Rivers in the Bay and The Once and Future Delta

In the first article, I was surprised to read that most of the bay is shallower that 18 feet, even though we discussed this previously in class. I was also surprised that the prehistoric bay would, in fact, be a small creek due to the Ice Age rather than a larger body of water as some other sources suggested. This article really gave a sense of how ever-changing the environment of the San Francisco Bay is, and that although it seems like the current version of our bay is permanent, it will surely change over time as it has in the past. My question is how will it change? How will this change impact our environment?

The second article painted a very clear image of an abundant and ecologically rich ancient environment. It is amazing that this environment still serves as an incredible resource for those who live in it-hundreds and hundreds of years later, in some completely different ways than it used to. It also shows clearly how negatively industrialization and the introduction of technology impacted this ultra-rich delta. It is too bad that people couldn't recognize the value of the ecological systems already in place in the delta and the resources that they could provide without human interference. It is also incredible how quickly the delta changed in terms of tidal patterns, water intake and output, and general environment in a relatively short amount of time. I wonder if there is any way we can go backwards and at least somewhat return the delta to something that resembles more closely the ancient, ecologically rich area it once was. 

The greatest mistake humanity has ever made

Although I do think there are inherent flaws to the agricultural system that we have created, I think that it would be impossible to support the population we now have with any other system for finding or creating nutrients. If our population was going to grow, it seems that agriculture was a necessity. Perhaps the root of the problem is, in fact, overpopulation.
I also think that agriculture is not going to immediately kill us off as the passage seems to suggest. Perhaps we will slowly experience less nutritional intake due to genetically modified crops or depreciated diversity in the things we eat, but it will not be a sudden, deadly change. I also think it is a little over the top to allocate the development of sexism and classism to the creation of agriculture. It seems that these trends and traits would have occurred even without the creation of agriculture. I think that agriculture has to be at least a part of the solution to how we live our lives, but it must be altered and amended in order to be sustainable.

News Report Image

Here is an image of two of the conservationists! I couldn't figure out how to upload an image to the News Report blog.

My Environmental Footprint

1. My results for the footprint quiz were that it would take 4.67 earths for all people to live with the same lifestyle I have. This was actually not very surprising to me, as I had just read that the average American footprint is even more than that. If anything, I am surprised that my footprint was not worse! This does not mean at all that I am content with my footprint, just that I assumed mine would be higher than the average Americans because I live in a more affluent community than the average American. I was actually surprised that only the housing section of my footprint was higher than the average Americans. It is incredibly depressing that both my footprint and the average American's footprint are this high.

2. "Culture" is the societal patterns and behaviors that are created by an individual society or community. Some examples of culture are art, music, architecture, religion, and sometimes ethical constructs. In my opinion, culture is inherently connected to how we treat our environment. Throughout history, different cultures and civilizations have created community values as far as how they will interact with the environment. It seems to me as though the more modern the civilizations are, the less respect our communities seems to have for the environment. For example, we currently live in a very materialistic society that encourages wastefulness and gluttony. This is a very different social construct and attitude towards nature than the Native Americans had.

3. Overall, I was both horrified by how wasteful Americans are in particular. We are clearly burning through our resources far to quickly. However, I was also uplifted by the optimism of many scientists about how quickly we can turn this situation around if we all choose to live slightly simpler lifestyles.

My Environmental World View

I think that I fall somewhere between the "stewardship" and the "environmental wisdom" worldview. This is because I believe that we are completely dependent on the earth and its ecosystems, and are not above any other species, but I also believe that we have a unique opportunity and ability to positively influence our earth. I think that it is rather naive to say that we are completely equivalent with other species in terms of changing the outcome of environmental issues. We clearly have the technology and the intelligence to both do great harm to our earth but also to improve our earth and reverse some of the damages we have already inflicted. I think that I am more on the environmental wisdom side as far as learning the rhythms and cycles of how the earth works and using that to inform our actions. One section of stewardship that I do not agree with is that "we will probably not run out of resources." I think it is very clear that if we do not drastically change our actions, there is no way that resources will be available indefinitely.

Environmental Ethics

In my opinion, we are at least partially there in terms of establishing an environmental ethic. It seems as though, in accordance with Aldo's perspective, the only way humans seem to be inspired to protect land is if they are prompted by either legal or economic incentives. In this way, we seem to have made some progress as there are many more economic and legal incentives now to protect land. Many large companies, for example, are given tax deductions if they contribute to a non profit supporting conservation or balance out some of their carbon emissions with offsets in the form of protected forest land. So, in terms of incentives to protect land, it seems we have made some progress.

However, I do not think that the ethical values attached to protecting land have changed all that much. For many, the only incentive for protecting our earth is that global warming will hopefully be postponed and they can feel secure that their great-grandchildren will be able to live above water. For others, as mentioned above, land protection is purely an economic pursuit. There are certainly many people who passionately believe in protecting our earth, but no "community ethics" have been established, and to be honest, I doubt they ever will be. Our society is far too capitalist and competitive to be able to create a set of environmental ethics that large scale companies and governmental agencies could not find loopholes in. Sadly, it seems as though the only way to really protect our environment is to provide rewards or incentives for doing so.

As far as the article, I certainly agree that a set of ethics would be beneficial, but as I said above, I do not know how realistic a goal that is. I also agree that people have only ever been passionate or effective in protecting land when they see some sort of monetary value in it. Land has certainly been used, abused, and fought over throughout history, and I think it would be difficult for our society as a whole to begin again to see it as anything but a material possession or profitable investment. On the whole, however, I think that the article is a little pessimistic. I think that there is certainly a bright future for conservation and land protection, perhaps just not in the exact way he laid out.

My favorite environment

I couldn't find a recent photo of me here, but this is my favorite environment. It is my family's property in Sonoma, and I think this valley is one of the most beautiful places in the world.