Keep Diversity Alive

Its just one of those days, where I sit down to write and just continuously draw blanks. So i was flipping through the syllabus and saw a couple questions from a week or two ago, the reading questions running down the side of the page. These questions are pretty simply asked but evoked more thought than just about anything else today, so I am going to answer one to the best of my ability.

The question is, "Explain whether you think genetic engineering enhances or diminishes biodiversity?"

I say that genetic engineering diminishes biodiversity, this is because its like putting survival of the fittest on fast forward. As far as i can tell, genetic engineering is taking all the qualities (for example) of the plant species that you want and enhancing them and sometimes also removing the characteristics that are not desired. Ultimately, you skip the natural reproduction stage, creating an organism that is designed the way we see fit and taking it out of mother natures hands.
Finally you end up with a species that blooms early, flowers later and survives colder weather, than you take that one seed and reproduce it a million times and plant an entire field of the same plant, genetic copies of each other, same as the one in the row to the right and to the left. These plants are so similar to one another even rite down to the genetic make up, this is the opposite of biodiversity.
There is nothing diverse about this at all, these plants would not even continue to grow this way if humans were not around to continue to plant them, at this point they are ridiculously unnatural. Biodiversity is there to fill in the gaps, when one species climate changes only the one that can stand the heat, or most times the opposite, will stick around and continue to survive on this planet, this is why we need the differences, if everything were the same we would all have the same weaknesses as well. I say keep the diversity alive and well.

David Suzuki asks us what you can do He discusses voting for people, who are ecologically literate,telling us that we can “speak up” or speak out on the topic. We need become agents of change using the tools of the day like videos on the internet, writing in our own blogs, or creating a web site. We can take action and become volunteers in green organizations or volunteering as agents of change, writing letters to the powers that be. It’s all about getting the word out!!! Companies that do not follow the new sustainability models we are creating need our attention the best kind of attention we can give them is to Boycott Them. I believe that a boycott is a way to cast a powerful message not only to a company, but the rest a world that we as consumers will not stand for these unethical policies any longer. So often people’s attitude is “let’s not make waves”, but I say when we make waves, more people take notice and without waves, others will not notice the changes on the surface of the water of our culture... The more we speak out against environmental injustice, and the more we bring attention to companies that aren’t considering sustainability and the earth first, then to hell with them! The best way to get rid of that kind of ignorance is not buying their goods. It seems to make good sense, to purchase goods and services from companies who model cradle to cradle and cradle to grave environmental philosophies. These are companies who have taken the time and made the investment, they are real stake holders in an emerging sustainable model.

Suzuki also makes mention of choosing a green career. He mentions that it’s clear that the scope and scale of environmental challenge is so large that whatever skills that you possess, there’s certainly environmental work available. And on that topic I was listening to a radio interview a few days ago on vpr.
Here is the link to the interview: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121380416&ft=1&f=1006

It seems these two guys Eben Bayer with classmate Gavin McIntyre invented Greensulate insulation and Ecocradle packaging — both made from mushrooms. Bayer came up with the idea as a student at Rensselaer Polytechnic in New York and developed it. Now the two have a company called Ecovative Design. Fascinating discovery they made working together to come up with sustainable models for use in today’s marketplace. It's an amazing story. The insulation is completely green and compostable and it’s also fireproof. Read the interview its pretty cool.

Suzuki’ list of “Ten Policies” is a great Laundry list or “to-Do” list of ideas that can really make a difference. Let’s say we could use this list aas a model for change so when we are having conversations with friends and family, buying goods and services in the marketplace or attending civic or cultural functions we could put our list to work. We could take the time to do a little research into each of the ten categories and implement our findings in the way we think about the earth and use these as “imperatives in how we communicate with others.
So taking my own advice I decided to look into Suzuki’s point #9 on ecological literacy, (which by the way was my platform last week concerning changes in the educational system of our country as way to implement real sustainability) He mentions the Educational document from Australia titled “Educating for a Sustainable Future:A National Environmental Education Statement for Australian Schools”. And because we have almost instant access to information these days it took me approximately .27 seconds to locate on my favorite browser.
Well this PDF is just a jewel, a real visionary like approach to changing Australia’s’ educational system to make all the stakeholders more ecologically literate. As Suzuki mentions that reading and writing are simply not enough any more. If one is to be literate in our new paradigm, one need be aware about where our drinking water comes from, where there garbage goes, and how climate change really works.The Australian document puts responsibility for these emerging issues of global importance where they belong, at the feet of administrators, teachers, parents and students. The goals of the report are “Environmental education for sustainability involves approaches to teaching and learning that integrate goals for conservation, social justice, cultural diversity, appropriate development and democracy into a vision and a mission of personal and social change. This involves developing the kinds of civic values and skills that empower all citizens to be leaders in the transition to a sustainable future” imagine an educational system whose goal is to develop different values and skill sets that make sustainability a priority. It sounds like a wonderful idea to me. Literacy is one of the greatest gifts we can bestow upon our culture. Once awakened to the urgency of these issues, it will be much easier to create more systemic leverage in much less time

Here is the Website for the Paper: http://www.environment.gov.au/education/publications/sustainable-future.html

DK