Final Impressions

Overall, I believe this colloquium class to be very interesting and informative. I was worried I would not be interested in the material and learn absolutely boring at all. However, that is far from what happened. I enjoyed pretty much all of the assignments. My favorite assignments were to complete the service learning hours, the final project and of course the field trips. Some parts of the class were tedious and long like our discussions. However,
most classes that are about three hours are tedious and long. I thank Professor Headen for allowing us to have such a great semester.

Field Trip # 5

To me the word “Downtown” sounds energetic, crowded, loud
and exciting place. However, when I went to downtown Fort Myers I observed the
complete opposite. For instance, it was quite, calm, and pretty empty. Instead of the city life I was imagining, I observed an environment where people prefer living on large acres of land and in gated communities. Walking up and down Fort Myers we observed several historical trademarks. For instance, there was a sign stating that the first concrete sidewalks were constructed in 1906 and prior to asphalt the roads use to be made of brick. Fort Myers has truly changed so much throughout the decades. For instance, Fort Myers use to be surrounded by farms and cattle that was the main income for many of the local people. However, today it is designed to please tourist and is considered the hub for business. It is a hot spot for boutiques, restaurants,jewelry and antique stores. In addition, the town was said to be the richest during World War II.

Field Trip # 4

For our fourth field trip we went to Matanzas Pass Preserve which is located parallel to Estero Blvd. The preserve has 60 acres and 1.25 miles of trails and has several different stops. The Matanzas Pass is full of insight and history. When we first arrived, we were greeted by a women named Ms. Joe. She lived in Fort Myers since she was born. She made our class homemade cookies, lemonade and some of her famous sea grape crackers with crackers and cream cheese. Ms. Joe is actually the only one in Fort Myers to make and sell sea grape jelly. When I tasted it is seems to be naturally sweet like most jellies. In order to be introduced to an overview of the island, we went into this little cottage that was originally built in 1921. It was actually relocated to the Matanzas Pass preserve in the 1980’s. Fort Myers is about seven miles long and one mile wide and during the seasons the population could go from 6,000 to 50,000 almost 60,000 people. The first Fort Myers school was built in 1938 and the second school was built ten years later in 1948. The house has a rain barrel attached to the house; it was built in 1946 and is one of three that are still fully intact. We didn’t have too much time at the Preserve but it was still a memorable and insightful trip, I would definitely go back.

Current Enviornmental Issue

The article I found based on a current environmental issue was labeled “The Need for Sustainable and Easily Accessible Alternative Energy.” With costs energy constantly increasing people are wondering if it’s possible to have alternative energy systems. The word “alternative” energy refers to energy being developed by any other source such as harnessing energy from our garbage or any renewable resource. Currently we use buses, cars and motorcycles for our
transportation, all that use either gas or oil. However, those fuels cannot be referred to as a renewable source therefore once we use them, they are gone for good. Therefore, our society is in such a need to find alternative, renewable forms of energy. According to the article there are already some possible choices for easily accessible alternative energy. Such possibilities include biomass energy, solar energy, win energy, hydroelectric energy source as well as geothermal energy. The article believes that man can only survive one our oil and gas sources become scare if we combine the use of recycling and natural, renewable energies such as wind. The article presents many great ideas however it will take scientists and governments a long time to become serious about this issue as well as develop alternative energy options. The following link will direct you to my article.

http://www.greenconduct.com/articles/2011/10/25/the-need-for-sustainable-and-easily-accessible-alternative-energy/

Ecological Footprint

I was shocked to see the results of the quiz. My results stated
that if everyone lived like me than we would need 3.5 Planet Earths to provide
enough resources. In addition, to support the lifestyle I live, it takes 15.4 global
acres of the Earth’s productive area and 13.7 tons of carbon dioxide. After seeing how high my results were, I started to think of how I could change the way I live my life that will help lower my numbers. I know the biggest change I could make is to stop eating so much processed or should I saw “convenient” food. Being a college student and working almost fifty hours a week, I do not always have time to cook my food and tend to depend on processed or boxed dinners rather than fresh meats and producer. In addition, being Italian I am use to eating as lot of meat such as chicken and veal. Therefore, if I were to lower my intake on meat rather than fresh produce, I would help sustain our planet. Last but not least, I could also recycle more within my own home as well as unplug my appliances when I am leaning the house or finished using them. By making the changes I stated above, I will play a helping hand in sustaining our planet. However, I am one of billions of people that need to make changes in order to decrease their ecological footprints. I believe sustaining our earth is a lifelong commitment that all citizens need to promise and abide by.

Future of Food

After watching the Food Inc. video I was really surprised to
see where a lot of our society’s everyday foods come from. I think consumers
have been uninformative and vague when they tell consumers what is in their food. However, I definitely believe people have the right to know. If they are
spending their hard working money on food, they should be able to know if all
the ingredients are healthy or even safe for us to consume. Watching this video
I also became very curious to see what is in my favorite snacks, veggie straws.
Looking at the back of the bag I was pleased to notice a short list of ingredients. Generally the items I eat have a whole paragraph of ingredients that I am not even what or let alone pronounce most of them. The ingredients found in veggie straws are potato flour, oil (It could be canola, safflower or sunflower oil), Corn starch, tomato paste, spinach powder, sea salt, sugar, beetroot powder, turmeric. All of this information could also be found on http://www.sensiblepoprtions.com/, which is the brand of the vegetable straws. To be honest, I was scared when I saw the last ingredient on the list, I was unfamiliar with Turmeric. However, after researching I found out that Turmeric is actually very beneficial. For instance, it is natural, has prevented many sicknesses such as breast cancer, prostate when combined with cauliflower, child leukemia, and so much more. It is also known to help with weight management. The following link describes more of the positive effects of Turmeric.

http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/20-health-benefits-of-turmeric.html

ECHO Field Trip

During our third field trip, our class went to a farm in North Fort Myers known as ECHO. ECHO is a non-profit, Christian organization that focuses on equipping individuals with the resources and skills to reduce hunger through sustainable solutions. The main division of the North Fort Myers campus that we observed was the Global Farm Research Center. The Global farm was broken into eight different sections. Each of the different sections exemplified a variety of affordable and sustainable farming techniques. For instance, there was the Tropical Monsoon, Urban Garden, Semi-Arid Tropics, Tropical Highlands, Tropical Rainforest, Hot Humid Lowlands, and the Community Garden. The section of the Global Farm that stood out the most to be was the Hot Humid Lowlands. The reason why is because it incorporated a man made fish and duck pond, which I found to be extremely interesting. Ducks have the ability to provide people with protein from both their eggs as well as meat. The Ducks themselves consume provided grains as well as the surrounding plants and then release their solid wastes in the pond. The release of the ducks waste creates a large amount of algae . However, algae is the main source of food for the vegetarian fish Tilapia that also subsides within the pond. Therefore, the ducks provide the Tilapia's food source therefore, the Tilapia controls the algae level of the pond so the ducks could live safely until they are used to provide us as humans with protein from their eggs and meat. Therefore, this one section of the farm displays a perfect example of the cycle of life. In addition, when the Tilapia fish also releases their waste into the pond ,it leaves the water with high levels of nitrogen. Therefore, the farm can take the water from the pond and use it as a free fertilizer for all of their plants. In addition, our guide also taught us how they take the scummed pond water and turn it into clear and drinkable water. They place a seed into the bottle with the scummed pond water and begin shaking it. Then after the water bottle being left in the sun for a few days it turns from dark scum infested water to clear drinking water. This would be a great thing for third world countries to learn about since many of them do not currently have clean drinking water.

Sense of Place Interview

I decided to interview my grandmother, Maria Mazzucco. Immediately, as I informed her that this interview would be about sustainability, she could not stop talking about it importance. My grandmother wished that more people would understand the concept of sustainability and learn how they could live a sustainable life. In no way does my grandmother live a fully sustainable life however, she makes several changes and sacrifices within her daily life in order to reduce her personal carbon footprint. In addition, my grandmother believes my generation has become so unaware of how our everyday lives hurt and effect our environment. It is known that my generation has been the society to create the most amount of trash. Therefore, she agrees with the overall message of our class and hopes that my classmates as well as myself will learn and share all of the information taught within this course. The reason is because the more people that are educated on the concept of sustainability, the more changes being made to be come a sustainable community.

Corkscrew Swamp

I was unable to go on the Corkscrew field trip with our class. However, I will be joining Professor Coventry-Payne on October 27, 2011. Therefore, after I go on the field trip I will re-write this post with my observations.

Sense of Place-Your Neighborhood

Returning from my walk, I've come to realize just how much my neighborhood has to offer. For instance, my apartment complex is located in Naples, Florida that has a private boat ramp with direct access to the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, my complex includes a 10 acre lake with a joggers trail that is completely surrounded by nature. There are also many different species that also call my community their home. For instance, there are a variety of fish and an alligator that resides in our lake, many insects as well mammals such as raccoons. Last but not least, my community includes both regular waste cans as well as recycling bins that are separated intro four departments. These departments include paper, aluminum's, plastics and glass. Each of the trash and recycling bins could be found surrounding each building, all of the mailbox stations, management office and as well as all of the three pools.

FGCU Campus Trail

Prior to attending Colloquium, I have always thought fondly of Florida Gulf Coast Universities campus. I knew our school based themselves on being an environmentally friendly and sustainable campus. However, I was not aware of all the additions our University has already made and is continuing to make in order to keep their promise to be sustainable. For instance, I did not now about FGCU's unique air conditioning technique. Learning that large blocks of ice are formed during the night when energy costs are low and then used to cool classrooms and building on campus during the day is truly remarkable. I have never heard of a University use air conditioning techniques as unique as ours. In addition, another aspect of our campus walk that I truly enjoyed was being able to observe all of the different ecosystems we have right here on Florida Gulf Coast campus such as Cypress Swamps and Pine Flat woods. This field trip allowed me to recognize how lucky I am to be a part of such an amazing and unique University.

Incoming Reflection

To be honest I was quite skeptical about having to take FGCU's colloquium course. The reason why is because I had heard from fellow students that this class was pointless and extremely boring. However, after the first day of class my opinion quickly changed. I believe this class has an extremely important message to deliver to all of the students. This huge message is about sustainability and how we as a community could begin living a sustainable life which will ultimately benefit our environment. I've already learned that if we keep going at the rate that we are, our resources will become scarce and run out before we could ever imagine and we as humans will cease to exist. I hope to learn about my personal ecological footprint as well as how I could decrease my footprint and begin living a sustainable life. After I gain this knowledge I could hopefully pass the information onto my family and friends that will hopefully make changes towards living a sustainable life even if those changes are small.