Journal Entry 9- Exempt

Journal Entry 14- Reflection on Service Learning Experience (part 2)

Communication between the Green Team Leadership was essential in providing direction and progress reports throughout the planning of the event.  To further market the event I used the popular social networking utility Facebook to target the FGCU student and faculty market segment.  The Facebook friend Green Eagles also provides a supportive environment to learn about not only The Green Team, its mission and events, but also has become a link between all conscientious students with concern for practical sustainability living behaviors.   It also allows people to become a more responsible citizen or a proactive supporter for environmental sustainability.   Already this utility has gained around 80 friends and is rapidly being sought by students and faculty alike to become friends and then become involved.  The Sustainability Coordinator at FGCU has learned of this organization through Green Eagles and has specifically requested to be involved and even offered support for our future initiatives.   Green Eagle Festival in particular teamed up with university departments such as the Office of Housing and Residence Life, Student Government and The Office of Student Involvement but also attracted numerous environmentally conscience student organizations including Eco-Action.  Overwhelming response from the our Florida Gulf Coast University Community and organizations/businesses in our surrounding community has made the countless hours spent ensuring the success of the event by our leadership and volunteers was made worthwhile.  Future programs and initiates will continue to shape culture in a direction where people adopt practical sustainability solutions. 

Journal Entry 13- Reflection on Service Learning Experience

Journal Entry 13- Reflection on Service Learning Experience (part 1)

Green Team is a student organization supported by the Office of Housing and Residence Life.  The mission of The Green Team is to promote sustainable living standards in housing.  This mission supports environmental initiatives and recognizes the ecological importance of our environment.  Education is the first step to creating a responsible culture and starting at home with simple knowledge is practical and highly effective. 

As a staff member of the Office of Housing and Residence Life I was also able to maximize the potential of our efforts by doubling this Florida Gulf Coast University campus event as a specific housing program to increase attendance so that residents along with all students were able to benefit as much as possible from the event.  Green Team was looking for volunteers to help plan and execute their new Green Eagle Festival.  I choose to be proactively involved throughout the entire event and became named the Green Eagle Event Coordinator.  Leadership comes from being proactive and seizing the opportunities that are always presenting themselves.  The Green Team Sponsor is Deidra Cassella, a Housing GA.  The initial duties of the position required coordinating the outside organizations that planned on participating to improve the overall success of the event.  Participation included managing paperwork between housing and the Campus Reservations Department.  Communication and organization was key to fulfilling the duties and responsibilities awarded by the position.  To set up communications I opened a new email address greeneagleevents@live.com. 

Journal Entry 8- Reflections on Gary Gardner Articles

Religion and the Quest for a Sustainable World:

Engaging Religions to Shape Worldview:

Ritual and Taboo as Ecological Guardians:

Religious institutions are powerful and carry great influence.  The environmentalist movements will be amplified if the support of those institutions can be won.  When pursing like interests it is a wise decision to team up and unite similarities.  The passages note that an ethical dilemma exists when using religion as a means to push an agenda.  Religion is a powerful influence in politics, business, and culture already so involvement itself is not unethical however stating that people of an entire faith supports a particular agenda would be foolish and highly unethical.  It would be better to position itself behind its members who support the agenda for the same religious reasons those institutions support. 

The claim that ecological crises extend to culture and human spirit can be substantiated with science in that humans are part of nature and our spirit is affected by survivability.   Using religion as a means of control is dangerous because anything that distracts from religious messages not inherent to that religion could be sinful.  Cultures have used the institution of religion as a means of control throughout history however for the religious there can be serious repercussions to that kind of influence especially since faith is not all substantiated or denounced through science.  Often time’s religion uses faith as a way to teach peoples how to live and survive without providing the reasons for that behavior.  The links drawn between consumerism and greed discussed in many religious perspectives substantiate that claim. 

Creating rituals and taboos to reform culture would eventually reach a culture behaving in a similar fashion however; this is the same thing as revising tradition to a more sustainable fashion.  Rather than implementing resorting to very old rituals and taboos it would be more effective to create a campaign to reform how we practice our current traditions.  Typical rites of passages have been consumed by consumerist ideals adding heavy financial and environmental costs.  Not only is there an argument for environmental sustainability but there is also an argument for getting consumerism out of the way of the actual purpose and principal of these occasions. 

Journal Entry 7- Reflection on Climate Change Discussions

I believe that truth in life is learned because everything is viewed from perspective and it takes adaptability and openness to discuss everything so we can hold truth.  Truth is built upon faith and fact,   faith in the ability to trust the methods of reasoning to draw conclusions.  Because only God knows all from all perspectives so it is essential to question the methods and conclusions of everything.   Similarly no person can possibly hold a monopoly on truth.  There is always a bigger picture and many people depending on their level on the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, determines what level people can solve problems.   For a problems of proportions of climate change that is so foreign to most people when they are not focused on the big picture but on things like short term survival or happiness.

It is easy to rationalize flawed science or projections as misinformation however this is detrimental to the science of climate change because now the reliability of today’s projections are going to be questioned at the least.  Even with sound science supporting the problem and providing a solution there is always the biggest problem of all: implementation and political viability.  Economics is a science and they study, create solutions to problems, but then nothing is solved because the solution is not politically viability.  The biggest problem is not internal because our emission capacity is already high; it is the developing nations which cannot thrive on expensive alternative energy that create policy issues because there will be a double standard. 

Regarding the political forces regardless of party affiliation, they serve constituents and are influenced by the power of special interest groups.  It is not a surprise to me that even the Democratic Party which campaigned on climate change legislation would in a position to do so not.  After identifying a problem and a solution to the problem the real battle lies in the method in which you solve the problem.  In politics there is always opposition or it wouldn’t even be a political question.  The best solution is not the method used but rather the method which meets the least political opposition is chosen.  In some cases like Social Security opposition prevents any solutions from being implemented. 

The largest problem with climate change legislation is that the proposals impose regulations and limits to emissions called a carbon “footprint”.  The problem is in the incentives.   The goal of emission reduction can be reached if the energy producers are put out of business but obviously that harms those companies.  The proposed plans are all negative in that saving the environment will cost them in both efficiency, regulation, and other penalties.  I would recommend taking the money from enforcement and regulatory/policy creation to provide benefits for companies which use green methods and reduce emissions.  Supply and demand will also create incentives for more efficient alternatives.  If organizations serious in their environmental concerns would purchase rainforests that need protected, if they purchased large amounts of demanded products that emit toxins into the atmosphere supply and demand would raise prices reducing consumption by customers.   I believe there are economic incentive solutions which will start people innovating to gain actual rewards versus the idea that they are being forced to ‘help’ the environment through force. 

Reflect Upon: National Geographic Strange Days #6

In National Geographic’s Strange Days: The One Degree Factor addresses the observations by humans in recent history over the changes the earth is experiencing.  The most notable observations discussed is the North American Heard of Caribou which has been diminishing in numbers drastically.  The main worry and fear pushed in the movie is the idea that the rapid changing in earth’s temperature and weather cycles will not allow animals to adapt quick enough.  They showed how increased temperatures benefit other organisms particularly mosquitoes with longer mating seasons and they prey upon the caribou.  These contribute toward the decline in population.  

I believe that there must be a standard of living adjustment to make any human induced change however the best way to do that is through innovation, financial incentives, and demand from both consumers and businesses to adapt their current standards and practices.  Migration, shifts, and adjustments are constantly changing because earth is a diverse and ever changing environment.  The earth is able to counter balance any abnormality because for every behavior there is a counter behavior which matches that.   The problem is if the abnormality sways too far that life is threatened because the recovery time is not available then people will experience the consequences.  These consequences will range in magnitude based on the severity of the items affected.  This would include food supplies and other necessities provided by earth. 

The best way to approach the impending problems discussed in the video is to make common sense adjustments to every behavior.  If businesses reduce ‘throw away materials’ by passing on the savings to the consumers there will be a three way mutual benefit.  Businesses will be more competitive by passing the savings onto the consumers, consumers will benefit from the discounted incentives, and the environment will reduce the volume of waste and strain on its natural functions. 

Journal # 5 cancelled