Tyler Nay

Rouzie

Eng 308J

3-18-11

Ethical Epiphany

What exactly are environmental ethics, and do I have any? Before taking this course I always thought I was environmentally conscious, but realize now I was living the same lie that most people do today. There is a major difference between caring about the environment and actually working to help it. Having environmental ethics is more than just caring about the environment; you have to change your entire lifestyle. I figure the only way to show you how my environmental ethics changed throughout this course is to take you through the ten-week epiphany I went through.

Prior to this course I always thought of myself as one of the more environmentally conscious group of people. My grandpa owns a 500-acre farm outside my hometown, so I practically grew up with nature. I loved being out in the fresh air, and experiencing the untainted beauty that the farm had to offer. I learned a lot about nature, and how to treat it with the respect it deserves. Also, while growing up my family always recycled, which I thought was natural for everyone to do. I can remember going to friends houses and going to throw away a soda can and asking where their recycling was. Just about every time they wouldn’t have recycling, and would tell me it was just too much work to recycle. I always thought that was weird, because it was a regular thing in my home. That is partly the reason I always considered myself on the better side of environmentally friendly. I thought that since I have recycled my whole life, that must mean I am helping the environment. Although recycling is very beneficial to the environment, I learned from this course that my impact on the environment is only minimally lessened by the simple act of recycling.

The Saving Place readings were a major contributor to the change in my environmental ethics. One reading in particular, “The American Indian Wilderness” by Louis Owens was probably the most influential on my change of awareness. In the writing by Owens, he too has an epiphany about the way he views nature. Owens writes about an experience he had with two elderly Indian women. While working as a ranger in the U.S. Forest Service, Owens had the job of tearing down an old dilapidated shelter in response to the Forest Service’s plan to rid the area of all human-made objects. Owens did so, and quotes “feeling smug about returning White Pass to its original state”(69) . Owens smug feeling soon turns to regret when he crosses paths with two women on his way out of the forest. Owens, being a ranger asks the two women where they are headed, and they tell him up to White Pass. They explain to him that they have been making the trek up there for years in memory of their late father who built the shelter with his own hands. The two women are from Indian descent, and tell Owens about how the land used to be “all our land” (70). Leopold, having Indian blood as well, feels terrible and confesses his actions. He expects the two women to be heartbroken and angered by the news, but their smiles never break. “They forgave me without saying it-my ignorance and my part in the long pattern of loss which they knew so well” (70).

Owens view of nature is completely turned upside down after his encounter with the two sisters. He says, “I began to understand that what I called wilderness was an absurdity, nothing more than a figment of the European imagination” (70). Owens blames the European way of thinking for the disconnect our society has from the natural world. He states that our Indian ancestors coexisted with nature, rather than try to control it as society does today. That was a real eye-opening moment in the piece for me. Nature is a beautiful part of us and if we lose that our world will not be the same. Society today views wilderness and nature as a getaway, instead of part of our home. People think that by fencing off a small piece of “wilderness” and giving it a name that we are one with nature. That is obviously wrong. The fenced-off parks that people call wilderness are more of a way to ease our guilty conscience for ruining the vast and fruitful land that is now becoming part of our past.

The documentary “Food Inc.” not only changed my view on environmental ethics, but also changed my eating habits forever. I personally found the documentary rather disturbing. I have a personal experience with salmonella food poisoning, so seeing the secrets of the food industry made me absolutely sick to my stomach. I still cannot believe the food industry can get away with such terrible and unbearably disgusting actions. I am upset with every aspect of agribusiness. Like mentioned earlier, my grandpa has a farm that has been in our family for three generations, and seeing the way big business treats farmers like him disgust me. Fortunately my grandpa was not drastically affected by the food industries antics. He slowed down his production many years ago due to his age and the fact that all of his children were grown and out of the house. I can almost guarantee that if he had continued his production the food industry would have somehow got their noses into it.

The major food production companies don’t care about the nutritional value or safety of their food. They are just out to make an easy buck. They are producing so-called “meat”, which ironically is barely meat at all. The chemically alter it to make it last longer, and to make it actually taste like meat. These also companies use extremely inhumane and unsanitary methods of production. Their animals are filled with steroids and chemicals to make them fatter, and are forced to live in small over-crowed pens their entire lives. That is in no way how our food should me produced. If everyone boycotted the big businesses of the food industry and started buying from local farmers, it would not only be beneficial to our health, but healthier for the environment as well. I understand that a movement as big as boycotting the food industry is somewhat unrealistic, but something needs to be done. These companies are ruining the environment and our health on a daily basis. The food industry needs a serious reality check in their ethics, and the only way for that to happen is to show them we can live healthier and happier without them.

The Earth Charter was a very inspirational piece. I absolutely loved everything about it. I felt it was a call to action to all human beings for everyone to open their eyes and do what is right. It also approached the issue of sustainability in a different way than I have ever heard. The Earth Charter, instead of focusing on the problems of one nation, stressed the importance of unity among all human beings. The Charter talked about how the earth is home to all humans, and that it is our duty to put our differences aside for the sake of protecting it. Reading the charter got me thinking. I agree fully with the fact that as humans it is our duty to protect the place that has given us life. Everyone is more concerned about who is to blame for our environmental problems, rather than focusing on a solution. We need to get away form the nationalistic ways of our past and start working to clean up the future. Pointing the finger of blame only fuels the fire of environmental destruction. People need to realize if the world goes down, we all go right along with it, no matter whose fault it is. One problem I see with the charter is that not everyone is as open minded as I am, and putting it into action will certainly be a challenge. But a challenge that will hopefully not only help the environment, but bring all nations together as well.

A sad truth is that most people ignore the damages that humans cause to the earth, and will probably continue to do so until it is too late. Our home is slowly deteriorating as we continue to turn the other cheek. Everyone can see it, but few people will stand up for what is right, and try to make a change. The Earth Charter is doing just that. It is telling everyone to put all of our differences behind us and look at the bigger picture. No matter how much we hate to say it we are all in this together. Our home, the earth is the one thing that breaks the boundaries we have constructed to isolate ourselves.

Though all of what I have learned about the environment and how we affect it, I’ve decided to make a change in my lifestyle. I have started paying more attention to the amount of energy I consume on a daily basis. Turning the lights off when they aren’t necessary, not falling asleep with the television on, and even taking shorter showers. I try not to buy bottled water, and use my Brita instead. Buying food is one of the hardest things to do while trying to reduce my environmental impact. “Food Inc.” was probably the sole contributor to my change in the way I eat. I was so revolted by what I learned about the food industry that I knew I would have to change my eating habits entirely. I have stopped going to fast food restaurants because I don’t support where they get their food. One nice thing about my changes in eating habits is that most of the meat I get is raised on my grandpa’s farm. He raises about three cows a year for meat and has them butchered at a local butcher. It’s nice to have fresh meat year round and no exactly where it came from and how it was raised. I will definitely continue to get fresh meat like what I have grown up on in the future. The difference is in the taste. There is nothing like one of my grandpa’s fresh steaks. They beat any steak house any day. It’s 100% fresh beef raised in a humane environment, which is exactly how it should be.

So, the question is what are my environmental ethics now? I can undoubtedly say that my ethics drastically changed throughout this course. Before taking this course I always assumed I was an environmentally conscious person, but in reality I wasn’t. I learned that it takes a lot more that just recycling some soda cans to stop my environmental impact. Throughout this course I learned the difference between what society believes says they are doing to help the environment, and what is actually happening. I realize now that I need to completely change the way I live. I use an abundant amount of unnecessary energy, and need to work on reducing my footprint. One problem with changing my lifestyle though is that I’m a college student. I can’t exactly afford the lifestyle needed to be entirely environmentally friendly right now, but have made a promise to my self and to nature that I will work at making the lifestyle change. One might think environmental ethics are something that you acquire over the span of your life, but my entire ethical view was turned upside down in just ten short weeks.

Work Cited

Catskills NY Real Estate. Web. 18 Mar 2011. .

Healthy Living. Web. 18 Mar 2011. .

Owens, Louis. "The American Indian Wilderness." Saving Place. Ed. Sidney Dorbin. New York: McGraw Hill, 2005. 68-71. Print

Education is the Answer.

So you’ve decided to pursue a career in speech therapy?

My name is Tyler and I’m a junior in the Communication Science and Disorders program here at Ohio University. I am writing you this to discuss a topic that is not closely related to the field of speech therapy, but with society getting a little “greener” everyday, the issue of environmental sustainability in the field of speech therapy will be arising in the near future. As the future of our society, it is important for new students like you to be informed and aware of the environment and the effect our daily lives have on it.

Now you might be wondering what exactly environmental sustainability entails, so I’ll give you a basic overview. The environment is a fragile entity that we often take advantage of. Everything we do has an effect of the environment. The cars we drive, our homes, even the foods we eat all contribute to the depletion of the beautiful world around us. Environmental sustainability is the issue of minimizing that exhaustion of our resources to ensure the future of the environment. We use an extraordinary amount energy globally and the world simply cannot keep up, so becoming environmentally sustainable is vital to the future of our planet.

How does the profession of speech therapy and environmental sustainability relate? Well, speech therapists often find jobs in a number of different institutions. Schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and rehabilitation centers are just a few of the many possible places of employment where speech therapists can end up. For this essay though, I’m going to be focusing on schools and what they are doing to become more environmentally friendly.

I recently did some research on a school district just a couple hours up the road from here that is taking steps towards reducing their environmental impact. Newcomerstown Schools in Newcomerstown, Ohio has recently finished a solar project that will greatly improve their energy consumption. The project, which was completely funded by grants not only benefits the school but the entire community as well. Two of Newcomerstown’s school building where equipped with solar panels, which combined produce enough electricity to power roughly 60 homes. The interesting thing about the project is that the power produced doesn’t go directly to the school. The way the project is set up is that all the power goes to the community, and in return the company that installed the panels pays 15% of the schools electricity bill. I think that is a great trade off because everyone benefits from it. Projects like the Newcomerstown School’s solar project give hope to our future. Schools use a tremendous amount of energy and the more effort schools put into becoming environmentally sustainable, the more educated children become on the importance of the issue.

Another great, environmentally friendly project some schools are starting today are student-managed gardens. These gardens give children a chance to get out of the routine classroom setting and learn how to manage a sustainable garden. One middle school in Berkeley, California has a pretty cool system set up. The children not only work in the garden, but they also harvest the crops they have grown and use them to make food. The educational benefits of teaching children how to manage a garden are huge. Those children are learning how to live sustainably, which is something that will only benefit each of them in the future. The Berkeley school is teaching their children a life-long lesson that many people today don’t know the first thing about. In the future when those children have their own homes they will have the skills to start their own garden and live a sustainable and cheaper lifestyle.

So there you have it. Speech therapy might not directly correlate to environmental sustainability, but the places of employment for speech therapists definitely have an impact the environment. As a soon-to-be speech therapist in a school system, I want to see more schools making changes like these to educate children on the importance of environmental sustainability. Children are the future, and if from a young age they are taught to be environmentally aware a greener future is immanent.

Sustainability in...Speech Therapy?

At first thought, speech therapy and environmental sustainability do not seem to have much in common. Speech therapy is a very exclusive profession that focuses mainly on one area: speech. Mostly a speech therapist works at a school, hospital, or a rehabilitation center, where they work with people who have problems with speech. The environment is not something speech therapists deal with on a daily basis. The most a speech therapist thinks about the environment is driving to and from work. So, how can speech therapy and environmental sustainability relate? Well, as mentioned earlier speech therapist often find their jobs at schools. Schools have a huge impact on the environment. All the paper and electricity they consume are just a few of the many resources schools consume on a daily basis. Now the next question is, are schools doing anything to lessen their huge environmental impact?

Newcomerstown Exempted Village Schools is a school district in mid-eastern Ohio that is taking steps to make their environmental impact a little smaller. It’s a fairly small district, with no more than around 100 kids per graduating class. The district is made up of four schools; two elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school. Newcomerstown Schools has started a project to help reduce the amount of energy they consume on a daily basis.

In mid August of 2010 Solar Vision LLC of Columbus began constructing and 800-panel solar array system for the West Elementary and High School. The project was completed in roughly a month with little to no problems. Solar Vision used an energy grant to fund the project completely. Newcomerstown Schools and community have nothing invested in it, but will have so much to gain. The elementary school was equipped with a 68 kilowatt-enough to power 23 typical homes, and a 128 kilowatt system at the high school- enough to power approximately 40 homes (NCT Green Power). Powering 63 homes in a small town like Newcomerstown is quite a big deal. The interesting thing about the project is that the power produced by the panels does not go directly to the schools. Instead, that power goes to the community, and in return Solar Vision pays for 15% of the schools electric bill- or about $25,000 per year. So, not only does the school benefit from the project but the community does as well.

Another similar project the school recently completed was a 100-foot wind turbine at the elementary school. The turbine was funded completely by a grant from The Voinovich School at Ohio University. The Voinovich School received a $100,000 dollar grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission, which in turn granted $45,000 of that to Newcomerstown’s West Elementary for the construction of the wind turbine. The 100-foot tall turbine with 23-foot rotors produces roughly 10 kilowatts of power, which goes directly to the elementary (NCT Green Power). This amounts to about $3,000 on annual electricity savings. The turbine is also equipped with a device that students can use to monitor the energy produced by the turbine. That is great because it gets the students involved with conserving energy at a young age.

Newcomerstown West Elementary has also recently integrated the NEED system of education in its curriculum. NEED is the National Energy Education Development Project. The NEED project began back in 1980 as a one-day celebration of energy education (About NEED). 30 years later the NEED project has branched out to thousands of schools across the country. The project was designed to educate young people about the environment and how to protect it. NEED recently aligned its entire curriculum portfolio to state science standards (About NEED). This meant that now teachers could continue to educate students about the environment, without jeopardizing their state-mandated curriculum. Bringing the NEED project into schools will only help society in the long run. The only way to ensure our future is educate the people who will be running it.

The environmental projects Newcomerstown Schools have begun should be a wake up call to all schools. Newcomerstown Schools project is the largest in a five-state area. That is shocking considering the district is also one of the smallest in the surrounding area. There needs to be more grants like the ones used in the Newcomerstown Schools’ projects. If all schools were given the opportunity to harness solar and wind power and use it to educate students our nation would be better as a whole. Starting the education of environmental sustainability young is key in that students will be brought up caring, and being educated about the environment.

Food Inc.

I found Food Inc. to be rather disturbing. I had no clue what our food industry has become. The fact that only four companies control where we get our meat from is ridiculous. I had never watched the film before, so I didn't really know what to expect. I knew a little about what it was about, but had no clue what was in store for me.

It upsets me the way the used for this industry are treated. Standing in their own feces their whole lives in over-crowded pins. It's ridiculous that animals can be treated so inhumanely. My grandpa owns a 500 acre farm, so I have grown up with animals. My grandpa's animals have always roamed his land. They keep his land healthy. They keep the grass from getting overgrown and they keep it fertilized.

The big business attitude and farming don't mix. The food industries need an overhaul. They can't keep doing what they are doing. It's not just the inhumane treatment of animals, but the way they treat their customers. They don't care if we get sick from the contaminated meat they give us, as long as they get that paycheck. It's disgusting. We as a nation need to stand up and fight back. When I buy meat I expect it to be meat. Is that too much to ask for?

Incomplete Draft

Leopold vs. Owens

The works of Aldo Leopold and Louis Owens have influenced our culture for years, and will certainly do the same for years to come. Owens’ The American Indian Wilderness and Leopold’s Thinking Like a Mountain are two pieces that show the writers deep love and respect for the environment they were devoted to protect. In both pieces the men write about a life-changing experience that transformed their views and understanding of the world around them. Leopold’s senseless killing, and Owens’s destruction result in each of the writer’s epiphany of the “true” meaning of wilderness.

Leopold, considered “the father of wildlife ecology” (naturenet), devoted his life to the conservation of the environment. He saw the land as a living thing, and strived to show this to others. In his essay Thinking Like a Mountain, Leopold tells about the day he saw a wolf die. Leopold and some friends were out eating lunch when a pack of wolves appeared just below where they were sitting. Without hesitation the group began “pumping lead into the pack, but with more excitement than accuracy” (89). The end result being the oldest, motherly wolf dying as the men watch. Leopold writes about “watching a fierce green fire dying in her eyes” (89), and how he realized then that wolf was more than just a wolf. It was at that moment that Leopold came to the realization of his, and everyone’s misguided view of the wild. Before watching that helpless wolf die in front of his eyes Leopold was a trigger-happy hunter like most of his comrades. Out killing for pleasure and the thrill of the hunt. “fewer wolves meant more deer” (89), Leopold writes. Not taking into consideration the importance of those wolves to the environment. Leopold talked about watching the senseless eradication of wolves all over the country, and detrimental affect of the predator-ridden deer on their environment.

The dramatic death of the wolf opened Leopold’s eyes to how interconnected the living world really is. Early in the piece Leopold writes “Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of the wolf” (88). This statement has a huge underlying message. Leopold is starting to explain his point that nature is one entity, and changing one thing can affect the entire ecosystem. He explains this when he writes about the damage deer will do to an environment if their natural predator, the wolf is eradicated. Leopold talks about seeing a mountain look as if “someone had given God a new pair of pruning sheers” (89), because of deer populations getting out of control. Leopold explains, “just as deer live in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of its deer” (89). A mountain run ramped with deer cannot survive. The wolf is needed to keep the system balanced.

Owens wrote of a similar experience in his piece The American Indian Wilderness. Owens’s experience did not involve the killing wildlife, but the simple destruction of an old rickety shelter. While working as ranger in Washington, Owens was given the task of tearing down an old shack in an area known as “White Pass” (69). He trekked the eleven miles to the shelter, where he began the task of dismantling and burning it to the ground. Owens writes about feeling “smug” that he had returned the area to its “original state” (69). His smug attitude quickly changes on his journey back down the mountain. Shortly after beginning his journey back, Owens crosses paths with two elderly women. The two, rather happy women tell him how they have been venturing up to White Pass every year to remember their father, who had built that now nonexistent shack a century ago. The two women are from Indian dissent, and talk about how the land used to be “all our land” (70). Leopold, having Indian blood as well, of course feels terrible and confesses his actions. He expects the two women to be heartbroken and angered by the news, but the smiles never left their faces. “They forgave me without saying it-my ignorance and my part in the long pattern of loss which they knew so well” (70).

Both Leopold and Owens share a similar experience. In both cases it takes the destruction of something for both men to realize the errors of their ways. For Leopold his realization comes from witnessing the death of a wolf. Watching the life leave her eyes made him realize how connected everything in the world truly is. He writes about the affect of the over populated deer on the mountain, and how important the wolf is to controlling this. He says that if the wolf isn’t there to control the deer they will ravage the mountain and ruin it’s natural beauty. Owens experience is very similar. After destroying the shack that was thought to be worthless, the two elderly women teach him the true connection that everyone has with nature. Finding out that the shack their father had built with his bear hands had been destroyed should have infuriated the two women. The fact that they were oddly unaffected by it is probably what hurt Owens the most. Through talking to the two women he realizes his view of nature was all wrong. He realizes that the wilderness he had come to know was wrong. Owens writes “Before the European invasion, there was no wilderness in North America; there was only the fertile continent where people lived in a hard-learned balance with the natural world.”

Work Cited

Leopold, Aldo. "Thinking Like a Mountain." Saving Place. Ed. Sidney Dorbin. New York: McGraw Hill, 2005. 89-89. Print.

Owens, Louis. "The American Indian Wilderness." Saving Place. Ed. Sidney Dorbin. New York: McGraw Hill, 2005. 68-71. Print.

But I NEED it!

Durning and Williams pieces really made me stop and think about myself as a consumer. Do I, being just one of billions, really consume enough to have an impact on the environment?

I consume on a daily basis. I can't function without that coffee every morning. I have a coffee maker, but why take up precious time to make my own when I can just buy one on my way to class?

I'm a bit of a technology geek. I NEED the latest and greatest. They came out with a new cell phone? Mine. That brand new Macbook Pro. Mine. If I don't have the newest gadgets how will I function?

Actually thinking about the amount of unnecessary "stuff" I consume makes me question my lifestyle. Thinking that since I'm just one person I don't really impact the world around me is foolish. That kind of thinking is the reason our environment is being ruined. We live in a society of take, take, take. We see it, we want it, we get it.

The simple things in life just don't cut it anymore. We aren't happy enough with having a family who loves us and a job that keeps food on the table. We need more. We have been taught our whole lives that money is happiness, and the things we can buy with it are even better. Everyone aspires to be the next Oprah. Not because of the great things she has done, but because she can buy anything her heart desires.

I'm not saying that working hard and becoming successful is a bad thing, but using that success to consume more than necessary is.

After reflecting on how much I consume, I want to make an effort to reduce it. I can make my own coffee, and get a reusable mug. I realize I don't need to be the first with the new technology. Consuming is something that everyone has to do. It's part of life. But being smarter about how we consume will only benefit us, and our future generations.

Are you kidding me?

"Today, there is no place in the lower 48 states farther than 30 miles from a road."

That is a quote from Ted Kerasote's "What We Talk About When We Talk About Wilderness". This quote not only got me thinking, but it made me a little angry. At first I almost didn't believe it. How could this really be true? Have we as a nation really tainted this beautiful place that much?

Indeed, there is a problem with the way we treat our environment. We have a misconstrued idea of our place on this earth. The fact that we have the ability to control where wilderness is and isn't doesn't make it right. We view nature as a "thing". As if it only exists when we want it to. Fencing it off and limiting where and when it can be experienced. It disgust me, and the more I learn about our pathetic "Holier Than Thou" ways the more enraged it makes me.

The fact is nature isn't something we can control forever, regardless of how big our egos are.

Lions, Tigers, and Bears

William Cronon's, "The Trouble with Wilderness" got my mind racing with thoughts and memories about how I viewed wilderness, and questioning whether or not my view was correct. I grew up in a very small town where there was no shortage of wilderness, or so I thought. Before reading Cronon's piece I thought of wilderness as being anywhere with trees and wildlife. I realize now, that is a very narrow way of thinking about something so amazing. Wilderness is more than just a place you will find animals and trees. Wilderness is a part of every person on this planet. Whether we believe it or not we have a deep connection with wilderness, deeper than most people realize. I believe it is conceded and ignorant to think, as humans, we are better than the very place that has made us.

The beauty and tranquility of wilderness is often taken for granted. I'm sure there are many people who have never even set foot inside a forest. The peacefulness that radiates from wilderness is what makes it great. I love taking a walk through the woods. Being out in nature walking among the wildlife, breathing in the fresh air and enjoying something so natural is a feeling you can't find anywhere else. As a species we should stop ruining one of the last natural connections we have with our earth.

Everyone talks about going green and saving the trees, but I feel it is put on the back burner most of the time. We are very "right now" kind of people. If we want something we need it right then. If we want a new mall, then we will just chop down ten more acres and build one. I find it mind blowing how we talk about saving the earth so much, but only if it means we don't have to lose our shiny new SUV. To me it's a joke. We are going to keep pushing and pushing until the earth finally pushes back. I don't think we fully have come to grips with how powerful the earth is. It is a living thing, and no living thing goes down without a fight.

So I leave you with this. What happens when the earth decides it's had enough?