Estero Bay

Estero Bay seems like a nice little beach town where everyone knows everyone and is laid back beyond everything else. What they may not know is that Estero Bay was the original home to the Caloosa Indians. Sadly, when European explorers came to the island, they were either killed or died from the disease the white men brought with them to the island.

Last week, my class took a field trip to Estero Bay. There, we met Jo Hughes, a lady who lives and grew up on Estero Bay. Jo lived there before electricity, air conditioning, and mosquito control. We were lucky enough for her to share her experiences and perspectives of her life on Fort Myers Beach.

Meeting Jo was a very insightful experience. She told us how there used to be no electric on the island. They didn't get electric until about 1938. She said however, that "how could a child care when right outside the front door is 15 feet of clear blue green water". She told how they used to play in the ocean all day and back then you could see right through to the bottom. There was a tiny school with three grades which all of the children attended. Over the years, the schools would change buildings and eventually grow. Still today, Estero Bay has one of the smallest schools in Florida. Back then they didn't have proper mosquito control either. Jo showed us their use of method to keep the insects away. She held up a bunch of palm fronds and showed us how she used it to brush them off her body.

Jo has experienced a lot of changes since her childhood. For instance, what used to be a tiny island, has grown into something bigger. It is now a tourist spot with lots of traffic and hotels on the beach. She laughed as she stated that you will still never see a friendly driver than one who lives on the island.
The water that was once clear and blue green, is now brown and unclear. This is a result of pollution that can't filter out of the river into the bay. People used to make their living fishing in the bay, but now commercial fishers have moved in and started their own businesses.

After speaking with Jo, we walked on the mangrove preserve boardwalk. I was able to witness many small canals allowing water into the mangroves. I learned what a seedling for a mangrove looks like and how it virtually plants itself into the ground and how there are three different types of mangroves.

An Inconvenient Truth

In An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore sets out to explain the misconceptions people have with global warming and climate crisis. He explains this is indeed a big thing, and it is happening now. The CO2 levels that are escaping into our atmosphere are rising and it is "beating up" the nutrients our earth needs. Within less than 50 years, CO2 levels will be off the charts. The more CO2 that there is in our atmosphere, the hotter it is. The less CO2, the colder it is. Gore states that 2005 was one of the hottest years that we have experienced and 35,000 people in Europe died because of a horrible heatwave. In India, it can get as hot as 122 degrees!  He claims this documentary to be a version of a world wide message.

In 1968, the Apollo 8 Mission took the first picture of the earth: Earth rise.

Gore also states that within the decade, things will start disappearing. For example, glaciers. He claims that during the decade there will be no more glaciers left. For 40% of people, they acquire their water from glaciers. If they melt then those individuals will be going without drinking water. The Artic is experiencing a faster impact from global warming, with that said, polar bears are having to swim sometimes up to 60 miles to find ice and in the process many of them are drowning. 

Al Gore brings a lot of issues to attention. If we don't take care of our environment, will it be there for our children or a later generation? 

"What we take for granted might not be here for our children." - Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth

"Future generations may well have occasion to ask themselves, "What were our parents thinking? Why didn't they wake up when they had a chance?" We have to hear that question from them, now. " -Al Gore

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

On May 12,2011, my Colloquium class went to the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. While we were there, we looked at charts of the water ways in Florida. The charts compared how the state was years ago compared to now. It was shocking to see how quickly the population grew, but how the animal species decreased.

From there, we walked down the board walk into a screened in area. My first thoughts were we going into a butterfly sanctuary. However, I learned about land management. My professor and his intern discussed how our waste has to go somewhere. So what this part of the sanctuary did was convert it into a source for the plants, etc. The catch is, that when the plants were cut and maintained, they had to be treated just as needles in the doctors office are. They are a bio hazard and had to be dispersed in such a manner.

After spending some time we observed our surroundings. It was so rejuvenating being out there. The air smelled so clean. Everything was vibrant and growing. It didn't look dead, or manicured like lots of properties I pass in my area. Yes, the deer flies were irritating, and had a good little bite to them. But the scenes I took in and animals I saw made up for the pesky insects.

Walking down the board walk we passed over a marsh. We stopped and looked and in the marsh was an enormous alligator. I was stunned, I still am. I have never seen an alligator that large (besides the one they have in captivity at Busch Gardens) and especially so in its natural habitat. It was really cool because I got see it open its mouth and spring forward. I strongly believed that the egret nearby was going to become a snack.  Shortly after that, a red shouldered hawk landed on a nearby branch. My professor informed us of how rare that is. It was very exciting. The hawk sat there just watch us before it swooped down.

When I arrived, all I thought about was how I hoped to spot some animals. Instead, I felt at peace being out there. Everything was quiet and fresh. It was as if there were no such thing as wild fires or major land developments occurring all over.

The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man.  ~Author Unknown

I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.  ~Henry David Thoreau

Articulating my environmental philosophy

For a long time, actually up until my Colloquium class, I never really thought about the environment or the earth. I knew littering was bad for the environment and also illegal. I knew the pollution in our oceans and water was life threatening to animals and to life. But I never really knew anything about global warming, carbon dioxide, or anything else that pertains to the environment and earth.

When it came to us [people] on earth, I don't really know what I thought. I would have to say that it was probably along the lines of we belong here, have been for many of years. However, after a few classes, I learned that we are causing the most damage to our home. We are not only putting animals and species in danger, but also ourselves. Does that make our a home a happy and healthy earth? How can it be healthy when WE are not cognizant of the pollutants that we are putting out? And, if its not healthy, how can it possibly be happy and thrive?

Maybe we are too comfortable with how things are right now. We have a sense of place and we don't want it to change. We don't want to go back and give up the technology or objects that we have now.  The question is, if we keep going down the road we are going, how much longer is our environment going to sustain what we put out?

Suddenly, I worry about little things. Like if I should endlessly drive my car just because I am bored. Should I start recycling more instead of only doing it sometimes, and should I be more aware of what is happening around me. Some may cause this a perspective, but I think it is just a beginning.

"What's the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?"- Henry David Thoreau