Our Garbage Goes Here

Our field trip to the Lee County Waste to Energy Plant was interesting to say the least. Plant manager Tom Mueller was very proud of his accomplishments after 20 plus years at the plant. We felt, however, that Tom left out a few key elements concerning the environment. As much as he preached about the benefits of the plant, he never once mentioned finding ways to reduce the amount of waste. Instead, he said that when he sees a decease in Lee County's waste... he panics! Waste = Money to Mr. Mueller, and while I think he's a good-hearted man, he could use some more information on permaculture. Less waste is a good thing Mr. Mueller. I was a little confused, myself, about the ash fills. I believe I understood correctly that they're better than trash fills, and I agree, but what happens when there's no more room for the ash. I asked Mr. Mueller if there are any alternative uses for the ash... he then proceeded to tell me that because of possible toxins, the United States, unlike Europe, has not yet allowed the proposal of ash to energy (or whatever else) conversion. Hmmm... toxic is toxic is toxic... in the air or on a mountain.

No meat

After watching the movie on Wednesday I never realized how much meat can harm you.  While I think it went a little bit far fetched in saying not eating meat can cure AIDS but, hey, who knows? It could. If I didn't love a nice juicy steak so much I'd follow the diet to see how much my body changes. Maybe one day i'll have that kind of motivation, but hopefully not when it's to late.
Here's an interesting youtube clip on not eating meat- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJD9oY2dQUI&feature=related

Eating: Plant-Based Diet

(http://www.firstscience.com/home/images/user/44/Bizarro-milk.jpg)

The movie we watched in class on eating only plant-based foods was eye-opening and shocking but often seemed exaggerated. The idea of being vegetarian wasn't new to me- many of my friends had made the switch away from the endearing hamburger but the movie's sense of a 'plant-based diet' described something much more extreme: as even Shaws brand veggies just wouldn't suffice. The movie was encouraged me to make a change in my own life as it scanned the rotund bellys of the mid-aged men and women but what made me second guess its credibility is when it started listing off the cures such a 'simple' change could make! Not that it wouldn't be wonderful for our world to have such a cure for Cancer but with these diseases being so rampant in our society how did everyone not already know?! I decided to do more research and found information that fortified atleast some of the argument-even Oprah's website displayed a congruent article on the topic ( http://www.oprah.com/health/Can-a-Plant-Based-Diet-Cure-Cancer/1) ( even though they do a horrible job in making the meal they picture look appetizing!) The same doctor's interview (Dr. Campbell) is on youtube... ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8htgpvZBCxA). The movie was interesting but to be a true believer myself, and make the switch from my "American Diet" I may need to see more results.

Crying Earth

As my weekend slowly leaked by like molasses in the winter, I was given much time to myself.
When presented with any type of free time, my mind might tend to wander some, so as I'm Googling this or Bing'ing that I started to type in random words and those words started progressively leaned towards Environmental issues.... Don't ask me why. It just happened.

I was drawn to Michael Jackson music videos, whom I am a fan and always be - don't judge me.
Focusing on his mad dance skills and random co d me to write this blog because I felt it was directly linking to our ecosystem and sustainability. It's not just the Earth song he has linking to preservation, but here are a few more, and their titles explain exactly their reasoning.

-Heal the World    Heal the World - for you and me.
-We are the World We are the World, We are the Children
-Earth Song  What have we done to the World?

MJ was super focused the "Crying Earth" aspect, that we're slowly but surely killing the planet and all of the inhabitants, and we need to do something to prevent the destruction of it and everyone else.... I wonder who is going to follow in his footsteps now that he is no longer with us :-(

ECHO

The ECHO field trip was really interesting. I thought the overall concept of teaching people to grow food in their climate to work toward world hunger was a fantastic operation. Plus we got to see a bunch of cute animals. We also saw different solar power, container pots, pluming systems, and ways to cook different foods with itemsthey have in their climate. 

ECHO

On Wednesday, March 7th, we traveled to ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization). We learned that the purpose of ECHO is to educate people on how to grow and farm their own food based on the scarce sources of their environment. From ECHO's home base, in North Fort Myers, people travel to areas of poverty and teach locals to farm their own food. ECHO's property contains a variety of imitation climates, all of which have been cultivated in a simple way to produce nutritious fruits and vegetables. Their property also houses several different animals that also play an important role in ECHO's agricultural production.

....More to come! Including pictures.

Nature Trail

We had a great time learning about the history of Ft. Myers beach and walking on the nature trail was really pretty. I took so many pictures but only uploaded a few onto here. We learned the difference between black, white, and red mangroves and saw a lot more interesting things.