In-class writing

I think a major theme is what appears to them as the white man's unappreciation of nature as opposed to the Native American's perspective where nature is something sacred. Standing Bear talks about literally loving the Earth because of it's mothering nature. It is true that without the Earth and it's environment, humans would not be able to survive. I like how Standing Bear refers to the Earth as a caregiver because I like imagining the Earth as supporting all life including human life. The Earth, Gaia, our mother earth, does not pick favorites and that is why humans should appreciate nature because without it, we would be nothing.


Chief Seattle's speech refers to the land as something that has become part of his culture, his identity. It is the land that his ancestors were buried and for that reason the land is sacred to him. Seattle has a bond with the land because it is the land he's known all his life and the land his ancestors before him knew as well. His bond includes all of nature, not just the land because the trees, the rocks, the sky have been there living life along with Seattle as he lived his.

http://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:WM4iF_6rRQoJ:scholar.google.com/+chief+seattle+speech+authenticity&hl=en&as_sdt=0,34
 
The link leads to an article by Noel Gough with an interesting title of "chiefly Protestant propanda?" referring to how the speech can be traced to a 1970s television movie produced by the Southern Baptist Radio and Television Commision. Gough states that "the accuracy of this translation is a matter of speculation, but nineteenth century folklorists are notorious for censoring  and sanitising native American stories," further throwing into question the authenticity of the speech. It might not even be characteristic of Native American sentiments toward the subject and merely a white man's, an outsider's perspective on what they may think.

Chief Seattle

http://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:WM4iF_6rRQoJ:scholar.google.com/+chief+seattle+speech+authenticity&hl=en&as_sdt=0,34

Making up a speech and passing it off as a quotation for someone isn't being honest. Although the speech makes Chief Seattle appear intelligent, it ignores his actual wisdom and words. The speech itself is well-written and it makes good points. It definitely shows poetry in its words.

Artifact

I don't know if this can be called an artifact but I wanted to share this picture of Rio de Janiero, a city in Brazil known for its wide gap in wealth distribution. This picture could easily be related to the environment in the form of urban sprawl and Rio surely, like many other cities of the world, specially in countries that are in the process of industrializing, produces a lot of pollution. I however would like to address the easily visible gap in wealth. Even the city's layout makes this evident. It is as if there are two cities, the one in the lower half of the picture and the other in the upper half. The lower half is of the slums where the poor of Rio de Janiero reside in what appear to be crowded conditions. The upper half shows a metropolis of important-looking high rise buildings that surely required capital and lots of it. I find it interesting that such a wide disparity is visible in such close proximity.

It turns out that business and sustainability can be reconciled!

http://www.livemint.com/2011/09/18233447/Sustainability-the-next-busin.html?h=B

Historically its been the case that business and environmentalism have not usually gone hand in hand. Its mostly because in order for a company to be environmentally friendly, that usually means that the company would have to pay more money. It is cheaper  for a company to use gasoline as a fuel source (or at least it was) than to use solar power and have to go through the trouble of building solar panels which are not easy to make. This article says that business executives are now realizing that sustainability actually fits in well into a business model. It is more advantageous for a company to turn to renewable resources for energy than to continue using oil which has a rising price due to its increasing scarcity. Also, governments are giving tax incentives to companies that maintain an environmentally friendly agenda.

1st all time post

More to come!