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.  

A new experience every time.

The bus ride was normal as usual; long, but it's a bus ride what do you expect??

Mrs. Jo Hughes?? (hopefully that's her name, please excuse my mistake, I've been wrong before so who knows. Correct me if I'm wrong.)

Anyways, Mrs. Jo gave us food, which is the #1 interest of college students everywhere.... talk about world corruption, or zombies.... Our attention is on you 100% after you feed us and win us over....

This sweet lady showed us pictures of the destruction, but the creation of the island from the hurricane.

She was an extremely bright individual, knowing more than I'm sure all of us present combined.

Look at how cute she is!! :-)

Anyways, after she spoke about Fort Myers Beach's history and some of the history of her friends from the island we were allowed to explore the nature trails.

Oh joy.

Since I was running a bit late to begin with to get to the bus, I had to use the restroom....

I found a collection of bug spray in the window.

(Mrs. Jo wasn't kidding when she said they had a mosquito problem there....)

Have your pick!!

As I was snapping photos of the mosuito spray in the bathroom the group decided it best to leave without me.... (and a few other students)

I later realized that it wasn't just me he had left without, I guess this was a nature walk better done on your own.

So a fellow student, Dan and I walked the nature trail and we used our superb tracking skills to find our way back to the group.

Ok, so it's not a human foot print....But we tried!

Well, those awesome tracking skills lead us to the opposite end of the preserve, and into a trailer park.

We basically rock.

Mrs. Jo gave us a small jar of Sea Grape Jelly, so we figured if we were lost for too long, we would be able to survive off that jar.... After that it would have to be every man/woman for him/herself.

We just started taking every right until we ended up at a path that had not been used by humans for quite some time..... So we figured we were definitely lost at that point.

So using my awesome video skills, we video taped us getting lost through senior citizens drinking wine out of a box and playing shuffle board in their trailer park.

Yes a trailer park.

 

Lost Students Video

Adventures through the back half of the nature preserve.... otherwise known as the trailer park.

-Nadia

Challenging Viewpoints

I spent the first eighteen years of my life in the seacoast of New Hampshire. I lived in a town where our only claim to fame had been having the largest greenhouses in the country—until they collapsed in a thunderstorm. We’ve got cows, fields, a library and a town hall. The only reason I’m not the biggest hick you’ve ever met is because that town also contains the University of New Hampshire. Ever heard of it? It’s basically a rich school for Hippies. You’ll see them climbing trees in front of their dorms in summertime- yes, college students. My high school was in the same town and so the ‘hippie outlook’- overrun with radical ideas of “No War”, “Go Green” fanatics and boys with greasy long hair was clearly evident in my high school. My high school was the outcome of bringing liberal educators and their families to a small town: rich, intelligent kids that drove a rusty Volvo instead of a new Lexus. My parents raised my brother and me in a much more conservative manner than most kids in my town. We went to a Roman Catholic Church every Sunday, we did not recycle, and we most definitely took showers every day. Teachers liked me and other conservative students in classrooms because we were the minority and we brought a different opinion. Yeah- I hated it at first, I honestly had ignorant dirty kids telling me we shouldn’t be in school we should all just run around naked in the woods. Ridiculous. But as we grew up all of our ideas became more intelligent and backed by facts we could mold our ideas together. I'm no longer superconservative my thoughts and values tend to fall on the more conservative side of the spectrum but I'm definitely more open minded about new ideas. (And I recycle :))  I’m glad I moved to Florida; the beaches are beautiful, it’s summer 12 months a year, and I think college is what you make it. The only thing I realized I’m missing is someone challenging my opinions. As we talked about in class this part of Florida is super conservative and only now do I realize how much I benefited from different opinions. No, I don’t agree with everything Dr. Segal is saying but I do with some of it and this class seems to be that challenge I’m looking for. College is supposed to help me construct my own thoughts and ideas and I can’t do that without hearing a broader spectrum than I’ve been getting, so personally, I’m eager for this class to continue.

More about our field trip

On the trip we got to see/identify a lot of things. We took note on seeing a saw palm, cabbage palm, long leaf pine, american gator, beauty berry, red maple, slash pine, caesar bur, poison ivy, bald cyprus needle, cyprus knees, air plant, old world climbing fern, paper tree, spanish moss, red tail hawk, and a red shoulder hawk.

Although the nature walk was informative I thought the best part was seeing all the animals at the end. Cute!

More Pictures from the Calusa Nature Center

The Nature Beneath Our Feet

So as part of our grade, we were required to attend the trip to the Calusa Nature Center.
The bus ride wasn't as awful as I planned, although I am pretty sure I was the only one wearing the seatbelt. It was there, I was given the option, so I was wearing it.

We got off the bus walked through the gift shop and had the option to walk through the aquariums where we could see some animals behind glass. I followed the group like an idiot, not thinking, and as soon as I walked around the corner I saw a huge snake and I was taking no part of this nature experience. I walked right back out, before I would have a heart attack. I could already feel my heart racing and it was not fun for me.

I made my way around those exhibits, and found the alligators and the manatee game, fine by me, I could of played that and been just content.

I could have lived without the 26 minute video on manatees and boat regulations.

::Carrie, Keri, Kerri, Kerry:: However you choose to spell it took us on a "nature walk", she is one of the two people employed at the CNC.... hhmm.?..

The walk consisted of weaving our group of 25 or so through palm trees cypress roots and poison ivy, and seeing one wild dove, and a few spiders.

The rehabilitated wildlife was our last stop before leaving, oh and a butterfly house.

All and all, it could have been much worse I imagine.

At least there was wildlife I was able to see, the raccoon caught my attention and it was nice seeing the one lone coony just grooming itself. Cute. The foxes were adorable and if I could have found the door I would have taken one. No questions asked.

Ya this little guy, he would have come home with me.

I love taking pictures so I used this opportunity to polish my sweet camera skills.

Naure Lady said: DO NOT EAT.

-:-Nadia