Science and Humanities for a Better Understanding

       Often times as a Humanities major I hear that what I am studying isn't important. My ideas are dismissed when I speak to science majors as if what I have to say doesn't contribute to the conversation. From the conversations I have with them I know that they are not getting a well-rounded education because they only see the environment in one way. They might advocate for the animals without considering people or any of the other intersections associated with it. There is shift that is occurring when it comes to the way we look and think about environmental issues. We are no longer just thinking about animals as a singular from. People, landscapes, cultures, and bioregions are being taken into account. Interdisciplinary approaches to environmental issues are necessary and crucial for solutions. It allows multiple groups of people to come together to discuss what they know and put pieces together that link histories together. Although, the Environmental Studies program at HSU is fairly knew it is growing as more people acknowledge that environmental problems begin understanding social injustices.
      " Our belief that science alone could deliver us from the planetary quagmire is long dead." People who continue to believe that science is the answer to all the problems are not paying attention to the news. Environmental problems need to be dissected and pulled apart. For example, companies that are switching to become more eco-friendly. If I still had the mentality of a high schooler, I would see that as a great alternative to reducing greenhouse gasses. However, now I know that I am more critical of those types of scenarios. It has to do with green washing, economics, buzzwords, and so much more than what a person is fed. Social Sciences and Science majors need to unite and work together to understand the disparities that are systematically used to separate disciplines.



     

Carol Adams

    I enjoyed being able to attend this event. and listen to a whole new radical perspective. I do confess, that I do eat meat. It is an ongoing moral dilemma and conversation I have with myself when I am about to eat. I remember being offered duck by one of my roommates a two years ago. I declined and made an unpleasant face that she quickly responded to. She asked me, "You eat chicken... right?" I responded, "Yes." I forgot what I said afterwards but she told me "You shouldn't be eating things you can't kill." Those words will forever linger in my head. I am rather squeamish when it comes to killing anything, even a spider. Carol's lecture reinforced this in my head. Her lecture made me more keen in observing the different techniques restaurants use in order to get men to eat meat. Womyn are always sexualized and even when it comes to food. I think the most ridiculous example I've seen of this that she didn't show was a Carl's Jr. commercial. It was Ms. Turkey wearing a tiny swimsuit with turkeys on it while eating a turkey burger. I always think how much these womyn get paid to eat these ginormous burgers that are half of their face. Do they spit them out after they bite into it? Also notice in the commercial how this burger is part of the Men's Health Magazine. She used the term "absent referent"  when a part of either a womyn or animal is displaced and swapped for either animal or human. The absent referent in many of the images she showed was a womyn's face for a pigs. Most of the images she showed pigs which I found disturbing and enlightened all at once. I still can't fathom the fact that fast food joints out so much effort in making meat look manly and appealing by using the opposite sex. I am slowly switching and acknowledging all the associations that come with eating meat.

Community Brings Change

As humans we act in an individualistic and egotistical manner. If something is directly impacting our community and loved ones we quickly try to find a solution to the problem. However, when something is happening in a different country overseas we do not respond as quickly as we should. This will forever be a lingering question in my mind about any movement but especially the environmental movement. Environmental issues in whatever form they come in directly impact a group of people living in that area but also they have a domino effect. Oil extraction for instance, contaminates the water supply for that community like in Alberta, Canada or Flint, Michigan. Why is it thought that these issues are not publicized in the media until it begins to affect the rest of the continent or country? If people were aware sooner so much could have been prevented.
Naomi Klein highlights the importance and role that community members have in participating in environmental issues. The look of an "activist" is shifting into someone who no longer has to fit a specific mold. The general public has the notion that an activist depicts a hippie from the 60s. The reality is that the times they are a-changin'. The look of an activist as she describes, "look like everyone: the local shop owners, the university professors, the high school students, the grandmothers." Everyone is joining to fight for the struggle and for a better tomorrow. As cliche as it may sound one of the reasons most people choose to stand in the front lines and risk their lives is for future generations to be able to thrive.
Along with the shift in community, there has also been a shift of the people in the front lines. Women are partaking in the movement. Our voice is no longer being silenced by males who are notorious fro shunning us down. Traveling through different places where Blockadia is taking place Klein notices recurring themes and women being leaders os one of them; "...often [they] dominate the front lines, providing not only powerful moral leadership but also some of these movements' most enduring iconography." Women becoming leaders has some how sparked a reinvention of what movements look like. Is it women who are bringing the sense of togetherness that the environmental movement lacked? Klein mentions the old babushka wearing grandma who is rioting with everyone else with the caption "You know your government has failed when your grandma starts to riot." I would say that yes, women are bringing change through community. Toxics are affecting the future generation at an early stage, in the womb. "The various toxic threats these communities are up against seem to be awakening impulses that are universal, even primal-whether it's the fierce drive to protect children from harm, or a deep connection to land that has been previously suppressed."

An Interview with Dan Mar, local Permaculture Practitioner

My research paper has unfortunately interfered with my ability to attend guest speaker lectures, participate in student affairs, feed myself properly, or even go outside as much as I'd like to. Nevertheless, It has been an amazing adventure. My research project focuses on defining Permaculture as a social movement, an engine of positive change in the world. To compare and contrast the accounts of permacultural identity and practice found through my research with some empirical experience, I contacted local permaculturist Dan Mar for an interview. Mr. Mar owns and operates High Tide Permaculture, a consulting agency that works with all manner of organizations to improve their operations above and beyond regulatory standards, improve their environmental impact, and reduce the costs associated with getting started (permits, investments, equipment). Dan mentioned that he has worked for wide variety of interests: Timber harvesters, legal cannabis producers, local farms, prospective homesteaders, etc. In addition to his permaculture company, Dan is well-known throughout the local community for his application of permaculture techniques to his residence. My intent in going to talk with this man was essentially to learn his story - How does his company and his property influence his community? How does he regard the impact of his work? What attracted him to permaculture? Does he embody the principles permaculture literature espouses?

Dan graciously invited me to meet at his house and showed me permaculture in action in his front and back yards. Our session started with him explaining the ins and outs of his designs. His property was an exemplary piece of permaculture - not a square inch of yard space had not been utilized for some purpose. What really struck me about the experience, however, was how closely his words resonated with the concepts and ideals present in the permaculture literature I reviewed.

This is not to say that Dan regurgitated the same holistic doctrine endemic to the permaculture movement; On the contrary, the way he answered my questions came with his unique perspective and language choice. Additionally, Dan imparted upon me tidbits of permaculture wisdom that I had not come across in previous research. Two of my favorite comments he made that day were to stress the importance of acknowledging and bracing oneself for “The unintended consequences of intentional design” and how the “Beer Theory” can be used to make claims about structural decisions.

“The unintended consequences of intentional design” is a mantra I plan to repeat to myself, now that Dan has exposed me to it. The concept is as follows; No matter how well you plan and enact something, there will always be unexpected developments. Instead of fighting against this inevitability or ignoring it, Dan detailed how permaculture techniques are designed to creatively incorporate these hiccups as they arise.

The “Beer Theory” is Dan’s guiding principle towards economic and personal success. “How can I have more time to enjoy a beer with the people I love?” I found this seemingly casual response to my inquiries surprisingly deep after he explained how this "theory" is incorporated into the way he makes business choices, how he chooses to plant crops, and how it influences his valuation of time and money.

While Dan actively rejected the notion that his work is revolutionary, I would disagree with him. It was clear that he had a deep commitment and connection to his community, and was an active participant in positive social change. We first spoke about his garden, and he talked about the role his permaculture projects had played in forming connections with his neighbors. Dan lives adjacent to the community forest, and his residence is designed so as to work with the natural flow of water from the forest as best as possible. His laundry, duck pond, water catchment system, and outside bathroom were all connected and placed in such a way so as to passively replenish groundwater supply. He told me when his neighbors expressed interest in creating similar systems on their property, he used that as an opportunity to get to know them, educate them, and strengthen the relationships between them. Dan drew a connection between positive neighborly relations and ecological and social well-being.

His work as the head of High Tide Permaculture seemed equally revolutionary as his backyard, though you may have trouble getting him to admit this. In a nutshell, he exercises permaculture principles in his consultation work to overcome economic, political, and ecological obstacles present in his clients’ enterprise. I asked him if he had a common protocol to approaching each project, and he does: Objectively observe and collect data about the ecosystem in question, then hold a conversation with the owner concerning their goals - short term, long term, the works. Only after understanding both the conditions of the land and the interests of the human element does he begin the design process. No matter what the enterprise is, he stated that he always starts his design process by considering how water is incorporated into the situation. “Everything starts with water”. 

I think that Dan’s business represents the revolutionary potential of permaculture to bypass modern bureaucratic inadequacies in how business and government interact. Much like how the Hayes’ valley farm project demonstrated that permaculture can produce positive change without conflict through its’ experiment with Interim Use policy, High Tide permaculture bypasses the need for permits by integrating ecosystem functions into economic enterprise. In Dan’s words, “You don’t need a permit to draw water from a stream for your plantation if you don’t need to draw water from the stream”. In this case, he was talking about how he has helped designed cannabis farms to maximize runoff collection, store rainwater, and passively utilize groundwater storage well enough that they don’t require additional water supply. This is bonafide positive change - his job specializes in circumventing costly bureaucratic steps by going above and beyond the status-quo standard of excellence. All while saving money, time, and water.

I believe that the reasons why Dan does not think his work or his residence are examples of revolution are relevant topics of interest. For Dan Mar, this is a way of life. It is not something he has subscribed to, or labels himself by, it is simply the way he has chosen to live. His introduction to permaculture was his grandparents, Italian immigrants who made it through the depression like the majority of Americans at the time by using what space they owned to produce what they could. He does not consider his knowledge revolutionary because the principles of observation, cooperation, and adaptation have been present in human society for as long as human society has recorded itself. This mindset seems like a crucial component of the permaculture discourse - a vehicle for the positive attitude endemic to a movement centered on respect and community. Listening to Dan Mar speak confirmed for me that the essence of the permaculture mindset is one of confident humility; the notion that permaculture is merely practical application of careful, common sense.

On Carol J. Adams

I attended Carol J. Adams lecture on Tuesday, excited to listen about the Sexual Politics of Meat as I had recently written a paper on her Feminist Trafficking of Animals in Environmental Ethics. I really loved her slideshow, as some of her concepts were harder to connect and grasp, and with the help of the slideshow these concepts were made relatable. I have always been a meat-eater and her presentation made me question my own diet more than anything else I have heard of. I often think about my own personal habits as an Environmental Studies major, asking myself if I really “walk the walk.” I agree with Adam’s argument, but I continue to eat meat. This is similar to how I understand how terrible consumerism is, but I love thrift shopping. So how do I reconcile my love for an al pastor burrito once knowing that what I am doing is antithetical to ecofeminism? (I have a feminist tattoo). I suppose that the suffering of others and the cost of getting the ingredients for that burrito to me is greater than the joy I receive when eating the burrito. But my knowledge of how my burrito is harmful and antithetical is not predicting my behavior. I think that it is important to be critical on these aspects, but to not get bogged down on each individual action because that leads to nowhere. Maybe one day I will stop eating meat but I should never stop being critical of the world around me.

Shifting Perspectives

At the onset of reading the article “The Most Important Question Of Your Life” I almost immediately found holes in the assumptions made by the author, Mark Manson. He assumes that in order to achieve the various things that we want we must suffer and go through pain. For instance, he asserts that in order to have an amazing physique one must live “inside a gym for hour upon hour” while “calculating and calibrating the food you eat, planning your life out into tiny plate sized portions”. This is simply untrue. This vision of what it takes to get fit seems framed out of the endless advertisements for fitness related markets such as gyms and fad diet programs that are really just money making schemes. First of all, “living in a gym” is simply unnecessary for many reasons. Get yourself a bike and you’ll be building those glutes and getting your cardio (reducing your risk of cardiovascular disease) in no time. Not to mention you’ll be saving money on gas because it happens to be free to ride a bike while also eliminating the carbon emissions from your gas powered vehicle. See, two birds with one stone! While you may be sacrificing the amount of time it takes to get from point A to point B, the benefits of switching from a fossil fuel powered machine to a YOU powered machine far outweigh the costs. Everything in moderation of course but simply scaling back on the driving and supplementing your transportation routine with biking can only be beneficial.

We also happen to have access to one of the greatest feats of humankind- the internet. Youtube offers endless channels of motivating, inspiring, and qualified fitness and physical trainers with videos tailored to your needs be it beginner or advanced! Everything from low impact pilates, relaxing yoga, challenging kickboxing, or high-intensity cardio can be found online and the best part is- it’s all free and can be done in the comfort of your own home! Manson makes it seem like living a successful, healthy, comfortable life comes at the price of sacrificing SO much of our happiness and increasing the drudgery. Go on a bike ride around sunset, feel the wind upon your face and breathe in life. Then tell me how painstaking exercising/being active can be.

“Tiny plate sized portions”? Again, simply untrue for this “amazing physique” Manson briefly touches on. Learn to retrain your brain to choose foods that are grown from the earth and are minimally processed and you can eat as much as you want! These foods are packed with nutrients while being generally lower in calories than their processed, high calorie, low nutrient density counterparts. It is also encouraged by health professionals that you eat often to keep a strong metabolism (breakdown of foods to obtain energy) going throughout the day; increasing the bodies processing time and absorption of nutrients. These “hunger pangs” that Manson describes are again, unnecessary.

The point is, be creative in redefining your “sacrifices” and you may find you’re not only not suffering but thriving! We have gotten so used to experiencing our lives according to the status quo that we’ve forgotten how to define our own happiness. What is just as important as being able to define your own happiness is being able to define your own necessities. The perceived status quo is usually what prevents this from happening. Maybe the most important question of your life isn’t about what pain am I willing to go through but, “what do I really need to be happy?” This stuff? This job? This car? Or is it simply- this moment. This breath. This body which is composed of billions of cells that perform just as many tasks every moment in order to sustain the life within it. Life can be easily taken for granted and while I do believe there comes a time for tempering our indulgent habits I also believe in relishing each moment no matter what it’s outward appearance may be. Make a move not only towards a more sustainable lifestyle that serves the outer world, but also make moves towards a more sustainable inner world. It can be done with relatively little suffering involved and with that, I leave you with a quote: “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional”. -Haruki Murakami

Why You Should Vote In 2016: A Pedagogy of Hope

It is true we live in interesting times. From the volatile political sphere emerging out of this years’ presidential election to the threat of climate change fast approaching, we as a people need something to grab onto, and fast. In today’s world we are faced with no greater task than to rise up to the challenge of saving the planet. Saving it from the corruption that has become much of our politics which are motivated by greed and continues to kick many while they are already down. This is a reminder that nothing is apolitical, meaning environmental conditions that affect entire ecosystems are connected to political decisions like a ripple through a pond caused by one drop of dew. The governance affecting all countries and other areas of who gets what, when, and how they get it is essentially rooted in socio-environmental relationships which always involve a winner and a loser. That is why it is so important for Americans to utilize their democratic power to call out those who are winning at the stake of others who are losing. Losing in terms of human rights such as access to clean water, fair wages, unpoisoned ecosystems, and availability of nutritious foods just to name a few. Even with the onslaught of environmental problems we face today including environmental racism, poverty, malnutrition, exploitation, and war there is still beauty to be found. We must look to the victories of the past to remind ourselves that all is not lost and the possibility of a better tomorrow is already here within our reach. It is through the shifting of perspective in which healing occurs.

A quote that encapsulates the rising of American people as we stand side by side as our sisters’ and brothers’ keepers and will not rest until equality and justice is served; “The solidarity to share in others’ suffering, to sacrifice self so that other roses may bloom, to collectively struggle to replace the concrete completely with a rose garden is what I call audacious hope.” As a future educator, Jeff Andrade-Duncans’ essay on critical hope offered insight into the role teachers play in healing their students. By healing I mean “relieve undeserved suffering in communities” as he puts it, which is foundational to my pedagogy of hope. My pedagogy of hope involves self-transcendence. It involves seeing the forest for the metaphorical trees which represent us as individuals and standing together in solidarity. Demanding equality across all races, religions, political parties, genders, ethnicities and every walk of life. Standing up for what is RIGHT even if that means making yourself or others uncomfortable with discussions that need to be had. The old saying about never discussing religion or politics is outdated. These conversations need to be had in order to educate and inform voters and to open up pathways in the mind that have become stagnant through stubborn opposition and narrow-minded thinking. Our time is now. With every move you make dissolve the image of the self and begin to see the bigger picture. This picture includes every last living organism and it starts with you. The timelessness of cliched sayings like “be the change you wish to see in the world” stick because they are essential to making changes and improving lives. Not just for the billionaires or for those privileged enough to live according to the status quo of the global North but better for us all as a whole. We are all in this together and once we realize the power that resides within us nothing can stop the force that is calling for justice.

Vote for hope, vote for truth, and if nothing else vote for your right to exercise forgotten and unheard voices among the crowd. Vote for the ones who have been silenced and downtrodden throughout history and make a stand for goodness that says “enough is enough”. This election will be a pivotal point in history as we collectively work towards a sustainable future full of hope for us all. We have the power to make this change so let us exercise it. Regardless of who wins there is a movement gaining momentum across the country. A movement that transcends political parties and instead calls for justice to be served. It is time. Get registered in your county and educate yourself on the true intentions of the candidates. It is not so hard to hear the heart speak through the voice if you just listen carefully. Get ready, this year’s 2016 presidential election promises to be a big one.

Self Reflections as a Presenter...

Last Monday on the 25th of April I presented a 30 minute talk on our relationship with dogs in contemporary society.

Overall I think the talk went good and I am now in the phase on reflecting back on what worked and what did not work.

As I approach the end of my degree I am constantly asking myself what I want to accomplish in my career and what sort of projects get me excited. I think this is an extremely important question to try push myself to answer because I have found that when I am engaged and legitimately excited about something I tend to do my best work.

So what excites me? What makes the hair stand up on my neck, my breathe quicken and my palms sweat?

The answer...Public Speaking.
To be able to move people simply with your words, to cause people to feel things, and think critically, simply by the string of words and sounds that you have compiled together is magical. To me, a message delivered in the right way, by the right person, is almost as powerful as music!

So thinking back on my presentation I must ask myself....

Did I have people enthralled?

Did I make anyone feel anything?

Think anything critical?

My hope is that, yes, I did inspire someone to look at dogs differently or to think about the concept of speciesism in their daily lives.

All I can do is continue to work on my craft, and to continue discovering other powerful speakers that I can learn from and hopefully emulate one day.

I leave you know with a link to a video that started my burning desire to learn how to be an effective public speaker.

This reading of Sojourner  Truths "Aint I a woman" by Alfre Woodward is so powerful and I hope it resonates with you on some cosmic level

<3

Thoughts on Activism

Last night I had the opportunity to hear Van Jones speak. Jones shared his personal experiences and his journey from a small town in Tennessee to law school at Yale. From his closet office in Oakland where the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights was born to working alongside Prince on Green For All. From advising at the White House to hosting television shows for mainstream media. Much of what he said resonated with the conversations we constantly return to in our capstone class, as individuals committed to social change. These conversations on burnout, on despair, on the struggle.

Jones, throughout his talk, returned to the importance of hard work. He called out the misleading nature of the movie montage, where the protagonist of the film puts in about 30 seconds of hard work—runs some stairs, does some sit ups—and bam! achieves their goal. Life isn’t like that. If the movie reflected reality, most of the 90 minutes-2 hours would be spent training and struggling, with perhaps 30 seconds of glory at the end. Or not. Sometimes there isn’t that moment of glory, of achievement. As activists, we need to realize our lives aren’t going to be a montage. After coming to terms with that, it’s critically important to return to what Mark Manson talked about in his piece “The Most Important Question of Your Life,” and making sure that we choose the right struggle.

Another thing that Jones touched on that is especially pertinent is knowing when to take care of yourself. Burnout is a real possibility (probably an inevitability) for those of us who want to dedicate our lives to helping others and changing the world. It’s important to prioritize taking care of ourselves in order to tackle the issues we care so much about.

At the end of his talk, Jones discussed issues within progressive culture that are counter-productive to the goals social change. One of these is the competition to be the most righteous activist or to be the most successful change-maker. Conversations among activists often fall into a pattern of tearing people down for what they aren’t doing, rather than building people up for what they are doing. Jones expressed his frustration with this and his belief that real change is made when we take time to call people up, not call people out. I really appreciated his perspective and totally agree that effective movements are built on positivity and inspiration, rather than competition.

A final point from his talk that I want to bring up is the pedagogical pitfalls of post-structuralism. We spend all of our time learning how to deconstruct problems and dissect issues into all of their fundamental parts. As a result, we know how to “deconstruct everything, but don’t know how to reconstruct anything.” I wanted to stand up and cheer as soon as he said this. I often feel frustrated by the cyclical discussions on the nature of the problem. Believe me, I’m not trying to discount the importance critical analysis of social issues. To make change, it is necessary to understand the historical context of why things are the way they are. It is necessary to understand the social relationships and structures that dictate policies and perpetuate inequality. There must be time for talking about these things. But now it’s time to get shit done.