Powerpoint Thoughts

Creating a Powerpoint is a lot more interesting than writing a paper. Typically papers contain a lot of fluff just so that they meet a page length. Powerpoints give all the same information without the fluff. Plus they are a lot more enjoyable to make than sitting and writing for hours on end. In most papers you do not get to use pictures and charts, where as with powerpoint they add a whole lot to the presentation. Powerpoints also show that you know the information that you are presenting. With a paper, most of the time, you look up the information, write it down and forget about it. With a powerpoint, you have to know what you are talking about when you give the presentation, because if you do not know what you are talking about, people can tell by the way you present. All around, using powerpoint is a much more enjoyable experience than writing a paper.

Environmental History Artifact

Clayton, NC 2005

Clayton, NC 2010

These two photos represent the change over the past few years in the town that I grew up in, Clayton,NC. If you look towards the center what use to be a huge wooded area has now been demolished, and they are building houses. Recently, not pictured on the map, across from the homes they have also demolished the wooded area across from them for a public park. Along the lower left hand corners you will notice where about two years ago they built the Highway 70 Bypass. It is amazing how just after a few years how much we can change the landscape of the Earth.

Environment & Religion

            I do not believe that religion should be based around the environment. Many older religions are based around the environment, where a group of people believe in something like a Sun god. In modern religions I do not believe they should be based around the environment. Most modern religions believe in some sort of greater being which dominates over the universe. Personally, being a Christian, I do not believe that the environment has anything to do with religion other than the fact that God gave us nature to use. Religion is a faith between yourself and God and nothing else has an effect on that.

God created humans in his image, not animals. God appointed humans to subdue and rule over all animals and the approval to use animals for food. The Bible does say that humans have a moral obligation to treat animals humanly. Also, according to the Bible, God commanded humans to have dominion over all of nature, subduing it and ruling over it. However, this does not mean abusing it. We have the approval to use nature for our own needs and purposes, such as for food. Since nature was created by God and pleases God we should manage the damage we cause to nature. 

Response to "Towards Eco-Pedgogy"

Ryan Shumate

Dr. Taylor

English 101

February 6^th 2012

Response to Towards Eco-Pedgogy

            Richard Kahn beings his article by giving incredible statistics about how humans have destroyed the Earth. One of his examples tells the exact number of animals that Americans kill each year for food and on top of those numbers, people hunt the animals for sport. According to Kahn’s source, “eight billion chickens are slaughtered annually in America.” Kahn continues his discussion by going into the global economic situation. According to Kahn, “1.2 billion people live on less than $1 per day and nearly 3 billion live on less than $2 per day.” That means about 43% of the world’s population is living off of $2 a day. Just to survive these people enter into slave-labor and global sex trade.

After many more examples of how humans are destroying the Earth, Kahn talks about promoting environmental education. For humans to continue to survive on Earth, they must learn to be “aware of the effects that pollution and toxic ricks associated with industrialized civilization.” Since the 1990’s, environmental education programs are mandatory in the public education system. However, as Kahn continues, he gives examples of just how the current environmental education program has failed. For example, “45 million Americans think the ocean is a fresh source of water.” One of the first things one learns when they go to the ocean is not to drink the water because it is salty, yet there are still millions of Americans who think it is a fresh source of water. Kahn digs further into the problem to reveal that teacher-training in the environmental education subject area us often limited and are not focused on like math or reading skills. Kahn supports that as a whole, humans need be better educated in environmental issues and more sustainable.

Sustainability and sustainable development has also come up in many political debates. One of the main issues is the use of non-renewable resources such as oil, coal, and natural gas. These issues are typically a clear dividing line between political parties. The use of almost all non-renewable resources pollutes the air and can contaminate the ground when it is retrieve. Another problem that rises is the economic control of resources which can cause even more pollution by higher demands for the fuel.

Overall, Kahn’s issue is with educating the public about the environment. A better education about the environment is the only way people are going to learn how to help stop pollution and to stop destroying the environment. If we continue to destroy the environment like we are, mankind will start to die out. Our current lifestyle is not sustainable and we need to prevent future generations from not having enough food or water to survive. This all starts with a better plan for educating people about the environment. Once people learn about all the issues regarding the environment they will think twice before polluting.