Villagers At Las Gaviotas example essay topic

A biosphere is anywhere organisms live. 1 Thus, any place on our green planet, or microcosms within it, is a biosphere-more importantly it is the only one that we know how to live off. A well known fact is that our biosphere is becoming less and less suitable for sustaining our rapidly increasing population. Gross pollution caused by industrialism and technological advances have seriously damaged the part of out planets atmosphere made up of O 3, most commonly referred to as Ozone.

Anytime we burn coal, wood, oil, or petroleum we are releasing into our atmosphere an invisible, odorless gas, called carbon monoxide, which is eroding our atmospheres layer of Ozone. 2 Methyl Bromide is another culprit in ozone thinning, this chemical is used by most all industrialized nations as a pesticide. 3 For us to continue to thrive on this planets surface the once unthought of ideal of zero-emissions must become a reality, and quick. An article in the March / April issue of Mother Jones entitled, Nothing Wasted, Everything gained discusses the ecological progress that a town in Colombia has made.

Granted, we live in a very different world than these rural villagers do, we like to think that our world is more complex. As of today cement covers well over one-quarter of the continuous 48 states, most of this cement is in the forms of highways, byways, and interstates. Herein lies our complexity- we are a nation that is completely dependent upon oil, petroleum, and electricity- comfort is mistaken for complexity. Fossil fuels are our lifes blood that facilitate our comfortable travel to and from work and school, and all our daily busyness.

This article about a zero-emissions village in Colombia proves that in fact the opposite may hold true; maybe these villagers are the genius and we are th ignorance. Cars do not spew their noxious fumes in this place, instead villagers have bicycles that have, like most other innovations in this small village of two hundred, been altered to facilitate travel over rough roads. For others, outside the most wasteful nation in the world, life is a lot different. Their lives seem simple when juxtaposed over ours, yet they prove to be genius using not a quarter of a million dollar education, but good old common sense. Another important step these villagers are taking is the complete removal of ozone damaging pesticides like Methyl Bromide. They have done this by growing their vegetables and herbs hydroponically.

Hydroponic growing is essentially gardening minus the soil, roots are immersed in water and produce perfectly ripened products. By gardening in this manner the need for pesticides is erased. This is indoor gardening that we could all learn to master because of its simplicity, yet a trip to the local corner store will produce the same end result. If we are to overcome the ecological damage we have already done we need drastic changes which include all forms of organic gardening. And since photosynthesis is the process which changes CO 2 to breathable oxygen the more green plants there are the better off we are. This project began in 1971 by Paolo Lugari and, a handful of Bogota engineers and soil chemists... to try to make an unlivable place livable.

4 The village, called las Gaviotas, Lugari reasoned could be a starting point towards changing the pattern of ecological existence. Little did Lugari know that one of the hottest topics for the year 1998, but 27 years later, would be the scientific communities, and NAS As interest in the population of Mars. Lugaris project didnt set out to change the standards of the way popular culture operates, instead he set out to improve the living conditions of poor villagers in an empty savanna in a third-world country using the materials at hand and a large dose of practicality and common sense. If one has ever visited a country outside of the major power yielding countries (i. e... the UK, Japan) then Lugaris quest becomes ever so obvious, clean malaria-free water is a privilege, truly impoverished peoples live in ran shack housing, and their immediate surroundings is their biosphere which provides them with essentials. These truly are essentials, and if these are threatened in any way then their subsistence may be in jeopardy, it seems like the villagers at las Gaviotas have come to know this. They are doing more to try to help save the planet because while rich suburbanites in America may be able to afford purified water and sheik sunscreen, their economic status is one that if they cannot live off the fruits of the environment as is, then they cant live.

They are setting the example though, it is possible, but is America ready to get off its addiction to oil Thats a whole other story. It requires too much hard work. The people of las Gaviotas dont dress in Armani and Hilfiger they work very hard at collecting pine resin to be used in cosmetics, perfumes, paints, and in medicines instead of petroleum-based substances. The worker in the pine resin processing plant at las Gaviotas doesnt make a six figure salary, but he can go home at night knowing that he has caused no ill effects to the environment. It doesnt seem to me that America is ready to make that distinct switch from materialism to communalism. At las Gaviotas the elements which provide so much potential energy have been harnessed.

Solar kettles have been developed by Lugari to sterilize drinking water; this water can then be heated using solar water heaters to use in the hydroponic growing systems of this village. 5 Also windmills are used to convert the energy of the winds into consumable energy. The energy potential of the sun and wind has been known for a while, as have the resources to build homes and automobiles using these renewable energy resources. 6 Incorporating these changes though would require that some of the most powerful companies loose all their money, and that isnt going to happen. It would also require that we alter our suburban landscaped with windmills and our beautiful houses with ugly solar panels, besides well be different than our neighbors and we cant have that can we.