It's the End of the World as we Know it

 Jared Diamond talks about the collapse of modern society in his A Tale of Two Farms.  He demostrates many different examples of past and recent collapses of society which were due for a various reasons but mostly due to environment.  I believe that all societies and civilization has their course in history and is limited in order to give rise to new and different people.  Unfortunately now society or what we consider as civilization is no longer a segragated community in some corner of the world.  Society is now global and involves all humans and all walks of life.  Our faliure will come at a greater scale and at a greater cost.  Many people continue to believe that never could the world, or a society like the United States collapse on itself but many advanced societies in the past have already proven that such beliefs are dangerous.  As Diamond stated, “The societies that ended up collapsing were (like the Maya ) among the most creative and (for a time) advanced and successful of their times, rather than stupid and primitive”.  Unfortunately for the Mayans,  that wasn’t enough to survive collapse.   True, we are much different from other societies in the past with advanced science, technology, and the knowledge of the past but as Diamond was well aware of, we also have some major factors that promote us to collapse just as eaisily if not easier.  We have become a globalized society meaning that what effects one country effects the rest.   Also due to our advance knowledge and technology, we have increased our populations through modern medicine and thus cause a greater strain on resources.  

One for all and All for One .

National Geographic’s Strange Days: The One Degree Factor was a very interesting look at how even the most seemingly insignificant change in environment could have a giant and cascading effect on the world.  The issues in the Caribbean which includes the increased rates of childhood asthma in Trinidad and the reef disease present in the Virgin Island, demonstrated how the earth is extremely balance and that issues in one part of the world can greatly affect the other part.    I found it amazing that due to the heating of the Indian Ocean, which caused increased storms, affected the North Atlantic oscillation which then causes increased dust to be brought over to the Americas for an abnormally increased rate of time.  A mouth full isn’t it!  Thinking about it, the whole process reminds me of what James Lovelock states as Gaia,  which is described in Tim Flannery’s The Weather Makers.  Flannery states, “The atmosphere, Lovelock concluded, is Gaia’s great organ of interconnection and temperature regulation.  He described it as “not merely a biological product, but more probably a biological construction: not living, but like a cat’s fur, a bird’s feathers, or the paper nest of a wasp, an extension of a living system designed to maintain a chosen environment. “    The interconnectedness that all living things have in this planet we call earth is truly amazing and at the same time should scare us horribly.  We have intentionally and unintentionally cause immense damage to the environment and to most living things on the planet, some of which is irreversible.   By doing so, we have also cause our own sufferance and possibly taken a promising future away from the human race.  I guess the three musketeers had it right by saying, “One for all, and all for one.”   Our fate is ultimately intertwined with the fate of all living things on this earth, even if we view some of them as insignificant and of no value. 

Biophilia or Biophobia - David Orr -Colloquium Post 6

You cannot read David W. Orr’s “Love it or Lose It: The Coming Biophilia Revolution” without reflecting on your current relationship with nature.  It is sad to me to think that there are many individuals that have absolutely no interest or respect for nature.  I really do believe that we have strayed far from our roots and have become conditioned by modern society to go against our very nature.  Some would argue that we have naturally evolved and we have overcome the challenges of our environment but in reality we have destroyed our natural environment by erecting cities, clearing forests, and killing off anything we perceived as a threat.  Our world and the environment we live in are artificial and man made.   Unfortunately, nature has suffered greatly due to man’s selfishness, greed, and biophobia.  Orr sees our modern society as a kind of collective madness due to our willingness to be caged within the confines our artificial environments and our alienation of the very world that birthed humanity.  I liked the comparison that Orr used when he compared caged monkeys, who knew nothing other than captivity, to modern human society.  Our perspective is a matter of conditioning but as Orr states, it’s also a matter of conscious choice.  Orr points out the obvious; that in order to correct the state of environmental crisis we have created, we must learn to love nature and the land that we stand on.  Instead of dominating the land, humanity has to accept its place as part of nature and shed the selfishness and greed that has clouded man’s judgment for generations. One giant leap for mankind!  I guess the first step is to learn how to love ourselves first, or maybe the solution is as simple as reacquainting our children once again with nature. It may be beneficial to their future perspective of how they fit into nature.  

Aldo Leopold - Lack of Ethics for Nature - Colloquium Post 5

Aldo Leopold is famous for his writing of “A Sand Country Almanac” and makes many valid points for the argument that we have a lack of ethics when it comes to nature.  He views humanity as aggressors that abuse and exert destructive dominance onto the land, plants, and animals of the earth.  Personally I found Leopold’s writing a little dry and I had some issues keeping my attention on the text.  Also “A Sand Country Almanac” is a little outdated, giving no recent references to his arguments.  Some of his choice in language and referring to the “the great dust bowl” as recent or current history dated Leopold.  Leopold’s writing also emphasized greatly on the farmers and their practices being damaging to the natural environment which seems to be only a small part of today’s environmental issues.  Of course, Leopold couldn’t have been aware of the “whole picture” in the forties with the limited information that he had.  Even though the writing seems to be outdated, Leopold’s perspectives are not.  Many of his views were actually ahead of his time, or you could even say from before his time.  The philosophy of having respect for the earth and becoming at peace with nature by giving respect and love to the world around us was a very ancient belief that our ancestors possessed. Although the modern industrialized machine has no use for such reflection, many people and theories of today finding truth in the ancient wisdom.  Leopold had great insight into the nature of man and his ethic standing within the natural world.  His words are to be pondered and his warnings to be taken seriously.    

Richard Louv's Nature-Deficet Disoder / ADHA Connection

Richard Louv’s “Nature-Deficit Disorder and the Restorative Environment”, an excerpt from Last Child in the Woods, was a very interesting perspective to ADHD and our inert connection to nature.  The whole subject definitely perked my attention.  Personally, I am not directly affected by ADHD but I do have several friends that have children that have been diagnosed with the developmental order.  ADHD seems to be on the rise and it seems that so many children now have it.  Most of these children are prescribed medications to deal with the issues, which is typical of western medicine.  The raise in ADHD causes me to question the reason why this condition is now so prevalent.  What has changed?  Is it because we now recognize the symptoms and now have a name for the disorder?  I have heard many arguments and theories but in all honesty, nature-deficit disorder being the direct culprit for ADHD is a new theory for me.  The theory is plausible especially when you consider evolutional development.  Also, I can see how nature can settle down an otherwise wired personality.  The urban environment tends to be a busy, distractive, high paced, and multi-tasking forever that has no end.  Even in the safety of your home the phone, television, computer, and radio intrude and encroach onto you peace of mind.  Sleep seems to be the only real peace, (if you sleep well), until your alarm rudely wakes you in the morning.  I’m naturally a much laid back person and I found that I adapt very easily to different environment but the urban lifestyle does eventually have a toll on the human spirit.  I always try to get away to seek a more natural environment which I find can recharge me and also shed some of the negativity that can build up at work, school, and just from interaction with certain people.  I’m not surprised that natural environments can be therapeutic for children with ADHD.  The question to ask, is it nature that is a positive stimulant or is it the fact that we just removed them from the environment that causes the negative stimulation?  I would be extremely interested in the results of new research on the subject.  I would like to see the prevalence of ADHD in rural areas versus urban areas, (with the proper filters) or the therapeutic effects of chemical treatment versus strictly environment treatment. I’ll be sure to keep my eyes open for new information pertaining to the Nature-Deficit theory.