February 26th - Estero Island and Canoeing

Cristina: I loved the first half of the trip! Jo is such an awesome person and I really enjoyed hearing about her experiences. It was also my first time trying sea grape jelly and it turned out to be quite good! I think it could be fun to make it or at least to learn how. I also wish we were able to talk to Jo about her personal experiences and ask her questions. I felt like our time was short with her and out of all the places we have visited this is the first time we were able to talk to someone knowledgeable and willing to share her knowledge. I also wish we had been able to look around the property before getting on the bus to the next destination. There was a lot of cool artifacts in the display cases that I was able to glance at quickly. Normally I am not a fan of canoeing but I will say I did enjoy canoeing on our own. I don't think we learned anything but we did have a pretty good time - I feel like it lacked purpose.

 Kristin and Cristina canoeing

Kristin:
         I had so much fun on this field trip. I enjoyed listening to Jo talk about growing up on Fort Myers Beach. It meant a lot hearing about her personal experiences and how the island has changed over time. She was so knowledgeable and you could tell she really cared about the island. In addition, I enjoyed getting a chance to try her homemade sea grape jelly. I really enjoyed it! I agree with Christina that it would be fun to learn how to make it ourselves. I also agree with Christina that it would have been nice to have more time with Jo to ask her questions, see more artifacts that they had there, and look around the property. I felt like she had so much more information that she would have shared with us is we would have had the time. On the other hand I am really glad that we got some time to go canoeing. I almost wish this field trip was split into two. One that we could spend more time talking to Jo and one where we went on a group canoeing trip and had a guide or something. I really enjoyed canoeing and getting to spend some relaxing time in nature, but the time on the water went so fast. Also, due to the fact that I had never been on that area of water I didn't really know where we were supposed to go or what we were supposed to be looking at/for. It took Christina and myself a little while to get the steering down while canoeing, but we were able to get it down before we returned to dock! Overall, I really had a great time on this field trip!

Melanie:

This field trip was very enjoyable. I really liked hearing Jo’s talk about how life was back when Florida was untouched. It was neat hearing how they had to protect themselves from mosquito's using DDT and spraying it around the windows or else it would just be this dark cloud of them over all the screens. It was also funny how they walked around with broom like objects to swat away the mosquitoes. It was very sweet of her to provide us cookies as well J

             I had a great time canoeing down the river. It was very peaceful and we got to see an anhinga that was drying its wings on the mangroves. We tried going into the mangroves, but that failed. Then we found a spot that we could tie the canoe to a mangrove. This was really cool. We were able to walk through them and find fiddler crabs and snails. The dirt in the mangroves is so rich; it’s almost like burnt red brown kind of color. I had a lot of fun during this trip.

Meredith:
            Finally being able to hear someone else's perspective on life in Southwest, Florida before our time made this field trip very eye opening.  Jo lived in a much simpler time, but she enjoyed every minute of the small town.  Having to protect themselves from mosquitos by using their own makeshift repellents to place on screen doors and seeing the various wildlife that was around then was neat!  I would have liked spending more time with Jo to learn more about her years growing up near Fort Myers Beach, but it was still a nice time.
            Canoeing was my favortie part of the trip!  I was surprised at first that we were able to just grab a canoe and go onto the water with our classmates with few guildelines.  It was cool to explore the mangroves and enjoy the peacefulness of being out on the water.  The soil was so rich there and you could easily see that from the bright, green vegetation.  I was in a canoe with Melanie and Christian and they paddled first, and then paddled with Christian on the way back to the dock.  It was my first time canoeing, so it was a great experience, and I appreciated colloquium a little more as we headed back to school.

Christian:  I really liked the first half of the field trip. When I think of Fort Myers Beach I think about the Lani Kai, the beach and spring break. It was nice to hear the history of the area. It amazed me that they did not have electricity for that long! It must of been a total different world to live in. I also found the story about the German uniform during WWII, as well as the stories about the local air bases pretty interesting. Overall I enjoyed listening to Jo's stories, she was very knowledgeable. I like history and think that it is very important for the future generations to know what the island used to be like so they can respect the way things used to be.  The canoeing part of the field trip was fun! It reminded me of when I used to go fishing with my Grandpa when I was younger. It was nice to see the mangroves and the estuary. It went surprisingly well, I was expecting for us to have more trouble maneuvering around, but we managed pretty well!

   Christian helping with the canoes                                         Dirt from the Mangroves

Christian and Melanie in the Mangroves

Meredith and Melanie canoeing

Trying to go through the Mangroves

Feb 19th Class! Plan B chapters 9 & 10 / Video: "Call of Life"

Last class period on Feb 19th a couple groups presented on the Plan B Chapters 9 & 10. In addition, after the chapter presentations the class watch the video "Call of Life". When the groups presented chapters 9 & 10 they asked our group a couple times about ways to solve food shortages. The class came up with quite a few inventive ideas and our group added the ideas of:

-Food Forest

-Educate (Farmers comes in schools)

-Move towards a more Agricultural economy

-Ration the food

-Eat space food

-Community gardens must be made
-Offer tax cuts for people who have their own gardens

Kristin- I enjoyed the presentations on Plan B chapters 9 & 10 last week. After each presentation I feel that the class had a good discussion and came up with some great ideas to move forward. After each presentation I think our class grows a better understanding of how important it is to become more environmentally sustainable. I know that just in the last few class periods my eyes have been opened and I am beginning to think about how much I waste and ways that I could become more environmentally sustainable in my own life. After the presentations we watched the video "Call of Life". I enjoyed this video and all of the ideas that they had in it. I feel like a few of the ideas are a little far fetched in reality, but I also believe in the "aim for the stars" and "set your goal high" sort of speak. I wish that there was a way to get more people to watch videos such as this one and to spread the word about how serious are environmental issues are today! I feel like too many people either are not informed or just dont care. I seriously think that education and awareness needs to be the first step taken and it has to be taken now!

Meredith- The presentations became much more interactive this past week, which made them more enjoyable to listen to.  It was neat to get into our groups and come up with our own ideas about how to decrease food shortages.  Hopefully, some of the plans that the class spoke about can be set into action in the near future.  While watching the video, I realized that it is too easy for us to think globilization is not directly affecting us, but the reality is, we are slowly being destroyed by it.  Unfortunately, there is only so much we can do as individuals.  Therefore, we must come together to stand up against the big corporations who have always controlled the movement of society's goods and services.  The quote in a group's PowerPoint sums up last week's class almost perfectly, in my opinion: "if you want your life to change, your choices must change and today is the best day of your life to begin."

Melanie: 

In class we had to come up with different ways to solve food shortages and here are a few that we came up with as a group.

Ways to Solve Food Shortages
-Food Forest 
Make food forest become apart of the community, neighborhoods can each have thier own community garden and take the food from that,
-Educate 
Farmers or anyone that does own a food forest can come into schools or have lectures to teach others the ways they can garden and have thier own food forest.
-Move towards a more Agricutrual economy
We are all caught up in having a industrial economy that it's time we moved to a more agricultural economy instead. This way we can focus more on food that can keep up living. 
-Ration the food
This seems extreme, but if it comes down to it, food would have to be rationed in order for everyone to have food. As Americans we waste food, we have more then we really need, so this could actually help.
-Eat space food
What I meant by space food is eating systhic foods, this would be another soultions that isn't the best. If it has to be done, then it has to be done.

 

Christian- I learned from chapter 9 and 10 that we need to start being more concerned about ourfood. We can not keep up the diet we have been eating. We need to starting more local foods so that fuel costs are lower because they don't have to travel as far. I also learned that some foods are only sold to us because they are easy to ship that way (green peppers, icebergs lettuce).  The video we watched in class really blew my mind. I always thought globalization and bringing third world countries into modern culture was a good thing. This video made me realize other wise.  Back before Internet and globalization these villages knew of nothing more than farming and every day life. They have never seen TV, or drank a Coke. But now days these people know exactly what is going on in the first world. This causes them to be unhappy because they know they are not well off. Before they introduced to this stuff they were happy because they didn't know how little they had. This is a classic use of the saying "ignorance is bliss" because when they didn't know how good they could have it, they were happy.  Although the video made good points I do not totally buy into the idea that they should be deprived of these things, I just think they need to know that it is ok to live the way they always have.

February 11th, Presentions on Plan B

A Better Future

Cristina- I am definitely thankful we have reached the sections in Plan B that offer solutions rather than simply listing all of the problems. Specifically in chapter 5 we go over the new global energy economy vs. the old and I am hopeful we will turn to cleaner energy sooner rather than later. I remember when I first started hearing about the energy crisis all I ever heard was that gas prices were going to go up but there were no viable solutions. At least now enough research has been done to prove that their are solutions out there that can reduce our carbon footprint and eliminate the large amount of waste that we produce everyday. Out of all the solutions available I believe that wind power seems to be able to meet current and future demand easily. I was also thinking about the old airplanes sitting in empty lots that we read about in chapter 4, maybe we could recycle the materials to build the wind farms. More importantly, the goals that Plan B has are only 7 years away from the deadline.Seven years can fly by very quickly if we are not careful. Hopefully we can start making small changes in our lives to maintain a good future for others.

Melanie- The few things I was able to grasp from this class is that there are solutions that can be accomplished if we all worked together to get stuff done. Plan B does seem unrealistic , but it is doable. Especially when it comes to collecting energy from sources that the earth can provide us without any costs to humanity. It's not only up to the people to start doing something, but the government as well. They hold all the power as to what really will go and won't. It doesn't take that much change to make things happen. Many other countries have been able to change and the US hasn't when our biggest claim to fame is being number one. We aren't going to be number for long if we don't try to make things better environmental.

Meredith- I enjoyed hearing all of the groups presentations this week because there was finally good news.  It was difficult during the last class to hear all of the negative things that are impacting our civilization.  Knowing that solutions have been implemented and prove to be successful in places within and outside the United States makes our situation seem less hopeless.  St. Paul, Minnesota developed district heating by building a combined heat and power plant.  They were able to utilize their tree waste from city parks and industrial wood waste, which now heats 80 percent of their downtown area.  Europe's waste-to-energy plants supply 20 million consumers with heat.  The country with the most plants is France with 128 and Germany following behind them with 67.  It may seem unrealistic for the United States to attain all of their environmental goals by 2020, but we must at least attempt to make changes or we will continue to rapidly decline.

Kristin- I felt that this last class was very productive! I enjoyed presenting our chapter 5 presentation and listening to the other groups as well. I learned from our chapter 5 research that there are many solutions out there. We just need to educate everyone and show them that there is a problem. Once people realize that there is an issue they will be more open to change and innovation to solve our problems. I mean look at all of the ideas our class came up with just in our last class period. Could you imagine if we educated others all the solutions we could come up with? I think that some of Plan B's plans are a little far fetched, but I also think that we could move forward very quickly if we all started to work together.

Our Second Field Trip: The Calusa Nature Center

Cristina: This past week we took a trip to the Calusa Nature Center and took a leisurely stroll through the wilderness. First we stopped in the main section of the CNC and saw some animals like the American Bull Frog and Screech Owls. I thought that part was pretty fun to see the animals and get some information on our own. They had quite a few animals ranging from lizards to fish. I did feel like our purpose for being there was a little confusing because we did not get an introduction nor did we even know that the purpose of the CNC is. I think that if we had a tour guide it might have easier to understand what was going on. During our walk I had fun learning more about my classmates and enjoying the weather but I will admit I didn't learn much about the plants or animals and that was pretty disappointing.                                                                      
                                                                                                             

Meredith:

It was enjoyable to visit the Calusa Nature Center because it gave the class an opportunity to meet in a different environment to learn about Florida’s native trees, plants, and animals.  Even though the naturalist did not show up for our group, we were allowed to explore the trails on our own.  Some of the students were able to provide their information about the specific trees and plants that they had learned about previously in their academic career.  My favorite part of the trip was towards the end when we got to see some of Florida’s wildlife.  Included in this were a bald eagle, a possum, fox hound, owls, and alligators.  I am looking forward to seeing more of Southwest Florida when we canoe on our next field trip.

Calusa Nature Center Pictures:



American Bull Frog

The American Bull Frog was pretty big, probably one of the biggest frogs I have even seen! I wish the glass on his tank was cleaner so I could have gotten a better shot but you can still see him.

Tillandsia - Air Plant

I see air plants all the time on trees and I never knew what they were called so it is awesome to be able to put a name on it!

Silver Fox

This little guy is allergic to something in the ground so his habitat needed to be build above ground. At the time he was limping around back and forth so hopefully he'll recover soon!

Great Horned Owl

I love owls so I was glad to see one up close!

Smilax

Melanie was able to identify this one on her own! 

Ferns

We definitely saw quite a bit of ferns growing along the way.

Saw Palmetto

We learned that Saw Palmetto Berries are good for men and their health.


Bald Eagle

We met Azul's brother! (haha) This is probably one of the few times I have ever seen an Eagle!

Laurel Oak Tree

The cool thing about walking through the oak hammock was the temperature difference, it definitely felt cooler walking through that part than any of the other parts.

Maple Tree

I am from New England so it was cool to see something so familiar in my new "backyard".

Holly

It was nice to see some red berries on the Holly. In South Florida the holly trees never get this bright red berries.

American Beauty Berry

This plant is really pretty. It provides birds with a lot of food, they just love those berries berry much. (haha)

Mayan Cichlid

The Mayan cichlid can be found in lakes, rivers, estuaries, red mangrove, and flats on the mainland.  They can be up to 2 pounds and 16 ounces and can survive in a range of salinity from 0 to 40 and can eat a wide variety of organisms such as, shrimps, worms, insects, and even algae.

The beautiful weather and scenery on the walk

Melanie and Meredith having some fun at CNC

January 29th Class/ Our 1st Group Presentation

Last week as you all may know we watched a couple video's in class about Curitiba and Cuba's environmental awareness. This week we started off the class period talking our individual views on these videos. Many of the students liked some of the ideas and innovations brought up in these videos, but others felt the true issues of these countries were not accurately depicted. One of the girls in our class actually came from Cuba and she said that the video did not show many of the things truly going on there. In other words these videos seemed to "sugar coat" reality. Melanie stated, "It was very interesting to hear the different points of view on what our classmates had to say about the Cuba video. I believe in the same thing. I don't think the video depicted what Cuba was really about. I have family there and it is not all getting better. It's still in the same bad condition. The farms are pretty much owned by the government and you have to watch out for other people trying to steal your crops and animals." On the other hand some of the students were motivated and moved by these videos. Meredith said, "After discussing the two movies we watched in class, I began to think about the kind of future my children will have if I decided to have a family one day. Even though I am only one person, if I make a habit out of eating better and caring more for my environment, then I may be able to influence those around me to do the same. It is important to realize that we want to ensure a better life for future generations because we cannot expect them to clean up our mess if we are not willing to take care of our planet now. We can begin to do this by walking, biking, or even taking public transportation instead of choosing to drive everywhere. Growing our own food and eating that instead of various fast foods will begin to ensure that we lead healthier lifestyles. If we begin to implement these small things into our daily routine, then we may be able to begin to make a difference."

After discussing these videos we started the group chapter presentations on our first text book "Plan B 4.0". Our group signed up for the first chapter of this book therefore, we began with the first presentation of the day. Our chapter was "Selling Our Future". Meredith began our presentation talking about the first section "Food: The Weak Link". She covered topics such as supply constraints, growing demands, food vs. fuel, water shortages, and climate change. Christian then took over and talked about the second section; "The Emerging Politics of Food Scarcity". He focused on food security issues, importers, land acquisition, and food prices. Then I (Kristin) covered the third section; "Our Global Ponzi Economy". I talked about the Ponzi Scheme; how it relates to our water, grassland, and fish usage issues; and market prices vs. honest prices. Next, Cristina informed the class about the fourth section; "Mounting Stresses, Failing States". She explained what a failing state is and the different aspects that can cause a failing state such as civil wars, training ground for terrorist groups, sources for drug distribution, infection diseases, and bad debt. Finally, Melanie wrapped up our presentation by covering our the last section; "Plan B- A Plan to Save Civilization". She talked about "moving the world from our current path of decline and collapse path to a new path that involves food security civilization becoming sustained."She focused on the Plan B four major components and the fact that these components can't be accomplished until the population is stabilized. When we completed our slide show presentation we were going to play a game with the class, but due to the amount of time the discussion at the beginning of class took we did not have time. Once we completed our presentation we watched two other groups present for the remainder of the class period. One group talked about the second chapter; "Population Pressure: Land and Water" and the other group talked about the third chapter, "Climate Change and the Energy Transition." These groups have very interesting and informative presentations as well. Cristina said, "I found the other group presentations in our class period very interesting as well. It is hard to hear some of the outrageous statistics and issues, but it is important to have our eyes opened to today's reality. " Christian agreed adding, "Too many people today either dont what to know the facts or are ignoring them. How can we move forward to a better future if we refuse to realize and fix the issues of today?" I think our entire group agrees with Cristina and Christian's statements. It is hard to face reality sometimes, but how can one move forward in the dark?