Final Project

Here is my video for the final project. I took aerial views at both WMU's Parkview campus as well as Kalamazoo's Asylum lake. I took this to try and capture some of the natural beauty in the kalamazoo area. I also conducted several interviews, but due to the time constraints was only able to include two.

Link to the video

Mission Blue

Mission Blue revolves around Sylvia Earle and her personal experiences as well as professional. Here is a link to her national geographic page for those who are interested in some background information about Sylvia Earle. Link

Ever since Sylvia was a little girl she was obsessed with nature. She was always in the water or exploring the woods. Wanting to discover anything and everything she can. This is why she takes the impact on the ocean to heart. It kills her that no one is doing anything about our negative impact on the oceans. Shes not afraid to call people out and tell them that they're wrong. Her advancements in the scientific community lead the charge for many women scientists. There's a specific coral reef in the Caribbean that Sylvia visited in the 70's that is no longer there. It's completely gone and its due to our high population and our never ending hunger for fossil fuels. We also have nearly fished some species extinct. Fisherman are catching blue fin tuna before they're even of age to reproduce. We continue to fish them younger and younger. There remains around 5% of the blue fin population. We must slow our use of fossil fuels. We must find better alternatives to our fishing methods. The ocean is a beautiful natural system. A system that impacts our lives much more than we can even imagine.

The film doesn't really go into detail about how we can minimize our impact, but it excels at grabbing the attention of the watcher and making them realize that we are destroying the oceans. Sylvia really stresses how much they have changed just in her life time and how concerned she is for the oceans during the lifetimes of her children. It truly opened my eyes. From this class I had a little prior knowledge of our impact on the oceans, but I didn't realize it was as severe as it is. Overall the film was well made. I didn't find it dry much like other documentaries. It kept my attention and informed me on our negative impact on the oceans.

Changing the Worlds Ideals (Bibliography source)

I plan to utilize personal interviews of a few highly qualified individuals to get their own professional and personal take on our current climactic situation. I intend to use parts of this article in order to try and understand Trump's side of the argument.
(Article)

Trump states that wind farms are not a wise energy generator. Says the highest day ever was in the 19th century. That's just the beginning of Trump's views on our climactic crisis. I find it mind blowing that our current president refuses to recognize global warming as a serious issue. With all of the scientific research, how can he refuse to recognize it? I want to use this article as a baseline in my video project. Utilize some of Trump's quotes in interviews asking individuals what their takes are on the situation. Essentially this article is going to allow me to generate better questions, making the video more personal and hopefully allowing the video to hit home to a larger number of people.

One Degree

Much like we all know our world is constantly warming. One degree discusses many of the changes and their impact on our environment.

It has been projected that due to the increased temperature that there will be another Dust Bowl, but this time much more severe. A specific example mentioned is that the high peaks covered with snow and ice are melting. With the melting it is disrupting water supplies, wildlife and the diversity in the ecosystem. With the rise in temperature ice sheets are melting. Ice reflects 80% of the sun's heat, while the oceans absorb 90% of the sun's heat. Causing a rise in temperature in the waters. This rise in temperature allows for hurricanes to be more prominent.

With "Six Degrees" being written in 2007 the information is outdated. We are experiencing much of what has been mentioned to an even greater extent in some instances.

Ishmael Ch 10-13

Firsts I want to say that I can relate to how to narrator feels, when it came to him not being able to speak with Ishmael for a week or so. My best friend currently runs track at Hillsdale and our schedules have been so busy lately that we've had no time to actually hold a real conversation. Not having that ability to even just talk about something completely random for hours makes you think back and miss the days where you could. Its especially hard when you and the other person have the same mind set and share a lot of the same views. Much like Ishmael my friend Nate and I have talked about things more in depth about our world and society. Including, religion and how the universe came to its current state.

Back on the topic of the chapters. I found it eye opening when Ishmael and the narrator agreed that leavers have based their lives around the trial and error of their ancestors of millions of years, while the takers on the other hand base their lives off of thousands of years of experience. Takers also refute the past as much as possible and continue to look forward. In doing this we as a society forget to look down and fail to see the consequences of our actions in the moment. We tend to notice the consequences when it is much too late.

I hadn't really remember much of the plains Indians and wanted to see if they truly made the transition "backwards" when switching from agriculture to hunter-gatherer. Here's a link with a description of their lives before the horse and after the horse. Once they discovered horses, they made the transition to hunter-gather due to the increase in mobility. However, this transition cause many issues. Among these issues is tribal warfare, with their increased mobility they were constantly bumping into other tribes.

An extremely eye opening section was when Ishmael asked the narrator if he was homeless would he hit a button to go back to the time of the hunter-gatherers. When the narrator responded with no, it made me realize that our society is so stuck in their ways that many would rather live miserable lives as a taker than live a life as a leaver. And Ishmael pointed this out to the narrator, stating that "mother culture" has done well convincing him he'd rather be a taker than a leaver for no knowledgeable reason.



Another section that got my attention was the part when the narrator and Ishmael spoke of being civilized. Ishmael became very upset when it came to our society looking at leavers as "uncivilized" which is exactly how our society views most leavers today. I feel its how our society views anyone and anything that we don't understand their ways of life. Our society for the most part views the same way of the leavers as animals. Many animals are intelligent creatures, but we don't understand their ways of life. so, most just label them as dumb or uncivilized. Which is sad to say, because we should put the effort in to try and understand those that we find "different". Their ways going about things honestly can be better than our current ways. We should always be looking for ways to improve ourselves. (Maybe that's just the engineer coming out of me) The comparison between our society and prison is scary, because of how true it is. No matter how rich or powerful you are we are all stuck in this society. There is no escape. We all have to do our time one way or another until our sentence is over.

Ishmael Ch 9

When the narrator walked into the room for his regular meeting with Ishmael he is unsure of how to feel when Ishmael is on his side of the glass. Even though he at this point should know that Ishmael is not going to hurt him and he has had many talks there is something different talking to someone with a barrier and without a barrier. I compare this to talking to someone online or over text. Speaking for myself, there are some people that I'm just more comfortable talking to over the phone or another electronic way than in person. With that barrier you only see the emotion the other person wants you to see. They can mute themselves verbally or over text send laughing emojis when they are really crying. This is the problem with our generation. We are moving to electronic interaction rather than face to face confrontations. There are many arguments that start as text messages. With a text message you put your own twist on the others words and a majority of the time that twist is in a negative light. Removing that barrier may feel weird at first, but it's still the same person. It removes any confusion, because you get to hear how they intended it to be heard. You can't put your own twist on it when it comes right from the source. I feel this is why the narrator was uneasy when he saw Ishmael on the other side of the glass. Even though they'd had conversations together there was always something keeping them separated. Something keeping each other separate from one another and maybe its in a more literal sense. Where the narrator saw Ishmael as more of a reflection of himself and now that can no longer be the case.

Ishmael Chapters 5-8

My fraternity (ATO) has reasoning behind the choice in its letters. The Alpha (A) and the Omega (O) stand for the beginning and end being bound together by the cross (T). Much like the narrator realizes the beginning and end of civilization is mankind. When civilization was first created we all were unaware of the negative impact we had upon the planet. And now we as a civilization we are so stuck in our ways that we refuse to change our habits or for some even acknowledge our impact on the planet.  We just continue to conquer nature.

The analogy between our future and the past involving the wright brothers gave a lot of insight. The only certain in our situation is that there are no certainties. The Wright brothers had little knowledge of what would work and what would fail. So, they found out on their own. Much like their designs, our future is going to be filled with trial and error. We are the trend setters. We have to fight the current if we want to continue swimming.

The narrator sees the basic layout of how life should be. Once this is pointed out he realizes that our civilization is truly depressing. So depressing he tries to suppress how he feels by drinking it away (Terrible idea). He realizes that he doesn't want someone there to guide him for the few short weeks he has with Ishmael,, but for his life. I understand where he's coming from when it comes to being guided. Our lives would be so much simpler and less depressing if there was someone always there to tell us what we need to do. To tell us right from wrong.

Walden Readings 2/15

We've probably all heard our parents say that we're all "special" in our own ways. Its a saying that we've heard all of our lives, but have brushed it off. If you truly look at everything in nature there are no two things alike. They may be similar, but nothing is identical. With that said, no words can describe nature. We can try our best and some words and phrases can get close, but nothing can quite fit. Pictures are not even capable of capturing the beauty of nature. Nature strikes emotion into you that words just can't. Watching a sunset for example is a breath taking experience and every time you experience it it is different. A video or a picture of the sunset just doesn't strike that same emotion as experiencing it first hand.

Much like Thoreau discovered with the pond. The deepest part of a person is the middle of their behavior and circumstances. Much like ponds we as humans are defined by what is around us. Its all dependent upon how we grow up, how our parents raised us, how we act when we're faced with adversity. This goes the same for everything in nature. There is more to everything than the physical characteristics. As busy as we are we tend to forget this. We make judgments on everything thing in our lives based off of how they look. Yes, we sometimes take the time to learn what's on the inside, but its not as common as it should be.

Thoreau mentions forgetting old grudges. I personally have a hard time letting grudges go, but in the past when I have and attempted to make amends it was much worse than keeping the grudge. I have personally yet to find someone that was worth letting the grudge go. However, I can see the benefits of not holding grudges. I just haven't associated myself with the people worth dropping a grudge. Along with grudges, he mentions wisdom comes with age. The man he was speaking with he states he himself will never be as wise as that man. I feel that we as individuals never see our gradual changes. We will all get to that point in life. That point where you have so many experiences that you have a story for any situation.

 In the words of Frankie Ballard "How am I ever gonna get to be old and wise if I ain't ever young and crazy". Young and Crazy by Frankie Ballard

Walden Readings 2/13

Walden states that true richness is in living things alone. This is one of the more true statements I've read or heard in a while. Most people in our society today find beauty in buildings or cars, but we need to appreciate the beauty of nature. The Earth isn't our canvas to paint what we want with it.






Most people travel afar to escape from things. In "Where I lived and what I lived for"  he states that he escape closer to "home" than most. When you go out into nature and you succumb to it you forget all of the things you had found important. You realize those things truly don't matter. They only matter because our society puts such an emphasis on them. When it comes to the big picture of nature nothing society puts emphasis on truly matters. No one needs to have a large house or an extremely expensive car, but society forces people to want these. The celebrities have them. I want to have them. Much like what was stated we confuse the appearance of things with reality. Reality is nature was meant to be conserved not conquered. We need to realize, much like what McKibben said in Eaarth we need to change our ways. We can't continue to live as though we are living on Earth. We're on a new planet. We need to adapt and change out ways to try and keep what we have left.

We need to also learn that we don't need some of the things that we have. We can be perfectly fine living in the middle of the foods without a "house". We always want bigger and better than the next guy, but we forget that there's always someone with less than we have. We can no longer take anything we have for granted. This includes our planet. We are losing touch with nature and so we are conquering it. Constantly expanding when we can't even feed our entire population.

Ishmael Ch 3-4

Our society is a myth. No matter if people see it or not it doesn't make that statement any less valid. Mankind believes the Earth was created for them. That the world will end with the end of mankind. That's why what has happened to the Earth has happened. We believe that the world was made for us. If it was made for us then there is nothing we can do to hurt it. Why would it be made for us if our actions have consequences behind them? I'd compare our society today of that of ancient Greece. Looking back on it their ideals of gods etc is what we call mythology today. Looking back on this time thousands of years from now, what is keeping future societies from calling this period and our ideals mythological as well?

The tension between the narrator and Ishmael was very noticeable at the beginning of the chapter as it is in most relationships where you're not seeing eye to eye. However, as the chapter progressed the narrator began to see from Ishmael's eyes. The narrator began to see mankind as Ishmael saw mankind. As a cancer to the Earth. Mankind having the feeling the Earth was made for them allowed them to do with it what they want. Ishmael has the narrator picture the Earth without mankind. The narrator pictures it from space and tells Ishmael that he wouldn't want to see it from the surface. He was afraid to picture it from the surface.

Eaarth Ch 4

From the very beginning chapter 4 sets the tone for the chapter. "Cullers...opens his farm for a giant industry-sponsored field day each fall so other farmers can see his secrets, most of which involve incredible amounts of chemistry and petroleum". We as a society see developing our tools only as positives. We sometimes don't always see the downsides to developing tractors and other tools. Cullers and the giant agriculture businesses see the huge GPS driven tractor and 

the pesticides helping increase our food surplus. While in the mean time our food surplus has actually continually decreased. 

Not only is our surplus of food decreasing, but the amount of energy it takes to produce each crop is constantly increasing. This increase in energy needed to harvest crops directly increases the amount of fossil fuels consumed. "It takes ten calories of fossil energy to produce a single calorie of modern supermarket food". The harvesting of the food, transportation and the preservation of the food all requires. The food industry is becoming dominated by the large companies.

Alternatives to help cut down on the energy cost for these crops would be to buy local. Going to the local farmers market or buying directly from individuals farmers will help cut down on the fosil fuel consumption. Another alternative would be to create an individual or community garden. That way you save fuel consumption from harvesting and transporting. Community gardens also help bring the community together and could potentially help feed those in the community less fortunate. 

Ishmael Ch 1-2

I don't really know where to start when talking about this book. I loved every word Quinn put onto the page. Eaarth made me concerned about the planet and how we physically hurt it. Ishmael focuses on the mentality of the human race and how we all live in captivity. I related to this book on a personal level. I've had days where I feel lost. Days that I just go through the motions. Getting through the day just so I can start the next day.

Quinn wrote "where animals are simply pinned up, they are almost always more thoughtful than their cousins in the wild". This is due to the fact that the animals have more time to contemplate. They may not realize that they're not happy with their lives, but they know there is more to life than just being stuck in a cage. We are like these animals. The only difference is that we cage ourselves. We hold the key to our cage and yet we throw it away. We'd much rather go through the motions, follow the script of our story instead of  improvising. Instead we play the role that we feel was assigned to us. 

When Ismael told the narrator to think back to ancient times of mythology. How we today see mythology as a story. Something that's not real, but feels real in the moment. It truly is how our society works. We live in the moment and look into the past with disbelief. Our ideas of what is real and what is a story is sometimes a very fine line.

Eaarth Ch 3

Eaarth shifted from all of the negative things happening to shining a light on what we need to do to slow and hopefully reverse the process of global warming.

 Mckibben said that we need to start thinking "Husband, not boyfriend". That statement sums up our society. Sometimes we look at things in the short term and see those benefits, but lack to look past today. We need something stable. Something that supports us. Something that we don't tear down and that's what you look for in a husband/wife. Stability.

Society has gotten too big for its britches. McKibben makes this clear by comparing global warming to the bank bailout. We as a society have became so large that we no longer notice small warning signs. These banks were allowing people who had shown no ability to pay things off in the past loans for $400,000 homes.However, these were problems only large banks were having. The smaller banks were perfectly fine, until the economic crash. The crash the larger banks caused.

When a company is struggling one of the first things they do is downsize. Whether that's via lay offs or other forms, they decrease the number of workers they have. This is what we need to do for our planet. We need to downsize and get back to a healthy growth. This happens not only the workplace, but also in groups/organizations. Why would you keep a member that isn't carrying his own weight? You don't need that person, so why do we continue to do that to our planet? Why keep things that we don't need?

The best solution is to reduce our use. When buying we should only buy what we are going to eat and pay attention as to where what we are buying was made/produced. We shouldn't feel the need to buy foods imported halfway across the country just because they're in season somewhere else. We should also attempt to reuse what we no longer use into something with a purpose. With an engineering background I am always thinking of new ways to use old things. Recycling is also important, but sadly it takes a lot of energy. So, recycling should not be our number one solution. It should be a last resort.

Eaarth Ch 2

For the most part Americans chase after expensive cars and big houses. If every country had culture similar to that of the United States, global warming would be happening at a much faster rate. McKibben brings this up by comparing the U.S. and China. "if the Chinese, say, ever owned cars at the same rate as Americans, the number of vehicles on the planet would go from 800 million to almost 2 billion". 

Oil Companies brought in a trillion dollars during Bush's presidency. They then took 4% of those earnings and invested them into clean renewable energy. Even some oil companies see that renewable energy is the future.

A huge factor in global warming is money. It takes a lot of money to create clean energy. A lot of money that some people and even countries can't afford. Not only is it expensive to try and put these green initiatives into action, but repairs also cost governments and individuals a lot. 

Hurricane Katrina and hurricane Ike that struck Haiti in 2008 are examples of disasters caused by global warming. 

Obama's idea behind his economic stimulus plan was good. Invest the money into schools roads, etc., but when I read that some of the money was going to help those areas that are projected to be flooded or completely submerged due to the rising sea level it made me upset. Researchers have been able to project what areas are at future risk. Why invest money into something that is going to be gone soon? We may as well have just thrown out that money. With that said when I read there was a very popular book published with predictions similar to what we are currently experiencing hurt. We as a society should have taken the book much more serious. We had a warning of what was to come if we continued our ways of living and yet we did it anyway.

Eaarth Ch 1

While reading through Eaarth and seeing all of these statistics and projections it's really eye opening and for me shocking. For myself I look I've looked into the future and have pictured having kids. After reading this chapter, It's made me wonder if there's really fair to them. To have the joy of having kids, but leave them with problems worse than any generation prior to them have had to deal with. Global warming is a continuously getting worse with no end insight. At the time congressman Ted Kennedy said to congress "I cannot look into the eyes of my grandchildren and tell them :sorry, I...can't do anything about it". I've always imagined playing catch with my kids in the front yard. Watching their games, experiencing their childhoods, but at what cost? To leave them a planet with no future. A planet that we are slowing killing.

The projections of the future were terrifying, but what is even more terrifying are the events currently happening due to global warming. McKibben brought one example to attention of penguin colonies "I've stood in the middle of these rockeries, a hundred thousand mating pairs shrieking, their babies demanding food"(25). Another example is the increased heat and its effects on our bodies and crop production. "In 2003 France had the kind of heat wave that will become the new normal as the decades roll on. Not only did thirty thousand people die because of heat stress, but corn production fell by a third, fruit harvest by a quarter, and wheat by a fifth" (24).

"...if you took every government pledge made during the conference and added it all together the world in the 2100 would have more than 725 parts per million carbon dioxide, or slightly double what scientists now believe is the maximum safe level of 350"(20). With this being said it shows that we need to do even more than we have just attempted to do. It's not enough. We have to do even more than we have even imagined doing. We need to maintain the planet we live on. In order to do that we need to get everyone on the same page. Everyone plays a role in preserving the world.

"The Eaarth that we knew-the only earth that we ever knew-is gone"(27).

"The Audit"

In "The Audit" the government takes drastic action in effort to slow and eventually put an end to global warming. The government finally was done with trying to deal with the situation on their own so they forced it upon the people. In this there was a loophole found. An individual could continue his lifestyle if he were to have a polar opposite individual sign off their portion of carbon emissions. Causing Bill to seek out Goodwin causing Bill to eventually realize his life wasn't all he thought it was.

For me this story hits home on two levels. The first level is with the environment. If our society ever got to the point where they tried "sell their sins" of carbon dioxide emissions everything will fail. The system entirely would tear society apart. Global warming can't be solved by selling away our emissions. We have to has a society stand together and reduce our emissions to help slow global warming. At this point according to McKibben we can only help reduce the future impact of global warming and learn to deal with the current effects of global warming.

The second level that this story hits on is looking at your own life and not being happy with it. My first two years of high school I was extremely overweight and I mostly stayed in my room. I eventually realized there was more to life and started seeing the world. The world is a beautiful place. It's not worth sitting behind a desk or living a suburban lifestyle. It's meant to be explored. We as humans are meant to experience Earth as it was made. Not as how we are molding it to achieve our personal visions.

"Walking" Thoreau

From the very first line which reads "I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil, — to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society". To me this hit at home. I took it as in nature we can unleash our true potential. Society holds us from reaching this by forcing us to be "civil" or politically correct. It made me want to go out and adventure. It made me want to be truly free of responsibility and be by true self. Even if it was only for a single moment in that moment I could be me.

In our society where we find ourselves "too busy" to relax and our enjoy ourselves reading this gave a refreshing view. Using his walks as adventures not having planned destinations and not necessarily choosing a right or wrong path allowed for a true experience. Wandering through the world allows you to see many things a "vacation doesn't allow you to experience. "Going with the flow" may be a cliche saying, but maybe that's what we as a society need to do more of.

 I personally have not had many experiences similar to this with my family, but I do plan to eventually once I have a family of my own. Having a family walk through the woods or around an unexplored town to me and my family. Not having an itinerary just being able to experience everything around us. Take in our surroundings and live in the moment for the time being. 

About Me

My name is Nickalas Randall. I've lived in Three Rivers Michigan for my entire life. I went to Three Rivers High School. I played baseball and was apart of the National Honor Society

In the above picture the images on the left are me my freshman year of High School. The images on the right are of me during my first semester here at Western. A lot physically changed over those years and a lot of memories were had in between. Some forgotten, but some remembered for life.

I've played baseball since I was 5. The picture above is me with two of my friends at my last High School baseball game. I enjoy watching, but nothing beats the feeling when you're on the field.

This fall I joined the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity. The above picture is of me and my brothers on our retreat. Joining the fraternity is the best decision I've made since I've been here at Western. I am currently the Risk Manager.