The Endangered Species Act has recently been caught in the crosshairs of the new Trump administration, with the aim of either eliminating or changing the act. While these actions would be disastrous, I will investigate the political climate in which the act was first passed and discuss why the act was more of a political move to get Nixon re-elected, rather than out of environmental concern. I will review the Earth Day movement of the late 1960s and the early 1970s and discuss how Nixon changed his mind about the environment to get votes from the environmental community. I will examine the most telling case about how the act was ignored in the construction of the Tellico Dam in Tennessee. The state was pushing forward with a dam that was unneeded, and the snail darter was discovered and listed as an endangered species. However, the construction of the dam continued and largely ignored the Endangered Species Act and destroyed the habitat of the snail darter. Additionally, I will address the attempts of the Republican Party to destroy this act, whenever they had a majority in the House and the Senate, even though Nixon was a Republican that passed this bill. By looking at all of the conditions and reactions to the bill, I have concluded that this was a calculated political move that has forever since “haunted” the Republican Party.
Author: Jake Voorhees (Page 1 of 2)
This past week, we reflected on the amount of information that we learned in class over the semester. One of the most influential short stories that I read during this time was the “Spider the Artist” written by Nnedi Okorafor.
I found this work to be particularly interesting because of my experience on the continent of Africa. This work is an accurate description of how the first world views Africa and in the event, an accident was to occur in Africa it would not be worldwide news. The stories around the world would not even mention Africa because the rest of the world views Africa as somewhere they can exploit and use as a dumping ground for items they do not want. However, the part of the story that was even more indicative of the developed world’s relationship with Africa was the description of how the Nigerian government sold out their own people for their own monetary gain. One of the quotes that I found intriguing was, “The government came up with the idea to create the Zombies, and Shell, Chevron and a few other oil companies (who were just as desperate) supplied the money to pay for it all.” The zombies were creations that were killing the people trying to break into the oil pipeline to earn a living. The zombies were seen as the enemy in the Nigerian villages and were the causes of destruction. These inventions were created by the Nigeran government, with the urging of the oil companies, to kill their own people just so foreign oil could be protected. The very institution that was supposed to be protecting their constituents and their interests were the ones funding a project that was leading to the death and destruction of their own.
I found this story to be refreshing because it is not something that is written about very often. People living in first world countries typically only care about African countries when a war or a terrible tragedy occurs. The story of exploitation and destruction often goes ignored and this story shed light on the real events happening in African countries. The quote that was interesting to me was, “You should also pray that these Zombies don’t build themselves some fins and travel across the ocean.” This quote really struck me because at first, it seemed like she was warning us about the technology that could wreak havoc on the United States, but what she actually was warning about was preventing this news from spreading across the world because then the first world nations would be held responsible. Moreover, the news would finally make the nations exploiting African countries explain their action and what they were doing in these countries.
One of the aspects about class that I found most intriguing this week was our discussion of permaculture and how it could potentially be the way forward in the agricultural sector. Masanobu Fukuoka in The One Straw Revolution discusses how he had resisted the “natural way” of farming for an alternative and using the indigenous plants of the area. However, what peaked my fascination was when we were discussing how to change farming to more of a permaculture type of global agriculture. In my view, this will not happen anytime soon and will not influence large-scale corporate agricultural.
Agriculture produces more food than the world can consume but as we move forward with an increasing number of humans living on earth, food will become even more vital. The continent of Africa has the most room for growth, and as economies and technology develop in the third world countries, infant mortality will decrease and general health will rise. The UN has reported that the number of people living on the continent of Africa will double by the year 2050.With the spike in population growth, it will be even more imperative to be able to feed all of the people across the world. While the idea of permaculture is a great concept on a much smaller scale would be a terrific idea, the notion that this could be extrapolated across the globe is not feasible. The growing population of the world will already stress the amount of food that we can produce and the switch to permaculture will not remedy that. Instead, I believe that a hybrid between big agriculture and permaculture should be the philosophy moving forward.
One of the worst things that is happening in agriculture is that the technology of some of the more prominent companies such as Monsanto has caused there to be a revolutionary arms race between plants and weeds. With the “Roundup Ready” seeds that have been introduced, meaning that the plants are immune to the chemical roundup to treat weeds. These seeds were supposed to assist in eliminating weeds, but they have actually caused the weeds to develop a resistance to chemicals. Thus, Monsanto has created what has been deemed the “superweed” that cannot be killed by chemicals and can wipe out an entire crop. I thought that when Fukuoka described the barley and white clover growing in the fields as natural barriers for the weeds that this could be the solution. Coming from an extremely rural area, I began thinking if this would be possible in almond orchards, corn, tomatoes and other fields. I began contemplating and the more I could imagine putting in these plants to deter weeds from destroying crops. This has already started to be done on our family farm as we have begun to plant wheat between the rows and just let it control the weeds. Also, we do not harvest the wheat and let it decompose and create soil hummus that Fukuoka describes.
I think it is important to recognize that this is not a choice we have to make in favor of one over the other. Instead, to see it as a joint effort that can help restore indigenous plants back into the ecosystem and to allow agriculture to be able to produce more and more food for a growing population.
In class this week, the conversation that we had that captured my attention was the idea of hope. I think that when studying the environment and what is going on in the world it can be extremely upsetting and when there are sobering statistics such as that species are going extinct at 10,000 times the background rate, it can be difficult to remain hopeful for our future. In her piece “Grounds for Hope,” Rebecca Solnit provides the importance that hope must play if we are to accomplish the ambitious goals that have been set by activists and scientists alike.
I thought that when she discussed the 24-hour news cycle and how this has influenced our thinking it was a very accurate statement. She writes, “News cycles tend to suggest that change happens in small, sudden bursts or not at all.” Her statement perfectly encapsulates the way that I tend to think about what is happening right now in the world around me. The news has changed my perspective from looking at movements that take a long time to achieve their success, but rather I see it in short time bursts that appears as if nothing is happening. The environmental degradation has occurred over thousands of years and will not be fixed immediately. The ideas that are being put forward now could potentially promote a more sustainable earth for our children to inhabit. Take for example the energy transformation that Germany is currently trying to achieve. Look back at the ruins German was in after World War II and how they were able to rebound and use the destruction of many of their buildings and cities and use that to spur on the most ambitious energy reform ever seen. Germany aims for renewable energy to supply 80% of its power by the year 2050. The change in Germany can be seen as the fruition of the anti-nuclear protests that took place in the 1970s and continued into the early 2000s. Being able to see that the progress achieved by Germany was not an overnight phenomenon is critical because the groundwork that was laid 30 years ago had a significant contribution to the decision to go to renewable energy. Solnit’s article was incredibly influential to me because it reminded me that even when the work being done now may seem like a hopeless cause, we never know the benefits that could come from the research down the road. For me, it was another reminder not to look at the success in the moment but instead to look at the hope it can bring for the future and hope for the future remains one of the most influential tools for conservation.
Coming from a small rural community, when I heard Catherine Flowers discuss the issues that Lowndes County in Alabama faced, and some of the solutions that people have offered her, I was appalled.
The impact on rural living is something that is well documented when it comes to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. People living in these rural areas have to drive farther to get the items essential for survival; therefore, they find themselves driving much more than people in the city, which means they are larger contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. However, one of the interesting aspects of Catherine Flowers discussion that infuriated me was when she met with a politician who stated that it would be easier to move everyone away from the rural countryside and put them into cities. I found this statement to be truly galling because of the lack of insight into what the lifestyle means to most people living in rural communities. My family has farmed almonds for over 100 years in the Sacramento Valley, and all of what we do is tied to our rural roots. If someone dared to try and remove us from where we have lived for over 100 years, I do not think we would listen and would remain where we were, planted as firmly as our trees.
The other aspect of the talk that I found interesting was the rediscovery of hookworms in the United States. Hookworm was thought to be eliminated with the invention of proper sewage and treatment facilities. Despite that being the claim, it was rebuked when Catherine Flowers went into Lowndes County and discovered that hookworm was able to survive in places where raw sewage was found. The discovery of hookworm is a fascinating juxtaposition of what the United States “claims” and what is happening. When one hears of hookworms, they conjure up images of third world countries that do not have the infrastructure to be able to remove all of their waste. The United States has one of the most expansive and advanced sewage treatment facilities in the world but overlooks the rural communities having the access to them. I thought that the phrase “rural justice” was fitting because of the findings that Catherine Flowers and others discovered shed a light on the way that rural communities are thought about and how they have been left behind cities. What gives me hope for the justice of rural communities are activists like Catherine Flowers who voice their discoveries and refuse to accept the notion that rural communities will remain secondhand citizens.
Mapping social movement seems like a novel idea because of the ability to be able to clearly see the data laid out in front of the viewer. The map of the evictions in San Francisco was particularly appealing to me because it overlayed multiple factors that seemed to be at play when evicting the homeowners. Mapping social movements looks like it would be more useful because you can lay out numerous different aspects onto a map and see the ones that are truly having an impact. This spring break I was reminded of the importance of maps when it comes to the conservation of seabirds. I was able to participate in a project that mapped the flyway of the sooty tern, a seabird, off of the Southern Atlantic Ocean.
The work being done by our research team has allowed scientists to understand where the sooty tern goes after it leaves the Florida Keys and when the bird comes back to breed. Scientists initially were able to tell that the birds went to the equator by tagging the birds with a data logger but there were issues with the precision of the data loggers. Technology soon improved and some of the birds were tagged with a GPS tracker that recorded the bird’s movement every single hour. By knowing the location of the birds, scientists were able to construct an accurate GIS map that allowed them to see the damage inflicted by hurricanes on the Sooty Terns. Another exciting map that was created because of the GPS revolved around the migration time of the birds. The Sooty Terns used to come to the Florida Keys every year in June and lay their eggs. However, now they no longer come in June, but instead, they come in March to nest. Scientists were initially baffled by this and came up with the hypothesis that the birds were coming earlier because March was the start of the shrimping season in Key West and they could get by-catch from the boats. By having the GPS tracker, our head researcher was able to overlay the location of the Sooty Terns against where the shrimping activity has been taken place and disprove that hypothesis. Mapping of the bird distribution remains a critical part of science one that can illustrate the health of the oceans and the map also makes it easier for scientists to see where the birds are most vulnerable.
When defining the term leader, it ecompasses a massive amount of varying aspects. One of the most fundamental definitions would be to live and behave in a manner that other people could follow. Many of this week’s conversations hinted at what it meant to be a leader of a protest or what to do to get others to follow. The talk by Dr. Robin Kirk did an outstanding job exemplifying the rise of the United States to becoming a world leader, but I thought she did an even greater job explaining the reluctance to maintain that label and to be satisfied living below the moral standard that once governed the nation.
One of the points that Dr. Kirk highlighted that was the United States has always been on the forefront in the battle for human rights. This fight has always been championed by the United States and something that the country had fought diligently for years. However, after the 9/11 attacks, the United States changed their view on protecting rights and dignity by deciding to do whatever they deemed necessary to get the desired results. They embarked on one of the most horrific displays of torture and improper treatment ever seen in the modern era. The reintroduction of waterboarding, holding people in dark rooms on days on end with no food or water, and forcing individuals to stand for hours in excruciating positions to extract as much pain as possible was all fair game to the United States government. Another portion of the talk that made me realize the fundamental change was when Dr. Kirk stated a famous quote issued by Stalin: “the death of one person is a tragedy; the death of one million is a statistic.” Instantly it got me thinking about an article in Time Magazine. With the recent shooting in Florida, the magazine ran an article about whether or not we had become numb to school shootings. The article reports that there have been more than 50 school shootings. Read that number again, over 50 school shootings in the academic year. Many of these though are here today and gone tomorrow. The tragedy is forever for the families but it is no longer news within a day. This point is indicative of just how far America has fallen from the leadership role that we are no longer able to protect ourselves in our own country, especially is a place that is supposed to be a safe haven in schools.
I think this can also be extrapolated to the way that the United States has viewed environmental policy decisions. The United States is the largest producer of CO2 per capita of any country in the world by a large margin. In 2015, the United States produced 15.53 metric tons per capita of CO2. The United States has continuously used and abused the environment without any concern for the future. The idea of change is a daunting one and will take an extreme amount of work to accomplish. In his book Rules for Radicals, Saul D. Alinksy declares that people must have their minds changed and think in a different way for there to be a revolution in the way that we behave. His point has been demonstrated multiple occasions and to fix issues will take time, but when we band together it is possible. I took this quote from the book as hope for the future; Alinsky writes, “I salute the present generation. Hang on to one of your most precious parts of youth, laughter—don’t lose it as many of you seem to have done, you need it. Together we may find some of what we’re looking for—laughter, beauty, love, and the chance to create.” Banding together and working together will be the only way out of this world that we have become accustomed. The message is timeless; the efforts of us all will pave the future so why not choose to act now and create something beautiful and amazing?
Helon Habila’s novel Oil on Water gives a unique perspective on the oil exploitation in the Niger Delta. In particular, it highlights the devastation that the oil companies have had on the indigenous people and how it has removed them from their native lands and the destruction of the natural resources.
However, the one part of the novel that really struck me was the reoccurring theme of water throughout the entire piece. The two main characters travel down the river and are consistently around the water. I thought this was intentional because Habila wanted to illustrate the carnage that the oil companies had inflicted upon the lifeline of the villagers in the area. While I think that was one of the goals of the author, I thought about the title as well. When an oil company drills a well, it uses water to be drill down into the ground. Water is the resource that is used in hydraulic fracking to be able to extract the oil out from under the ground. Colorado State recently conducted a study looking at wells in El Paso, Texas and they discovered that drilling and hydraulic fracking a vertical well takes roughly 387,000 gallons of water. The title is fitting because the water was the resource that the indigenous people centered their lives around and where they caught their food. I found the title to be ironic because not only were the oil companies taking the land of the native people, but they were also removing the pure clean water out of the river, drilling with it and then proceeding to put the disgusting polluted water back into the river. It was also symbolic of what happens when the oil company goes into a new area. The initial money is never enough to overcome the damages that is inflicted upon the area for years to come.
One other aspect of the book that intrigued me was a short dialogue that the doctor has with Rufus and Zaq. In that section, Habila depicts the doctor as grotesque and it appears this is in purpose because the doctor divulges that he discovered the dangers in the water and gave those results to the oil companies. Unfortunately, he is paid by the oil companies to stay quiet and not publish his findings. I thought this was indicative of the way that the people in power were viewed as selling out for their own benefit. Habila’s intention behind this was to show that the people in power in Nigeria are not looking out for the benefit of the people but rather their wallets. I think by describing the doctor in such an unappealing way it is a reflection of the decisions that he has made.
When I read Nnedi Okorafor’s short piece “Spider the Artist,” I found myself thinking back on my experience in South Africa. One of the major issues that I had when I was in South Africa is that I would talk to people from home and they would constantly ask “How’s Africa?” I would instantly get irritated because it was indicative of the way that the Western world views the continent of Africa. I would become annoyed because if I was studying in Spain, people would not ask me how studying in Western Europe was. Every country in Africa typically falls into the “generalization” of Africa instead of the unique individual nations. I thought that this idea rang true in Okorafor’s piece as well.
When she discusses how the robots are in Nigeria to patrol the oil pipeline, even though the pipeline goes through Nigerian people’s yards, it made me think about the history of many African countries and how they have continuously sold themselves to the Western world and the result has always been disastrous for the African country.
I think this cartoon depicts the way that South Africa have sold themselves to China. China has been and continues to be the most significant trading partner with South Africa, and China has approved a 1.2-billion-dollar investment into Johannesburg. However, the development investment has had some pushback because China is using this to mask the fact that they are getting millions worth of raw materials from South Africa in return. Okorafor’s story rings a similar note but instead it uses U.S. oil companies and their transgressions in Africa.
I think that the story is partially a statement about the history of African countries being exploited by Western countries. One line of the story resonated with me and caused me to reconsider its true meaning. She wrote, “You should also pray that these Zombies don’t build themselves some fins and travel across the ocean.” I thought initially that this was the idea that the robots defending the pipeline could come over and wreak havoc on the American people, but then as we discussed in class, I felt like it was more of a warning of do not let the news of the devastation and the bloodshed get across the ocean. I think her message gets back to the central idea that most of the time we have no idea where our food, oil, and materials come from and what it took to create the commodity. Many people do not realize what happens to the indigenous people when the major corporations go into the country and transform the landscape. However, that is often glossed over when we are buying the materials and is not even on our minds. I thought Okorafor made this message clear when she referenced the government and the fact that many of Nigerian people do not trust their government because they sold out their people for the benefit of their own profit margins. The story did a great job of not just saying the issues that she had straightforwardly, but rather used fiction to help the reader arrive at their conclusion and to see the point she was trying to illustrate the entire time.
One of the facets of Linda Hogan’s novel Power that was particularly fascinating to me was the depiction of the division between culture. Omishto is a Native American that is living in both modern society and lives within her old tribal ways. I thought that Hogan did an exceptional job describing the way that Omishto had to choose between either fully adopting western culture or selecting the tribal way of life. One of the parts of the book that stood out to me was the disapproval of the other community members when she decided to accept the tribal ways. Hogan describes that before Omishto killed the panther that other Native Americans wanted their children to follow Omishto’s example and Omishto was one of the children that were described as someone who could make it out and make something of herself. However, after Ama and Omishto killed the panther, the mothers who horrified by Omishto and wanted their children to have nothing to do with her. I thought this exemplified the way that Native Americans were forced for multiple years to pick between living in the native ways or changing and moving into western culture. However, as time has passed the Native American reserves and culture has become more and more diminished. I found it extremely interesting that the other Native Americans would condemn a child for choosing to live in the more traditional ways than to accept and support her decision.
Another intriguing aspect to me in the novel was the underlying issue about the idea of indigenous religious rights. In Ama’s trial, one of the critical points in her defense was that in the treaty it gave the tribe the right to kill the panther on Native American reserve. I think this issue is something that can be seen worldwide in the realm of conservation. The Maasai tribe in Kenya has a ritual that for a boy to become a man that they have to kill a lion. This practice has been sensationalized and has made the Maasai tribe out to seem like they are against conservation and are ruining the lion population. However, the Maasai tribe was there for much longer than the conservationists, and before the land was turned into agriculture, there was a healthy lion population, but now with the decrease in lion habitat, the population has plummeted, and the Maasai are seen as being against conservation. I struggle with the notion that the the Maasai and other indigenous groups are said to be against conservation interests because their religious beliefs, but their religious ideals are not the catalyst in the decrease of wild population of animals. I think that Linda Hogan subtle slips this idea into the novel and it forces the reader to confront the initial feeling of disgust about the death of an endangered species but also forces the reader to look deeper into the issue and see that it is not all on the indigenous community. I think that Bill Rogow said it best when he said: “if the white man had the same commitment to preserving wildlife as the Indians, there would be no endangered species.”
