Corkscrew Sanctuary!

The Corkscrew Sanctuary was by the best field trip so far. I thought it was beautiful, the surroundings, the noises, just the whole atmosphere. How they built that boardwalk through all those prairies of land is fascinating to me. Being able to keep all that land just the way it was years and years ago is great. There is not much area that this could happen so in order for it to stay like that for years to come is mind blowing. The views of the daisies were breathtaking and gorgeous. Seeing so many of them at one time was awesome. Walking along the boardwalk we heard many noises and even saw a vulture. I thought that was awesome as I had never seen one before. While on our walk we also crossed paths with three or four spiders that were hanging on their webs in the middle of the boardwalk. They were just hanging there eating bugs. All the noises that were heard sounded pretty when they were all together. I myself really enjoyed looking out into the open grassland which probably contained more animals then we thought. We also encountered a little black snake along with a big green grasshopper. The most exciting part I thought was seeing the otter in the water. Although it only had a short stay until it swam underneath the boardwalk, I thought it was cool I got to see one at all. I pretty much enjoyed every part of the sanctuary and would love to go back there. I even told my Mom about it and told her once the weather got a little bit cooler it wold be a nice thing to do on Saturday afternoon!

Packaging

This exercise took some thinking. Everytime that I picked something up I thought to myself where did this come from and what did I receive it in. The first thing I lifted up right in the morning was my cell phone. This I know was packaged in a box and then inside the box each object was layered with a protective cover such as bubble wrap for protection. There was a paper booklet in there also that explained the functions. It most likey killed alot of trees just to package one cellular phone. When I went off to class I picked up my textbooks. These books I picked up at the store and were given to me in a plastic bag. When it came to lunchtime I decided to get a bagel from Einsteins. When the lady handed me my food it was in a brown paper bag with a clear layer of paper inside. As time went on every little thing was popping into my mind. The pen I was using came in a cardboard box and the paper I was writing on was wrapped in cellophane. Even when I stepped into my car an image of them taking it off the lot and removing the cardboard around the wheels and the plastic covering of the seats made me think wow, everything is really packaged someway and somehow. Most of the packaging I received that day was not sustainable. More things could have been easily made out of recycled cardboard instead of plastic that is worse for the environment. I try to make decisions that will be beneficial but sometimes it is not all your fault. Buying new items doesn't mean that they are wrapped the way you would necessarily like it to be. The only choice that I make that could be categorized as sustainable is paper or plastic at the grocery stores, or even bringing your own recycled bags that can be reused. If everyone made decisions that helped our world out our wildlife would all take advantage of it. It will make a difference in the long run even if we do not see it right away.

Energy Usage

The amount of energy that is used in my typical day I was figuring to be pretty high. I know that I do not make a huge effort to conserve as much as I should. When I kept track for a whole day about how much energy I consume I was amazed at how much one person could really use. Each day I use my fan in my room for when I go to sleep at night. It stays on throughout the entire night until I wake up the next morning. During the morning my alarm clock goes off on my cell phone at 9:30 which takes up some energy. The air conditioner in my house is on all day and usually set around 75 degrees. It goes on and off when necessary but lowered at night to keep cooler. The morning time is when I took a shower which used energy from the hot water heater. I also plugged my phone into the charger that morning because I had forgotten to at night time. When I went to go plus my phone in its charger I realized that my laptop was also plugged in and running for no reason. I then made the effort to unplug it from the wall and hibernate my computer. When it came to my cell phone on this particular day it was actually a light day. I made about 6 or 7 particular phone calls and stayed on the phone around the average of ten minutes or so. Texting on the other hand was a bit ridiculous. At the end of the day I counted up how many texts I has sent and received in just a twelve hour cycle and it came to 167 texts. I had never actually counted the amount of texting I was doing so that was a big heads up. During this day I did not have to use the washing machine or the dishwasher so that eliminated a lot of energy. The day I recorded was a Saturday so I did not do too much driving around. I went shopping at the Edison mall with one other person in my car and back which equaled 13 miles there and 13 miles back. I also went out to dinner, driving just by myself and that was 9 miles there and then 9 miles back. The total day I drove approximately 45 miles, which in my opinion is not too bad. For the whole year I drive my car about 13,000 miles. I fill up my tank on an average once a week. My car holds about 23 miles a gallon so it gets pretty good gas mileage. When it comes to driving I do not really put the amount of time I spend in it into consideration. I should realize how much energy and fuel I am burning just by driving around town. The whole experiment by keeping a record of my energy use made me realize I am hurting the environment just on my own. I could imagine if no one took into consideration about how much fuel and energy that is used then I would not want to know what this earth would look like. I would like to make a change in my habits since I now know the pollution that I am bringing into the planet.

Campus Trail Field Trip

Going on the campus trails was for sure an adventure. That is the one word I would use to some it up. Going into it I was a little worried because I was unsure of what to expect. In the end I was reflecting back on it and it was well worth it and pretty much everything I was expecting. I really enjoyed exploring the trails of campus and really see what was hiding back there in those woods. I thought it was cool seeing the trees that survived the fire way back some years ago that were still alive today. I also thought the Melaluca was pretty amazing as it lives for so many years and could have been there decades before. I was awaiting walking through the knee high water because that is what we were warned of but that did not come till about half way through our adventure. When the sea levels changed it was quite a change in scenery because of all of the water that rose and the areas that were dry. When we finally got to the wetlands, it was rather mucky and muddy but I was very intrigued to continue walking. On our walk we saw an owl in the trees. We also heard the sounds of woodpeckers along with other exotic creatures. I have to say I was a little worried stopping to talk while my feet were implanted in mud and water up to my knees but it was certainly rememberable. At the beginning of colloquium class I never thought I would be doing something like that but when it was over and accomplished I was glad I did. I learned a lot about the campus on our trail hike and it made it more clear to me why our school is so environmental friendly!

Food Intake

When reading what I had to do, like count my calorie intake, I knew from then I would not be thrilled with the results. I started keeping track the moment I woke up in the morning on Saturday. When I woke up around 9:30 a.m I had two Special K waffles with syrup on top. http://www.calories-nutrition.buddyslim.com/waffles-special-k/ These two waffles contained a total of 320 calories without the syrup. Throughout the day I had a Chewy granola bar that was 90 calories, a ham and turkey sandwich with cheese, and about 10 Special K crackers. The sandwich was about 400 calories and the crackers were 55 calories. For dinner I ended up going out to eat where my meal was prepared for me. I went to TGI Fridays and had a BBQ Jack Chicken. The meal was 500 calories. http://www.thedailyplate.com/nutrition-calories/food/tgi-fridays After dinner I had two chocolate chip cookies which were 200 calories. When adding up my day the total came to 1,565 calories. When analyzing my food intake I realized that usually on a daily basis about half my food is pre-made and half was made by myself. Most of the food that I ate in that one day was prepackaged and came from the grocery store. I wouldn't say that my choice in food was the most sustainable which is probably something that could be worked on but I do not think that the amount of calories taken in was too terrible, I definitely think it could have been a lot worse. I would like to make a substantial change in trying to prepare my own meals more instead of going out to eat. Not only for the environment but also for my health. The food that I can prepare for myself will be much more sustainable let alone healthier. I plan to make a conscientious effort in making a change on my eating habits.

Conservation 20/20

The Conservation 20/20 website was pretty fascinating. It really impressed me when reading through that people actually started this foundation just because of their love for the land. It is pretty bold of them to go after and help change something that they truly had a concern for. The purpose of the program is to try and protect the preserve natural wildlife habitat. They want to try and keep things the way they used to be and keep a sustainable environment. They are also dedicated to keep the supply of water adequate to the people. They want to make sure that the supply is always up and that the worry of a shortage is never an option. Another goal of theirs is to protect the land that is already developed from floods. They want to accomplish all of these objectives by using resource-based recreation. This is the first time that I have heard of this program and I think its a great idea. If we did not have people out there to worry about these issues that who would? I know a program like this could get controversial because of the money from citizens tax dollars are actually going towards a lot of the funding but I think in the long run it will be worth it and well appreciated by most, well hopefully some. Besides Matanzas Pass I have not been to any other preserves. I do not know if I will ever make it out to another but if I do ever come across one it would a fun activity to go check out. Overall I think that if these type of people and programs weren't out there then our planet would be a lot worse off than it already is, they are just trying to make a difference in a category that lacks attention. http://www.conservation2020.org/index.cfm

Field Trip to Matanzas Pass Preserve

The field trip to Matanzas Pass Preserve was very informative and historical. I really did enjoy learning about the early times of Ft. Myers beach and how it came to be. I found it very interesting and I thought the woman who was speaking was very enthusiastic about the topic and made it fun to learn about. I heard a lot of good facts and interesting stories that really made everything go together about how Ft. Myers beach is so special to the residents that have been there since the beginning. Although the bugs were a little unbareable I did enjoy the surroundings once on the boardwalk. My favorite part was when we sat on the benches overlooking the water. It was truely a beautiful sight. I love looking at the open water while sitting in silence where you can hear all your surroundings. The boardwalk that led us to the view of the water was actually very relaxing. It was fun to just walk and listen and look for various animals such as birds. I thought it was interesting to see the level at which we were at and how you could tell if you were higher or lower in elevation because of the types of trees that appeared and because of the ammount of water. I did not see too many things animal wise but it was an experience that I did appreciate in the end.

Water Rights Reflection

After reading the article about the right that is trying to be passed in order to go into the aquifer underneath of Texas in order to provide drinking water to the people of Dallas it opened up my mind a bit to what people really take for granted when it comes to water. I believe that the water beneath is common ground just like it says. I believe that since it is classified as "common" people who are willing to go get it should be allowed to make a profit off of it. I think that since it is in an open environment then it should be open to anybody to get to. Although I think it is a good idea it will still affect the residents living in the area. It will give them an extra supply of water and will reduce the costs of excess water that they will not have to buy. The project itself though will cause rukas because of the digging up of the roads or where ever they need to go to get through to the water. The wildlife might also be disturbed as this is a big project and will cause chaos and disruption to the animals in the way. Their habitat will most likely be destroyed in order to obtain the water successfully. If this plan gets rejected I am sure there are other alternative ways to solve the solution to water shortages. They could also drill a hole in order to get well water which would cost a lot less to do and would not disturb the residents or the wildlife of Texas. There is quite a chance that this could happen to our state of Florida. We could eventually have to put more restrictions on water when it comes to watering our land. We could also have a shortage due to the amount of tourists that come down here who consume a lot of what we need. With the boom in construction businesses down here it takes a lot of water to build all these new communities and shopping centers. I definitely think that there is a good possibility that there could be a shortage of water when it comes to Florida.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK6aA46I_VY

Daily Water Usage

Two days ago I kept track of how much water I was using on a daily basis. I kept track by recording how many gallons and cups were used when taking a shower, using the washing machine, washing dishes, flushing the toilet, and running useless water such as brushing my teeth. I started off the day by waking up and using the bathroom. Each flush uses 1.5 gallons of water. I then brushed my teeth. I put a measuring cup in the bottom of the sink to see how many times it would fill up during the brushing. I had to pour the water out two times and on the third time it filled half. So I used 5 cups to just brush my teeth. I did not use any water during my meals for the day so I did not have to record any for that. I did though have to do some laundry. The washing machine in my house uses 50 gallons a cycle. I ended up doing two loads which equaled 100 gallons of water. After dinner I decided to wash the dishes by hand. I did the same method as I did for when brushing my teeth.

This time around I filled up the measuring cup five and a half times. I ended up with 11 cups of water for washing the dishes. Before bed I figured I would take a shower. I decided the easiest way to do this was to cut the top off of a one gallon milk jug. I would see how many times that would fill up in the twelve minute shower that I took. I had to dump the water out two times and the third time it filled about three quarters. To take a shower I used 2 and 3/4 gallons of water. During the day I went to the bathroom eight times. Each time used 1.5 gallons so all together it was 12 gallons of water. When going back and looking through each amount that I wrote down I started to put it all together. For the whole day I used 13 and three fourths gallons of water and 16 cups of water. I honestly did not think this was too bad because the washing machine took up a lot of that number. I could easily cut down on the water used when brushing my teeth by not letting it run in between. I could also maybe only do one load a laundry when necessary. Being honest I do not really try to conserve water as much as I should. It should cross my mind more often but it sometimes goes right over my head. Overall I enjoyed doing this experiment and got a big heads up when it comes to water usage. http://wateruseitwisely.com/100-ways-to-conserve/index.php

Ecological Footprint

My ecological footprint came out to be a 6.1. http://sustainability.publicradio.org/consumerconsequences/consumerConsequences.htmlI was excited to take this quiz because I was curious to see what it would ask in order to calculate the number. I find it pretty outrageous that it would take 6 worlds if everyone lived the way that I did. My highest category was my impact on public and personal transportation and to be honest that is one of the easiest categories that I could make improvements on, which made me happy. I really did not think that my footprint would have come out so high because I truly do think that there are worse situations out there and that I would have been somewhere in the middle. My roommates and I are not as conscious as we should be about some things but when it comes to electricity and water we are somewhat mindful. I think after reading the results and simplifying what I am really doing to our earth and the environment, I would really like to make a significant change. I know if I sat down with my three other roommates and had a serious talk with them on how we should lower our energy use a little, or higher our recycling habits they would be completely in for it. I would like to contribute to making our planet more sustainable even if it is only making a few minor, simple changes!