Intro to Environmental Studies Fall 2025

  Green Burial a Stepping Stone for Humanity A green burial is an alternative to traditional burials that avoids the use of embalming practices and utilizes a compostable casket. In class, we briefly discussed the emergence of green burials in natural parks across the United States. On my own, I discovered that green burials are one of the fastest-growing burial methods in the country. Also, families who undergo green burials remain more attached and less sorrowful about their family member who died. Instead, they interpret it as them still being there but in a different form. This approach embodies the idea of returning to dust, similar to how the natural flora of a forest returns to the soil.  Figure 1: Depiction of a Green Burial Connecting this to my previous discussion about the Aztec Empire and our responsibilities as stewards of the planet, the first step to stewardship is building a connection with the Earth. As a society, we need to move beyond the notion of civilizat...

  Lessons from Mesoamerica In the not-so-distant past, there was a vast technologically advanced empire in Central America. This Empire excelled in ways that Europe was centuries behind on. This Empire was known as the Aztec Empire. You may be familiar with Cortez’s crusade against the repressive Aztec Empire and how he rallied disgruntled tribes from what is modern-day Mexico to attack the New World's Venice, Tenochtitlán. Well, this is an interpretation from the Aztec point of view, since in the Western world, their story isn’t as well talked about as the Conquistadors' pillaging and raping of the land.  Unlike most Western civilizations, there is a myth behind the founding of Tenochtitlan. The story goes that wherever an eagle sits upon a cactus, eating a snake, a great city will be founded. This cactus just so happened to be next to a lake bed. So Tenochtitlan was founded on the muddy soil of the lake in a similar way to how Venice was created. Most of the ground for the c...

  I find much joy in discovering what inspires me to get up at 8am on a Saturday morning. But if there was as good of a reason as any the Community Garden in South End of Newport News would be it.  In recent weeks I've grown closer to the garden (technically a farm), and it has driven me to layer the sociological, agricultural, and fundamental trepidation that comes with learning about it. This project is only available to me because of Serve the City Peninsula and Hampton Roads Urban Agriculture. These local grassroots organizations are able to mobilize volunteers to the place that need it the most like the South End of Newport News. This garden serves not only as a place of communal food production, but as hub of cultural initiative. People from all walks of life come to help this community grow food for themselves which is a tremendous feat. Inadvertently, the people from Hampton Roads Urban Agriculture are actively bringing lost agricultural knowledge to the people of th...

  Soil Types You know when I think of soil I don't necessarily think of a pyramid. However, the seemingly random mixes of soil we find in our natural environments have leveled classification systems on a federal and international level. This understanding is important to take into account especially for the aspiring horticulturalist or agriculturalist. One of the more applicable parts of Chapter 7 of Plant Nutrition and Soil Fertility Manual spoke to the physical interpretation of this information. To the common eye the composition of soil might not matter all that much when figuring out which substrate to use for a simple perennial bought from the store but for commercial farmers and gardeners alike soil composition is an essential piece to ensuring a healthy and thriving community or population of plants.  Tillage Practices Tillage practices are not cut and dry. When preparing or testing soil for planting, irrigation, or a public works project it is important to take into ac...

      In my writing seminar, we discussed the reasons people want to protect the environment, typically due to some sort of adoration and appreciation of the outdoors or specific environments. Dr. Burke explained it phenomenally, "I'm the oyster guy, I work with oysters, scallops, and clams, and that's my area of expertise, and not that I don't love what I specialize in, but typically if someone specializes in something, it's due to the other variables that rely on said specialty. For example, Dr. Thompson specializes in minnows, but she probably loves minnows; it's not about the minnows, but the impact of that species on the surrounding environment. For me, it's about the organisms that rely on the oysters and how crucial the oysters are to the ecosystems."      Typically, this adoration and appreciation for the environment can stem from many different things: a strong connection to the outdoors as a child, or even just a familial tie to the landscape...

As a Communications major, I have spent the past four years studying how humans create, exchange, and interpret information, both individually and in groups. At the core, our worldviews, shaped by experiences and culture, dictate how we see the world. These same lenses also shape how we understand the environment: as an object to be used or as an entity with its own rights. Over the years, scholars have formulated several models of communication to describe how we transmit and receive information, but they can also shed light on how we approach the environment. Linear models, like Shannon and Weaver’s , depict communication as a one-way process with a sender and a receiver. To address the shortcomings of Shannon and Weaver’s linear model, Wilbur Schramm proposed an interactive model in which each participating party acts as both sender and receiver. Although interactive models are now more widely accepted as accurate depictions of communication, I would argue that we fail to apply such...

Earlier in the course, Prof. Redick provided an example of how two people can have different perceptions of a single thing in nature. The example was that I could be driving along the Blue Ridge Mountains and pull over to an overlook to gaze at the view. However, if Prof. Redick came along on foot while walking the Appalachian Trail, his perception of the same mountains I am looking at would be drastically different. I would be seeing the mountains for the first time, but to him, the view has been the background for a while. This almost creates two separate environments in the same place. I related this idea to my own experiences. In 2023, I had the utmost privilege to visit the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador. The biodiversity that sprang from these islands is incredible. During our stay, we boarded a large boat that would take us to different islands. They were smaller ones that surrounded the mainland. While we were there, we got off the boat onto the scorching hot ro...

      The P henomenological Approach has been quite difficult for me to completely wrap my head around. One thing that I am completely clear of is the fact that it prioritizes the human experience over the objective; something that is unique in terms of data collecting. Another point that I find interesting is that the experiences can be entirely defined with subjective language without being right or wrong, rather just a reflection of what is observed. Exploration works well as a vessel for said observations.       In the Appalachian Trail example found in the textbook, I gathered that based on the mode of exploration it shapes what the experience is interpreted as. A scenic drive through the Appalachian Trail is a much different experience than hiking it from north to south. To the hiker it becomes more real; the hiker has stepped in the mud, smelled the rain, and seen the creations. Overall they have become more exposed to the underlying beauty alon...

*This post contains spoilers to a really good book  A few months ago, I read The Beautiful and the Damned , by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a reckless story about two lovers, Anthony and Gloria, whose whirlwind romance spirals into alcoholism and financial ruin as they painfully age . At the time, I put the book down without giving it more thought. But when we discussed Charles Cooley’s concept of the “looking-glass self” , the novel immediately came to mind. For the past few days, I’ve been trying to articulate and make sense of this connection. At first glance, Fitzgerald's story seems to illustrate the turmoil of love and money, which is all true and good, but beneath the surface, much of Anthony and Gloria's downfall can be traced to their looking-glass selves. Cooley’s theory suggests that one’s sense of self is shaped by how one assumes others view them. For the couple, this perceived judgment dictated nearly every choice they made.  Anthony, the grandson of a wealthy and influ...

    I was thinking back to one of our first conversations in class, which pertained to how changes in the world's climate are affecting various aspects of life. We had briefly touched upon Indigenous people and the whole idea of what we consider to be "normal" in relation to what we are trying to revert to with efforts. We discussed the idea of "how do we know what to revert back to" (not sure how to word it exactly), and how we as humans simply decide a point in time to attempt to revert the environment to. With the case of Indigenous people, for them it is a point to not necessarily "revert" the climate back to the way it was X amount of time ago, but more so to protect the environment to ensure it continues to grow and evolve for future generations. Protecting organisms or the environment as a whole to ensure it can continue to prosper past our lives.       As an environmental and organismal biology major with a minor in environmental studies, I obv...

Over the course of my time at CNU I've spent a lot of time walking around the wild places within our city. Mariners' Museum Park is certainly the most accessible, but I can't recommend places like Newport News Park or Harwood Mills Reservoir enough. The scenery can be nothing short of breathtaking, not to mention the wildlife present in their borders. I've always been interested in reptiles, so naturally that's what I tend to look for the most. I've probably seen over 100 different snakes by this point, including some really cool ones such as the rough green snake and eastern kingsnake. It's awesome to see these animals in habitat, however they are reasonably expected to be present in these areas. The unexpected kingsnake is the individual I found over the summer within Mariners' Museum Park. Not only did Dr. Meyer and Dr. Lattanzio have no memory of finding that species in the park, but the park records themselves did not mention that specific species. ...

        This evening I was scrolling on New York Times looking for a good article to write my first blog on for  this class. I didn't have to look long until I found the perfect article."An Evening with the Central Park Coyotes" by Dodai Stewart, and yes for anyone wondering this article is about real coyotes residing in New York City not the human sumuglers you often hear about on the news in realtion to the U.S - Mexico border. The two coyotes being documented in New York's Central Park by photographers David and Jacqueline are nicknamed Romeo and Juliet by Mannhatan locals, due to the fact they are often seen near a theater in the park where the iconic play Shakespeare is often preformed. Despite the fact they live in the epicenter of America's largest city the coyotes seemed to have no trouble with finding food with prey rangeing anywhere from rodents to gesse. The photographers also noticed through their observation that these coytotes where very warry...

  So above and below I gathered a couple graphics I found on Google when searching the word riparian . I came across this word while reading chapter three of Plants for Environmental Studies (Wang, Hughes, Gorsuch 1997). More specifically, I was reading the section on water use rates by plants. Precise reading of this chapter would give a fair picture of water-plant relations. Commonly, I tend to peruse the Trible Library collections for books on topics I find intriguing or want to further study. Initially, I wanted to collect this books perspective on hydroponics and aquaponics, but I was bombarded by vaguely familiar and absolutely unknown terms like riparian and phreatophyte .  Taking from Wang, Hughes, Gorsuch (1997), "-there is a concern about water use within riparian zones along streams and, in particular, the water use by phreatophytes along stream channels."(p.90) This sent me on an explosion of questions like: Have I leaned this before? What is a riparian zone...

A couple days ago I decided it was a good time to find the materials to complete the aquarium I decided to put together. It was a mad rush around the Peninsula to every exotic pet store I could find. Eventually, I ended up at a store called Pet World. This store is similar to the one I worked for in the past, employing a colorful cast of employees and animals/flora. Most strikingly, a meaningful interaction with fellow CNU student working there took place (I forget his name perhaps Vincent or Victor?). Whatever his name may be, I was brought back into a world of animal/plant husbandry I'd almost forgotten about. We shared our knowledge about aquatic systems (him more so than I) and general invertebrate husbandry. My main questions for him were about a newly defined term he brought to my attention-that being aquaponics . My area of knowledge regarding water systems and plant husbandry is still manifesting through my varied moments of inquisition, however, what has made this leaning ...

  Here is an example which would be a free choice entry.    Since last semester, I have been on e-board for the Green Team at CNU. I am the sustainability and research chair and my role is to make campus more green and sustainability which is challenging because CNU tends to be stubborn and not want to change. Although I have been struggling to do my job and change things, I have gotten so much insight from the other Green Team members because we come from different customs and view points. We have bonded over our love for the environment and our need to change. We have our own rituals were we try to connect with nature through meditation, yoga, and reciting poems and sharing ideas. We have a big/little system called Oaks and Acorns in order for new members to know how the group works and become close to each other. Green Team is not dominated by one class, one religion, or one race. That is why I love this organization so much. We are all accepted and brought...

  This is an example of a topic of the student's choosing.   During the summer of 2022, I attended an environmental encounters trip to Iceland with Dr. Kip Redick, Dr. Joe Balay, and 14 other students. It was a two week trip, but those short two weeks completely changed my life. I learned about more things than I thought was possible in 14 days, and I've never been more interested in learning before. It completely opened my eyes to a whole new perspective, on how the world should live, and what the environment should look like. Everyone was so kind, and they are the most environmental conservative countries.  While there, we did many different activities, including hiking on a glacier. It was so fun, but exhausting and kind of sad at the same time. It was obvious to see how much the glacier have had melted in the past years due to global warming, as there was a large glacial lake at the bottom with melted ice, and the glacier was all rock and sediment before w...

 Recently I decided to give the renowned masterpiece by Jon Krakauer known as Into the Wild  another read. Needless to say I was just as heartbroken as the first time I read this novel/watched the 2007 film. I felt the need to discuss the work here simply because I feel it relates to a lot of discussions we have been having in class. I mean think about it, a young man sets out across the country to explore creation as it was intended to be experienced. As the story progresses, I remember being left with a sense of wonder, even thinking things along the lines of "I wonder would what happen if I just decided to do this one day?" I feel it's common knowledge how this story ends by now, with the main protagonist passing away alone in the wilderness, no one around for miles due to accidentally ingesting a poisonous plant. Although I have previously discussed how nature is God's most pure creation and should be treated as such, I feel I need to address a differ...

  To post,   click “new post” to start your entry, you will then be able to write your blog. Make sure to start the blog with your name and the subject of the entry. Blog entries will be considered informal writing assignments and as such will be graded more in relation to content than style. Blog entries will contain questions and answers to questions, as well as reflections which relate to daily classroom discussions, completion of exercises, and reading assignments.   Any questions the student has when reading or completing assignments should be written in their blog.   Reflections may relate to connections the student makes between discussions in this class and those in other classes, between arguments raised in the readings in this class and those raised in other classes or in informal conversations.   Students are encouraged to apply the ideas learned in this class to activities that take place outside of the class.   These applicati...