Back From Africa

Hi everyone,

So I know,technically speaking I've been back for over a week. But it was good to get around to everything that needed to be taken care of before jumping on here and giving a half-ass response and follow up to my trip. If you've been paying attention, or wond

ered where I disappeared to for four weeks, you'd know I've been in Madagascar studying forest and lemur conservation.

I did keep a journal for the entirety of my trip, writing down what happened each day, writing letters to people who I know would never see them. My general musings and thoughts about what had happened that day. Now, the easy thing to do here would be to type out each and

everyday - what happened, where it happened, word for word. But as I looked over my journal I realized that doing that would eliminate the 20/20 hindsight perspective. So much ofwhat I experienced over there didn't ripen until I came back to this h

ustle-and-bustle world we live in here in the states.

It's easy to fall into the stereotypical, "I've been to a third-world country" category. Talking about all the poverty I saw, all of the environmental degradation, how things are so unjust and that it's the fault of the rich nations that Madagascar is how it is. Some of that is true. I saw more than a few children who were severely malnourished, I saw hillsides stripped bare or burning (we even ran up to put out a wildfire in area I was staying, luckily the local people didn't need our help, I doubt we would have been of much assistance) and yes, I did see the effects of rich nations shipping their toxic manufacturing overseas. "Out of sight, out of mind" only applies when your not the poor country having to deal with the mess.

But that's the story: if you're poor, it's easier for ot

hers who have their own interests in mind to keep you poor. Certainly, the big issue here lies in a flawed and corrupt political system that doesn't give its citizens a voice. But I digress...

Again, it's easy to become one of "those people"; those who have gone abroad, the defunct peace corps volunteer, the missionaries. It can get very depressing when you think about it. I mean, less than 10% of the rainforest remains and some of the officials I spoke to said it would all be gone in 25 years. Madagascar is very green, but most of the landscape is degraded, barren, and void of native species.

There's hope though. If there's one thing I learned throughout the entire trip, it's the importance of education. Educating people that, yes,this forest is important that, yes,

your country has so many endemic (e.g. that live nowhere else in the world) species that you can feel proud to still have them that, yes, you can find another way around the repression that the system feeds you. It's uplifting, but it takes time. It'll happen, because people are already starving. It's not a matter of the "white-man's burden", they don't need our help, it's a matter of national pride and a "Madagascar for Madagascar"attitude. They can feed themselves, they just need the opportunity and the resources to do it. That isn't up to America-the-Savior, to think so would be insulting. I saw more than a few people who w

ere extremely bright - paving the way for the Malagasy people.

I'm extremely excited to see what happens.

Yes, there was a ton of wildlife. I won't recap all of it, because that's one too many latin names for everything I saw. Lemurs, geckos, snakes, mushrooms, palms, birds, etc... I'm not a field guide! Instead, here are some of my favorite pictures of the animals, plants, and fungi I encountered.

Pardon the formatting. But anyways, that's about the gist of it. Sorry, no intense stories about trekking through the jungle. If you want those you'll have to meet me in person, text just doesn't have the right hand gesticulations. I'll be creating a flickr account with more of the "best of". For now, enjoy these.

Be Well.

Awake, Alive, Abroad!

Hi Everyone,

So, in less than two weeks I will be in Africa! Madagascar, specifically, and to be even more specific, on the eastern coast, in a rainforest, for a month. Freaking out, in the best way possible.

While I'm there, my academic endeavors will be two-fold: First, each of us has chosen a lemur that free ranges around the reserve where we will be staying. So, to keep things short, I believe I'll be following a lemur through the jungle for four weeks. This is my lemur:

Precious, right? The species is the black and white ruffed lemur, one of the largest in Madagascar. Luckily, they're awake during the day and are easy to hear from a distance. I believe I'll name them all Francis, as figuring out individuals will be difficult. But anyways...

The second section will focus on alternative farming techniques that preserve what remains of Madagascar's forest. The forest is cut and burned to make may for agriculture. People have to eat, so what can you do? The goal is to both feed the people and save the forest, something that, if planned correctly, can be done.

The environmental degradation in Madagascar is extreme, so I don't doubt this trip will be rough. But, it's once-in-a-lifetime (unless you plan to hang out in jungles your whole life, oh wait! That's me!).

I won't have internet, or electricity or running water, so you won't hear from me until I get back. A solid comp book will serve as a journal so there will be plenty of updates upon my return. I'm headed down to the Duke Lemur Center tomorrow, so there may be one more post detailing that trip before my departure.

Be Well.

Touching Ground II: The Great Divide

Environmentalism is public thanks, in part, to controversy and arguments. But I'm pretty sure "all press is good press" applies well to this scenario. The fact is, people are talking about it which validates its message.

My thoughts on the matter, however, pose the question, "Why is Environmentalism political?" It has come to be associated with a certain set of people: White, liberal, pretentious, dirty, "hippies" are some of the adjectives that come to mind. I'm not sure how this stereotype was set up, and I think it'd be interesting to see it's origins, but maybe another time.

To be brief, the environment transcends politics because it's not a human construct. Yes, it's influenced by the actions of humans (and I'm not talking climate change here), but it existed before we did and will continue to long after we're gone. The biosphere doesn't care if you're liberal or conservative, Keynesian or otherwise, because it isn't some great "Mother Earth" as it's so often pinned to be, caring for its creation. In fact, the "care" we seem to receive is actually a brutal struggle in which humanity has to some degree, tailored natural cycles to work in its favor. The Earth does not freely give its fruits and vegetables to be nice, we get our nice shiny fruits because we work for them. So let me say first, go humanity! We are a part of nature but we are also working to survive in it.

We work to survive. But sometimes, we miss the whole point of survival. We take the land we have worked to hard to cultivate, and sterilize it with fertilizer and pesticides. We take our houses which we have worked hard to build, and fill them with toxic chemicals that fill our lungs. Pollution and disease also transcend politics. Whether you are a democrat or a republican, you can die from carbon monoxide poisoning; your children can still be born with birth defects from lead and mercury in the water. You will choke on diesel exhaust regardless of who you voted for. Anthropocentric ideals say no, reality says yes.

What I'm trying to get at here is that Environmentalism is a political issue, and it shouldn't be. Caring for yourself, caring for your family, and caring for others should not be debated. Your children have a right to clean air just as they have a right to clean water just as everyone should have a right to "Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness". If you pollute my air, my water, and my land you are denying me these rights. There are fools in our political administration, children in suits arguing as if on a playground. Why is it that the Speaker of our House found it necessary to replace biodegradable packaging in the House cafeteria with Styrofoam weeks before oil rose above $100 a barrel? A power play? I don't think so, I think it was more of a school-yard taunt. In the same vein, why is it that democrats can't see the forest through the trees when small advances can be made in energy efficiency? Why must it be all or nothing? Because one toy isn't enough, they want them all and because of it they end up with nothing.

Ignorance isn't an excuse anymore. Everyone has at least some idea of what they can do to reduce their impact.

Environmentalism has never been a political issue, it's much too big for that, it's a human issue.

Be Well

Touching Ground I - An Introduction

I post at length about life here; usually consisting of some musings that ring of Buddhism, Zen, etc... but really they're just my thoughts, my junk, my garbage. Some people like the way they taste and I appreciate that, but really I'm just another unpaid philosopher with a lot of opinions about how things "Should" be. Fine and all, but not really distinguishing. All of these things make up my outlook, but they won't be paying the bills once college is over.

For those of you who know me, you know I study Ecology and Environmental Biology. It's a subject, it's a passion. I'd been relatively uninformed about the subject until senior year of high school where nothing less than an awakening occurred. When the veil of waste, pollution, and mistreatment is lifted, you can't put it back down.

Long back stories on awakening are unnecessary and pretentious, however, so it's really not important to go into detail. At this point in my life I am fairly convinced I want to pursue a career in academia and research. If not for the opportunities than at least for the days off. I want this series to be more than me blabbing about environmentalist ethics. I want it to stir up thoughts, I want the stigma of environmentalism to crack a bit from my doing, and this could be from the lofty cello music I'm listening to, but I want people to change things and foster understanding that environmentalism is not a political statement, it's just living in the best way that you can. A way that fosters growth not only of ourselves but of those around us. A lifestyle of health in greatest sense because as far as I can tell, we can't partition just "our air" or "our water". The water we drink and the air we breathe will eventually touch every living thing on this planet. We can flee to the mountains but we will always be touching ground that everything else must touch as well.

This should be more than me speaking. This should be us speaking, thinking, living.

Be Well.

On a side note, this series will also serve as periodic updates on my upcoming trip to Madagascar to study conservation biology and alternative agricultural techniques with James Madison University. Watch out for updates and clever titles.

Personal Responsibility.

I don't like politics. I think they are more often than not a waste of my time to discuss because no one is willing to take a look at another perspective. But here's a shot:

The only perspective I can speak from is my own, and I won't try to speak from another's. But to me, the biggest issue we have today is a lack of personal responsibility. Instead of owning up to our actions, we ask another to, or we ask the government to own up to them for us. It's childish and it doesn't work. An example:

Say we have a company that is a major polluter (we'll use Massey Energy since I'm not fond of them). So we have Massey Energy, a well known polluter and proponent of Mountain Top Removal. We buy our energy from Massey Energy, they receive money from us because we purchase our energy from them. Simple concept, yes? Massey energy pollutes because they have incentive to pollute, they are rewarded with multi-billion dollar revenues for polluting. The pollution then affects our health and we start to take notice. We rally, we sign petitions, we protest to get Massey Energy to stop and, low and behold, they don't. So what do we do? We ask the Government to step in. We ask them to solve our problems. They fine Massey, Massey pays, Massey keeps polluting. What's wrong with this picture?

There is a fundamental disconnect. Massey Energy profits = our payments. We pay them to pollute and then ask them to stop, but why would they? It's a great deal for them. Yes the government has a hand in this with the deep subsidies they offer to companies like Massey but we also forget that the government is elected by us for us. It is not an entity that exists without the general population. So why do we ask the government to do this? Because we don't want to have to make the hard choice. Rather than willfully electing to change companies, even if it costs a bit more, we ask Washington to do it for us. Truth is, it doesn't really work. Let's make an analogy. Say Massey Energy is that big popular 6th grader on the playground and we're average sized 6th graders. The EPA and the Government are the teachers and principals. Massey Energy is liked and/or tolerated because he's the biggest one around, he has some sort of power over us and when he asks for our sandwich, well we better damn well give it to him. Some of us get tired of this bullying, so we ask the teacher to tell him to stop. He/she contacts the principal and Mr. Massey is brought into the office. He gets his slap on the wrist and goes on his way. He still gets what he wants, he just has to deal with a bit more bullshit now that the principal has his eye on him. No big deal.

The converse to this is that the peers of the bully, the ones who provide him his power and influence, just stop putting up with it. Total social isolation. Sure, he can tolerate it for a bit based on the ego and self-confidence he has stored up, but even that wears thin after while. He now has two options, fade into the oblivion of being an outcast, or change. If he is reformed, he is reaccepted and things go along smoothly.

Business works the same way, if the consumer says "I don't like this, I won't be doing business with you anymore" the producer must change or fall under. This only occurs without the government saying "Errr... Well, here's some extra cash to keep you afloat until they change their mind". Environmentalism is directly inhibited by the government's unwillingness to let us, the consumer, sink what companies fail to meet our ecological standards. Products change because we want them to change. Cage free eggs, organic produce and meats, all of these products have become more prevalent because the consumer is more informed and willing to say "enough is enough" to the producer. The market fixes these issues. It's thus our personal responsibility to say "I'M DONE" when companies don't live up to the environmental and social standards we should demand.

This doesn't fix everything, but it does make sense here and there.

Be Well.