McKibben and Bioregional Quiz Response

     Durability, a term meaning lastingness of a product, object or idea, is what the author Bill McKibben focuses on during an interview podcast. McKibben argues that sustainability is a term abused by the many opinions towards the environment. Sustainability is a term has lost the essential meaning over time as sustainability is the catch phrase for the current solution in place to fight the environmental crisis facing the Earth. McKibben's new book entitled Eaarth, embraces the idea that the Earth is rapidly declining from the original state of almighty power and strength that the Earth once held. 

     McKibben's opinion of what the world should do to fix this detrimental state of the planet is that the young generations should shift away from the consumer world and revert back to the farming and agriculture world that the human race practically abandoned years ago. The economy is too big and is at a point of near collapse. McKibben's point is a solution that could end two major issues at one time. The world is over-populated, over-stimulated, over-engineered. With people back in the fields producing the food that is needed for the world, there would be less political stress, less economic stress and less difference in the world. This "cookie-cutter" solution could be the answer to all of the troubles that the world faces, but no one knows. The bioregional quiz would be seen as a "no brainer" if this plan did succeed. The human race would know more about the environment that is the foundation surrounding the people. The gap between the wilderness and civilization, a space of gray uncertainty would be bridged and the human race would have knowledge of the true world in which humans live. 

The Waste Dilemma

  The Waste Dilemma

     In the essay, “Island Civilization: a Vision for human occupancy of Earth”, the author, Roderick Frazier Nash, writes of the “perfect” solution to end all environmental issues in the world. Nash describes a world far less populated and more eco-friendly. People would live in clumps separated by nature. This idea would require technology that the human race only dreams about today; technology that would b able to help all kinds of species live in places that are normally uninhabitable.

     While Nash’s idea is extreme, the concept of Island Civilization would help to solve the major issue of pollution and waste management. In today’s world, few of nature’s boundaries remain to help keep the environment balanced. Humans have slowly forced the earth to evolve, dealing with the increasing population growth and all things that come with high population numbers. With all of the people in the world, waste management is a major environmental crisis. The materialistic society of today has an obsession with rapid consumption of goods and even more rapid disposal of goods. The capitalistic goals of society’s leaders have taken precedence over the precious state of the Earth and its environment. Humans have single-handedly created their problem that they now have to fix.

     In the small nation of Belize, located in Central America, solid and liquid waste management is a major crisis that is looming over the nation and its people. The tourism-based economy has created a dilemma for the people of Belize as their current waste management plan is centered around the needs of tourists. The local residents, depending on their social class and where they live, face major problems that have sprouted as result of the waste management issue. People in poverty are living among trash mounds in slums, risking their health and the little economic opportunity that they have. The working class is losing money due to the lack of a proper plan in place. Not only is the waste management and pollution creating problems for the people but the marine ecosystems are also being affected.

     Nash’s idea of Island Civilization would require for the population to majorly decrease in size, which would help to lower the amount of waste created by mass proportions. In addition, the clump style of societal living would help make people more aware of what resources they use and what they discard as waste. Tourism would not be as easily accomplished, which would help nations like Belize to place more focus on their environmental foot print and not on their economic status. It would be imperative for the Island Civilization plan to have a well-thought out waste management plan in place as some civilizations would be in places where the normal decomposing processes cannot happen naturally. The long term benefits of implementing the Island civilization plan would allow for places like Belize to no longer be mounds of trash; the waste management would be on a new level where humans could live their lives and not impact the environment in negative ways. 

http://tropicalconservationscience.mongabay.com/content/v1/08-03-03-Young.htm

Island Civilization Summary and Reflection

     Since the beginning of time, earth has held a motherly embrace around all of her inhabitants. This relationship has been tracked over time through history, in hopes of that symbiotic relationship continuing on through the generations of all species. The harsh reality has landed in the human lap as humans have abused all of earth’s attributes, therefore creating a parasitic relationship. In the essay “Island Civilization: a Vision for human occupancy of Earth” by Roderick Frazier Nash, the faults of the Homo sapiens are laid out and the plea for change has been made.

     In the last millennium alone, so many aspects of life have evolved and there are few remnants of the old condition of Earth remaining. Humans have been stretching the limits of nature for a long time. The population is growing exponentially; unrealistic demands are being made on such a small provider. Nash sees the urgent need for change but understands that it is not going to be an easy fix. There are four possible pathways that as a whole, the human population can decide to pursue in hopes of keeping earth around for the coming millenniums; the wasteland scenario, the garden scenario, the future primitive and island civilization are all of the possibilities for the future but all share one common thread, the need for a unified decision.

     The need for change has come about because humans have been making costly, quick decisions where the immediate positives outweigh the long-term negatives. The biggest issue Nash focuses on is technology. The human race has bypassed many natural boundaries with technology yet the long-term consequences are never mentioned or factored in. Obviously technology is harmful to dispose of but more importantly, an unhealthy dependency has been created between humans and technology. We no longer live in the wilderness, a place where things happen unannounced. Nature no longer has its own overpowering will. In addition, humans are using technology to harm other species and each other.

     Nash’s proposition, island civilization, would ideally solve all of the major issues; however, his solution is far from realistic, at least for this generation. The idea of having clumped societies would require little to no differences in opinions among the members. History proves that the human race is extremely diverse and with diversity comes radically diverse thinking. It would be crucial for the human race to change mindsets as a whole before island civilization could be possible; humans need to embrace the idea of “Earth first” as Nash says. With community-clumped living comes close living quarters and sharing resources. Depending on where a person is from, he or she was raised in a specific lifestyle. Many people have been raised in a capitalistic society full of greed and selfishness while others have grown up in a world of poverty. Tensions would form and either war or expansion beyond the community boundaries would arise. The world population size also creates a dilemma, as stress would still be put on the Earth for her resources, even with the island civilization method.

     It is clear that the world needs to change before it is too late but where to start seems to be the biggest challenge. From Nash’s essay, it would seem as though the best way to start the process would be for all of the species to agree but that is physically impossible in today’s world. With that said, the most logically way to begin change would be to wipe out all of the current species living on the earth and start all over with the island civilization idea as the blue prints for the reconstruction. More destruction, death, pollution and damage would be done if today’s society was forced into the mold of island civilization than if all parts of the world were erased and the earth started over. The initial cost for this radical change would be large and it would take many years to get the earth stable and able to provide for humans but many dreams that today’s society has could become reality.