Shaina+Singer

4-26-12 After attempting research for my project for the past few weeks, I realized the topic I had chosen on Biblical agricultural laws was too difficult to accomplish within the span of an undergrad research project. It involved much more research and access to biblical texts and translations than I currently have and thusly I decided to switch to something much more relevant and accessible, mountaintop mining.

Also, I found this article in the news today: []

The article deals with water rights, something we've discussed in class, and the decision to allocate resources to private and environmental use. It appears as if in the state of Colorado, individuals have the ability to own water-rights from rivers and streams. An interesting thing I found I the article is that there is a law that allows the government to pay people with these water rights not to take water for 120 days. They are doing so in hopes that this keeps enough water in the streams and rivers to sustain the aquatic life.



2-29-12

The first thing I did upon leaving class today was look up environmental news on Google for something to post (not something I can say I've done often). The first article I stumbled upon surprised me with how much it relates to what we were discussing in class today in regard to depictions and illustrations of the natural world. Here's the link:

[]

Briefly, it talks about how in a of study of award winning children's books ranging from 1938 to 2008, they've seen a shift in illustration content away from natural environments and more towards built environments. This has led some to some concern among adults, as it is clear that the younger generations are developing even more of a disassociation with the natural world. I see this as being critically important when we consider the fact that our environmental policy for the most part consists of causing issues today and pushing them off for later generations to deal with. What if the later generations aren't as concerned with preserving the natural world? By the time we pass it off to them, the world might be in a much different condition, leaving fewer of the things to wonder and appreciate. Or is this hype about pictures in a children's book just preemptive worrying? An appreciation for the world around us shouldn't come solely from books, but from the experiences we've had, and it is, in part, the parent's responsibility to facilitate that.

2-26-12 In thinking about the definition of nature, I was leaning towards using Cronon's definition as the place where humans are not, but then I glanced over at Hayley's page, and I really liked her interpretation; Space is, like it's aptly put in StarTrek, the final frontier. I really liked her idea that there was some sort of continuum between what is natural and what is synthetic. With this perspective, I wouldn't necessarily look to broad landscapes to find my answer, but to anything found naturally occurring, like for example, a strawberry. A wild strawberry found in the woods would fall much closer to the natural side of the spectrum and a GMO strawberry sold in the store would would in my opinion be more synthetic. Nature then may be the extent to which humans have not affected that which we find as phenomena of the physical world.

Here's a picture I took while on a hike somewhere in Maryland, and here's it significantly less natural looking counterpart I created using Photoshop:

2-20-12 Today's discussion in class helped me develop a topic for my paper on "Nature's Metropolis." At what point does human accomplishment go from that which is praised to that which is excessive? Isn't it human nature to create second nature? Isn't that what distinguishes us from animals; we use tools and we've figured out how to manipulate our environment to suit us? Cronon writes that many of the admirers of the early railroads wrote about them as "natural." Though came about through human thought and development, Cronon says nature is the place where people are not, I suppose calling railroads natural doesn't make much sense. They certainly are awe inspiring and a part of human progression; second nature for sure. (This entry prompted me to write out my outline, which makes significantly more sense. We shall see.[)