(very late) survey update

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RP686FQ

Yeah! I've got plenty of results from the survey so far. I'm learning that food is the greatest benefit from branding, although other household products like 409 and oxyclean are also strong contenders. I believe this to be because of the specific recipes and formulas these things typically have, and they can never be 100% replicated by generic brand items.

Survey - No Results :(

After looking at my theory, I decided it was too large-scale to be appropriate for this type of research. I have changed the theory to Brand Theory in marketing, examining brand loyalty and what matters to people when purchasing goods.

You can take the survey here http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RP686FQ

I'd really appreciate feedback on the survey and your feedback in the survey!

Barrier Reef Deteriorating

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/01/worrisome-measure-of-decline-at-great-barrier-reef/

The Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Australia, is rapidly declining. The reef is often cited as an area of conservational success, but has been going downhill since 1985. The three main causes for coral destruction in the reef are cyclones, coral bleaching, and a massive increase in the population of Crown of Thorns Starfish.

Scientists agree that stopping the starfish would be the most effective approach to conserving the reef. The starfish are believed to prosper when exposed to chemical fertilizers from run-off sediment, but no one knows for sure what has caused their recent population boom. Fertilizers may also limit the growth of the coral on its own.

Fracking and Water Contamination: Property Rights

I believe the problem with fracking lies in the fact that it is presently difficult to define who owns the groundwater in a given area. If the government owns it, then fracking (or other disturbances to the groundwater) should be outright banned. If the groundwater was privately owned and sold to houses, then gas companies could negotiate terms with the owner of the wells to determine how much fracking should be allowed. If the people in an area do not want to buy water that has been fracked near, as long as they are able to purchase from another source, I don't see much wrong with the practice. As is, the well water is being polluted, which infringes on the property rights of whoever owns the water (most likely a local government) and should be stopped until the fracking process is refined and less pollution is generated.

Improving Ecological Consciousness: A How-to Guide

In Richard Kahn's "Toward Ecopedagogy", we find an angry Marxist using large words to try to prove that capitalist society has somehow done everyone (and the environment) wrong. He proposes a new way of societal order where children are taught the value of the environment and the wrongness of capitalism. However, there does not appear to be much reason or thought behind his argument, only big words that Kahn himself made up, (spell check is telling me to add "Ecopedagogy" to my dictionary).

I propose that there does not need to be any drastic change to the educational system to improve ecological or human well-being, but changes to society are indeed in order. The only necessary teaching is the importance of the free market and protecting property rights.

"Advances in capitalist lifestyle and practice are then directly responsible for
grave exacerbations of widespread poverty and suffering, species genocide, and
environmental destruction," Kahn informs us (without citation).

However, free-market capitalism is quite possibly the best thing that could happen to the environment, the only problem being that no country on Earth has had a fully free market. Governments today fail to properly enforce well-defined divisible, and defendable property rights that could greatly increase entrepreneurs' ecological consciousness.

Private ownership of property makes the owners directly accountable for anything that happens to their land- be it good or bad. This prevents a "tragedy of the commons" scenario so often used to criticize capitalism, since the land is owned by one individual or company. Intelligent, sustainable use results in land that remains valuable. The other benefit of private ownership is that when negative externalities arise in using a land (for example, a farmer whose fertilizer runs off into a river) there is someone directly responsible for the creation of the externality (someone to go to in order to fix the problem) and there is someone who is directly affected by the externality (someone who has incentive to fix the problem). With the incentive to protect the environment put directly into the peoples' hands, ecological concerns become primary in profitable thinking.

Turtle Island themes

The most prominent and obvious theme in Snyder's Turtle Island poems is nature. He seems to revere nature almost to the point of worship. In some poems such as Spel Against Demons he seems to harbor a grudge against those who use nature without restoring it (or something). He seems to the stereotypical 60s-70s hippy.

Bioregion Quiz & Podcast Response

The Bioregional Quiz proved to be quite difficult. My knowledge of the local bioregion is apparently lacking. McKibben held high standards for "Eaarth"'s ecological direction, and believed that humans should curve use of not just fossil fuels but also nuclear power, although no solution is offered to energy consumption. McKibben's stance on locally produced foods is very relevant to the Bioregion Quiz, as bioregion plays a large part in being able to produce foods. Ensuring that soil quality is of a sustainable level is an extremely important facet of maintaining Earth's population. McKibben believes that we have hit the maximum limit of growth sustainable by humans, although there have many sociologists before who have believed this, and time has disproven them.