Harmony with Environment

In this project we are asking you to model cultures that live in harmony with environment.  We optimistically assume that humans in the future will have survived because they will have learned and adapted better practices so that they can live in reasonable harmony with their environment instead of regarding it as an enemy or as an endless source to exploit.  This week we want to consider some specific questions about how people on your planet interact with your planet.  What practices do they follow to sustain their relationship with their ecology.

Invasive Species

There were some questions about the impact of introduced species at the end of last class, so I have included 3 short videos (Asian Carp, lifesense and Lionfish).

Introduced species generally fall into one of three categories. They become

established in the new environment but are not population controlled and become

an “invasive species.” The second category is that the introduced species becomes

established but has its population controlled to various extents. The third category

are the invasive species that come, struggle to become established, fail in that

process and become extinct in just a few generations.

The three videos are about invasive species – Asian carp, rabbits and lionfish. These essentially have no, or too few, predators in the area and thus see rapid population growth. These species tend to out eat the original species causing those species to be displaced, or die off. The problem becomes that the invasive species is not as efficient in the local ecosystem, and tends to downgrade the overall viability of the area. Frequently causing a boom-bust in the local environment as plants are overgrazed or prey is overhunted, which also subjects the area to more physical stress.

Here is a video that shows the impact of an invasive species in Florida:

Remember for this project humans are considered an invasive species.  As an invasive species the humans must be aware of their impacts and how to manage them.

The video linked below explores the question of how humans do and don't live in harmony with their environment and how they could model their interactions based on what they see around them.

Lifesense video is too large to embed but here is the link.

Bio-mimicry

In the next short video the next King of England tries to get people to consider how biomimicry is the source of strategies to insure the better health of the planet and the better health of in occupants...especially us.  Given our current state of pandemic we need to consider how restoring what balance we can to the planet is a matter of our immediate health and survival.

Please Go to this week's Activity Page for more information about approaches to living in a better arrangement with your local ecology and with the ecology of the planet as a whole.

Tim Rumage recommends the following book to you which was just released last week.  It is an account of how specific indigenous cultures interact specifically with the ecosystems that house their cultures. 

"The belief that all life-forms are interconnected and share the same breath— known in the Rarámuri tribe as iwígara— has resulted in a treasury of knowledge about the natural world, passed down for millennia by native cultures."

Here is a link where you can read the preview for this book.

Image Assignment:

Although much of what we will do in this class this semester is based on writing and the creation of process documents (like a World Inventory) we would like you to create two images to assist our visualization of your planet and its human inhabited ecosystem.

One image will be put at the top of your inventory which will be submitted as a pdf.

This image should be in an aspect ration of 5:3.  Besides using this image to illustrate your inventory, you will need to create a version of the image 500 px. wide by 300 px. high saved as a .png file.  This image should be a wide-view of a place where humans live on your planet incorporating as much of the local ecology as you can show.  

The second image will be a picture of your planet or moon from a distance that will fit in a transparent square 275px by 275 px.  This picture may also be included in your Inventory PDF but will need to be submitted with the Inventory.  This image should be a .png executed on a transparent canvas.  The size of the canvas should be 275 x 275, the image can be round within the square of the canvas.

These images will be due in two weeks when you submit the first versions of your Planet/Moon Inventories in pdf form. The images can be constructed in photoshop, illustrator, or other program you feel comfortable with.  The output for submission is .png.  

This assignment is due in two weeks.