Stressed

I wish that more classes could be open and I could get into the classes I want to be in. I did not want to take an 8:05 lab considering I can barely wake up for my 9:10 classes. Literally all the PE's I need to take are closed and I still can't register until Monday. NC State clearly does not have enough classes and teachers for the 30,000+ people that go here. I am also mad that I register on the the last day possible. It should be bases on grades or something, not just random. Every time I log into my pack portal, at least one more class on my wish list is closed. I just wish I could register already and get into the classes that I need to get into. If I can't get into a lot of the classes I need, I will be taking many hard classes at the same time my sophomore year. I like to spread out my harder classes, but apparently that's not possible because I am a freshmen.  I had all my classes planned out and now I have to change them to really bad times that don't fit my schedule because literally everything that is convenient to me is closed. NC State needs to revamp their registration policy.

Mapping Everyday

This article is about how we map out places based on their social statuses'. In the poor areas of DC, we choose to focus only on the crimes that are committed in this area. The media would focus only on the blacks that are committing these crimes. The students feel that this is a major problem because white people commit crimes too. One student says that, "As the media ignores the reality of poverty, crime, and delinquency in DC, it will only be delaying solving the problem and allow it to fester." I truly believe that he is right. If we keep focusing only on the negatives in the black regions, negative things will continue to come out of that area. There should be new ways of presenting information about these poor regions that also highlights any of the positive things that come from them.

180 South

I thought 180 South was a very effective documentary to show how much simpler ones life can be. Jeff gave up pretty much everything in pursuit of a dream. He want to climb Corcovado and did everything he took to get there. I do not know anyone who would give up that much time out of their life to pursue such a daring dream. Not only was climbing the mountain risky, so was everything he did along to way to get to the mountain. 180 South showed this inspiring adventure, but it showed did a great job portraying the beauty of nature. It gave me a new understanding of who and what is affected when a dam is put up in a remote area. It made me more and more grateful for the beautiful parts of the world that are still not affected by man. It made me think about simplifying my life and how much of a change that could make.

Indigenous Resistance

Washington State and British Columbia have tried to assimilate the Aboriginal communities into our own culture. They used education as a way to get rid of the traditions they have within their culture, and make them more like ours. The Coast Salish people resisted the assimilation that the United States and Canada tried to force them into. Marker says that, "Coast Salish students were, in the late twentieth century, still resisting the same oppressive categorisations of identity that their grandparents had struggled against in the nineteenth century." I find this very hard to believe because we were not able to realize by then that what we were doing was wrong. We should have given the aboriginal people the rights they deserve and should not have forced them into assimilation.

Butterfly Lessons 2

I can relate Butterfly Lessons to my project and place by using the analysis Kolbert used to describe the places he talked about. If I use the same techniques in my powerpoint presentations, it will help my audience have a full understanding of every aspect of my place. I can also use his analysis to describe my environmental issue within my place. He did a good job of providing examples and quotes needed to illustrate the claims he was making within his article.

Butterfly Lessons

The main theme of this article is that the climate change has a direct impact on how butterflies and all other species live. Not only does climate change mean the butterflies must migrate, it also means they change when they mate. Webb states it clearly but saying this, "The trick you've got to remember is that the climate is multivariate. The plant species are having to respond both to temperature changes and to moisture changes and to changes in seasonality. It makes a big difference if you have a drier winter versus a drier summer, because some species are more attuned to spring and others to fall. Any current community has a certain mixture, and, if you start changing the climate, you're changing the temperature, but you're also changing moisture or the timing of the moisture or the amount of snow and, bingo, species are not going to move together. They can't." Webb explains the fact that we can not expect species to adapt to changing carbon dioxide levels. We are affecting them just as must as we are affecting the environment we live in. They just can not adapt to it as well as humans can. I took away from this article a new perspective on climate change from a species as little as a butterfly.

How would "people allocating water" write this essay?

As a person who has to the make the decisions about how to allocate water, I have a very different perspective than others who just want to conserve water. In order to allocate water correctly you must consider the deep ethical questions that go along with each aspect of the water process. The decisions I have to make concerns everyone in the world. Everyone needs a certain amount of water to survive, but most want way more than that. When everyone is always in your face about how much water they or their industry are being supplied, it makes it a lot harder than you think to decide who will receive water. It is one thing to understand that we are running out of water, but to tell someone they can not have the water they can pay for is very different. It takes a full understanding of the water we currently do not have to acctept this fact. Most people do not have this understanding or anything close to it. Although I understand where these people are coming from, ultimately we must look at the true ethics involving water allocation and do what is just for our whole world.

Efficient Water Heating

According to Energy Efficient News, "energy efficient water heating could save US consumers 37% on average compared to conventional technologies, saving nearly $18 billion." This was found by a study done on new water heating technologies. There were 16 different products examined which included heat pumps, solar water heating systems and efficient gas heaters, as well as better maintenance practices. Water heating accounts for a great portion of the energy used in homes, so any way we can conserve it will help. I believe this is a big step in the battle with conserving energy and could lead in the right direction. Now, we have to make these types of energy efficient technologies affordable and accessible to everyone who wants to put them in their home.

http://www.energyefficiencynews.com/i/4570/

Audubon International Awards Water Conservation Certificate

St. Andrews Country Club of Boca Raton Florida was awarded certification in Water Conservation from the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses (ACSP), which is an international program administered by Audubon International. It helps landowners to preserve the environment of their property. There are six categories in the program, and St. Andrews hopes to receive certification in all of them. The program was designed to help golf courses transition into a more environmentally friendly way of operating. They promote conservation and wildlife enhancement throughout all golf courses.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/water-conservation-certification-awarded-to-st-andrews-country-club-of-boca-raton-by-audubon-international-132142653.html

Closed Mindedness

Being closed minded means to not be open about new and different ideas. People who are closed minded stick to the normal way of thinking about things or the opinions that they are used to. They are not able to branch out and accept other people's ways of thinking. Many people who are closed mindedness have a hard time understanding anyone but themselves. My dad is closed minded and we continually get into arguments about what people should or shouldn't do. I am in denial that I am also closed minded about many things just like him. I would like to be a lot less uptight and stubborn about certain things but I just can't seem to change. I get annoyed with people easily just like he does and I am in denial that I will probably act exactly like he does when I'm older. Eventually I will be able to find ways to become more open minded and accepting of other peoples lifestyles and behaviors.

Luther Standing Bear and Chief Seattle

Luther Standing Bear's main theme is that humans should be one with the environment. Their tribe loved all things in nature and let the wilderness rule their life instead of humans ruling the wilderness. They also preferred a lifestyle that was never hurried. They always gave time for thought instead of a rushed conversation that could be insincere.

Chief Seattle's Speech is mostly about the fatalism of his people. He is not optimistic about their fate and strongly believes that they must spend their days that they have well, because there will not be very many left. As Arnold Krupat describes, the tribes people "had suffered considerable depopulation as a result of the introduction of Western diseases to which they had not developed any immunity" (4). Chief Seattle thinks it is a better idea to accept the offer to move onto the reservation because it could be the only way of keeping his people alive.

Chief Seattle's speech was delivered either in 1854 or 1855 during meetings with Isaac Ingalls Stevens, the newly appointed governor of Washington Territory. The governor's goal was to persuade the Puget Sound Indians to give up most of their lands in Kitsap County for a reservation at Port Madison. The translation and first publication of  of the speech was done by Dr. Henry A. Smith. There is not proof that Dr. Smith was at the speech. Krupat states that the "speculations about Dr. Smith's presence or absence at Point Elliott are pointless because Dr. Smith himself stated very clearly that he did not hear the speech at Point Elliott and he even said himself that he did not attend the speech" (2). He took notes on what he heard about the speech and later added to the notes by getting information from articles about the speech. The fact that he added more information at a later time lowers the accuracy of Chief Seattle's original speech. Some of the versions of this speech after Dr. Smith's were also edited to portray certain environmental and ecological views. All this controversy makes many people wonder if anyone has a accurate depiction of Chief Seattle's famous speech.

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_indian_quarterly/v035/35.2.krupat.html

Chief Seattle's Speech

Chief Seattle's speech was delivered either in 1854 or 1855 during meetings with Isaac Ingalls Stevens, the newly appointed governor of Washington Territory. The governor's goal was to persuade the Puget Sound Indians to give up most of their lands in Kitsap County for a reservation at Port Madison. It was not published until 1887 by the Seattle Sunday Star. The translation of the speech was done by Dr. Henry A. Smith. It was reprinted and translated numerous times throughout the years after that. The problem is that it is unclear whether or not Dr. Smith actually attended the speech. Smith said he got his notes from other meeting about the matter and could have gotten them from other not as accurate sources. Some of the versions of the speech were also edited to portray certain environmental and ecological views.

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_indian_quarterly/v035/35.2.krupat.html

Southern Environmental History

The South has a reputation for being slower in all matters of life, including environmental history. It wasn't until the past 5-10 years that the south included environmental history in their scientific journals or periodicals. This could be because the south's main concerns were always slavery, war, race, and gender. They never paid much attention to the environment. The south's history in general is also not well integrated into the main history books. The South is only referred to briefly just to talk about cotton or logging. They're obviously needs to be some changes in way we all handle history in the south.

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=014b21f8-64e8-4ee3-8f3b-c814b0d200de%40sessionmgr115&vid=2&hid=106

Class discussion 9-20-11

I throughtly enjoyed the class discussion on Tuesday, but at points I thought it was a little offensive. People can express their opinions without bashing others. I love having debates like this in class, but I especially loved talking about the connection between religion and the environment. I thought the video that Dr. Taylor showed us gave us a good starting point for our discussion. I found that I was getting a lot more involved in this discussion than I am in many of my other classes, so it showed me that I was truly interested in the subject.

2011 Intelligent Use of Water Film Competition

For the fourth year in a row, the Intelligent Use of Water Film Competition has featured films that focus on water efficiency and how important it is. Jack Hanna was in charge of the event and showed the films to an audience as well as judges who are experts in the environmental field. The purpose of this event is to use film to influence others to conserve water. It is also to show that film as a very influential effect on how our society views certain matters such as water. The competition encourages other filmmakers to use film to increase the public's knowledge on environmental issues.

GE's new technology

GE launched a new power generator that uses no water. It is called the FlexAero and is faster and more efficient than a lot of other power options on the market. The FlexAero was a multimillion dollar investment for GE. It is able to adapt to fast paced energy demands because it takes less than five minutes to reach full power. It is also easy to install as well as the most flexible energy generator. Darryl Wilson, the CEO of this endeavor, states, "This unmatched combination of speed, reliability and efficiency gives independence to an expanding world of non-traditional power generators who want to plan for fast-changing energy demands.The GE FlexAero gives our customers energy certainty in a rapidly changing world." Not only it is energy efficient, it eliminates the use of water all together. So the users of this machine get the power they need without using more of our most precious natural resource.

http://www.power-eng.com/news/2011/09/1501898284/ge-launches-advanced-energy-technology-for-fast-flexible-use-of-abundant-natural-gas-with-no-need-f.html