What You Can Do To Save Money When Gas Prices Soar
Gas prices are soaring as of late, and are around $4.00 per gallon in Kentucky. There are several explanations for this, but one which I most likely consider is fuel companies are price gouging because they can. Have you ever noticed how gas prices go up substantially around holidays? This is because fuel companies know people are traveling, and they can make a few extra bucks. Despite the rise in gas prices, people have still not been deterred from filling up. In fact, every time I pass a gas station, almost all of the pumps are packed!
Fear tactics are currently being used to drive American fuel consumption, i.e., these companies, courtesy of the media, are scaring the American public into using their cars as much as possible, and buying as much gas as possible before its all gone (Think “gas shortage” of the 1970’s). EcoKY advises to take this news with a grain of salt, and manage your fear . Earlier this week a gas station sold out of gas in Louisville, Ky, and most definitely in countless places across the U.S.
EcoKY offers six alternatives to protect your wallet, the environment, and of course you–from your own fear:
TALK THE TALK, NOW WALK THE WALK
1.Stop making unnecessary trips. Plan your day out so you can complete as much as you can in each part of town while you are in that neck of the woods. Take a lesson in list making, planning, or anal-retentiveness from your favorite OCD friend you always like to pick on. These people exist to remind us of how frivolous and wasteful we can be. Think back to the good ol’ days when you didn’t have to be a ga-zillion places at once, before cell phones, when it was okay if you forgot something at the store or at your house. Innovate, Improvise, and Be Resourceful!
2. Car-pool. Carpooling is a great way to catch up with your friends, co-workers, etc., and a great way to save money. Talk to your friends, neighbors, and co-workers about their plans for traveling–even to the grocery store. Maybe you could all go together…and chip in for gas. Biggest pet peeve: Driving down the road and seeing car after SUV after car with a total of one person in them. Wasteful and Pointless!
3. Grab a bus schedule. Cities and towns provide public transportation because it is efficient, timely, and can accommodate many of its’ citizens. While living in several national metropolitan areas, I utilized the public transportation system, and found it to be clean, on time, cheap, and efficient. The only thing that I found disconcerting, believe it or not, was when I was the only person on the bus?!? Taking the bus or subway can also be a stress reliever–think no road rage, no accidents, and no expensive damage or wear and tear on your car!
4. Walk. If your destination is only a few blocks away, why not hoof it? Many people have made this suggestion before, but it may hit home alittle more now than ever with such high gas prices in the U.S. Plus walking is good for the mind, body, and spirit. It gives you time to think about things, meditate, and stay cardio-vascular healthy.
5. Ride a bicycle. Using a bike to commute is awesome. This is also a prime mode of transportation in urban areas–even in many rural areas, as well. Bicycles get you from point A to point B faster than walking, and they cost substantially less than gas these days. Investing in a decent bike would probably cost the same as two full SUV tanks of gas, by today’s standards. Bikes are a big money saver and the return on the investment will be huge!
6. Invest in a motor scooter. 50cc scooters are a great way to save money. They are fuel efficient, getting 80 to 90 miles per gallon! Myself, my family, and friends don’t know where we would be without our scooters. Probably a lot more financially stressed! Scooters are a safe and effective way to get around town, and do not require a license, insurance, or a helmet to drive. But, if you are planning on going the scooter route, we suggest wearing a helmet. It would be a pretty dumb way to die…considering you could have just worn a helmet! Better safe than sorry! The only draw back is that scooters cannot be driven on the interstate, but re-routing gives you the opportunity to see places you wouldn’t ordinarily see, and take in the area a bit more!
National Solar Tours in Kentucky
Berea Solar Tour
Date: October 6, 10am to 4pm
Taking Place In: Berea KY
Presented by: Sustainable Berea
For More Information: Sustainable Berea, 
859-985-1689
, info@sustainableberea.org, www.sustainableberea.org
Tour Description: A self-guided tour of residences in Berea and surroundings that use a variety of solar applications including photovoltaic systems, solar hot water, daylighting, and passive-solar design.
Tour Fee: Free
How to Take this Tour: Tour information will be available by mid-September at www.sustainableberea.edu or contact info@sustainableberea.org for a hardcopy of the tour brochure.
Green News: “Premiere cell phone recycling program”
ECO-CELL is the premiere cell phone recycling program for environmentally minded fund raisers. Our passion is to provide our conservation partners with the most profitable, easy to use and environmentally sound cell phone recycling program possible.
Eco-KY’s “Kentucky Environmental Organizations Directory”
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Ecoky.com |
KY Earthquake shakes local residents.
A 5.4 earthquake that appeared to rival the strongest recorded in the region rocked people awake as far away as Milwaukee early Friday, surprising residents unaccustomed to such a powerful Midwest tremor.The quake just before 5:37 a.m. (4:37 a.m. CT) and was centered 6 miles from West Salem, Ill., and 66 miles from Evansville, Ind. It awakened people in neighboring Indiana and even Milwaukee, Wis., 350 miles north of the epicenter.
“It shook our house where it woke me up,” said David Behm of Philo, 10 miles south of Champaign. “Windows were rattling, and you could hear it. The house was shaking inches. For people in central Illinois, this is a big deal. It’s not like California.”
The quake shook skyscrapers in Chicago’s Loop, 240 miles north of the epicenter, and in downtown Indianapolis, about 160 miles northeast of the epicenter.
9 News viewers from throughout the Tri-State, including Rising Sun, Lebanon, Newport and Mason called in to report no damages, but certainly experiences of feeling and at times of hearing the effects of these tremors. (You can read some of them below.)
Irvetta McMurtry of Cincinnati said she felt the rattling for up to 20 seconds.
“All of a sudden, I was awakened by this rumbling shaking,” said McMurtry, 43. “My bed is an older wood frame bed, so the bed started to creak and shake, and it was almost like somebody was taking my mattress and moving it back and forth.”
Attila Kilinc, a University of Cincinnati earthquake expert, said we should know more later today about the specific effects this earthquake had on the Tri-State.
Indiana State Police spokesman Sgt. Todd Ringle in Evansville said there were no immediate reports of damage.
The quake occurred in the Illinois basin-Ozark dome region that covers parts of Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas and stretches from Indianapolis and St. Louis to Memphis, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The organization’s Web site said earthquakes occur irregularly in the area, and that the largest historical earthquake in the region — also a magnitude 5.4 — caused damage in southern Illinois in 1968.
Ecoky.com “Living Green in the Blue Grass State!” Buying Local and Homeopathics
With everyone’s eyes on our human impact
on the environment, people must reconsider
their lifestyles down to every last drop of oil,
and every last drop of water we waste, in order
to help make global change a reality.
ECOKY.COM offers some ideas in recycling,
reusing, and reducing our carbon footprints.
Kentucky is a state rich in natural resources
and fertile, nutrient rich soil–more than
ideal for farming and growing organic food.
Some Kentucky farmers still adhere to the
‘old ways’ of farming, meaning they choose
to grow fruits and vegetables and raise
livestock without pesticides and hormones.
These qualities are the standards for which
food is labeled ‘organic.’
Many decades ago, corporations and the
powers that be introduced pesticides and
animal hormones to farmers in order to
increase their product yield. This practice,
studies have shown, has many detrimental
effects on the human system, including
cancer, obesity, and birth defects, to name a
few. Corporations and their teams of scientists
have also done well to develop and implement
preservatives and other hazardous ingredients,
which are put into foods and body products in
order to ensure increases in revenue by means
of addicting consumers to their products.
The media has inundated the general public
with inflated images of a lifestyle full of
unnecessary luxuries. We don’t need all of
these products as seen in countless
advertisements. We don’t need life to be ANY
easier than it already is. Seriously. If life gets
any easier, why even have a body? The bottom
line is this: Our bodies need nutritious,
wholesome foods and exercise in order to work properly.
Some might say that Kentuckians seem to
have few choices for a healthy lifestyle and
healthy foods with the majority of the
state’s population residing in rural
communities, where Wal-Mart, McDonald’s,
and a handful of other fast food restaurants,
are the only choices for supplies and outings.
But that’s what they want you to believe.
These corporations want to be your only choice,
Your everything. The truth is, Kentuckians do
have a choice. Granted, to unearth these alternatives,
it takes a little more effort than jumping in
your car and driving to Wal-Mart or the
nearest drive-thru, but the results are much
more rewarding and healthier for you and
your family.
Kentucky offers a fantastic alternative to
these corporate powerhouses pumping us
full of hormones and chemicals–farmers
markets have sprung up across the state
offering fresh and organic produce and
natural products in the late spring,
summer, and fall months! Farmers’ markets
are a wonderful weekly and sometimes
bi-weekly event in which people can support
local business and their communities.
Farmers’ markets are also a great way to
become active in your community, bouncing
healthy ideas and practices off of others. At many
of these open markets, people offer other
services and products, including body care
homeopathic, natural remedies, tinctures,
and tonics, as well as alternative medicine
practitioners.
A Briefing on Holistic Medicine
Until modern medicine and the excessive
‘pill cure-all’ era became the solution, people
in the U.S. relied on homeopathic and what
is now called ‘alternative’ medicine. Often
times, people would do whatever they could
with their cultural knowledge of home
remedies before seeking the professional
help of a western medicines doctor. Some
Kentuckians still use a few of these natural
home remedies for ailments here and there,
but the number is dwindling as we watch
Kentucky’s cultural and oral heritage slowly
become replaced with T.V.
Elders in the area still have a memory full of
homeopathic remedies–the plants to use,
where to find these plants, and what to do with
the plants. The only way to prevent this
knowledge from being lost with their generation
is to take an active role in obtaining the knowledge.
Alternative medicine doctors, however,
make it their business to know everything
from these such homeopathic solutions, to
indigenous medicinal uses of plants, to
Chinese medicine. Many people around the
world are finding that alternative medicines
are much more effective than modern
medicine under many circumstances (except
of course, serious terminal illnesses
requiring surgery).
It may seem, at times, slightly elusive to
consumers, but organic products, homeopathic
vendors, holistic practitioners, and natural
remedies are right in their backyard. A great
way to find out more is to dig deeper and do
some research on the internet, talk to an elder
in your community, visit your local farmers’
market, and peruse some of the carefully
selected, earth friendly links we’ve
provided you here at ECOKY!
Things to Consider: The Benefits
of Buying and Eating Local:
1. You know where the food is coming from
and you are supporting your friends and
neighbors. In communities like Kentucky,
produce farmers live right down the way–’as
the crow flies.’
2. The vegetables and fruits are grown on
the same soil that your children play, and the
plants drink the same water you drink.
3. Less waste. For many big business food
distributors, shipping their products from their
farms, to their warehouses, to their stores
etc, means a considerable amount of gas
and natural resource consumption. I think what
many of us forget to visualize is that to ’ship’
items mean just that–distributors have to put
them on a boat or on a gas-guzzling truck to
get a bag of tomatoes or a package of berries
to us. There are a substantial amount of
resources saved by buying local!
4. Kentucky has one of the longest growing
seasons in the nation. With rainy, mild
winters, and an ecosystem which supports a
variety of flora and fauna, Kentucky is an
ideal place to grow just about anything–
bamboo grows here, and the soil is so full of
nutrients, the grass is blue! It doesn’t get much
better than that!
Natural Remedies and Homeopathic Ideas:
We would like to let those of you who don’t
know and remind those of you who may
have forgotten, about a few of our favorite
homeopathic cures and treatments.
Here they are!
1. Dermatitis and Neem Oil–Anti fungal, and
antibacterial, great for topical treatments,
balancing skin, and the treatment of contact
dermatitis, i.e., poison ivy and oak. We
Recommend Kentucky’s own Back Country
Soaps, Neem Oil Soap. Find them on the
web at www.backcountrysoaps.com
2. Dry Skin and Hemp Products–A perfectly
balanced oil, hemp is my personal favorite
skin moisturizer. It is extremely effective,
because it is rich in Omega-3, and the
plant’s natural oils soak into the skin and
are even water resistant, so the lotion wont
wash right off. And its not greasy like many
other lotions. We recommend ecoky.com
3. Allergies and Local Honey–A delicious
and effective way to cure and prevent
allergies. Local honey means to eat the
honey produced from bees in your region.
The secret is, bees use pollens to make
honey from the flowers and plants in your
area, which cause your allergies. Eating the
honey local bees provide helps your body
build up histamine, a natural chemical in the
body which causes allergic reactions. This
remedy works like a flu shot against the flu.
4. Problem Skin and Tea Tree Oil–This is
another natural antiseptic. Tea tree oil has
many uses, including blemishes, balancing
skin, athlete’s foot, and dermatitis. We
recommend Desert Essence Tea Tree Oil.
5. Ear Aches and Sweet Oil–Also known as
olive oil, sweet oil draws bacterial, water,
and other ear clogging materials away from
the eardrum and out of the ear. This was an
essential when I was a child. My mother
swears by it, because it works!
6. Poison Ivy and Baking Soda/White
Vinegar Paste–Mix together, apply to affected
area, and leave to dry. This paste cools the itch
and burn of contact dermatitis immediately.
Oatmeal baths also help soothe itchy dermatitis.
7. Sunburn and Apple Cider Vinegar–Soak a
brown paper bag in apple cider vinegar, and
then place over sunburned area. A friend
claims the vinegar draws out the burn by the
next morning! Aloe Vera, which you can
easily grow in your home, is also a nice
supplement to this treatment. We
recommend growing your own aloe!
We hope that these simple homeopathic remedies help.
However, to better serve you and our community by and large,
we need your help!
Please feel free to email us with your favorite
homeopathic treatments, so we may share
them with the community. Your input helps
our community and environment become
healthier and more holistic!
We look forward to expanding our database
of homeopathic remedies and creating an open forum
for Kentuckians to share their knowledge,
cultural heritage, and green living tips with
each other. Email us with your ideas!
Soon To Come: Natural Healing Properties
of Foods And Recipes!
If there are any upcoming alternative
energy events, music and/or holistic
festivals, etc, you feel the community would
benefit from, please pass it along so we can
spread the word, here at ECOKY.COM!
“You can’t change the world, but you can
make a dent.”-D.T.S.
Project BudBurst is inviting anyone across the United States!
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Science educators today are eager to show people of all ages that they, too, can do the work of scientists. Whether it’s counting birds, fish, or stars, or checking in on the lives of frogs or butterflies, can ordinary people without formal training really do valuable work? “I believe they can,” says Sandra Henderson, national coordinator for Project BudBurst This spring, Project BudBurst is inviting anyone across the United States to observe and report when trees, shrubs, flowers or other plants growing near them bud or put out leaves.
For the past dozen years, watchers have been able to report on nests over the Internet, too. These data have been used in more than 150 peer-reviewed and published scientific papers by professional scientists, says Janis Dickinson, director of citizen science at the lab and an associate professor of natural resources at Cornell University.
Reports are remarkably accurate
NestWatch “is not good for counting how many nests of a certain kind are out there,” Dr. Dickinson says, since there’s no way of knowing the percentage of nests being observed. “But it’s really good for telling when the birds are breeding.” Of particular interest now is how climate change may be affecting breeding cycles.
“If we can secure funding to get the historic nest-record cards entered into NestWatch, the data will cover exactly the right time period” for studying this question, she says.
The data collected are often remarkably accurate, and the large sample sizes make the analysis very powerful even when there are errors in the data.
When a citizen scientist reports a bird that normally doesn’t live in a region, a reviewer for the lab will contact the volunteer to confirm the sighting. Often the citizen scientist will send in a photo to prove that the bird is really there, even though it’s a rare or unexpected sighting.
Occasional mistakes, such as accidentally keyboarding an extra digit to a number, are easily spotted as part of some 500 “filters” the lab uses to catch anomalies in the data, Dickinson says.
Celebrate Urban Birds, another citizen science program at the lab, is an easy entry-level project that lets people report sightings of 16 common species. In the Great Backyard Bird Count, conducted in February, volunteers tally migrating birds at a time when they are at the southernmost point in their migration.
For those who love nature but can’t get outside, NestCams let birders peer inside nests via their computers, and its sister project, CamClickrs, allows them to report in on what they see. Researchers can’t be constantly watching the NestCams, so citizen scientists help by reporting whether they’re seeing an empty or occupied nest, chicks or adults, and making other observations.
Part data entry, part social network
For the participants, NestCams is a social network and CamClickrs “is a game,” Dickinson says. “You get these [online] conversations around what’s happened” at a particular nest, she says. Some are purely emotional reactions. If a snake gets into a nest, for example, NestCam viewers may want someone to save the chicks. But the nest and camera may be in another state, Dickinson says, and, besides, that would be interfering with the course of nature.
Numerous other groups conduct similar citizen scientist programs, says Shawn Carlson, founder and executive director of the Society for Amateur Scientists (SAS) in Aurora, Ill. The key to success, he says, is that “people have to feel valued and have to see that their effort has gone to something worthwhile.”
Amateur science is like a pyramid, Dr. Carlson says, with people who participate in wildlife counts at the bottom, learning the basics of collecting scientific data. At the top are a handful of serious amateurs who have managed to get their work published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
The SAS is now developing Labrats, a science education program for children ages 11 to 18. The after-school club would enable kids to learn the ethics of good science and conduct their own scientific research. Its motto is “Do the experiment,” that is, go find the truth yourself, Carlson says. He hopes to roll out the program in the Chicago area within the next year and nationwide after that.
A sampling of other citizen science projects includes:
- Project REEF (the Reef Environmental Education Foundation, http://www.reef.org/). REEF enlists amateur scuba divers and snorkelers to collect and report on the marine life they encounter as they dive along the U.S. and Canadian coasts.
- Monarch Watch (monarchwatch.org), based at the University of Kansas, engages citizen scientists in collecting and reporting data on migrating butterflies, including tagging and measuring individuals and observing their flight paths. An estimated 100,000 students and adults participate in the program.
- Frogwatch U.S.A (http://www.frogwatch.org/), a decade-old frog- and toad-monitoring program managed by the National Wildlife Federation and the U.S. Geological Survey, draws on citizen scientists to collect data vital to protecting frogs and toads. On May 3, “Record the Ribbit 2008″ volunteers will watch and listen for frogs and toads in their areas and report their findings online.
- “The Great Worldwide Star Count” (starcount.org) asks participants to look skyward after dark, count the stars in certain constellations, and report what they’ve seen online. The count gives scientists data on the amount of light pollution present in various locations.
Amateurs have distinguished record
Amateurs have a long tradition of success as astronomers, Carlson says. Citizen scientists squinting through telescopes have been the first to discover supernovas and distant galaxies, comets and asteroids.
“The universe is a big place,” Carlson says. “The total number of questions out there to be asked and answered is far beyond what the professionals have time to answer…. All of this is really ripe ground for amateur scientists.”
Scientific research is simply “organized curiosity,” Dickinson says. She hopes citizen scientists will become more confident about their own ability to understand science and that they’ll become more inquisitive about science issues in the news. When they hear about a new drug or other discovery, they’ll know to ask “What’s the evidence? It can cross into all kinds of areas,” she says.
What’s more, “It’s fun,” Henderson says. As part of Project BudBurst, she’s watching and reporting on lilac, aspen, and chokecherry trees that grow on her property east of Boulder. “I go out every morning … and I do my little round of [checking] my trees,” she says. “It’s almost like a little treasure hunt.”
Ecovention: Current Art to Transform Ecologies
IntroductionIn the catalogue Ecovention: Current Art to Transform Ecologies that accompanied an exhibit by the same name at Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center in 2002, Sue Spaid writes that “the term ecovention (ecology + invention) describes an artist-initiated project that employs an inventive strategy to physically transform a local ecology” (1). But simply transforming a local ecology is not enough — we must work to transform our relationship to ecology. We are accustomed to thinking of (and idealizing or demonizing) nature as separate from us, but we are a part of it. In the United States, and in many other industrialized countries, we live in a society where most of us do not grow our own food, we don’t make most of what we wear or use as furniture, and we drop our trash into bins without thinking about where it goes.
Ecology is the science of systems-how natural systems work, how living organisms interact with their environment, how organisms interact in relationship to other organisms. Every organism on the planet is a part of an ecological system, and humans are no exception. We just don’t pay attention to how we fit into the larger scheme of things. Sometimes we notice — perhaps when a ship full of trash is turned away from a port because the people who live there no longer want to accept the burden of other communities’ refuse, or in other extreme situations. But mostly, we are content to live without thinking about the real impact of our daily actions. Most of us understand that we are in danger of using up all of our natural resources — forests, clean air, freshwater, fossil fuels — but find it difficult to know what to do about it.
In this era of widespread budget shortages, environmental policy regressions, ever-expanding bureaucracy, and special interest influence, it is unlikely that the U.S. government will soon begin to aggressively encourage, promote, or sponsor ecologically forward strategies for new development, building renovations, public space, and waste disposal. Our government is already a disappointment in conservation — cars are not required to be fuel-efficient due to automobile manufacturers’ lobbies; the United States remains the only industrialized nation (besides Australia) to refuse to sign the Kyoto Protocol, which will limit worldwide greenhouse gas emissions; and U.S. national forests are quickly being sold off to paper companies. The planet’s climate is changing rapidly and disastrously, and numerous animal and plant species disappear every day.
“It has fallen to local people to protect local places,” Lucy Lippard writes (The Lure of the Local 170). Ultimately, the burden of addressing enormous ecological problems has been ceded to our local communities. While local efforts can be limited — it takes billions of dollars to restructure a car-centric city around public transportation, for example — they can make inroads to changing citizens’ perceptions about the use of space and resources in their communities. As their perceptions change, these residents will begin to incorporate more sustainable practices into their daily lives. We need creative solutions to these problems that implicate us all, solutions that change the way we see the world so that we can understand the impact we have on it.
Art-making has always been a community endeavor — and it still is, in many societies. Ellen Dissayanake, exploring the “ethology” (the evolution and development of behavior) of art-making, gives context for her work:
The majority of preindustrial societies do not generally have an independent concept of (or word for) art — even though people in these societies do engage in making and enjoying one or more of the arts and have words that refer to carving, decorating, being playful, singing, imitating. (What is Art For? 35)
That is because what we call “art” is a part of most, if not all, aspects of people’s lives all over the world; it is not considered a separate behavior or occupation, whereas, as Amy Lipton and Patricia Watts write, “Western culture has inherited a belief system which places art and the artist in a position of uniqueness, separate from the rest of society” (90). Intricate ceremonies, songs, and decorated objects are closely associated with homemaking, eating, hunting, harvesting, birthing, and marriage. Dissayanake avers that art-making, a uniquely human behavior, comes from the need to “make special,” where the everyday is made important, or “what may be called such things as magic or beauty or spiritual power or significance” (92). “Making special” is a way of ascribing meaning and order to the world. Because, from this viewpoint, art is a fundamental and universal human behavior — like speech and play — it follows that involving the public in the “making special” of the materials involved in everyday behaviors can be a way to bring unfamiliar concepts to the community. In other words, if it is up to communities to alter their own environmentally destructive habits, art can be a way to help make these changes, by enabling people to see all everyday acts as worthy of special consideration. Lippard puts it another way:
Art itself, as a dematerialized spark, an act of recognition, can be a catalyst in all areas of life once it breaks away from the cultural refinement of the market realm. Redefinition of art and artist can help heal a society that is alienated from its life forces. (”Looking Around” 126)
Recognizing art as a useful and necessary behavior is a way for us to understand humanity’s relationship to the rest of the world, and to attempt to restore our role in the cycles that envelop us, unrecognized, all the time.
Certain progressive institutions and individuals have begun this process of incorporating art into their approaches to ecological preservation and restoration. By utilizing art as a problem-solving perspective and process, these nonprofit organizations, city governments, or private companies are helping to instigate an enormous shift in public consciousness about and interaction with the ecological systems of which we are a part. The programs, organizations, and projects discussed here are disparate in their scopes, agendas, sizes, and even sectors but can all be looked to as models for creating a powerful nexus of art, ecology, and community that can change the world — one acre, institution, family, or city at a time.
The following are the criteria for the subjects of this paper’s case studies: 1) If an organization, its primary focus is on creating ecologically-minded activities or space for the general public in which art is an important component (or it has a specific program for this purpose, in which case the program, and not the organization, is examined); 2) If a project, it must be long-term (defined here as several years in duration or longer), and once begun, does not rely on the specific intelligence, input, or creativity of any single individual; 3) Whether an organization, program, or project, it must be designed with the intention of involving the general public in ecological awareness and/or activism in an effort to influence behavior.[1]
We cannot continue living the way we do now indefinitely: drastic change is needed. Art is an effective and powerful way to bring ecological education and awareness to the public. As Heike Strelow asserts, “It is essential for artists and other culturally creative individuals to be drawn into social discussions and design processes if there is to be a theoretical and practical change in the search for a viable future” (13). If creative members of society can participate meaningfully in realms with which art seems to have little to do, we can change our destructive practices and begin to see resources in a new way.
Footnotes1 A common association of ecology and art is what is commonly called land art, earthworks, or environmental art. This work, created mostly in the 1960s and ’70s by such artists as Robert Morris and Robert Smithson, tends to be large-scale, static sculpture; artists such as Christo and Andy Goldsworthy also make what is sometimes termed environmental art. Readers might note that other artists, such as Helen and Newton Harrison, Krzyzstof Wodiczko, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Buster Simpson, Stephen Sonfist, Jo Hanson, and Dominique Mazeaud, make or have made works that touch upon many of the same themes that I explore in my thesis. This thesis does not include these works for one or more of the following reasons: they tend not to engage with the ecology (the trophic, or solar energy-based life cycles) of a place but instead typically highlight some aspect of the environment, usually largely aesthetic; are traditionally completely dependent on one person’s particular vision; do not, in general, encourage or inspire wide-spread ecological awareness and activism; and are often temporary, or exist only hypothetically. Although several artists are included in this document, their work is examined for its larger social and ecological implications, not for its aesthetic qualities. This document does not look at art as a product to be evaluated, but instead as a process intrinsic to the human perspective, and ultimately one that belongs in all aspects of our lives. Some readers might take issue with what I have chosen to include and exclude; here I would like to point out that I offer this document not as a complete survey, but instead a preliminary exploration of what is possible in ecology and community when art is involved, and what we can hope for — and work toward — in the future.
Joining Forces to Preserve the Earth
Every person, business, and government can and must act in the best interest of the environment. We are confident that adopting a “responsible use” ethic across every sector of society is central to changing our behavior and creating a world that will sustain us long into the future.
Toward that end, we partner with governments, nonprofit organizations, universities, businesses, and local communities in our priority regions to strengthen our conservation efforts and maximize the collective ability to preserve our planet’s natural balance. We not only provide our partners with strategic, financial, and technical support, but also work with them to evaluate their challenges and come up with solutions that make economic and environmental sense.
We partner with businesses, such as Wal-Mart, Starbucks, and McDonald’s to help them establish “green” benchmarks and embrace environmentally sound practices. These efforts enable them to reduce their impact on critical habitats and create economic opportunities for local communities that respect the need to use natural resources responsibly.
In addition, working with government leaders, civic organizations, and communities in some of the world’s most biologically unique and threatened areas has allowed us to help create vast tracts of protected habitats without sacrificing the livelihoods and well-being of the people who rely on those regions’ natural resources.
Safeguarding the health of people and our planet is the responsibility of everyone who benefits from nature’s bounty. We must act together to ensure the health and diversity of life on Earth for generations.