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Environmental (In)Justice

For this student choice, I decided to look into the topic of Environmental (In)Justice. We find that there is racism and injustice in the environment and exposes African Americans to environmental pollutants and policy failures. As explained in the article by Sheree Henderson and Rebecca Wells, "future research should focus on the intersection of environmental hazards, community trust, and the effectiveness or prevention strategies in Black communities" (Henderson & Wells). The authors focus on a specific man, Freddie Gray and his exposure to lead in poverty. As a child he was exposed to significant amounts, which could result in lowered brain activity and asthma. Henderson and Wells discuss this due to the fact that these environmental factors, such as poverty and underfunded schooling could lead to other problems, such as in Gray's case. In relation to African Americans, we see that many African Americans are in poverty and face these problems with lack of upkeep of the community, exposing them to these environmental injustices. Many minorities have lost their lives to contamination through environmental racism, which we see all around the world.

Colette Pichon Battle explains in her TED talk that, "by the end of next century, it's predicted that more than 180 million people will be displaced due to climate change". With this news, we find that people are trying to move but are facing discrimination and do not have the financial means to do so. In order to create healing from these climate problems, we need to stop referring to these moving people as refugees, even when they don't cross international borders. It is important to prepare for global migration and use less discrimination when referring to these individuals.

In a situation where my home was flooded due to rising sea levels, I think I am very fortunate to have another plan. I would be able to move home with my parents or other family members, as well as with other friends if needed. Although I do not have the the financial means to move into a house or new apartment, I do have a place to stay. I currently do not have a job or a way to provide money for a new place to stay, so i would be staying with relatives for a while. In relation to refugees, they are often discriminated against and do not have any where else to go, or money to relocate themselves. We often turn a shoulder to refugees, without realizing they are just people that are also struggling and need help.

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How has technology impacted sustainaility

Over the years, we have seen technology advance and become more prevalent all around the world. However, with the world turning digital, we find that this is a generation of energy consuming data. John Patsavellas and colleauges explain that the characteristics of these masses of data capture, transmission, storage and management have not been given review or analyzation (Patsavellas & Salonitis). The internet has been consuming loads of electricity each year, and will continue to in the future as well. We don't realize it but the billions of devices we hold in our hands are creating carbon emissions that are harmful to the world.

In order to work towards zero carbon waste, we need to start measuring carbon emissions from websites, reducing data transfers, and switching websites to renewable energy (Greenwood, 2022). Another crucial part of working towards no carbon waste is education. It is important for everyone to know how much carbon waste they are producing, especially just through electricity. It is important for it to be taught in courses and for people to act on their own will to see how much carbon waste they produce.

In relation to my own CO2 production, I calculated in terms of how much I use in relation to my car, as I don't use public transportation, own a house or fly. My results showed that my footprint is around 334 lbs per month of CO2e. However, although I calculated it, we still see that 2% global carbon emissions come from electricity. I think it is crucial for this to be discussed in future colloquium classes and taught to the public as well.

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Sustainable Development Goals

The sustainable development goal I decided to focus on is number 5: Gender Equality. This goal aims towards achieving gender equality as well as empowering women. This goal ends to aim things such as "sexual exploitation, unequal division of unpaid care and domestic work, and discrimination in the work place" (UN).

Organizations such as the International Committees to advance gender equality have looked specifically into child marriage and FGM and it has shown decline. We have also seen that women's involvement in politics is the highest it has been. UN women explains that "55 percent of the improvement in food security in developing countries has been driven by programs promoting women empowerment". If organizations work towards increasing the productive capacity of women smallholders, we can see an improvement in sustainable agricultural practices. Organizations such as Association for women's rights in development, Womankind Worldwide, Equality Now and Plan International are all working towards achieving gender equality. The White house has also released a National Strategy on Gender Equality and Equity, which included eliminating gender-based violence, protecting abortion rights, closing the gender pay gap and improving women's educational opportunities. As the years continue, we see more gender equality and more opportunities offered to women of all different backgrounds. Reducing these inequalities will strengthen economies and works towards building sustainable societies that all individuals can flourish in.

The first way to promote gender equality and sustainability is through education. It is important to educate females and men on the concept of gender equality and the ways to achieve it in the community around them. Gender equality works hand in hand with sustainability and it is important to create a livable and flourishing society.

https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/feature-story/2022/02/five-ways-to-build-gender-equality-and-sustainability

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Human Rights and Sustainability Blog

This week, we are talking about the core issues of sustainability, which is human rights. This has been a problem for generations and when linked with sustainability creates a larger problem for those already affected.

Sustainability promotes social equity and inclusivity by ensuring the benefits of environmental protection include everyone, such as the concept of human rights. Both sustainability and human rights also focus on access to resources and ensuring that these resources are equally accessible to everyone, which is the principle of human rights. These two concepts are deeply interconnected and both work towards improving the life of those all around the world. Human rights has been a problem for generations and we are constantly working towards a better world. In order to achieve this level of sustainability we hope for, we have to focus on the basic issue of equal rights among everyone. We need to believe in equal rights and be able to work all together before we can achieve sustainability.

We have seen the oppression of human rights in the past, and will continue into future generations. As explained in the Center for Economic and Social Rights, "CESR has been advocating for human rights-informed implementation and monitoring of the commitments to tackle inequalities, including economic inequality and gender inequality" (3). Human rights are at the core of creating a sustainable and peaceful world. The UN also wrote about 17 sustainable goals, and how to achieve these while taking into consideration poverty and other deprivations. In order to end poverty and maintain sustainability, the 3 UN goals that stood out to me were: "climate action, peace justice and strong institutions, and reduced inequalities" (UN). in order to work towards a solution for sustainability and climate problems, we need to focus on the inequalities and conflict between people. Through institutions such as the government and organizations such as the UN, we are able to learn about inequalities and just how big the impact is on our environment. The UN goals emphasize the importance of promoting peaceful and inclusive societies, which can be linked to indigenous people and the human rights principles.

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Water Solutions Blog

The last few weeks we have been talking about water issues in America and ways to solve these issues. We traveled to CREW and Babcock to look at the ways they use and replenish water, as well as had discussions in class regarding sustainable uses for water. Throughout these field trips and classes, we have learned that as Florida is growing in population, we struggle to upkeep the water supply that comes with it.

In Florida, the "underlying aquifer feeding springs provide most of the 100 to 150 gallons of water Florida residents use everyday"(National Geographic). When thousands of people move to Florida weekly, we find that it is a problem to keep up with this water supply, causing us to turn to alternatives. The public also uses water towards toilets and towards lawn care, and not just drinking water. We find that over "seven billion gallons of freshwater is used daily across Florida's agriculture" (National Geographic). In order to solve these problems, we have tried to find alternatives and resources to help educate us on how to restore water supply and minimize our footprint. We looked into organizations such as CREW to learn ways to create safe drinking water and to preserve the water we do have. Although we are collectively thinking of solutions, the water solution problem is not getting any better, and still impacts much of the world today.

With that being said, we looked into possible solutions as a community and class. One of the major problems we looked into was lawns and the amount of water that goes into them, around 900 gallons a day. As a class, we saw this as a major problem and thought this could be a huge way to save water. We came up with the idea to replace grass lawns with plant alternatives or something like turf. We said those plant alternatives, such as milkweed, require less keep up and less water compared to normal lawns. Since lawns are seen as a big aesthetic viewpoint, we tried to find alternatives to still keep that aesthetic point but still use less water. I think this could be a good start to a solution, but it is going to take generations, if ever, to find a solution to this water crisis the world is facing.

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Water Access Blog

This week, we looked into how we access water as well as visiting a ecosystem watershed, also known as CREW. In order for people and animals to live and flourish, we need access to clean and safe drinking water, that serves many purposes to us. The UN explains that, "the demand for water has outpaced population growth, and half the worlds population is already experiencing severe water scarcity at least one month a year" (UN). As more and more people move to areas, such as Florida, we find that we cannot keep up with the demand for water that comes with it. Places like CREW are trying to provide ways to supply clean and bacteria free drinking water for people all around the world.

During our trip to CREW we learned about 3 ecosystem services to help with the problem of access to drinking water. These services included water filtration, access to drinking water and flood prevention. We find that marsh's are a good source of water filtration, as it moves through the ecosystems. The World Health Organization comments on why it is important to filtrate and have safe drinking water: "contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked to transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, hepatitis A, and polio" (WHO). The World Health Organization's article stood out to me as it mentions problems that could affect the drinking water. They claimed that population growth, climate change, demographic changes and urbanization are posing problems for water scarcity. Although these problems are hard to change, in order to minimize it we need to tell the public about ways to preserve water and filtrate it naturally and in large amounts. In order to fully get rid of water scarcity, we have to work with water suppliers and the government to decimate more funds and research into looking into how to solve this problem. I believe that everyone should go on trips like we did to CREW, to be able to learn about our place in the environment and how we can work together in order to provide communities with the knowledge they need.

Water sustainability is one of the major problems around the world today, as is a major problem we need to fix. Working with organizations, such as CREW, is a step in the right direction to educate the public on the future problems we could have, and overall how to prevent it.

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Land Ethic and Livable Cities Blog

In class and on the field trip to Babcock Ranch, we learned about land ethic and livable cities in areas near us. A livable city is considered an area with clean and safe drinking water, and access to things like transportation, health services, power, and access to Internet, among other things. Livable cities also include transportation, such as trains or buses. Land ethic is considered, "a moral code of conduct that grows out of these interconnected caring relationships between people and land" (Aldo Leopold Foundation).

The idea of land ethic was raised by a conservationist named Aldo Leopold. He claimed that his idea of land ethic "explicitly embraced people as members of the 'land community' without placing conditions on that membership" (Meine). Land ethic relies on diversity and the cooperation of people in their different views of thinking and knowing. Leopold explains that it will take an extensively long time to create a code that works for man-to-land conduct, that respects the land and also respects a person's wishes. Examples we would see of this in everyday life is conserved land, and things such as now throwing trash in natured areas.

We see livable cities up and coming all around the world. Some of the most crucial factors to a livable city are: clean and safe drinking water, power, transportation, access to food, and access to internet. Due to these problems in areas, we see a growing community of places like Babcock Ranch. Babcock Ranch is considered a livable town, as it has all of these necessities. When we went on the field trip, what stood out to me was that most people could ride their bikes or golf cart to basically anywhere they needed to go. Babcock Ranch had food stores, restaurants, health services, and access to clean water. It is difficult to create a livable city although, due to the lack of diversity and often space.

In order to achieve a livable city, we need a mutual connection with land ethic and diversity between social classes. We need access to more transportation, and the creation of more businesses that can be applied to a large community. Creating a livable city is a step in the right direction towards preserving land and helping the environment, although it may take years to fully attain.

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GMO Blog

GMO's, also known as genetic modified organisms, are used all around the world to try an increase sustainability and production of foods. GMOs are "a plant, animal, or microorganism that has had its genetic material changed using technology that generally involves the specific modification of DNA" (FDA). Although they can be seen as very harmful, farmers often use GMO because of their convenience and prevention of crop loss over time. The use of GMO then becomes genetic engineering, and has lasted since the 1990s and continues to grow.

Before reading the articles by FDA, I understood that GMOs were used all over, but did not know the benefits that came along with it. Farmers use GMO crops due to their resistance to insect damage, their built up tolerance to herbicides and resistance to possible viruses. With these built up tolerances, farmers do not need to apply as much spray to these plants, letting them grow faster and healthier. Through the genetic modification, they plants are able to fight off harmful bacteria from the environment, making them very attractive to farmers. The FDA explains that through GMO crops, we find that they benefit the consumers as they last longer and are sold cheaper. They cost less to produce, meaning that ultimately they can be sold for cheaper than non-GMO crops.

When I used to think of the word GMO, I thought of plants and farming, but the FDA also brought up the concept of GMO in animal breeding. GMO is created through the process of finding the desired gene in the organism, copying it and then inputing it into the DNA of another organism. This seems to be an easy method to create desirable resources that would benefit the environment and society. This has also been found to be linked to animals, as you can see cross breeding, where they combine multiple types of breeds to create the desired animal. Examples of GMO through plants and food would be something you can find in eggs. When you feed chickens GMO food, they tend to grow much larger and produce larger eggs, which can ultimately feed someone more than an average sized egg.

GMO can be seen as sustainable, as it speeds up the process of production, makes food more accessible to communities and prevention of the loss of crop, making room for more growth. Although there are all these benefits, there is definitely some problems with GMOs. An article by Sophie Hirsh explains that these GMO crops can impact public health negativley and can have mutations. A lot of the time GMOs can affect animal health, as they can be unnaturally large, which can cause problems for them. Overall, there is two views of GMOs, but over the years it has only increased meaning that it can be sustainable to most farmers.

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Sustainable Agriculture Blog

Sustainable farming can be seen all around the world, and is used to make access to food much easier. Agriculture is considered the worlds largest industry, and there are many organizations that are helping to teach people the aspect of sustainable farming. Through sustainable farming, communities are able to “preserve and restore critical habitats, help protect water sheds, and improve soil health and water quality” (WWF). In the long run, sustainable farming can be used for our benefit in terms of growing food, creating drinkable water and using recourses for other purposes and benefits.

It is important for our communities to continue to use resources in terms of farming, as more people are going to be born and we are running out of enough land. After reading the article by WWE, I have been informed on just how important sustainable farming can be. According to the article, “farming is the only viable livelihood option for three quarters of the global population living below the poverty line” (WWF). We saw a representation of this when we visited ECHO farms. In the introduction video, we saw that there are many communities not receiving the knowledge they need in order to gain the full potential of the land they live on. Overproduction is a real problem in these areas and can continue into future years if not resolved. Another problem I found interesting was the overuse of water in agriculture. This also can relate back to ECHO farms where we saw different methods to make purifiers for cheap, as well as creating wells to get access to water that is underground.

Through sustainable farming, people are learning how to use small, tough pieces of land to create food and resources. In order to achieve this style of farming, The Union of Concerned Scientists, claims that we need to “rotate crops and embrace diversity, planting cover crops, reducing tillage, integrating livestock and managing whole systems.” Diversification and keeping soil healthy and useable is a crucial factor to sustainability. This type of farming can eventually lead to less wasted resources, less malnutrition and can ultimately leads to other types of farming such as organic farming.

In order for us to see a change in farming, it starts with us. Personally, I could begin using my resources and donating them to agricultural centers so they could ultimately use them to help plant food and plants. I think, us as a community, overlooks the important of sustainable farming and how this will help us in the future. Organizations like WWF and ECHO are using their resources to help communities get the food and nutrients they need to survive, and support future generations.

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Food Security Blog

Sustainability can often be hard to define, as it can cover multiple different topics/versions of sustainability. In class, we came up with the definition of: "sustainability is the impact of present generations to replenish environmental resources and create harmony between economics, environment, and equity to positively impact present and future communities". Although sustainability can be linked to multiple different concepts, I will be looking into how it works in relation to food.

For as long as time can tell, humans and animals have relied on nature for their food and nutrition. I found that the Harvard School of Health raised a definition of what a sustainable diet is: "those diets with low environmental impacts that contribute to food and nutrition security and to healthy life for present and future generations" (Harvard). It is important to remember to upkeep a sustainable diet, as there are billions of people who are not receiving the right nutrients or enough food to stay healthy. The community wants to work towards a more sustainable diet so there can be more food available to more populations of people. Many of these struggling individuals live in what is defined as a food desert, which is when at least around 100 households do not have walking access to a supermarket, and are forced to resort to their own measures to produce food and clean water.

In order to create a more sustainable diet, people need to look into replacing meats with beans and nuts, transforming more land into agriculture, and teach each other how to replenish resources and use our waste. On our trip to the ECHO farm, we saw many examples of this in real life. For example, when passing through the farm we saw much land that they used to make fruits, rice and other forms of food. In these areas, they used waste products in order to help grow these plants, as well as creating houses and shelters. What stood out to me, was the way that they would use bottles and plastic bags for bricks. If the community would use these methods in relation to food, we would find less people hungry and a more effective way of producing food.

When reading the article by Carinne Deeds, it really put into perspective just how severe food insecurity is, "food insecurity affects nearly 50 million children worldwide" (Deeds). Food insecurity is when there is a reduced quality and access to food. When thinking about food insecurity, we do not realize how for granted we take food and our resources. Reflecting on my own interaction with food, I do not realize how much food I waste a day, or how much of these resources I can replenish and use to help grow more food or create an environment to do so. When throwing out my trash, I do not reflect on how I could use this waste to better the environment, such as using a plastic bottle to hold/grow plants. I witness thousands of people waste food and resources a day, without realizing how it can affect other parts of the world and our environment. Carinne Deeds explains how this problem can affect a child's education and mental health problems. It is important for individuals to realize that this problem is so much bigger than ourselves, and can be detrimental in many other ways than to just our health. Deeds worked to share her view of this problem, and how it affects a bigger population than we thought originally.

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Introduction Blog

Hello!

My name is Kira Tarrance and this is my blog for the fall 2023 Colloquium class. I am a Junior at Florida Gulf Coast University and I am majoring in Psychology, as well as minoring in sociology and statistics. I have grown up in Florida my whole life, and feel that I see sustainability in my everyday life.

The most generic definition of sustainability i think i have seen is: "avoidance or the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance". I feel this relates the most to the environment, but does not relate to my major of psychology, or my understanding of how this relates to my future in counseling therapy.

However, I have found that there is a psychology of sustainability. The psychology of sustainability explores " what motivates individuals to take sustainable actions in their daily lives, as well as how this action influences their wellbeing and connection with their environment". I found that this relates sustainability to psychology the most, as instead of looking at their actions it looks at the mental processes they go through when thinking about sustainability.

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