HIST 3991 Environmental History – Assignment 1- Exercise 3- Connecting past and Present
September 26, 2022 By: Jennifer Marshall
Exercise #3: Connecting Past and Present
Article 1- Conservation
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/conservation
Oxford dictionary defines conservation as “The prevention of wasteful use of a resource.” I personally feel that there is much more to it. Conservation, to me, includes respect. Respect for resources, ecosystems, wildlife, our planet and more. It is the attempt at preserving vital aspects of life and life forms. Conservation includes the acute awareness of our future needs. Conservation, in many different forms is essential to our survival.
The lotto of The BC Wildlife Park, located in Kamloops, BC is ‘Conservation through Education.’ This means facilitating positive relationships with nature and wildlife, highlighting the importance of responsibility, and sharing the interconnectedness of nature (https://www.bcwildlife.org/about-us.htm). The conservation and preservation of nature and natural resources is especially important to me. I deeply value wildlife and the significant role they play in our survival, and the survival of our planet. We are also aware of our household consumption rates, and do our best to conserve water and power, while growing our own vegetable gardens, fruit trees and vegetation. As the text states, we must do our best to respectfully use our resources so that nature can do the restocking.
Article 2- Urbanization
https://unfccc.int/news/rapid-urbanization-increases-climate-risk-for-billions-of-people
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/urban-threats
Wikipedia defines urbanization as “the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change.[1] It is predominantly the process by which towns and cities are formed and become larger as more people begin living and working in central areas.”
Although I understand the economic and social pressures that create or cause urbanization, I cannot shake my negative feelings about the topic. In my opinion, if we do not do something to counteract the disturbances caused by development or preserve delicate ecosystems, we (and our children) will pay for it in the future with depleted resources and significant climate changes. Urbanization causes increased greenhouses gas emissions, as well as crime rates and decreased air quality. Rates of energy consumption and the demand for natural resources skyrocket. Denser populations are more at risk for transmission of communicable diseases.
Historically, urbanization has led to some incredibly vital developments such as sewage disposal systems and water treatment facilities. Recycling and Composting programs are more recent examples of the positive effects of urbanization.
Hi Jennifer, regarding the article about urbanization, I totally agree with you as more people move into one place, a place can grow more complex systems and could shape into a larger city. The system, technology, society, environment, and human together is a complex system which shape the entire world. Urbanization has its own benefits and deficiencies. People need to find a way to clear the boundary between the physical environmental world and anthropogenic world.
Hi Jennifer,
I appreciate the articles that you shared above. I agree that conservation should be based on respect of nature and not just the material abundance that it can offer us. I also try to reduce my household consumption and try to instil this in my children as well. It is sad to see how our society has progressed to one that gives value to consumption. The environmental effects of over consumption were not obviously visible and did not receive much media attention over the last fifty years, but this is now changing. As the younger generations can see more of the effects of climate change (wild fires, droughts, extreme weather, etc.) it will be interesting to see if this changes their consumption patterns.
Thanks,
Vanessa
Hi Jennifer,
That first link was an interesting piece and i agree with you that nature needs respect.
But wasn’t that third paragraph interesting when it said that the goal of National Parks was preservation, when we read in our readings that this was by chance. The initial goal, with the first NP, was to prevent private acquisition and exploitation, (Nash resource in Activity 3, Topic 2).
Either way, at least the wilderness was mostly protected, (aside from Hetch Hetchy).
You may be interested in my article on Ted Turner. It’s includes ways he protects endangered species. (I posted it today.)
Thanks for provoking my thoughts,
Richard
Hi Jennifer,
I really liked the way you claimed that we should respect our resources and nature. We should not take these for granted thinking that nature will reproduce its resources automatically and we’ll keep destroying those. This is our responsibility to use those for our best purpose and conserve them as much as we can for our generation and for our future gens.
Hello Jennifer and thank you for sharing your post and links to the articles. I liked learning about the topics of conservation and urbanization. I also chose similar topics from the course readings as they seemed to relate to what is happening locally in Delta, BC. I liked that you connected the topic of conservation to something local to Kamloops such as the lotto of the BC Wildlife Park. I also agree with you that the definition of conservation should include respect and balance between humans and wildlife. In my hometown, there are current battles between creating jobs and respecting ecosystems. I think there needs to be more weight given to humans respecting nature and making conscious plans for current and future generations to preserve vital aspects of wildlife. When I lived in Kamloops and attended TRU, before the pandemic, I had heard about the BC Wildlife Park in Kamloops, so it was nice to learn more about it! I also think that conservation through education is going to become more important as urban development seems to be having less space for children to grow up in connection with nature as there is less land available and the cost of living keeps increasing. I completely agree that with the rate and constant increase in urban development, the disturbances that are being created by development and more wildlife are being pushed farther from their homes and being affected when humans and wildlife connect.