Bees a PLENTY!

I have seen it. I have seen it up close and personal. A couple weeks ago as I was helping remodel my girlfriend Mora's cottage we had to call in a bee keeper! There was about twenty square feet of honeycomb about an inch thick just dripping with honey. Like Novella says in her book Farm City "most people- scared of bees but drawn to honey" . And it is true. Who actually likes bees buzzing and stinging and scaring little children. Virgil in his poem Georgics praises the bee and the beekeeper, but did he keep bees himself? History shows that Virgil was a poet and likely that he did not have to do much if any actual farm work. When I saw the bee keeper with his special vacuum for sucking up the little bees and his smoke pump I was excited, yet I still would not go within ten feet of the man until I knew the coast was clear. The honey is so worth the fear though. I think bees are an essential part of the garden that are often over looked.

I know that when I finally am able to have a place of my own that I will have two things for sure vegetables and bees. To me bees seem versatile. They live in all sorts of climates and there are many different types of honey producing bees. They pollinate your plants so that they can bear fruit and they create liquid GOLD. Pure HONEY! I absolutely love the taste of hone. I have honey every day wether it be just honey in my tea or the honey in the bread I eat my sandwiches on.

Could it be hard to over come my fear of bees? I hope not. Everyone is probably scared at first of the stings and the failure of a collapse, but everyone over comes that fear; if they want to be a bee keeper that is. I can imagine the bounty of honey that Mora has (now in jars). If only I can recreate the same thing except not in the middle of a wall because that removal was just way to difficult. I think if Novella can do it so can I. Maybe I need a trip to my personal Trees 'n Bees? Unfortunately Both time and location play a big part in gardening and bee keeping. I just do not have either the time or the place here at the big old Hayes Heally. My dream of liquid gold will have to be put on hold so that I can get a college learnin' first.

Pollan's Take on Cap and Trade

While I came into this class with a typical Western, romanticized paradigm, the arguments presented in Micheal Pollan’s Second Nature were extremely eye opening. He speculates that the capitalistic, resource-minded perception of nature and the Thoreau-based, naturalist view both stem from the culturally-ingrained, romanticized values which depict humans and nature as diametrically opposed, never to be integrated. However, as we learned through our readings, Pollan subscribes to an alternative perspective which includes humans as active and crucial participants in the natural world. As neither care-takers, nor alienated entities, Pollan asserts that humans should, and must, interact with nature in a responsible manner and should not be afraid to impact and alter nature accordingly, for we are just as much nature as are flora and fauna. Pollan’s arguments were very pivotal in shaping my own views regarding the interplay between humanity and nature, which Pollan argues are essentially one and the same. I have certainly come to evaluate many environmental issues, particularly the recent American Clean Energy and Security Act and Cap and Trade Bill, following this Pollan-instilled perspective, and I suspect many of my classmates have come to do the same.

The Cap and Trade Bill creates a system of allowances for companies to emit greenhouse gasses, the amount is a compromise between current and healthy emission levels. Companies can then sell unused credits to others companies who exceed their allocated “right-to-emit” credits, finally giving some incentive to stop polluting and start thinking about the future. Additionally, a Carbon Market Efficiency Board was established in order to supervise emissions and report sales of “right-to-emit” credits on the greenhouse gas emissions market. Failure to report emissions or comply with standards results in a fiscal penalties, $25,000 for each day of non-compliance. This cap and trade system finally gives companies an incentive to start thinking about the climate by using capitalism to motivate them into compliance. Of course this solution is not perfect, but over time it will certainly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sets the United States on the right path toward becoming an environmentally conscious society. In his second prime-time news conference since taking office, President Obama advocated the cap and trade bill, asserting that “it starts pricing the pollution that’s being sent into the atmosphere.”

The Cap and Trade Bill introduced in the American Clean Energy and Security Act facilitates a compromise between modern, industrialized society and responsible environmental consciousness. This represents a shift toward the melding of human activity and the environment which Pollan emphasizes as being so crucial in developing a new paradigm. As participants in nature, we will inevitably alter the environment; however, Pollan argues the importance of recognizing our impacts, when responsible, as part of the natural world rather than unnaturally changing its course . This is precisely what the Cap and Trade Bill aims to do in creating a system which integrates the capitalistic, resource harvesting temperament of industrialized society with responsible environmentalism. Accordingly, the Cap and Trade Bill seems to be very much in line with Pollan’s beliefs, those instilled in our class, as a means of facilitating this new paradigm of participation in nature.

A Greener Future

Kokua (ko-ku-ah), a Hawaiian word that can we defined as “help.” It is a word that is often used in Hawaii when people want to get the message across. The Kokua Foundation, a non-profit organization, was founded to educate the children of Hawaii to be environmentally aware and also to provide them with experiences that will further their appreciation for the earth. This organization is deeply concerned about making sure that the future generations are aquatinted with the natural world, and all that it has to offer.

Our future is in the hands of our children, and our children’s children. The importance our children being knowledgeable about the environment is crucial. It is their generation that will suffer the most, therefore it makes sense that they be educated on ways that could help better their well being. The Kokua Foundation has numerous programs to enhance the knowledge of these kids. As the foundation goes school to school, they teach children the three R's and also the importance of gardening.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Three simple steps to living a “greener” life. People nowadays don’t understand the concept of reducing and how vital it is for the sake of everyone here on earth. We all must cut back on things like long luxurious showers and getting plastic bags every time you go to the grocery market. By turning off the water when washing your body, you could are saving gallons of water. Not only will you have saved gallons, but you’ll be just as clean as if you were to leave the water running. So turning off the water is one way to reduce, but bringing your own shopping bag when going to the grocery market another way you can reduce your negative impact on the environment. Reusing is also something so simple, but is often looked over. Donating clothes to a thrift store or using reusable water bottles are two examples that are so effortless, and can make such an impact. Being that we live in a green city, recycling isn’t too much of an issue. If we all continue to follow the three R's, the greater the impact to a greener living will be.

In addition to the three R's, the Kokua Foundation makes a conscious effort to help elementary students reconnect with the earth by planting gardens that will they eventually harvest. This program also demonstrates the difference between an organically grown garden and a garden in which pesticides were used. We should all look to the Kokua Foundation as an

example, and do our part by living eco-friendly lives so that future generations will follow.

I just wanted to show people this image that caught my attention of Kansas from outer space. I thought it was interesting to see the tessellation of square patches dotted with round fields and the all the different hues of green and yellow. Check it out. http://digg.com/d315VS9

Virgil's Paradigm vs. Ours

Most of us in modern society were raised either in urban cities or in housing developments of the suburbs. We did not construct our homes or make our food and clothes by hand. Nor did we learn from anything other than textbooks during our educations (rarely did we learn hands-on). Our tract homes and apartments were built by hired workers and most likely, we never even saw any of the construction first hand. Our food, packaged in boxes and bought from chain grocers, and our clothing, purchased in stores as well, come from all over the world, from places we have never seen or even heard of. Some of us were never taught how to cook and fewer of us know anything about making clothes. Our lives are handed to us and as a result, our views of nature are limited and impersonal. Unless we grew up on a farm or were introduced to other forms of nature besides those which are man-made (lawns, backyards, parks, and recreational areas), nature to us is an abstract concept. It is merely a background for our lives and the place we walk on (literally and figuratively) because most of us have not had the opportunity to work with the land itself. We see ourselves and our society in general as being at the center of everything and this belief system results in our anthropocentric paradigm. Since we are the most important part of this universe, we must strive for perfection or as near to it as possible. We frown upon our mistakes, seeing them as only failures and things to be avoided at all costs. After all, we are all-knowing, and we are each other’s best models. The universe was made for us, and therefore we reign. Right?

In contrast, Virgil, and presumably many others of his time, saw nature in a much different light. According to him, nature is at the center of the universe and we are not. Nature is our host and she guides us in everything we do and essentially, teaches us the ways in which to survive. We must rely on nature for our means of living (food, water, and shelter) and as a result, we must work directly with her. We must look to nature for our knowledge, we must learn by her ways, and we must be guided by her principles. And if we do not rely on her for direction, we will fail. However, our modern society’s definition of failure is much different from Virgil’s. Failure, as Virgil saw it, is an opportunity for humans to learn from their mistakes and expand their knowledge. Virgil’s definition of failure stems from his close relationship with mythology. As a strong follower of mythology, he believed that Jupiter, the god of the heavens and of weather, brought trouble into the world in order to teach man not to take for granted what he has and to be resourceful. As a result, Virgil believed that although mistakes are inevitable parts of life, they give us knowledge and are therefore beneficial. He believed that we are only human and cannot expect to know everything. This point of view suggests that Virgil had an ecocentric paradigm and though we do not know enough about Virgil to prove this as his belief system, the likelihood of it being so is significant.

So now, I must ask: is our paradigm really preferable to Virgil’s? Or is it merely destroying nature and preventing us from a closer relationship with the earth? I cannot speak for anyone besides myself, but the latter rings truer for me and as a result, I have begun to readjust my paradigm. Virgil’s teachings have shown me that having an intimate relationship with nature and holding an ecocentric view of the world is the only way in which our society will survive for any extended period of time. In Georgics, he seems to caution us of this and I only hope that we will take his warning seriously because if we do not, who knows how little time we have left? A century? A decade? Even less?

What is Nature?

Growing up in a small suburb in the East Bay, my paradigm on Nature developed from a young age into a distant relationship with the idea of nature. Going to the beach or to a mountainous trail to hike, or a visit to the Lafayette-Moraga creek located outside of my house brought me closer to “nature”, otherwise I hardly encountered it on a daily basis. My paradigm was a distant relationship with whatever nature was in my mind, but even though I didn’t exactly know, it felt like something far away from my civilization.

As I read Second Nature: A Gardener's Education by Michael Pollan, my paradigm on nature is being tampered with and poked at with ever turn of the page. The more I read, the more I question my paradigm of what nature is and begin to reconstruct a new one. I am realizing that people are nature. Driving a car to go to nature is an idea of the past, because every decision I make, and every thought I have is a part of my culture, and I am nature.

I believe our paradigms should be questioned ever day because being stuck with tunnel vision is unhealthy, and leaves us blindsided by different possibility’s. As Pollan describes his paradigm in The Idea of A Garden, “Every one of our various metaphors for nature-wilderness, ecosystem, Gaia, resource, wasteland- is already a kind of garden, and indissoluble mixture of our culture and whatever it is that’s really out there” (181). Pollan’s idea that our different outlooks on nature are just superficial, and when it comes down to it, they are just ideas that we create in our minds leads me to think that humans always want to feel like they are in control of things. We create ideas about nature so that we feel powerful and in control of our surroundings, but really these are all just constructs of our minds.

Humans arrived on this planet with many tools that allow us to alter the previous path of Mother Nature. We were also given brains to make thoughtful choices and now it is up to humans to use them. We must look to ourselves, our own culture to create a harmonious, sustainable relationship with Mother Nature so that we don’t deplete her of natural resources. This is a very possible mission, and it will require a change in people’s paradigms on nature. When people realize and accept that our culture is nature, we can take big strides in improving the conditions on earth, and creating more sustainability. We must open our eyes to the impact we are having on Mother Earth without recycling and reusing many of our precious resources, and reshape our outlook and habits.

International Enviromental Agreements: Not So Easy

FYI: This article is about the largest meeting of nations to date, to work out environmental commitments such as emissions levels.  Reading it will give you a good picture of the difficult larger political and national issues involved, especially as economic development is so often perceived to be at odds with environmental protection.  What, if anything, is wrong with this paradigm?