My Learning Experience: Journal Entry #7

            My experience in my Florida Gulf Coast University’s Colloquium class has been very interesting. I had predicted from the beginning that I probably would not enjoy this class because it was very depressing about how the Earth is going to end and we need to figure out something about it. However, my prediction was incorrect because I did enjoy learning about these things. I was right that it was at times very depressing and it was emphasizing the impact that we are having on Earth; however, this class gave light, ideas, and inspiration in showing ways that we may be able to help fix the negative impact that was imposed on this planet.

            I feel that this has made an impact on me because I have always felt like I wanted to help, but have kind of slacked off and relied on other people. However, this class shows investments that can change the world, such as solar panels on your house or even car pooling more to places. I find Colloquium to be relevant to my education major and future career as a teacher because I can in some way instill these ideas of sustainability into my students. The one thing that I did find difficult with this class is being able to keep up with the terms involved. I feel that we did a lot of reading, but sometimes we did not always discuss certain terms in our class. For example, after reading about biophobia and stewardship, it would have been nice to go back and discuss these in our classroom.

            Overall, I found this class to be very interesting. I think it is a good thing that our University makes it a requirement to graduate and that we all need to do service learning pertaining to helping the environment. I enjoyed my Colloquium experience. 

Humans, just another cause of pollution: Journal Entry #6

           

           In today’s society, humans think that they are superior to any other specie on the planet. This mind set it wrong in many ways because in this world, all the species work together rather than one being greater than another.

            David W. Orr spoke about the idea that people are becoming uncomfortable with nature. They do not feel safe and have no desire to be involved with nature and look at it as a decoration. This is becoming increasingly common and when we speak about global warming and problems in the environment, these people do not feel the need to help. The work is not distributed fairly and people are relying on scientists and environmentalist to fix the world’s problems without their personal contribution.

            After reading this discussion, I realized how much I sometimes feel the same way. I do not mean to be lazy or ignorant, but I feel that there is not much that I can do to make a difference. However, I do try to do small things around the house like switch to the light bulbs to environmentally ones, recycle as much as possible, turn off lights and fans when I am not in the room, and unplug small electronics that I do not use on a regular basis. After taking the Ecological Footprint Assessment test, I saw that if everyone on the planet lives my lifestyle, we would need 3.93 Earths. The global average is 1.50 Earths. I found this shocking. This makes me realize how important it really is for each individual to try to be greener and that I need to take bigger steps in helping with this problem.

            In our reading, the Earth Charter, it speaks about steps that we can take in protecting our home. We need to change our attitude, help protect and restore our planet, prevent disasters, and adopt new ideas and technology to make a difference. The problem is ours and no one but ourselves are going to do something to make a change. The time for change is now.