Week 13 - Vaccinations : Cumpulsary or no?

I do not support that. I believe that keeping some of the older diseases alive may help prevent mother earth from making newer more potent diseases to try and rid herself of large numbers of humans, as she has the need and right to do.

I also believe that some parents feel strongly about not vaccinated their children and until we truly know that safety and dangers of vaccines, we can not ethically make them mandatory.

Week 13 - immunization schedules

This could quickly get complicated. Parents already have the freedom to control, not only the schedule, but whether their children get immunized at all. I don't like the word "should". I think this subject is on the fine line of "where is out medicine going". Currently, most americans listen to their doctor and do not question too broadly. If we start to put the power back into the peoples hands, we have to have some helpers for them. Many americans grew up not feeling responsible for their health. We get reminders from our dentist, our GP our ob/gyn, and we don't have a great amount of options when we don need something treated. I hope we are heading the direction of handing the power to the people so that we do start to take more pro-active and preventative action for ourselves.

Week 10 - Child Cancer Risk

I wonder how much the chemical splay in the role of these children getting cancer. I understand that their lack of exposure to germs makes their immune system weaker in the long run, but the chemicals used to clean their homes must be equally damaging. It' easy to understand how poisonous those chemicals are just from getting a whiff of them. In the past, poisonous man made chemicals have been proven to cause caner and that seems a more likely cause than germs that others seem to be able to fend off.

Week 10 - Introduction of American Bison

WE have to be careful not to introduce them so quickly that there are too many of them and not enough land. The Bison are native to America but thrived when America was a much less populated and polluted area. We have to be careful and educate the people about bison and their behavior, how they migrate, reproduce and how much open space they require. We also have to regulate Bison hunting and Bison producing meat farms. It could be a first step toward Americans learning , for the first time, to live in harmony with other animals.

Week 9 -Social Economy

Social ecology strives to bring humans back into balance with the larger ecosystem of our planet. It hopes to make us aware of the unnecessary destruction that comes from production of products that support an unnatural way of living. It wants humans to focus more on our basic human needs, which would undoubtedly bring us to the realization that our survival depends entirely on the healthy existence of our earth.

Week 9 - Strong & Fragile Ecosystems

Ecosystems support generations of many different organisms. They make life possible for everything on earth excluding humans. They are fragile because they can be destroyed easily. in order to support that much life, they require a natural balance within. If a road is built through the middle of a forest or the ground is dug up to extract phosphate, it will destroy the balance and chance for life of the tiniest bug to the tallest trees. It is analogous to pulling one thread and unraveling a sweater but much more severe and once the sweater is unraveled it can't be knit back together.

Week 9 - Deep Ecology

I enjoyed our class discussion on this topic. It appears so simple and idealistic in it's view but the repercussions could be devastating. Social movements, as opposed to "top-down" approach, are much more effective. The peer pressure from friends, family, neighbors would be much more effective than a forceful hand. I, personally, appreciate (sometimes) when my friends hold me accountable for certain beliefs and practices. It is helpful to be given gentle or not-so gentle reminders, to put on a sweater instead of using the heat, to open the fridge only once, to take quick showers, to wash the dishes with less water etc. These things are extremely important to the survival of this planet. I don't think people will understand the true need for Deep Ecology principles if it was forced on them. Most people would probably see it as having things taken from them. If it were a social movement, it might be viewed more as giving something to the earth.