Saturday, June 15, 2013
Colloquium blog 5
I can not get enough of the book "A Land Remembered." I think it is my new favorite book. It makes me want to just trek East and find a completely secluded and isolated place to stay for a while. I love the hard work and dedication that help the characters meet their goals and without there is no way they would have the will to survive. I am inspired by the gardens and orange trees and the incredible journeys they go on to sell their cattle. I absolutely can not put down this and will be quite upset when it is over. I think I like it so much because it shows how life used to be so basic and survival was based on hard work, not going to the grocery store. It also shows us how much has changed since people first started to inhabit Florida. I think it is easier to relate to because I live in Florida, and I have always been fascinated by native Florida plants and wildlife.
blog 4
Our field trip the other day to Lover's Key State Park was awesome! I had been by it a bunch but never actually visited the park. Amy and I had so much fun looking for shells and taking pictures of all the wildlife we saw. We saw an several osprey, one of which was sitting in a massive nest. We also saw pelicans sitting on the water looking for fish, a starfish in a tidal pool, and a stingray. I love that Lover's Key is so secluded. It has everything that other beaches have except it is not destroyed by litter and tourists and people taking it for granted. There was so much wildlife that you don't see on other beaches.
I was previously unaware that mangroves had such an impact on the environment. I also thought that the way mangroves spread seeds by letting them float in the water with attached nutrients was interesting. That explains why you always see little pieces of mangrove floating in the ocean when you swim.
I was previously unaware that mangroves had such an impact on the environment. I also thought that the way mangroves spread seeds by letting them float in the water with attached nutrients was interesting. That explains why you always see little pieces of mangrove floating in the ocean when you swim.
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Kelsey Senker Colloquium Blog 3
Blog 3:
I absolutely loved our field trip to ECHO the other day. The day before I had worked in the Food Forest on campus so I was pretty amped up to learn more about my favorite plants and trees such as the Moringa Tree. I learned that the Moringa Tree has edible leaves that have tons of vitamins and minerals. I also learned that you can crush up the seeds and use them in a water purification process. I would love to grow a Moringa tree. We also learned that Cassava is used in 70% of the worlds carbs, as well as Chaya is an edible green that MUST be cooked because it has trace amounts of cyanide in it. Since I love to grow new things, especially from seeds, I found out about so many neat tropical climate plants that are not only beneficial to the environment, but to me as well and would thrive in SW Florida climate. From the food forest I have several passion fruits from which I can plant their seeds and hopefully grow a passion fruit plant. I also want to get a Moringa tree and a Pomello fruit tree.
I absolutely loved our field trip to ECHO the other day. The day before I had worked in the Food Forest on campus so I was pretty amped up to learn more about my favorite plants and trees such as the Moringa Tree. I learned that the Moringa Tree has edible leaves that have tons of vitamins and minerals. I also learned that you can crush up the seeds and use them in a water purification process. I would love to grow a Moringa tree. We also learned that Cassava is used in 70% of the worlds carbs, as well as Chaya is an edible green that MUST be cooked because it has trace amounts of cyanide in it. Since I love to grow new things, especially from seeds, I found out about so many neat tropical climate plants that are not only beneficial to the environment, but to me as well and would thrive in SW Florida climate. From the food forest I have several passion fruits from which I can plant their seeds and hopefully grow a passion fruit plant. I also want to get a Moringa tree and a Pomello fruit tree.
Kelsey Senker Colloquium Blog 2
Blog 2:
I think the "work for water" program in South Africa is great! I love that it creates jobs for a poverty stricken area, while helping their environment and society. Theya re taking steps to help themselves instead of relying on other countries that just throw money at the problem and hope it will get better. I never thought of trees as an invasive species. I also never thought about how precious water really is. We absolutely take advantage of water and always assume it will be there. It is sad to think that our planet is rapidly deteriorating. It is also a littel scary too. It is scary because no one knows what to expect when our natural resouces run out. We are already seeing extreme environmental reaction to our actions. Such as the extreme weather like larger more powerful hurricanes, and increased bad storms that cause deadly tornadoes. I watched the news last night and saw more bad weather and tornados in the area of Moore, OK. The rising ocean temperatures can not just be a coincidence. Our planet it screaming at us to stop the abuse its resources. We HAVE to find a more sustainable way of life.
I think the "work for water" program in South Africa is great! I love that it creates jobs for a poverty stricken area, while helping their environment and society. Theya re taking steps to help themselves instead of relying on other countries that just throw money at the problem and hope it will get better. I never thought of trees as an invasive species. I also never thought about how precious water really is. We absolutely take advantage of water and always assume it will be there. It is sad to think that our planet is rapidly deteriorating. It is also a littel scary too. It is scary because no one knows what to expect when our natural resouces run out. We are already seeing extreme environmental reaction to our actions. Such as the extreme weather like larger more powerful hurricanes, and increased bad storms that cause deadly tornadoes. I watched the news last night and saw more bad weather and tornados in the area of Moore, OK. The rising ocean temperatures can not just be a coincidence. Our planet it screaming at us to stop the abuse its resources. We HAVE to find a more sustainable way of life.
Kelsey Senker Colloquium
Blog 1:
Watching the first clip of the video in class last week, I felt inspired. I have a small garden outside of my apartment and have always dreamed of expanding it. My garden consists of bell peppers, spicy peppers, tomatoes, herbs, raspberries, and I just began corn, broccoli, spinach, eggplant, among some others. Since it is a small personal garden I don't use pesticides. I never really thought about if i did how it would cause run off and pollute, most likely, the pond 20 yards away. That pond is not the clearest of the cleanest, but the apartment complex "higher ups" decided it was too ugly so they tried to dye it blue. They obviously messed it up the first time because there are blue patches here and there that you can't even see through. I imagine this can't be good for the fish, especially the ones that spawn near the waters edge because they can't see predators. The video clip about the harmful chemical running off and polluting the Mississippi made me think about that exact process but on a smaller scale and directly affected by me. On a large or small scale our actions even individually greatly affect our environment negatively. Even though it is easier to affect it negatively, it will be difficult to change that and start affecting the environment in a positive way so the environment can benefit as well instead of just us.
Watching the first clip of the video in class last week, I felt inspired. I have a small garden outside of my apartment and have always dreamed of expanding it. My garden consists of bell peppers, spicy peppers, tomatoes, herbs, raspberries, and I just began corn, broccoli, spinach, eggplant, among some others. Since it is a small personal garden I don't use pesticides. I never really thought about if i did how it would cause run off and pollute, most likely, the pond 20 yards away. That pond is not the clearest of the cleanest, but the apartment complex "higher ups" decided it was too ugly so they tried to dye it blue. They obviously messed it up the first time because there are blue patches here and there that you can't even see through. I imagine this can't be good for the fish, especially the ones that spawn near the waters edge because they can't see predators. The video clip about the harmful chemical running off and polluting the Mississippi made me think about that exact process but on a smaller scale and directly affected by me. On a large or small scale our actions even individually greatly affect our environment negatively. Even though it is easier to affect it negatively, it will be difficult to change that and start affecting the environment in a positive way so the environment can benefit as well instead of just us.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)