Yosemite holds a special place in my heart. After spending 12 days backpacking the most pristine, beautiful landscapes in Yosemite’s backcountry, I feel the need to protect and preserve it so other people can experience the same sublime beauty. However, as the text states, there used to be a smaller, although equally beautiful, valley […]
Environmental Economics
Before beginning to read chapters from our brand new textbook, Environment and Society, we took some class time to discuss why we use this specific text over others. Although there was some criticism about judging a book by its cover, I think it was a valuable experience that legitimized the text. It was also a helpful […]
Words from the Wise
After wrapping up this unit and reviewing for the midterm, students from ENVS 400 came to talk to us on Friday. They led a discussion about Love Your Monsters by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, then answered questions we had about being an Environmental Studies major or minor. My group discussed “Evolve,” which deals with issues about […]
Collective is More Effective
Environmental Studies is one of the fastest growing fields in the United States today. This suggests to me that the whole “vote with your dollar” or “plant a tree, save the world” approach has not been satisfying young people’s conception of the urgency of our environmental crisis today. People are interested in learning more and […]
Technology is Not the Problem
Factories with tall black towers and billowing smoke, six lane highways jam packed with cars, fishing boats reeling in thousands of fish, and huge tractors over-tilling soil have become the iconic images of our current environmental crisis. According to these pictures, the technology we are using is one of the main factors in the degradation […]
Ecology and Economy: The Missing Link
On first thought, you might not think that “sustainability” and “ecospirituality” were related. After reading about both topics this week, I realized that not only are they related, but ecospirituality might be one of the solutions to more sustainable living. Our Common Future by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) says that “Ecology and […]