Michael Grunwald Article #13

The excerpt of Michael Grunwald’s “The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise” can be an example of conservation policies for the future and also an example of the struggle between conservation of nature and man. The excerpt starts as a David vs. Goliath type of story with a small environmental group with little support money trying to save the “only everglades in the world” against the building of the Homestead Airport along with acceptance of the bill through numerous politicians. This story is a great example of the struggle of conservationism vs. urban development all over the country and especially in Florida. We need to realize what is more important to us, housing and development or conserving our ecosystem, there has to be a line drawn somewhere.

 After reading this excerpt I was also in favor for the restoration of the Everglades and against the building of the Homestead Airport. As the author brings up a good point in that there is only one Everglades, which is not worth taking for granted in favor of an airport, strip mall, or housing sub-division. This is something we’ve probably all recognized while living in Florida, especially during the housing boom. Do we want to put the ecosystem in danger so developers can build more and more sub-divisions and golf courses and attract a constantly growing population? This excerpt also made me realize all the political nonsense that environmentalists need to go through just to conserve the planet we all live in. Again, like in Leopold’s excerpt, it is a classic example of conservation vs. economics.

Leopold's Article #11

Soil, plants, & sunshine

After reading Aldo Leopold’s excerpt from “A Sand County Almanac”  I began to realize how the majority of the population views conservatism and was given some insight on what needs to be done to change people’s thought and actions regarding conservation of our environment. Since the environmental movement has been brought to our attention, the general population has been viewing the environment more as a business rather than the fragile land pyramid Leopold brings up where each part of the environment is part of an organized biotic structure. We’re looking at the environment economically as if it were a corporation and we’re all accountants trying to find the economic value in each resource, which tree or plant is more economically useful than the next one. The major problem with that approach toward the environment though is that you can’t use up one resource without affecting the other. The capitalistic approach to our land will benefit it’s people temporarily but cause problems for our environment in the long run and deplete us of our resources as well.

            I strongly believe in Leopold’s Land Pyramid theory which goes to show how delicate and complex the cycle of energy is in our environment. Using up one resource such as the soil in one particular area can restructure the circle of energy, having a domino effect on the whole ecosystem and destroying important plants and animals that are crucial to our environment. We can’t be picky about which resources we need to salvage because they are more economically important than the other 95% of  resources that have no direct economic importance to humans. In the future we will start to see more thorough education on environmental conservation and more accountability will be taken for people’s actions toward how resources are being used rather then just what makes more sense economically.

Exempt From Entry due to Downtown FT- Entry #12

Exempt From Entry due to Downtown FT-  Entry #12 omitted