My Environmental Philosophy…CALLING ALL AMERICANS!!!

The United States of America is last in line on the competitive search for alternative energy. Our country’s economic and most importantly, political ties to the oil industry have proven not only environmentally destructive but socially and progressively stunting. Our country has allowed lobbyists and elected officials to protect this multi billion dollar industry and the laws which these officials help to enact or prohibit have provided a place of refuge beneath the skirt of a “mindless America”. Americans must first begin to address the issue of the use of and search of (mining, drilling ect.) the destructive fossil fuels that are ultimately responsible for the majority of damage and consequences we have already begun to suffer today and will continue to endure for centuries yet to come. Yes, recycling is great, cleaning a beach is commendable but the core issues at hand far supersedes the minuscule details that stem from it, we are a new generation, one that cannot allow our future to be manipulated by a few companies that have profited for decades off the irreversible damage they have inflicted on our oceans and environment. We should not stop there; there are millions of dollars of profit being gained off the annihilation of rainforest throughout the world, mining companies that are fully aware of the health issues posed to their workers related to the mining of coal but do nothing to address it. I hope that my generation will finally end this ignorant tolerance of industries that profit from the loss, devastation and eradication of so many valuable resources.

We have the opportunity to stop it, we now have the education, the knowledge the know how but without a choice, without leadership or commitment, all the progress we have attained thus far would have been worked towards in vain. We can take this opportunity and employ so many left without homes, produce new technology with international demand, improve upon current equipment and follow the rest of the world into the future. America use to be the standard to which all other countries strived to achieve, America use to be the “power house” of the world so WHY is it that we have allowed these industries and greedy politicians to run our country into the ground ?!?!? I make a proposition…CALLING ALL AMERICANS…the time has come to prove yourselves again, we need all scientists, teachers, students, doctors, lawyers, mothers, fathers, daughters and sons to fix the mess we have made and begin to rebuild “America the Great”.

Ft. Myers: A Stroll through History

The bus ride to the Historic Ft. Myers area was beautiful; we drove through neighborhoods with old homes and giant Royal Palms. The area was green and the trees towered over the roadway. We soon arrived at the Ft. Myers Historic Museum, the institute was full of diagrams, artifact replications and informative postings describing the Native Americans indigenous to the Florida area and other relevant historic aspects of the area including; fishing, industrialization and the many scientific contributions the area benefited from Edison. The museum included pictures and details about the coast and the many inhabitants it received throughout the centuries, it concluded with an array of military artifacts from WWII and Vietnam, the glass cases included uniforms, helmets, diaries and other physical artifacts. The museum also owned the home next door; it was a replica of what a home in the area would have looked like and measured, about the size of a large living room and housing a family of four or more. It was built of wood and raised from the ground, the roof was made of tin and extremely high, this helps to keep the heat of Florida Summers high in the infrastructure and cooler where people spend most their day.

We then walked through the historic district of Ft. Myers, the road was lined in small shops, boutiques, restaurants and bars. The architecture was impressive, a glimpse into how the town must have looked centuries ago. It’s an amazing thought to know that you’re walking on the same land where so many before you have also walked. I visualized what the streets would look like covered in buggy carriages and how people would have dressed; women with their exaggerated feathered hats, hooped ruffled skirts and men with big mustaches and top hats. We walked the coast of the area and observed the Marina, taking note of the different types of trees and the many years it takes for a tree of that size to grow.

It was a unique experience, everyday we drive through our city and never pay much attention to the historical significance of the land, its resources, people or national importance. Much like many other cities within the nation Ft. Myers is a city drenched in historical importance and will stand as such for generations to come. The area includes some of the world’s most beautiful beaches and water as well as the summer home of one of the most famous men in the world, Thomas Edison. I look forward to the day when I can walk with my grandchildren, pointing out trees as old as I am, architecture three times as old as myself and teach them the importance of one day doing the same with their own grandchildren.

The Florida Everglades: Like No Other Place in the World

While most agree that the Florida Everglades is not often a highly desired destination, there are many who would beg to differ. There is a small but vivacious and animated group of individuals whose passion revolves around the lifestyle that this magnificent ecosystem provides. As a child I was lucky enough to befriend several those whose culture revolves around this unique yet treacherous area, the Florida Everglades are infamous for alligator hunting season, incredible fishing, bird watching and air boat visits.

As a teenager I was lured to the Everglades by tales of adventure and danger I would experience in no other place in the world. Peers would show me pictures of beautiful fish, caught fresh and eaten that evening, tell stories of brave birds that would fight for bait, they would scream in laughter and frustration as they would recollect the many shrimp and shiners they had lost to opportunistic birds that could clear a bait bucket within minutes. I remember a handsome classmate coming to school in a sling and describing how the clean break was caused by a silly oversight when wrestling a five foot alligator, adding how lucky he had been to not had lost his arm entirely after wrestling the animal who had reverted into a “death roll,” a common way for alligators to render their victim(s) incapacitated by tearing at muscle and meat. I’d shiver at the legend of a 20 foot python that roams a local fishing hole and could easily overpower an adult man if caught off guard and in the water, my fears to be only further reinforced when, in the following year, a thirteen foot Burmese Python was found dead after trying to digest a six foot alligator! Friends would tease about a mammoth alligator named Jaws and how he often searched for “Newbies” to the Everglades, he would follow their airboat and wait for an opportune time to attempt to tear them out of it… “New blood attracts the biggest ones!”, they’d say. I pretended to not pay attention but I’ll admit now I always looked over my shoulder when I sat on the edge of that deafening airboat…

Though the Everglades do provide endless adventure and game for those brave enough to seek it, in the evening, right before the sun sets, the orange, red and yellow hews engulf the sky and the view seems almost unreal. I remember concluding that paints and markers could never replicate the true identity of a “color” and no one who has ever watched a summer sunset over the Florida Everglades would ever dare disagree.

Permaculture In Your Backyard!

Permaculture is the act of designing and producing human settlements and agricultural systems through farming strategies and crop and resource choices that mimic the relationships found in natural ecologies around the world.Permaculture is revered for it’s emphasis on sustainable land use design the concept is based on ecological and biological principles, regularly using patterns that occur in nature as ideal examples in order to maximise effect and minimise work and the need for outside resources. The practice of permaculture strives to create stable, productive and self reliant ecosystems that provide crops and other valuable resources for human needs while at the same time integrating the land with its inhabitants without conflict. The ecological processes of plants, animals, their nutrient cycles, climatic factors and weather cycles are all variables that are accounted for when utilizing the technique.
Elements in a permaculture based system are viewed in relationship to other elements, where the outputs of one element become the inputs of another, otherwise stated; waste created by one plant, crop or resource becomes the food, shelter, fertilizer for another . Within a permaculture system, work is reduced, “wastes” become resources, productivity and yields increase, environments are restored and the resources provided to us are done so in the least most destructive manner upon the environment.
The theory behind the process is that, by training individuals to utilize local resources, encourage crop and plant/tree growth, those individuals can design their own environments and build increasingly self-sufficient human settlements, that decrease society's dependence on industrial systems of production and distribution that is fundamentally and systematically destroying Earth's valuable and irreplaceable ecosystems.
We have begun to utilize several of these permaculture based ideas in our own home as well as two other family homes within close proximity. As a family we have experimented with different types of fruit bearing trees and vegetable producing crops, we have attempted to see which crops grow well in the same proximity and which of these crops grow best during certain seasons.
We have found that crops that need shade and grow well in moist and predominantly sandy soil yield the most product when grown beneath larger fruit bearing trees such as plantains, papayas and avocado trees. Herbs such as rosemary and basil tend to flourish when grown alongside a sturdier larger plant or tree, most likely due to the protection the larger plant serves to the herbs in cooler parts of the season and shade it provides during summer. Also, all sorts of peppers tend to grow faster and produce more crops when they are grown together, regardless of the species, growing the peppers together sometimes causes cross-pollinating but the consequences are generally tasty and unique. Squash and cassava plants also flourish when grown in the same vicinity.
Our family has chosen to embrace the idea of home gardens and small scale farming, by each household farming a different crop and animal and supplying all other homes with the surplus of that resource we are all able to cut the cost of produce, chicken and lamb considerably. Though we are far from being completely self sustainable we could most definitely argue that a good 20% of our daily food consumption is raised/grown by one of the three households.

Last Child In The Jungle

Chicago Illinois has little to nothing to offer from the “outdoor” perspective. Skyscrapers line the streets and grass and the occasional maple is the extent of my encounters with environmental diversity. Field trips consisted of museums and historical visits but never a location that had any sort of ecological significance. Our science experiments would consist of growing an herb garden or observing a potato spread roots but never the classification of plants or animals, maybe in the inner city the idea of our environmental involvement is so far reached that a lesson on the topic would prove to be unconscionable to students. As an adult student, I now believe that education based of a concept and lifestyle so far removed from those you are teaching would be ineffective and seem meaningless. It’s disheartening to admit but as an adolescent, my school system did not, so much as introduce the concept of “environment”. Advising children on how to recycle does not constitute an acceptable level of instruction on the topic.

It is only when I moved to Florida that my environmental studies transformed into lessons of; species protection and revival, climate change and non renewable resources, destruction of rainforests and other woodland based ecosystems, alternative renewable resources, water and air pollution as well as erosion and the detrimental effects of mining and drilling. I had moved into the most rural (I can not stress this point enough) area of Collier County where panthers and bears still owned the land and the term “jungle” described the view from my bedroom window. I was not only able to recognize plants and animals I was taught about in class the day before but I was able to analyze and utilize concepts about how these plants and animals fit into their immediate environment, their state, their nation and what importance this animal had to the world as a whole, to Mother Nature. It wasn’t until I began to live in the world with animals that I could understand why we should save them. Ill never forget seeing a dolphin leap in the ocean for the first time, never be able to erase the memory of a panther hunting deer, never let go of the fear I felt when listening to the rattle of a diamondback or let go of the excitement of swimming with a pod of manatees.

It is only now that I can have a true passion for nature, understand our minimal and frankly useless contribution to it as humans and wonder in the awe of other seemingly “tiny” creatures that supersede our value to the world in the most shocking of ways.

Historical Recollections & Future Inspiration

Estero Bay

Visiting Estero Bay was a memorable experience, as a class we were able to listen to stories of what the, “Real South West Florida” was like. Our guide provided first hand accounts about what it was like to live in such an inhabited area at the time.

She discussed life as simple but enjoyable, she attended a single room school house with less than twenty students and only one teacher to lead three separate grade levels. She passed around a picture of the students in front of a bus, which the teacher also drove. She recalled growing up in the small town of Ft. Myers on the beach and without electricity.

Her recollections included stories about mosquito filled nights and devastating hurricanes, her photos and newspaper clips only added to the historical experience and the cottage in which we set had been restored to its original state. Her stories about childhood and life on the island seemed almost surreal, she described a life that was based on simplicity and “living” more than status and convenience, two themes that hold constant in today’s society.

Her comments on the environmental changes that have taken place in the area were the most surprising, she discussed the importance of net fishing at the time and the economic and local ramifications of the bands imposed on the practice decades ago. She explained the significance of mullet fishing in the area and the devastating changes in the water clarity she has observed over the years. She recalled how as a child she could easily see 20 feet down to the bottom and how today we are lucky to see 5-10 feet down into the ocean. The increase in pollution and erosion only add to the deterioration of our shorelines and local ecosystems. She also described how the amount of canals on the island have dramatically increased, simply stated, more water means less land, with rising water levels and escalating amounts of erosion, islands world wide are in danger of completely disappearing.

Walking through the grounds was serene, the mangroves have collected into a jungle of roots and branches that reach deep into the moist ground that border the ocean backwaters. Banana spiders weave webs throughout the area and mosquitoes own the land! As we walked along the shore we could hear the sound of mullet jumping in and out of the water, splashing loudly with every leap. We observed the environment and sadly noticed that the water was indeed cloudy and remembered the almost unbelievable descriptions of crystal clear water we had heard only minutes before.

It saddened me to imagine the ecological devastation these women had observed throughout the many decades they have resided in the area. The only positive message I could take form the thought was an inspiration to stop any further damage, to begin restoring this beautiful land and hold their amazing descriptions of an “untouched Florida,” as a goal and hope for the future.

E C H O: A Message Heard Throughout the World

Echo Field Trip

Visiting Echo was one of the most impressive field trips I had ever experienced. Echo is a Christian based organization that strives to end world hunger by educating people all over the world on effective farming and agricultural techniques. The organization sells seeds and helps to instruct citizens of several third world countries on how to better utilize and develop farming, irrigation and agricultural techniques that will supply community members with a surplus of goods to not only feed families with but enough to also generate revenue (sell/trade at local markets).

The property is comprised of several sections that exhibit crops and farming that would be applicable in certain geographical regions throughout the world. Echo has essentially created an international, agricultural blueprint for the world. They display unique farming methods and simple yet successful technology that can be used in order to sustain these farms. Not only does the organization exhibit this technology and production but they also demonstrate how to better utilize household and scrap items for the production of these goods, for example; cinder blocks and old tires can be used as potting resources, not only are you able to recycle items that would be previously considered to be garbage but the material helps to retain water for crops. Other items such as old socks and aluminum cans were also used to improve upon the cultivation of the plants.

The property did an excellent job of applying modern day permaculture practices to classic forms of agriculture. Permaculture is the act of mimicking natural, self sustaining ecosystems as a means of providing crops. The following is a link that leads to an impressive website that documents local and varied types of geographically diverse examples of permaculture.

http://www.permaculture.org/nm/index.php/site/index/

Echo utilized this technique by raising chickens, rabbits and goats that would produce waste that fertilized the crops. These crops would then produce vegetables, fruits and starches that can feed families and village communities in all sorts of diverse geographical terrains. The organization uses unique trees that produce natural insecticides to prevent crop loss and distinctive plants that not only provide food for the goats and rabbits but also inhibits weed growth that so often competes with crop growth.

These techniques are truly fascinating, so many of these practices can be so easily applied to home gardens, small farms and even urban style agriculture. I hope to be soon purchasing a home of my own and would like to purchase at least two acres, I feel confident that I can employ many of the methods I observed at Echo and hope to also teach friends and family about the simple yet amazingly effective farming systems I observed on our visit to the ECHO grounds.

I encourage any and all individuals to visit the site and gaze in amazement at the art of environmental consciousness and independent sustainability displayed at ECHO!