EcoLit 313

On November 18th, Rachel and I met up with our 3 freshmen partners (Alex, Hannah, and Rochelle) to conduct both the botanical tour and the geographic tour of Bryn Mawr.  We began by first sitting down at our usual circle chairs outside of English and having a discussion in which we compared and contrasted our two classes. While there was certainly some similarities (they are of course taking an ecological-minded class as well) there did exist some differences, mostly in terms of the texts we read. Following this, Rachel and I brought the freshmen into the woods and had them examine privet, viburnum, spice bush, beech trees, and tulip trees. In turn, the freshmen brought to various buildings and structures around campus and explain to us the composition of each particular building, and highlighted particular usage of Wissahickon Schist and Baltimore Nice on a few of the buildings and contrasted their attributes. As we finished up the Interdisciplinary Ramble of the campus at the Bryn Mawr Fieldhouse, our combined groups discussed what we had learned through each of the botanical and geological examinations of the campus. We ended with an agreement that the current landscape of the campus did consist of the natural landscape but in the process of being turned into a college campus the landscape had to incorporate imported components (such as Baltimore Nice and the non-native species in the woods).

I went to my site sit this morning. I looked at the cut vegetation and I felt one sensation, COLD. This got me thinking about whether there is any connection between our society’s dislike of the cold (think about how much they overheat the dorms in the winter) and our views towards global climate change. It seems that climate change is helping to speed up the inevitable warming of the planet (http://www.ecy.wa.gov/climatechange/whatis.htm)

Before I fell asleep last night, I opened to a random page in book called Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.  I read the whole book a few years ago, and I liked it even though Foer didn’t convince me to go vegetarian.  The coolest part of this book is about stories.  Foer says that the important thing about food is not the activity of eating, but the stories we tell ourselves and our children about why and what we eat.  I agree.  What’s the story of your favorite meal?

We have agreed to share a collective ramble during class time next Monday, December 3. We will gather @ the Mill Creek restoration site, in Ashbridge Park (a 10-minute walk from campus); and design the day along the lines of the "dynamic structure"  froggies315 proposed, dividing into groups of 2 or 3 each to
1) open and close the wander
2) locate us @ the site via some history
3) and also via some poetry
4) supply food to fuel our wandering off on our own
5) lead us before and after the day (on-line or in class) in reflection about what's happened.

In a comment to this post, please indicate which group you want to join. Attend to the comments before yours, and distribute yourself evenly...let's see if this works! We need to agree who will do what by classtime on Wednesday.

Thanks for working so ecologically!

A.

This is a what-if paper. By writing this, I’m asking others to play the believe/doubt game along with me; I ask you to entertain these ideas in their possibilities but to retain a critical eye toward their infeasibilities.

For our third Web Event I chose to expand the activity we did in class and answer some of the questions Carolyn Merchant poses. I think that the personal experience is the most valuable experience from which to draw on in an ecological class.  The personal experience may not be shared by everyone, but it does highlight how each of our personal narratives is affected by someone else's thereby stressing the importance of interconnection.

Self in Society

“Consider your own family’s history and place in society going back at least to you grandparents’ generation.  Were your ancestors native to this country? Are you or your parents first-, second-, or perhaps eighth-generation immigrants?  What large events-wars, depressions, revolutions, social movements- shaped their lives? How did your families use the land and relate to nature? Which of their values have you absorbed? Which have you rejected?  Think about the people you know and their family connections to the land” (Merchant, 1-2).

            My hometown recently released a magazine called "Grown." This is a town in which the class differences are extremely visible and most of the people that live here year-round are not really part of the higher ones, but most everything caters to the wealthy tourists and summer home owners. This magazine, apparently, caters to them, too. It discussed summer programs for high school students at sea, fundraisers for health food stores and local eating, and information about how to make a summer house more "green." No options were given to the many residents of the town that cannot afford these things. The wealthier members of Western society are given in forms like this easy ways to be environmentally-friendly and connect to the Earth, while the less wealthy are not. The less wealthy that do not happen to live in tourist towns with rich plant life do not even have the opportunity to.

          This is a history lesson about the future. The climate is changing at the most rapid rate in history. The years are hotter, sea levels are rising, arctic ice is melting, hurricane frequencies are increasing, infectious diseases are spreading north from the tropics, and crops are dying; this all conveniently coincides with technological and production increases, human expansion, deforestation, overfishing, and general living beyond our means and the means of the earth.

            This problem is the white people’s problem. Had the past unfolded in some alternate way perhaps this would not be the case; but here we are in the midst of that vague term “post-colonialism” where the white man has expunged his declaration of control, and yet the remnants of colonialism can still be clearly found from the poverty in many parts of Africa to the displaced Native American tribes of North America.

            Now, it seems, the people who used to care so deeply for the land are too busy staying alive, doing what they can to make ends meet to share the connection that they once had with the land, with life itself. They lost this because of the white people.