Write about a specific, broad-reaching "system" that you learned about in this class (either you had never heard of before, had heard of but never contemplated, or knew a little bit about). In whichever case, choose something that stood out and has some relevance to your personal life/interests.
1.) Choose a complicated, far reaching topic (i.e. the carbon cycle, the agro industry, consumerism, biodiversity, Haber Bosh process, evolution, CAFOs, GMOs,... really anything from the class that most profoundly affected your way of looking at the world).
2.) Explain your topic, (give it's history, definition/description, why and if it's controversial, etc.). Then explore what other systems it affects, including your relationship to it.
So if you talk about logging, you might start by talking about a general historical overview, explain what logging is (what's the process), why it's done, pros and cons, and importantly, what are the farther reaching ramifications (or indirect effects) of the logging industry? (erosion/ loss of bio diversity/ reduction in land's capacity to absorb melting ice/ the watertable lowers/ more CO2 in the atmosphere because fewer trees/ on the other hand, it provides jobs, timber, cleared land ready for agriculture or development, etc. Then you can talk about how this may affect your particular community/ family/ self.
Good luck and it's been a pleasure getting to know all of you!
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Mining
ReplyDeleteThe process behind mining is basically extracting valuable minerals, such as metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, oil, stone from the ground. All of these materials are not grown through agriculture, and therefore mining is the sole process available to extract them from the ground.
Prior to this class, and especially reading Collapse, I was not very aware of mining and it’s impacts on society. Soon after making a dent in the book, I found that it is one of societies biggest problems among the environment. Not to say it’s any more important than deforestation, or anything else for that matter, but it has led to the collapse of numerous societies. The issue with mining is that water pollution occurs by the metals, processing chemicals, acid drainage and sediment as a result of the process. Acid drainage, for instance, causes serious water pollution due to ores being exposed to the water. It also contributes to the loss of biodiversity. The mining industry is connected with the coal industry, because they both involve mining of some sort.
Part of the problem with mining, is that it is hard to predict it’s consequences for each mine in particular. Environmentalists are unsure of whether a mine in particular will produce acid drainage, because it depends on the money put in to its creation, as well as the environmental conditions around. The drainage is almost never predicted in advance, because there are not clear-cut ways to predict if this will be a significant problem. This uncertainty leads to mining companies facing huge cleanup costs that they try to avoid by declaring bankruptcy and other schemes, because mining companies have less capital to absorb their cleanup costs than oil companies do. Eventually, the government began requiring companies to guarantee that they are financially stable to clean up these damages before they even put up the mine.
I’ve described majority of the cons of the mining process. There are pros though as well. This process provides many, many jobs for our society. Though it is a very dangerous process, and miners are worked to the bone, it is a field that has numerous jobs to get people involved in. It also extracts all of the materials used to make many of the infrastructures that hold our country together, such as bridges and roads, as well as the little things in life that everyone enjoys, such as jewelry.
In terms of my life, it does not directly correlate to mining. I have never seen the process take place, nor do I know of any people who work in mines, or mines that are located near my hometown. I do however receive the end result of mining in jewelry that I purchase, oil that heats my home, and bridges I drive across. I am more aware of the environmental harms of mining now, than I previously had been prior to this course.
Diamond, Jared M. Collapse How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York: Viking, 2005. Print.
Before taking ADP III…I had never heard of the Haber-Bosch process. I was familiar with the importance of nitrogen in the oceans because I had been enrolled in an oceanography course that focused on biodiversity and productivity in the oceans, however it didn’t discuss nutrients on land and their subsequent impact. Trumpey used an interesting way to describe Haber Bosch—as “irrigation in a bag.” It’s funny, but the statement is actually true in direct meaning. In modern times, farming and agriculture was an outside process that people used to sustain life and live off of their land independently. Now, the farming of plants has been commercialized to being able to buy plants/flowers in a bag and grow them inside of your house. I know my family is guilty of trying this phenomenon, which shows the impact it’s had on the nation as a whole considering our love for our garden and the outdoors.
ReplyDeleteThe pros of artificial farming and nutrient fixation include availability and a constant flow of productivity. On the negative spectrum, such artificial farming has lowered the importance of the great outdoors and made farming less of a trade and more of a commercial activity. I’m not exactly sure what this holds for the future. Will other forms of cultivation soon be lowered to commercial standards? I think that the idea of irrigation in a bag is just another example of how our world is revolutionizing and adapting to a more available lifestyle. Years ago, people needed wells to get water. Now, they can turn on the sink. People used to farm their own animals for food. Now, they drive to the grocery. People used to garden and farm the land. Now, it can be done artificially. What’s next?
Learning about Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in this class has profoundly influenced the way I look at the meat I consume and encouraged me to become more aware of all of the products I put into my body. CAFOs came about partly as a result of an increasingly high demand for meat products and an abundance of cheap corn around the 1950s and 60s. These feedlots confine livestock to small areas to fatten them up (Trumpey). From reading Michael Pollen’s “This Steer’s Life”, I learned the ins and outs of CAFOs and the problems associated with them. Because our society is so obsessed with meat and fast food chain restaurants, the demand for tons of meat quickly is now higher than ever. In the feedlots, they give the cattle food and keep them in small areas so that they will get bigger faster. In order to make this process even quicker, they inject growth hormones. These may be the reason for young boys having lower sperm count because of higher amounts of estrogen in them. It also may be the reason young girls are getting their menstrual cycle much earlier than the previous average age. Because the areas are so small, the risk of infection and sickness increases dramatically, resulting in the need for antibiotic injections. Since everything the cow eats, we eat; we are consuming unneeded hormones and antibiotics that are not healthy for us, yet because of our fast-past society, it is harder to get better meat. Grass-fed meat is available, but it is much more expensive and harder to find (Pollan).
ReplyDeleteThis has greatly affected how I think of not only the meat I consume, but also the distancing and shadowing of everything I buy. It makes me want to buy grass-fed meat whenever possible, and truly know where exactly my food and other belongings come from, and what goes into their makings. If everyone knew what they were truly eating, and the effects it has, I hope they would change their practices, too.
Trumpey, Joseph. Art Design Perspective 3: Technology and the Environment. School of Art and Design. Stamps Auditorium, Ann Arbor, MI. 21 Sep 2009. Lecture.
Pollan, Michael. “This Steer’s Life”. The New York Times Magazine. 31 March, 2002.
This semester, I learned a lot about many topics that I was not aware of before. The topic that really made me want to change the way I consume was about how coffee is unfairly traded. I am the type of person that drinks coffee every morning, and my parents drink much more often than I do. I knew my parents bought organic coffee at home, but here in my apartment, I just bought the normal cheap coffee that would last me a couple of months.
ReplyDeleteWhat I did not know about the coffee that I was consuming was that it was not shade grown. The coffee is grown in a clear-cut area, which puts a great deal of damage on the world ecosystems. Not only is it cutting down trees of local species habitats, but it is also doing damage to some birds from this area as well. When birds go south for the winter, they sometimes go to certain areas where coffee is grown, but because they have cut down the trees, the birds no longer have a place to go for the winter.
Another thing I did not know was how little the farmers got paid from coffee that is not fair trade coffee. The farmers get paid so little because the profit goes to the companies selling the coffee, not the local farmers. With the fair trade coffee, the price is higher, but that is partially because the farmers receive a larger share of the profit.
I just ran out of my regular cheap coffee, and the coffee I chose to replace it is Fair Trade Certified. Sure, this coffee is much more expensive, but I know that by choosing this coffee I am doing my work to help the right thing get done. I also told everyone I know that is a heavy coffee drinker to change to fair trade coffee, and even if they do not do this, I think the fact that they know is a huge step in the right direction.
Trumpey, Joseph. Art Design Perspective 3: Technology and the Environment. School of Art and Design. Stamps Auditorium, Ann Arbor, MI. 30 Sep 2009. Lecture.