Religion and Ecology 2019

Abigail Reed 3/21/19 When giving my presentation of chapters seven and eight of the Ecology of Eden  I asked the question if anyone could think of a world pole in the United States. According to Eisenburg a world pole offers a source of life. For example, in this book the Canaanites world pole was a mountain and the Mesopotamians world pole was the tower of babel. Both offering a source of life in two difference ways, one being of nature and wilderness and the other of the city and civilizations built by people. I couldn't think of any natural or wilderness world poles in the United States but a classmate offered up the suggestion of the New York Stock Exchange being a world pole in the US. This idea got me thinking of a different way to give and receive life and energy compared to that of the ancient civilizations in the near east. I feel that the stock exchange is a good example of a world pole here in the US because there is a way to see how life can feed and reproduce itself...

Abigail Reed 3/21/19 Throughout reading Ecology of Eden  this idea of a world mountain kept popping up a lot in my sections of chapters seven and eight. As stated in the book a world mountain is a place that are the central role in energy flow as well as the cycling of water and nutrients. Places that are considered a world mountain are high in genetic diversity, which promotes gene flow. Genetic diversity is important because it aides species survival through time because they will be more capable of fighting off any diseases or threats to their population. For example, the original banana was cloned to reproduce only identical genetic copies of itself because they were able to manipulate it to not have seeds. But eventually a disease came through totally wiped out this species of banana because it was not genetically diverse and there was no lone survivors that were able to reproduce and continue the longevity of the species. As talked about at the end of chapter eight was i...

During class on March 12th, we discussed that world poles were places humans got life from through cultures and technology, rising up through peoples need for control. The best example was New York City with its commodities and energy flowing through systems like the stock exchange and social interactions. Communication in New York City happens on global to local scales stretching far and wide. There are so many ways to communicate with different people and cultures, communities are able to share knowledge and backgrounds. Thus having a cultivation of unique people living in one place. Places all over the world are trying to recreate New York City's atmosphere adding their own flavors and experience, although none will be quite the same. I thought this was an interesting perspective to the American dream and living in New York City at times can be the pinnacle of that. I think it is easy to overlook that living there isn't always as grand as it seems. It is crazy to me that New...

[Assigned Reading] Evaluating Turtle Island The “Call of the Wild” is a powerful poem that captures the negative impact of humans interacting with the environment. It starts off with a call of the wild, being the Coyote's singing, which was ended by mans trapping of them. In America, Snyder writes, ex drug users are finding peaceful ways to live with the earth, even though they are still “stuck like warts” to the Earth. He then goes on to talk about the government or American system that thrives by war and bombing, who are really conducting “A war against the Earth”. This systematic contemporary influence is negatively impacting what was once nature. This change is already taking its toll and when the wars are over there will be no place for the Coyote to hide, no place to call wild. The poem above demonstrate the importance of human actions on the environment, as they can be both detrimental and conservative of life. The life of the American Indians were peaceful, resemblin...