ryanmuskal
Charlotte at Night
This is a picture of the night lighting of Charlotte from my airplane on the way to my grandpa’s funeral. When we think of ecology, we generally think of lush forestry, beautiful mountain tops, or the circular nature of crashing waves. But in this picture, we see some of the marvelous lighting of a young city. As we learned in class, ecology is defined as the scientific study of the relationship between organisms and their environment. An environment is basically the sum of factors that affect an organism. Usually we tend to think stereotypically, because as humans we like nice, clean examples. We like to think of how prairie dogs live in a prairie environment. We like to think how buffaloes live on grasslands. In contrast to the natural world, we have this dirty, materialistic world that our species has created, day by day, slowing killing our world with no regard for consequences. In the city, skyscrapers and alleyways take place of trees and beaten down paths. Your favorite restaurant is nothing more than an over glorified drinking hole. A human house in a city is equivalent to a bird nest in a forest. Humans are one of the most populous (ignore the plethora of insects and microscopic animals who go about minding their own business) animals that occupy the city environment. But we’re just that: animals. No better, no worse than any other species. We eat, sleep, and procreate, just like any other animal. We were just endowed with the ability to think on a different level than other animals. One crucial ability is that of foresight, which allows us to understand cause and affect differently, but quite possibly at the highest level of all species on Earth. In closing, I ask a simple but yet unsolved question set: what good is our higher level of intelligence if we don’t use it to stop the absolute destruction of our planet? And if we don’t stop this destruction, what will happen to our city environments? Will they be nothing more than a faint reminder of a species that could have been great?
#UNCW, #ecology, #bio366, #uncweteal,
#Sp2017, #image1
Charlotte at Night
This is a picture of the night lighting of Charlotte from my airplane on the way to my grandpa’s funeral. When we think of ecology, we generally think of lush forestry, beautiful mountain tops, or the circular nature of crashing waves. But in this picture, we see some of the marvelous lighting of a young city. As we learned in class, ecology is defined as the scientific study of the relationship between organisms and their environment. An environment is basically the sum of factors that affect an organism. Usually we tend to think stereotypically, because as humans we like nice, clean examples. We like to think of how prairie dogs live in a prairie environment. We like to think how buffaloes live on grasslands. In contrast to the natural world, we have this dirty, materialistic world that our species has created, day by day, slowing killing our world with no regard for consequences. In the city, skyscrapers and alleyways take place of trees and beaten down paths. Your favorite restaurant is nothing more than an over glorified drinking hole. A human house in a city is equivalent to a bird nest in a forest. Humans are one of the most populous (ignore the plethora of insects and microscopic animals who go about minding their own business) animals that occupy the city environment. But we’re just that: animals. No better, no worse than any other species. We eat, sleep, and procreate, just like any other animal. We were just endowed with the ability to think on a different level than other animals. One crucial ability is that of foresight, which allows us to understand cause and affect differently, but quite possibly at the highest level of all species on Earth. In closing, I ask a simple but yet unsolved question set: what good is our higher level of intelligence if we don’t use it to stop the absolute destruction of our planet? And if we don’t stop this destruction, what will happen to our city environments? Will they be nothing more than a faint reminder of a species that could have been great?
#UNCW, #ecology, #bio366, #uncweteal,
#Sp2017, #image1