Last English Class

Today is the last day of English class for me. I feel like I have progressed some in my writing. While there is still room for improvement, my writing has definitely gotten better. Although writing is not one of my favorite classes, there are some other classes out there that are worse. Honestly I am happy that this class is over because that means I only have to take one more English to graduate. It also means I am one class closer to graduating and starting my life as an adult. This semester in English has taught me a lot about random environmental issues that I would have never even have thought about. It has also taught me how to write longer papers than I am used to having to write. Overall this class was a vital stepping stone in me becoming a better writer and more informed college student.

Mapping Everyday: Gender, Blackness, and Discourse in Urban Contexts

Ok, I have to be completely honest about this piece. From the beginning to the very end of it, I could not follow what it was trying to get across. I don't know if it was because I was reading it with the TV on or because it talks about something that doesn't really interest me. However, I'm sure it is a good piece of literature if it got published in a reputable journal. I really wish I could understand this piece because the title grabs my attention, but the content of the paper doesn't do a whole lot for me. While reading it, I found myself zoning out thinking about other classes and what I had to for them. What I did get from this piece, is that inner city kids deal with education in a whole different way than white kids do anywhere. This I think is wrong on so many levels. Something should be done so that every kid receives the same education regardless of race, religion, or where they live.

180 South

I found this documentary very inspiring. Everyone is always so caught up in their jobs and the everyday hustle and bustle, that they forget to live their lives. This documentary showed a group of people that aren't afraid to drop everything and just leave. I hope that one day I can do something like this. It has always been my dream to go to Africa on a hunt. I can't imagine going to a place as wild as Patagonia, it must have been pretty impressive. What isn't impressive is the fact that companies are trying to spoil this untouched nature in order to gain a little bit of a profit. What the gauchos are doing in order to try and stop this development is important, but I don't think its enough to stop the government from approving these various projects. This documentary has really made me realize that I need to live my life to the fullest because after all, you only get one shot at life.

Coast Salish

It is a shame that the schools are trying to take away the Coast Salish's cultural identity. There should be some way of finding a happy medium, so that the people can get an education and still remain unique. These people have done nothing to harm anybody yet the school systems want to take away something very near and dear to them. This is just cruel and unusual. More needs to be done to make sure these docile people don't get taken advantage of now and in the future. I think it would be pretty easy to find a method of schooling that would allow these people to remain the way they have been since the beginning of their existence. I find it pretty unique that the Coast Salish people travel back and forth between Canada and the United States to attend various ceremonies. Both of these countries need to stop trying to make these people assimilate into their standards and just let them live their lives. Diversity is important and essential for societies to flourish and survive.

10 minute writing on Butterfly Lessons

1. Kolber believes that the Earth is entering into a grim future because of the temperature change. She believes that the increasing CO2 levels are playing a major role in this increasing of global mean temperatures. Two sentence that displays this are as follows; "The equilibrium warming associated with doubled CO2 is estimated to be between three and a half and seven degrees, and with tripled CO2 between six and eleven degrees. A global temperature rise of just three degrees would render the earth hotter than it has been at any point in the past two million years." This increase in temperature could have a devastating effect on the Earth and all of its inhabitants.

Butterfly Lessons

I didn't know what to expect from this article before I started reading it.  After the first couple paragraphs, I was starting to think this paper was going to be a hard read. Then it got interesting. With all the discussions going on about global warming and climate change, this paper is relevant to today's talks. Personally I believe in the fact the Earth is getting warmer each year because of different reasons with the biggest reason being the increase in CO2 concentration. This paper talks about how this change in climate can be observed by studying various organisms. The major factor that is studied is the change in the range of their habitat. Plants and animals that couldn't survive cold and harsh winters can now live further north than they could have in previous years. This is all because of the warming of our planet due to our civilization becoming more and more dependent on fossil fuels. There are some arguments saying that this is just part of a natural cycle but its hard to argue against the point that humans have definitely sped that process up. This paper opened my eyes to the fact that there are gauges out there that can measure climate change in the form of various organisms. If nothing is done to slow this climate change we are speeding up, some of these organisms might run out of area that they can call home.

A tree's perspective on deforestation

The issue of deforestation needs to be looked at under a more serious light than it has been previously. I have lost a good deal of relatives to the cruel hand of deforestation. Up to this point, I have just turned my trunk to it, hoping that it would just stop. Unfortunately that hasn't been the case. Just recently I lost my twin brother to deforestation. This event along with the other family members I have lost have pushed me to start a movement to advocate the stopping of deforestation. Not only is deforestation killing my family and other innocent families, it rapes the soil of all its nutrients and takes away an important carbon sink, us, the trees. If deforestation continues, our whole species could be driven to extinction, and then where would you humans get your oxygen from? All the trees have come together and want to ask you humans to please help us, help you!

1491

This piece is about the controversy regarding the amount of people present in North America before Columbus arrived. Some people say that there were more people present in North America than in Europe. While there is evidence for both sides of the debate, it seems like there is more evidence supporting the latter. With all the various studies that have been and all the experts in this field of study, it's hard to believe that there hasn't been a definite answer to this debate. It is also discussed that Amazon Rainforest, in some areas might have been created by humans. This definitely stirs up some controversy. Everyone wants to believe that the Amazon is all natural because thats what provides fuel for the fire that is the argument over stopping deforesting the Amazon. Regarding the population of America before Columbus arrived, it seems like the disease explanation is just a convenient way of saying thats why nothing has been discovered to really back up this scenario. Until some hard evidence is found, I will stick to what I learned all throughout my schooling career. What will you do?

Denial

What does it mean to be in denial? Denial is defined as the action of declaring something untrue. People who have drug addictions are said to be in denial when they don't think they have a problem. Denial is the first sign of someone having a problem. People can be in denial without having an addiction or problem, there are people who deny that there's a God or that evolution is actually occurring. Denial can be applied to anything that can perceived as true or false.

Graded in-class writing

Luther Standing Bear's first piece that we read seems to put down the white man. He talks about how the white man views nature and how his people view nature. His tone seems condescending, almost like he is puzzled as to why we view nature as "wilderness". He shows that the Lakota are much more a part of nature, compared to white men who try to conquer nature. Luther Standing Bear believes that his people's ways are the right way to go about living, and thinks that the white man's ways are confusing. Throughout the first piece he is hinting at what the white man does and compares that to what his people do, always suggesting their way is better.

In Chief Seattle's speech, he talks about how the White Chief is forcing them to start living on reservations. He doesn't put up a fight because his people's numbers have diminished so much. Instead he just accepts what the White Chief has planned for them. The White Chief has said that Chief Seattle's people will still live comfortably on the reservation they will be moved to. The main theme of this speech is basically the obedience of the Native Americans. Chief Seattle's people don't put up a fight at all when they find out most of their land is being taken away from them. They just believe that the White Chief wouldn't do anything to trouble them. Chief Seattle does lay down one stipulation; that his people can visit the land where their ancestors have been buried. We do not know if this was honored or not from the speech that we read. This speech just shows that the white man will take advantage of anything to get their way and become the dominant people.

There is controversy in Chief Seattle's speech. Many people believe that it isn't even real because there have been numerous other "Chief Seattle" speeches that have been proven to be fake. One of the major controversies facing this speech is the fact that Dr. Henry A. Smith waited 33 years after hearing the speech to publish the speech. This is a little questionable why someone would wait that long before publishing a speech. Another controversy is the fact that Chief Seattle spoke Salish, while the person who translated it, Dr. Henry A. Smith, didn't. Smith did speak Chinook, so someone must have translated it to Chinook from Salish so Smith could then translate it to English. With this many translations happening, it is completely possible that a good deal of the speech got lost in translation, because some words just don't translate across languages. A final controversy is the amount of different editions of this speech that exist. They have all been changed to fit into the projects they are intended for. So there is no telling if any of these speeches are the real thing. Dr. Smith's notebook hasn't been found, so there is no real evidence on the validity of this speech. (Low 1995:407) 

Works Cited

Low, Denise (09/30/1995). "Contemporary reinvention of Chief Seattle: Variant texts of Chief                      Seattle's 1854 speech". American Indian quarterly (0095-182X), 19 (3), p. 407.

Controversy over "authorship"

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=6a1c1196-d0d2-48db-9150-1e778be43c6c%40sessionmgr115&vid=1&hid=125&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=lfh&AN=9603291252

The speech that Chief Seattle supposedly gave in 1854 has attracted some deal of attention. The speech wasn't published until 33 years after it was given. This is a big enough reason to suspect something fishy. It was also translated from Salish to English by a translator who didn't know Salish. The translator or maybe "author" of the speech is named Dr. Henry A. Smith and he only knows Chinook. So for this speech to have been translated to English it would have been translated from Salish to Chinook and then finally to English. When a speech is translated across three languages there is a great possibility that some parts were lost in translation. This along with the fact that "Seattle's Speech" resembled Smith's poetry caused some eyebrows to be raised at the validity of the speech. There are numerous other speeches that Chief Seattle supposedly gave only to be proven that they were fakes. Also, the content of the speech presents stereotypes that Americans usually regard Indians as following. These include Indians as being savages and Red people. Whether or not this speech is the real thing, is hard to tell.  What is known is that there are numerous versions of this speech adapted specifically for various purposes, and that tends to tip the scales toward the speech being a fake.

Ethics on the Environment

This is a picture that I took along the Rocky Branch Creek that runs through the middle of Campus. This was taken basically outside of Lee Residence Hall. This was a doe and there were two fawns with her. Is this right? As more and more land gets developed into cities, the wildlife is being forced into smaller and smaller areas. Deer are not supposed to be living within a city but unfortunately they are being forced to. This can lead to a number of problems, with the worst being loss of life after a car collision. A major question facing developers and environmentalists is how to still develop areas but cut back on the effect this developing has on the native wildlife. What do you think? Should we just ignore the wildlife because after all we are the top of the food chain, or should we think about the effects our society has on the wildlife and their habitats?

Religion and the Environment

This peer reviewed paper touches on exactly what we were talking about in class on Tuesday. The paper basically states that the differences in religions need to be ignored, so that they can all unite as one and face the degradation of the environment we our facing today. Robin Gill is the author of this paper and he cites a study from the 90s that show churchgoers are more likely to do something about the environment because of their religious belief.  In the majority of religions, the environment is God given and that compels His followers to try and help the environment out. Personally, I don't  think religion should be the driving force for someone to do something about the environment. The state of the environment could decide the future of mankind, whether that future is promising or full of demise. This alone should cause people that aren't religious at all to step up and offer their help in fixing the state of the environment. I just think that religion causes too many arguments over these types of issues, when all the time that is spent arguing could have been spent trying to fix the problem.









http://tjx.sagepub.com/content/102/810/408.citation

Deforestation Google Alert

Deforest an area or not deforest an area? That is the question. There are viable reasons for both sides. If an area is deforested, that brings in a fair share of income depending on the type of lumber. But when an area is deforested, where does all the wildlife go that lived in that part of the forest? These positives and negatives have to be weighed before a single tree is torn down or there could be major consequences if a decision is made prematurely. A college student from Georgetown, South America named Nikkita Autar recently travelled to Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development in Guyana. This area is known for being rich in timber, making it a big target for lumber companies. Autar helped researchers explore possibilities that would cut down on the impact logging had on wildlife. Even after all this, one question still remains: Deforest an area or not deforest an area?

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7923485040500991782