Environmental Ethics

            Coming into this class I never really thought about the environment in the way some of the stories and speakers do. But this has been a very eye opening class and I am glad I tried something different. After the readings and everything else that we have done in this class I feel like I am at the least more knowledgeable about the world I am living in, and I hope that this will translate to me starting to do more to protect our environment and maybe even share my knowledge with the people around me. I feel that getting knowledge of the environment around us is important to the future and protecting our surroundings. From all of the readings, speakers, and movies we have watched I took one key thing away and it is that people need to start caring more about the environment. This paper will explain the things from this course that had an effect on me and really helped to change the way I look at the environment.

            The first was one that really got me thinking was actually one of our first reads and that was “Natural School Reform” by Louv. This was an interesting article to me because it shows how much different our education system is compared to Finland. This is the story about how the schools in Finland allow their students to go outside and the teachers use the environment to teach their students. This was interesting to me because I really believe this is better than having your students sitting in a classroom for seven hours a day. The students would not only be a lot more engaged but they also will start to understand the environment they live in. Some of the schools here in the United States are starting to implement more of these types of things, and it really is helping. The tests show that students that work outside with their environment are actually smarter and test better than the students that have traditional education. I would like to think that if I had done something like this I would have loved it.

            The next reading that I really enjoyed this semester was “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Kingsolver. This article had a much different effect on me than the other articles mainly because my grandparents did a similar thing in their life. Although they didn’t move from Arizona they did move from Ohio down to a farm in Virginia. The main reason this affected me is because as a child I spent a lot of my summers on that farm and learned a lot about life on a farm. Like in the article the family wanted to become more self-sufficient by growing their own food and not relying on grocery stores as much. My grandparents had a big garden in their backyard and that is where we would get most of our food for dinner. They also had a few apple trees, grape vines, blackberry bushes, and a pear tree that we would gather for my grandma to make homemade desserts and jams from them. There is nothing better than homemade food that you grow, pick, and cook yourself, and it really so much better than the stuff you can buy at Kroger or Wal-Mart. Another thing we would do is bale and deliver hay for cattle and horse farms around the area. This article made me look back and realize how special and important those weeks I would spend on the farm and all the things I was able to learn. I learned first of all that the food you grow for yourself is absolutely delicious. The second is that it is a lot more cost effective because you grow the food, and because of this you don’t have to drive to the grocery store whenever you need something. I also realized that when you are in the country you do your best to help the people around you, and they will always try to help you in return.

            We had two great speakers come in and talk to us about the environment and how they are living their lives to be more sustainable. Although they both were great what Ben Stuart talked to us about had a much bigger impact on me. He explained to us how is house is ran on the waste of his neighbors and to me that is crazy. We are a consuming society and to think that one man’s waste can be used as another man’s fuel. This could become a vital part of our future if we would start to build more homes that are ran off others waste instead of just putting everything in a landfill. His guest lecture really got me thinking about the future and what are we going to do to protect the environment not only for us but for the future generations. I really think that Ben Start is on to something with using others trash to help run your home. He also has his own garden which allows him to grow most of his food and not have to go to the grocery store. Like I have said earlier in this paper growing your own food is much better than buying it from the grocery store. One thing that is important to point out about what Mr. Stuart talked to us about is that you have to have the knowledge to do what he does. I feel it is important for people to know what is going on around them in their environment. Going back to my earlier paragraph with the school reform I think the schools in Finland are doing the right thing by starting to teach their kids about the environment. We should start to implement a similar education system to start getting kids more involved in protecting the environment and maybe some of what Ben Stuart talked to us about can become better known. Not everyone needs to live like this but it would be very beneficial if more people would start to live that way.

            The movie “On Coal River” was pretty influential in changing my environmental ethic this semester. I really like the way the towns’ people stood up to the big coal company to try and protect not only themselves but also their children and the elementary school. First of all I think it is terrible that a coal company would think it is ok to start mining for coal right behind an elementary school. The pond with all of the runoff and waste was right above the school and in the movie they said that it had leaks and could probably break at any time. I understand for a big corporation it is all about making the most money, but sometimes you just have to step back and look at what you are doing. Especially if the business you are in has a huge environmental impact. They really should have looked at the location and said maybe we will build this on the other side of the mountain. It is one thing to put a valley full of trees in danger but when you put an elementary school in real danger that is scary. I am glad that they moved the school but this problem never should have come about in the first place. I really think it is important, and the people of this down did it, that if there is a major problem like the coal company there you need to bring it up to the city and to that company. And for the coal company they really need to look at what they are doing and think to themselves is this really the best idea?

            My last article that really helped mold my environmental ethic this semester and it goes along with the movie “On Coal River”, and that is “Dispatch from Toxic Town”. This is the story of Anniston, Alabama the picture perfect city that was ruined by a big time corporation. In “On Coal River” they were lucky to have the corporation move away from the school before anything serious can happen and hurt any kids. But in Anniston they weren’t so lucky. It all started when a fisherman caught a deformed fish and after that they launched a full scale investigation to see what was wrong with the water in the creek. It came back that the creek was full of PCBs and they were dumped in there by a big company called Monsanto. This is another example of a large corporation hurting the town they are in just to make a quick buck. In one of my earlier classes we watched a story about Cheshire, Ohio and a similar thing happened there just like Anniston. A large corporation polluted the environment and started to get people sick. One thing that happened in both cities is the townspeople stood up to the big businesses and filed lawsuits against them. In both of the cases the companies settled with the townspeople and a lot of the people got out. The problem with what these companies are doing is that they are taking away people’s homes and town. That is the hardest thing for me to get over in these stories, why would a corporation put peoples’ lives in danger and not really care. Like I said in my last paragraph I understand that companies are out to make money but it really needs to be their responsibility to keep the environment around them safe. This would be beneficial for everyone the people the companies and most important the environment that we all need to survive.

            Coming into this class I honestly never really thought about what my environmental ethic is. I never really thought about what I do and how it is affecting the environment around me, but after seeing taking this class I am a lot more aware of the problems out there and I am going to try and do my part to not have a huge environmental impact. I think it is really important for us and other people that have the knowledge spread the knowledge of what is going on in the world around us to everybody. This is the biggest thing I have taken away from this class that it is important for everyone to gain knowledge on the environment around us. The more we are informed the better our world will be and we shouldn’t have as many problems in the future. This will allow the citizens to be informed about what some of these big corporations are doing and how they are harming our water, trees, and other things around us. It also will let the corporations know that what they are doing and they can change their ways to better protect the environment and most importantly the people. I really like all of the articles and movies we watched and read this semester, they really have changed the way I am looking at the environment. Lastly I want to say thank you for picking the articles and assignments we have done this semester because compared to my other classes this is completely different and a really eye opening courses.