Journal #12 Final Impressions

I absolutely loved this class and everything about it. I had a lot of fun on all of the field studies getting to see the environment and experience our natural ecosystems. This class has made a huge change on the way I look at life. I am such a better person when it comes to saving energy and doing things eco-friendly. I do wish we got to do some hands on things with wildlife, that would have been fun. To be completely honest, I didn't like any of the reading. The readings were boring and very repetitive. A lot of what was being said in the Colloquium reader could have been put in better words then it was, when your trying to get a point across you need to make it dumb proof. The readings were difficult and very hard to grasp.



Images from:

http://universitychic.com/files/GoGreen.jpg

http://www.cgipromotions.com/images/GoGreen.png

Journal #11 Corkscrew

I know I might have said the little old lady's cabin was the best place we went in Colloquium but that was before we traveled to Corkscrew. Corkscrew was just too incredible for words. It was as if we took a walk back into time and saw Florida as it was found years ago. We saw all types of animals and plants. We encountered large alligators, large birds, and other creatures. At Corkscrew we also saw the land untouched as it were many years ago, the difference in landscape from human infected lands is amazing. It really makes you think how we humans are a pest on the earth, like viruses in us humans. I am really saddened that I did not bring my camera along to capture the true beauty of Corkscrew. I am for sure going to go back and embrace the gorgeous scenery, and in hopes to see lots of wildlife.

Journal #10 Urban Fort Myers

In class the other day we ventured to downtown Fort Myers. We walked through the city and told the history of buildings and other structures. To be honest I was not really all that impressed with downtown Fort Myers. There really wasn't anything special about downtown besides a few things. I thought the fountain was really cool and had some history behind it. Also the idea that the dock area building used to be an actual fort during a war was cool. The building wan't all historic looking though and more modernized. I forgot exactly what the other building was now but it was one of the first post offices. Other than those few things downtown was not that impressive. The most interesting and historic piece that we saw was probably the federal post office because it looked really old and the art work was stunning. A picture of this building is located on the top of this post. It is shown at night where they light up the art sculpture known as "Caloosahatchee Manuscripts." If I were to have redesigned Fort Myers I am not sure to what I would do to change it. I would have kept the historic areas more intact and not changed them. One thing That bothered me a little was that everywhere I turned my head there was a law office, you might as well have named the city Fort Law.


I got my pictures from:

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/68/41/43/edison-and-friends-fountain.jpg

http://americancityandcounty.com/weeklysnapshot/Eloise_Pennington_art.jpg

Journal #7 Estero Bay Historic Cottage and Matanzas Pass Preserve

This was by far the best off campus trip we have gone on this semester. We walked into a little cottage that was so small it barely fit our whole class inside. A nice little old lady came to greet us with cookies, lemonade, and some of her home made sea grape jelly. The lady was very nice and a great public speaker, she truly loved talking about what the island used to be like. This field trip was an eye opener to what humans have done to the environment. She talked about how different the island was back when she was growing up. The lady said the water was crystal clear and they all lived in little cottages. There used be very few people that lived on the island now it is completely over taken buy businesses and peoples large houses. I loved walking on the board walk, actually seeing the natural environment of Florida. Halfway through the walk we came to a little area where you could view the bay. The view from this area was stunning but looking down at the water makes you upset because it is now a dark murky green color.



Conservation 20/20 is a program with the goal to purchase land and restore it back to its natural state. They basically buy properties and remove invasive species off the land and bring it back to how it was once found untouched by humans. This is not the first time I heard of the program when I took the course Environmental Bio-SW Florida. Yes I have visited many others while at FGCU. I have already been to Corkscrew so this will be my second time going there when we go. I don't know of any other programs by memory but I am sure there are other programs out there. I think it is great that we spend tax dollars on land preservation and we should be doing a whole lot more than we are right now.



Images from:

http://www.bobandisabelle.com/images/8645-3A_Estero_NS.jpg

http://www.fortmyersbeachfl.gov/index.aspx?NID=305

Journal #9 Food Intake/Packaging

Each day we eat food that we either make or has been pre-made, but we tend to not read nutritional labels or even realize all the work that went into creating the food we eat on a daily basis. I recorded my intake for 24 hours on Sunday March, 20th:

Breakfast:

3 Large Eggs- 360 calories
2 pieces whole wheat toast – 200 calories
Water bottle oz

Lunch:
1/3 Uno Frozen Pizza =350 calories
Frozen Edamame = 99 calories
Water Bottle 20 oz

Dinner:
20 oz blue Gatorade- 120 calories
2 chicken breasts – about 350 calories
Romaine lettuce – about 20 calories
Zesty Italian dressing - 109 calories

Total Calorie Intake = 1,608

Some of the foods I eat require packaging that creates a lot of waste. The water and Gatorade I drink require plastic bottles, which in return creates 3 bottles of plastic waste on average each day. I do recycle the plastic though so hopefully I am not doing as much damage to the earth as simply throwing the plastic in the trash would. I try to make most of my meals myself but with my busy school and work schedule it makes it hard. Typically my breakfast and dinner and prepared by myself but my lunches are normally pre-made.

In todays time basically everything we purchase comes with some type of packaging whether to make the food last longer on store selves or keep products from becoming damaged before reaching the homes of consumers. Every day I use; about 5 Textbooks, my laptop, my cell phone, my car, my furniture, health products, etc. Each product comes with a receipt of sale which normally is just discarded in the trash. Everything you buy comes with some type of wrapping, even if you buy fresh vegetables and fruits, you still have the bags that you carry them home in. Items such as electronics normally come in boxes within boxes, within plastic, within Styrofoam.I believe a lot of things use unnecessary packaging. Then again we also don't think about how much of our earths precious resources are being wasted on creating all the items used for packaging. My household on three college students produces on average 3-4 large black garbage bags of trash each week. And if you think of that on scale of everyone in the world thats a ton of waste.

Below is an interesting video that I found on youtube that talks about waste and alternative packaging:


All my research on calories was collected from:

http://caloriecount.about.com
http://www.livestrong.org/

Journal #8 Sense of Place Interview

I recently interviewed one of my grandparents and during this interview I asked him a series of questions to figure out his philosophy on sustainability. Above is a photograph of my grandpa Stan. The first question I asked him was, Do you know what environmental sustainability is? I was not surprised at all when he told me he really had no idea what sustainability is. He said back when he was a child his lifestyle was completely different that mine. My grandpa was born in Bronx, New York where he grew up and spent most of his life. After explaining to him about what was being covered in class he was able to give me a better idea on his idea of sustainability. He first went on about he was born into poverty and had to work very hard to get to the place where he is now. While I was born I into a loving and caring family that is well off. Back than people didn't even think about what they were doing was causing negative effects to the environment, let alone did they care. Now we realize what we have done and need to try to fix what we have done. My grandpa has always loved the outdoors and spends most of his days at the beach or lounging in his lanai.He said his views have changed as hes grown older, from not caring to doing what he can to better the environment. He was happy to hear about what I was learning in class and found the class to be a very interesting subject of discussion.

Journal #6 Sense of Place

While venturing through my neighborhood I took close notice to wildlife, the environment and objects in the environment. Walking through my neighborhood has made me realize how a lot of things we do in today's time is not sustainable at all. Out of 92 homes in the housing development I live in one or two houses had solar heating panels on there roofs which are used to collect heat from the sun to warm their pool or spa. All the other houses either had electric heaters or gas heated pools. The reason why many people choose gas/electric over solar is solar heating takes time while electric and gas heat up much quicker. Below is a photo of a house with a solar heater on their roof.

I noticed that almost every house in the neighborhood had some type of plant species that is not native to Florida. This in itself disrupts the natural ecosystem. These plants can become invasive and steal nutrients from native plant species. My neighborhood is located a little ways out of the city in a more rural area, for that there is more wildlife. You can bet that every morning you will see a few deer running through the backyard. There also is a huge lake where alligators and many species of fish can be scene all of the time.

Journal #5 Ecological Footprint

After calculating my ecological footprint it has come to my attention that I and as well as others need to change our habits. My score was 7.5, meaning that it takes more than one world to sustain my lifestyle. Basically this means I need to take action and change certain ways I do things in order to be more environmental friendly. My weakest part on the graph was transportation. I own a Jeep Grand Cherokee which gets horrible gas mileage and I rarely drive with others in my car. It is sort of out of my control though as my parents bought me the vehicle and I don't have the money to buy a different car. Things that I could do to avoid wasting fossil fuels would be using my bike or walking to places that are in close proximity. One thing that I have been doing is keeping all the lights off during the day and making sure to turn off the tv when it is no longer being watched. I have also changed most of the light bulbs in my house to the new energy efficient light bulbs. On the top of the page is a picture of the light bulbs I now use. Theses bulbs decrease the electricity bill while at the same time lasting longer than the standard bulbs. I am very willing to attempt to change my lifestyle a little in order to promote sustainability. The thing is we need to focus more on passing on green living to our children. It is pretty much to hard for us to change our lifestyles the best thing we could do is change the lifestyle of the people in the future. I have already been doing what I can to practice sustainability but there is only so much a poor college student can do since green products and going green in itself is very pricey.



Links to picture I used:

http://imgsrv.qcountry1037.com/image/wqny/UserFiles/Image/going-green-ideas-save-money.jpg

http://smallbiztrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/sustainability2.jpg

Journal #4 ECHO

In class with week we left our normal class room environment and ventured to ECHO. ECHO is an organization with a goal to reduce hunger around the world by teaching how to plant and provide food for themselves. I think the idea of this group is great. Teaching others how to plant and run there own farm to reduce hunger around the world. I personally really enjoyed my time spent at ECHO, I do wish it had not gotten dark so quick so I would have been able to see more about ECHO. I haven't grown plants by myself except for maybe a school project or two. I one day might want to make my own little garden at my house for fun. I believe I could learn how to grow anything I wanted by researching information through the internet or library. The only thing I did not like about the group is that they seem to put religion behind the group. It seems that while they are teaching these skills to people they might be pushing Christianity down others throats which I am against. I am not a very religious individual at all but if you say your goal is to reduce hunger than you should leave religion out the picture.

At ECHO there were a bunch of different areas which represented certain environments.They try to find ways to grow agricultures no matter what the environment. The area I found most interesting was the urban growth area where they used tires and concrete bricks as pots to plant plants. Below is a photo of what the plants looked like being grown in tires.



I learned a lot about the different methods of farming. One thing that I found interesting was the water system that was simple yet such a great idea. The pump was powered like riding a bicycle and takes less work than carrying buckets all over the place. The system is affordable to make and wont break someones bank. Below is a photo of a pump similar to the one we saw at ECHO.





I got my image's from:

http://www.gardeninggonewild.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/school-gardens-resized-flowers-planted-in-tires.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3147/2348183212_3317808a0b.jpg

Journal #3 The Future of Food

In class this week we watched the eye opening video The Future of Food. The video was an investigation on genetically engineered foods and how they have made there way into food stores in the U.S. The main point of the video was to make people realize what we have been eating without being told. The problem is we cant visibly tell whether the food we are eating has been genetically engineered or not. Personally I learnt a lot from the video it informed me of a lot of things that are going on in our country even beyond just food.

The main company in question in this video is the Monsanto Company. The company itself creates genetically engineered seeds that are "Roundup Ready", meaning they won't die when pesticides are used to protect the crops to prevent pests from destroying them. The issue is that theses seeds are patented meaning that the government has allowed them to patent a living thing. The problem here is that the plants spread through cross pollination affecting farmers crops. Farmers that have never used seeds from Monsanto Company are being sued by the company because they have "their" plants on there land. Farmers are unable to control the crops from spreading because of the environment and other factors that allow plants to spread.

We are not being told what we are eating because farmers who use genetically engineered foods are not required to put it on the foods label. In my opinion we have the right to know what we are eating. There should be labels on foods telling whether or not it is genetically engineered or has genetically engineered foods in it.

The video below gives a great overview of what the problem with genetically engineered food is.



Another video I found shows some key points in how genetically engineered foods can lead to health problems.



My favorite snack an granny smith apple. It originated it Australia but is grown in New Zealand, USA, parts of South America, British Columbia Canada and the United Kingdom. After some research it has come to my attention that a lot of theses apples can be found to be genetically engineered. Apples are grown in different areas so it come have been anywhere from New York to the United Kingdom. I was unable to find the exact amount of water needed to produce one apple as each tree yields a different number of apples.

Journal #2 Nature Walk

In class today we went on an on-campus nature walk through the perseveres. While getting a little wet I was able to see and learn about the many different ecosystems that exist naturally in Florida. The first placed we stopped was at an oak hammock. Below is a picture of an oak hammock.

Oak hammocks were used by the Native Americans as a camp site to protect them from raining weather. A oak hammock contains oak trees that provide protection from the rain.

While walking through the ankle deep water we encountered many cypress trees. Cypress trees are the most common trees in Florida's wetlands. Cypress trees have highly flood tolerant and can live in water for long periods of time. Theses trees played an important role in history as they were once used to make canoes and homes by the Native Americans. Below is a picture of a Cypress knee. It is unknown exactly what the knees do but it is predicted that they provide air to the submerged roots.


Although it was dark outside and was not able to experience the walk as much as I could have, I still enjoyed the walk. I would like to someday take the walk during daylight if possible.

I found a lot of interesting info on Florida's wet lands at these two sites:

http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/4h/other_resources/contest/highlighted_ecosystem/swplants.htm

http://sofia.usgs.gov/virtual_tour/kids/ecosys.html

Journal #1 Intro to University Colloquium

Today was the first day of University Colloquium. During class we discussed what the course was about and what we where going to be doing during this semester. I am mostly looking forward to all the field trips. I love the environment and wildlife. I hope to see some wildlife while going on the off campus trips. This is class seems like it will be like biology of south west florida, and I really enjoyed that class. Although there seems to be a lot of writing for the class I don't think Ill mind it because I will be writing about things that I am passionate about. There are many issues with our culture and the way we neglect our environment and I look forward to learning more about theses issues to see what I can do personally to make this word a better place. Wildlife is a beautiful thing and I hate seeing and hearing about all the negative things that are going on with our environment.