Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Comp 105-007
WA #6
27 November 2017
Presentation Script
Key Concepts
us use recreation as a chance to alleviate stress, we generally do not think about the results of our
activities. Generally, recreation and tourism tend to harm sustainability as most often recreation
either has no effect or a negative effect on the environment, and tourism by its nature, involving
long drives or plane flights, contributes to environmental problems. However, there are ways of
looking at recreation and tourism that make it beneficial to the environment, by raising
awareness of the needs of the environment and making sustainability an important issue to the
average person. By encouraging sustainable uses of resources, recreation and tourism can
Ecotourism is the idea of using the natural landscape as a tourist attraction rather than
exploiting it for resources. The focus behind this is using money gained from the landscape to
pay for the maintenance and protection of the land. A good example of ecotourism would be any
of the United States National Parks. However, not all organizations that claim to be ecotourism
actually are. In general, an ecotourist destination supports local economy, has minimal effect on
the landscape, and should teach the tourist something about the region. Ecotourism is one
Written by Bob OBrien, this excerpt from Our National Parks and the Search for
Sustainability details the origins of the national parks system in the U.S. The United States
became the first nation with a national park when President Grant set aside Yellowstone National
Park to be preserved in perpetuity. The essay also makes mention of many of the benefits it has
brought over the years. For instance, with the national parks being some of the most popular
tourist destinations in the world, they offer the opportunity to educate many visitors on the
importance of preservation and a sustainable lifestyle. The author also mentions a few potential
faults with the system, such as how it mostly preserves the most awe-inspiring landscapes,
instead of choosing the land that is most ecologically important. Overall, the passage takes a very
positive stance on the role that the parks system has played since its inception over a century ago.
This selection was written by Ted Bowen bringing light to the fact that zoos need to
become more green and operate sustainably instead of just worrying about reaching their
attendance goals. The Wildlife Conservation Society runs multiple zoos and aquariums across
the world and helps educate and do research on wildlife conservation and they are currently
looking into how to make places like zoos and aquariums more sustainable because it has been
far too long since that has been their point of focus. As a part of trying to make its facilities
more sustainable, the WCS is spending a lot of money implementing solar and hydro power in its
zoos and aquariums with the hopes that other global institutions will follow their lead in creating
a greener earth.
Why I Hunt:
This section was written by Rick Bass, and focuses on the ideas of nature sustainability.
Brekke - Fortner - Lawrence - Mercier 3
He first talks about how he moved to a remote area where you need to hunt to survive in the
landscape. He further states how different the mind set about hunting and the conservation is
different than where he came from (Texas). He discusses how the people here need to do it to
live then back home, and the conservation is being done in a bigger spot light where hes at now.
This section was written by Yvon chouinard, he talks about his the connection between
the economic and nature side of sustainability. As a surfer hes out in the environment quite a lot
but he also is a business man that runs a company. He talks about the balance between the two
sides, both are extremely important to him. He can not give either one up because it fuels the
others importance to him. He wants to make a difference in both sides so that the thing he loves
to do can stick around as long as possible, and he tries to do all in his power to do so.
Climate Revelations:
This selection was written by Auden Schendler based off of an interview he had with a
man named Walter Bennett on the topic of climate change. Schendler is the vice president of
sustainability at a large skiing corporation that had his eyes opened during this interview about
the troubles of climate change. In this reading, he points out that if the entire world starts using
clean energy, then issues like poverty, hunger, and disease could be solved. Further into this
reading, Schendler goes on to explain that religion and climate change go hand in hand and in
order to solve climate change, people need to have certain religious ideologies such as tolerance
and that we need to view the world as sacred and keep in mind that it is Gods creation. With that
being said, he writes that we need to maintain a sustainable society so that we can continue to
live on the earth that God created for us for years and years to come.
In this research paper authored by Guangyu Wang and others, the viability of Chinas
national parks system is analyzed in its current form. The authors take a look at the effects that
the parks are having on the things such as the ecosystem within the park, surrounding local
economies, and livelihoods of people inhabiting the park. Seeing as Chinas system is
significantly younger than its counterpart in the United States, it still has many problems that the
U.S. has escaped over the years, such as using privative developers to entice more visitors to the
park. The central government of China also does not provide funding for the operating of the
park, so many park supervisors are lead to desperate measures to ensure that their parks stay
open. Many developments within the parks have marred the landscape with unsightly structures
or even allowed access to areas that were previously inaccessible, leading to more damage to
those ecosystems. Some people that resided within the borders of the park when it was founded
are still living there, and they have had limits on things such as cutting down trees. This has lead
to a lowered quality of life for those specific people. The paper also touches on plans for
improving the parks that may help to solve some of these problems. One example of this is using
a new science-based method of planning and designing the parks to ensure that they are laid out
and responsibly as possible. Another imminent addition to the parks is a complex environment
We felt that this paper would make a good addition to our chapter of Sustainability
because of its focus on determining some of the problems that come along with ecotourism. It
may serve to balance some of the positive takes in other essays, and at the very least shows some
of the issues that arise when a nation does not plan out its national parks as well as it should.
As this was my personal ideals and paper, this was very close to me. This is a subject that
needs to be fixed as soon as possible, because it's ruining the land I love so very much. The city/
state is allowing companies to come into Grayling, MI. and cut down acres and acres of land and
destroying the landscape. They leave a big mess behind, and makes the area looked trashed. So
as this relates to our chapter it directly affects all three phases of sustainability. First, the
economic side is affected by the people that go up there to hunt during hunting season, with less
and less woods out there people seem less driven to go to this area. Second, is the people,
society, the peoples homes are become affected, because they are cutting so much trees down,
they cut around their properties and leave so much space around them it becomes an eyesore.
Third, the ecosystem, with so much land being changed the animals that once lived there are
being pushed away, and the landscape is forcible being changed. All this is needs to change for
Conclusion
Ultimately, many of these examples show that sustainability is important even in our downtime.
Ecotourism provides a way to benefit economically and ecologically from the environment
without damaging it, and organizations such as the Wildlife Conservation Society are working to
make other forms of recreation more sustainable and raise awareness. While currently
sustainable recreational initiatives are focused on hunting, national parks, and zoos, they do raise
awareness of the issue. Sustainability is key to maintaining our style of life, and initiatives such