Diamond

Diamonds approach to the evolution of cities was very interesting to read about.  He shares with us several reasons why a city, like the Gardar farm, can collapse while farms next to it can prosper, like the Huls Farm. Diamonds shows us his five point frame work and explains why certain cities dissolve. These frames are environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbors, friendly trade partners, and the society's responses to its environment.  I enjoyed how Diamond shows us other reasons besides environmental causes to how a city could be destroyed. Even though Diamond stayed optimistic throughout his book, it is still a little sad to think that it is possible that any city can be destroyed. These five points are great and could be very helpful on how to prevent future city destruction. One part of the book stood out to me and it was the way Diamond showed both sides of an environmental opinion.  The “environmentalist” or “pro-environment” urged the government to take action to obtain a sustainable lifestyle. Clearly he states that “our current environmental problems are serious and in urgent need of addressing, and that current rates of economic and population growth cannot be sustained.” On the other hand we see the “non-environmentalist” or “pro-business” think that the importance of the environment is exaggerated and that a country can grow without the help of environment. It was weird to read that Diamond seemed to be scolded by both environmentalist and non-environmentalist. The non-environmentalist claim “Diamond preaches gloom and doom,” “favors endangered purple louseworts over the need of people,” and on the other hand the environmentalist says “diamond has sold out to big business,” “He’s in bed with big business.” After reading this section it made me question where I stand on the environmental spectrum. Before FGCU and this class I don’t think I was clear on what actually has to happen for an area to be preserved, how a city could be destroyed, or how to rebuild the land back to its old glory days. Now I can see how big of a part the environment plays in this world.  I see every day of how FGCU isn’t leaving a carbon footprint and how I am going to be one of those students who help out with it.  

http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-i-am-environmentalist-/

http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/bro/lowres/environmental-issues-environmentalist-recyclable-recycle-non_recyclable-reusable-bron3370l.jpg

Plan B

In Plan B, Chapter nine caught my eye because it shows us what we need to be doing now to support the 8 Billion people we are expected to have on this earth. In chapter 9 there are a few sections but the one that I felt more of a sense of place with was the section of producing protein more efficiently. Three main quotes stood out to me, the first is “World meat consumption increased from 44 million tons in 1950 to 260 million tons in 1970,” plus “consumption of milk and eggs has also risen. In every society where income has risen, so has meat consumption, reflecting a taste that evolved over 4 million years of hunting and gathering.” To me these facts are not shocking at all, but the thing that sparked my interest was what the number would be now that we are reaching 8 billion people in one area. My favorite sense of place is at the beach because it is where my whole family spends about a week just having the time of our lives. We have been going to The Islander since my oldest sister was a kid. A land Remembered really attracted my attention sine they too were a 3 generation family in one place. The last quote that caught my eye was “Fast-growing, highly grain-efficient world fish farm output may also overtake world beef production in the next few years.” My favorite food besides steak would be fish and crab legs, what will happen to the food that I enjoy from the sea if it becomes more frequent to catch and kill than the multiple amounts of land animals.  In fact, aquaculture has been the fastest-growing source of animal protein since 1990; largely because of herbivorous fish convert feed into protein so efficiently. I was going to argue that we need to take in account that soon these fish that we love so much will be gone, but countries like China are finding a way to keep these animals living but still having a large catching season. China has developed a fish polyculture using techniques of four types of carp that feed at different levels of the food chain. Silver and Bighead carp are filter feeders eating on phytoplankton and zooplankton. The grass carp, feeds on vegetation while the common carp eats detritus. This multi-species system, which converts feed into high-quality protein with remarkable efficiency, allowed China to produce some 14 million tons of carp in 2007. This to me is something America could learn off of. Like many sections we have read from Louv to Leopold, I can see that we need to preserve something that is valuable to us now. Yes these authors focused on the everglades and south west Florida but it shows similarities with China on how to preserve something and still receive a large amount of resource from it. Like I mentioned before, My sense of place is at the beach, I love the ocean, I love scuba diving in the ocean, and I love seeing all the organisms it has to offer. My sense of place would be destroyed if we don’t learn soon how to feed the 8 Billion people now since our numbers in population will just increase.

One of Chinas grass carp. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_carp

Family and friends at The Islander, the motel my family has been going to since my 30 year old sister was a baby!

A land Remembered

A land remembered by Patrick D. Smith tells us of a story about the MacIvey family who lays roots in Florida and is told of their years in the state through 3 generations. Tobias, the main character, leaves the state of Georgia for Florida in search for a better life for his wife and kids. While his transition to Florida was swift, his living conditions were not. At first Tobias and his family lived off of the things he could only kill. Mosquitoes would come in and destroy a herd of cattle and their cabin caught fire. With the civil war in full affect, it was hard for any food or supplies to even venture down to Florida. It wasn’t until Tobias ran into a man named Keith Tiger, a Seminal Indian, where he actually learned how to make food and money for his family. Keith Tiger should Tobias how to round up, sell, grave, and to fatten cattle for the market and his family. Tobias was the one character that stood out to me because of his bravery and his father figure on how to provide for his family. In the pages of 19 and 20, his bravery stood out to be a man of not discriminating. Not only did he house a runaway slave but he stood up for his Seminole friends. Three men on horses started whipping the Indians, and Tobias stood his ground, shot a dog, and threatens the men. To me this is a sign of a man who is American and is standing up for those who can’t.

After years of cattle herding, Tobias eventually ventures into a new money making business of orange groves. Thought Tobias was a great man, and his work earns him a life-long reputation as a good and decent man, he feels that he failed to meet the needs of his wife and family.  After many years in the state of Florida, Tobias gets attacked by many mosquitos and catches malaria.  Though Tobias is temporarily healed by and Indian medicine man, he soon dies toward the end of his sons section of the book. The malaria catches up with him when he tries to save his orange groves from the freeze, and being too weak to do any action, the cold soon took over. I honestly was not looking forward to reading this book, just based on the fact that I am not a big reader, but after I read it I felt a sense of pride. Now driving through Florida I can feel a sense of pride in our rich history and because of the way Patrick D. Smith wrote his story, he made the imagery so clear to me. From the last field trip we had in downtown Fort Myers, our first tour guide asked us what the word “cracker” meant. Clearly this word cracker could be applied to Tobias. Yes he didn’t come from Ireland or Scotland, but he traveled down to Florida, with little in his pocket and made something for his family. 

Just a picture i found that i feel describes the MacIvery lives in Florida 

http://patricksmithonline.com/RickPowers/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Anewbeginning800x533.jpg


this is the same map from the book. 

http://activerain.com/blogsview/797309/-a-land-remembered-florida-s-early-history-or-where-the-
name-cracker-originates

Grunwald

Michael Grunwald

In this passage it seemed to hit me close to home. One because I am from Florida so I believe every Floridian should care about the everglades and also because I have family down in homestead.  Grunwald was correct when he was talking about the everglades being right on the border of homestead. I believe it they never built anything by homestead; it would just be the single one lane road to the keys surrounded by the everglades. One quote that I liked a lot came from DeFoor “DeFoor sensed that south Florida’s interest groups were like drunks at the end of a bar fight. Their arms felt heavy, and they wanted an excuse to stop slugging” P81.   Both of her sides that she needed went on to support the governor’s funding bill. Many people were iffy if they wanted to support this million dollar project to save the everglades, or at least protect it. Another quote stood out to me that really hit the spot for me and I think others that read this section. “If the Everglades was really Americas Everglades, as the Florida senators kept calling it, then a threat to the Everglades was Americas Business” P82.

With people finally backing the project to protect the everglades, and the airport on hold it was finally time to see what their first steps would be. The last quote I found was my favorite “All of a sudden, we come along with the romance of the everglades” P92. To me and obviously to Warner, we knew that without this bill to protect the everglades that it would soon dwarf and not exist anymore. The funny thing to me is, that they stopped with the airport in Homestead but a couple years later went on to build an Air force base, where my brother-in-law is station. It just seemed a little ironic to me, that both parties got what they kind of wanted in the end. All and all Grunwald was a nice passage to read, just didn’t enjoy all the politician talk, not really my favorite thing to read about. 

 This is a picture of an arial view of the  Air force base in Homestead

http://www.frankvreilly.com/?_escaped_fragment_=homestead-air-reserve-base/zoom/c1n8o/imageqwg

Michael Grunwald

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/articles/news_and_politics/interrogation/2012/08/120801_INT_Michael-Grunwald_The-New-New-DealEX.jpg.CROP.rectangle3-large.jpg