Journal #5 - Worldview

In getting my grandfathers perspective on his generation compared to today, his answer was as I suspected..."las cosas eran mas facil" which means "things were a lot easier". He mentioned how you had to work hard to live but it was much more simple, you simply worked to live, survive and have what you needed. He mentioned that he grew up eating from the crops and animals he planted and cared for along with his dad. Stores were in people's homes and you only went there if you needed something you couldn't make or cultivate yourself. For the most part you sold what you had and bought from what others had, for example, if you had cows you sold the milk or if you had donkeys you carried water from the wells in large jugs to peoples homes. He explained that you learned how to be responsible and care for things, you didn't take the land for granted and you just learned how to live by what you had and at that time the land and animals is all you had.
I then asked him what he thought about today and what he thought his sense of place was. He said that he now feels that he's trapped, he can't just have animals or crops as when he was growing up. Thinks are more complicated and expensive! He said he wishes he could afford a little piece of land where he could have some animals and crops and just live simple as before. I then felt a little sad hearing how excited and proud he felt of his upbringing and now he seemed a little sad of what he no linger has or will more than likely not have again.
This made me realize that just as he felt sad for what he no longer has then maybe one day I will probably feel the same. I wonder how much more destruction we will continue to do and how much we will continue to loose simply because we refuse to make simple changes. Will I one day sit there like my grandpa did and tell the same sad story to my own grandchildren? Now more than ever am I more concerned about what our future will look like and what it will not look like for future generations. This course has opened my eyes and my mind about what we can do to make things better. If we all put our voices together and actions to work we could do so much!
I'm grateful for what I've learned and I will think of what I've learned every time I get ready do something that is not good for our environment. Professor Macbeth, thank you for being passionate about what you do and thank you for being a student at heart and teaching us at the level that we needed to understand it all. its one thing to simply teach, but it means much more when someone really cares and wants to make a differenceand iis actually a part of what their students are doing, like the service learning and field trips....Thank you!

Journal #4 - Food Footprint

After taking the Ecological Footprint I was a little disappointed that it would take 7.6 Earths to provide enough resources. I was disappointed because after everything I have learned through this course and how we humans have destroyed much of the natural world and here I am using up all of these resources. I am pretty sure that most of the resources I use are not really things I NEED, yet I'm using them everyday! This also made me think of my family and future generations...I am almost sure that I am not the only one living this way and to think that one day our entire earth could practically give out because of people like me is something to really worry about! My future kids can possibly not have anywhere to enjoy nature or they can have more health problems because of the many things that we keep on doing to the earth...that is what really worried me! I think now would be the perfect time to begin to make changes in the way I live and begin sharing what I've learned with others. Some of the small changes I have made are to stop buying bottled water, making a better effort to recycle, and simply enjoying nature.

Unfortunately, when the picture above appeared on my screen which resembled where I lived, it was pretty accurate. Just to think of the amount of natural things that have been destroyed to make all these things available for my needs and the needs of others it really makes me a little upset. The area above looked so nice and clean and natural when there was nothing, then as I started adding more and more it became crowded and began to look dirty. There has to be more changes that can be made and much more education to teach not only myself, but other about the destruction we are all causing.

ECHO

In visiting Echo I was able to learn so much about plants and how we could use our earth to survive off of it. Although a few things that I saw were relatively new and had no idea that you could make such things, like the hand washing laundry detergent jug other things like planting food to survive and raising animals and taking care of the land were something I was more familiar with. Growing up my family and I would work in the fields picking fruit and vegetables to feed others. The sad part was that most of the time the fruits and vegetables were to expensive for us to purchase at the store and sometimes would not have a chance to eat any. After picking crops all day and not being able to eat some yourself was hard for me to understand sometimes. After so many years I think of all the people picking crops in the fields, yet barely having a chance to feed themselves and their families. This is why I have decided to make a small, but big change by purchasing fair trade coffee.

HERE IS ONE OF MY FIRST SMALL, BUT BIG CHANGE!

As a child my family and I would travel to Mexico every year to visit family. During those "times" when technology hadn't exploded things were different we would spend most of our time doing things outside in nature. We would often say, "Gosh, its so different here in Mexico than in the US, we feel more relaxed and we can go anywhere we want and feel relaxed and calm". Now as an adult I realize that it was because we use to spend all of our time outside in nature. We would walk up the hills, get water out of wells, feed animals, and even wash clothes outside! There were no rules, and no limits to what we could explore and do. All of our food that we ate was planted by my grandfather and the animals were all raised by him as well. If we wanted eggs we went to the chicken coop, if we wanted to make something with herbs or plants we went to the garden, if we wanted corn we got it from the many acres of corn my grandfather had, if we wanted to get to the corn we rode on a horse or we walked through all the green hills of plants and trees. (Oh, how I miss it!) I wonder now how many people still live that way and if they are able to survive off the land as much as we did on those trips to Mexico. In seeing what Echo is doing I am wanting to do more and educate others of different countries, although this may seem like something that is far from possible I think one day I would love to do some type of mission trip and take what I have learned and will learn.

Hand Washing (my favorite!) :)

Journal #3 - Natural Areas and Campus Ecosystems

 

Before taking this course I was aware that I would do several things outside and learn more on the environment. I thought all the field experiences would take place outside of FGCU campus, simply because I was not aware that we had so much going on right in our “backyard”. I truly enjoyed walking through campus and seeing the trails, walkways, and boardwalks I had not come across in the last two years I have been at FGCU.  It was great to see everything that FGCU is doing for the environment and how much they care to make a better future for everyone and everything that lives in it! The one thing that impacted me the most during the field experiences was the food forest. I didn’t know it existed and probably would have never known it existed if it wasn’t for this class. I think it’s great that we have organic fruits and vegetables that anyone can have at any time. In a world like today where buying junk food is so easy to get a hold of, I think the food forest provides the same idea but with a healthy and clean alternative. I felt that the food forest not only provided food but also a sense of community, where many people have come together to create this area for many others to enjoy. This comes to show that we can all help in some way to help each other be healthier and our environment healthier.

 I must say, now that I am aware of all that is happening at FGCU, such as the food forest and the trails, I am a little disappointed because I am now in my last semester and will not be spending as much time here to enjoy these areas. I wish I had known about the food forest and all that it had to offer and the same for the trails. I feel that FGCU’s mission is all about being environmentally aware and it homes many things that your typical students would probably not even know about, yet some of us are left out of the loop and not informed well of what we could experience or know about. I think one way to better make people aware would be to have areas where classes can meet and simply have class outside instead of inside the classroom. For example, during one of my science courses I would’ve loved to have gone outside and see a real tree or insect for a lesson plan we could do in our future classrooms when we become teachers. Why not use what we have to make it more real and interesting? I hope to one day have a garden for my pre-k or kindergarteners and the food forest is a great example of what I can plant and not plant and a way to learn about the different things that are there.

 

 

 

The Living Machine!

Corkscrew also had so many more things that I thought could even exist! For example, the Living Machine was pretty amazing because it is a water treatment system which purifies wastes and recycles water back into the restrooms for reuse in the toilets. To think that plants with a little help from people can do such thing is pretty amazing to me!  Corkscrew is very important because it houses many animal and plant species that cannot perhaps not be found in other places. They provide tons of information and education to all people of all ages.

What I learned about the Plume birds was pretty sad and cruel. I thought that it was even gross that some put the whole bird on their head simply to show how much money someone had. The Plume birds are one type of information that perhaps not too many people would know about unless they walked into Corkscrew. It allows us to see how we as humans can destroy something so beautiful and important for the sake of wanting to feel and look superior to others. Having such things and educating people is what will allow future generations to think more of what they are doing and what they need to take care of for a better future. When I think of all this I wonder of how many other people are missing out on learning and seeing what we have so close to home!


 

  

My favorite part was simply walking on the boardwalk and trying to look for interesting things. It made it interesting because it’s almost like a scavenger hunt, you have to watch carefully in order to see something great…and you just never know what you might find!

 

 Can you find what's hiding in the swamp cabbage?

 One change I have already started to implement since I've started this course is that I’ve decide to no longer buy bottled water. Just the other day my husband and I were shopping and he began to pick out a case of bottled water he was going to place in the cart. Just then I stopped him and told him we could use our water bottles that we had a home. He looked at me strange and said that bottled water was more convenient, so I told him that all he needed to do is put water in water bottle and he would be fine! We haven’t purchased bottled water for about three weeks, I’d say that is a good start! My next change is going to be to purchase Fair Trade coffee. My family and I  picked tomatoes in the fields and got underpaid for all the hard work, so this hits close to home when I think of the people who are picking coffee bean, doing all the hard work yet they are getting paid close to nothing. This will definitely will be a change I make right away on my next purchase of coffee!