During Wednesdays class the seventeenth, we were given an adequate presentation of Leopold’s ideas. His ideas on land ethic rang true with previous knowledge we have gained from this course. He noticed that humans were only using the rivers for transporting goods and for personal gain, never giving back. This method of taking from the earth and not giving back or replacing is not sustainable and eventually resources will run out for humans to use. This idea, similar to horticulture, is how the earth and humans have lived perfectly coinciding for thousands of years equally codependent. Now, people feel as if they are better and more superior to plants, animals, and resources of the earth, and want immediate gratification, Leopold explains. He wants humans to become equal to the earth once again. An example of this would be one that Dr. Gerry Segal mentioned in his later presentation on food growing. Thomas Jefferson, our third U.S. president was also a farmer at heart, anytime he would have guests over for dinner he would require they give back the nutrients they obtained while at his home back to the soil by using the outhouse before they left. Many people also compost material and scrap plants to go back to the earth to be recycled in a helpful way.

                Marjory Stoneman Douglas was an extremely inspirational woman. In her 108 years of living she recognized the importance of preserving a one of a kind environment in South Florida, The Everglades. A place that while she was alive was rapidly decreasing at a fast rate. Her efforts and work during a time where womens’ voices were hardly heard has been shaping in my pursuits for a better education and better stance on the importance of preserving wildlife. As the second group discussed in their presentation, there are so many unique features in this land that are not mimicked anywhere else in the world. If you live in Florida, and have not heard of this lady I think it is your responsibility to research her amazing life.

                Next, we had the privilege of watching a short inspirational documentary called Homegrown Revolution. It was about how a former hippie and his family, out of a need to feed his family non genetically modified foods, started a small garden of fruits and vegetables in his back yard.  Over twenty years of trial and error and educating themselves, on their small plot of land outside of downtown Los Angeles, their 1/10 of an acre plot not only sustains the vegetarian eating habits of four grown adults. Now, they produce 6000 pounds of food that they can sell to local restaurants. The chefs prefer this because they know where the food is coming from, their methods of organic farming create the most flavors, colors, and textures, they are growing so many different kinds of food to choose from, and it’s the freshest foods, like restaurants picking from their very own garden.

                The last part of the class our professor Dr. Gerry Segal, an avid food grower himself gave a helpful presentation on growing organically yourself at home. To see the PowerPoint of all his hints, tips, and methods for farming click here: https://elearning.fgcu.edu/AngelUploads/Content/201008-81027/_assoc/82DCF0F2E0A049FF9AD9FB9FB85FFB21/Organic_Vegetable_Gardening_2-26-10.ppt

A Journey to the Fourth "R"

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and... Recover! Last week our class explored a facility which services that fourth "R" - the Lee County Solid Waste processing plant. Our host surprised us with that fact that Fort Myers was recently named the most "sustainable city" in 2008 by researchers from Columbia University (results from 2009 have not yet been released). This honorable recognition is due largely in part by the process in which Lee County handles our solid waste. This waste includes your typical trash, other metals, appliances, co-mingled recyclables, and horticulture - up to 600 tons per day! Lee County is not home to any typical landfills, if you will, but instead chooses to employ the waste to energy system, where 43% of waste is reused, the remainder fueling energy production. The model for which is quite impressive. We were given a visual tour by way of a small model that illustrated this trash to turbine system, in which trash is pushed into a combustion chamber which reaches temperatures of 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. The energy then travels through an intense filtration system which eventually produces steam, driving a turbine. This turbine spins at an impressive 3500 rpms, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, producing 59 megawatts of power on average. Of course, not all trash will burn to ashes at this temperature, so metals such as aluminum and brass are collected, up to 20 tons a day, and are re-sold for up to $30k of revenue per week. The impact of which is far less harmful to the environment, as the end product, ash, totals 90% less waste by volume!

Unnecessary!

Not only does the facility help reduce common household trash waste, but also addresses the ever worrying tire landfill issue, as it processes tires within the same system without the need for cutting the tires to pieces first. Homeowners even have the option of placing up to two tires per week at their normal curbside pickup, at no extra charge. Speaking of charges, this system ends up costing the home owner a shockingly low amount of $4 per week. This includes trash pickup, an ingenious co-mingled recycling pickup, and even free appliance removal with proper notice. These appliances are retrieved by designated trucks once a call to Lee Co. Solid Waste has been made, and are taken to the facility to be wrapped up on massive pallets and shipped to appliance recycling centers, also providing the county with substantial revenue. The newest addition to the recovery process is the Lee County hazardous waste facility, only 1 of 2 counties in the state offering such a service. The central location has seen great success as they average 1000 drop offs per month.

Fonts aside, that bottom bracket just feels bad.

Now while theses services are far ahead of most counties, or states, for that matter, the numbers still add up to a troubling amount of overall waste being produced. It was brought to our attention that the U.S. population totals just over the 300 million mark, while countries such as China and India are home to over 1 billion each. Now the planet as a whole is home to over 6.7 billion however the United States produces 25% of the worlds trash! While our field trip focused on this fourth "R", recovery, there could have been more emphasis placed on the Reduce category. Americans are addicted to throw away products and keeping up with the latest "trends". This in turn produces that overwhelming trash statistic. Simply refraining from using plastic grocery bags and water bottles will help considerably. Investing in some reusable cloth bags and a good re-usable water bottle helps save both your wallet and the environment. Next time you pick up a product ask your self if you NEED it, and then ask yourself again. While this impressive system is in place here in Lee County, hundreds of other counties are far behind, and the trash is adding up. Be smart and see how you can help impact ALL the R's.

The Good Life

We are honored to have a professor teaching our Colloquium course
who actually walks the walk. Not to mention his

A 91 year old chinese man - Not our professor. ;)

experiences go beyond 35 years in living a natural lifestyle. On Wednesday

the third of November, he allowed us to pick his brain to learn some of the things he experienced  through owning his own health food store, being a vegan, and studying

holistic medicine. Now in his sixties he feels healthier and more active

than most twenty year olds, he never has aches and pains, and guarantees he

will outlive most and not die from the most common diseases directly because
of his lifestyle.
    The first thing he discussed was the flaws in western medicine.

Doctors are taught by the pharmaceutical companies and therefore only

understand sickness not health. If you go to a doctor and are given a clean
bill of health this means that you do not immediately have a disease or
close to death, a week later you may drop dead of a heart attack. Health is

a concept that needs to be understood more in the western world. Health (or

lack there of) in our current system treats patients as a victim and leaves

no responsibility on that person for an entire life of bad choices.
Preventative health is key to living a long life without the most common
killers, heart disease and cancer, which are again directly influenced by
the lifestyle you live and the choices you make daily.

    Students in the class then brought up by the point what about cases such as a young child being struck by cancer or a man like Lance Armstrong, arguably one of the most in shape athletes in the world. The Professor then discussed constitution and condition which lies in everyone. This concept refers to both the things we can change (condition) and the things we are born with or cannot change (constitution). Dr. Gerry Segal does believe that certain people are more predisposed to diseases but through daily choices

most people have the opportunity to change or put off their fate. Also, most diseases are hereditary because children tend to eat like their parents did.

    Other things he discussed included the idea that everything you put on your body is just as important as what you put in it. Antiperspirants and

baking soda contain aluminum which leads to Alzheimer’s and cancer. All

plastics contain high amounts of estrogen which causes breast cancer in

women, men with breasts and low sperm cell counts. Dr. Segal briefly

discussed his interest in fisianamy, which is the study of faces; it is an

ancient practice, which he said that people with big ears and big ear lobes

have a better constitution. He relates those people who now have small ears

with no lobes that sit high on their head, like animal ears, a result of

having a poor constitution and perhaps, related to choices of ancestors.

    He also discussed the most important time physically for a person is

prenatal. The change from a single celled organism to an eight pound complex

species in nine months is not duplicated in a human’s life. This brings up

another interesting point. Health is mental, physical, and spiritual, all
the same. If one of these parts of your life are off you are not considered

healthy. So yes, it is extremely important for a mother to not poison her body during pregnancy with harmful foods but it is also important for the mother to be thinking positive, welcoming thoughts, not to be stressed. Also, to be active and allow blood to flow, and oxygen to reach every body part is just as important. As some body parts are not able to function

without movement of the body.
    The remainder of the class Dr. Segal discussed the foods to eat and not to eat and the reasons for this. He also discussed exercise and the three key factors that make up an in shape person: strength, endurance, and flexibility. All of these are just as important as another, many people only focus on one of these areas which is not healthy. He also discussed sleep patterns, habits, and circadian rhythm and its extreme importance to our
health. He also told us of this concept he had been studying called
grounding, which to many is pretty out there. He believes that by walking
barefoot outside for thirty minutes everyday it would cure 99% of the mental
health cases in our society. He also sleeps on a grounding sheet which is
connected to the earth through the bottom plug of the outlet in the wall.
The idea is by “grounding himself or connecting to the earth” helps balance
mood and helps with insomnia, so far it has helped his sleeping habits.

What's Your Motivation: Fear or Love?

In our October 27th Colloquium class we had the privilege of watching and discussing the documentary, No Impact Man. This was a film that I had heard about but never had the opportunity to see. In it a husband and father , American, living in New York. Set out with his family to make little or no impact on the destruction of our planet earth. This includes no electricity, no garbage, no T.V., no meats, and no grocery store shopping. In case your thinking this is impossible they did indeed survive. The documentary followed this family over the course of the year making these drastic changes to their lifestyle. From the "power off party," to doing their laundry in the bathtub, to getting a worm compost to help eliminate all trash, to trying different methods of refrigeration, to bicycling everywhere, to buying all foods and supplies from a local farmers market. It was amazing to watch.

However, while watching the film I couldn't help but think about how little people would be willing to make lifestyle changes such as these. Even I, what could I do that would actually make an impact on not having an impact? After the film was over our class had a great discussion on the importance of making similar changes in your lives, such as making your own cleaning products instead of buying. We discussed how we live in a remarkably totally synthetic world. Everything on this planet has the ability to re nourish itself and grow and develop, including the human body.

We discussed how for millions of years humans have been able to heal themselves through natural herbs and plants found on earth and how doctors are trained by pharmaceutical companies. They only know how to do one of three things to fix medical issues. According to Dr. Gerry Segal, "1. slice and dice (surgical) 2. poison with drugs (pharmaceuticals) 3. burn with radiation." All of which methods that only cover symptoms not solve the source of a problem. These methods do not coincide with all of the earth replenishing itself.

Nor does our consumption and overpopulation coincide with the earth being able to replenish natural and necessary resources fast enough.

Colin Beavan, the author and creator of Impact man has 6 guidelines for a low impact life to help everyone start in their journey towards little or no environmental impact. http://http//www.noimpactdoc.com/no_impact_year.php

So now, it is up to you. Is your reason for change out of fear or love or both. For me it is both. I have so much fear for the years to come. I KNOW within my heart that everything will dramatically change in my lifetime. So many people do not realize this and will not be prepared its time we stand up and take action, and not just say that we will. Earth is such a astounding gift for us. I love it and I hope it can be continued to be used for my kids and grand kids to come.

Poverty Eradication and Population Stabilization

Chapters 7-10 of our glorious book Plan B 4.0 are chock full of equally important problems and solutions, as is the nature of the material. Something I've been passionate about for years is the dire need for a stable population. There is a fantastic passage within the first pages of the book which reads, "The bottom line is that harvest-expanding scientific advances are ever more difficult to come by as crop yields move closer to the inherent limits of photosynthetic efficiency. This limit in turn establishes the upper bounds of the earth's biological productivity, which ultimately will determine is human carrying capacity." We are moving ever closer to said carrying capacity as the human population soars ahead faster than infrastructures can keep up. One major avenue to evolving the overall lifestyle of our planet is by eradicating extreme poverty, or at least a high percentage of it. The United Nations set a commendable goal of reducing the share of the world's population living in extreme poverty by half by 2015, outlined in the U.N. Millennium Development Goal. There are 8 of these goals in total, each accompanied by a array of sub-goals, if you will. Included are these ambitious efforts - ending poverty and hunger, universal education, gender equality, child health, maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, environmental sustainability and global partnership. 

Fighting World Hunger

What varieties of crops and vegetation might you imagine growing in Florida? Palm trees and swamps, grapefruit, coconuts or oranges? We visited the ECHO Global Farm and Research Center last Wednesday and learned first hand, by sight and taste, the amazing varieties of life sustaining plants grown both in Florida and others areas of the globe; valuable plants providing food, medicine, and shelter. Because of the environmental conditions of North Fort Myers, ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization) is able to replicate five different world climates- Tropical Monsoon, Semi-Arid Tropics, Tropical Highlands, Tropical Rain Forest, and Hot Humid Lowlands. They also maintain a fantastic Urban Gardening scenario.

ECHO is not just an experimental farm for local growers benefit but was formed to educate their interns of various climate conditions and experiment with ways of farming them; concentrating on achieving the most efficient and sustainable grows and increasing the yields of crops. Judy, a retired postal worker turned ECHO volunteer, related the Chinese proverb, "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." This is a prime example of the mission of ECHO, but should not be misunderstood. They respect the wealth of agricultural knowledge already spread amongst the poor farmers.

Hillside Farming Plot

What they bring is the ability to work with farmers to help them find ways of being more effective at growing food in harsh conditions. Judy told us of their four components: 1. Problem solving. Discovering coping mechanisms. 2. Providing sample size seed packets to international development workers, community leaders and missionaries. 3. Education and training. 4. Networking with other nonprofits and aide foundations.
ECHO's impressive seed bank hosts over 300 varieties of rare food plants, multi-purpose trees, fruit trees and other tropical plants.
Not only does Echo work with simulating environments but also manipulating, recycling, and inventing infrastructures to aide with farming and hygiene. The following is an awesome clip of Judy explaining how they've learned to use Moringa seeds (from the "miracle tree", not to be confused with the "miracle fruit", also grown at ECHO) for water purification.

We also observed a manual well pump and watering system, a drip irrigation system, a duck/algae/tilapia bio-cycle pond, a "tipy tap" hand washing station, and a rather ingenious invention called a biogas digester. While we have seen variations of the irrigation systems in the past, the duck pond and biogas digester systems were particularly intriguing.

Ducks eat the foliage, algae grows from
their waste, the Tilapia eat the algae,
and the people eat the Tilapia (or
the ducks!).

The "tippy tap"! A simple
hand washing station can
greatly reduce child mortality
rates and the spread of
disease.

Hand cranked well and gravity
driven watering system. 

A working example of a simple hut
(made frombamboo harvested on
site) housing the biogas digester.

Not only did we learn a wealth of information about farming practices but also had the opportunity to taste some of their crops! We especially enjoyed the Cranberry Hibiscus, a surprisingly sweet leafy, erm, green? (It's purple in colour.) Also sampled was the Barbados Cherry, a sweet little abundant fruit. Although we should have perhaps tried our first sample after the tour, we also cleaned our teeth with fresh Neem sprigs, readying our pallet for what was to come. Below are some pictures of the plants we sampled and some other varieties we were introduced to along the way. All three of us will be working on farms for our service learning component, so we were pleased to have visited ECHO for a taste of what we might see. Perhaps we'll begin gardens of our own one day!?

Monday, October 11, 2010

            This week we learned about chapter four's presentation, which discussed Brown’s ideas for cutting Co2 wastes up to eighty percent by the year 2020.  The reason was due to rising fossil fuel prices and eventual economic downturn.  Some ways there were to change our lighting sources, which everyone can do. A good alternative to traditional incandescent light bulbs are CFL lighting which is a good upgrade because it uses seventy five percent less electricity and can reduce your bill by thirty dollars.  The CFL light bulb costs twice as much but lasts ten times as long, making it a better value.  There is a light bulb even better for your dollar than that.  LED lighting uses eighty-five percent less electricity and lasts fifty times as long.  I have already replaced ninety percent of the lights in my home with LED lighting and it would be a great if businesses and the government   would lead by example and do so also (and not just in the 88% of American “EXIT” signs).  In the PowerPoint slide, they also said one light bulb if bought at the same time a child is born would last until they graduate.

            Next, they stated in their presentation that Europeans use half the amounts of fossil fuels as Americans do.  This chapter also discussed transportation briefly, including hybrid cars and rail systems.  In addition, that thirty percent of energy used is on recycled materials, and that they are found in everything we use daily.  Last, they mentioned the gridlines and cities trying to even the gridlines out by doing planned power outages in specific areas in California.

Chapter 5 discussed that oil, coal, and natural gasses should be replaced by wind, solar, and water energy sources.  Texas is currently the leading generator of wind energy in the US and ten more states plan to incorporate more solar energy in the near future.  The advantages to wind power include it is abundant, the low cost, and it is widely distributed.  The main disadvantage to wind energy sources is that wind is not very prevalent in some areas and not always constant so places with this in use need some type of supplemental energy source as well.  If 1/5^th of wind is used in replace of other forms of energy it would create seven times the energy.  If proposed in the United States, only one percent of farmland would be used for windmills, and farmers would be paid thousands to have them on their property.  Hydropower is also being used for approximately sixteen percent of world’s energy, obviously a resource that can be used adequately!

Chapter 6 was mainly on the idea of designing cities for people not cars.  Which was a concept discussed thoroughly in the movie we watched video on Curitiba, Brazil.  The movie discussed how their urban transportation has to be completely changed.  Some of the ideas to make this happen were high tolls, effective and cheap transportation system, priority to bicycles and pedestrian at stoplights, cars extremely expensive, etc.  This chapter also discussed many reasons to reduce urban water use including nutrients being lost for agriculture, flush and forget, contributes to 405 dead zones, expensive, also disease and death (2 million children).  Farming in cities is also a key concept in bettering our world.  Gardens in vacant lots, yards, and rooftops make a huge difference.

The last part of the class we watched a movie called, “The Power of Community.”  It was about the crisis in Cuba, also known as “the special period.”  It started in about 1992 after the breakup of the Soviet Union since so much of normal imported items became scarce.  Due to the political issues, Cuba was found in a situation where they were extremely low on food and oil peaked, creating jobs.  They were forced to start growing their own foods to survive and fulfill basic human needs.  They did not have oil to use machines and started planting and cultivating foods on every empty space.  They used farm animals like oxen to help farm. The average Cuban lost twenty pounds by 1994.  Before the 90’s Cuba exported sugar cane and a couple other abundant crops and then imported oil, lard, rice and many other items. This was not a sustainable system, so in October of 1993.  Some Australians came to help teach the people how to cultivate there foods and use organic materials.  This in turn would create a balanced eco system and more organic compost.  They also taught them about bio pesticides and bio fertilizers, so now Eighty percent of Cuba has organic agriculture.  In the United States we see bugs as the enemy and use strong chemicals to try and get rid of them, which in turn create more problems for the crops.  With a balanced system, this would include manure, bugs, and disease.  There is little need to do anything but pick the foods and maintain the soil.  Farming has also become one of the highest paid professions there is and the entire economic system turned upside down.  Creating many other positive changes like decentralizing universities, free health care and schools, fat consumption reduction, and the exchange of doctors to Venezuela for oil.  In addition, reduced number of cars, scarcity of tools allowed for little developments people live in necessity not abundance, eighty-five percent of Cubans own homes, less cancer/heart disease, use of sugar mill’s wastes for low cost environmentally friendly energy.

It is important to learn from what the Cubans were forced into before it is too late.  Since 2010 is the projected peak point of oil.  The rate at which we are going now will not last.  The population is only rising, and peoples demand are going up, while production of oil is going down. This is an infinite resource and will run out soon. Whatever it is, we need to do something to change our dependence on oil before a social, political, and economic downturn occur! 

www.earth-policy.org

On the 29th and the 6th we'll be taking a break from the field and watching some in class presentations and an ever popular documentary or two. Last week we enjoyed a presentation given by a group covering the first 3 chapters of our course book, Plan B 4.0 by Lester Brown. We thought they did a great job of summarizing the dense material into important highlights. They addressed issues such as our global Ponzi economy -to which Brown relates our current economic system- major land and water conflicts such as falling water tables, food shortages, foreign farm land acquisitions, and water wars, and climate issues including rising temperatures, melting of glaciers and ice caps, and the demise of oil and coal supplies.
One issue in particular was rather unfamiliar to us before reading the material and watching the presentation - the acquisition of foreign land for food and water supplies. Major nations such as Saudi Arabia, China, India, South Korea, Egypt, Libya, Jordan, U.A.E., and Qatar, to name a few, are countries who are scrambling for foreign land acquisitions in an effort to support their populations. Unfortunately the areas sought after for raising crops are often heavily if not entirely reliant on the World Food Programme (WFP) for their food supply. Investors organize private contracts with the people at power of the nation they seek to exploit, usually to the detriment of the host countries general population. This fuels much debate and contempt with locals towards both their leaders and those who invest in the area, sometimes igniting a physical resistance.
These host countries typically do not receive any benefits from the investments, even when forced to relocate their own homes and farms. Many investors even ship in their own pre-fab housing, labor materials, work force, and even security forces. This is just a snippet of the barrage of conflicts taking place globally due to food and water demands, and has lead to an effort by major organizations such as The World Bank, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the IFPRI and the African Union to draft investment codes of conduct that would govern land acquisition agreements, respecting the rights of those living in the countries of land acquisition as well as the rights of investors. Frighteningly, many of these host countries are on the Foreign Policy's annual list of failing states, so we can only speculate what would happen should a host country collapse while harboring an investing countries supply of grain/food.
Now what about our food? In America and a handful of other nations worriment of a food supply is not so commonplace. We can buy meals from the abundance of fast food chains, corporate restaurants, private restaurants, supermarkets, local markets, convenience stores, etc. Many people fail to realize, however, the source of that hamburger or chicken sandwich, although our class became strikingly aware after Wednesdays viewing of Food Inc. Food Inc. is an American documentary directed by Emmy award-winning filmmaker Robert Kenner which examines three major controversies - the industrial production of meat (beef, pork and chicken), the industrial production of grains (corn and soy), and the economic and legal power of the major food companies. We learned about feed farms where cattle is forced into excrement laden pens where they

"fatten up" for a month using hormones, grain diets, and antibiotics. We saw thousands of chicks cooped up in windowless metal structures, fighting and sometimes killing each other out of desperation for survival and a little room to move. Farmers complained to the point of tears about the pressure they now receive from leading food companies such as Tyson, Purdue, and Monsanto about their constant debt for contract required equipment upgrades and the potential of patented bio-engineered seeds cross breeding with a neighboring farm, causing lawsuits and copyright infringement. We heard the story of Barbara Kowalcyk who told the story of her 2 year old son who died from E.coli poisoning after eating a hamburger.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 76 million Americans are sickened, 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die each year from food-borne illnesses, contracted from mass produced food with poor quality control. Eventually we went on to learn about the private industry leaders who went on to head the work for the government and it's affiliates such as the FDA and the Department of Agriculture, directly influencing and/or controlling the standards to which the food industry is to be held.
While pages of information can be written, the incredibly dense issue is best understood perhaps by watching the film yourself or visiting the website and exploring it's material and links to other great resources. I challenge you to not consider the implications next time you find yourself in a drive through or wandering through your local supermarket. Just because it's convenient and abundant, doesn't mean it's safe. Don't you want to change that?

                    Our field trip this week was to Calusa Nature Center and planetarium located in Fort Myers, Florida. Made up of more than 100 acres of property, it had a museum, three nature trails, a planetarium, butterfly and bird aviaries, a gift shop, and a picnic area.  Inside the museum we learned about Southwest Florida’s animals such as lizards, snakes, turtles and tortoises, amphibians, fish, and even a talking bird. I remember specifically a snake called Philip, a large water moccasin who had accidently broken his jaw when he tried to attack something outside his glass tank.

Just outside and still a part of the museum, they had the estuary touch tank. In the estuary touch tank, you could interact and touch a variety of species including horseshoe crabs, oysters, hermit crabs, sea stars, various fish, and many different types of mollusks. Also outside they had permanently injured birds of prey such as hawks, vultures, bald eagles, owls, and many more.  I remember sadly, an owl that was missing one of its eyes.

Being cool & cozy.

The field trip officially started with the planetarium, which had the Calusa Dome Theater inside.  Now equipped with a new digital projector, we experienced a film on astronauts. The film was not projected in front of us on a screen, but more above us. It was a 360 degree, full dome experience that allowed us to feel as if we were one with what was happening in the film. Although not very relevant to the class, the film entitled, “Astronauts,” was about the conditions the human body goes through while preparing for space.  It also touched on the precautions astronauts should take in space.

After walking around upstairs, we walked downstairs where they had a fox, boar, chickens, rabbits, turtles, mature alligators, and the butterfly aviaries. 

Moringa olefera

The tour started in the butterfly aviaries, where we learned that the butterflies were free to come and go as they pleased, and about the different plants that are in place for the butterflies. Some were useful to humans even, such as the Moringa olefera, edible from the roots to the leaves and having higher vitamin C content than the widely known and perhaps more palatable orange.  

Melaleuca

Our tour guide then lead us through the big cypress swamp boardwalk, about a half mile long, travelling through both pine flatlands and wetlands – a difference of only inches in elevation. We spoke about different plants and brought a lot of attention to the invasive species such as Melaleuca and the Brazilian Pepper. Melaleuca, more commonly referred to as the paper tree, was introduced to Florida and Hawaii in order to help drain low-lying swampy areas. The consequences were overlooked however, as their population has nearly quadrupled in the past decade, resulting in dehydrated swamps and fueling aggressive fires, as they are extremely flammable

Brazilian Pepper

              After the boardwalk our tour guide took us back upstairs to talk about the caged animals, allowing the class to handle a baby alligator and observe the Florida Pine Snake, one equipped with a frightfully nasty hiss, but harmless to humans. Once we had observed other venomous snakes and some cranky birds, we had to run outside and quite literally catch our bus before it left. Not that we would have minded spending some more time exploring. :)

Bromeliad

Milkweed - Poisonous!

The Bayberry - Sometimes used

for candle wax or insect

repellent. 

Bald Cypress 

Swamp Maple

Thalia geniculata Linnaeus - Commonly
known as the Alligator Flag.
A beautiful native warning of
a gators habitat!

                        

Slash Pine

A Convenient Truth!

If the syllabus didn't explain it well enough, we're beginning to understand (and adjust) to the  amount of exposure we'll receive to controversial documentaries. Professor Segal held true to his word this week by showing the first hopeful film, one fit with an inspiring model for cities worldwide. A Convenient Truth (Written and directed by Giovanni Vaz Del Bello and produced by Maria Terezinha Vaz) challenged the norm for urban design by making an example of the city of Curitiba, Brazil - a municipality capable of transporting 2 million people every day in a cost effective and sustainable manor. 

They have employed the trinary road design, one which caters to rapid bus transport. The system employs a high speed bus lane bordered by one way lanes for auto traffic with additional one way express roads just a block away on either side; three lanes in width. The image to the right shows the Biarticulated buses used for the express route, twenty-five metres long and equipped with 5 doors, capable of transporting 270 passengers at a time! Coupled with their pay before you board tube stations, they have quickly become the transport method of choice for commuters of all kinds, just as much for those with or without a personal car. Adding to the appeal is the pay once go anywhere system, no matter the distance or transfer, even between different routes and/or lines! 
We as a group agree that if Lee County were to adopt a system such as the one proposed by professor Segal, with one lane of traffic on each major roadway being sectioned off for busses with unilimited daily (or peak) transfers, we'd all be inclined to use public transportation. I, Jonathon, have used Lee County public transportation maybe half a dozen times in the 13 years I've been here, Jessica and Jason, never. 
A Convenient Truth also documented other major areas of concern such as recycling and waste management, housing, and parks and natural areas.  

Public Recycling Bins! From left to right: Paper, Plastic,
Metal, Organic (compost!) and Glass.

Their impressive recycling system was implemented by the hands of Nicolau Kluppel, a civil engineer, and the mayor himself. Kluppel spoke in the documentary of having been part of a team of 4 guys who volunteered their personal time to construct a recycling/sorting center by reusing old machines and conveyors from local factories. Additionally, having seen so many old computers run through their facility he decided to not just recycle them for resale, but for every 15 computers processed one was rebuilt for use by the employees, all low income citizens, recovering addicts or "problem people". This helped teach them practical skills which they could use to their advantage in moving up in the workforce. A skill that they would most likely never have been exposed to otherwise. 
It's terrible, really, what a foreign idea it is for us to imagine politicians and citizens coming together and physically laboring for a good cause. We'd be tickled to see the same out of the suits and ties of this country. Perhaps we'd then receive the sort of recognition as Coritiba; a United Nations Environmental Award (UNEP) in 1990 (the highest available), the Worldwatch Institute Prize in 1991 and the CITIES Award for Excellence in 2002.

Coritiba has also done a magnificent job of relocating weathered and flood prone housing areas to government assisted communities, leaving parks in their place. Studies showed city planners that it would be 5 times cheaper to relocate these families and homes than it would be to construct a concrete canal for water diversion!
Although us Ninja Sharks haven't ever attended a city council meeting nor participated in flood planning, we also have never heard of  such a concept in the US. We all agreed that Lee County could use a great deal of help in designing people friendly parks and recreation spaces. While we have many preserves and beaches, they seem geared towards lone rangers and vacationers, respectively. We want to know what has happened to good old Frisbee and picnics!? Like Professor Segal suggested, our voice can have more of an impact than we may initially imagine. Attending local council and/or community meetings could prove to the old codgers that there's a youthful presence that wishes to preserve the natural beauty in life and the fun that coincides. We have been shown the remarkable transformation that can transpire from a little determination and dirty work, and after last weeks video, that's just what we needed. Every week provokes a new thought in us all, and this one really hit home. 

A Sweet Beach Cottage

3 types of Mangroves: Red, Black, and WhiteSaw Palmettored and white mangove podsair plant

This week we visited Matanzas Pass Preserve and the Estero Island Historical Cottages. A wonderfully cheery old woman named Jo greeted us with a sweet spread of cookies, lemonade and sea grape jelly, a local delicacy and a hit amongst the class. We learned about the incredible change of local culture and environment from the early 1900's till today.
Jo told her story with a reminiscent intimacy as she experienced it all first hand, having inhabited the island since her birth early in the 20th century. She has experienced the introduction of the electrical grid, the construction and destruction of 3 bridges, the rise and fall of the fishing industry, and a couple life changing hurricanes. (Of those hurricanes, an infamous one in 1926 inspired the University of Miami to name their football team as such).
Estero Island was once a simple fishing village with sprawling beaches and sparkling blue/green waters, a haven for mosquitoes but just as much the same for those disinterested in the city life. Mullet was the prize and luxury meant having the "cadillac" of mosquito repellent sprayers. Jo Hughes grew up in a town of about 400 people, one that now has a year round populous of 5-6 thousand and a winter season of 50-60k! It should go without saying that the activity has severely altered the environment for not only the early settlers, but those that were creating a history well before humans; plants, sealife, land animals, etc. Jo told us that when she was young you could stand on a boat and clearly see 15 feet below, all the way to the sandy bottom! Since people began meddling with major bridges and dams, well, there's now a terribly unfortunate silty foot or two of visibility. Mullet used to be so thick that she swore she could walk across their schools, and oysters and scallops abound- not much to be said of them anymore. Fortunately there is a ongoing effort to restore the oyster reefs as they are capable of individually filtering 9 gallons of water per hour!
Now although the changes have produced many adverse reactions there is still plenty of hope for the area. Conservation 20/20 is a major organization committed to restoring and/or preserving properties of environmental significance, and has done so with Matanzas Pass by aquiring nearly 60 acres at a cost of 1.4 million dollars. Check it out! Conservation 20/20 - Matanzas Pass
FGCU and local residents have also contributed hundreds of volunteer hours towards cleaning the area of debris and restoring those oyster reefs, with many more hours to go.

Once we had enjoyed Jo's presentation and another round of treats, we headed out on the trails to identify some plant life and a few marine animals. We identified and observed mangroves, the treasured sea grape, some turtles and the scurrying crabs. Take a look!

scorpian tailwhite mangrovesblue crab hidingSea grapes