Political Ecology has different levels of definitions depending on the scope of a given perspective. One concept that I find interesting is how we separate the word nature from environment. Essentially nature has a larger scope than that of what is implied by the word environment. Regardless of what word and what scope we have in mind about our surroundings,… Read more »
Bananas are found in every grocery store as cheap, affordable produce, but the fruit represents more than just something we eat and enjoy. It is symbolic of the many economic, social, environmental and political problems where the cheap price-per-pound label on the banana comes at the cost of the lives of workers in the banana industry in order to keep… Read more »
The political ecology of today’s world food system is continuously being shaped by countless influential factors. The world food system is in an utter state of imbalance in terms of waste and environmental degradation. The foundation from which these issues arise can be traced back to governmental and social dimensions and or decisions that took place in the recent past…. Read more »
The Earth’s climate systems are complex almost beyond comprehension. The old saying that a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the Earth creates a tornado on the other is true in many ways. Unfortunately many climate change deniers will use this complexity as a way to support their indefensible beliefs. We see many politicians in America using cop-out… Read more »
I wish I spent more time in the dirt. I had spring-time dreams of generating enough greens to supplement my diet and quickly realized the many lessons of the soil I had yet to learn. The earth I put in my little garden is still new to me and I know it as living system which requires nurturing and nutrients…. Read more »
Image from UNICEF Bangladesh, https://www.unicef.org/bangladesh/education.html Woman’s access to education has been proven to drop birth rates “the difference between a woman with no years of schooling and with 12 years of schooling is almost four to five children per woman.” (Winthrop, 2016) This drop has a stabilizing effect by slowing the indefinite amount of people reliant on a limited food system. By looking… Read more »
We all know and maybe even use some dirty words.Typically these expletives are used in reaction to pain or frustration, to emphasize a point. Then there is the crowd for which dirty words are such a natural part of the way they speak, they’re hardly aware the words have come out of their mouths. Odd as it may sound,t is… Read more »
I’ve gained many valuable insights in the process of researching the problem of food loss/waste and its possible solutions. First, I think the distinction between loss and waste needs to be understood to foster effective solutions. Waste is predominately what happens in wealthy countries while loss results from poor knowledge, practices and infrastructure. I learned the astonishing fact that some… Read more »
Throughout the research process of writing my paper, I was overwhelmed with the amount of problems and lack of solutions that the people of Ecuador have in terms of water contamination. Ecuador has been involved in a resource curse, specifically around the mighty oil market. Their natural resources have been exploited by national corporations such as Chevron/Texaco since the 1980’s… Read more »
We are protected, but not by much. Surrounding the earth’s atmosphere is a thin blue layer that protects use from harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun and from the various threats from outer space. The health of our ozone is dependent upon our decisions that we make down on the surface of our planet. We have seen the responses from… Read more »