Suburban Gardens:

“Plants are not optional on this planet” (15).

“Those of our ancestors who were particularly  good at conquering nature were the ones who survived and reproduced, we so all share genes that encourage us to beat back nature at every turn” (23).

“If you turn the clock forward to the point at which this equilibrium has been reached, you will find that the number of species that will survive human habitat destruction is a simple percentage of the amount of habitat we leave undisturbed, a 1:1 correspondence” (26).

Corn is a fascinating organism. We use corn for everything from food to biofuel to feed for farm animals. A DNA test of a single human hair shows that the average American’s carbon content is 69% from corn. That’s a huge percentage! So clearly we have some form of dependency on corn in our lives the way that they are operating today. What I find fascinating though is that corn needs us in order to reproduce. Should humans vanish off the face of the earth today, corn would vanish with us. The nature of the kernel, covered carefully in its husk and in extreme close proximity to many other kernels would not be able to disperse or survive without the help of human propagation. I find this to be quite ironic, our co-dependency upon one another, humans and corn.

“My house was not empty though I was gone. It was as if I had left a cheerful housekeeper behind. It was I and Fire that lived there;and commonly my housekeeper proved trustworthy” (Thoreau 275).

While this was not my favorite passage from this passage of Walden, I definitely felt a connection to it. This past weekend, both Saturday and Sunday nights have come with a freeze warning. Sunday was also the day that the heat in my house was finally turned on, so it was a huge difference between coming home Saturday to a cold house and Sunday to a warm house. That extra bit of warmth is very welcoming and homely.

“Herring and shad have returned to the Hudson, though they spent some generations adjusting to radioactivity trickling out of Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant…Missing, however, are nearly all fauna adapted to us. The seemingly invincible cockroach, a tropical import, long ago froze in unheated apartment buildings” (44).

I thought the author was being very presumptuous and contradictory here. He claims that some species could adapt to radioactivity but others could not adapt to climate change. He also contradicts himself as he says earlier in the chapter that global temperatures would have risen. Overall I enjoyed the piece although it was very dark, but this one point really stuck out to me.

The top of a carrot peeking out from somebody’s garden.

The biggest cricket I had ever seen (granted I haven’t seen many crickets). This was also just one of may that were covering this particular plant.

The wasp that was so attracted to my apple that I had to stop eating it for fear of getting stung as I tried to enjoy my midday snack. It got really into it though, literally, as it burrowed its head into some of the indents left by my teeth.

I asked most everyone I saw when they returned from fall break, “how was your break?” The general response was “great” followed by some details of how there was not much movement from the persons couch or bed or house and a lot of tv time. I was struck by this because I pretty much did the same thing over my fall break, and then the few times that I chose to leave the house (mainly for the necessity of food), I was shocked to find how beautiful of a day it was outside. Probably the nicest and most relaxing part of my break was not when I was binge watching netflix, but the 2 hours I spent on the quad, soaking in the sun and tossing around a football with friends. I think our generation has moved to a point where relaxation is viewed as the choice of minimal physical movement and brain work. But while that may be “relaxing” is it really replenishing? Are we really getting a break when we do that?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/science/a-shifting-approach-to-saving-endangered-species.html?action=click&contentCollection=science&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0

I came across the article and found that I had very different reactions to what I was reading. At first, I was frustrated by the government’s ruling to not add another species to the endangered species list. I was then surprised that many environmental agencies actually supported this action by the government. I shifted back to being annoyed as the author wrote that typical species conservation focused just on that one species but not the “larger needs of human society.” I was shocked by that quote, because we are there reason that there even is an extensive endangered species list. I grew more accepting of the article again as it transitioned to a point of looking into cooperation between humans and the ecosystems, including businesses such as farming.

The article continues from there but definitely brings up some interesting points. I recommend that if you have the time you should check this out as well!

“The tree in the garden is in reality no less other, no less worthy of our wonder and respect, than the tree in an ancient forest that has never known an ax or saw – even though the trees in the forest reflects a more intricate web of ecological relationships” (Cronan 88)

-it can be easy to confuse wilderness with the most remote places of the earth; being able to find and appreciate the beauty of what surrounds us everyday

“Often in a snow storm, even by day, one will come out upon a well-known road and yet find it impossible to tell which way leads to the village. Though he knows that he has traveled it a thousand times, he cannot recognize a feature in it, but it is as strange to him as if it were a road in Siberia” (Thoreau 186).

-the unfamiliarity of what surrounds us; how well do we really know about what is around us?; easy to forget the vastness of everything, the power of Nature