Read 'n' Seed 3: Second Quarter of "The Fate of Nature"

I had originally planned to read Parts III and IV of the book but I only ended up reading Part III and then about halfway through Part IV.  This entailed chapters 14-23 (pg. 119-233).  I think I will still be able to stay on track because I had planned to read Part V for the third quarter and Part VI for the final quarter.  So, I will just finish up the last few chapters of Part IV for next week!  Most of what was covered in the sections I read for this week discussed conservation and the history of conservation.  Through discussions of the gold rush, the Civil War, World War II and a specific look at Alaska, Wohlforth details the evolution of land conservation and discusses the ownership of water bodies which he names the "liquid world."  Wohlforth goes into even greater detail about the debate of property lines, and ownership of land.

There were a few things in the text that stood out in my mind.  One directly relates to what we have been talking about in class.  Wohlforth is discussing how we can maximize our resources while still benefiting from them.  He talks about an experiment at Indiana University in which students played a Pac Man-Type game where they had to munch up all of the little tokens.  Each token was worth a certain amount of money and the students could actually go home with $22 each.  The students played at the same time on the same screen for a total of four minutes.  After a token was eaten, it would take a while for it to regenerate, much like our natural resources.  However, because each student only thought of themselves and wanted to maximize their resources, the tokens were gone within the first minute of the experiment and the students ended up earning about 1/3 of the potential $22.  The experiment was done again, this time with a higher institution stepping in and dividing the screen into quadrants that each student "owned."  This time, the students ended up earning more of their money because they were not worried about others munching up their tokens.  In a third round, students did not have "property lines" but were allowed to communicate to each other.  This third round ended up being the most successful in the allotted four minute time period. Students actually had resources left over at the end of four minutes so that if there was more time, the game could have continued.

I found this to be a very important part of what I read.  If we think of the earth and how we can best preserve it, cooperation is the key.  Obviously more factors go into it than the Pac Man Experiment can demonstrate, but if we simplify it, it relates.  We as humans are not maximizing our $22 of resources and, as we saw in the Star Wars Activity, we are using up our resources way too fast.  Another important thing that was pointed out in this experiment was government intervention.  Later in the text, Wohlforth hints at the importance of having power and resources.  But, he points out that we must not be blinded by the government because they do have so much power in our society.  I think this is important because one of our responsibilities is to advocate for health.  If we can't do that, there is not much we can do.

This section was less philosophical and more historical so I hope that this post is easier to follow than the last.  I am anxious to see where the reading takes me.

Eye Opener: CSPI

I participated in the "Score Your Diet" activity.  I scored a great big "Uh-oh" on this assessment with an overall score of -10.  I did well in some categories, but poor in others.  Here is a breakdown of the categories:

                  HEALTH SCORE:                               31

                  ENVIRONMENTAL SCORE:            -24

                  ANIMAL WELFARE SCORE:           -17

• I scored the highest on fruits with a 25, and vegetables with a score of 11.  For fruits, the recommended serving was 7 per week, but I am at about 9 servings per week.  For vegetables, 15 servings per week were recommended and I only eat about 4 in a week.  This was very interesting to me.  Even though I got less than half of the recommended servings of vegetables, it was still one of my top two scores.  
• I scored the lowest on cheese.  It is recommended that you eat 4oz per week, but I recorded about 6oz per week.  I ended up scoring a -33 for cheese.  I did however make up 9 points because I usually eat cheese that is low in fat.  This still did not offset the negative number by much.  
• I needed the most improvement in the "Environmental" category.  I think a lot of this has to do with my cheese and overall dairy consumption.  I think, realistically, that I could consume less dairy in my life because I do eat quite a bit of it.  I would not necessarily cut dairy out of my diet, but I could definitely cut back.  

I never really understood how much impact my diet had on the environment and animal welfare.  This activity really broke it down for me.  I did an alright job with my diet but there is always room for improvement.  A great goal for me is to get out of the "Uh-oh" zone.  I need to put in more effort into mindful eating.