooking gardens or greenery than those patients
who were looking at parking lots or other buildings.  But there are some people who have biophobia, which causes an explicit urge to control nature. It is just important that people do not lose their sense of biophilia because it will ultimately lead to the demise of our planet. Education is key in making sure this does not happen.