Indigenous Resistance...

The Coast Salish people are Native Americans whose culture has been at risk of extinction. In the article Indigenous Resistance and Racist Schooling on the Borders of Empires: Coast Salish Cultural Survival, the author Michael Marker explains how the Coast Salish people are forced to conform. The area that they once lived in has been divided by the Canada-US border. The stress that has been put on the Native Americans has caused racism. With the government constantly pushing them around and slowly conforming them, they don't  have a chance to voice their opinions or live how the want to really live.
        

Essay 3: Food/Sustainability Issues

In the brickyard, some of the food issues that are present are the result of events hosted by clubs, students eating there lunch outside, and trash left behind. Clubs occasionally have events in the brickyard that involves giving away or selling food. Most of the food provided is brought from nearby fast food places. This is an issue because the students don't know what is in the food or where it is coming from. Food provided from the brickyard is also an issue because safe precautions aren't really taken while handling the food. The providers may have on gloves but there usually aren't any sanitizers near by. The food also isn't being kept at a good temperature to prevent any germs.
There are also sustainability issues present in the brickyard. Due to the high buildings that surround the brickyard, the trees, plants, and grass isn't getting an adequate amount of sunlight. The gardeners that maintain the brickyard's greenery may use fertilizers that could contain potentially harmful chemicals.

EPA

Abria Harris
Synthesis

Hydraulic fracturing, most commonly known as "fracking", is a process in which pressurized fluids are used in order to fracture into Earth's rock layer to create wells underground. The fluids used in fracking have been identified as to being dangerous to both the public and the environment. Abrahm Lustgarten, Nicholas Kusnetz and  ProPublica are authors of the article "EPA: Natural Gas Fracking Linked to Water Contamination" which is about fracking and how it could have been the cause of water contamination in an area in Wyoming. The authors uses a draft report from the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) to support their article.

"Federal environment officials of today scientifically linked underground water pollution [found in Wyoming with fracking]." The EPA question if fracking is capable of causing harm to water resources while others believe the fracking to be safe. All of the synthetic compounds from frack fluids could pose risks to the health and safety  of the public and the environment.  The EPA decided that the best way to find out if the the water really is being polluted by fracking was to create two test wells and monitor them. After a few years of testing and monitoring the wells, contaminants were found and thought to be relevant to the fracking. "In 2010 another round of sampling confirmed the contamination."

Warnings were given from both the EPA and federal health officials for the residents to be cautious while being around the water and steps were given as to what is safe and what is not. Along with the confirmation from the EPA that compounds used in the fracking process were found in areas that were fracked, the EPA also found that 2-BE, a chemical "known to be used in fracking," was detected in only one of the test wells. Although the EPA's findings were important, the information couldn't be used as a fact because the detection of 2-BE only occurred once in the tests.

Khan

 The sequence of events that have been occurring on the planet, according to Richard Nash, is leading to the world's demise.We have been desecrating this planet for years. Humans have been working this planet to its core and people don't realize the catastrophes that are in the planet's future. If mankind continues to neglect the plant by overpopulating Earth and overproduce products the future will not be too good for anyone; but, we can save our Earth by changing our ways and becoming more environmentally literate and ecoliterate. The environmental crisis that is at hand has contributed to an economic crisis as well. 40 years ago the ratio of rich to poor was 44:1, which has now nearly doubled to the ratio of 72:1. The world is becoming greedier than ever for all of the mundane things that are produced now a days. What are we going to do about this? Nash mentions a school known as the "Zoo School" which teaches students the basic subjects such as math and science, as well as helps to articulate the harm that humans have brought to planet along with all of its inhabitants. If more schools and programs such as the Zoo School were available, humans will be more knowledgeable of how to be good neighbors to the environment.

Visual Rhetoric

As an outsider looking in, Earth is in bad condition. Saturn, the doctor, tells Earth "I'm afraid you have humans." Humans, in this case, is disease-like and like some diseases, it may lead to one's demise.

Turtle Island Themes

The Dead By the End of The Road

Snyder shows how the highway is a death trap for animals such as birds and deer. The main theme is that the highway plays a negative role in the relationship between nature and mankind (man-made things). Although the road-kill can be used as a resource for food and items ("a pouch").

Coyote Valley Spring

The theme is that life (plants, regions, animals) are better off not touched by mankind. The deer, bears, and squirrels seem to be in the wilderness, or the "Coyote Valley"; untouched by humans (the "lost people"). In the wilderness, the animals seem to have more of their environment intact and unharmed. 

By Frazier Creek Falls

Snyder is taking his view and appreciating nature. The theme of this piece is that the land can be here as long as humans aren't ruining it. Mankind doesn't have to live off of "clothes or tools" but can live off of the earth alone with its plentiful resources.

Turtle Island Themes

Without 

The theme of this poem is humans have the power to renew Earth. It is not ones responsibility to try an d SAVE the world because it can not be saved, but it can be healed and replenished with the power that humans have grown to have.

Two Fawns That Didn't Get To See The Light This Spring

It is because of humans that animals lives are at risk. The two fawns in the poem both may have survived, but they would not be raised properly. A human can provide a fawn with food that act as supplements but what the fawn really needs is its' mother and the resources provided by the forest.

The Uses of Light

This poem is describing how both the sun and the moon contribute to Earth. The sunlight helps warm earth and it's inhabitants. The moonlight illuminates the night, allowing animals and humans to see earth.

An Environmental Issue

Abria Harris
Professor H. Taylor
English 101

Roderick Frazier Nash discusses in his proposal titled "Island Civilization: A Vision for Human Occupancy of Earth in the Fourth Millennium" that humans are the main cause of the environmental issues that are present today. One environmental issue that contributes to the need for Nashs’ “island civilization” is water pollution. Although water pollution can occur naturally from events such as floods, heavy winds, and run offs, humans can also act as pollutants. Heavily populated regions are the main areas where there is water contamination in result of urban run-off. Big cities, where there are high populations and ports, are the primary sources that spread the toxin-filled water to other ports. An example of how badly contaminated water can harm large bodies of water is the Boston Harbor.

The Boston Harbor is a well-known port city that has been thriving since as early as the 1600’s. The Harbor has been through much neglect over the past few centuries; it has been used as a tea pot, as a battle ground, and as a toilet. Everything that is being mixed into the water is infecting, as well as killing, the inhabitants of the water –based ecosystems. The infected species that are used as food sources will infect the consumer, thus infecting the higher levels of the food chain. Apart from the endangering the food chain, the acid levels of the rain are altered.

Water and natural gases mix together in the air and creates rain that is low in acid. The atmosphere can’t endure all of the chemicals that are released into the air from vehicles and factories. The gases that are emitted from man-made machines causes high levels of acid in rain which, of course, produces acid rain. Acid rain has the capability of eroding metal, stone, flesh, etc.; basically almost anything that the rain comes in contact with.

            Disregarding the needs of the planet could lead to the end of the existence of the human race. Not only is the existence of mankind in jeopardy, the existence of the whole world is at risk of being completely destroyed. Every harmful (or beneficial) change to the environment has an effect on humans. Results may not be noticeable at first, but they will arise. Luckily, the government has come a long way from how situations were handled a few centuries ago. Better sewage systems have been developed and acts have been passed in order to try to maintain clean, healthy water. It is up to mankind to begin to change their habits so that the government’s attempts to preserve the world’s water resources will not be in vain.

http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/waterpollution/

Writing as "choice"

 In Bill McKibben's podcast, McKibben discusses how the government is continuing to build everywhere in the world but there isn't enough funds or space. The world isn't what it used to be and everything is being depleted. If humans continue to misuse the world's resources, there will be nothing left to use. Now scientists will have to be able to make technology that will keep everything running. Humans will also have to start substituting the natural resources will technical resources. The substitution method can be used to develop new food sources, new living arrangments, new means of transportantion, etc.

Summary of Island Civilization

In Island Civilization: A Vision for Human Occupancy of Earth in the Fourth Millennium,  Roderick Frazier Nash is trying to encourage his readers that his ideals are reasonable and beneficial. In a big portion of his essay, Nash states his opinion regarding the civilization growing beyond its limits. Nash also has quotes from famous theologians who point out facts that strengthen his argument about environmental issues. He combines facts and quotes to help confirm his opinion.

 Roderick’s idea of what the Earth will be like in the fourth millennium is somewhat frightening. I believe that his main intention is to promote his audience to imagine the possibilities that lies ahead of the world. Things could go well for Earth if humans decide to take the initiative to be responsible for their actions and help bring the world back to its, somewhat, original state. Things could also go wrong if humans continue to take advantage of planet Earth.

An important concept, in my opinion, that Nash speaks on is how humans have been bad neighbors to the world. We are all just organisms (that being humans, animals, nature, etc) that have to learn to coexist with each other and the humans are taking their newly- found authority out of hand. By “newly-found authority” I mean it has been until the recent millennium that humans have begun to use technology to try and prevent Earth for what its purpose is; destroy and renew. “Growth confused with process” is the perfect way to describe the ignorance humans have had for Earth. We, mankind, have been selfish and only mainly developing things that will benefit us, not the world. Over populated the world with humans, buildings, highways isn’t progress.  

Roderick Nash says that humans are becoming a danger to the environment mainly with overproduction, increasing populations, and war. He is trying to prove that if humans were able to live centuries ago without the technology and other mundane things then when why can’t we survive without all of the technology in this century. I, too, believe that we are our own enemies and while we are trying to be prosperous, we are killing ourselves at the same time.

Although I do understand what Nash says about humans needing to adjust their ways in order for the world to have a chance at life, I also believe that is his proposal is asking too much from mankind. I’m not saying that restoring the world can’t be done, but there would have to be a lot of changes and sacrifices. For example, the government should stop clearing so much land for highways and building. Humans have survived this long without it, so why do something about it now? It’s like a child and candy. A baby isn’t born knowing what candy is because candy is introduced to the child as it becomes able to understand that it is good and enjoyable. Candy is not a necessity to a child just as sidewalks, highways, and shopping centers aren’t a necessity to mankind. The “Island Civilization” that Nash speaks of will need humans to oblige and to change their ways.