Me * Blog 15

There comes a day when all good things must come to an end…unfortunately for these Colloquium blogs tonight is that day. Yes I am cutting it close to the due time, but I wanted to spend as much time with my blogger.com colloquium blog as I possibly could before they become lost into internet oblivion.

Okay, so that last part might have been a bit sarcastic, but I really have enjoyed writing these blogs. I think it has given us a great way to be a little creative with the pictures instead of printing on plain black and white pages or writing with pen and pencil. Also, and most importantly, seeing as this is an environmental class, it has cut down on paper use.

Dr. Snapp: Thank you for exposing me to the different environments we have so close to our school and my temporary home. You have made me aware of the sustainable possibilities around my friends and me that I hope to continue to spread to more of my friends. I appreciate the time and effort you put into the class.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, the trip to downtown Fort Myers was my favorite out of the four environments we experienced. To learn that Day of the Dead was filmed there is absolutely fascinating. When I think Fort Myers, I don’t think of it as a hot spot for Hollywood directors to film a cult classic. It just goes to show that people, such as myself, take advantage of the landscaping and weather that we have every day, and don’t imagine it as something unique and indigenous to the area.

Another high point I think was the service learning I did with my friends. I believe we all had a great time not only teaching the youth soccer skills, but also the importance of keeping their practice/game fields clean. It was great being able work with a group so that we could share our knowledge with a larger amount of kids.

I think my only complaint about the class and what I found to be most difficult, is that the final post test shouldn’t be worth 5% of our grades. To attempt to study several different essays for maybe ten questions is rather impossible to do. I think the blogs and papers reflect what and how much we learned this past semester—not a standardized test.

As I have said previously in other blogs and papers, I want to be a sports journalist. This profession should (hopefully) keep me in the outdoors depending on what sports I’ll be covering. I would very much like to work outside—at least in the fall, spring and summer—in the New England area. It is an environment totally different from southwest Florida and I’m super excited at the prospect of living there.

Overall, I think Colloquium is a good class for creating awareness of the southwest environment and the effects of climate change.

FGCU and Sustainability * Blog 14

Being as big of an environmental school as FGCU is, the students on this campus have really stepped up in working to make it as green as possible.

The first thing most people, who need to throw something away, spot when they walk on campus are the forest green trash compactors. They not only compact trash into smaller substances, but they do it by being solar powered.
These trash cans and recycle bins are placed on most corners and outside all of the restaurants. I think FGCU should make it a point to putting them inside Jamba Juice, the Perch, SoVi, Subway/Taco Bell and Einstein’s.

There is a recycling project called Recyclemania going on right now. It is a competition between many schools to see who can recycle the most. Friendly competition will also make students more aware of the benefits of recycling.

Another thing happening that is making campus more sustainable is the tap water project set up by student government. Many of the water fountains now have spigots that students and faculty can refill their water bottles with. FGCU is trying to cut down on the use of plastic water bottles that are constantly being thrown away if people don’t recycle them. Last week student government was handing out green water bottles that can easily attach to back packs in hopes students will start using them on a daily basis.

The same thing happens in athletics at the start of every year. Each student athlete is given a water bottle for practices and games, therefore, cutting down on the amount of plastic cups being used every day. Now this is actually done so that the athletic department doesn’t have to build cups into their budget, but supplying the water bottles gets the job done environmentally as well.

Building the solar panel field is another way FGCU has contributed to sustainability. Much of the energy comes being used in campus buildings is from the panels. It is a great way to save on electricity and other things fueling FGCU.

Faculty and students are always looking for new ways to make FGCU more sustainable and environmentally friendly.

Downtown * Blog 13

“When you’re alone and life is making you lonely, you can always go…downtown.” –Petula Clark

Yes, I can honestly say that I just typed up that sentence without having to look it up. That song has been one of my favorites for a long while before I hopped onto the Dolphin (our bus). It’s definitely a great song.

Before that day, I had only been to downtown Ft. Myers by accident last October. My mom and I decided to get tattoos spontaneously (kind of). I had been wanting one for a couple years, but that’s beside the point. We first went to this place on 41 who didn’t have any openings for walk-ins, so they referred us to a place downtown.

My mom, my aunt, my cousin and I all went down there, and three out of the four of us got some ink done. My cousin and I decided to walk around after eating some pizza on the road. We watched the roads get blocked off for an antique car parade.

Anyway, I found our trip to downtown Ft. Myers the most interesting field trip we have been on. The weather was perfect for walking around the park near the water and then throughout the streets for the historic Ft. Myers area.
I found the story about how Edison, Firestone and Ford came down to this area to go camping and discuss the uses of rubber. The fountain with the three oversized statues portraying the great men showed what the area of Ft. Myers looked like during the time they were there. That was definitely something I have never heard of in all of my high school history classes.

Learning about the history of the buildings was fascinating. The whole awning thing covering the sidewalks for shade story was pretty obvious, but I had no idea that the buildings like the arcade and the post office had breezeways branching out to other shops. When I saw the “Arcade” sign I really thought it was a video game arcade. I wonder if it ever was a nickelodeon or old school video game arcade.

It was unbelievable to hear that the Caloosahatchee River used to be where a park and two roads now lie. The reason why the river was dredged and narrowed is understandable because it was necessary for economic purpose; however, the changes as to what is built now seem almost unrealistic.

By far, it was the coolest trip this past semester—and there wasn’t even lemonade or cookies. It could be a good idea, for future reference, to possibly stop for lunch at one of the local cafes.

Poverty * Blog 12

According to http://www.globalissues.org/issue/2/causes-of-poverty, “almost half the world — over 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.”

That is an unbelievable statistic, and yet, it seems to be a truthful one that is not known around our classroom, much less the world. From one look around the classroom at the phones being texted on, the designer clothes being worn, and the headphones in everybody’s ears playing music, I would venture to guess that not too many people are living at the poverty level right now.

And yet, if any one of us was to drive to Immokalee, where the tomato workers live, the content in peoples’ home would not amount to the dollars spent on any of the items in one room.

During the tomato strikes that were popularized last semester on campus through several of my classes, TV news and the Eagle News, I, and many students, learned that they were not being provided with fair amounts of wages. The concept did not sit well with not only the workers, but students and citizens in the area.

The short walk from Ft. Myers City Hall to Publix signaled the need for change in the amount paid to each worker for each bucket of tomatoes each worker picks. Teachers and students from FGCU walked side by side with hundreds of workers supporting them in their efforts.

The point of bringing this up is to show that with poverty comes the realization that something must be done in order to better circumstances. This example goes to show that it is important that people pull together to break out of a situation. It is necessary to help these people to an extent, but if someone truly wants to get out of poverty, then they need to help themselves.

The neighborhoods these people live in are not by any means wealthy—obviously. The homes are dilapidated with broken down cars on the lawns. There are children playing outside because they don’t have televisions to keep them occupied inside. That could definitely been seen as a good thing though.

Poverty, to me, is something that is a part of every economy. There never has been and never will be a class that isn’t poor. It’s not pessimistic to say this, but real. If there wasn’t a poor or lower class, then the economy would get screwed up. With only a middle and high class, then market prices for everyday things would rise, such as a gallon of milk or gas. There will never be enough money in the world to make sure everyone has the necessities. If that were

true, then we would be living in a utopia.

Matanzas Pass Preserve * Blog 11

Wait. We’re going to the beach, but not really? Rumor has it that we get cookies and lemonade on this field trip though. Silver lining?

When my classmates and I walked into the Estero Bay Historic Cottage, a very nice woman, Jo, presented us with just that—chocolate chip M&M cookies, Publix lemonade, and crackers and a homemade spread. It was the easiest, smartest way to win a crowd over.

She spoke of her life on the island. As she grew up, Jo watched the growth and change of the island for 50-60 years. She explained that there was pretty much nothing when her family first settled on the island. The ocean water was crystal clear up to 15 feet below her and her friends as they swam in the water.

What could be most interesting about her speech was how the use of the island evolved over time. Jo said that there was literally nothing on the island but a small population of people and a school after some time. Basically, the people who lived on the island provided for themselves because it was expensive to import goods and services at the time. Progressively, Jo’s island was found by more and more fisherman who eventually bombarded the coastline.

This economic upswing brought more and more advertisement to the semi-unknown locale. Tourism has been a huge reason to why there are so many more people, restaurants, fishermen, etc. on the island destroying parts of the environment, but stimulating the local small businesses.
Walking through the Matanzas Pass Preserve gives insight to what used to be there not even a century ago. It was like history museum—a small bit of land preserved for future reference of the past. I saw lots of Mangroves of course, but also quite a few small crabs scurrying around the area under the boardwalk. I can only imagine how the island looked before people and technology arrived.

I think currently the island is not 100% sustainable. Nowhere really is, but I think it once used to be. From the stories Jo told us, the island was very environmentally friendly because of the people who lived there. With time, technology and the urge of humankind to dominate nature, the island became less sustainable.

Thousands of cars drive to Ft. Myers everyday for work and/or play. There is so much energy being used because of that alone. The people in these cars, however, have places to go and things to do, thus spending more of the earth’s resources.

Corporate Ethics * Blog 10

Exxon Mobile is a large company that works in an industry which continuously affects the environment in several different ways. There are certain rules and regulations that corporate companies like this one have to abide by to keep their carbon footprint as unnoticeable as possible.

For the purpose of this blog entry, I will be writing about Exxon as a symbol of all corporate companies and how they appear to be on top of things according to their website: http://www.exxon.com/.

When I hear about Exxon, my first thought isn’t what are they doing FOR the environment, but what are they doing TO the environment? Exxon provides fuel which various vehicles run off of. Well, that obviously isn’t helping pollution in any sort of form. The next thing I thought of was an oil spill.

I had remembered hearing that Exxon was involved in some sort of oil spill, but I wasn’t sure of the details, so I Googled it. (Something I think is the most amazing current invention.)

In March 1989, Exxon Valdez spilled 10.8 billion gallons of oil off the coast of Valdez, Alaska near the Bligh Reef—this information according to http://www.valdezalaska.org/history/oilSpill.html. “No crude oil actually made it into the Port of Valdez, as Bligh Reef is about 25 miles south of the Port. However, winds and tides moved the floating crude oil further south into the Sound and onto beaches. Oil covered over 1200 miles of rocky beaches.”

Destroying the environment, accident or not, is not a reputation a huge corporation is keen on having; therefore, Exxon has done their best on their Web site to make the environmental efforts known.

I went on the Exxon Web site and clicked on the “Our Company” tab. From there, I went to “About Us” hoping I would find the information I was looking for. I found a “Current Issues” link—struck gold. Clicking the link brought me to an entire page about what they are doing to contribute to environmental studies, energy efficiencies, and their views on climate change and biodiversity.

Our organizational structure is built on a concept of global businesses and is designed to allow ExxonMobil to compete most effectively in the ever-changing and challenging worldwide energy industry. –Exxon

Every sentence on their Web site is politically correct in the sense that representatives of Exxon would never intentionally throw the company under the bus. They are of course going to say they are doing everything possible to help the environment while still providing a product that only speeds up the elimination of the world’s natural resources.

There are pages on climate change and energy efficiency, but nothing of true substance. It seems as though there are a lot of scientific, environmentalist words that the average American wouldn’t truly understand due to their lack of awareness.

There is also a page regarding the Alaskan oil spill. Their latest comment on the destructive accident is this: The 1989 Valdez accident was one of the lowest points in ExxonMobil's 125-year history. However, we took immediate responsibility for the spill and have spent over $3.8 billion as a result of the accident, including compensatory payments, cleanup payments, settlements and fines.