A Kid's Favorite Part of School (Entry #2)

When I was in elementary school, every kid had a favorite part of the day. Some of the kids loved playing with toys at the end of the day. Others loved being read to. But the vast majority of kids, myself included, loved hearing that siren call for recess. Both of the elementary schools I attended were blessed with large playgrounds and abundant ways to play. Of course, this was back in the 90's. When I went to a local elementary school near Fort Myers as part of an assignment for another class, I saw what passes for recess in the 21st century. The kid in me was not impressed. The kids had not even half the space I did, despite my schools being much smaller and less-endowed in terms of money. A good part of that space was taken up by blacktop and fencing. The kids were restricted to a small area, and only allowed to play in certain situations under direct supervision. It made no sense to me. And this position is mirrored by Richard Louv in his article "Nature-Deficit Disorder and the Restorative Environment." He too notes how recess has been reduced down to a quick run from the class to a fence and back, and how some schools have actually done away with recess entirely. He argues that while test scores are important, the lack of recess, and nature in general, has caused an increase in symptoms associated with ADHD, or Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

According to Louv, the increase in ADHD is due to a deficit in exposure to nature in children. He backs this up by detailing a number of accounts of children who have been diagnosed with ADHD, who showed inattentiveness, had trouble listening to directions, and had anti-social tendencies, being exposed to natural settings and having an easier time of overcoming their disability. He offers having ADHD kids taken to parks, beaches, and generally being encouraged to go outside as an alternative to drugs. I think that his suggestion makes sense. The kids at the local elementary that I mentioned earlier? They didn't look half as lively in class until they went outside and played for a bit. For me, one of the worst experiences in school was when my 2nd grade teacher refused to let my class go to recess because a kid was causing some shenanigans in class. If I were in a position to do so, I would advocate that schools should, instead of trying to increase test scores by placing kids in classrooms buried deep in the center of the school, with no windows or natural sights, that they instead allow kids the time outside that they need in order to succeed.

The second article that I was assigned was a chapter from Tim Flannery's book The Weather Makers. The chapter was called "2050: The Great Stumpy Reef?" The chapter described how certain industrial processes were destroying the coral reefs which, besides being natural beauties in their own right, were also the main suppliers of food for millions of people. In particular, he talks about industry putting iron into the air, which caused massive blooms of plankton that fed on the iron, while killing the reefs at the same time. And while I'm not disputing that, I would also like to note that you could get the same problem from a volcanic eruption in certain areas of the world. A volcanic eruption would probably cause more damage and throw up more ash and harmful particles than industry would, especially here in the US where we take precautions in order to drastically reduce harmful emissions.

Our Little Blue Ball (Entry #1)

Whether you believe that Earth was created in six days, or over the course of many millions, even billions of years, I don't think it's arguable that we have a very pretty blue ball of a planet. That being said, I don't think we are getting another one for Christmas any time soon. So it should be a priority for us to make sure this one lasts, not just for us, but for our children and their's. That being said, I feel that a great number of the people who claim to want to help our planet the most do not have a firm grasp on defining how to "save the planet",  instead possessing a firm grasp on "how to guilt-trip the other guy." And this was how I found myself reacting when I read Vandana Shiva's article entitled: "What is Biodiversity and Why is it So Important?" Her tone throughout is that of someone speaking from a kind of high ground of ecological superiority, as if to say "Look at me everyone, I am better than you because I emit less carbon-dioxide!" Sadly, this attitude is true of most environmentalists, whose sole purpose appears to be either yelling about the supposed consensus regarding climate change, or complaining about something, somewhere, being threatened by some evil industrialist or other kind of businessperson. Her article does state some legitimate problems that are happening in the world today, but most of it focuses on an apparent lack of diversity in animals and plants used for food. It appears to me, that Ms. Shiva has not reflected on the possibility that maybe certain species of animals and plants died out for a reason other than human influence. One statistic she brings up is how, in the UK, "three varieties of potatoes make up 68% of the crop; one variety makes up the remaining 32%." The statistic brings up some questions, however. For example, how many kinds of potatoes were there before she got her information, and is that number relevant? If there are only four kinds of potatoes being used today, why is that? What caused the other kinds of potatoes to go unused for farming? Additionally, is it possible that those other kinds of potatoes were bred into the current varieties as a way to give the current kinds certain properties or even flavors that the other potatoes had? Shiva instead jumps to the conclusion that it is simply due to human arrogance that people in UK grocery stores don't have dozens of potato types to choose from. She constantly brings up how this lack of biodiversity carries a grave threat to the world, and describes numerous happenings that are supposedly the fault of this lack of biodiversity. Despite these multiple warnings of doom and gloom, her article is very short on possible solutions, indeed there are no solutions stated in this article about how to repopulate the UK with more than four kinds of potatoes. In this age of genetic engineering, I would suggest looking into the current varieties genomes in order to discern the properties of older potatoes, and possibly even reconstitute the genetic code of these missing spuds. Just a thought.

Moving on to the next article, I was quite honestly expecting more of the same. But Jane Goodall showed a number of scenarios in her article "Hope Animals and Their World" where the solutions were not only present, but were often incredibly feasible. One of my favorites describes how a young boy, the son of a copper miner in Utah, told his dad, upon seeing the dead mountainside of the Oquirrh Mountains, that he would, one day, go up those mountains and put the trees back. It was considered an impossible task and a childish vision. The area had been damaged seemingly beyond repair by intensive logging, sheep grazing, and the industrial processes from the copper mine. Twenty years after he made his pledge, the boy, Paul Rokich, started his task as a man. Every evening, every weekend, for many years, Paul would carry buckets of grass seed up the mountain, driving as far as he could, and then walking the remainder of the way to sow the seeds. For fifteen years, he would do this, usually with just his own money, and the occasional support from friends and family. His perseverance paid off, and today, after receiving help from the mining company, the Oquirrh Mountains are now covered in the trees and plants that were hand-seeded by Paul Rokich those many years ago. I'm happy to say that the rest of Goodall's article was filled with similar tales, though most were not given as much detail as Rokich's. This is the thing that most of the leading environmentalists do not seem to understand. They want to sit and yell about how the world is going down the tubes and it's all the fault of the rich/industrialists/1%/humans in general, while offering no solutions beyond "Down with the rich guy!" If you ask me, if you're going to be yelling at everyone, telling them how horrible they are for not living like a caveman, then either you should be living like a caveman too, or you should be doing your best to find a solution that will solve both problems. As the old saying goes, if you aren't part of the solution, you're part of the problem.