The Nature of The Everglades: By Marjory Stoneman Douglas

Marjory Douglas describes The Everglades, and discusses just how unique this land is as there is no other one like it in the world. I find it incredible myself how the weather, soil, water all work in balance to create it. Marjory begins discussing the everglades by describing the plant life. “The truth of the river is the grass.” The grass is called Cladium Jamaicensis, or otherwise known as saw grass. This plant does exists in other places in the world but what makes it unique  for the Everglades is that there is the greatest concentration of it than anywhere else. This tells me that the weather and climate must be perfect for it here, and that it is truly native to Florida. But there is more to the everglades that makes it so interesting. Florida it seems, doesn’t follow the natural pattern of what science would predict to happen. “This land by the maps is in the temperate zone. But the laws of the rain and of the seasons here are tropic laws…men who draw maps draw lines across deserts, mountains, and equatorial rainforests to show where the Temperate Zone is cut off sharply from the middle equatorial belt.” By nature we should be a desert, but the rain and the Gulf Stream allow Florida to flourish and enabled the growing of the Everglades. But “It is clear that rainfall alone could not have maintained the persistent fine balance between wet and dry that has created and kept the Everglades the long heart of this long land. If Lake Okeechobee and the lakes and marshes north that contribute to it, if rivers and swamps and ponds did not exist to hoard all the excess water in a great series of reservoirs by which the flow was checked and regulated, there would have been no Everglades.” This right here makes me realize how intricate and special the land I live on is. I find it crazy to comprehend just how perfect timing and the weather were to create it, and how if one thing was different then so would my home.

Love it or Lose it; The Coming Biophillia Revolution by David. W. Orr

Biophobia is defined in the article Love it or Lose it; The Coming to Biophillia Revolution as an aversion to nature. On the other end of the spectrum you have Biophillia which is affinity to associate with other life forms.  When discussing the origin and consequences of Biophobia the author gives a good reason as to why it exists.  He states that “It was necessary to quiet whatever remaining sympathy we had for nature in favor of hard data that could be weighed, measured and counted, and counted on to make a profit.”  With the increase in technology businesses have become more competitive than ever before, and the ability to assess and rediscover ways of getting ahead have increased. You can now calculate how many people you reach with advertising, what parts of the day are more profitable, and numerous of other things that were not available to us before. Because of the competiveness, there is little room for failure and only the things that can be seen, measured, and counted on to make a profit matter. People and organizations don’t care about saving or embracing nature, that is, unless it can be used to help them make a profit. “And immediately ahead is the transformation of human consciousness brought on by conjunction of neuroscience and computers in machines that will simulate whatever reality we choose. What happens to the quality of human experience or to our politics when cheap and thoroughgoing fantasy governs our mental life?”

                This is a very powerful statement in the article and it makes you analyze the way you view the world versus the way it really is. It suggests a slow change in the mentality of populations, and an increasing gap between the way we think and actual reality.  Our experiences are in computers and videogames, and machines that can minimize the amount of work needed. It leaves behind the need for face to face communication, interaction between the real world, and the need to go outside. The world is making it easier for biophobia to exist where “Undefiled nature is being replaces with defiled nature of landfills, junkyards, strip mines, clear cuts, blighted cities, six-lane freeways, suburban sprawl, polluted rivers, and superfund sites, all of which deserve our phobia. “ With less undefiled nature, and more man-made structures, there is less to be able to enjoy. Not only that, but an increase in the amount of things that can harm us and are subjected to by being outside give us more reason to stay inside. The book gives examples of the ozone depletion which causes cancer and cataracts, and the spread of toxic substances and radioactivity which means more diseases. These very things that cause our fears, are also caused by our fears. It “sets into motion a vicious cycle that tends to cause people to act in such a way as to undermine the integrity, beauty, and harmony of nature, creating the very conditions that make the dislike of nature yet more probable.” And so many people sit back and watch this all happening, aware of the limitations within ourselves and our actions, but no motivation to act upon it. “Life ought to excite our passion, not our indifference. Life in jeopardy ought to cause us to take a stand, not retreat into a spurious neutrality.”  Why then, are so many people passionless to take control of their lives? “We cannot in such things remain aloof or indifferent without opening the world to demons.” How can we sit back and watch the slow destruction of our world, and how can we be so apathetic towards life? This apathy will be our death wish.

http://shtfjournal.com/current-affairs/apathy-curse-nation/

The Land Ethic: by Aldo Leopald.

I’ve studied ethics in some of my classes, both ethics toward others, and ethics in business and the community. I find it interesting when the article Land Ethics by Aldo Leopald states that “There is yet no ethic dealing with man’s relation to land and to the animals and plants that grow upon it.” I find this very true, I’ve yet to actually think of ethics toward nature itself and the preservation of it. Sustainability is often talked about, but it has to do with the use and regulation of the available resources given to us. Aldo Leopald touches an example of this saying “One basic weakness in a conversation system based wholly on economic motives is that most members of the land community have no economic value.” “When one of these non-economic categories are threatened, and if we happen to love it we invent subterfuges to give it economic importance.” To me it seems that humans are selfish in this way, only feeling a duty to save things that can give them a return. Their focus is not on the attention to what they want to save but yet in their own survival. The author sums up that a system based solely on economic self-interests is hopelessly lopsided. “It assumes falsely, that the economic parts of the biotic clock will function without the uneconomic parts.” Everything is dependent on one another to thrive in this world, and it is unjust to believe an animal or land to be unworthy of saving just because it has no value to us. While you can't see the value, the land and species that we deem unprofitable or unusable have an impact inadvertently on our survival. When it comes to preserving land we run into another problem, and that is private ownership. The government is able to regulate only so much, and landowners like to complain about all the restrictions versus actually taking the necessary steps themselves. "When the private landowner is asked to perform some unprofitable act for the good of the community, he today assents only with an outstretched palm If the act costs him cash it is fair and proper, but when it costs only fore-thought, open-mindedness or time, it is at least debatable." (Leopald,67) This hits home with the fact that if there is nothing to gain, then others won't feel obligated to do anything. Educating people and landowners about the impact of our actions and what can be done to help is an easy solution, and none is being taught. The only problem I see with trying to educate people is getting them to want to learn, and reach beyond their limitations in thinking. 

Here is a link to the Aldo Leopald Foundation where you can learn more about environmental education and values. http://www.aldoleopold.org/Programs/lep.shtml

Nature Deficit Disorder and The Restorative Environment by Richard Louv

Nature Deficit Disorder and The Restorative Environment by Richard Louv is an article on the Disorder called ADHD and the connection that nature has with it. I felt a connection reading the entire article because it is something that hits home to my life. I was diagnosed with ADHD by the age of 6, and took medication until 8^th grade for it. One of the first things that hit home was when it was stated that one link to the mental disorder was due to Television. “Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle maintains that each hour of T.V. watched per day by preschoolers increases by 10% the likelihood that they will develop concentration problems by age 7.” (Louv,4) I entirely disagree with this statement for a number of reasons both personally and scientifically. The first reason I don’t agree with this statement is that I don’t believe that I watched a lot of television as a kid, maybe in the morning before my mom would take me to pre-k but not excessively.  I also spent a ton of time outdoors, at my school and at home, so I don’t see the connection between T.V. and ADHD. Secondly, this statistic is from 2004 when the availability and technology assisted the accessibility of television and computers. In 1997 when I was officially diagnosed, time outdoors was more common in schools and home life then TV.  However, I am not saying that nature does not help with the symptoms of ADHD, just the idea that television increases the chances of having it. “By bolstering children’s attention resources, green spaces may enable children to think more clearly and cope more effectively with life stress.” (Louv,7) I find that by being outside I am instantly more relaxed and less stressed.  I hate being enclosed in a box, and you can most likely find me on my porch when I am at home. Whenever I am stressed, I like to sit outside and reflect about my life. There is something about the natural versus the unnatural connection to this world. So many times as an adult is spent dealing with man made things, and views of buildings and structures. When I am around nature I am reminded of the realness of the world, and not the societal boundaries that we can live in. It allows me to escape from the artificial world, and enjoy what is really there. It reminds me that there’s more to life.  A parent said of her child after taking her son to a park for 30 minutes every morning that “I have noticed his attitude toward going to school has been better this past week. I think it’s because spending time at the park is pleasurable, peaceful, quiet, calming. “  I believe that kids with ADHD experiences such fast mental processes which is why it’s hard to just focus on one thing at a time for them, and others don’t see how they got from point A to point B. Because their mind is moving at such a fast rate it’s hard to slow it down, by being in nature it is exactly what this parent says, pleasurable, peaceful, quiet, calming. It allows you to slow down your brain and relax in the moment.  This comes to my last statement that caught my eye in this article. That if nature reduces the symptoms of ADHD then ADHD may be because of a lack of exposure to nature. (louv, 11) I do not believe this at all, it’s not a cause of the disorder definitely has to do with the mental processes in the brain. I was born 3 months early and obviously my body was not done growing in the womb when I was born.  I do believe that nature has a soothing ability on those that can’t focus, and it continues to help me daily. I listen to ambient music and watch the clouds go by and the birds fly overhead and it’s one of the only times I can relax and know that no matter what life goes on. Here’s one of the links to my favorite songs to listen to while outside. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov-u8bqOt7U (Life and Death: by Paul Cardall)

The picture at the top is from the Helios album cover, and is my idea of beauty and peacefulness. Ideal image in my head to escape to.