Exercise #3: Connecting Past and Present
Instructions
For Exercise #3, you will make connections between what you have learned in the course about the past and what is happening today through contemporary media.
- Find two recent media items thematically connected in some way to two of the three topics covered in Unit 3: conservation, parks, and urbanization. For each of these, post a paragraph of three to five sentences, connecting the media story to what you learned, or were challenged to consider, from the resources in Unit 3. Provide the web link to the article in each post.
- These postings may be informal but should be grammatically correct. You should be respectful of other students’ opinions, but that does not mean you must agree with their ideas.
- Post your response by clicking ‘Add Submission’ below.
- Then post two separate comments responding to any other student’s posts.
- Please note, you should write and edit your submission in a separate file then copy and paste it into the submission box. Once submitted to the HIST 3991 trubox site, you will not be able to edit your post.
Are you a student of HIST 3991? Click here to add a submission to this assignment.
Submissions
Connecting Past and Present
June 19, 2022 By: Brett Mathews
This article describes how National Parks may have lost their purpose. As seen in chapter 9 of Steinberg’s textbook, the parks were designed with the intent to conserve nature. Well with over 330 million visitors to national parks a year, and some parks having over 5000 a day, is the land really being conserved? Is this helpful for the environment or is it helpful for the “American dream” and capitalism? One thing is clear, this many people in these relatively small areas will not be good for the conservation of that land. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/20/national-parks-america-overcrowding-crisis-tourism-visitation-solutions This article makes it clear that…
Connecting Past and Present
May 25, 2022 By: XUECHUN YAN
First Article: Long-term Statistics Canada research shows cities across country losing green space: https://www.ctvnews.ca/climate-and-environment/long-term-statistics-canada-research-shows-cities-across-country-losing-green-space-1.5763081 The source by Bob Waber of CTV News on February 1, 2022, expresses the concern that urbanization is reducing parks countrywide. The writer warns that the Canadian government is favoring cities over environmental conservation.[1] Such aspects relate to the course materials’ insights that humans contribute to environmental destruction and should adjust accordingly to rectify the issue[2]. As a result, it is essential to control urbanization to conserve nature. Second Article: Study Links Urbanization to Poor Ecological Knowledge, Less Environmental Action: https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2022/05/study-links-urbanization-poor-ecological-knowledge-less-environmental. The National Institute of Standards…
Connecting Past and Present
May 17, 2022 By: Melissa Harding
Plovers and friends: Sauble Beach town’s $100,000 fine for bulldozing bird habitat stands https://thenarwhal.ca/sauble-beach-piping-plovers-ruling/ Throughout history humans have altered their environment to suit their own needs with little regard for the other species that may be affected. Sauble Beach is yet another example of this, where the beach was ploughed and grated to enhance its aesthetic value. This grooming significantly damaged resources and nesting habitat for the endangered piping plover. As history continues to repeat itself the cycle goes: humans modify their environment for their own needs and desires, another species is disturbed, the species faces extinction, humans may or…
Connecting Past and Present
May 4, 2022 By: Charlotte Knudsen
1.Strategy, E. and C. C. (2021, October 5). Conservation, culture at the heart of newly protected areas. Retrieved May 4, 2022, from https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2021ENV0054-001907 A new provincial park will be established in order to protect an ecosystem that is located on Vancouver island. The park will also be renamed Sxótsaqel, Chilliwack Lake Park to honor its Indigenous history. The habitat is sensitive and the ecosystem vulnerable, which puts wildlife in danger. This increased protection will insure that these animals will remain alive for years to come. It is the human race’s duty to control the earth according to Pinchot, so…
Connecting Past and Present
April 19, 2022 By: Elizabeth Beattie
George Wuerthner. “Yellowstone National Park at 150: Still a Remarkable Achievement”, National Parks Traveller. Accessed April 7, 2022. https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2022/04/yellowstone-150-still-remarkable-achievement Yellowstone National Park was the first National Park in the world, born in 1872, but it was not originally a remarkable conservation achievement. Many Aboriginal and Euro-Americans in Yellowstone (and several other parks such as Banff National Park) were removed and in conflict with urban conservationists because governments were more interested in game, sport hunting, and tourism for the wealthy than ensuring proper conservation. The original thought to create a National Park was brilliant and evolutionary but was just executed poorly….