Bobcats for Science

On Thursday, April 20th, 2017, Frostburg State University students Kate Bickerstaff and Makayla Spencer organized a march for science that started at the clocktower in Frostburg. Professor Dr. Flood at Frostburg State helped promote and organize this event and there was a good turn out. Students and professors came out and marched together for one common goal.. Across the nation science programs for the government and school systems have been cut since President Donald Trump took office. The Bobcats for Science March will protest the censorship and defunding of science and related agencies occurring in today’s political atmosphere. 

                                         (Here is Makayla Spencer gathering people to start the march)

Kate and Makayla started the rally by thanking everyone for coming out on the nice day we were having and said jokingly "taking time out of their 4/20 events". They created signs for the people who joined the march and did not have their own. Dr. Flood was able to talk with me for a moment before the march and he was really passionate about the march. I asked her what made them want to start this march and he replied " The march for science really need more people representing thats why we are having one in Frostburg right before the one in Washington D.C". The march started at the clocktower and went all the way up and around the upper quad on campus at FSU. Also having drummers for the music department was a nice touch. The original plan was to march all the way to Main street in Frostburg but they decided to cut it short for the sake of the drummers.

(Everyone who participated in the march)

The team behind the Bobcats for Science march was able to get funding through the school to provide free transportation to the March for Science in Washington D.C on Saturday, April 22, 2017. The busses are leaving at 7am that morning from the parking lot by the Performing Arts Center on campus so they can get to D.C in time for the march. If you want to learn more about these marches for science click here. This march is sure to have a huge turn out not only because it is taking place in the nation's capital but it will also be Earth Day. 

Climate Change: Separating Fact from Fiction

Title Picture of the Presentation (Tianna Bogart)

Dr. Tianna Bogart of the Geography Department here at Frostburg State gave a lecture today titled, "Climate Change: Separating Fact from Fiction." She began her speech by asking the audience, "what is the big idea" and proceeded to discuss why climate change is important and scientists such as herself know that it is occurring. The primary source for this information comes from the IPCC which Bogart explained is "a consortium of scientists that collect data to identify climate fluctuations and what risks are associated with it." The date collected by these scientists is what Dr. Bogart's lecture focused on.

She started by looking at the three major determinates of global heating; These include volcanic activity, solar activity, and the Earth and Sun relationship in order to disprove the claims that these phenomena are what is causing average temperatures to rise. The average temperature increase in the last fifty years is universally accepted, as shown by the graph below.

This graph shows the average temperature increases over the past 100 years as collected by weather stations across the globe. The scientists who believe that climate change is merely an effect of the three natural causes of climate fluctuations cite these causes as the reason for the increase in temperature. However, Bogart covered all three of these effects and used the scientific research of those in her field to argue that the cause of this heating is in fact because of human activity.

First she attacked solar activity which is being heavily monitored by scientists and has, in the past, caused periods of climate change like the Mid-evil warming period. Bogart states, "We can discount the effects of the sun because we have clear data on the subject that says otherwise." Before moving on to attack the Earth-Sun relationship which is essentially the axial tilt and the orientation of the Earth in regards to the Sun. These changes are referred to as Milankovitch Cycles. Bogart went on to cover the various scientific names for these changes concluding that, "all of these [changes] can be accounted for and we can predict glacial and interglacial periods. However, based on these facts we should be in a glacial period not an interglacial one." Which means that the Earth should see glacial growth and not the decrease that we are seeing in the glacial ranges of the globe.

Bogart then covered the largest defense for anti-climate change scientists, volcanic activity. The scientists that Dr. Bogart is contending with cite the massive amounts of Carbon Dioxide that are pumped from volcanoes every year as the cause for increased amounts of greenhouse gases in the air and thus the temperature increase.
Dr. Bogart then proceeded to cover a fact most commonly overlooked by these scientists. Volcanoes also produce, as Dr. Bogart puts it, "Sulfur Dioxide which is heavily prevalent and is actually more abundant than CO2. Sulfur actually is known for its cooling effects not its warming."

Dr. Bogart ended with this graph that scientists at the IPCC have created using advanced super computers in which they compile all the data from the various research labs across the globe.

This graph shows the real average global temperature levels (black line), the supercomputer calculated temperature levels when only natural events are accounted for (blue line), and the levels when accounting for human activity and natural events (red line). The red line and the black line are very similar and with this Dr. Bogart stated, "if Volcanoes, Milankovitch Cycles, and Solar activity are not to blame... What else is there? Us."

Frostburg State University Named Tree Campus USA for Fifth Consecutive Year

On Wednesday, April 17, Frostburg State University celebrated being awarded Tree Campus USA by the National Arbor Day Foundation for the fifth year in a row. Students, faculty, and community members gathered at the clock tower at noon for the celebration, the Declaration of Arbor Day, and a campus tree planting. The event was held in honor of Focus Frostburg an annual day of learning on sustainability and climate awareness.

Frostburg is the third college in the state to have been awarded Tree Campus USA with only five other colleges in Maryland receiving the same award. FSU received this recognition because they met the Tree Campus USA standards which include maintaining a campus tree advisory board, campus tree plan, dedicated annual expenditures for its campus tree program, an Arbor Day observance, and a student service-learning projects.

The event started with Joe Giger explaining the purpose of the event and the Declaration of Arbor Day.

From Left to Right: Frostburg State University Students - Joe Giger, Madison Lawrence, Olivia Goldstein

Followed by Joe Giger was FSU student Madison Lawrence providing the audience with a few tree statistics. “Trees properly placed around buildings can reduce air conditioning needs by 30 percent and can save 20 to 50 percent in energy used for heating. Shade from trees can save up to 175 dollars per year, per structure in air conditioning cost. The planting of trees means improved water quality resulting in less runoff and erosion. This allows more recharging of the ground water supply. Wooded areas help prevent the transport of sediment and chemicals in streams. In laboratory research, visual exposure to settings with trees has produced significant recovery from stress within five minutes, as indicated by changes in blood pressure and muscle tension.”

After Madison Lawrence, Olivia Goldstein gave a couple tree quotes. “He that plants trees loves others besides himself…” – Thomas Fuller.

Next Becky Wilson from the Department of Natural Resources comes to the podium to present FSU with the Tree Campus USA Award. She explains the history of Arbor Day and the dedication it requires to continue to be a candidate for this award. The first Arbor Day in the 1800s planted over a million trees. This year Frostburg will plant 165 trees throughout campus. Frostburg has a dedicated budget and team of people that oversee tree activity. Frostburg excels at having community service projects in their surrounding communities. Wilson thanks, Dr. Sunshine Brosi and her students for being involved outside of campus and making a difference in the community.

“If you plant one tree you are contributing to millions of trees because there are others doing the same act. So it seems so daunting to think about making a difference with the act of planting trees, but the act of planting just one is an exemplified and amplified amend. So that’s how you make a difference with just one tree at a time,” said Becky Wilson.

The remainder of the event was spent planting trees.  

Frostburg continues to encourage colleges and community members in the surrounding areas to participate in Focus Frostburg and tree planting events.

For more information on how planting trees affects communities visit http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/harford/aegis/entertainment/ph-ag-arbor-day-2017-0419-20170417-story.html

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust: Green Burials Presentation by Dr. Flinn

Dr. Flinn presenting "Forever Green: Sustainable Burials"

There are some things in this world that sit deep in the back of our heads, always ringing, but at a soft, numb volume. Every once and a while we notice these pulsing murmurings, and the sound gets louder, presenting a monstrous, unnerving face to our attention. Death is the mother of all of those such things, and it is something that we all learned as Americans to viciously ignore.

It is late afternoon on the campus of Frostburg University, and the sun is bearing down; it is that time of day when its sunbeams are longest and its yellow color begins to thicken. Today is FSU’s “Focus Frostburg”, an event where a variety of presenters from different fields gather to promote sustainability and climate awareness. Located in the university’s Lane Center, sits a lone, brown table promoting the event, marooned in the middle of the bottom floor of the center. Large green squares line the table’s background with a symmetrical three-pieced banner of a tree in an abstract art-form. 

 Humming around a corner in a small conference room at the bottom of Frostburg State University’s Lane Center is an hour-long presentation about this forbidden subject. This presentation is a little odder, a little more taboo compared to other presenters’ subjects, but just as relevant to the problem of environmental waste and sustainability.

The presenter is Dr. Jennifer Flinn, a developmental psychologist and professor at Frostburg State University. She is dressed in a bright turquoise dress-shirt and bleached, dark blue jeans. Draped over her shoulders is a light-tan shawl. She has long, striking hair with blond highlights and sports modern, square glasses that coincidentally fits the stereotype of her position as a professor.

The title of her presentation is “Forever Green: Sustainable Burials”. The slides begin, and the attendees see a bright-white PowerPoint appear on a projector screen at the front of the room. Dr. Flinn introduces the subject of “Green Burials” by saying that she, “… sort of stumbled onto this topic.” At first glance, this would seem a little morbid of a thing to simply “stumble” onto, but as Dr. Flynn spoke about her story, it began to make perfect sense stemming from deeper circumstances.

Dr. Flinn explained how as a development psychologist, “Anytime we talk about development, we inevitably talk about death as the end.” She explained how when her mother passed away, she began to realize how many flaws American burials sadly had. So, in her research between her profession and the personal, she came across a website called the greenburialcouncil.org.

In browsing through this website, she discovered some quite interesting and startling facts. Apparently, in typical American fashion, the way Americans do their burials is not very eco-friendly. According to this website, Americans annually use “827,060 gallons of embalming fluids, 104,272 tons of steel for caskets and vaults, 5.4 million pounds of copper for lining caskets, 30 million board feet of woods for caskets, and 1.6 million tons of reinforced concrete for burial vaults.”

Now it might seem that burials are a special case for America’s traditions; after all we are talking about one of, if not the most somber and ultimate of moments in this world. This opinion would certainly hold true, if it were not such a painful and expensive experience for the family. There does seem to be a better way to honor our loved ones that simultaneously honors the earth better as well.

This option is called a “Natural Burial” and it is not a new one at that. A natural burial is a burial in which a concrete vault is not used, money and resources are not wasted on overly elaborate caskets, and even the headstone is made from a natural, local field-rock. This tradition of using natural caskets (such as basket caskets and other plant-derived materials) is what Americans used to do, until the 20^th century. While one may question these methods on modern grounds, it might be important to note why the funeral industry insists on steel vaults, fancy caskets, and environmentally damaging methods. That sturdy, lasting vault deep underground that would protect your loved one’s deceased body is not there because the funeral industry is interested in preserving them. It is there because according to Dr. Flinn, it makes, “… mowing the grass above the lawn easier.”   

What about cremation though? This is something that most people can agree on to be a much more environmentally sensible alternative. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Dr. Flinn commented that “Cremation isn’t much better (than normal American burials). You could drive to the moon and back 84 times for the amount of fossil fuel used for 1 year in the U.S.”

Beyond the problem of waste, people also mistakenly think that spreading the ashes of someone is perfectly safe. Those cremated ashes are in fact very alkaline and can inhibit plant growth.

In a story that seemed like something out of the Coen brother’s The Big Lebowski, Dr. Flinn described how she once visited a beach, and while enjoying the summer sun and gentle waves, a mourning family came rather close to her to dump the ashes of their deceased loved-one. The ashes got a little too close to her and she thought, “I’m not swimming there.” Not cool, dude.

Beyond the environmental problems associated with traditional American burials, there are the bordering-on-absurd expenses to consider and the resources wasted in those expenses. A grieving family wants to do as much as they can to honor the passing of a former member, but for many funeral homes, this is an opportunity to squeeze the newly-vulnerable for money. This doesn’t seem like a tradition that needs to continue. Just because a family is grieving, it doesn’t make them saps.

The average traditional American burial is anywhere between 6000 dollars to 20000 dollars. Natural burials, however, generally only cost around 2000 dollars or less. Not only that but many times the money goes towards conserving the land in where the natural burial occurred.

Dr. Flinn went on to show the attendees a video of an actual natural burial in the local area of her hometown of Pittsburg. One woman in the video remarked how she felt positively and meaningfully about helping the restoration of the forest where the burials would take place. The woman then said, “And someday, I’ll be part of all this.”

Dr. Flinn and a slide about "Eternal Reefs"

These aren’t the only natural burials that can occur though. Dr. Flinn showed a link to a burial option called the “Bios Urn” which is a soil-cremation option where a plant eventually grows in the spot where a loved one’s cremated remains are planted. There are even marine options, such as an “Eternal Reef”, which is an actual coral reef made from cremated remains. If placed deep and far enough, family members can even scuba-dive out to the burial location.

It might be hard to hear, but facing our deaths with a brave awareness and meaningful perspective might be a better option for ourselves, our families and the Earth.  To those who are unfortunate enough to bear witness the pastor’s final words and to those even more unfortunate to be the receiver of such a eulogy…there is a better way to look at this grim, ultimate event. It’s not about how much money you spend on the funeral, how expensive the casket is (whether that be diamond encrusted casket or a humble Folger’s can), or even how many people show up.

Funerals are about our loved one’s memory and the meaning of their lives to us AND the world. Dr. Flinn conclude by saying how for most of human history, we have buried our dead in natural burials, from “Ashes to ashes and dust to dust.” 

Building Campus Community Cohesion: One Dialogue Event at a Time

I had the honor and privilege of attending Dr. Elesha Ruminski’s presentation on Focus on Social Sustainability: How FSU is Leading Dialogue and Deliberation in Our Region. Dr. Ruminski is an Associate Professor in the department of Communication Studies and Coordinator of the Leadership Studies Minor. I was joined by the LEAD 401 citizen leader class and a member of the Frostburg community. To start the presentation, we had an ice breaker and Dr. Ruminski posed the question, what is social sustainability? The audience, including myself were trumped by the question. After, Dr. Ruminski proceeded to state the importance of social sustainability as well as define it. The two items covered were dialogue and deliberation session and the role of communication leadership in leading regional change.

Dr. Ruminski spoke about one of the many topics surrounding Frostburg, the dialogue between the campus and community, more importantly “building campus and community relationships through facilitated dialogue events.” A few examples of this endeavor include the recent hanging of the Frostburg State flag along Main Street, the paw prints on Bowery Street, and the work on making off-campus housing safe following recent incidences. She spoke about the goal of the Communication Studies Major and Leadership Studies Minor which is integrated learning, building relationship, empowering individuals, and partnership throughout the state of Maryland. One partnership Dr. Ruminski and the Communication Leadership Lab established is with The Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle.

The Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle is an organization based in Baltimore, Maryland who focuses on issues pertaining to diverse topics involving the African American community. With their help and the help of many others Dr. Ruminski and the FSU Leadership Studies Residency Program will be hosting a facilitated public discussion called Rural and Urban Values which is this Wednesday, April 19 from 6-8:30pm in the Frostburg Community Center. The purpose is finding out how do our cultures vary and intersect. More importantly can “the event prompt further discussion”. With the growing diversity in Frostburg’s campus, an event formed to give the opportunity for students and community members a chance to collaborate on making Frostburg the campus and Frostburg the town one whole entity that works together is a great idea.

Dr. Ruminski and I outside her presentation room

To close out the presentation we had a dialogue discussion on the questions, what is Frostburg State University doing to provide social sustainability and what can it do to better build social sustainability with the community. The responses were, making students aware of social sustainability, embedding some form of social sustainability in our coursework or our Orie classes. My personal response is, since Frostburg seems to be big on high school athletic events, honoring a Frostburg community member at the university’s athletic events is a great way to invite more community members and build relationships.

Below is the Communication Leadership Lab site, for more on what Dr. Elesha Ruminski and her Leadership Lab students are doing this is the perfect site to visit. It gives more in-depth descriptions on the work that has occurred and what future plans are being established. http://frostburgdialogue.org/

Energy Conservation

         Ryan Miller

Engl 336

Mr Duncan

Energy Conservation

Energy Conservation is a unique method made to help our planet. It is the practice of finding alternative fuels in order to conserve energy. Today I attended a presentation that detailed energy conservation, the history, the effects of not conserving energy and the benefits. It has principles that help define the very meaning to give a more clear understanding. The most important that I learned about was the prevention of waste which is critically important to the development of our planet. Scientific planning is also a factor within conserving energy because we entrust the scientist in this country to help us carefully plan out how to conserve energy so that we will not do anything detrimental to our society. It is also said to be "the greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time" said by the presenter. This means that it will benefit our planet the most for a long period of time. We also learned that there were no federal agencies at the end of the 19th century for soil, wildlife, or air pollution. This ultimately took a big toll on our planet because we were not paying enough attention to these issues. In the 1950s-1960s air pollution apparently killed 200+ people which is horrifying. Teddy Roosevelt was one who took notice of these issues and had a prominent stance. He believed that the government should be more active and producers should support conservation. Later on in the 1970s consumers challenged producers which made environmentalism simply change. Today we have made several advances, most importantly creating the department of wildlife, the united states park police, and scientist all across the world working to conserve energy through different ways like hybrid cars.

Forever Green: Sustainable Burials

As a part of Focus Frostburg, Dr. Jennifer Flinn of the Psychology Department at Frostburg State University, presented a piece on sustainable burials. It was one of the more unique topics being discussed on the day as many people do not like to talk about or think about death. Dr. Flinn specializes in the area of developmental psychology and she states that "the final stage in human development is death" therefore it comes as no surprise that sustainable burials are an area of interest to her. 

She made the presentation interesting by including pictures and stories which were of personal significance to her and this helped in holding the audience's attention. Flinn mentioned how less than 4 years after her mother’s passing, she stumbled across the site greenburialcouncil.org, where she first gave thought to the idea of a green burial. 

Dr. Flinn discussed different burial methods, beginning with the idea of cremation and how it is a relatively new practice in the United States but that it is not completely environmentally friendly. According to her presentation, it is estimated that one could drive to the moon and back an astonishing 84 times with the amount of non-renewable fossil fuels used in cremations in the US each year. The spreading of ashes is also restricted in places such as state parks because they are not environmentally green.

She then explained the idea of a natural burial where all natural materials are used. This idea began in the U.K. and is increasing in popularity in the U.S. The main people responsible for making the idea of a natural burial a possibility in the U.S. are Joe and Juliette Sehee. Traditional funerals are said to range from $6,000-$20,000 and usually include a maintenance fee for upkeep of graveyards whereas natural burials are far less expensive and can cost $2,000 or less and have no extra expenses such as maintenance fees which is appealing to certain people. Penn Forrest Natural Burial Park is located in Pittsburgh and all money goes in to the restoration of the forest. More information on this natural cemetery can be found here 

Dr. Flinn finished the presentation by briefly discussing some alternative burial methods which are relatively new and environmentally friendly. She mentioned biodegradable urns which contain seeds so when one disposes of the ashes in the urn, a tree is planted. These can be viewed here. She also mentioned how eternal reefs made from environmentally safe concrete and cremated remains are used to create new marine habitats for fish and other sea creatures.

The presentation was very informative and really complimented the Focus Frostburg event on sustainability and climate awareness due to the unique nature of the presentation topic.  

Climate Change: Separating Fact From Fiction

Frostburg Focus 

              On Monday, April 17^th, 2017, Frostburg State University hosted a sustainability learning symposium on campus primarily in the Lane University Center. At 2 p.m, Dr. Tianna Bogart held a presentation called “Climate Change: Separating Fact From Fiction”. Dr. Bogart is a professor in the geography department and focuses her studies on climate. The basis of this presentation was to get the audience to understand what climate change actually is. This particular presentation discussed the major controls that have influenced climate shifts throughout our planet's history. During this presentation, Dr. Tianna Bogart discussed what climate change is, how much our climate is changing, and why climate change is an issue.

             Dr. Bogart began the presentation by defining what climate change is and showed statics to support her discussion. For example, according to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate change is known as a change in the state of the climate that can be identified by changes in the mean and or the variability of its properties.   Dr. Bogart stated that one of the biggest misconceptions of climate change is global warming. An impactful quote Dr. Bogart used during her speech was; “people always ask me why we still keep getting snow storms. People think because of global warming that there will be less snow, but the truth is that hot weather and cold weather are both affected because of climate change. There are many variables that are affected by global warming”.  Dr. Bogart was very thorough with her definition of climate change and gave the audience a clear understanding before getting into the details of climate change.  
         
              The next portion of the presentation showed how our climate has changed over the years. She compared four different organizations that have all studied the temperature of the climate. All four organizations concluded the same results, the temperature of our climate in continuously increasing over the years. The climates temperature is increasing about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit per century. The temperature has been significantly different from the average or what the temperature is usually, which Dr. Bogart described as an anomaly. This was evidence that climate change is a serious issue, which needs to be addressed. Dr. Bogart showed records and examples of historical climate records that were used in determining the climate during that time. These historical records helped evaluate the weather during that time period to get a better understanding of how significant the change of the climate is. Dr. Bogart mentioned an interesting fact about a very popular story that can be seen as a historical climate record. The story Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelly who was at a writer’s convention during a time period called “a year without summer”. The weather was terrible the day of the convention so all the writers had a contest on who could write the scariest story. Shelly wrote the story of Frankenstein and won the competition. This story can be seen as a historical climate record because it documents that it was written during a summer where the weather was very cool.  After seeing the statics, it’s evident that human activity has an impact on climate change.
     
             After Bogart addressed and supported her argument, she discussed why climate change and global warming is actually an issue. Dr. Bogart stated, “Climate ultimately affects all aspects of like”. It affects agriculture, biodiversity, and distribution of vegetation and soil type, human health, and migration. Climate of a particular region is dependent on latitude and altitude, orientation of water bodies, mountains, and wind direction. So basically, climate affects many different aspects of life making it crucial to preserve and regulate it.  Not only will the change in our environment drastically affect the lives of humankind and their existence but also every living species on earth. Hundreds of animals have been declared on the endangered species list and are struggling to continue their existence. Global warming and climate change are also dramatically affecting areas like Baltimore, MD. The sea level has gone up about a foot since 1875 due to climate change. If it keeps increasing, Baltimore will ultimately end up under water.

           Dr. Bogart’s presentation was very informational and brought awareness to severity our climate is being faced with. After the presentation, Dr. Bogart showed a link to a website http://climatechange.maryland.gov

where you can learn more about climate change. This website also shows certain ways a person can help support the cause and little ways people can try to decrease climate change.

Creating Sustainable Communities

Creating Sustainable Communities

Presentation by Dr. Henry Bullamore

During the sixth year of Frostburg State University’s Focus Frostburg event, I attended a presentation on creating sustainable communities. In this presentation presented by Dr.Henry Bullamore, a geography professor here at Frostburg State University. Dr. Bullamore explained that the choices we make as a nation have collect impact on the people around us. He explains the importance of sustainable living and not every reason has something to do with the environment but with your personal well being. According to Dr.Bullamore “The united states is a suburban nation, more than 50% of the nation lives in suburbs” and this increases every year. Times are changing more than ever, people are living in single households. However, houses are getting bigger and people are taking longer commutes to work more and more. Dr. Bullamore explains that this happens because people want to be safer, or have better schools for their children but if these problems were fixed there would be no need. People also believe that living in the suburbs is cheaper which is true and that would allow them to spend more time with their families. However, people spend more time commuting “Maryland on average has one of the highest average commutes in the counties” this is a lot of lost time. Its gets worse, the average household spends 20% of their income on transportation, mass transit is an option but less than 20% of united states has well organized transit.

As Dr. Bullamore goes on about the money reasons people do not use public transportation and living in suburban areas instead of urban environments. He concludes that the most important thing for us to do, is to reduce our carbon footprint and that recycling is not enough. Matters that go into the size of our carbon footprint include: transportation, the size of our home, and even where our home is. Dr. Bullamore goes on to talk about traffic congestion and the problem of our city's making us auto dependent. He begins to compare and contrast the united states against japan. Given that Dr. Bullamore has taught in Japan for a number of years, he knows first hand what it is like to live in Japan compared to the United States. According to Dr.Bullamore Japan and United States have a lot of similarities, like we both pay property taxes and family sizes are getting smaller. However, Japan has auto regulations like being unable to purchase a car without proof of having a parking space. Japan also has mixed communities, apartment buildings next to single family housing in the United States this does not exist or it is very uncommon. Also the city density in Japan is much greater than in the United States, Dr. Bullamore gives some solutions as to how we can live sustainable, one being creating housing within urban areas like above store fronts. With this you are close to stores, entertainment and potential jobs, with less of commute this lessens your carbon footprint.

A program mentions by Dr. Bullamore is the Legacy Program, a program in which provides local governments or community organizations with funds for projects help strengthen communities through maintaining businesses and activities that cause attention to the city, causing more home-ownership and commercial revitalization.​

Environmentalism Old and New:Karahn Alston

The presentation I went to this evening was the Environmentalism Old and New. It was an overall great experience because I learned a lot and I believe i was to walk away with a ton of charitable information.I never was very into the environment but from everything I heard about today, makes me want to continue to let people know what I learned. The goal of this presentation was to focus on the  Examination of the Environmental Movements of the Early 1900s to now. The instructor was Dr. Schuster. One important person that was targeted throughout the speech was Teddy Roosevelt. She talked about the key principles which was development, scientific planning, and the prevention of waste. She even mentioned a very known quote that sticks to anyone who learns about Roosevelt: "The greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time" ties along with the principles because old leader produce and new leaders change. Roosevelt felt as though the government should be active more than anything. He also said the government should "counter bigness" because the government gets bigger and more complex.

Now I would like to talk about the reasoning for Roosevelt's plan. The ultimate goal was for expansion and that is because it would bring more money as well as more opportunity. The great thing about this was that the producers supported the conservation. With that being said, Dr. Schuster used a great example of this when she talked about the managed forests. It was in 1987 when the Forests Management Act took place. This act was the management of waster in the wilderness. So in 1902 46.4 million acres was being used and 6 years later (1908) that number increased to 195 million (26 million acres was used by Alaska).

Next I want to talk about how this led to a the transition from the old to new environmentalism. At the end of the 19th century there were no federal agencies for soil, wildlife protection, government ownership and management . So the primary goal was for commodification. In the 1980's there was a different principle radically for example government ownership and management.  This all happened because in the 1953 the air pollution in New York City causing 200 plus deaths. This led to the environmental movemental "power of the people". A traditional day for this is what we know as 'Earth Day'.

To conclude my experience with this speaker. The issues during the 1900's changed a lot. This opened my eyes to know that technology became an issue for the environment. This makes me think of how bad factories can make our world. The government does what they have to do to continue to bring money in but i do not believe they do a lot to make the world a safer and cleaner environment. This presentation was very good because it helped me notice the goals of certain leaders how their changes and beliefs made a difference. This can make me want to pay more attention to what goes on because environmentalism can easily destroy the world we live in.





http://environmentalhistory.org/
https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/hisnps/NPSThinking/nps-oah.htm

Environmentalism: Old and New

On Monday, April 17, 2017, Dr. Schuster held a informational session for Focus Frostburg about the change of perspective of environmentalism over the years. During this session, she explains how and why the idea of environmentalism has changed through consumers and producers.

During Theodore Roosevelt's presidency, she explains, "this is the first wave of the movement where the leaders were the producers". This is because at the time, Roosevelt pushed conservation. This means constant use of natural resources to make money for the government. This became possible because the principles of conservation includes development, scientific planning, and prevention of waste. Since the government was in control of natural resources, it became easy to use as much as they want to make money.

(Here is an image of Dr. Schuster explaining the principles of conservation)

During the mid 1900's it started to become more apparent that the environment was becoming a problem. People began recognizing this and started to come together and speak out about America's poor habits. This began the environmentalist group. According to Dr. Schuster, "Environmentalist could include mothers who see that their drinking water looks like crap". In New York City, 200 people died because of the polluted air. There is also photo evidence of kids being washed off with DDT, which is a pesticide used largely around America. This is just a few of the gruesome things Americans did during this first wave of Environmentalism. 

Environmentalism came about as a response to conservationalism. On April 22, 1970, a group started "Earth Day". This became the beginning of the environmental era. After this exploded nationwide, perspective began to change and the people who were once at the bottom of the power totem pole for the environment quickly shot to the top. This power shift became and now the government wasn't the forefront of environmental awareness.

With this shift of power, the consumers of America such as the middle-class became the face of awareness. Groups such as "hippies" became very prominent with their ideals of protecting the Earth and its natural resources. Because of this shift in perspective, we still have things such as the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Park. If Americas direction was still conservation, many parks or "wilderness" would've been cut down in use for product and profit. Resources will be used in spurts until their is eventually no more left.

Ultimately, Earth Day has made a major impact on the lifestyles of many Americans and has benefitted the ecosystem tremendously. There is now an endless amount of propaganda, events, groups, and advocates for the environmental movement to help better our living conditions. 

Below is a link provided that more in depth describes Earth Day and its history. This is important because it shows which actual Acts and other events that pushed people to come up with Earth Day. It also goes into the current issues and events that are going on in 2017.Their is also tabs where you can buy Earth Day paraphernalia, donate to a great cause, or even enter a blog with many people who are also fond of the topic. 

http://www.earthday.org/about/the-history-of-earth-day/