Monday, March 13, 2017

Earth Stewardship

Sharpe
3/14/17
Earth Stewardship:
This week, we read a journal article called "Earth Stewardship" by F. Stuart Chapin, which was published in 2011. One of the arguments that the author mentions is that "people and nature have always been intertwined" (pg. 3). This statement, even though fairly simple, is actually very true. Most people, even today do not realized how contacted the two are. If nature is negatively affected by some kind of event, it would sooner or later negatively  effect the human race. One well known situation was the Maya Empire in Ancient History. A group of people that inhabited southern Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula. Long time ago, the Mayan Empire started to use Agriculture within the region. Which would mean the destruction of the rainforest, and the rainforest like climate within the region. As the population of the Mayan Empire increased, the demand for the agriculture like food also increased, which would increased in the destruction of the rainforest. As time goes on, it altered the amount of rainfall in the region. Ultimately devastating the agriculture of the region, causing the Mayan Empire to collapse.
Location of the Mayan Empire
(Author: Lynn Foster)

Another statement that caught my eye was that "global problems require solutions at multiple scales" (pg. 5). I do not believe that this statement is entirely true. One reason is that if there is an environmental issue that is happening in one nation, it would be very difficult, or virtually impossible to tell them to fix the issue. One great example is nations like North Korea. Countries like North Korea are very radical, and are idealized by a radical leader. There is no way that environmental groups to influence countries like North Korea. Simply, these radical countries are just gonna do as they please.
Area controlled by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea shown in green
Location of North Korea
(Author: Unknown)

Flag of North Korea
North Korean Flag
(Author: Unknown)

The last thing that also caught my eye was "community-based research is change-oriented research that engages local people in all stages of the research process" (pg.11). Just like the statement before, some people will not be willing to help out, especially if it is altering ones culture. And countries and people that were once colonized or controlled by European or Western countries, they tend to go against those nations. So if the people of these former colonized nations is again felt threaten by foreign nations, they tend to go against it. Making it difficult to get people to be environmentalist, or implement environment policies.
Countries and their colonies in 1898.
(Author: Unknown)

Reading Citation:

Chapin III, F. S., Power, M. E., Pickett, S. T. A., Freitag, A., Reynolds, J. A., Jackson, R. B., Lodge, D. M., Duke, C., Collins, S. L., Power, A. G., & Bartuska, A. (2011). Earth Stewardship: science for action to sustain the human-earth system. Ecosphere 2(8). 1-20.

No comments:

Post a Comment