Communicating “The Environment” and Moving Forward

As a vast majority of us have come to realize, the world’s natural resources are depleting every year, becoming more and more scarce. I agree with Julia Corbett’s argument in her final chapter of “Communicating Nature”, about the environment being a strongly vague concept for most of us to grasp. Commonly, the environment is thought of as something distant and sacred that humans are not a part of. The way(s) of accomplishing a drastic change in the attitudes and behaviors of ordinary citizens is to learn how to better communicate that failure to treat this planet as a single planet not immune to disaster will not only impact the world’s politics and economy, but that it will heavily influence the recipient of the message directly. The most effective means by which to execute so are yet to be realized.

This this is my final blog entry for my Environmental Communication class, I want to discuss the changes this class has brought into my life and what my goals and ambitions are moving forward. Firstly, I learned that Starbucks cups are not recyclable and I now throw them in the general trash bins. Secondly, I walk greater distances on grass and rocks rather than asphalt sidewalks, deepening my relationship with the natural space. Thirdly, I added a minimum of one day per week that I dedicate to spending time outdoors for over two hours.

Moving forward, my primary objective is to heavily cut down on my food expenses. I recognized that as much as I learned about what kind of animal cruelty and resource extraction my credit card supports each time I swipe it, eating fatty foods is simply an addiction of mine that I will need to cure. I have been using food as leisure my whole life but only here in America when the bills came and my lecturer discussed its consequences did an alarm bell start ringing.

Next, as soon as I return home to the Czech Republic, I intend to begin spreading the message about climate change and how we can help to slow it down with simple every-day actions, such as using a hand dryer rather than paper towels after washing our hands. You see, recycling, cooking at home, cutting down on or refusing to eat meat entirely, are all great actions but mean very little by themselves individually. It is as if one’s goal is to be healthy and so he/she begins working out, however, continues to eat poorly, walk with poor posture, and spend less than five percent time outdoors.

Saving our planet from disaster while we still have time will impact many of our everyday decisions at the same time. It must not be a mere sweeping of a dirty floor, but rather a whole new lifestyle dedicated toward a greener and healthier way of living. I anticipate a lot of resistance upon spreading this message, especially in a country that still holds on to a Communistic way of thinking. Nevertheless, I shall do my best to persuade my friends and family of the big risks that are involved in the accumulation of supposedly meaningless actions we take daily without giving them a second thought.

I have enjoyed the learning process in my Environmental Communications class and would like to dedicate a special word of thanks to our Spring 2019 professor, Ms. Caitlin M. Burford.

 

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Book source:

Corbett, Julia B. 2006. Communicating Nature: How We Create and Understand Environmental Messages. USA: Island Press.

Overuse of Energy: Effects & Consequences

One night, while walking along the streets of Prague, I couldn’t help but notice one unsettling thing – most department stores still had their lights turned on way past their closing hours. While I understood the purpose behind it, I was still beginning to feel concern about the impacts of this business habit on the economy and the environment. If all of our stores in Prague keep their lights on 24 hours a day for 360 days a year (excluding Easter and the Christmas holiday), the future of the world’s energy may prove catastrophic.

With pollution and climate change already severely threatening the future of our planet, you may be wondering why the overuse of energy is perhaps my biggest concern regarding global issues. I was unfortunate to realize just how much we depend on electricity at a very early age during hurricane Michelle in 2001. My parents and I resided in the Bahamas and the storm hit us directly. While it was only a category two hurricane, we got the worst part of that storm because we were right in the eye of Michelle. Electricity was absent for the entire storm’s duration and a few days beyond that too, which gave us about five days without it. Not only did that mean no Cartoon Network was to be watched, but also cooking was practically impossible, all food we had in the fridge got spoiled, and we could not leave the house to get a burger at Burger King due to water covering most of the streets. We could not even make ourselves a cup of tea.

The question is, what if energy, just like trees, is not an unlimited resource and one day all source of energy will be depleted? According to the website “The World Counts”, the world’s demand for electricity in the 30-year time span between 2010 and 2040 will increase by 85%. This kind of incline is more than today’s total consumption of electricity in USA, the European Union, China, India, Russia, Australia, and Japan (2019)! A majority of our electricity is produced by burning tons and tons of coal which continually releases carbon dioxide into the world’s atmosphere and drastically raises air pollution. Moreover, coal-fired power plants which enable the use of electricity use massive quantities of water to create steam for rotating its turbines. This is enough water to support a quarter of a million people.

I want to conclude this article by saying that I am writing this while sitting in the W.A. Frank Business College, one of the most modern buildings in the Northern Arizona University campus. At almost every corner, there is sunlight coming in from its big windows and glass walls. And yet, every light bulb I see in the complex is unnecessarily switched on. If we shall not arrive at a depletion of electricity as a human species, I believe these habits ought to terminate, in shops, schools, and major office buildings. Luckily I can extract houses and apartments out of the equation because electricity usually comes as a separate expense which residents pay monthly in utility bills. Potentially the only solution to encouraging large businesses and corporations to turn off their lights is for governments to raise annual energy costs on a global scale.

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Sources:

2019, March. “Consumption of Electricity and Its Effect on the Environment”. The World Counts. Retrieved from: http://www.theworldcounts.com/counters/interesting_facts_on_energy/consumption_of_electricity

My 2-Hour Outdoor Experience

Knowing that I wanted to recharge my batteries this weekend, I decided to visit Frances Short Pond here in Flagstaff, Arizona. The only thing I brought with me was my 1000-page Stephen King book of short stories and water to keep me hydrated. I have to say, upon arriving there I immediately realized that this was exactly what I had imagined whenever I encountered the word “Nirvana”. One little “island” in the middle of a lake, surrounded by fishermen and an array of pine trees, mountains being far in the distance but still visible.

This time, I did not even bring my phone. This meant there were zero distractions from the priceless experience of being fully immersed in nature. I observed things that I otherwise would not have seen; a large dog looking at a duck that was walking freely on the ground, attempting to grasp it once the duck turned its head (luckily he was tied to a leash), birds walking back and forth on a tree branch, the look of uttermost peace on the faces of the fishermen. It was fascinating to realize just how much of life we miss just by holding a smartphone in our hands.

After walking around the lake a few times in awe, I walked up a semi-steep hill to sit on a rock and open my Stephen King book. This time, I felt no need to re-read sentences because my focus was sharp and I felt like I was actually WITH the characters rather than simply reading ABOUT them. Between pages, I could not help but look at the picturesque views around myself, again and again. Slowly, I began to realize that in this moment, there was no past or future. No fear or regret. Only stillness with the present moment. The kind that hundreds of spiritual books write about but can never fully describe in words. I have tried meditation practices during my five years of living in an urban environment but nothing felt quite like the feeling I had when sitting on a rock in Frances Short Pond.

Once it was starting to get chilly as the clouds above became darker, I set off on a 40-minute walk home. This was when I began thinking about deforestation like never before. I cannot imagine a life without trees and forests, and yet us humans keep cutting them down only to be able to jot down ideas on a scratch paper or be able to have an excellent reading experience like the one I just had. Ideally, we would be able to keep having tranquil reading experiences without eliminating trees from their home but it sadly doesn’t work this way.

With the stillness persisting within me, I noticed I was walking slower than usual and felt extremely light. I guess pedestrians noticed something when they walked passed me because I was consistently greeted with an animated smile. Upon returning home, I felt a rush of productivity, which I took advantage of by writing all the emails I have been procrastinating on and filling up all kinds of extra credit assignments for my NAU classes.

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The Hidden Cost of Tourism and Leisure

Tourism is at once both a cherished and vilified form of popular culture. As much as it promises pleasure, it can also be highly toxic, enabling the deadly exploitation of the environments and cultures people come to visit. For several decades, the environmental justice has offered non-commercial trips with the intention of signifying people and locales polluted by poisonous substances. These efforts, along with their growing following, contribute to a development of new understanding of democratic participation in our daily environmental decision-making.

In Phaedra C. Pezullo’s book “Toxic Tourism” (2009), Pezullo examines these tours as a tactic of resistance and recognizes potential in reducing the cultural and physical distance between hosts and visitors. Pezzullo begins by establishing the vague roles tourism and toxicity have played in the United States cultural imagination since the mid-20th century in a spectrum of spheres, including Hollywood films, women’s magazines, comic books, and academic writings. Next, reflecting on participant observation, interviews, documentaries, and secondary accounts in in mainstream media, she identifies and examines a range of tourist performances enabled toxic tours. Further illustrations of racial, class, and gender politics involved include Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley”, California’s San Francisco Bay Area, and the Mexican border town of Matamoros. Gathering together social critiques of tourism and community responses to toxic chemicals, this critical, rhetorical, and cultural diagnosis brings into plain sight the tragedy of continual patterns of toxification and our assumptions about travel, democracy, and pollution.

Personally, I believe the price of tourism for countries with exciting destinations is larger than the cash inflow the tourists bring to them. My hometown of Prague, Czech Republic, attracts 8 million tourists annually, 7 million of them being foreign. The most consequential of activities for our city is most likely pub-crawling, where hundreds of people form a group, pay a single-priced fee, and go off to at least five different bars in one night. Bottles are thrown all around the heart of the city as well as cigarettes and all kinds of garbage that doesn’t belong on the sidewalk. I see this on a daily basis given that I live in the center, only steps away from our city’s most major bars. Then foreigners come complaining to me about why Czechs do not treat tourists with the “respect they deserve”.

On the other hand, I must admit that when I travel, I likewise tend to live more luxuriously than on a regular week(end) of being at home. My most prominent leisure activity is fine dining, where I go to different restaurants every day to taste local dishes and create new memories for my everlasting appetite. Even when I just cross the boarder to neighboring Germany or Slovakia, I instantly go to a steakhouse to compare the quality and tastiness to the food in Czech Republic – it is usually better abroad! I don’t think anyone can really blame me – Czech food typically has no spices and therefore lacks texture and taste, so food is my #1 thought once I leave our borders. Sadly, even fine dining has a negative effect on the environment since a majority of my meals include meats and I always take my leftovers home in plastic boxes. This is because I never cook when I travel as I am excited to explore new places and activities when I go abroad rather than being stuck in a kitchen with a large wooden spoon and a timer.

 

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The Meaning We Bestow Upon Animals

The meaning of animals has continually been altered by our media and pop culture. Similar to objects, animals can have separate meaning for different people. What a crocodile means to you is most likely different from what it means to me; you may think danger, I think vacation. Interestingly, we have seldom, if ever, come into contact with the animals our media has exposed us to in their natural habitat. As Julia Corbett points out, the only time we’ve really seen the animals from movies such as “The Lion King” was at the zoo.

This concept reminds me of springtime 2017, when I met a gorgeous Russian philosophy student. I make it a point to always come home from a date learning at least three things about the girl I’ve just spent the evening with. A red fox was on the list as her most favorite animal – asking about a favorite animal is among my top questions I ask rather than the hairdresser “where are you from?” and “what music do you like?” questions.

For our next date, I decided to get her a model of a red fox at the kids store nearby, about the size of an index finger. She was ecstatic and continues to cherish it today even though we are no longer together. You see, the toy itself would have no meaning had there been no backstory. By giving her this gift, it communicated that I payed attention to her the night before and that I cared about her. The fox was just the medium through which I communicated that message.

Furthermore, Corbett discusses the uniqueness of human-animal relationships. I cannot agree more that they are somewhat irreplaceable, because it is often the only source of unconditional love we receive as humans. If we think about it, there are certain standards and criteria we must meet in order to sustain a relationship with another person, whether that be our friends, partner(s), or even our family. A dog, however, will come cuddle with you even if you have upset your cousin or have lost that high-paying job. This is why I have to cringe in despair anytime I see owners being abusive with their pets, even if it is only a film like “Shiloh”.

It is fascinating that even though most existing animals are in fact not domestic, our culture has taught us to label them as “wild”. The term also implies that the “wild” animals live elsewhere than we do, which is not underneath a roof. Especially for urban societies, there is a clear distinction as to where we live and where wild animals are “supposed” to live. The biggest misconception of “wild”, however, is the implication of danger or ferociousness. Even the average Joe understands that a wild animal will seldom hurt you given you pose no threat to it. However, people are scared regardless because many enjoy watching documentaries about wild animals killing their prey in order to feed themselves, and the way in which they do so may frighten us because we imagine the same attacks done upon us.

 

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The Effects of Green-Advertising on Consumer Demand

In Chapter 6 of Julia Corbett’s “Communicating Nature”, she discusses how ads play a significant role on the way we approach nature, consumption, and different activities. One example she refers to is the ad which portrays raccoons “singing” a song from “My Fair Lady” about wanting to escape the cold outdoors and go into a room that is warm. I see a big comparison between this example and the one I have experienced in my own life in my early teens; Camel cigarettes. I was a fan of all kinds of cartoons at that time, so when I saw a cute-looking camel on a box of cigarettes, I somehow began thinking that smoking may not be too bad and that I might give it a try. Of course, I have seen numerous boxes of cigarettes in my grandparent’s household until then, but never one with a camel.

Soon, I began asking my cousins whether they smoke or not. They did. I asked if I could join them next time they do, and we all smoked together the next day – honestly, I really enjoyed that. Our parents never caught us, until one night, when I tried lighting a cigarette myself at home. I got quite the spanking which demolished my pedestalization of smoking for good, and I have never touched a cigarette since – even though I was invited to have a smoke by my own mother upon turning 18.

The question I keep asking myself is, would I have ever wanted to smoke at such an early age had I not associated the act of smoking with a cute camel on an advertisement? The fact of the matter is advertisements are made to speak directly to our subconscious mind, and quite on purpose. This is because our subconscious is the engine of our decisions in life and the real boss as to what we choose to do or ignore. Advertisers know this, which is why they feature attractive young women when making billboards – such as the Big Mac commercial for McDonald’s in Europe, or using celebrities to promote products and ideas – such as Tom Cruise being the main face of Scientology.

Furthermore, commercial agencies now oftentimes use claims and labels of products being “environmentally friendly” as a tactic to sell them effectively. Corbett’s book points to the example of a Green Forest paper towels, which has a “graphic of an evergreen forest”. The text claims that the paper towels are made from 100% recycled paper, and by purchasing the towels the buyer can ‘close the loop’, thereby contributing to the environment. However, the reality is that only 10% of the paper’s content was previously used and recycled, while the overwhelming 90% of it was from so-called preconsumer waste, basically being most likely taken from “cutting room floor” scraps in a manufacturing plant. Therefore, the assertions of Green Forest remain vague; do they simply mean that the company supports recycling programs? Does it imply “friendliness” with the product at all stages of its production? Such environmentally-friendly claims make buyers believe they are doing the right thing, but informs them only slightly about the actual environmental costs of the products they purchase.

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Is Nature Your “Go-to” or an “Escape-from”?

Chapter 5 of Julia Corbett’s “Communicating Nature” reminds me of just how much companies are creating a business out of all kinds of necessary human leisure. On his show, Dr. Phil once said “You are always moving somewhere. Either you are moving towards something you want or escaping from something you do not want”. Corbett puts this notion finely when she describes how people work harder and harder in order to be able to escape the daily pattern of their work, ultimately seeing nature as “time from” rather than “time for”. This could be the reason why our population is becoming increasingly stressed even though the information era is supposedly giving us more time than ever.

During my 30+ minute daily walks, I realized that these are the times of day when my best ideas and realizations come to my mind. In fact, I was once able to compose an entire jazz-like song while striding down the street observing people walking by. A tune came into my head along with lyrics, such that haven’t been documented, and I instantly started recording myself singing that song that seemed to come out of nowhere. Till this day it is my best piece called “Don’t Ask Me”. I strongly doubt that a tune like this would come to me had I stayed indoors working on a project or even just laying on the couch.

Therefore, now, before I make any grand decision in my life, I always insist on taking a walk outdoors first. Once I return home or to whomever I must declare my decision to, all the pros and cons of the situation have reached me and I can be rational about the next step(s). The same goes for when I get into an argument or when I become angry for whatever reason; I say I will “get some fresh air and be right back”. Walking outdoors (especially by myself) helps me calm down more than hearing any logical statements about why I shouldn’t be upset or God forbid any prescription pills.

As a golfer, I inevitably make about 4-7 mistakes during every round of 18 holes. I used to get very butt-hurt about sinking my ball into the water or missing a 3-foot putt. Now, I count on these mistakes as all of us golfers make them – we are human. My updated strategy of dealing with the anger that rises from such mistakes is I detach myself temporarily from the round, walking back and forth and watching the horizon or observing flying birds – as if I was just taking a walk without playing anything. In tournaments, I pretty much walk in this state of mind until I arrive at the next hole.

Does this mean I am using nature to escape from my fears, disappointments, or anxieties? Maybe. But at the same time, I see nature as my “go to” to clear my mind and refresh all the chaos that inevitably gets inside it, just like clicking the refresh button on an open web-page. It is not only something that gets me through my golf rounds, but all other areas of life as well – college, health, and managing relationships.

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The Growing Challenge of Experiencing the Outdoors

Observing the flow and behavioral patterns of society, I want to confirm author Julia Corbett’s opening statement to chapter 4 in “Communicating Nature”, which is that most people nowadays work indoors and believe their work is not related to nature whatsoever. This means there is a proposed introspect that the less time people spend outdoors, the less they will potentially value nature and the environment. What employers and employees of nine-to-five jobs may not realize, however, is that the logistical part of their work is where they use the natural resources. Although the percentage of Americans using cars to commute to their jobs has decreased from 85% in 2007 to 77% in 2018 (Lardieri, U.S. & World Report News), it is still a significant amount of carbon dioxide and fossil fuels being emitted.

When it comes to commuting to my university lectures or mostly anywhere, I make it a point to use my legs as my main source of transportation. By walking in an environment surrounded by nature, I noticed that I am healthier both physically and psychologically. I also feel more ready to tackle the day as opposed to commuting with my parents by car in my high school years. However, I do recognize that as a university student, I have more leisure time to walk such distances than I most likely will when I join the work force. In any case, I stick to a minimum of 30 minutes of walking outdoors per day to continue having my body in shape and my mind clear of clutter.

During last year’s winter, I commuted every day by tram to an indoor golf facility, where I would practice hitting balls for four to five hours (I understand the irony behind that, golf is meant to be played outdoors). However, I wanted to get really proficient in the sport before the Spring season began, so I continued this process for five months. The entire area was lit only with artificial light and had no windows. Continually spending more time there and less time outdoors, I was beginning to experience cabin fever; lack of patience that I normally possess, craving fast food like never before, becoming rather socially awkward, and becoming increasingly upset about things I would normally brush off. As soon as I noticed these symptoms consciously, I started visiting the outdoor driving range regardless of the cold temperatures, and I was freed of the cabin fever within a week.

The outdoor environment is much more valuable than we might observe at first sight. It provides us with remarkable physical health and mental clarity if we know how to use it. Admittedly, this is coming from more of a conservationist perspective where nature is there to serve humankind rather than us being equals with it. The main issue people face nowadays, is that their careers continue to demand more and more of their time, so they may only have 30 minutes of lunch break rather than having a total of 30 minutes to only walk to a dining place and back. Therefore, as Corbett mentions, cooking is another daily activity that employees commonly sacrifice and replace with eating out, in order to be as “productive” as possible. The only solution I see to this is for companies restart viewing their employees as human beings that contribute to a better economy rather than being living machines to get a job done. That way, the average person will have more access to outdoor leisure and a mental health improvement of society would be projected.

 

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The Spectrum of Environmental Ideologies; Which Side are You on?

Studies of environmental communication and ideologies have discovered that human philosophy on preserving nature is not as black and white as we may think. In fact, there is an wide spectrum, ranging from anthropocentric – hierarchical structure where humankind is at the top) all the way to ecocentric, where humans are an equal part of mother nature just as any other living organism. Just as with any ideological spectrum, most people will not fall under any extreme, but rather, be located somewhere in the middle, known by communication specialists as a bell curve. Over the course of my life, I noticed that ideologies can fluctuate depending on circumstances and your social environment.

Growing up in an anthropocentric family, I remember once being almost scolded for asking for a recycling bin for my used cup after having a week’s worth of recycling knowledge from my 4th grade science class. “It’ll make no difference, son!”, said my mother. At such a young age, the parent ultimately has the word we acknowledge most – for we depend on them for our survival! Thus, I would always fulfill my recycling duties in class, but I would not dare to carry the same approach home with me.

Before we start feeling any resentment towardmy parents, allow me to clarify that I was born shortly after the Communist regime in former Czechoslovakia was terminated, and we were now one independent country – the Czech Republic. Until that time, there was not enough education about nature and preservation because people had other areas to worry about – mostly how to consume MORE given that everyone was given more or less the same salaries and opportunities. For example, if you wanted two loafs of bread, you would have to stand in a long line just to buy one before you were permitted to go back, select the second, and stand in line again. I can sympathize with my elderly family members for not adopting a new philosophy given that they basically lived in an ideological cage from which they have finally been freed, however, in a country where a Communistic mentality persists; fear of unknown, xenophobia, racism, ignorance to surrounding environment.

Personally, I fall into a category which is one step closer to ecocentrism – Conservationism. While I do believe that there should be limited restraint to how we use natural resources, we should never use them in a way that will permanently damage them or deplete them from existence. Therefore, I stand for regulations of natural activities, such as hunting and fishing – not necessarily because I want to save the lives of fish and deers, but because I don’t want these resources to be depleted of existence in the next century. With this philosophy, I also don’t believe that a dog should have the same rights as humans do, given their lack of conscious awareness that humans do, which makes us astronomically more responsible than them.

Now that you are more aware of environmental ideologies, to which side of the spectrum do you fall?

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Improving our Relationship and Attitude toward Mother Nature

The first chapter in Julia Corbett’s book,”Communicating Nature” (2006), has a main theme of places having a way of “claiming us”. Her suggestion is that we all have that one place from childhood that we cherish as our private spot for recreation and reflection. I would like to confirm her statement, because I have had one general area for getting in touch with mother nature and with my inner self – the golf course. When I was 10, I joined my father on a round of golf, who has been passionate about this sport ever since he retired from his 9-5 work life. Once I picked up one of his clubs and started hitting balls, there was a sudden moment of serendipity. The feeling of compressing a ball into the ground and seeing it fly into a clear sky is a highly therapeutic feeling, let alone being surrounded by the views and continuously changing breezes of nature the entire four to five hours of an 18-hole round. Once it was time to go, I felt very reluctant, swarmed by a new feeling of connecting with mother nature. I have played golf ever since, continually deepening my relationship with nature and widening my confusions about how people can treat it so poorly.

Corbett elaborates on the idea that our relationship with nature is mostly dependent on our belief systems, which are formed from an early child age. Those who come from a Christian background are more prone to believe we humans have ultimate power over our surrounding environment and that it is there for us to be used to our advantage. This inevitably causes tensions with nature-cherishing groups and individuals, such as ecologists and geologists, who’s baseline belief is that we are a part of nature – it has created us and when life is over, we will return straight back into it. Thus, if someone has been trained to believe that God is the only source he/she should worship, we cannot realistically expect them to have a high regard for trees, grass, animals, or anything that is not human. However, as Corbett hints, we could drastically improve people’s attitude toward mother nature if we as parents expose our children to outdoor environments the way children were exposed to it in the early 1980’s – approximately 90 minutes per day. She elaborates by stating that environmental education programs claim that “when children know a place intimately, they are more likely to care for it, respect it, and safeguard it”.

Nevertheless, this position is a bit simplistic. What shall these kids be doing outdoors for this much time, especially given a growing impact of technology making most activities possible to be made online. My suggestion would be to encourage our children to play sports, which keep both our minds and bodies occupied, exposing us to nature daily and gradually improving our attitudes towards it. Reading a book on a park bench can work too, however, playing sports with other people adds an element of accountability which solo reading does not, hence a reader may eventually move to reading on a comfortable couch or bed. The main goal is to get children and youngsters outdoors and away from screens, which I predict will have a highly positive effect on not only the way they treat their surrounding natural environments, but also on their physical and mental health.

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