"Allen’s aversion to nature, what can be called biophobia, is
increasingly common among people raised with television, Walkman
radios attached to their heads, and video games and living amidst
shopping malls, freeways, and dense urban or suburban settings where
nature is permitted tastefully, as decoration. More than ever we dwell
in and among our own creations and are increasingly uncomfortable
with nature lying beyond our direct control." This quote stuck out to me because it pretty much sums up where this generation is going. We are becoming more technological and are becoming extremely uncomfortable with nature. I for one can admit to being a part of this; I am very uncomfortable with nature and it's because I was raised in more of a technological environment than one that is a part of nature. This doesn't have to be the end result for everyone though. I have seen families ensure that their children can enjoy both the luxury of technology as well as be a part of nature and know its benefits and how to survive in it. I think it's best to have future generations to partake in both nature and technological advancements to make sure its not just one sided. "Compared with earlier cultures, our distinction lies in the fact that technology now
allows us to move much further toward total domination of nature than
ever before." It's an inevitable fact that we certainly have the technology to dominate nature or will have to power in the future to replace nature with technology. The part that scares me is that there are actual thoughts about this happening but this is not a good thing. With technology replacing nature, where would our natural resources come from? How would we know that what we are putting in our bodies is all natural? I feel if technology takes over nature, all food produced with more technological methods will become cheaper and anything that is really from nature will become way more scarce and more expensive, leading us to resort to the cheaper and unhealthier foods.
“Nature and I are two,” filmmaker Woody Allen once said, and
apparently the two have not gotten together yet (Lax, 1992, pp.
39–40). Allen is known to take extraordinary precautions to limit
bodily and mental contact with rural flora and fauna. He does not go
in natural lakes, for example, because “there are live things in there.”
The nature Allen does find comfortable is that of New York City, a
modest enough standard for wildness. This quote definitely stuck out to me in the beginning of the chapter and it had me thinking, why is nature and technology so separate. Why can't nature and technology coexist with each other, better yet can nature and technology coexist with each other, or are human being the reason why they cannot coexist. Nature and Technology both have their advantages and disadvantages, but humans always seem to side with either or and never seem to make the two coexist. This has been a war since technology was first introduced to the world. I then went on to do some research and came across this Ted video that explained that technology is basically going to replace and become nature. The speaker explains how with humans trying to ensure the protection of nature we might actually flood the world of technology instead.
"Sustainability means enduring into the long-term future; it refers to systems and processes that are able to operate and persist on their own over long periods of time. The adjective “sustainable” means “able to continue without interruption” or “able to endure without fail-ing.”1 The word “sustainability” comes from the Latin verb sustinēre, “to maintain, sustain, support, endure,” made from the roots sub,“up from below,” and tenēre,“to hold.” The meaning behind Sustainability has become very interesting to me, being that this is my second class where Sustainability is the primary objective of the class. Personally think Sustainability is something more school's should adopt and teach the students that are attending there because all Sustainability is, is making sure the Earth is usable for future generations. At the rate that we're going though, it might not look good for the future generations to come. Spreading Sustainability not only throughout the US but the world, might bring hope for a better sustainable earth for future generations.
MLA (Modern Language Assoc.) Robertson, Margaret. Sustainability Principles and Practice. Routledge, 2017.
APA (American Psychological Assoc.) Robertson, M. (2017). Sustainability Principles and Practice. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
"We live at the beginning of a new geological epoch known as the Anthropocene, a time in which human activity has become such a powerful force that it has major, planet-scale impact on climate and on every living system." For this quote it's actually just mind-boggling to me that we're living in a generation where humans have become such a major powerful force on Earth. Human's really control everything, one single wrong move by humans can set a chain of negative effects upon the world. For prior generations, it was nature that controlled the way human's interact with the world. It makes you wonder how the future is going to look. Considering that we're just getting started with technological advancements that have the potential to have the same power to change the world as well.
MLA (Modern Language Assoc.) Robertson, Margaret. Sustainability Principles and Practice. Routledge, 2017.
APA (American Psychological Assoc.) Robertson, M. (2017). Sustainability Principles and Practice. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. "In the early 1990s, two scholars at the University of British Columbia developed the idea of measuring human impact and comparing it with the biophysical world’s car-rying capacity, calling this approach the Ecological Footprint." I personally think that the invention of the Ecological Footprint, was the most important part towards making the Earth sustainable. Being able to track down what exactly is negatively effecting the Earth in your daily lives is a very important step towards Sustainability. I didn't notice how bad i was effecting the Earth till, I did a survey that tallied up all my daily activities and what exactly my ecological footprint is. After completing the survey I realized that my electronic devices were a huge part of why my Ecological Footprint was so negative. Being a IT major, I have a lot of electronic devices around my house and a lot of devices are usually just plugged in and not being used; so after completing the survey I made a change and decided to plug out any unnecessary devices that weren't being used as well as many other things to help reduce my footprint.
MLA (Modern Language Assoc.) Robertson, Margaret. Sustainability Principles and Practice. Routledge, 2017.
APA (American Psychological Assoc.) Robertson, M. (2017). Sustainability Principles and Practice. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
