State of the World

After reading these articles there are some main issues that stand out to me and what I think is important are: health care and education. The impact it has on me is that education is something that should be accessible to people. People should have the option to learn about what is happening to their Earth. There are solutions for education, some solutions require organizing communities and mobilizing international forces to address the problem. There are schools in Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala that are ecologically sustainable. Also, locally grown agriculture promotes health and nutrition. There are solutions for health care and that would be to give everyone some type of health care, whether it be free shots etc. By giving free shots or even free checkup and educating those who are in need will help to protect people from our climate change.

Images by personalmonm.edu and greenfieldforward.com

The Earth Charter

I enjoyed the Earth Charter, I just wished that people would somewhat follow it. After our class discussion on this reading, a lot of us pointed out that it is a good start but the only thing is that Americans are lazy and it would be extremely hard for someone to break out of their daily routine. We can expect other countries to follow it but we will probably be the last ones to try to follow it. I related this reading to my State of the World article, Women and Climate Change: Vulnerabilities and Adaptive Capacities with the example number 11. Example, Affirm gender equality and equity as prerequisites to sustainable development and ensure universal access to education, health care and economic opportunity related to my article by educating women in third world countries they were able to prevent fatalities when hurricane Mitch hit Central America. In Rwanda women produce more than 600 varieties of beans. So if we can educated everyone then there will be more production of things and more indigenous people can come and be a voice of why it's important to save the planet and why we should not deforest our Earth. We can apply this reading to our daily lives slowly, by recycling, and planting trees etc.

Image is by earthcharterinaction.org

Affluenza

On the first quiz Are you coming down with affluenza?, I scored a 17. My scores suggested that I am in the warning stage and I have mild affluena. One my second quiz Are you escaping from affluenza? my results suggested that I am positive from fractured family, social scars, chronic stress, swollen expectations which are all symptoms of affluenza. After reviewing the 10 Giant Steps to a Simpler Life I think that I don't need to change my life style because I purchase things that I can reuse all the time. I use tupperware for my lunches everyday, I can't return my kids so I will have to find other ways to reduce my expenses on food. When I have tried to use small amounts of shampoo and conditioner but the problem with me is that my hair is so curly that I need to have a good amount of conditioner in order for it to undo my knots. I do purchase detergent and dish soap that environmentally friendly. I do tend to share my findings with my friends and family, for example my dish soap, my mother in law now buys it.

My Neighborhood part 2

My neighborhood has not changed much from initial post. I walked around my neighborhood this weekend and notice that one of the duplexes that had a for rent sign is completely full. Which is a good sign cause that means we have one less empty house on the block. My neighborhoods that live on the corner just put up a fence and planted some plants in their front yard. As far as species roaming the area, the owls are still around, their was one on my mail box the other night. There have been no new construction around, just less buses driving up and down Del Prado Blvd.

Final Impressions

I did enjoy the course but there are a few things that I would change. I did enjoy the articles but I would have to say to shorten the time for discussion. Do have the discussions but once your done do show a movie that relates to the topic just discussed. That would help the to see exactly was is going on, students these days tend to be more visual. Since this is an environment course, I would suggest more field trips, the more hands on the better the experience. I would keep all the current assigned field trips but I would also add the Six Mile Cypress Preserve Slough. While on these field trips you can take the opportunity to have an open discussion, for example how we did the State of World articles at Fort Myers Beach. During this field trip we took time to enjoy the articles while relaxing next to the water. One of the readings I enjoyed was The Gift on Nature, just because it talks about how kids today are worried about where they can plug their devices into. They don't know what its like to go outside and enjoy nature. Nature helps our kids imagination to run wild, kids tend to become creative while outdoors. The only reason why I disliked the reading "Traditional versus Progressive Education" is because it confused me.

Spirituality

After watching the movie "Renewal" I think that it is great that churches want to get involve with helping out our environment. People follow whatever their pastor or priest do, so I think that if they see what the church is doing to help the environment they will begin to help out. I think that with all the money that churches get from their followers they should invest in going green, since it will eventually help everyone in the long run. With them wanting to help protect the environment they would be protecting what god has given us, so that we can pass it down to our future generations. We don't want to harm our kids so we need to take action now and clean up our air so that in the future we won't harm our children. My personal beliefs are that in order for us to continue on this planet we need to respect it, stop destroying it cause once its gone its gone, there's not turning back. I'm not a very religious person, but when I do go to church with my mother in law, I am amazed at how they become like zombies and they agree with everything the pastor says. So if they listen and agree to everything the pastor is preaching, then just imagine if he puts in their heads that the environment is important and that we need to take care of it.

Image is from betterthanfaith.com

My grandmother

I decided to interview my grandmother who was born on March 30, 1929 in Puerto Rico. My grandmothers life was not an easy one, she had many struggles. My grandmother was raised in what we call "campo" which is like a country woody area. She attended school for only a year which means she only completed first grade. She never learned how to read or write, the only thing she knows how to do is write her name and do math. As she explained to me her days were spent doing house work, feeding her animals, which were goats and chickens. She would walk to her locations and at times if her father had time he would drive her. Eventually, they moved into town in where things were a lot closer for her. She enjoyed planting and till this day she continues to plants her fruits and vegetables. She planted some pigeon pea plants and a banana tree in my backyard. My grandma still practices what she was taught while growing up, when she cooks she cooks only enough for those to eat. She hates to waste food, water and electricity. While living with me for a few months, she would wash her clothes in the washer but would hang them outside to dry, she would not watch TV during the day except at night to watch her soap operas. During the days she would go for walks or just hang out outside. My bring up is completely different from hers, I just go to the stores and get what I want, not like her who would have to raise her food. I did mention to her about our class and she just said that's great.