“Biodiversity Conservation and the Extinction of Experience” Response

Robert Nelson

While reading James R. Miller’s piece, I was able to connect with a work that I read in my previous IDC class (The Peopling of New York) called “The Metropolis and Mental Life” by Georg Simmel. Simmel’s piece mentioned how people who live in cities eventually take on a blasé, indifferent perspective towards their surroundings since urban areas are filled with so many events and stimuli that it would be impossible to keep track of them all at once. Miller appears to add on to this theory by stating how urbanites feel disconnected with nature and often do not feel obligated to correct or at least improve some of the ecological issues that they encounter on a daily basis. As shown in the quote “…most Americans can identify hundreds of corporate logos, but fewer than ten native plant species” (Miller 430), they tend to be more concerned about finished materialistic products as opposed to their natural sources.

I agree with Miller that this has been caused by the fact that scientists, especially conservationists, have been very condemning and pessimistic when talking about ecological problems. From a psychological standpoint, this makes people feel helpless and worrisome, and leads them to believe that there is nothing that they can do to help their environments. If they are talked to from a more positive and enlightening approach as well as actively included in the process of beautifying and reconstructing their cities, they will feel more inclined to do so. In other words, bringing into the spotlight the biodiversity of the cities and encouraging their inhabitants to preserve it will be more successful than highlighting the consequences of continuous human harm to nature.

Despite the fact that there is still a lot of work to be done, I believe that considerable progress has been made to bring city-dwellers closer to nature. In addition to the green rooftops being built to reduce the urban heat island effect, I learned in one of my previous classes that in Harare, Zimbabwe, buildings are being constructed like anthills both in shape and material so that they can be cooled down by themselves without using fans or air conditioners. Such biomimicry can definitely garner the interest of the general public, and ordinary people can change their lives by simply observing how plants and animals have adapted to some of the obstacles that they face and recreating them for themselves. Overall, I thought that Miller’s piece did an excellent job at identifying and proposing solutions to the detachment between people in cities and their environments, and I especially liked how it tied ecology with psychology, sociology, anthropology, and other social sciences.

“Biodiversity conservation and the extinction of experience” Reponse

IDC 9/2 Article Response

Chris Lau

The article made a couple of great arguments regarding how people can be more connected to the environment and to do things to preserve and save it for the future. First of all, the author mentions the continued growth of cities and its effect on people especially the younger generations who are born living in these cities, which creates detachment from the natural world around them. He brings up the term “shifting baseline” syndrome, which basically implies that as the environment continues to be destroyed, the people aren’t really noticing it because they only see the environment around them and compare the state of the environment in the future to the environment they were born into and are used to. This means that the environment is actually degrading at a faster rate than people think it is. This point makes a lot of sense because people don’t generally travel or pay attention to places where the environment is in great shape and just think of it as maybe the trees or parks surrounding their homes, so they don’t really get a sense of some of the other unique environments that exist around the world. This ties in with the factor of time that he also mentions because lets be honest, people especially those who live in the cities generally live really busy lives and can’t stop for ten minutes every time they see a new plant or organism. Also, even if they pause to observe the environment around them, they probably won’t know the names of the things they are looking at and don’t have a guide next to them to tell them what they are looking at. 

Now, one possible solution to educate people more about their environment would be through the education system. As the author mentions, one of the best ways to help people learn the value of the environment is during their childhoods. Children are obviously spending more and more time indoors playing with all the fancy technology around nowadays compared to the children in older generations, who generally spent more time outside playing and exploring. It is definitely harder today for kids to spend time freely outdoors because their parents are usually busy people and the safety conditions aren’t as good as they used to be. Also, even the kids’ schedules are lined up with many different activities because parents want their kids to have diverse skillets and talents, so they can prevail in this competitive world. Simply put, there isn’t enough time nowadays for children to be spending 2-3 hours each day playing with soil, grass, and bugs. However, a solution that I think could work would be to integrate interacting with nature and the environment in school. The curriculum in public schools require biology, chemistry, and physics, but not environmental science, which in my opinion might be more practical for some of us compared to the other three topics mentioned above. There should be more on hands learning for elementary school students regarding the environment around them instead of just studying topics via textbooks and technology in the classroom. This solution wouldn’t interfere with time also because every kid has to spend their day at school, and it wouldn’t take any time out of their extracurricular activities or playtime at home. Not many children today are going to choose to go outdoors and play around with grass and bugs compared to staying at home playing with their iPads or watching their favorite shows, so having this required on hands outdoor learning experience at schools will show them some interesting things about the environment and perhaps spark new interests regarding nature within the kids!

“Biodiversity Conservation and the Extinction of Experience”

Hello everyone. Hopefully I am posting this to the correct IDC site.

Anyways, I just finished reading Miller’s article, and I found his points regarding the benefits to quality of life for
humans to be interesting. In particular, I agreed with the fact that greater integration of nature with the built environment
is very significant in helping individuals recover from stress faster. Whenever I feel the inner buildup of stress, I usually
go to Seward Park, which is located 5 minutes away from my apartment, and walk around to calm myself. The space in the park is
filled with three playgrounds and many benches so it is not the most open area. However, the park still has substantially more nature
than most areas in New York City.I believe that is why walking around Seward Park, seeing the sight of greens, and smelling the
scent of the trees and plants in the air is enjoyable and allows me to relax and recover from stress.

Since I entered college, I have found myself walking around Seward Park more often especially when exams, papers, and other
important due dates are approaching. The walks have been really helpful in relieving the pressure I felt and allowing me to
regain a clear mind. For the fast-paced world of New York City, the stress-relieving function of nature is the most important
in improving the health of New Yorkers who can face constant stress from their jobs, internships, school, and etc.

Welcome to Sem 3!

Hello and welcome!

Once you join this site, you’ll be able to post your assignments and share images here.

I’ll be your ITF for the course and you can find out more about me here. I look forward to meeting and working with all of you. Hopefully you had a great experience at BioBlitz, perhaps you could post some pictures or reflections on the site.