Blog #13

My overall opinion of the Estero Island Cottage and Matanzas Pass is pretty positive. Anything that gets people outside, walking, and thinking about their environments is a great thing. The natural Southwest Florida beauty was all surrounding. I came across a few older couples enjoying the outdoors and getting in their exercise during this field trip. Exercise, togetherness, and environmental education are examples of how the quality of life in that area is being enhanced.

In regards to the hometown question, I was born in Haiti and grew up in a very rough neighborhood. I haven’t been back there since I left but I imagine it has changed a great deal since the earthquake. Honestly I wish a developer was interested in that area, or any area of Haiti for that matter. The people and the land could use a complete overhaul. It would be a great community if a true form of government could get in and redo everything. The values that I was taught as a young boy make me a different man than many I have seen here. The values that my sisters were taught are very different than many women I see here. The basic life foundations in Haiti are very strong and positive, but everything else crumbles around it. 

Blog #12

I took the ecofootprint challenge. If you want to, go to http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/calculators/ .
Be aware that the results might scare you. My results scared me. Here I was, thinking that we were doing good by trading in our SUV for a car, not using the air conditioning, and installing an indoor clothesline, and it would still take four planet Earths to sustain my family's way of life. Until this country stops purchasing goods from other countries, we will still be accountable for using large amounts of fuels for transport, which was a big part of my usage graph. I honestly don't really know what we could do to improve the results for my household. The suggestions on the website were for someone who lived in a little more active area- I live in Naples Florida where they only sell things in packages. Is driving to Immokalee's Farmer's Marker worth the gas that we spend to get there or should we buy the produce at the grocery store with the rest of our items? The questions and possibilities are endless. 

Blog #11

The following blurb is from Osgood Sustainability Consulting’s website. I read it while researching the term “sustainable consumerism” and couldn’t manage to alter it to describe it in my blog- so here it is, quoted from them: “One of the world’s most pressing issues is that humans are consuming beyond our means. We are in debt both to our planet’s ecosystems and to the financial mechanisms that keep our economies growing.According to many scientists, we are currently consuming at least two planet’s worth of natural resources, stripping away the core ecosystems upon which we rely for food, water, shelter and inspiration. At the same time, above a certain level of income, consuming “more” does not make us any happier. It does not create meaning in our lives, nor does it leave us healthier or feeling more connected to our communities.” Another website quoted that if every person in the world live like average Americans, we’d need five planets to live off of. That, to me is terrifying and embarrassing. Globalization and capitalism are to blame- negatively. Greenwashing means that the consumer is tricked into thinking that a product or production of a product is eco-friendly. My family and I already pay premium prices for organic foods. There aren’t many local markets in this area, but when we visited Cincinnati, Ohio, we went to a huge fantastic market that only sold local grown and raised goods. The restaurants only used the foods from the vendors within the same market. It is called Findlay Market. We would love to have a market like that here in Naples, or at least Ft. Myers. That being said, if there were more mom and pop stores, we would certainly frequent them more. I do quite a bit of shopping at a local Haitian market when I run out of spices and special things that I cannot buy at the regular grocery store. I do refuse to shop at Whole Foods or Trader Joes for the majority of our groceries because I do believe that the prices are jacked up just to serve the retailer’s name. Holistically, we try to make the right decisions, economically and ethically. Sometimes it can be difficult.

Blog #10

I didn’t grow up here in Southwest Florida, but the field trip to the Southwest Florida Museum of History helped me to learn a lot about the history of Ft. Myers. My wife grew up in Lehigh Acres and she told me that going to Ft. Myers was a big deal when she was younger because that’s where all of the stores were, particularly the mall. Before the field trip I had been to downtown Ft. Myers a few times, my wife loves Centennial Park. It appears that downtown Ft. Myers flourished for a time period, but like everything, it’s fire went out for a while due to the economy and morale. More activities are being held downtown in order to draw more attention to the businesses and the area. The window shops are designed to rekindle the “pedestrian” spirit. The museum was very informative as far as the natives and their tools and ways of life. The iron lung was fascinating and my sons especially loved the war artifacts. As far as sustainability goes, downtown Ft. Myers can relate because it is resilient and appears to be bouncing back. I would love to see it flourish as the downtown area where I live in Naples.