Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 5

Brekke - Fortner - Lawrence - Mercier 1

Madison Brekke, Darian Fortner, Dean Lawrence, and Michael Mercier

Comp 105-007

WA #6

27 November 2017

Presentation Script

Key Concepts

Sustainability tends to be connected to recreation and tourism in a negative matter. As most of

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

provide a greater benefit sustainably than their destructive counterparts could.

Ecotourism: The promise and Perils of Environmentally Oriented Travel:

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

example of how to connect recreation and tourism to sustainability.


Brekke - Fortner - Lawrence - Mercier 2

Our National Parks and the Search for Sustainability:

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.

The Wildlife Conservation Society Makes Zoos Sustainable:

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.

Let My People Go Surfing:

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.

National Park Development in China: Conservation or Commercialization?:


Brekke - Fortner - Lawrence - Mercier 4

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

monitoring system to keep track of the strength of wildlife populations.

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.

Deforestation in Grayling, MI.:


Brekke - Fortner - Lawrence - Mercier 5

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

this land to be sustainable.

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

as these make this all the more possible.

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi