Looking Back on 4P18

As the ship of 4P18 slowly sails away, I will look back with a grin on my face. I have learned a lot about how all these separate examples of the communication of the natural environmental affect the world. I learned a lot of new terms such as Green-washing, bearing witness to environmental issues, advocacy vs. activism, scientific communication, the concept of hypo-cognition...the list could go on and on.

The readings by McKibbem, Rachel Carson, Starosielski and (honestly) Good have all been ones that have not only stood out to me, but ones that I will always keep in the back of my mind. This concept of environmental communication has encouraged me to think critically between my relationship between this communication with the natural environment. I have religiously come to lectures every Friday (even though most weekends I head home and sit in the traffic because of it) but it was worth it to me.

I would sincerely like to thank my professor, in hopes that they keep striving to be the best educational teacher that I know they are and to keep engaging with students in such a earnestly manner.

On a light note, I will end of this blogging session on a somewhat 'lighter' note. Live, love and don't forget to laugh my friends :)

Food for Thought?

This week is the first group of presentations ( I happen to also be in that group). One of the presentations this week took a sort of 'you are what you eat' type of approach. It showed the un-fair environment of animals and how un-justly some farmers treat their animals, may it be for food or fashion. Although some of the pictures were quite explicit, some sort of message was still able to come across to me. I began to think more about a better world and thus I started to research.

I came across this paper by a gentleman named Steve Boyan, whom is very adamant about getting people to switch to a no animal or by-product of any animal diet. Heres the link below...

http://www.earthsave.org/environment/foodchoices.htm


After reading this I soon came to the conclusion that there is just no possible way anyone is going to make every single person in world, or even a majority to stop eating animal by-products or meat. So I began to look at other options and came across this great store, within Toronto called The Healthy Butcher. I was then able to find a short video on why we should switch over to a organic-meat diet.... I have to admit, over the holidays I will definitely be taking my family in hand to go check this place out!!

The end is Near

An aid to my presentation. Coke alongside their partnership with the WWF is donating $2 Million Dollars to help their beloved Polar Bears! 

This week I was up to present. My topic was how a massive company such as The Coca-Cola Company communicates the environment to their consumers. Before the presentation I was as cool as a cat. I had practiced my presentation over and over to my roommates, family and my significant other. I felt prepared. As my name was called and I headed up to the judge like stand with my huge Coca-Cola display of their efforts towards the WWF and Polar Bears...I began to get nervous, much like this girl here...

That was me today...nervous Nelly

I was a little frantic at the beginning but then seemed to get my cool back near the end. I had practiced this, I knew this presentation off by heart. I looked for the best examples I could find and ensured I kept it within the time-constraints. I needed to remember that it was probably just my dear old friend of mine....

Yes Anxiety girl is what I call the inner nervous nelly in me. I practice so hard and prepare myself to the moon and back, just to let her get the best of me sometimes. But don't fret followers, I think I pulled it off just great, thanks to a lot of preparation and well-thought out ideas!

Environmental Motivational Quotes

Hello my faithful followers here are some great environmental quotes that I enjoyed reading and of course I thought I would pass them along with you, enjoy!!

21st Century Environmental Communication

This week in lecture I was delighted to be able to learn about my professors research paper in relation to a movie I had already loved, Avatar. She explained her notions of the 'concept of hypo-cognition' and how this deep sense that we had been green-washed into thinking this movie was all about the natural environment. Her outlook on this was that it was fundamentally 'un-environmental' and much more about a message of violence instead of the environment. Once she had begun to explain her outlook, I instantly scanned my memory on the movie and begun now to recall it in a completely seperate light. I could see this macho-war driven world where the final scene ends 'mono-e-mono'... it all made sense now. This whole sense was what she meant by the term hypo-cognition and now I came to a clear realization of not only what she meant, but also a new light on the movie!

Shortly After this lecture I went home to do some more, research myself and came across a great read on FORBES online website. Here is the link so you can take a look...http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/20/avatar-media-james-cameron-opinions-columnists-reihan-salam.html

An example I found of 21st Century Environmental Communication is from a UK online newspaper website. The video demonstrates a flash mob full of participants which are campaigners against climate change. This is what I believe the 21st century type of environmental communication will become to be like. Our ideas must be more creative and current with the fast-paced lifestyles of our consumers and flash mobs are a great way to 'rally the troops' towards communicating the environment in a positive way!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/oct/13/climate-change-flash-dance-london


Here is another example of a Flash mob against plastic bottles. The beginning of this video is a little lagging...but just wait until the end, it will give you a grin from ear to ear! Might even make you think twice about leaving a bottle behind next time . If you would like to skip ahead a little, goto the 0:57 mark!

Further Environmental Communication Research

An area I would be interested in researching more on, is what actions big corporations such as The Coca-Cola Company take in being active in environmental awareness. Specifically I would like to know how they justify depleting the water resources in poor communities for their products and giving no compensation back to this communities, leaving them even worse off. As the largest beverage company in the world they should be held accountable for actions like these. They also need to be aware of how their day in and day out business affects other people in their daily lives, in a negative way.

This picture depicts a comedic relief at Coca-Cola and how there company get's slandered by many..

Kassing et al believes the effects of the environment on day to day lives is an area that needs to be examined more thoroughly. I believe this school of thought can be applied to The Coca-Cola Companies relationship with the environment and whom it affects.

Interactive Children's Environmental Game

Talk about a step up from the old-school {pac-men} game I grew up playing have it practically anywhere and everywhere...I have come across a cute, educational interactive game for children to play. This game not only helps them to understand that it is a good thing to recycle, BUT it also helps them to understand which bins and what products and be recycled where necessary!

http://resources.kaboose.com/games/michael-recycle.html


Check it out and let me know what you think...wish I would have been able to play a game like this as a child!