Can't put a price tag on family
The entire freshman class at University of La Verne was assigned to read Scott Russel Sanders' novel, A Conservationist Manifesto. In his novel Sanders makes a good point at how we as a society need to take better care of the environment. At first I expected this book to be another boring read that was going to be uninteresting, the book actually caused me to question myself. As young adults we are already have certain values or beliefs that have been instilled in us through our parents and other influences that are often not easily changed. This book along with other experiences at La Verne have taught me that material items aren't as important as family is. Entering La Verne I was just a kid from South Central Los Angeles who paid too much attention to what were the hottest shoes that were releasing on Saturday or whats the latest smart phone on the market. Growing up I was very spoiled. My mother gave me anything and everything I wanted for a period of time since I was an only child. She was a shopaholic and emphasized how important brand names were when it came down to shopping. With the idea that brand names are important I grew up thinking
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The assignment read, " I'd like to hear about your family traditions and what Thanksgiving means to you." As I was brainstorming on how to start the post I asked myself, Fern what does thanksgiving mean to you? Is it just a day before the big black Friday sale? On thanksgiving typically what would happen is that the majority of the family would meet at my grandmother's house for dinner and I would leave dinner to meet my friends for the big sale at around 10 p.m. Thanksgiving is supposed to be the one day a year where we sit back and take a moment to be thankful for what we have; instead I would be too caught up with black Friday to actually be
In the journal of Environmentalism as Religion, Paul H. Rubin discuss about how environmental is similar to religion. Rubin want everyone to know that the environment and religion are somehow similar in a way, which they both have belief system, creation stories and original sin.
Ted Steinberg’s book American Green gives a detailed description of lawn and its role in America. He gives a history of lawn starting from the origin of the word “lawn” itself in the 16th century and gives wide-ranging anecdotes throughout the book that attempt to show the reader how obsessed Americans are with their lawns. His anecdotes are often meant to represent people all over America, but when you take a step back you realize that they are actually rare stories that provide little broader meaning. Steinberg fails to prove that American’s are obsessed with their lawns because of the poor assumptions he makes and examples he uses.
The rise of conservation was first populated by Theodore Roosevelt in the late 19th century. And the issues surrounding conservation had risen in the US around that time. The new understanding affects the country and its policies. Conservation is a careful preservation and protection of something; especially: planned management of a natural resource to prevent exploitation, destruction, or neglect.(Merriam-Webster) The causes of rising conservation include overhunting, recognizing its importance. These newfound awarenesses resulted in new policies that preserve for everyone equally.
who loved the wilderness. As a skilled mountain climber, he made the first of seventy routes in
Nicholas Kristof’s article “For Environmental Balance, Pick up a Rifle,” which appeared in The New York Times, attempts to convince the American people that deer pose a danger to humans by taking more lives each year than any other American mammal. He states that deer populations, unchecked by predators, are increasing in a way that is unnatural and are destroying the ecosystem in many parts of the country. The suggestion he makes to his readers is that we must kill deer to bring the population down in order to prevent so many human deaths. Kristof appears to advocate hunting without much concern for other alternatives. While he does include statistical data to strengthen his point, other types of support he provides could be considered irrelevant or biased.
The book I chose to read is called, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by: Richard Louv. I chose this book for a few different reasons. One reason I chose this book was because I’ m highly interested in the whole concept of the book and feel very passionate about its reasoning. I also thought it would be a great read to guide me towards a topic for my main project at the end of the Lemelson program. On the plus side, I “read” this book through audible, which enabled me to listed to the book on my drive to and from work everyday. I commonly do this because of my forty-five minute commute from Truckee to Spanish Springs.
The Conservation movement was a driving force at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was a time during which Americans were coming to terms with their wasteful ways, and learning to conserve what they quickly realized to be limited resources. In the article from the Ladies’ Home Journal, the author points out that in times past, Americans took advantage of what they thought of as inexhaustible resources. For example, "if they wanted lumber for their houses, rails for their fences, fuel for their stoves, they would cut down half a forest at a time; and whatever they could not use or sell they would leave to rot on the ground. They never bothered their heads to inquire where more wood was coming from when this was gone" (33). The twentieth century opened with a vision towards the future, towards preserving the land that had previously been taken for granted. The Conservation movement came along around the same time as one of the first major waves of the feminist movement. With the two struggles going on: one for the freedom of nature and the other for the freedom of women, it stands to follow that they coincided. As homemakers, activists, and citizens of the United States of America, women have had an important role in Conservation.
John Muir helped the development of the American conservation movement during the late nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. The creation of the National Park Service, the creation of several major national parks, including Yosemite National Park and the creation of the Sierra Club were all because of John Muir. In the late nineteenth century America was in a stage of expansion and economic development that used as well as threatened much of the natural world. Much of the economic development was in the form of industrialization that took its toll of the environment with both its consumption of natural resources as well pollution. This expansion and economic development had adverse consequences on the environment of the United States. During this time of development many became aware of the damage being done to the natural world and attempted to prevent or limit this damage being done. It is during this time of both industrialization and spiritual awakening that the conservation movement arose with one of its most famous activists, John Muir.
There were a couple of my peers that said they went to someone's house or something of the sort. Someone didn’t have any family over and they just stayed home with their immediate family. A couple of my peers said that they went out of state for Thanksgiving. A lot of my peers said that they went to a family member's or friend’s house.
Reflecting on this novel, It made me realize that what genuinely counts in life is the great memories I have made, the influential people I have met, and the experiences I have faced, not the desire for materialism. From my childhood, I vividly remember the time I captured a horde of hermit-crabs from the beach to keep as pets only to realize that they required a special diet, so they unfortunately all starved to death. Also, I recall the time one of my friends kindly brought me burnt snickerdoodles after I caught the flu. These are the experiences that material possessions and physical comfort can’t hold a straw against. My sentiment is shared with Chris McCandless. He didn’t care about his material possession because he believed that they were just illusions of happiness, and the things that truly made him happy was his journey through the land of the free. In fact, he burned all of his money to take a nonconformist stance against society and materialism. Perhaps my true destiny lies in the new experiences that manifests itself in an endlessly changing
One piece of the article that I found interesting was on page 138, “Education, if it means anything, should not take people away from the land, but instill in them even more respect for it, because educated people are in a position to understand what is being lost. The future of the planet concerns all of us, and all of us should do what we can to protect it. As I told the foresters, and the women, you don’t need a diploma to plant a tree,” (pg. 138, chapter 6). This paragraph, to me, was the most influential part of all the readings. It shows that individuals who have an education should encourage others to do beneficial actions for the environment. It also sheds light that ALL people can work to make the Earth a clean, nurturing place, no matter who a person is, or where they reside in the world. Granted, more programs need to be available to assist individuals in making a positive change, but then it would be just that easier to help improve environmental
Environmental Sustainability The film Cowspiracy is a 2014 documentary about the effects of animal agriculture on the environment and how it causes more pollution then all forms of transportation combined. Another point that the film covers, is how major environmental organizations address the issue which is only mentioned briefly in a handful of organizations websites. Throughout the film, co-director Kip Anderson interviews many experts and environmental organizations in an effort to understand why there isn’t more being done to address the animal agriculture issue. The main points of the film are that animal agriculture is harming the environment, as well as what is being done to fix the issue by organizations, and what solutions there are
In order to feed the growing population of the world, nontraditional farming and ranching techniques have been used to increase food production. For example, animal mass harvesting systems and feed lots used for chickens and cows allow for faster growing and harvesting of the animal. But are these practices moral? In Paul Taylor’s “The Ethics of Respect for Nature”, he illustrates how this treatment of animals is immoral, because of his biocentric view. Bonnie Steinbock would disagree with Taylor due to her speciesic view, illustrated in her article “Speciesism and the Idea of Equality”, that places human needs over animal needs in this case.
We usually care about benefiting our society, and developing it without considering the circumstances of what we are about to do with our nation. We, financially and economically care more for our community, which is great. But rather, we should consider the environmental needs and the needs of the other species, such as, animals, and plants. We are morally obligated to benefit our community in the long-run, because we want to build a better environment to our generations, even if we have been asked or threatened, too, by someone in a position of power, like the Forester in the short story was threatened with losing his job from his boss. We are morally obligated to help the environment, not to destroy it by our own hands.
... By showing the world the severity of our need for conservation, we will be able to save the earth and get the most out of our resources. We need to fix this problem before it becomes uncontrollable to the point of having no resources to meet our needs. By reducing our consumption of resources, we will be able to become closer to fixing the problem of global warming, high gasoline prices and pesticide-filled meats. The outcome of respecting our world and “going green” will better how we live our lives, our communities and the environment.