My favorite place in the world

I've been thinking about what to write in this blog for a few days now, and I haven't been able to come up with one defining moment in nature that was especially magical or thrilling or enchanting. What kept coming to my mind was my favorite place in the entire world - Big Twin Lake in Michigan.


I first went here with my family when I was in sixth grade. We stayed with another family who had a long history there. I fell in love instantly. I have been going there at least once a year ever since, and more frequently since our two families bought a house there a few years ago. It is a very special place to me because it's where I really learned to appreciate nature. I've always spent a lot of time outdoors, from summer camp when I was young to riding my bike around my neighborhood, but there was something completely different about being outside at Big Twin. Every season and every outdoor activity is special in its own way. I don't particularly enjoy helping my dad out in the yard at home, but in Michigan, it's fun. I help him with firewood, work on the deck, shoveling in the winter, pulling weeds on the beach, etc. We go on walks around the lake and we walk to the store to get milk and bread. We eat fresh fruit in the summer, and I've never tasted better cherries, strawberries, or blueberries in my life. No matter what we have to eat, meals always taste better up there because we've all worked up an appetite by being so active during the day. I can't imagine anything I'd like to do more during the summer than spend time up there. I love to throw on my bathing suit and be able to run out the door without shoes on and spend the entire day outside. We spend the day at the beach, go swimming, go boating, water ski, jet ski, tube, play frisbee and lawn darts, and more. It's such a great place to spend time with my family, and I also love taking my friends up there as well as spending time with the many people we have befriended who have houses up there, as well.


Going up to Michigan is like going to a whole new world. We have three stations on TV, no internet, and very limited cell phone service. I love this because it's the perfect excuse for me to fall of the map for a week or so at a time. We all slow down and are able to enjoy the simple pleasures in life, from walking around the lake and greeting everyone we see to playing euchre after a delicious dinner outdoors. I've also never seen more beautiful sunsets. One of our favorite things to do is to take the pontoon boat out to the middle of the lake at night and look at the stars. I can't begin to describe the stillness and the overwhelming amount of stars that we can see. The more we look, the more stars seem to appear. It's amazing to see shooting stars and the Milky Way and point out constellations that we recognize. It really put things in perspective, too, because it makes me think about how vast and awesome the universe is.


Spending time in Michigan has definitely fueled my desire to protect nature. I enjoy my time up there so much and I can't imagine how I would feel if Big Twin were destroyed. Therefore, I definitely think nature is worth working to save. If everyone had the same sort of love for a place in nature, I think so many more people would want to protect the environment. I don't see how environmentalism can exist without a desire to save nature. Of course there are huge issues to tackle such as alternative sources of energy, access to water, climate change, etc., but I believe that a respect and love of nature needs to be an underlying motivator for all of those aspects of environmentalism.

Over break, I had a conversation with a Kogod business major after I told him that I was very interested in environmental studies. The first thing he did was roll his eyes, laugh, and say, “Oh you’re one of those.” I refrained from getting offended and instead asked his opinion on things.
He said that government and saving the environment will never coincide. He felt that as long as business is for profit, the environment will come second. Businesses have no drive to save the earth. And, he explained, it is absurd for the government to enact legislation because there is no mode of regulation to back it up.
My response began with the acknowledgment that business is for profit, and I doubt that will ever change. But, I said, the environment does not have to come second. I feel that businesses can take responsibility for the environment, AND make a profit. In fact, the environmental factor can enhance a businesses appeal. I agreed with his assertion that the government cannot impose rules if they go unregulated. Because then, some will follow and others just won’t.

Complex conversations

I went home for a few days over spring break, so I talked to my family a bit about some environmental issues. A lot of my values concerning the environment were inspired by my family, such as reducing consumption, not being wasteful, and just a love for the outdoors. However, we still disagree on many topics concerning the environment. I remember over winter break, my dad told me that he thought that the warming of the planet was just a part of its normal cycle. I brought the subject up again last week, and I think he's starting to change his mind because he said something like "I need to look into that more." My mom and sister also argued that scientists don't have enough information to prove that global warming is caused by humans, and that for every study that implicates humans as the cause, there is other information to refute it. I pushed my mom to back up her opinion with facts, but she couldn't do it. My dad has a copy of An Inconvenient Truth, so I told them that they should all watch it together.

It can be really frustrating talking to my family about the environment, because as I said before, they are part of the reason why I'm so interested in the environment and why I feel like it is so important to protect it. Therefore, it's hard for me to accept that they don't hold all of the same values that I do. I occasionally send them links to articles that I find interesting and encourage them to make small changes, such as buying more organic food, using reusable bags instead of plastic ones, using safer cleaner products, and using compact fluorescent light bulbs. My mom did buy a compact fluorescent light bulb, but then when we went to put it in my sister's bathroom, it didn't fit - so that was annoying! It's difficult to get them to change their habits, but I'm still working on it.

Agreeing to Disagree

Over break I had the opportunity to speak with my father about global warming. This is a topic that we have always disagreed about.  My father feels that it is mainly a natural phenomenon and that we don't know enough about the earth patterns to know the real effect of what we are having. He also feels that since it is economically impractical to change at this time that we should hold off until we know more, since it would be such a huge investment.  While I agree that we don't know much about the earth's cyclical patterns I feel that we know enough to realize that we are having some impact and that as our population and global economy get bigger and more fossil fuels dependent it will be more difficult to change in the future.  As many counties are just beginning heavy energy usage it would be better if they skipped the heavily polluting stage and began using alternative energy, except for the huge dam projects which have negative ecological and social impacts.  This is something that we have never agreed upon, and has been the source of many debates between us.  He does not dispute that the earth is warming, just that the earth's system is too complex to know the real causes.  There is a little bit of truth, but I feel that it is best to be safe than sorry, since by the time the problems really hit us it will be to late to change and its not fair to inflict the effects of our mistakes onto future generations.

So many questions!

Over spring break i have not had the chance to speak with anyone who disagrees with me.  However, one particular conversation has stuck in m mind for several years now.  When I was a senior in high school, a teacher of mine questioned the class and their views on the environmental issues that were so popular at the time.  I, to this day, am still unsure of his angle with this class.  Maybe, he just wanted us to think outside the box.  Maybe he actually believed what he said.  Perhaps, he wanted us to simply question authority.  I do not know.  But, the lesson has stayed with me ever since and has skewed my thoughts towards environmental scientists and the popular environmental issues everyone is talking about.

In this class, he asked us to look for proof in our science books that the whole in the ozone was an important catastrophic immediate problem and to also find proof that people were the cause of it.  He pointed to gas weights and said how the gasses scientists claim to have made the whole are simply too heavy to reach those altitudes and gave us a bunch of scientific arguments, none of which any of us understood, but this made me think about how scientists pushing the arguments my teacher was so against, could also say anything they wanted and have us believe them, as they were "scientists," and we were just students.  The teacher also went on to show how none of our books actually proved or even simply stated that humans were the direct problem and that several facts had been left out of them, such as how the whole gets larger and smaller during certain parts of the year, how there was a whole the same size before humans were around, how there is actually a thing as too much ozone, an so on.  His whole argument pointed to his belief that scientists were using us, filling our heads with worries so that they could keep making money.

I have struggled with his argument for a very long time now.  We tried arguing with him at first, but the more he told us about what we did not know, the more used and lied to I felt.  Not to mention, the ideas and final arguments he made made more sense than the graphs and scientific speeches in our books.  I, to this day, struggle with what I should think about the ozone. I cannot argue anyone on this, as I do not have certain facts either way.  I'm just trying to keep my mind open and formulate my own opinion.

I have never really had much thoughts on my environmental impact of my foods. To me it is simply food. I grew up with my family explaining that God provided animals and plants so that we may eat and live. But, now that I've grown up, other things come to mind, in stead of me sitting at a table and food magically appearing on my plate from God. I may not have much thought of my environmental impact of where my food comes from, but I have started to worry about it's impact on my health. During my travels abroad, I lived with a family who owned a farm. It use to be a slaughter house in its prime, but today it just consisted of a few cows for milking and an apple orchard. At first, I was weary about eating the apples and cream from there, as it had not been treated. But, I have honestly never tasted anything better! Now, I cannot eat an apple or drink milk here without making myself sick thinking about what has gone into or on it.
On the same note, my great-grandfather use to own several acres of land in Michigan. The land was used for several purposes but most recently as a dairy farm and a mobile home park. Do not ask me why together. But, I cannot help but to wonder about the people living in the mobile homes there being far healthier than I have ever been. They ate the vegetables my great- grandmother grew in her garden and drank the milk from the cows. I am not sure where they got their meat from, but I'm sure they did not know either. However, they knew more about their food than I do. Their food also tasted better. At home, despite what some of the reading implies, it is NOT easy to get locally grown foods. No one near me can either afford or reach a "local" farmer's market, esp. if they work. It disgusts me to eat processed foods, but without them, the majority of the people at home would starve. They do not have the luxury of eating fresh foods right off the farm and wondering about their environmental impact.
I suppose we should think more about our environmental impact of our foods, if we can afford to. I guess my pizza the other day has made a huge impact on the environment. Each of the ingredients has, I am sure, come from different locations. The meat, cheese, tomatoes, wheat for the bread, and spices all came from different farms. The transportation from these farms to the places that freezes them, their packaging, their shipment to the pizza place, and then to me once cooked has cost a lot of energy and resources. The box it came in will have a negative impact on the environment if not properly recycled. I cannot imagine all of the processes that went in to me having my pizza. Perhaps if I had more money and time to travel to a local market and the time to learn how to cook it myself, I could reduce this environmental cost, but not everyone has that luxury.

You are what you eat

I'm in another class called Practical Environmentalism with Professor Paul Wapner, and a couple of weeks ago our focus was on agriculture. One of our assignments was to keep a food log for two days of everything we ate, and then try to trace our origins. (So if you're really interested in my thoughts, I have a 6-page paper you could read! Haha.) As a result of this, I have definitely started to consciously examine not just what I eat, but where it comes from and what kind of an impact my decisions have on the environment. I get

I do try to think about the environment when I buy groceries and make decisions concerning food. However, for the most part I put more emphasis on eating right for my body. Certainly, this can go hand in hand. By eating less processed foods and more fruits, vegetables, dairy, etc., I am not only getting the nutrients I need, but also cutting down on negative impacts that big factories can have, such as pollution, waste, chemical use, poor working conditions, and more. Of course, these issues also arise on farms, so I also try to eat as locally and organically as I can. I shop at Whole Foods and try to pay attention to how the foods were made/ harvested and where they come from. However, I do have a meal plan, and I get some of my fruit from MGC. Just this morning I ate a banana from Ecuador, which probably had the greatest environmental impact of the foods I've eaten recently. There are a lot of things to consider when making food choices, and sometimes the best option is not easy to see.

After discussing how eating locally is a much better choice for the environment, Professor Wapner sent us this article that he found: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/02/25/080225fa_fact_specter. Shockingly, the article explained how sometimes eating local foods leads to a higher carbon emission than eating imported foods. For example, growing apples in New Zealand and shipping them to New York or Northern Europe has less of an environmental burden them growing them locally. This is because there is more sunshine in New Zealand, so there is a higher yield with lower energy requirement, and most of the electricity in New Zealand is generated by renewable sources with low carbon emissions. This was a revelation for me, and it was a little disheartening to find out.

Making the best food choices for the environment is not an easy or simple process, but I think that by being more conscious of our decisions we can reduce negative environmental impacts. Too many people never question where their food came from or how it was produced. I think that by eating foods that are in season and grown locally and organically, we can reduce negative impacts on the environment and also improve our health and well-being.