NO IMPACT MAN – Progressive regress?

The idea of ultimate sustainability behind the “No impact man” is definitely important – the amount of things we consume, directly or indirectly, and the amount of waste we produce, are abominable. I really liked the initiative, although I think it was in many ways too extreme. We can not just reject hundreds of years of all progress and commodities that the humanity came up with to make our lives easier and explore new possibilities, and that was to a great extent what the No Impact Man was doing. Simply rejecting electricity, or services like eating out, is not a solution, or at least – not a very clever one. It only makes the life of the person who decides to do it harder. Instead, new solutions of sustainable energy and transportation should be invented. In fact, they already have been invented, but they are more expensive, and it is not in the interest of big corporations to “bother” to switch to more sustainable resources. I think the No Impact Man was really making it hard on himself, instead of trying to find solutions that would actually work for larger numbers of people, ideally – with very little or none of there people’s effort. The way of life he proposed was actually taking a lot of time and effort, and as idealist as I am, I think people are generally seeking the easiest and most effortless ways to do things (although he did save a lot of time by not having a TV, for sure). I admire his effort and it was a good call towards raising awareness and bringing the family closer together. In the long run, however, if everybody lived this way, it would kind of slow the progress, if not throw us back, in my opinion. Therefore, like I said, I think we should look for alternative solutions, instead of ridding ourselves of the long-achieved comforts.

I also think, however, that there are certain things that we can do indeed. For example, we should shop locally, use bikes or public transportation as much as we can, get rid of paper billing and paper magazines (especially that now we do have easily accessible electronic versions), use reusable cups and tumblers, and stop buying bottled water. Reducing packaging waste, recycling, and composting (if possible) are also some brilliand and easily executable ideas. Overall, I think it was an interesting project and we should be more mindful of the environment (DUH!!!), but some radical solutions that were proposed in the movie could be done better.

I’m attaching a thought-provoking image about our impact on the planer and ourselves
http://www.upworthy.com/great-advice-for-aliens-that-want-to-destroy-earth

New Spider Silk Discovery!

For over a decade now, scientist have been working to create lighter an more durable fabrics through the usage of spider silk. Spider silk has many desirable properties in terms of safety. When woven into  a fabric, spider silk can be among the most indestructible materials on our planet. A rope as thick as a pencil comprised of ‘golden orb weaver’ silk, is strong enough on its own, to stop a commercial jet in mid flight. Spider silk is one third the weight of kevlar and ten times as durable. This is because spider silk is made from a unique protein weave designed to capture insects and even small birds several times larger than the spider itself.

The original problem scientists had with using spider silk was the unwanted adhesive that coated the spider’s web. What’s more, spider could only produce small amounts of silk at a time which made it impossible to mass produce. Fortunately this problem was quickly solved when scientists realized that we already have a fairly efficient way to produce protein. That of course was milk! The spider silk gene was promptly introduced into goats. When these ‘spider-goats’ excreted their milk, the silk protein would come out too. It would come out in a liquid form rather than a thread, that could be separated from the milk and then woven. Since this discovery, manufacturers have been working to create safety devices with it such as spider kevlar and seat belts.

Up until recently goats were spliced with the ‘golden orb weaver’ spider silk gene. As scientists began to dig deeper, they realized that not every spider shares similar silk making genes. Some we significantly stronger than others. Through years of research they eventually realized that there was in fact one spider that had threads stronger than the almighty golden orb weaver and not just by a bit, but by almost twice its strength. The spitting spider, after being tested is now remodeling the spider silk producing industry. I look forward to the day when our military is clad in spider-man attire.

The Cove

The cove was a fairly informative film about the dolphin situation in Japan. It would seem that much of Japan’s older generation was hunting them in massive numbers due to an unfounded national pride in ancient dolphin hunting. I found the idea of mercury filled school lunch meat absolutely appalling and I can only imagine how the parents of these students would have reacted. I don’t necessarily see a problem with Japan hunting dolphin because they’re ‘cute’, but rather because the meat they’re obtain may cause future problems. Not only does the meat of an absolutely ridiculous amount of mercury in it, but killing so many dolphins on such a large scale can have some pretty severe consequences on the respective ecosystem. The meats primarily used in the US [pork, cow, and chicken] have already been so far removed from the environment for so long that even if they all went extinct the earth wouldn’t be effected. Unlike dolphins, domesticated cows do not play an important role in any environment. They simply exist. It’s good to know Japan didn’t decide to contaminate an entire generation over some pointless pride and stubbornness.

Fishing – Tim Paik and Jati Darmawan

For our project we went fishing, it was fun and relaxing. At first we were having trouble getting any bites so we moved to wherever the birds were, and we also learned a lot about how to hook the bait and reel them in. Jati had the only pole so we just recorded him. Mainly we wanted to fish because it was not only a project that had fish involved, but other animals such  as birds, crustaceans and other things. Mainly this is related to biodiversity because it’s a management of fish, overfishing is a huge problem now, and luckily we were only a bunch of amateur fishers so we didn’t really catch much.

Here is a video I made that shows our trip, pretty crazy overall.

-Tim Paik

There’s a habit that my parents and many cooks do and that is to wash the produce to clean off the pesticides… now I found out that that they’re growing it into the foods? Well I did notice how unusually long produce stay ‘freash’a week or more after I bought them. I did notice many of the labels from other countries and only wonder how it got here to safely? I do know that flight only take a few hours and produce wont go bad in a few hours but still?

Pesticides grown into the food??

well I didn’t care for going organic before, but now I’ll be more careful. I didn’t buy much produce since they all tasted bitter, sour or more bland then water. I usually keep to the basic grains and beans, typical of the haitian diet. Usually either beef or chicken, some times turkey (I love the wing part, don’t care for white tastless meat). Then I fill the rest of my plate of veggies (what ever is on sale and in seasons) and fruit. If I can grow it or I can find it off a tree (since many floridians seems to not care about this, I go around the neighborhood and pick things off when there’s no car in the drive way) I’ll what ever I find.

I don’t typically  buy local since its usually cash only, I rather not drive out of my way, and they don’t take food stamps

-Laurie Thomas

Reduce Reuse Recycle

I think a good majority of us can say that we’ve heard the mantra “reduce, reuse, recycle,” but how many of us actually try to apply it to our lives to the best of our abilities? Our class discussion on climate control and watching the first bit of No Impact Man really got me thinking of how little we do to preserve our planet as a whole.  It’s sort of terrifying actually. Why don’t we do more to prevent our planet from dying off? Maybe it’s because we don’t see the consequences of global warming as dramatically as if we were to live up north where we could see the icecaps melting rapidly. It could also be that some of us are just waiting for “the next guy” to come along and take care of the issue. And, it’s a shot in the dark, but maybe the majority of the human race isn’t thinking about Earth’s needs because we are too wrapped up in our daily lives… Which now thinking of it, is probably the case… Anyway, one of the easiest ways to help benefit the planet is to follow that mantra of reduce, reuse, recycle and it really isn’t that difficult. We have to do our part, however small it may be. It really does help. Real talk.

I’ve even heard people say that they believe that global warming isn’t real and the planet just takes care of itself. That concept is just mind blowing to me… Like really… you don’t think that the fumes radiating from your F150 isn’t killing anything? I think that most of us need to be educated on the matter a bit more and luckily for the younger generations, I think it should start with them. When I was in grade school they would tell us how to reduce, reuse, and recycle, but we never truly applied it. We would read about it and move on. Things need to change a bit more in order for us to have a cleaner planet.

Anyway, here is some Jack Johnson.

Private Space

After last week’s viewing of the movie The Cove, I was really struck with how stupid this whole argument is.  Japan is insistent on forcing the lie on the world that the dolphin market (for both meat and capture) is nonexistent.  What strikes me as funny is that it is obvious when looked into, but from the outside (or inside Japan, rather) you would not known otherwise.  What is even more odd is the toxicity of dolphin meat, yet it continues to be sold and eaten en masse.  Japan isn’t fooling anyone here; that stuff is terrible for the country.  Do they want to begin a generation of people with major disabilities?

Personally, I don’t believe an animal should gain recognition and immunity (aka gaining endangered status) on “cuteness” or supposed intelligence that can’t be measured, but I do believe dolphins have the right to be free from capture and hunt because they have such an impact both up and down the food chain.  I also believe that it is wrong to hunt dolphins due to the toxicity levels they leave in the ocean when slaughtered and in their meat when consumed, no matter the species doing the eating.

It just does not make any sense to me that those running this dolphin scandal kill off the dolphins unchosen by dolphin-trainers.  As bad as this sounds, a lot of the controversy over The Cove could be solved by just not killed the unpicked ones.  Leave them to reproduce and grow for the next years of picking, if anything.  Since the head price for a dolphin by trainer is exorbitantly larger than the price for its meat, why not just leave it for next year’s picking?  That would be like a car company destroying the outgoing generation of cars just because they did not get sold within the first year.  Let’s be a little business-savvy here now.

-Dakota Hopkins

Sources

The Cove movie

Oh Fishy, Fishy Fish, Where Did You Go?

Questions arise with the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization’s (FAO) projections regarding the wild fish harvest in 2012. Specifically about the ecological damages that have been inflicted on wild fish populations. FAO’s projections estimate that the wild fish harvest will fall 2 percent from 2011, which means that this haul will be now 4% below the all-time greatest haul of wild fish which was reached in 1996. With rapid growth throughout the 1980s and 90s due to the expansion of fishing into new fishing stocks the total wild fish harvest climbed, then held steady until in recent years the total wild fish haul began to fall.

Based on an evaluation in 2009 the FAO reported that 57% of the oceanic fish stocks are now “fully exploited” meaning that if the fishing efforts regarding these stocks were to increase the stock would begin to slowly decrease and they would tumble into the category of “overexploited”. 30% of the oceans fish stocks have already been declared over exploited and immediate action must be taken to stop the destruction of our oceans. Based on the last 38 years, starting from a study in 1974, and continuing to today it seems that the hope for the survival of our oceans aren’t all that bright. In 1974  it was reported that 40% of the oceans wild fish stocks were under exploited, today only approximately 13% of the oceans fish stocks can be classified as “underexploited”. With a greater percentage of our oceans overexploited (30%) than they are underexploited (13%) it would seems that not only the industry but the oceans will soon fail if corrective actions aren’t taken.

However, thankfully scientists and organizations have dedicated themselves to working on these issues and actions are being taken to improve the remaining fish stocks. Actions, like the reduction of fishing pressures, are being enforced in attempts to improve the spawning success of future fish. Scientists are targeting “forage fish” as species to reduce fishing pressures on as forage fish are the fish that support the stability of the species higher up on the food chain, like salmon and tuna which are both popularly consumed fish.

Other actions, like restrictions on gear types, total catch sizes and dividing shares of catches among fishers and the designation of marine protected areas and “no-take” zones are also proving to improve the success of fishing stocks. For instance in Australia a study performed in 2010 revealed that no-take reserves had in six years doubled the populations of fish in no-take zones as well improving the total size of the fish meaning a greater biomass per fish. Not only did the areas of no-take increase the areas around these reserves increased their fish populations. Due to the success of theses efforts Australia announced this past June that it is going to increase its total number of reserves resulting in a total of one third of its waters being marked as protected.

Changing To Green (Emanuel Gonzalez)

CHANGING TO GREEN

I find Colin beaver to be an incredibly brave man I would not be able to do with out more than half of the thing he left behind on his quest to be green. But with out a doubt he is nothing but inspiration to us all, his proof that we can all change to green if we really wanted to.

One of the first questions when trying to become greener is always what can I do with out, this is always the first and hardest step; being honest with your self and eliminating the stuff you really don’t need. First thing that comes to my mind is what is the most toxic object that I use? For me it would be oil paint but this is my problem. As a painter I cant give up my paints because that’s how I would make my income there for I would absolutely not stop from using them.

But in my opinion going green does not mean you need to kill everything that is not exactly perfect to the environment like Colin beaver did in his film. I think is more about knowing what you can leave out of your life to become a better person.

Emanuel Gonzalez

Video Link :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWAbuc2WpuE

The Cove

I thought that The Cove was very interesting. Ric O’Barry’s story, personal motivations and his plight for redemption were touching, as were the rest of the team. The way people can rally around a worthy cause it truly inspiring. I will say that this movie/ documentary relied very heavily on the audience having an emotional response to it. I, however, have never been one to get emotional over unfortunate situations that I can’t help. I found myself pretty detached from the problem, and I wasn’t affected like a lot of the others in class.

Dolphins are known to be highly intelligent mammals, but I think that since they live quite like fish it’s easier for the fishermen to be detached. They said that they were pests after all. If you don’t see something as thinking or having emotions, it gets pretty easy to remove yourself. You probably do it with insects. If there’s an ant in your way, you might not give it a second thought to squish it; there are plenty others to take their place.

To people here, dolphins are seen as these majestic animals, almost unicorn status. Yet we keep them in relatively small spaces. People have always wanted to take nature in and study it, even at the expense of the animal. Although I have no doubt that the small spaces have something to do with the technology and expense related to large aquariums,  I think a lot of people just don’t think about their impact when they go pay money to see these animals used to traveling hundreds of miles in an enclosure.