Final Impression

My first impression of Colloquium was that it was one of does classes that you don’t really learns anything and you just have to get over with, but I was wrong. Colloquium has offered me with a great education on the many issues that we have brought upon our earth. Also it gave me a better understanding of why my parents always are trying to encourage me to live a more sustainable live. Al my assignment where very educative and I was able to visit places I would of never visit. The only suggestion I have about the field trip is to create some kind of group project, that way we are not force to attend to this places by ourselves. It also can open the door to meet other people and have a more of a classroom environment. I also enjoy the place where I did my service learning hours, I like that you provided a range of opportunities to have them done. I also decided to do the rest of my hours at the Garden of Eden. Personally I love the book “A Land Remembered” it has being one of the first book I could identify with the setting and also with the characters. I guess I always wonder how my live would of being if I was born back in that time. I love all my assignment due to the educative content in them. At the same time, I was very pleased with the information offer by the different articles, books, and videos we had during the semester. Over all my perception of Colloquium was wrong from the beginning, but I think I just had to experience it to make an educated judgment on the class.

Sense of Place Interview

Unfortunately I didn’t have the chance to interview my grandparents, but I work with elderly people and I had the chance to meet John Dudash. He is a native Naples resident and has live in the town for the past thirty eight years. It gave me the opportunity to discuss the meaning of sustainability, how he found his sense of place in Naples, and also how education has change from his time to now.

One of the first things I ask him was what is his definition of sustainability? He looked at me confuse and then said, “In my younger days life was much simpler moms and pops shops was the only place you could eat or buy thing. An over WW2 my mom had a garden out in the patio, where she grew the greens for us eat and trade with the neighbors. As you know all the supplies need it to go over seas and at the local super market there was only so much you could buy. Everything was use to the fullest and nothing was left to waste. Senses then I have educated myself and family to only use as much as they need and buy only what they’re going to use, also always using resources and materials to the fullest. I still do the same to this day.” After he said this I was shock, I didn’t expect him to give such accurate answer and have such an accurate definition of sustainability life. Also it surprises me that he has such a sustainable life style.

I also ask him how Naples was thirty years ago and why is his sense of place in this town? He close his eyes, took a dip breath, and smile. Then he said, “Naples was the place to be if wanted to escape from society. There weren’t many shopping strips or house developments around and restaurant chains were unheard of at that time. But over the years the town has change and the main reason I feel that it is just like in the old day is doo to the fact we have keep our green areas and nature pretty well preserved. I guess people could keep it secret for long and over the year more and more people has move in. we have become a big city and have a attractive place for tourist to visit. But over all I have grown with Naples and as I came to my old age I would change this town to live any were else. Plus I haven’t had mortgage payment over 27 years and I live in the same street over 37 years”. It wasn’t the first time I heard someone talk about Naples this ways and it shows me the self of place Mrs. Dudash and may other resident have build over the years of seen a town change, without taking away its original beauty and nature.

Then he asks me the nature of my questions and why I had to take colloquium to be able to graduate. I explain to him the mission of FGCU to educate the student about the environment and how to live a sustainable and healthy life style for nature. As he leasing to my explanation he said, “I wish we had that opportunity when I attended school instead of learning how to live efficiency and sustainable by life experiences. Over all I thing is a great opportunity for you to learn what we have cause to the environment and maybe contribute to find a solution before there is no turning back.”

I agree with him thanks to this class I realize there are a lot more things I can do to help the environment and live a more sustainable life style.

Sustainability

I work at a cardiologist office in the billing department. Every week we receive payment from the insurance companies and I think they are a waste of paper to produce all this statement, check, notifications, etc. In my opinion one of the main problems in our environment and the world is the unnecessary use of resources by business and society. The events of an ordinary work day made me open my eyes, as I came in to work I went to empty the PO BOX and I see an outrageous quantity of letters. As I pull and open each one of them I came across many checks for the amount of one cent. This company use of their resources and the resources provided by the environment doesn’t seem to be too sustainable. One of my first observations is the amount of men power and financial cost to send out a check for a cent seems useless. Producing a check for a cent is more costly than the actual economic value of the check. But my point is not the way of the corporation wasting money, I want to illustrate the amount of paper that this insurance companies use to seen useless information. They wasted all this paper to inform the providers when they can be more ecological friendly and use email to do perform this activity. Also the paper they use is folded in such a way that can we reuse in the printer. Over use resources is an activity every person, corporation, and society have engage over the years. The over use of paper is an activity that contributes to deforestation. According to National Geographic deforestation contributes to approximately 1 species per year from mammals and birds which extrapolate to approximately 23,000 species per year for all species. Also it is used as, or sold, for fuel or as a commodity. The removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has resulted in damage to habitat, biodiversity loss and aridity. It has adverse impacts on the atmospheric carbon dioxide. Deforested regions typically incur significant adverse soil erosion and frequently degrade into wasteland.

Naples leaders look at options to buy land in city for preservation

It seems like the city on Naples is pushing to purchasing private down town land to use as preservation land. The city argues that the price of the land is over 16 million dollars. Which I don’t think is not much when we are talking about Naples. The other side to this issue is that some of the city council members want to use the land for different purposes. They have lost their sense of place and the importance of nature for a city. I think the city of Naples should buy the land and use it as green space, for a park or a preservation land. It's not like Naples can't afford the land. The other side to this issue is the lack of cooperation of the owner that refuses to sales the land. In my opinion if the owner doesn’t want to sale it to the city is, they should use eminent domain to take it from the owner. The land is good for the city of Naples and it can be eye opener for the many residents trying to get take away the vegetation, green spaces, and build bigger houses. Many of the residents make decisions whit out thinking of the consequences of pushing nature out of its natural habitat.

You can find the original article at:

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2010/apr/01/naples-leaders-look-options-buy-land-city-preserva/

Urban area and local history museum or Fort Myers and Southwest Florida Historical Museum

On my field trip to the historic district in down town Fort Myers was a great experience. I had never being in down town during the day. It was great seen how the mix modern architecture and the old buildings to keep the historic portion of the city alive. Although they did a great job mixing history with present I think a lot of the meaning behind is lost do to people don’t being able to appreciate the historic value to South West Florida. On my visit to I was able to see the replicas of the votes use by Christopher Columbus in his expedition to America, Pinta and Nina were on the doc for people to see. I also try to visit the museum, but it was close. But I had the opportunity to see a replica of a house that pioneers’ use to live in. It was very interesting to match the description of the house built by Tobias Maclvey’s in the novel “A Land Remembered”. It kind of put this in perspective of how good our housing and buildings are now. Going back to downtown the court house was the only building that has keep original and in a way I feel they lost their sense of place. Losing the historic part of the historic portion of the city is like getting rear of it completely. In my opinion they should of keep downtown away from the historic district. For the fact that modern court, police department, jail, and governmental buildings can be relocated, but history doesn’t don’t have that capability.

Energy Usage

a) USE OF ELECTRICITY FOR 24 AHOURS:

Ceiling fans, A/C: 3 to 4 hours

Hot water heater for showers: 1 hour

Laundry: 3 hours

Microwave: 10 to 15 min

Computer: 2.5 hours

Cell phone charger: 7 hours

I-pod charger: 6 hours

Surround Sound: 2 hours

Television: 2 hours

b) METER READING

We use about 38 KW every 24 hours.

c) THE POWER COMPANY’S

The company that provides my house with electricity is Florida Power & Light (FPL). When I called FPL to ask them the source of the energy they supply comes is generated by the use of Natural Gas. They also stated that they are working on innovating and environmental friendly resources to provide the public with cleaner and environmental friendly Florida Power & Light Company plans to meet anticipated customer growth and the increasing electricity needs of its customers with a strategy that focuses on fuel diversity, advanced technology, energy conservation and renewable energy sources to improve system reliability and help stabilize future power prices.

d) DRIVEN DISTANCE:

I drive about 42 miles in a day that I have to go to school and work.

I drive 7 miles from my house to work.

I drive 21 miles from work to school.

I drive about 14 miles from school back to my house.

All of my trips only included one person.

Last year I drove about 14567 miles, including a few road trips.

f) TOTAL CARBON OUT PUT OF MY ACURA TSX

According to www.fueleconomy.gov the carbon foot prints, Carbon release, and fuel use of my car is as follow:

Cost to Drive 25 Miles	$3.48
Fuel to Drive 25 Miles	1.14 gal
Cost of a Fill-up	$47.09
Miles on a Tank	339 miles
Tank Size	17.1 gal
Annual Fuel Cost*	$2088

Annual Petroleum Consumption
(1 barrel=42 gallons

Annual Tons of CO₂

8.3

g) REFLECTION:

After I record my findings I believe the average energy consumption of my family and myself fairly average, but I really couldn’t find anything online to compare it with. I was also surprise to see that the ratings of my car to be in the middle. Meaning is not too efficient or to harmful for the environment. After this small experiment I have decided to find more ways to be more proactive in reducing the amount of carbon being release to the environment and help reduce my energy and fuel consumption. Like I mention before I started to carpool to work. I also only use my car if is necessary. I have bought myself a gas scudder that use to go to the store and gym that consumes less gas and the carbon foot print is very small. I also walk once in a while, but where I live the places are not to close and do to work I don’t have much time on my hands to spare. I hoping I can encourage some of my neighbors and family members do the same and hopefully become part of de solution and not the problem.

Corkscrew Swamp

Corkscrew was a great place to visit. I never knew that such a place existed so close to Naples. It never crossed my mind that in Naples there was still people that didn’t think about expanding and clearing the land for new development existed. Corkscrew was name after the imperial river. This land was bought by a corporation name National Audubon, with the main mission to preserve land that the mankind has not deforested. Corkscrew preserved has trees from 500 to 600 years old tree. It also contains the largest stand of virgin bald cypress in the world. The day I attended Corkscrew I had the opportunity to see many birds that migrate to our area just like the old people in Naples. The main species of corkscrew is the wood storks, but this year they didn’t stay do to the high water. The water level is very important for them to feed and reproduce. They also had a very interesting water purification system call the “Living Machines”. It uses water, sunlight, bacteria, plants and animals to treat and clean wastewater to make it suitable to recycle back into the toilets.

As I walk on the trail I could tell the difference in the air and how calm and patient the life of nature is. It also gave me the opportunity to answer my question: why so many people throughout history have decided to leave all the material things and experience nature to de fullest? The answer is simple after being at Corkscrew for a few hours I realize that nature makes you take things easy and it has no rush to move or go away, we are the number one enemy to nature and that needs to change. The trees are 600 years old and they look no older than 20 doo to the passive and relax environment they are located in. But my dream was ruin when it came time to live and go back to the fast and stressful world we live in. Therefore, if I was ever given the opportunity to leave the city and experience nature I would take a chance and have my own look at nature.

Environment in the News. Combustible Ice

It seems like China has developed a new source of energy. It goes by the name of “Combustible ice," or natural gas hydrate, which is mainly found in deep sea. According to the article, one cubic meter of "combustible ice" equals 164 cubic meters of regular natural gas. This resource has also shown a very low emission of gases to the environment and according to the article the Qinghai Province, home to one-quarter of China's total reserve on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The head of the Chinese cabinet Wen Jiabao said, “In his government work report on Friday that China would work hard to develop low-carbon technologies, as well as new and renewable energy resources to actively respond to concerns about climate change.” In my opinion it’s a great alternative energy source for this part of the word do to their lack of resources and massive population issues. It also offered the opportunity to create a healthier environment for this country. It also shows the good will of this country to help the environment and develop cleaner energy sources when they still have time to fail and can rely on their currently implemented ones. This represents the first step to solve the issue of highly polluting energy sources we have around the world, which grows every minute and we haven’t adapted or found a solution to. Doing more research and learning the advantages and disadvantages to this resource is the key to producing technology to utilize the use of it. Even though it’s a fairly new discovery it has a high prospective for this country.

You can find the original article at:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-03/06/c_13200033.htm

The ocean

The ocean is one of the largest living systems in nature. At the same time is the one that we are harming the most. Carbon monoxide trap in the center of the earth has accumulating in the ocean over centuries, but it’s not staying there. It’s being released to the environment due to the rising temperatures in the water. Over fishing takes away from the natural habitat and creates instability of itself. We take away life from the ocean and all we put back is waste and devastation in to this wonderful and amazing system. We need to take action and be more responsible of our waste. Water is one of the most abundant resources in earth, but it won’t be long before the damage that we have done to it is irreversible. Swimming in the ocean has become a health issue in some parts of the world. We have forgotten water is one of the primary needs to live, without water life is not possible. We are destroying one of the most wonderful sources of live. I think is time to put in to action our brains and think outside the box. Be realistic and take a stand. I want to see my grand kids and their kids grow in a healthy environment and at the same time enjoy the great refreshing filling of visiting the ocean and swimming in it. I don’t want it to be just a memory of resource we are using as a waste field. Corporations and industries bring pollution in to the water and seem not to care much about it. I bet all they care about is how much money they are going to make in the stock market this quarter. What ever happened to ethical decisions and caring about our surroundings?

Calculating your Ecological Footprint

Before I took the test I was very confident that my consumption and life style wasn’t normal. After taking the text I realize that there are drastic measures to take to make my life style healthier for the environment. My score was 17 and it would take 4.3 Planet Earth to sustain my life style through time. This is bad for me and my family, for the simple reason that as time passes it would take more resources to sustain me and future generations of my family tree. I have already started making some changes which include:

· I make sure the garbage is distributed correctly by separating the recyclable materials from the garbage.

· I bring my own bags to when I go glossary sopping.

· Only use my car if is really needed or I carpool with other people.

· I also try to use electricity as little as possible.

· Wash my car only if is necessary.

· I change all the light bulb in my house to energy efficient ones.

· Reduce the time I send in the shower.

I have evaluated myself and I know I need to change and I’m willing to change my life style to promote a sustainable planet. I know there is a need to change, for the fact this is an issue that has no solution, all we can do is learn how to manage our self better to adapt to live with it. We have forgotten we only have one earth and we need to take care of it. I’m also trying to change the way I approach usual activates that require the use of natural resource. I also have taking the responsibility to educate my family and friend of these issues and make them aware that we need to change to preserve the earth for our future grandchildren and their kids.

Food Intake/ Packaging

a.	Food	Drink/Quantity	Quantity	Preparation	Total Calories	Item/Source
Breakfast	Cup of Coffee 2 Slices Bread With Whip Cream	Milk/8 OZ	Recommended Serving Size		410 Calories	Bread/Thomasville, GA Milk/Seattle, WA Whip Cream/Northfield, IL Coffee/Colombia
Snack	1 Banana	None	One		172	Imported From Ecuador
Lunch	Turkey Breast On 2 Slices Of Bread	Water/16.0OZ	Recommended Serving Size		245 Calories	Turkey/Northfield, IL Bread/Thomasville, GA
Snack	Protein shake	Milk/12.5 OZ			220 Calories	Protein Supplement/Denmark
Dinner	2 Cans Of Water Base Tuna Lettuces Salt and Pepper	Water/16.9OZ	Recommended Serving Size		145 Calories TOTAL=1192	Tuna/San Diego, Ca Bread/Thomasville, GA Lettuce/Charleston, SC

Reflecting on my daily diet I have notice that a lot of the product I purchase and use come from very far away. It makes me think how much gas the truck that transported them had to use, and also the gases that emitted to the environment. My food choices are sustainable at this point in time for the fact we have the means and the ways to transport them, but in the future this may change. The need for greener distribution chains that do not affect our environment; if this was the case I would have to change my diets and become a vegetarian I can always learn how to grow my own food.

b.

Item	Package
Cell phone	Cardboard Box, plastic Inserts, Wrapped In plastic
I Touch	Plastic case, Seal With Tape, Plastic and Paper Inset
Lunch	Reusable Plastic Container
Mail	Paper Envelopes, Plastic, Double Sided Tape
Groceries	Plastic, Paper, Reusable Ziploc Bags, (I take them home in Reusable bags)

I’m sure that the ecological impact of making some of the item I sue in a daily bases have taken a lot of water and energy to produce. But I have become more concern about the environment and I’m trying to reduce my ecological foot print by reusing some of the bag and paper I received in the mail. I being trying to be more environmentally friendly for example, I take my own grocery bags to the super market. I have also notice that many stores and super Market are using paper and eco friendly bags, which makes it more convenient for the consumer and healthier for the environment.

Water Rights and Water Usage Reflection

The idea of rerouting water resources to create an electricity source is a great approach to cut down on the use of fossil fuels and dependency from foreign oil, but water is a resource that should be free no matter the occasion. It’s one of the most abundant resources on earth, yet the one that takes a greater abuse from society. Also he is looking at his project as a business adventure instead of an environmental solution to a problem we have brought upon our selves. No one should have the right to control water or decide the price of such. They want to reroute water to create electricity, you should have some benefit over this. If water runs under your property I believe you have some kind of owner ship over it. As a property owner you have a saying on the decision, benefits, and outcomes of this innovation. This project not only impacts the resident, but also can impact the wildlife. Taking water from ancient aquifers beneath Texas and rerouting it can create shortages of water in their natural environment. It may be that some of these animals are use to a certain water supply in the field and we decided to take it away or decrease it. Where would this animal take care of their thirsts and refresh them selves in a hot day. The article states that he is guarantying that no one is going to be left without water, but that the water shortages in other cities would be much less thanks to this. I completely disagree that one man has the power to decide what to do with such a precious resource. We already allow large corporations to control the oil and its price. I hope our society is not going to commit the same mistake twice. On the other hand I don’t really believe we would have a situation like this arise in Florida, for the fact that we are a very conservative state, surrounded on three sides by water sources. We don’t support or like change. Therefore the chances of something like this being developed in Florida are very small. Over all it’s a great approach to a better environment, but there is a lot of ethical dilemmas to work out in this project.

b) List your daily Water Usage:

Consumption of Water on Saturday

Dishwasher: 1 wash

Toilet: 1 Flush =1/2 bucket

Washer: 1 wash =20 gallons = buckets

Washing the car: 28-30 Buckets

Washing the stairs: 12-15 Buckets

Shower: 8-15 buckets

I’ll be honest I never noticed I use and waste so much water on a daily bases. For example I never realized that to wash my car would take so many buckets of water, I usually let the water run while I was soaping the car. Thank to this experiment or observation I realize I was wasting a precious resource that we don’t have great amounts of. I have decided to cut down on the amount of times I wash my car in a month. At the same time I have to create a better schedule to wash my clothes. I wasn’t aware of the amount of water being wasted when I don’t fully use the washer to capacity.

Future of Food

My favorite snack is Oreo Cookies

The ingredients are: Sugar, Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate {Vitamin B1}Riboflavin {Vitamin B2}Folic Acid)High Oleic Canola Oil and/or Palm Oil and/or Canola Oil, Cocoa (Processed with Alkali)High Fructose Corn Syrup, Baking Soda, Cornstarch, Salt, Soy Lecithin (Emulsifier)Vanillin - an Artificial Flavor, Chocolate.

The ingredients come from:

According to Kraft Foods North America, while the main ingredient the cocoa comes from South America and Africa. Oreos are manufactured in New York City, where they have their home base. Some of their ingredients are grown in houses (artificially made). Kraft refused to disclose the precedence of most of the ingredients used to make these wonderful cookies.

My favorite snack travels from New York to get to me, during this process I’m sure the transportation company used up about 80 gallons of gas. I was not able to get an exact number, for the fact that when I called the company they refused to provide this information to the public. They state that they are working on a more environmentally friendly distribution chain.I also feel that not only Kraft Foods uses fossil fuels to produce and distribute their product and service. Every manufacturer needs to be more concerned to the harm being done to the environment and take action.

As they stated in the movie “Future of Food” we have focused our selves to produce and push as much products as we can. We have become a society focused on accumulating and tying up resource.

In my opinion I think consumers have to be informed and always exposed to the different ingredients of their food. We don’t always make the healthiest choices, but it’s only fair to be conscious of what we are putting in our bodies and where it comes from. This activity made me realize the harm that we do to the environment by not growing our own food. As the film “Future of Food” said we have lost our farming skills and replaced them with chemical fertilizers, and it’s very true we have turned to artificial and processed flavored foods. Food these days comes from a chemistry lab saturated with chemical components that gives our foods taste and size.

The “Future of Food” film gave a better understanding of how we have lost the true meaning of growing and sustaining ourselves with the products from earth. We take more resources from the earth than what we put back. We have done irreparable damage to our land and we still haven’t taken any action to make a permanent change towards a sustainable way of producing our food.