Katie Bentley
September Blog
In continuation with my theme, human impact and its effects on the environment, I made an effort to notice different ways in which humans have shaped the land around them in order to convenience their life style. In the last few weeks our study abroad group has made trips around The Loire Valley. On these trips I have been able to see not only incredible structures, architecture and rich history, but I have also been able to see how humans have manipulated the environment throughout different eras. By noting human impact on different eras in this blog I can more clearly observe humanity’s positive and negative effects on the environment. More so, it is important to see these variations of human impact throughout different cultures, countries, and regions. In doing so I can observe different societal awarenesses of the environment and the variety of precautions being taken to preserve, or not preserve, a given communities surrounding area.
Chateau Du Clos Luce-Parc Leonardo DaVinci
The grounds of the chateau didn’t cease to spare on landscape and natural detail. Leonardo DaVinci was a pioneer of his time in physics, art, and, as apparent by design of the land, botany. Not only was DaVinci keen on nature itself but also the manipulation of the land for the advancement of society. When walking through the park I was surprised to see that one of the inventions on display was a simple, up and down pulley system, dam. The concept of the dam came to Leonardo when he was assigned a project to figure out a way to sustain the water supply from the sea to Florence, Italy. DaVinci was able to realize that he could essentially build a moving wall into the earth, thus changing the entire way humans could possibly control a force of nature as powerful as running water. Though controversial, dams today are a sophisticated means of generating electricity and maintaining water levels. One of the main reasons dams are gradually being torn down and construction of them is slowing is due to the harmful disruption it causes to aquatic life. While I didn’t see any obvious harm to the fish and other species in the water at the Chateau Du Clos Luce (the area on the other side of the dam was very small) the water was obviously very stagnant and low in comparison to the water on the other side of the dam. Which is a good indicator of poor oxygen flow in the water which typically has a negative effect on the species in the water.
I CROSSED TO THE OTHER SIDE
To the other side of Angers. On my bike. Was there nature? Heck yes. A lot of it.
European architecture takes on a different approach to urbanization and population growth than we do in the states. Although it is slowly but surely changing, and can actually be seen in Austin. Rather than building out, which typically leads to non sensical urban sprawling, the Europeans (or in this particular example; Angers) build up rather than out. They must do this in order to sustain their growing population. While this is a more efficient and effective way of building to accommodate a population, it also comes with its minor faults. In particular the lack of green space per person is a sacrifice when living in such a development. However, I have noticed an effort on behalf of the community to adapt to the lack of personal green space availability. So far I have seen one community garden. But, the main “adaptation” I have seen is the use of window boxes. This practice could be seen as both an adaptation and a manipulation of the environment by people. This is a manipulation that has no obvious harm and benefits both the environments and humans. This mutualistic relation creates better oxygen flow for the people of a given residence as well as the potential to grow their own food. As for the plants, the human attentiveness guarantees the longevity of plant life.
Awktoberfest
There really wasn’t anything awkward about it. The part of Munich that I was in was really urbanized so I really didn’t see too much influence on nature other than that it really didn’t exist. Even my view from the train I didn’t see much evidence of sprawling landscape or any black forests. Aside from peoples window boxes or small gardens on their balconies it just felt cold, urbanized, and dreary. I did however find it interesting, just how common sunflowers seem to be in Germany, or I guess Munich as that is the only place I stayed. Sunflowers, I thought, thrived in warmer climates. Which is a fair assumption based on their name. When in actuality they were doing just fine in the cooler climate. It was interesting to see them in full bloom considering just how cold Munich was during our time there. The entirety of our stay I don’t think the weather ever got to be above 68 degrees fahrenheit and that was the one day. Otherwise it was more or less 45-50 degree fahrenheit weather. Not exactly “sun flower conditions.” According to sunflowernsa.com, sunflowers are originally native to North America and were brought to Russia. From there they spread through western Europe and were utilized partly for decoration and partly for the purpose of oil extraction.
Conclusion
These are just a few examples of the many European human impacts on the environment I have been able to see this month. In certain aspects Europeans are far better developed than we are (Americans). Particularly they are notorious for their space conservation when it comes to further development of human accommodation. This is partly due to a lack of space because of how much longer Europe has been developing compared to the United States. They have also learned to adapt to these conditions by utilizing what they can for green space. This is a practice we hardly see in the United States because of our abundant, yet fleeting, green space per person. In terms of environmental consciousness and development Europe-1 America-0.
