It’s a Wrap

Writing in an Endangered World is a course title and a description of practice, of reading, thinking, discussion, and writing motivated by self-awareness, interest, engagement, honesty, generosity, and collaboration.

This course blog makes visible our practice. The sidebar includes student work organized by author or activity under Themes, the weekly essays syndicated from the student’s blogs to this Writing in an Endangered World blog under Discussion, and direct links to the student course blogs under Blog Contributors.

How did we do? The Writing Portfolios and the projects below offer one answer. In addition, rather than writing learning outcomes for the students in advance, the students worked together at the conclusion of fifteen weeks to articulate what they have learned: the knowledge and understanding, the skills and competencies, as well as the attitudes and habits of mind that they are taking with them.

Writing Portfolios

Each blog is a portfolio of writing: twelve essays and a preface. The portfolios invited students to take ownership of their presence on the web, express ideas, and integrate their learning and interests; to use open-source platforms, build projects using digital tools, and create content using portfolios, exhibits, galleries, blogs, or wikis; and to engage with the community, construct the web, navigate and critically question digital technologies.

Madison Ballou Miss B “This world is but a canvas to our imagination.”―Henry David Thoreau

Chelsea Birchmore Mind Flowers Welcome to My Garden

Ethan Chalmers Eyes of the White Mountains We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable.”―Henry David Thoreau

Nick DeCarolis Reconnecting to Nature“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”― John Muir

Ariel Freedman Feeling the Flood Emotions are Wild. Welcome to the Natural World

Meghan Hayman Coming Out of My Shell “Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.” -GD

Mickayla Johnson The River is Everywhere“The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness.”―John Muir

Anna LeClere Pieces of the World You have big things. You know big things. But you don’t look into each other’s eyes, and you are hungry for quietness.”―Nell (1994)

Roy Martin Life Lessons Within Environmentalism A collection of thoughts, questions and speculations

Alexa Reichardt A Time for Tree Pausing our daily hubbub to sit down, drink tea, and give thanks to our Mother Earth

TJ Snow Snow My thoughts, feelings, and responses to various works and texts

Devon Sacca The Enchanted Forest“Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.”―John Muir

Lucas Thors The Islander“I thought to live on an island was like living on a boat. Islands intrigue me. You can see the perimeters of your world. It’s a microcosm.”―Jamie Wyeth

Colby Nilsen Wildcat: Overseer of the Mountain “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

Writing in the Endangered World Projects

The projects below began with a question: What might you do with what you have learned by reading, thinking, and writing in the course Writing in an Endangered World? Students were encouraged to know what they were doing and then to go about doing it well.

Devon Coffee’s Taking a Walk Through the Forest of Environmental Literature: A Resource for High School Teachers

It takes action to make a change. This is Meghan Hayman’s claim in her project Saving Mother Earth: a blog designed to inform the world about our earth’s environmental crisis and raises money for Greenpeace, a nonprofit environmental organization that helps to give the earth a voice.

Mickayla Johnson  Compassionate Natures: An Animal Emotions Directory is a collection of writings, images, stories, and other resources on the fascinating topic of non-human animal emotion

Anna LeClere and Chelsea Birchmore Food for Thought features interviews on people’s relationship to food

Alexa Reichardt Final Project: Solitude: the ways of the woods, positive change, resilience

Ethan Chalmers EcoConscious Climbing blog explores climbing and environmental ethics, specifically the impact of climbing on the rock and on the experiences of future climbers.

Ariel Freedman has composed an Illustrated Children’s Book

Roy Martin’s Nature In A Quarter Hour Podcast on the field of environmentalism and it’s literary contributions

Madison Ballou Nature and Children: Interviews

Nick DeCarolis The Milky Way Sports Club

Devon Sacca Final Project: An Anthology of Environmental Poetry

TJ Snow Snow Final Project: Environmentalism and Film

Lucas Thors Final Project: One Planet Campus: ecological and environmental awareness on campus

Colby Nilsen Final Project: The Adventures of Wildcat: A Place Showcase

So, what have you learned?

What we have come to call student learning outcomes, at least as I understand them, invite teachers and academic programs to articulate for students the expected knowledge, skills, attitudes, competencies, and habits of mind that they will be expected to learn in a course.

To be quite honest, this kind of language does not acknowledge the unique ways that a group of students make sense of the literary and cultural materials I teach. That is, I am far more interested in your own assessment of what you have learned in the course. On the one hand, your prefaces and essays offer one version of what you have learned—in every case, these essays chronicle your thinking about (and with) the books and essays and poems we read this semester. Another version of what you have learned is the list below that attempts to capture the knowledge and understanding, the skills and competencies, as well as the attitudes and habits of mind that you recorded during our final class session.

Knowing and Understanding

I learned about (and learned from) new authors that I had never known about before

I learned to appreciate the many forms of environmental writing: including poems, essays, novels, and memoirs

I understand the origins and history of the environmental movement in the United Sates and the social movements of environmentalism around the world

I learned that the natural world has much to teach us and that we can learn how to be open to how it teaches us

I learned about the responsibility we have to both ourselves and to the more-than-human world

I understand the wild as the ultimate and most powerful force in our lives and in the world around us

I understand environmental issues as social issues

I understand that we are the environment, we are of it and we are in it

I understand that the idea of nature is socially constructed

I learned about the problems that lie within our current understanding of nature as a social construct (and what we falsely recognize as our inherent separation from natural processes)

I understand that the “human privilege” (anthropocentrism) that we have bestowed upon ourselves is the root of the environmental crisis

I understand environmental responsibility as having good manners in a human and more-than-human world, as etiquette, as Gary Snyder describes it in the essay “The Etiquette of Freedom”

Skills and Competencies

I read by listening to what the text says and make meaning through listening and thinking and writing

I read with an awareness of the inter-relatability of the context and the content of a text

I write from the words of the writer and editor Ed Hogan: “Know what you are doing and do it well”

I write as a process of self evaluation, self-identification, and self recognition

I write to find a place in the world and to articulate thought

I write for general audiences by cultivating a point of view and a distinctive voice or presence

I write not to forget about an essay or throw it away but to write in a place (a blog) where it is never over, so I was never motivated to never want to stop perfecting it

Attitudes and Habits of Mind

The environment is everywhere and I am in it

Not to be afraid of what we don’t know and what we do not want to hear

We are not separate from the world but are a part of it and we need to start acting as if this is true

Greater awareness of self and greater awareness of the more-than-human world

Greater awareness of the unknown and comfort with the unknown

Greater awareness of what is going on in our society that harms the more-then-human world and that we have to come together to figure out solutions

Instinctual urge to save the body that nurtures and sustains our life

Knowledge is power and what we do with that power is what will make a difference

The truth is difficult and it is hard to recognize that the problems are because of the way we live our lives. We have made the world the way it is and that is a hard truth to swallow

To become comfortable in the larger questions of life

As a New Hampshire resident who grew up for the vast majority of his upbringing within a moderately-sized suburb in the southern seacoast region of the state, I must confess that my outlook concerning nature has always been one of a certain lazy indifference, at least by New Hampshire standards. What with the abundance of wilderness found within my state as well as many others in New England, I’m well-aware of the appreciation which is expected to be fostered of the natural beauty that’s native to New Hampshire if I’m to consider myself an individual who as many say ‘knows or appreciates his roots’ to any degree. That being said, as a child who didn’t particularly excel in athletics or outdoor activities, I wouldn’t call the younger versions of myself an avid nature enthusiast by any means. In fact, to the contrary I’d have rather spent my free time inside, sitting contemplatively at the piano or reading a book by the fireplace. However, as a very young child I can remember something very specific, a notion which I can remember as if it were yesterday, which directly parallels the means by which I’ve learned to understand the natural world we all inhabit today.

I can remember always looking particularly fondly upon overcast days, especially when it rained. Like many children, I was very vocal of my inward thoughts, regardless of the consequences which they might bring forth, and so I was at first, utterly incredulous at the idea of others widespread distaste for the very type of weather I enjoyed, upon expounding my own favorability towards it. I’ve maintained this affinity for gray skies as I’ve matured, and although it’s taken me a while, I believe the reason why I prefer this kind of weather is directly related to the way in which I’ve learned to consider the natural world.

As a child, we’re almost immediately inundated with the pre-planned routine of society (although granted, mostly through our parents agency more directly than our own) and as such, become very attuned to when things don’t go as planned, even if we remain within the same environment with which we’re usually accustomed to. I recall one particular morning in kindergarten, having just arrived in the classroom, only this time I’d noticed that something was different. Not off, not unsettling; something quite positive actually, and evidently apparent enough for my young mind to register, additionally. I can remember noticing the particular hue of the lighting in the classroom, although at the time I was far from being able to place my finger one the exact difference I’d become aware of. It took several years before I realized that this was the first time I’d been at school while it was raining. And I can recall eventually working out this preference for rain as well as dark, looming clouds outside the window as opposed to the brightness of the sun and the electric blue of the cloudless sky as being rooted in those specific qualities which only young children are privy to; with their naturally exploratory minds and their untarnished, fresh view of this vibrant experience we call life. I’d noticed that somehow, on some subconscious level, I’d been unknowingly comparing how the light emitted from inside the classroom had felt to me when compared to a bright sky, versus a dark one. And what I’d gathered, again without realizing it, is that by itself, when left with no comparison, there’s nothing inherently wrong with bright skies. However, when one’s introduced to the possibility of their alternative; the fluorescent devices which cast themselves within the classroom are painted in an entirely different light (no pun intended). Put simply; by contrast, the darkness from the outside makes the inside seem brighter than on days when the man-made lights of the school building had to compete with the unequivocal luminescence of the sun. I’m not at all focusing on the difference of my opinion in regards to most others where the consideration of rainy days is concerned; I’m instead pointing to the contrast which one is forced to take into consideration and consequentially, look upon as positively or negatively as one desires, depending upon their own individual perspective. It’s this very idea of contrast with regards to what one observes which initially taught me that optimism as well as pessimism are both choices which one can bring to any event in their life. It’s this very same idea which with which I’ve learned to understand the relationship between humanity and the more than human world, as well.

The means by which I’ve always gone about considering the environment has been fundamentally improved upon by the topics, viewpoints, and ideas discussed, dissected & digested within the course titled ‘Writing in an Endangered World’ taught by prof. Mark Long.

Every text discussed within this class at the very least helped to further widen what I understood as my general categorization of just exactly what ‘environmentalism’ as a movement was, who it was primarily composed of, as well as how I understood myself and my species in the context of this world which was, at its core, so much more than just human. The idea of contrast which I’ve mentioned above is directly related to this recognition of humanity within nature’s context. Just as I was unable to grasp my initial affinity for gray skies before they revealed themselves as a point of reference for me; I was equally unable to grasp humanity’s place among the more than human world; without first being able to recognize the world we inhabit as exactly that: more than human.

Regardless of whether your perspective is as far away as mine initially was or to any degree closer; this characterization of the world as more than human is imperative, should one desire to ascertain all of that which this collection of essays has to offer.

The World As Undeniably More Than Human

Initially considering the more than human world, I thought about it as though it needed a second sort of characterization. As though ‘more than human’ weren’t enough words so as to allow the idea to make a whole amount of sense to me. However, upon further contemplation, I’ve found that the more than human world is a perfectly fine means of describing the concept. I’ve discovered, through thinking with the authors we’ve observed thus far, that the description had only unsettled me to begin with due to a certain inherent uncomfortability of mine with the idea of further minimalizing the human species in reference to other things or concepts I’d previously been unaware of.

Whether this is due to a certain amount of inherent egotism found within humanity or just a personal failure to humble myself on behalf of the world around me, I’m still not sure and, in all honesty, I wonder about the degree to which the real answer is probably a mixture of the two.

Becoming acquainted with the thoughts of others who’re not only credible in this area of discussion but who also illustrate approaches to thinking which vastly differ from my own have allowed for a widening of my perspective, in ways. The fact being that environmentalism as a movement wasn’t something I’d ever considered myself to be even relatively well-versed in the particular details of, the somewhat stubborn reluctancy I’d taken up when attempting to make meaning out of the ‘more than human’ world as a categorization seems more than a bit unwarranted to me now. Through understanding the phrase via the lenses of multiple disciplines which all seem to be focusing their gaze upon the same ominous picture with regards to it’s (the more than human world’s) future, the idea’s gained credibility as a verifiably rational notion to me.

The world is so much more than that which pertains to humanity. We like to focus our view through a lens of self-centeredness as though this lens itself were an inherent prerequisite to living a productive and fulfilled life; however I believe that quality of inherence to be more or less, for the purpose of pacifying our species’ collective ego. Now of course there are other factors to be taken into account, such as the specific cultural values and personal biases which any individual might bring with themselves when attempting to confront an idea or concept which does little to fit itself comfortably within the perceiver’s comprehension, however these unavoidable subjectivities can’t be helped to a certain degree, and so while relevant in the scope of a fully realized explanation, don’t lend themselves to the same level of magnification with regards to exactly why it is that they might be marring what would otherwise be an objective view of our species’ widespread inability to recognize the world as so much more than just human.

In conclusion, I believe there to be a multi-faceted definition as to why humanity grapples so tenaciously with it’s own inconsequence in relation to the more than human world, in particular, an unrelenting inability to reconcile the objective with the subjective. Upon learning how to separate the objectively observed reality within which we all inhabit from each of our own subjective outlooks which we bring with us to any problem or thought, a certain clarity is gained and the ability to be able to make the distinction from that which empirically exists and truthfully effects us all vs. any delineations from that which we create due to our own subjective world views and perspectives becomes more palatable. It’s this quintessential distinction which I believe to be imperative in the further recognition of the accuracy of the characterization of the world as ‘more than human’ by our species as a whole.

Relative To Humanity

The natural world’s near-ineffable indifference to the human species is something which, while useful as a piece of practical information, remains as a markedly unsettling notion for the human mind to initially conceive of; much less work with. It’s this sentient apathy of the living essence of the planet which both Snyder as well as Carson have struck upon within each of their works and, in consequence, prompted me to begin mulling over as I digest the precise means by which they each go about articulating their perspectives regarding it. While Carson utilizes her own respective background as a scientist to magnify the natural world to the degree to which the sheer magnitude of quantitative evidence regarding the systems of life which both explicitly and implicitly effect each other on earth renders humanity vastly less extraordinary than previously thought; Snyder meditates upon the happenings of the natural world which preceded humanity in a sort of quiet acknowledgment of our species’s relative lack of consequence in nature, and these sentiments both lend themselves to improving upon as well as further widening my perspective in relation to the natural world’s near un-consideration for human beings.

Not far into her book, Rachel Carson writes, “The new environmental health problems are multiple—created by radiation in all its forms, born of the never ending chemicals in which pesticides are a part, chemicals now pervading the world in which we live, acting upon us directly and indirectly, separately and collectively.” While at the surface this might seem less than indicative of the natural world’s apathy towards humans, however if one chooses to focus upon the fragment towards the end of the quote, this almost innate notion of omnipresence with regards to both the earth as well as all life which it inhabits is clearly present. While Rachel Carson may be talking specifically about those chemicals and pesticides which humanity has made use of and, as a result, been working with so as to bastardize the creation of organic life within nature; these manufactured chemical products which act directly upon the natural world are an imperative example of how one singular step in the wrong direction could spell disaster for humanity’s continued existence on earth; and it’s this exact larger-scale perspective which should always be taken into account by humans with regards to our place on earth.

Gary Snyder’s poem ‘What Happened Here Before’ from his collection, titled Turtle Island serves to illustrates a similar awareness of the utter vastness of the varying amounts of natural processes which occur regardless of humanity among the natural world. Snyder utilizes vivid imagery as well as metaphor and a strong amount of alliteration so as to go about communicating this point of relative indifference by nature in respect to humanity as a whole. Upon opening, the first lines read,

“First a sea: soft sands, muds, & marls/—loading, compressing, heating, crumpling, crushing, crystallizing, infiltrating/ several times lifted and submerged./”

Again, it’s the ends of these lines which speak the loudest to this point; the specific imagery of the phrase ‘several times lifted and submerged’ works to make me think about the processes which occur underneath the earth’s surface; at the floor of the ocean or when a volcanic eruption of some sort occurs. It’s these consistent larger-than-life activities of the earth which serve to first remind us that we do not control everything, and almost more importantly, that those processes which we do control, while somewhat consequential for both us as well as the earth, aren’t always the end-all-be-all, magical keys-to-the-universe which we so arrogantly like to assume upon a new scientific discovery or breakthrough of our own. Along with the litany of other verbs beforehand, ‘…compressing, heating, crumpling, crushing, crystallizing, infiltrating/’ both of these images call to mind a certain hierarchy, an order among the world; of which we should take care to remember: we were never at the top.

Later in the poem, a slightly more subtle yet equally as effective device makes itself known; a temporally-based metaphor which both through its description as well as through its consequence, allows for a more wholly-realized idea of how this poem works to improve one’s understanding of humanity’s relative irrelevance in the grand scheme of the natural landscape on earth. The line reads,

“Warm quiet centuries of rain/ make dark red tropic soils/ wear down two miles of surface,/”

What I previously meant by ‘its description’ refers to the ‘warm quiet centuries of rain’ which undeniably details the elongated period of time with which this rain is occurring, automatically forcing the reader’s perspective to widen; and what was intended by my phrase ‘its consequence’ is in reference to the later lines ‘make dark red tropic soils/ wear down two miles of surface/’ that inarguably illustrate the process of erosion over such a large period of time, that the surface is actually degraded by two whole miles from where it’s previous elevation lay. These lines serve to illustrate the sheer magnitude of all that which occurs on earth, completely regardless of humanity’s involvement with it.

How Snyder and Carson have struck upon these notions of largeness in comparison to humanity’s relative smallness, while potentially somewhat unsettling depending upon one’s previous perspective, have nonetheless allowed for me as a thinker; a certain amount of ease of tension, a sort of peace of mind. Because, while it’s important for humanity to have certain goals and purposes while alive, it’s also important for us to bear in mind; any pressure which we feel to be this great, hulking, top-of-the-food-chain apex predator of a species that can never hope to shy away from its role of necessity among nature as the only species to possess consciousness, is a somewhat self-inflicted endeavor. Because, while we do have defining characteristics which separate us from other animals, there are still things about us which are inarguably animalistic, as well as things which we do not maintain any dominion over whatsoever. Important things. Things which have always reminded us that our own self-proclaimed largeness can always be rescaled. It’s these things which I believe to be nature’s balancing act; earth’s discrepancy in biodiversity for our hubris with usage of pesticides; a century of rain for our ego; two miles of surface worn down for our mind.

The natural world has always worked in this sort of uncanny symbiosis, this back-and-forth, this principle of equivalent exchange. As an inherent part of nature, we should take care to remember that while we’d like to imagine ourselves as the ones meant to solve this problem, this conundrum, this seemingly impossible equation of purpose; there seems to be a great deal which is attempting to tell us: we’re merely another factor within it. And that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

A Collision of Perspectives

I’ve mentioned in previous essays the idea that people are stuck in their own lives until something brings them out of it. Rachel Carson calls it “ignoring all else.” She says that humans tend to ignore everything in front of them until it’s an immediate concern. TC Boyle’s 1995 edition of the book the Tortilla Curtain shows an example of this when the book starts out with the main character, Delaney, hitting an unexpected Candido with his car. The best part of this book is how the story starts with such an exaggerated life changing event because, in reality, that’s when our own stories start – when we realize something life changing. We wouldn’t be telling it unless it made us change in some way or view something completely different. Delaney is a character stuck in his own world, when suddenly a new world collides with him.

I like this idea of collision. It brings with it the idea of snapping out of where you once were and being thrown into something new. That’s what we need as a society sometimes to understand that there are other perspectives in the world. It’s what we need to understand the beyond human world.

Humanizing The Earth

The monkey wrench gang as a work illustrates several personal parallels which both deepen as well as elaborate upon the inherently human nature of the world in relation to how it’s treated by it’s inhabitants. I don’t necessarily mean that the earth is by our definition sentient, of course; simply that on a much larger scale, much like the way a human will respond negatively when it’s mistreated; so does and so will the planet. Not only will it respond, it’ll accomplish this in ways directly contradictory to the means by which humanity is used to recognizing any sort of retaliatory behavior: simply by introducing the absence of it’s own abundance. What I mean when I say ‘ways directly contradictory to the means by which humanity is used to recognizing any sort of retaliatory behavior’ I’m referring to most other living things’ usual response of hostility & aggression at the prospect of being seriously threatened.

A specific and yet subtle tool is used throughout Abbey’s work which I believe parallels this same nature of a more withdrawn response as a result of constant battering by an opposing force. As a novel, this work bursts with an abundance of dialogue; so that one as a reader becomes heavily embedded in each character’s specific idiosyncrasies as well as their own internal thoughts and feelings the same way one might be able to hone in on these amidst an actual face-to-face interaction. Now, while these might sound like one’s average, run-of-the-mill qualities of a work which merits publishing, if one takes care to notice the syntactical structure of almost any instance where 2 or more characters land themselves in a voracious back-and-forth, litanies which separate themselves from what one would otherwise characterize as adequately descriptive language for a novel become increasingly apparent.

Your plans? What do you mean your plans, you ignorant, pig-headed, self-centered schmuck.”

And in response, “I’m not sure I trust him.”

Again, almost immediately following, “A pair of weirdos. Eccentrics. Misfits. Anachronisms. Screwballs!”

“Now now, they’re good boys.”

It’s both these repetitive vocal litanies as well as the consistently terse, punctuated responses which meet them that directly parallel the planet’s reaction to widespread destruction among its natural resources and other forms of fruition. Just as these sentences batter and bash and berate the other conversationalist with what almost comes across as a kind of verbal assault, only to be met with a minimalistic, almost-disappointingly-lacking response; so do earth’s inhabitants, and earth’s only retort as a result is a morbidly scarce version of itself. This parallel serves to illuminate Abbey’s work’s overall focus on humanity’s strange & faulty relationship with the more than human world.

It’s this seemingly human reaction of the planet to negate it’s own life-giving and ever-reproducing nature as a result of rampant abuse by those species which primarily inhabit it that both unites as well as juxtaposes the separate personal tales of the members of the monkey wrench gang. Just as the earth reacts in a ‘human like’ way to how it’s treated, so do the members of the monkey wrench gang as the happenings of the novel take their course. This near-anthropomorphization of the earth as a human-like being (or at least one with certain human-like tendencies) takes care to highlight the undeniably human qualities of the members of the group as they interact with one another. Consequentially this leads to a more nuanced understanding of both these individuals as islands unto themselves as well as their roles and relations to one another among the group, which additionally deepens the experience of the novel, as it centers upon this group and it’s happenings within.

This group of essay’s is dedicated to environmentalism and the importance of saving our environment. This class has not only expanded my knowledge on how to be environmentally conscious, but also my ability to inform others who are interested in the same social issues. The overall theme of my blog posts is to help raise awareness of certain environmental issues within our society.

Each blog post has something uniquely in common, they each consist of a picture of my 2014 trip to Muir Woods in San Francisco, California. This trip inspired a lot of my writing for most of my bog posts. Muir Woods is a beautiful National Monument that has been preserved by the National Park Service for many years. It has been protected by the government thanks to President Theodore Roosevelt who declared it a National Monument on January 9, 1908. It is named after naturalist John Muir, even though the original suggest name was the Kent  Monument.

The main attraction of the park are the beautiful Sequoia Sempervirnes trees, more commonly known as the Coastal Redwoods. The National Monument itself is a Coastal Redwood Forest. The tallest tree in the forest is 258 feet high and the oldest tree is 1.200 years old.

The trip my family took to the Redwood Forest inspired my entire family to become more environmental conscious. It was the beginning steps for us to realize that our actions have consequences in the long run. To be in the forest surrounded by all the Redwood trees, the birds, fish, and all the other animals that make the forest their home is truly an other worldly experience. Being able to place my hand on the bark of a tree that has been alive for hundreds of years was an experience I will never forget. To be deep in the forest completely surrounded by the trees with no technology was an eye opening experience. It gave my family a chance to enjoy being outdoors with no stress of work or other outside influences bothering us. To be able to be separated from technology and industry from the outside world also gave my family a chance to step back and appreciate all that nature has to offer. It is truly a shame that our society is constantly finding new reasons to cut down more trees and pollute our air and water sources, if we do not change these bad habits soon we will find ourselves in a trash filled world.

Our Writing in an Endangered World course this semester has only made these problems stand out more, whether it was learning it through informational texts like Rachael Carson’s Silent Spring, or through novel’s like T.C Boyle’s Tortilla Curtain. All the information we were able to require only makes our generation realize even more the great lengths we must take to slowly start saving our environment. At the beginning of the course I was very unaware of how many current issues were happening involving our environment, and becoming aware has been a long and frustrating process. As we come to the end of the course I hope to encourage not only myself in continuing to stay environmentally conscious, but to spread the word to many others, how important it is to realize that we only have one beautiful environment, and if we destroy it we will never be able to get it back.

The Wall Between Two Worlds

T.C. Boyle’s Tortilla Curtain is an environmental novel that displays the lives of  two very different married couples and their day to day struggles. Kyra and Delaney are a very self obsessed couple. They constantly obsess about being safe from the Mexicans that lurk in their neighborhood. Kyra and Delaney have experienced many abuses to their neighborhood including graffiti by the accused Mexicans as well as verbal abuse. The many men that represent the Mexicans in this novel are all illegal immigrants that are forced to live off the land because of their inability to make enough money. Kyra and Delaney are also faced with many of nature’s obstacles including the coyotes who attacked and murder both of their dogs.  Their experiences lead them to become obsessed with their own safety.

This is ironic when America and Candido’s lives are compared to Kyra and Delaney’s. America and Candido are from Tijuana and are forced to live in extreme circumstances out in the wilderness because of their lack of money. They are discriminated against which makes it very difficult for them to find steady work. They live in a shack made of branches and poorly made material out in the woods, in hopes of saving enough money to someday buy an apartment with running water and a bedroom. America and Candido’s struggles make Kyra and Delaney’s struggles look pathetic. They are forced to endure extreme circumstances and budget themselves with little to no money. Not only are they forced to live off scraps of food, but they encounter many different enemies while simply trying to survive off the land in the canyon. One unfortunate encounter they have is one day when America is off at work and Candido is forced to stay in their make shift home because of being hit by Delaney’s car.

Candido hides himself in the bushes while white men storm into his home and destroy all his belongings including tarring up America’s only good dress. Not only are they constantly victims of being discriminated against, whether it is in the grocery store or in their own home but America is also a victim of sexual abuse. While coming home from work one day she was walking down the trail  when approached by two strange men. They forced themselves on her, later on the reader learns that this is the cause of her baby’s blindness disability. America being pregnant and being forced to give birth in a shed in someone’s backyard is one of the main points of my argument. She is in danger of causing harm to her  body and her baby. In my opinion, this is the most extreme case of a dangerous situation that Candido and America have been placed in. Neither of them are doctors and are unaware of how to properly care for her or the baby in this situation. Luckily thanks to their experience of living in such extreme conditions, Candido is able to pull together anything that he might need to attempt to care for America and their baby. Boyle writes, “It was the moment Candido had been waiting for. He leaned forward  with a knife and cut the blue cord that was  like a length of a sausage and with a rag dipped in water wiped the mess from the tiny limbs and torso” (T.C Boyle 297). It is very ironic how much more dangerous Candido and America’s lives are yet Kyra and Delaney are the ones obsessed with their safety.

Kyra and Delany come from a very different world then Candido and America do. Kyra and Delaney have a lot of privilege because of their citizenship and material possessions. A reoccurring theme in this novel is racism, represented mostly by Delaney and other white characters. Kyra and Delaney are blind to the abundance of food, clothes, and shelter they are giving access too, making Candido and America’s situation seem even more severe. Candido and America are constantly working, whether it is for money or to preserve what they have of their shelter in the woods. They do not have access to the same kind of luxuries that Kyra and Delaney do because they are not citizens. They are forced to do what it takes to survive, putting them at a huge disadvantage when it comes to trying to find a decent place to live. They have no control when white people come and destroy their home in the woods, and are unable to call for help when Candido is hurt, or America is giving birth in fear of being deported. They are forced to live in the moment taking every day as it comes as apposed to Kyra and Delany who are given the pleasure of being to plan out each day as they desire.

Another ironic part of this novel is that both couples live very close in distance to each other but experience drastically different lives. One major goal that both couples have in common is their wish to be happy and live comfortably, even though their definitions of living comfortably are drastically different. The character Delaney is constantly faced with inner struggles with his fellow white citizens. Although he is racist himself, he does not openly acknowledge this and goes against the popular vote to have the wall build around their houses. Delaney tries to prove himself as a humanist but is unable to step away from the generalizations that other citizens also make about the Mexicans.

This novel has a lot to contribute to our understanding of environmentalism. It is able to clearly paint a picture of two very extremely different environmentalists, and the pros and cons of their way of life. This novel shows how are society is in need of finding a balance between these extreme ways of life and how if we continue to fight amongst  ourselves we will be never be able to come together and find ways to help improve our ways of life to benefitting our environment.

Us modern day Americans have lost our touch from nature and have become disconnected with the natural world.  We have immersed ourselves in a lifestyle founded upon comfort and have began to destroy the wild Earth we originated from. As we continue to develop the world further away from its original state the environmental issues we face today have only been becoming much worse. While many live in prosperity others struggle to survive daily. Myself and others I know are very privileged to be able to live the life we live. We can do anything we set our minds to and many do not have the ability to do the same. I can travel wherever I want on this Earth, drive to the store and buy whatever I want to eat and drink, and learn about anything that i choose. Although this era we live in is great, there are many complications an American lifestyle causes. We have polluted our planet with trash,  changed the global climate and natural cycles important to all life, and as a result caused the greatest extinction and global heating events our planet has ever seen.

Many believe that nature is a place that we escape to from our reality as a means of a break or vacation. How I see nature is very different, I’ve realized that nature isn’t just the woods surrounding our neighborhoods and cities, nature is the neighborhood and city, nature is a part of every molecule in our universe. When looking at a city squirrel do we exclude it from the natural world as being something unnatural? No, a squirrel is wild just as much as a moose or a polar bear is. Although we have constructed our world into a place fit for humans to survive it must be known that these cities and towns are ecosystems just as much as a vast forest. Creatures of all types reside in our cities and most importantly that’s where we live! But many exclude our own species from the natural world and see us as something different. I for one do not share this perspective, we are just as wild as the animals we may see as “wild” animals. We have originated from the same planet with an equal chance for survival. The only difference is that we may think a bit different than other inhabitants of Earth.

The essays and stories I have read for this class have moved me in a way that will change my perspective of the world forever. I have realized that there are so many things in or world we are destroying that we will never be able to get back. Our actions have caused a great deal of suffering to the native creatures of our planet. But there is no return to the primitive way of life for us humans we have come too far. We understand our actions consequences for others that live on this planet, but yet, we do nothing. The rest of the world must wake up and change the ways in which we live in order to preserve the world for all, including ourselves.

literature and environmentalism at keene state college

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A Trip to the Zoo

I went to the zoo this weekend, and as always I departed feeling a little ambivalent. When you see creatures like leopards, lemurs, elephants, and apes in those drab enclosures, mere simulacra of their natural habitats, it’s hard not to feel sorry for them. I doubt any faux rock cliff or pool of hose water will ever fully engage their wild intelligences. As I wandered the paved footpaths between continent-themed enclosures, I remembered how my sensitive, vegetarian friend Ben used to call zoos “animal jail.”

On the other hand, these creatures are safe — from predators, from food pressure, from droughts, from us. And isn’t safety what we humans have been striving for since the very start? Our drive to find shelter and protection, to isolate ourselves from the constant threats of the world (coupled with an overdeveloped prefrontal cortex), is the very thing that’s made us so successful on this planet. Maybe it’s because we’ve grown comfortable in our world of boxes that we feel animals will take some sanguine comfort in a zoo’s protection.

But why then do most of us assign a certain sadness to animals in zoos? Is it because we grok that it’s a fine line between being protected and being trapped? Personally, when I feel that boundary growing threadbare, a trip into the mountains becomes particularly important to my sanity. I can only imagine how the silverback gorilla feels as he peers through the glass day after day, at the gallery of baby strollers and hairless apes with cameras, while waiting for his food to be delivered.

A mother tending lovingly to her young, a playful polar bear, a sad-looking gibbon — you can hear the children exclaiming in surprise how the animals are just like people. Through the fences and over moats, the creatures in the zoo always seem to remind us of ourselves, but rarely do we invert that logic and draw the conclusion that we are like them. Or not so much like them as are them.

Granted, it can be a problematic perspective to take. After all, when the boundary between “us” and “them” grows blurry, so do many things we hold to be self-evident. Better to do as I did and gaze with wonder at that enormous, flat face in the glass, with its black leather skin and dense fur and searching eyes, and then get back in your little box of glass and steel and drive away.

Animals that climb

Baby squirrel climbing concrete wall

We humans sure like to make a big deal out of our climbing feats. But anyone who’s spent much time on the rocks knows that nature has produced all manner of creature that excel at high-angle maneuverings in a way we clumsy Homo sapiens sapiens could only dream. Here’s a collection of 11 such variations from Mother Nature’s menagerie, all of which utilize unique and often strange modes of vertical locomotion.

This video of climbing bears started making the rounds in April, 2014, and really caught fire—probably because the climbing bears look so much like climbing humans when they move. According to the YouTube description, these “Endangered Mexican Black Bears” are scaling the walls of Santa Elena Canyon. The videographer spotted the momma and her cubs while kayaking and whipped out the ol’ camera, just in time to make an Internet sensation.

Like most primates, baboons are excellent tree climbers. But did you know they also climb rocks? And because they’re built a lot like humans, they look like us when they climb, too. Aside from a killer strength-to-weight ratio, baboons benefit from long tails they can fling around for balance, and prehensile toes that can grasp the rock as ably as fingers. Baboons dig congregating on sheer cliff faces because it keeps them pretty well beyond the reach of natural predators, like leopards and cheetahs.

These radass lizards have been the subject of endless scientific study due to their ability to calmly stroll up even the smoothest surfaces — glass, for example. They achieve this sweet trick thanks to their hairy feet. Not quite as gross as it sounds, geckos use superfine hairs called setae to adhere via van der Waals forces (which attract molecules to each other) to pretty much any surface. Adhesives have since been created that steal a page from the gecko’s playbook, and we will no doubt soon have climbing shoes coated with setae. Which would be totally cheating.

Sure, they’re a little pokey, but what the sloth lacks in speed, it makes up for in efficiency. Sloths have long hook-like claws they use to dangle from the tree branches they call home. If you were to ask a sloth for climbing advice, he would probably say, “Simple. Don’t let go.” That’s advice these shaggy, muppet-looking creatures really take to heart — so tenacious is their grip, they’ve been observed to remain suspended in a tree even after they die.

We’ve all seen squirrels blast up a tree at warp speed, but did you know they can also climb a blank concrete wall? I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself, when a baby squirrel in Colorado fell from a tree and then scampered for the nearest wall to climb away from danger. Squirrels’ sharp, hook-like claws, coupled with a highly mobile ankle that allows them to rotate their rear feet around backwards, lets them hang from and climb a variety of surfaces. In the case of the baby squirrel I saw, tiny air-bubble pockets in the concrete were just right for claw placements.

Like squirrels, the fact that snakes can climb trees is no big deal. But, troublingly, they can also climb other vertical surfaces — brick walls, for example. Researchers have found that snakes use what’s called a “concertina” mode of locomotion, in which some regions of the body stop and grip while others extend forward, to climb. Snakes not only have amazing flexibility (due to their hundreds of vertebrae) and muscle control, but they can also extend tough scales on their underside for increased grip.

Mountain Goats

Perhaps you’ve seen this photo, showing a bunch of goats (mountain ibex, specifically) chillin’ on the wall of a dam in Italy like it’s a nice place for a nap. Aside from a Honnoldian head for free soloing, many goats also have feet custom-made for vertical exploits. This passage from Douglass Chadwick’s book, A Beast the Color of Winter, describes the mountain goat’s special climbing footwear: “The sides of a mountain goat’s toes consist of the same hard keratin found on the hoof of a horse or deer. Each of the two wrap around toenails can be used to catch and hold to a crack or tiny knob of rock…The mountain goat is shod with a special traction pad which protrudes slightly past the nail. This pad has a rough textured surface that provides a considerable amount of extra friction on smooth rock and ice.” The list of all-terrain features goes on…  Five Ten take note…

Wait. What? That’s right, crabs can climb — or at least one kind can: the coconut crab, which is an arthropod related to the hermit crab and is found across the islands of the Indian Ocean and parts of the Pacific. (FYI, the coconut crab can grow to be almost ten pounds and three feet across.) These fruit- and vegetable-loving critters will actually climb trees using their long, spiny legs and grab coconuts, which they then smash open using their powerful claws and eat.

As we all know, cat videos are the heart and soul of the Internet, so it was easy to find videos of cats climbing things. Still, it’s impressive that cats have so thoroughly honed their face and arête climbing techniques. Cats big and small rely on tactics similar to that of the squirrel — i.e., sharp claws and an awesome kinetic sense — to scale trees and manmade structures alike. I’d bet a can of Fancy Feast maneuvers like those shown in this video are the root of the term “cat burglar.”

Like geckos, spiders legs are studded with microscopic hairs which, scientists postulate, allows them to stick to walls via electrostatic attraction (the afore-mentioned van der Waals forces). Spiders and most insects also sport tiny tarsal claws that can grip the minute texture of surfaces that, to our eyes, appear smooth. Hence their ability to hang upside-down on the ceiling and then drop on you. Which is totally creepy. In fact, I think I feel a tickle on my neck right now…

Lubricated with a mucus layer secreted by a gland near the mouth, snails are able to glide, albeit slowly, on a layer of slime. This terrestrial gastropod mollusk’s flat underside undulates in a wave-like motion to propel it forward. Its slimy excretions, combined with a smooth, flat base, creates a powerful suction, allowing snails to climb walls, trees, etc. This method of climbing, although effective, is undoubtedly the grossest method, and it really louses things up for other creatures who might want to climb afterward, like that super sweaty guy in the gym.


English-only rules can be illegal discrimination

Can employees be required to be fluent in English? The answer is yes … but only if speaking English is truly necessary for them to do their jobs safely and effectively. Otherwise, a company that has an English-only policy could get into legal trouble.

That’s what happened to a plastics manufacturer in Wisconsin that laid off 22 workers who lacked English language skills. The workers – most of whom were Hmong and some of whom were Latino – had apparently received good annual evaluations and didn’t need to be able to speak, read or write English to do their jobs.

The company claimed it targeted these workers for layoffs due to their “overall comparative skills, behaviors and job performance over time.”

But the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission didn’t buy the company’s explanation. The commission sued the company for discrimination and is seeking not only lost wages to compensate the workers, but also additional damages to punish the company for its behavior.


What We Do

Hillel International’s Office of Innovation (OOI) is a think and do tank for the Hillel movement and the Jewish people. Modeled after successful research and innovation labs, known affectionately as “skunkworks,” OOI is a group of thinkers, educators, entrepreneurs, and rabbis tasked with developing, testing, and scaling innovative approaches to serve young Jews in the Hillel movement and beyond. OOI creates new ways to foster social networks, mentors, rituals, and learning experiences among Jewish students and their friends that are the foundation of a vibrant Jewish life.

How We Do It

1. Exploring

Our team begins by talking to as many dreamers, schemers, thinkers and tinkerers as we can until we sense an idea emerging. Once we have the faintest outline of an idea, we build a prototype—what we call a Minimum Viable Project—that makes our idea a concrete reality. Then, with a bit of seed funding, we start the adventure of incubating these projects.

2. Incubating

To incubate a Minimum Viable Project is to create a new world. We instantiate our projects by working intensely with a design team to imagine a new language, new aesthetics, and new culture. We then refine it by responding to user feedback. If we do our work right, a project should emerge with a look, feel, and sound all its own.

3. Scaling

Once a Minimum Viable Project is iterated and refined, we try to scale it quickly to what we call a “strategic perch,” or a concrete glimpse of system-wide change. Once a project reaches a strategic perch, stakeholders begin looking at an innovation not only as a novel idea, but as a whole new way of working. Moreover, they see that the innovation can take root not only in one local context, but across a whole system.

We are currently incubating one new project (Fellowship for Rabbinic Entrepreneurs), scaling three major projects (BaseJLF, OOI Salons) and exploring two more (The Campus Innovation FundBlue).


Roberta Schaefer’s...

Roberta Schaefer’s Address to the Worcester Rotary on Education Reform, March 18, 2004

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share with you my observations on education reform which is approaching its 11th anniversary. Besides spending billions of dollars and generating lots of controversy over MCAS, what have we accomplished? To paraphrase former President Reagan, are our students better off now than they were a decade ago? The short answer is a resounding YES. The full answer would take me a couple of hours to give the subject its due. In light of the time constraints we’re all under, I will give you the abbreviated version.


Traveling From My Classroom To A New World.

Before starting my research about the Aboriginal all I knew about the native group was they are native to Australia. I didn’t know about what health issues plagued them or the importance of their culture. Now having researched them I have a better understanding of their culture and of various health issues they face today.

The Aboriginal fought Europeans and after they lost much of their population they surrendered. After this lost they encountered a lot of new diseases as did many indigenous groups did when they first met Europeans. Today most of their native language is gone and their are no more 100% native Australian any more. Which is way they call them selves Aboriginal because they have some European descendants. In fact till recently they were thought to be extinct will a recent census where people identified to being native to Australia. Although in light of them being found again they are in poor health conditions having a life expectancy of 15-20 years . They a wide range of health concerns from physical to mental and from heart diseases to high suicide rate. Even with efforts made by the Australian government to close the health gap there is still much work to be done.

When I was researching about the Aboriginal people I found videos about them. I found a documentary and a short video. In the documentary it went in depth about their culture and people as it was eye witnessed accounts by an elder. Whereas the shorter video was about their dances and famous sound associated with Australia they make with the didgeridoo. This video had some ethnocentric judgements comparing how we value song dance as the same as they do. They made it seem as they do it as a form as entertainment just like most first world societies do. My biggest challenge to cultural relativism was understanding how a culture losses their language. Having grown up in the United States where their is introduction of various other languages I still retained my own language. I realized I was making a ethnocentric judgement so I decided to learn about their history in doing so I now understand way they lost their language. They had a every violent history with Europeans and after losing a war to them a lot of mature men had died. A way to raise their population back up they married/mated with Europeans thus making what we know today as Aboriginal. Slowly their traditional language was lost with each new generation.

These blog posts is ethnographic because I looked at all the data I gather with cultural relativism in mind and although there were challenges in doing so I think I told more than a single story about the Aboriginal people. The earth is sacred to them and the their songs and dances are their history book. I learned about their tragic history how it ultimately lead to the loss of their language and attribute to their poor health conditions. Importantly I understand the importance of telling your history wether it be through stories, song, and dance. The Aboriginals tell their history to the next generation with song and dance while playing their didgeridoo. They also have cave paintings that tell stories of the time before. They hunt and gather near the sea side which much of their cave paintings depict. The documentary is where I got most of my understanding of their culture for it is stories told from an elder of the Aboriginal people.

I used Boolean agents when searching for good peer reviewed resources online. I also used databased search engines to get a wider array of  resources. When looking for resources in public domain I used a search engine that helped me narrow my search for pictures to use. It is best to look for credentials of the article and to see what kind of website it is.

The Aboriginal Indigenous Health Gap.

The Gap

In this story it went into detail to what exactly “the gap” is in Australia. The gap refers to the health gap between Australians and the indigenous people called the Aboriginal. Traits of the gap are, infant mortality rate was two times bigger for the Aboriginal at 6.2 than Australians, children 0-17 were eight times more likely were to be abused or neglected, and lived ten years shorter than Australians. The kinds of poor health they experience are physical and mental aliments. Suicide for the indigenous group went from 10%-80% from 1991 to 2010. There are more stats and other interesting information, but at the end of the article wants the reader to focus on help making Australia’s healthcare for everyone better.

Social factors.

This story I read was about the health gap in Australians and the indigenous people. The article contributes their poor healthcare to social factors in Australia. Australians have a life expectancy of 82 years where as the Aboriginal have ten years lesser than that. The social aspects that contribute to the inequality of health is overcrowding along with racism. Because of these aspects a non-government movement to close the health gap has become to a Federal Government program called closing the gap.

APA Citations

Australians Together. (2017, May 7). The gap: indigenous disadvantage in australia. Australians Together. Retrieved from

Nogrady, B. (2015, July 7). The indigenous health gap: social factors hit hard. ABC Health and Wellbeing. Retrieved from

Critical evaluation

For my first story its from a non-government organization that looks to inform the nation of the gap and how to close it. The data from the article was gathered in 2014 and is aimed towards the general population for the data is presented in easy to read format with nice graphics. The information is all based on facts from creditable sources that was referenced at the bottom of the page. The arguments and ideas are more informative like the other pieces I read, but does have an impartial tone.

For the second story was by a freelance science journalist, broadcaster, and author with numerous background experience.  She wrote this article for ABC Health and Wellbeing. This group has the goals to educate the masses about various medical happenings. This article was  published in 2015 and is pretty current. She is addressing the general audience. The information in the article is fact that has been well researched and is objective. She has the intent to inform you of the current inequality of health Australians and the Aboriginals have between each other.

The Forgotten Indigenous People of Australia.

This group was thought to be extinct, but in 2011 found in a census that nearly 20,000 people identified as native in Tasmania. The Palawa or now know as the Aboriginal Tasmanians are found North and Northeastern of and Australian State south of the mainland.

This group health interests me because they have gone basically missing up until 2011. According to Australian Bureau of Statistics they have the lowest life expectancy from 15-20 years with is about my age right now. With numerous diseases plaguing them there is a national focus on trying to gather information on them. With there rapid health decline there are many health programs happening to help the Aboriginal people. Along with most indigenous groups the Aboriginal group saw conflict with the worlds infectious idea of colonialism.

They met the British colonialist in 1803. Before they met the British there were about 15,000 Aboriginal people. Diseases and violence brought by the colonists lowered their population to about 200 in 1833. In a lifetime their population was devastated. Now even though there are 20,000 they are still very ill and in need of medical help. The health problems start when they met the British back in 1803 if we can understand the root of their health problem, I think we can find a way to help improve their dire situation they are in  today.

One thing I found to be just as detrimental problem is the complete lost of the  indigenous language of the Tasmanian people. Some words of original Tasmanian are still in use by Palawa people. Also thousands of Tasmanian people consider themselves as Aboriginal Tasmanians because many Parlevar women bore children from European man.

A map of where Tasmania is here

The a map in the left is Tasmania, and the one on the right shows where it is located adjacent to Australia. The map on the left shows various geological places and town/ports but this map here shows the various places where the Aboriginal people are and the areas where the clans inhabits.

My three link

Humanities Blind Spot.

The things that I found interesting was the definition they had for public health, top ten leading causes of death, and the success of global health. I found the definition of public health interesting and surprising because they said public health is a negative. As soon as I read their definition it made sense to me right away that if nothing happens then it is at its best. I found it was interesting that the biggest cause of death in the U.S. and Worldwide was heart disease. After I saw the list I was surprise that cancer wasn’t the leading cause of death because of how vicious the diseases is. Finally the success of global health was interesting was because I didn’t know that the life expectancy around the world is about 80 and is rising. We live for a long time in this day and age.

Article One: Battling Pollution On Our Lands. Article Here. Published on September 2016.

The article is about the various companies from the oil industry polluting the river water and the many pollutants being dumped near the Ponca Nation in Oklahoma in the United States. There is a lot of injustice and discrimination going on at the reservation and what Mekasi Horinek describes as “environmental racism and environmental genocide”. The Ponca Nation and some people from a neighboring community are having long term medical health affects like cancer due to all the pollution going on. The reservation is located at the south end of Ponca city along with the low income community. There the city put their municipal dumping site on their burial ground a the Ponca people’s most sacred site on the reservation. The EPA and other various government agencies have done nothing to help the Ponca people. All the EPA has did was water testing and even then they couldn’t figure out the source of the pollution, while Horinek can pin point it to the fracking industry who has been draining the water out and putting back the waste water from fracking. A quick overview of what fracking is; it’s a harmful way to extract natural gasses from the ground that not only hurts the environment, but also the people living there. All of this blatant disregard for the the Ponca people and the environment is disgusting and frustrating that this can be allowed to happen. There was a class action lawsuit that went through and gave finical compensation to some people allowing them to be moved. Even then they are still sicken with long medical affects and having to move people from their homes that they have been living on for generation for causes of your fault is wrong.

Article Two: The Hawaiians: Health, Justice, and Sovereignty. Article here. Published on March 2000.

The group involved was the indigenous people of Hawai’i when they had thriving population before James Cook visited them. They were located in what is today the state of Hawaii which is the eight island chain in the pacific ocean. Because they lived on an archipelago isolated from the rest of the world James Cook and his crew was amazed at the health and population size of the people of Hawai’i. This is quite ironic as they were the downfall of their population size and health. Since the Hawai’i people lived in isolation for so long they were never exposed to the deadly diseases that the rest of the world has faced. When James Cook and crew first arrived to Hawai’i they were previously sick with Syphilis and Gonorrhea which has been widespread in England. Once they left Hawai’i the diseases they brought with them were already widespread among the Hawai’i people. At the time they probably couldn’t see it, but time and time again we see the travelers bring diseases from around the world to the “new world” which devastates the indigenous population. Shortly after James Cook’s discovery of Hawai’i the population dropped 85%. We see the same thing happen when Columbus visited the new world and when the colonist from England met the Native Americans when smallpox ran wild. I hope we learn from history and become cautious when meeting new living things on the final frontier.

Article Three; Spraying Crops, Eradicating People. Article Here. Published on December 2002.

In this article the indigenous people of Columbia are affected by toxic chemical ariel spray to kill the plants being grown to make cocaine and heroine. These people are from Latin America in the country of Columbia. The health concern that was brought up was the ariel spray to kill the plants are actually also harming the animal life and the people who lived there. They noticed that animals like birds whom were there predominately suddenly disappeared after the spraying started. Once the public in the United States learned of the chemical spraying they started pressuring the U.S. congress to investigate further to make sure this is up to code with health regulation and follows columbian law. After the EPA testing they found that the spray was up to U.S. standard and there was no danger to the people and the environment. Although they did admit that there is a chance for “acute eye toxicity”. Not only is the spraying affecting the health of the people and environment it is also indirectly affecting their culture. Some think about leaving their ancestral homes while others are altering their live styles.

When it came to reading and writing about these articles I found it difficult to stay focused and answer the questions. As I learned more, I passionately got caught up with the harm and disrespect for human life and the environment. I found myself expressing how upset I was with companies putting their interests first before human beings. This is also a success that I had I found for in no time I was writing this blog post.


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Pioneering discovery of an odor-detecting receptor enhancer

October 12, 2017

Each odor-detecting neuron (referred to as olfactory sensory neuron from here on), chooses a single odorant receptor gene from a fairly large number of options that are split into class I (fish-like) and class II (terrestrial-specific) odorant receptors. This strict selectiveness of sensory neurons is in part due to enhancers (DNA sequences that enhance transcription of a gene when bound by specific protein), which remain poorly understood. Understanding enhancer functions is of great interest due to their importance in gene expression as well as evolution and disease. However, they have not been sufficiently studied because they cannot be easily predicted from DNA sequences or chromosome modifications nor can they be easily identified.

The findings are especially important as they highlight the discovery of a regulatory sequence, termed the J element, that controls class I gene expression of many more genes than the counterparts that regulate class II gene expression. This extraordinary long-range regulation has never been seen before. The researchers also report that it is evolutionarily conserved across mammalian species, ranging from the most primitive mammal, the platypus, to humans. This may be especially useful as it sheds light onto why class I genes remain on a single region on one chromosome during mammalian evolution, while class II genes do not.

Based on genetic evidence, the findings also highlight the concept of allelic exclusion, or the expression of just one copy of a gene and not the other. This is especially important for the J element, as it shows that its activity determines which copy of a gene is expressed. This is a novel mechanism of expression of these receptor genes that is based on the gene regulatory region that determines if genes will be turned on or off.

The study "A long-range cis-regulatory element for class I odorant receptor genes" published in Nature Communications was a collaborative effort between Tokyo Tech, the University of Tokyo, Nihon BioData Corporation and RIKEN Brain Science Institute. Junji Hirota at Tokyo Tech and team focused on discovering a long-range enhancer for a large gene cluster, finding an evolutionary conserved sequence motif in mammalian evolution, and elucidating enhancer-dependent allelic preference or exclusion mechanism for odor-detecting receptor genes. Their findings point to a conserved sequence among mammalian genomes that was only present in the J element and not in any other class II elements. They speculate that the investigation of factors that bind this specific element could help in elucidating molecular mechanisms that drive the selective J-element dependent gene expression.

Tokyo Institute of Technology

Related Evolution Articles:

Prebiotic evolution: Hairpins help each other out
How to be a winner in the game of evolution
The galloping evolution in seahorses
Fast evolution affects everyone, everywhere
Landscape evolution and hazards
Landscapes are formed by a combination of uplift and erosion.
New insight into enzyme evolution
The evolution of Dark-fly
A look into the evolution of the eye
Is evolution more intelligent than we thought?
The evolution of antievolution policies

Related Evolution Reading:

Evolution: A Visual Record
by Robert Clark (Author)

Why Evolution Is True
by Jerry A. Coyne (Author)

by Douglas J. Futuyma (Author), Mark Kirkpatrick (Author)

by Joe Manganiello (Author)

Joe Manganiello first gained recognition around the world for his incredible, sculpted body while winning both popular and critical praise as the star of HBO's True Blood. Now, from the man that Magic Mike director Steven Soderbergh called “walking CGI,” comes the cutting-edge guide to achieving the perfect body and therefore enhancing your overall quality of life.

With a build that men envy and women adore, Joe Manganiello is more than qualified to write the end-all guide to sculpting the perfect body. His fit physique catapulted him to the top of the list of... View Details

Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution
by Jonathan B. Losos (Author)

A major new book overturning our assumptions about how evolution works

Evolution: The Human Story
by DK (Author)

How did we develop from simple animals inhabiting small pockets of forest in Africa to the dominant species on Earth? Traveling back almost eight million years to our earliest primate relatives, Evolution: The Human Story charts the development of our species from tree-dwelling primates to modern humans.

Investigating each of our ancestors in detail and in context, from the anatomy of their bones to the environment they lived in, Evolution: The Human Story profiles every human relative and ancestor discovered to date, and illustrates them in lifelike form.

Amazingly... View Details

Evolution: The Whole Story
by Steve Parker (Editor), Alice Roberts (Editor)

Evolution: The Whole Story provides an in-depth and up-to-the- minute account of evolution, one of the ultimate keystone theories in modern science. Ten esteemed experts thoroughly survey how each of Earth's major groups of living things diversified and evolved through time and using visual features that make the story comprehensible, the book gives readers, even those with no previous knowledge of the topic, a clear understanding of evolution and how it brought us to the present day.

Each of seven chapters takes one of Earth's major living groups and describes the... View Details

Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be
by Daniel Loxton (Author), Daniel Loxton (Illustrator)

Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea
by Carl Zimmer (Author)

This remarkable book presents a rich and up–to–date view of evolution that explores the far–reaching implications of Darwin's theory and emphasizes the power, significance, and relevance of evolution to our lives today. After all, we ourselves are the product of evolution, and we can tackle many of our gravest challenges –– from lethal resurgence of antiobiotic–resistant diseases to the wave of extinctions that looms before us –– with a sound understanding of the science.

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Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis
by Michael Denton (Author)

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