~Sacred Demise *Extra Credit*

The interview with the author Carol Baker of her book Sacred Demise has been a eye opening interview for sure. The lady talks about our collapse of indutrialism supported society and an economic change for supplies globally. she said she thought it began july of 2008 and now its going to become more exspensive and less available for world resources. The perspective is a little excessive to me personally although I do agree with alot of what she says. I do not think we will become starved and collapsed civilization but rather transform our consumptions perspective and norms to accomidate these resource availability changes. Ideally we would need to figure out transportation first because each person who fly's produces 2.5 tons of carbon each way, making Hawaii the most non-green economic engine driven state probably in the US. We can and will change our ways to acert earth's systems to preserve ourselves. The world is a global village and we have to make changes to make our world survivable for humanity to grow. She talks about the denial in modern peoples society of America today with the perspective of a global system collapse. I think that this is probably the most important issue she covers and is a very interesting question to ask ourselves. What would happen to the people in cities and urban areas if we did have a serious supply reduction in resources? People in these settings are not as able to become sustainable where they live. I like the video overall after viewing the interview. I have lived in inner cities and rural areas throughout my childhood giving me a insight to both sides of life in America and will say I see the people in cities being in real trouble if this scenario ever did unfold for America. I like how she talks about taking responsibility for these outcomes from her generation. I feel she was pretty humble for admitting wrong for her generation and the story about her saying sorry to a young person for be apart of what has been done to our world. She says to them you may not realize now but later you will for sure and that she was sorry was really humbling and made me feel for her. I was shocked she admitted that her generation created alot of todays problems. I would recomend this video to watch and take in for your own choice. If you would like to watch it here's the video below from youtube enjoy and thanks for reading my post.

Aloha Jon M Ellison

Social and Environmental Justice in Hawaii

Hello Bloggers

I looked at the video links posted the other Hawaii and the video about Kahoolawe. The first video was so sad about the homeless and misplaced people of a sovereign nation. The video talks about the people who were homeless and have issues with western society perspectives. The video shows some of the homeless from Maui across from our harbor here in Kahului. The good update to that film is that there are no more homeless people there because the state helped them relocate into shelters, homes and apartments. The Maui news said only 2 of the 80+ people relocated from the harbor jetty refused help and remain homeless. The video talks about the problem with real estate prices being higher by five times the national average. The clip talks about tent city on Oahu which is apparently real bad and they interview some people living there. The people talked about the forcing of Hawaiians from all beaches systematically due to law changes and perspectives of these people and their way of life. The historical info was cool and had pictures of the annexation and talked about the overthrow and how Hawaii became a state mentioning the apology bill recently created from this.

I feel that Hawaii was unfairly changed and now had irreparable damage from this and is all from greed and consumption and resource. Until we as a society see that our lands and plants and animals among us are we truly have and when they are gone we will surely go after. I saw one of my professors from MCC Kalei and he talked about the military presence and affects briefly. That man does a talk about the affects and problems the military have and still cause for Hawaii in his class that's insane and shocking. He knows more than most if not anyone else non military about their presence and affects on the Hawaiian Islands. He is very knowledgeable and if you can check out a class from him.

I agree with the film that things need to change to better the people and create understanding between different minds so we can all live and be ourselves safely and comfortably. The link about Kahoolawe was good also and talked about the military impacts and history of the island. The impacts on the island after it were returned from the military. The clean-up effort being done and anti-erosion tactics to try and restore the biota to a healthier state are ongoing a expensive not to mention dangerous. This is a typical retard maneuver by our government back when people knew nothing and based their actions of a finite amount of knowledge. The army has always acted before they think properly about most things hence the national budget is 51% for the Military. I am glad we are still free in the USA but I feel we could have probably done it without ruining atolls and islands along the way. I would bet on it if we could go back and try again. The links were good and got me in touch with some serious issues right here in our own backyard not some far away city or plant that's needs help, but ourselves right here in Hawaii.

I hope we all help and heal this great place for our future generations to experience and learn from to be conscious and aware of our affects and change to influence everyone to be green and healthy for a better life for us all.

Thanks for reading my post Jon M Ellison

Sustainability and Education

I read the links and info for this section and learned a lot. I was interested in the website Children and Nature network. This site was cool and made well. I looked through the links and stuff in their website and learned about all the different social programs they are a part of to reconnect children with nature. The project for urban children and gardening what they called a learning garden that's interesting to read about it and its positive effects on the communities that participate. They are partnered up with the National Parks and do lots of activities. The video on their home page was interesting and talked about the education program within the Rocky Mt. National Parks and why it's important to preserve these things for future generations. I have personally been to that park and loved the visit and experience I had there. The park apparently has a worry that the future generations may not accept stewardship and could cause us to lose it forever. The junior ranger program is too cool right? I wish I could have done that when I was a kid. The internship programs are something that's great and they talk about the program and interview a girl getting her PHD from a fellowship and internship at the park. That would be so cool to go to a national park and get a grade for it. The girl was apparently a junior ranger when she was eight so the program does have a lasting positive affect through these social programs and learning opportunities. I have been inspired by this video and will definitely donate to the box next time I take my children to the national park here on Maui. We have a responsibility to ourselves to take care of our creator mother nature.

I also clicked through Dragons Eye and this was a great site and I wish it was on Maui for my kids because I would sign them up, but we do not have that here. The place is a great idea and really has a focus in the right direction for the future. They teach everything green it seems like. They talk about events, talks, and programs from solar power to microorganisms in the soil. The fact that it's a facility that truly is sustainable and off the grid making a great practice what you preach example for showing young people it can be done and is actually better for you and everyone around you. They are a working agriculture business that I found very interesting and how its can be a teaching tool as well as a means of sustaining the facility itself financially. I like this place and wish I knew about it when I live on Hawaii, but this inspires me to encourage a similar place to develop on Maui for a green learning outlet for kids that's not a expensive option like Waldorf. The club is great and seems to have a lot of community service related activities like their Earth day booth, or the service learning projects. The site is good and has lots of cool links and videos and would recommend anyone to check it out and get involved if you live on the island of Hawaii.

Greencollartech.com was the last site I will talk about in this post this is an ok site. I did not like the navigation style but did like the snapshot features to preview a links page before clicking it. The site has some information but not as much as I would have liked to read about. They have a green jobs section I clicked in hopes of seeing a job listing but there were none. There was a link that I read about the sustainable future for Honokaa NHERC. This looks like a cool class to take for a few days to learn more about sustainability in your area not just in general. After learning more about sustainability I have realized that what's good for one man is not necessarily good for another! The sun exposure times, wind speed averages, soil conditions, native plants and so on all affect ones' ability to create or maintain sustainable practices in some ways or another. The ability to learn from a professional perspective about your specific area is so lucky for the people of Honokaa. I have read about people having to pay money for assessments and studies to see more about a specific area, its opportunities and pitfalls, for resource availability. The website has a blog also I click through it and read some of the announcements and posts had some interesting stuff but mostly related to Hawaii so was nit as interested in all the content I reviewed but very informative posts definitely. The internship link was cool I like it but could not take it from Maui so was cool to read what you do and what's expected and looks like a good internship.

Thanks for reading my post Jon M Ellison

Gardening (Salad) Update

Hello Bloggers,

I have another garden update today. The early girl hybrids are about done fruiting with a pretty good harvest from start to finish I got about 12 tomatoes per plant and had 3 plants total.

The plants are being eaten by whiteflies and have taken ACTION! I am using some Hawaiian Chile peppers and water to spray the underside of the leaves and it seems to be working so far but they are getting pretty bad. The plant that seems to be fueling them is my purple sweet potato plant (Uala). Hopefully it will work, and will post update later on. The Okra is getting bigger and strawberries are running all over.

The Cilantro is growing well, but the Coriander is growing but does not seem to be getting bigger as quick as the other plants. I have also noticed there are aphids and the ants seem to be milking them because they protect them when I try to spray them. I wish the ants would eat them but no such luck. The big boy hybrids are doing well, but have been a little wilted on their tops and eaten on the bottom branches. I recently got my gourd seed to germinate and is doing great. The lettuce is finally taking off fancy green romaine is getting bushy and the fancy red leaf is also doing well, but the potted plants are still small and the plants recently put into the ground are still recovering from root shock and have had little growth since transplant. Watermelon vine is running like crazy and have a few blooms. I got advice from local farmer to cover the melons in panty hose to keep them from being stung by a wasp we have here.

The pepper plants that are still a mistery to what variety they are are starting to bloom on 3 of the 4 plants and have whitefly problem but pepper solution is working wel for these little guys.

The garden overall is doing well and I have only had problems with carrots sprouting due to old seeds resulting in only three carrots and whiteflies. Thanks for eading my update and go garden

Aloha Jon M Ellison

Personal Story

I read our professor Dr. Becker's blog post #3 and was moved by her perseverance to make it here in Hawaii with the rats, centipedes and boars. The Finger Lakes workshop is pretty cool looking. I went to the website and looked at the stuff and watched some of the videos and they looked super eco neat for kids. I am a parent and wish I could take my kids to this workshop. The fee is only 30 bucks which is so cheap and looks like there's tons of stuff to do. I was shocked and impressed that it would be an event not for only the wealthy but everyone because of supporters absorbing costs to hold the event. I was thinking about how all this relates to my own story of life and would like to share with whoever is reading this my eco story.

I was a typical American kid growing up in a suburban town and played sports and actively involved with activities throughout my childhood. I became a senior in High school and was thinking about trying out for college baseball teams around the country and maybe even a track team in Europe if the baseball thing did not work out. I had applied at Pepperdine, Ohio state, Indianan State for baseball. I then had been in a fight with a childhood friend and became seriously injured from him assaulting me and then a car passing by, running over me during the fight! It was an unfortunate accident but sparked a change in me for the better. I had to be disabled and wheelchair bound for some time. The process was about a 2 year ordeal and during that I had a lot of time to think about myself and the world around me. I became more interested in life and learning. This road brought me to Hawaii on a scholarship from the Chickasaw Nation and has helped me to see the world with a better informed view about it in certain light. After being in school for some time now I did not need the eco class but, had been drawn to want to learn more about this topic and related studies. I have learned enough to know now that this is our only permanent solution for the global biota. I have always loved nature and have always respected life from when I was a boy scout and cub scout on campouts to being involved in restoration groups in college currently. The more I learned about nature, through Hawaiian Biology, Ethno Botany, Marine Science, Hawaiian Studies classes, the more I was being driven towards eco thinking to preserve, prevent and change our systems to save our animals, plants, habitats and diversity of all life. I would like to never experience species extinction for the rest of my life and everyone that follows after me. I have felt from my experience that life is very short and we should cherish every moment we have been given to really examine our true goals in life and where we want to get to for tomorrow. I will spend my life I know in my soul trying to fix our broken planet for the sake of life itself and all of us having the right to survive. I hope we could all change really quickly and safely to preserve what we still have left from our own ignorance. Please if you have read this respect life, make changes, and go green, do not just sya it or do it for a trend or fad but because it's the only way we will save anything if we have not taken it too far already.

Aloha for Readin Jon M Ellison

Systems Theory prt. 2

I went through the links in the 4,5,6 part and watched the talk with William McDonough the Architect, I also looked at the Management Systems link as well. The video is below for the TED talk about systems integration and intelegent green design. I agree with him we need to rethink how we are living and our current systems of support for society today. His model is so cool and is completely self sustainable for 500 million people with farms on the roof-tops and water plant and solar farm. An interesting thing learned was that their waste treatment plant is actually and natural gas and fertilizer production plant. The city would profit from toilets flushing amazing! Well watch it for yourself It was very informative and interesting. The only question I have after watching the video is if China keeps doing all these groundbreaking things in an eco perspective will they set the trends for the world to model for eco living and integration or pollute us all to death making the stuff to sell us while they make profits to fuel their green growth? We need a solution fast if China keeps growing and integrating Tech into its population. If eveyone in China had a large house and a car they drove daily we would all die probably from natural systems collapse from pollution and waste and lets not forget natural resources consumption. We would be out of oil world wide in a few years probably. Watch it Now......



The link about Systems Management was very interesting it has so much info talk about information overload OMG this site has so much you could spend years to read it all. I did however spend a little time there and looked at information on casual loop diagrams and how to create them: http://www.thesystemsthinker.com/tstgdlines.html Good stuff and very interesting thanks for reading.

Jon M Ellison

Systems Theory

I watched the movie The Story of Stuff recently and was surprised at how much we have designed our systems to ruin everything. The flick was cool had these little cartoon people to show the different scenario's making it not so negative focused on the information even though it was disheartening. The point was great and 10 years of work thats alot of work we learned about in a few minutes very cool. The recycle extra credit website is a perfect beginning for changing our perception of stuff and being responsible for it when it's gone. I am going to use it myself and write a post later about it.

The Cornell website talks about three main views that are their pursuits toward a better future for everyone. These 3 main systems are subcategorized by a breakdown of each system. Here they are right from their website: http://www.sustainablefuture.cornell.edu/about/ · Energyo New Sources, Efficiency and Conservation, Global Climate Change, Mitigation, New Businesses· Environmento Biodiversity, Water, Resource Management, Agriculture, Buildings to Cities, Adaptation· Economic Developmento Poverty, Sustainable Development, Water and Food Systems, Infrastructure, Education

The correlation to culture for me when I watched this movie was easily identifiable seeing that America has no culture and so this behavior seems to be logical for filling that void of being cultureless. According to an earlier communication class I learned about how America is made of all cultures among the world and that they all come here and shed a majority of their culture after a few generations of Americanization. This results in a void in the American mind that has to be filled by something and this something is partly consumerism like the film indicated and a perception of value based on this behavior.

I see Americans evolving away from this system and becoming health driven for benefits to our natural systems and our own physical system as a person. Until then each of us have a responsibility to change because we know we should and can. With ultimate knowledge comes ultimate responsibility.

The slideshow clip was kind of cool and a neat way to get people to read something instead of using dialogue. I feel the same about our current systems perspectives and regulation mechanisms we have in place currently. The pesticide stats were surprising and scary because those are sprayed on our food, community’s and even in our homes! I never use any form of bug spray or chemical to advert natures little pests. I use a natural mechanism if available or just deal with it, because I see the stress from the bugs of whatever are less then stress from cancer or a debilitating illness latter in life from exposures. We have to wake up and change for ourselves and all other life on this earth a responsible stewards of this planet.

Thanks for reading

Jon M Ellison