November was a month of limited personal travel. I felt that to make up for the traveling I will be doing during the holidays I would stay put, recharge and save money. Not only did I save some energy and time but I also was able to keep my carbon footprint down. However, I did travel on the group excursions where many of our trips were based on places of strategic land use. Chateau of Chambord reminded me of my travel through the woods of Fontainebleau, being in close proximity the environment was strikingly similar. This forested area is teaming with wild boards, and other game, which attracts hunters for sport and population control. The excursion to the vineyard taught us of how vital the soil, wind patterns, “biologique” practices and even the moon cycles are to the growing of the perfectly picked grape for the wine, the taste of the earth in the final product, distinctive and special to the region. The trip to Normandy in particular left a great mark on my conscious. Here, the haunting remains of the bunkers and bombarded landscape served as a reminder of the past. Standing as a reminder of the D-Day which took place on the 6th of June, 1944 we explored Pointe du Hoc, “a promontory with a 100 ft. cliff overlooking the English Channel on the coast of Normandy in northern France. During World War II it was the highest point between Utah Beach to the west and Omaha Beach to the east.” (wiki) Here I noticed a sign about rock climbing rangers and soon realized that it was the skills of scaling the rock that helped us to literally get our foot in on the beach. I found this to be intriguing especially since I spend the semester looking into rock climbing and outdoor activity being skills that can implement change, directly or indirectly with humans in the environment. Being here reflecting on such a tragic time in human history I thought of how we have an immense ability to construct and destruct our surroundings but even more so an amazing ability to heal, grow and move on from mistakes of our past. No species has had the ability to impact the earth in such a way we have, and being on this historical front served as a reminder to why it is so important that we constantly evaluate our actions and values.
After the program ended I was to continue with my own personal travel, to satisfy my curiosity of the world and save that extra ticket back to Europe. Liz and I decided to use a carpooling service called BlaBla car to Paris where we would take a bus, foregoing air travel. On purchasing our tickets from Paris to Amsterdam, It asked if I wanted to offset the carbon footprint of this trip for x amount of money. I found it refreshing that some companies are beginning to offer such services through practicing corporate social responsibility. This reminded me of the South by Southwest Eco conference that took place fall of 2014. I was lucky enough to have been given the chance to attend because I was an officer in Students for Sustainability. I talked with a woman who worked for an NGO that worked within villages of The Congo in the DRC. They were present at the conference to offset the emissions of the event through preservation of the rainforest. This reminded me that in the way our society is built now, we cannot completely avoid having a carbon footprint, just as all of us had to fly here, and just as all the world leaders had to travel to Cop21, but there are choices we can make to compensate for or ease the effects. Coming full circle, I was happy to see that Sylvie Earle, the mother of the ocean in my eyes, made a great presence at the conference in Paris, just as she had at the conference in Austin a year previously where I was honored to have met her. She is not only advocating for the Earth’s waters and marine life as a passionate scientist but also stands as a role model for women. At SXSW Eco I was also able to meet with Patagonia Alpinist Barry Blanchard, who pioneered first ascents throughout his life and works to spread the message of how important the pristine untouched outdoors are. This semester I was looking forward to getting to have that experience again but at a monumental gathering of our world leaders in order to come to an agreement on policy towards addressing climate change. But in these times, we are not only fighting global warming, but threats of terrorism, and in the recent events in Paris, Cop21 didn’t seem safe for large public crowds…so instead I watched from afar, being updated through news outlets and those who were able to attend.
Back to the bus ride up north, as we made it through Belgium and Holland, Liz and I bypassed fields of windmills, reminding us of the project we had done for the Living Planet Report and that we are in a part of the world that utilizes this resource quite efficiently. Wind energy is not only popular but almost the norm in these parts of Europe. Further North, Denmark serves a great example in how renewable and sustainable energy can be implemented and successful across the grid. With a will to do so and a population on board, I believe that clean solutions to our environmental problems can be not only made a reality, but a way of life across the globe. “Wind power development in Denmark has been led by civil society, with individuals and families taking up financial incentives to buy wind turbines or shares in cooperatives to invest in wind power in their communities.” (WWF Living Planet Report pg. 124) Collective effort is essential but it’s also important to know that one person has the ability to change, as was the case in these parts. One man decided he would manufacture windmills and connect them to the power grid in secret and got his friends on board with him, and now electricity here is almost dependent on it with plans of wind providing 100% of the energy needed to sustain the population. Our destination of Amsterdam continues to keep its footprint light through other practices as well, particularity its use of bikes. Almost everyone rides one here or takes the tram in place of driving which is something I have noticed a lot about Europe, perhaps because of expensive fuel prices, or the fact that their cities were historically planned to be walked but nonetheless, I think it is a wonderful thing to utilize petal power (good for the body too).
Although, things seem to be on the right track here, it is still not a utopia. Getting off the bus during one of our stops the air seemed to smell like manure for miles. At first, I was taken back by the stench but then thought about the all of the carbon monoxide that cattle contribute to the atmosphere, and furthermore the immense amount of energy that goes into meat production. I have always been big on protein, mainly for health reasons but also because I love seafood, steaks, really anything that’s socially acceptable to eat, but I realize that being at the top of the food chain gives me great power with my choices, and with great power comes great responsibility. But jokes aside and in all seriousness, it is true. Even the vegetarian lifestyle has its downs because the banana I am currently eating had to come here all the way from Costa Rica, although it is has a certified green practice sticker, the journey across the Atlantic Ocean couldn’t have been good for the environment. I don’t think that there is a “right” type of diet but that there are right ways of growing and purchasing food that are more beneficial not only to us nutritionally but 2. The thing that Europe does so right when it comes to its food practices is that they have local markets and strict food laws. France recently announced that food waste is illegal, people tend to buy just what they need and I even learned through my host family that one can live comfortably without having excess.
We have spent far too long ignoring our actions as other people’s problems. In the WWF Living Planet Report it states, “The Ecological Footprint shows that 1.5 Earths would be required to meet the demands humanity makes on nature each year.” But the average consumer in America is closer to 3 or 4 earths according to the ecological footprint quiz we took online. I have lived in many parts of the world in my short life, at some times out of a 35 liter backpack (Asia and Africa) but coming to more “developed” parts of the world, I naturally brought much more stuff, about two packed suitcases. Perhaps it was because I had felt that I needed to match the social standards, part of the reason I think we are pressured to consume so much. But the truth is that those who live simple, light, and close to the earth are often just as rich, if not even more so. The happiest I have ever been in my entire life was when I was carrying it on my back. But I do feel that there is a shift in consciousness in what is truly important. The media will always be there enticing us to need more things, but I sense that my generation (or at least the people I choose to surround myself with) are enlightened to the knowledge that experiences are a form a wealth that you can carry forever through memories.
It is often quite overwhelming to think about our destruction of the natural world, but it is vital to our survival and that of the delicate balance of our Earth. I believe that the world needs passionate people who are still willing to embrace the elements for the sake of exploration. These dedicated people are the ones who will document, observe, and speak of what is going on in the world beyond the common city. When watching Chasing Ice, I was further reassured that my theory in having outdoor skills such as climbing and mountaineering are essential in gathering data, such as ice climbing into a glacier to document the decrease in land surface ice which is what is causing the rise in sea levels. I hope to use my abilities to research, immerse myself, and perhaps start my own project documenting parts of the world that otherwise go unseen by the majority of people. I believe that exposure and education on distant and unknown occurrences in the environment helps to paint a picture of what is going on, but the best way is to see it for oneself, to go into nature and never stop exploring. Since I began climbing and held an officer position in the Students for Sustainability club, I have been immersed in a community that not only is concerned for the Earth, but values it deeply and works to spread the word that our action can make a huge impact in this interconnected world. Being here in France and taking this course has given me a pew perspective and push on wanting to make the environment even more of a priority in my life and not only preach for change but to practice it too. We are all more powerful than we think, our presence on this Earth can make an impact and it is up to us to decide which one that is going to be. One person can make a difference and I hope that I can learn to embody that to a greater degree throughout my life.
“Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets, but humbler folk may circumvent this restriction if they know how. To plant a pine, for example, one need be neither god nor poet; one need only own a good shovel. By virtue of this curious loophole in the rules, any clodhopper may say: Let there be a tree—and there will be one.” (Leopold)
Works Cited:
Sand County Almanac, Leopold
WWF Living Planet Report
IPCC Climate Report
Chasing Ice
Miller, G. Tyler, and Scott E. Spoolman. Living in the Environment. 18th ed. Stamford: Cengage Learning, 2015. Print.