Nature Interpretation Blog @lmenvs3000w22 - Tumblr Blog

Welcome to the Final Show

This course has really opened my eyes to the eyes of interpretation in nature. Having the ability and opportunity to read about how nature has raised all of my classmates has helped me to reflect on how it raised me and all the things I missed about being in touch with nature. As an interpreter, I see myself as someone who wants to pull on their own experiences and teach through memories, rather than textbook materials. I’ve always been a firm believer of the notion that our impact on the environment is taking away from our children and grandchildren. As an interpreter, I think it is important to emphasize how our behaviour today is going to still be impacting the state of the environment for future generations; it doesn’t just go away once we are gone. With that being said, I guess my personal ethic as I develop as a nature interpreter is just a promise to myself that I will spread awareness and educate as many people as I can about our impacts so that my children and grandchildren can have a childhood like mine, filled with trees, birds, bugs, and any living thing I could get my hands on.

As this is the last blog post for this class, I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on some of my experiences as a nature interpreter and how I’ve practiced my beliefs as an interpreter to help better my community for the future. All of these activities were made possible because of people in my community I looked up to as teachers and nature interpreters themselves. Each of these experiences helped me grow into the interpreter I am today and provided me with the tools to grow and the knowledge I need to pass along the passion for environmental conservation.

Wetland Habitat Restoration - Alongside the Essex Region Conservation Authority (ERCA) and my highschool’s EcoTeam, I assisted in transforming an abandoned marina back into a fully functioning wetland.

Pollinator Garden Construction - planned and organized a pollinator garden “planting day” to attract different insects and pollinator species

TD Tree Days - every year I would partner with TD Bank and the Caldwell First Nations people for reforestation projects around Essex County

Food Waste and Climate Change presenter/advocate - after researching and collecting information on how food waste contributes to climate change, I delivered presentations to schools in my area as well as virtually to former Minister of the Environment for Climate Change for Canada Catherine McKenna for the Climate Change summit in Paris. This experience gave me the opportunity to spread awareness, information, and solutions we can implement into our everyday lives to help the cause and slow the effects of climate change. This was also a great experience as the presentations allowed me to spread my concerns and knowledge to a broader scale than just my community.

These experiences helped me to understand my responsibilities as an interpreter. They are as follows:

First: Understanding and adapting to different learning styles. Throughout planning the Pollinator garden and delivering the Food Waste presentation, it was important to consider the different learning styles of my audience to ensure they gained the most they could out of the event/presentation. This is an important skill for me as an interpreter to have because in different environments you need to pull on different styles. The Pollinator garden for example was very hands-on so I utilized the ability to teach through demonstration rather than simply verbal instructions.

Second: To educate honestly and passionately. It is one of my beliefs that when trying to explain the severity of issues like climate change (as an example), that sugar coating information is part of the reason why a lot of people don’t take environmental issues seriously. To make substantial change, people need to know the truth, so I believe it is my responsibility as a nature interpreter to make it clear how our actions impact our future and how we need change sooner than later.

My suitable approaches:

To play on my strengths, I think my most suitable approaches as an interpreter would have to be different types of visuals, as well as hands-on experiences. I would use visuals like photos and videos to (a) accommodate visual learners, and (b) provide context to concepts rather than just lecturing for long periods of time. Educational videos also allow for a change in pace from the main content/presenter which can be beneficial for different learners. After completing my undergrad, I have thought about being an Environmental Outreach Coordinator since I love sharing my passion for the environment. I am a very hands-on learner myself and so I think utilizing this skill of demonstrations and experiential learning for teaching will help me pass on my passion.

As nature has always been at the forefront of my personal endeavours, each day I wake up with the intention to do better. Whether it be for the world and the tangible ideal or nature, or the way I perceive nature. I hold an abundance of awareness that translates towards my actions each day. Whilst I go on walks outside, or discern certain ideals from the media, I make sure my actions translate to my core feelings towards helping this earth. I recognize the importance of trees as they provide the world with breath. I utilize my ability to focus on fragments of debris to make sure our earth and our surroundings are clean, like how it should be, before the toxins and pollution turned the vibrant blue sky grey. Each day, I wake up with the intent to do better for this world, and I can do this by being the interpreter I know I can be through what I’ve learned in school and in the field.

lmenvs3000w22

Hi Chloe!

You made some great points in your post! I really enjoyed reading about your personal experiences with nature conservation; the food waste and climate change advocate position sounds so cool!

I feel especially strongly about your responsibility to educate honestly and passionately. I’ve honestly never thought about the fact that maybe the reason people don’t take environmental issues seriously is because they feel as though experts/scientists sugar coat information. That is such an interesting point, but I definitely do agree now that I’ve had time to reflect on it. I think many people have a natural distrust of scientists and science in general, so I do agree that sugar coating information regarding environmental issues could be seen as somewhat “deceitful” on behalf of the scientific community, leading to further distrust. To add to this, and as an example, policymakers usually just take what the scientists say at face value when they are told information about things such as climate change (as they can’t know what is true or false themselves), so if the scientists are trying to make it not sound as bad as it possibly could be, then it is unlikely that we would ever seen any legitimate or significant changes in policy.

It is also interesting, as it seems as though many people try to push the precautionary principle as being something that we should be operating under based on current climate projections, and yet still there is no significant change being made to policy that is operating under that paradigm. It is something I hear about a lot but not see a lot, so maybe it could just be a disconnect between how the public thinks we should be dealing with climate change and how scientists and policymakers are actually dealing with it. Still, I do agree that a lot of the time people don’t take environmental issues seriously is due to the fact that there is largely a miscommunication between what we say is happening and what is actually happening. Very insightful observation!

You’ve written a great post this week! I’m glad I came across it, as it truly did allow me to consider a viewpoint I never previously had!

Good luck on your exams!

Lauryn

igbenvs3000w22-deactivated20220

The Ethics of Nature Interpretation

Before this class, I did not think of myself as a nature interpreter. I saw myself as someone who was interpreted to and I thought I didn’t know enough about nature to be an interpreter. I now know that almost anyone can be a nature interpreter if they put in the work required. It is important as an interpreter to think about your ethics, beliefs, responsibilities and the approach you are going to take. To me, the ethics of nature interpretation include your beliefs, responsibilities and the approach you take in your interpretation.

My beliefs focusing on nature interpretation have been strengthened during this class. I believe that nature should be preserved and we need to do better at conserving it. Nature has value in itself, not just for the value it provides for humans and this should be emphasized during interpretation. I believe that there should be better and more education on the basis of nature and conservation; this includes in school and in interpretation. I also believe that we are not doing enough to protect nature and we need to educate people on the downfalls of human activities. One of my most important beliefs for nature interpretation is that every individual no matter what background, level of ability or socioeconomic standing should be able to enjoy both nature and nature interpretation. It is important to me to acknowledge my privilege, because it has afforded me opportunities that others do not have, including attending this university. Not everyone has the opportunity to attend university and get a formal education, this is why I feel that giving avenues for learning outside of a classroom is really important because it can reach more people.

This class explained some of the responsibilities of a nurture interpreter and I have also have built upon that to think about my responsibilities as a nature interpreter. As an interpreter, it is our job to make information and education available for many types of people, whether that be by creating online programs or tailoring our existing programs for different audiences. We should also strive to create interpretation programs that serve different age ranges and backgrounds as well as abilities. Children should have their own programming and the interpretation site should be accessible for everyone who wants to come. This accessibility can include ramps for wheelchairs and people who cannot climb stairs easily, there should be breaks for people who have a hard time walking for long periods of time and there should be signs in different languages and for people who are hard of hearing or deaf. As interpreters, it is also our responsibility to create a comprehensive and interesting interpretive program about nature. This will keep people interested and more likely to absorb the information, this also allows for returning customers and great reviews which can increase the revenue to the park or interpretation sites, and a more educated population.

Every nature interpreter has a different approach when it comes to educating and speaking to their audience. My approach to this relies heavily on my love for science because even if the content is kind of boring my love for it would hopefully shine through and make the program interesting. I am not much of a public speaker and I would rather not do it unless I know a lot about the subject although I am very talkative one-on-one. Although I do not love public speaking, I can go on and on about topics and things that I love, this overtakes my nervousness in public speaking. As long as I am talking about something I am passionate about then I will be happy to speak to many people. I love science and I want to share that love, especially with children who might take my interpretation to hearty and maybe develop and nurture a love for nature and science. Most of us who love science or nature had someone who showed us how cool it was, for me that person was my grandpa who taught me to love nature. The people who taught me to love science are not even people I have met face to face, they were people I saw on TV such as Bill Nye and the scientists on shows like river monsters and even Mythbusters. You do not even need to meet someone to install a love of science or nature and this is even more important during the trying time we have just lived through. The pandemic created a unique experience for many people, and nature interpreters have had to adapt to this. Large groups were not allowed so interpreters had to overcome that barrier. Technology is so advanced now that we can use it for interpretation, websites, webinars and virtual walkthroughs. Technology advancements have also helped us reach more people because they don’t need to take a trip to witness the program if there is an online version. I think virtual walk-throughs could be really great for people far away or for people with mobility issues. I think technology can also be used on-site to help convey the information. Technology can be used as an aid or just as a fun part of the interpretation.

Ethics are an important part of any learning, scientific, or work environment. Everybody should have equal access to nature and interpretation. There should be rules, and initiatives to make sure everyone is included and welcomed to the natural site. There needs to be accessible ways to view the interpretation site, and signs in different languages and large letters. People of every age and background should be welcome at the interpretation site. Science and nature interpretation should use plain language and explain concepts in words that the general population understands. These are some but not all the important factors in the ethics of interpretation and should be involved in every interpretation program and site. This class has taught me a lot about nature interpretation and I can’t wait to learn more as I grow as an interpreter.

lmenvs3000w22

Hey Isabelle,

Very insightful post this week! Similar to you, prior to this course I never really considered myself any sort of nature interpreter, and it was through this course that I came to know myself as one.

I totally agree with your point about increased education regarding conservation and nature! I don’t think it is taught nearly enough to people, especially children, and nature interpretation is something that could absolutely help to tackle this issue! I also feel similarly about climate change! I don’t think it is mentioned or taught enough to people who aren’t necessarily in the sciences even though it is an issue that harms everyone. I do think this is something the nature interpretation can help to remedy as well, however. Nature interpretation has the power to teach people who may not typically understand topics such as conservation and climate change within a school environment, as with nature interpretation, there are generally more approaches we are able to take in order to convey information. Additionally, and as you have pointed out, nature interpretation offers people a place to learn about the environment and nature outside of a classroom setting if that sort of setting isn’t feasible for a certain set of reasons (be that economic, geographical, etc.). This is why I love nature interpretation! When done well, it is able to create such an inclusive environment for all kinds of people!

While on the topic of education, you also note that science and nature interpretation should use plain language and easy to understand concepts in order to appeal to the general public. I couldn’t agree more! I’ve taken a few courses that have touched heavily on science communication and it was often noted that the barrier that exists between the public and scientists has to do with the fact that the public aren’t able to properly understand scientists due to their use of scientific language and complicated concepts. Being able to have open communication between science and the public is so extremely important, especially right now with COVID, but also more broadly with nature interpretation. Nature interpreters, if conveying difficult concepts, need to be able to interact with their audiences in a way that they will understand, so being able to explain things in simpler terms within “dumbing” anything down is a crucial skill to have.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this last post of yours and I appreciate hearing your insight about what you’ve learned over the semester!

Best of luck with your exams!

Lauryn

Final Blog Post - Nature Interpretation, Ethics, Beliefs, and Responsibility

It’s hard to believe that the semester is almost over! I’ve learnt so much from this class, from both the actual content, but also from these blog posts! It has been such a unique experience getting to read and learn from so many different thoughts, opinions, and perspectives on these topics! From this class, I feel as though I have learnt the most about myself, how I personally interpret nature, and how I can best communicate it to other people.

Prior to this course, I largely considered myself someone who simply observes nature, but not interprets it. After this course, however, I learned that this is a skill that everyone has, although maybe not everyone has developed it yet. It was interesting for me to navigate through this course, as mostly everything we learned taught me something new about interpretation, but also about myself and how I interpret nature in my life and to my peers.

Personal ethics can be defined as “the ethics that a person identifies with in respect to people and situations that they deal with in everyday life” (Immigration Advisers Authority, 2022). I like this definition, as it involves how we think and act in respect to both people in our lives, as well as situations that may arise. My personal ethic as an interpreter, I feel, is still developing. I feel as though this is something that will continue to develop and grow as I become more involved with nature interpretation, and also as I grow older and gain more experience. As of right now, however, I can confidently say that my personal ethic as an interpreter would involve the two following principles:

1) Respect for nature

Before this course, I obviously held a large respect for nature, however, this respect has grown exponentially over the course of the semester. Nature is something that is so much bigger than us. Nature feeds us, shelters us, it heals us, provides us a sense of purpose and place, along with so many other things. With this in mind, it is my belief that we need to respect it at all times when embarking on our interpretation journeys. This should be at the forefront of every thought we have when interpreting. Related to this, it is important that we respect nature in the way that we leave it the same way we found it. Nature is something that we should seek to admire and observe in interpretation, not change or pollute. This means that we need to be respectful of all nature, and not litter, break, or transform the already existing environment that we are seeking to learn from and interpret for ourselves and others.

2) A commitment to inclusivity

As we have learned in chapter 7 of the textbook, serving diverse audiences is extremely important when it comes to interpretation (Beck et al., 2018, pg 128). As mentioned in this chapter, “interpreters are guided by the understanding that if the audience members have not learned, seen, or felt something, then interpreters have been talking to themselves” (Beck et al., 2018, pg 128). With this in mind, it is important to remember that we must know our audience, their needs, and we must be mindful of the different perspectives and opinions they bring. My personal ethic to always strive for inclusivity as an interpreter would involve making everyone feel comfortable, as well as ensuring that I am being mindful of these differing views. In this way, I would never want to generalize a certain audience, as I am very aware of the fact that people from all walks of life come to enjoy nature and nature interpretation. As the textbook states, there is no “average visitor” (Beck et al., pg 132). In addition to this, being aware of certain barriers that limit people from enjoying or participating in nature interpretation is something I would personally want to strive towards. For example, being aware and accommodating towards certain barriers, such as economic, cultural, and communication, is something I would seek to do as an interpreter (Beck et al., pg 134). This would maximize inclusivity to a degree. Overall, I would just want everyone to feel included and safe in nature, and I would want to make sure that I was able to facilitate that.

My beliefs that I bring to nature interpretation are quite similar to my personal ethics. For example, I believe that nature interpretation should strive to be inclusive. I also believe that our individual relationships to nature should be highlighted in all nature interpretation. Even if there is one person interpreting nature for a group, each individual will still leave with different thoughts, and this should be emphasized and encouraged. To go along with this, I believe that our individual relationship with nature is something special and is something to be embraced, regardless of any outside factors.

As for the responsibilities that I have, I would begin by saying that I believe that I have a responsibility to protect and conserve nature. Nature interpretation, for me, is about interpreting the beauty within nature, and it would be impossible to do that without aiding in certain conservation or environmental protection efforts. I also have a responsibility to ensure that I am checking my privilege to ensure that I am able to recognize certain barriers to nature interpretation that others may be experiencing. I have a responsibility to help people feel more connected to nature as well. As an interpreter, I want to inspire people to feel a certain sense of awe and admiration when they are in nature, and part of this would come from helping to build a solid connection between an audience and nature itself.

As we learned, different people have different learning styles and will respond best to only certain approaches (Beck et al., 2018, pg 106). As an individual, I find that doing hands-on activities is the best way to maintain my focus in something. This would be similar when it comes to nature as well. I have never been one to learn well from simply reading something, so being able to actually participate in activities such as planting trees or going on interactive hikes would be exciting for me and is an approach I would appreciate. In this way, this approach would benefit me because I would actually be engaging in certain environmental activities rather than just strictly learning about them. I could go touch the bark of a certain tree or look at a real animal while learning about that thing, making it more of a memorable experience. And conservation activities, such as tree planting, would allow me to feel like I was making somewhat of a difference, which would be appealing to me as someone who often feels overwhelmed by the scope of certain environmental problems.

Additionally, an approach that would work for me as an individual is nature interpretation through music. As someone who can’t not be listening to music, I do feel very connected to it, and in this way, if I were to be able to interpret nature through music, I think this would allow me to further develop and connect with nature.

Overall, I really enjoyed this class and writing these blogs! It’s been so fun getting to read everyones thoughts on the prompts, as this often prompted me to think more deeply about the topic of the week. I have learned so many things from this class, of which I can’t wait to take into the world with me! As a student who is graduating this semester, I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to take this class before I leave Guelph. It has been so useful and taught me so much about myself, how I learn, how I want to be taught, and how I can incorporate lessons of nature interpretation into my real life.

Thank you all for such a great semester!

Lauryn

References:

Beck, L., Cable, T., & Knudson, D. (2018). Interpreting cultural and natural heritage. Sagamore-Venture Publishing LLC.

Immigration Advisers Authority. (2022). The difference between personal and professional ethics. Retrieved from: https://www.iaa.govt.nz/for-advisers/adviser-tools/ethics-toolkit/the-difference-between-personal-and-professional-ethics/

degenvs3000w22

The Most Amazing Thing About Nature

The thing I love most about nature is that it makes sense. Animals and plants know what they need to do to survive and do it. They spend time finding food and water, finding mates, and finding their home. I have always wished I was an animal or a plant or had lived with my people before the colonization of our home. My wish stems from hurt. For my people’s suffering, for the destruction of nature (my only real connection to this world) and for over-complicating life with government agenda. The development of technology has led humankind to live complicated lives with very little time to focus on the things we need. We need food and water, to find a mate and we need shelter to raise our young in. We need these things to survive just like all the other animals. We do not need to spend most of our day providing for the government. Providing for someone you’ll never meet in your lifetime. Working towards furthering societies technological advancement by being apart of the machine. Machines have a tendency not to change. They are constantly fixed to serve their only purpose and do it without question. But nature is change and that is why we cannot seem to find a place for it in our economic machine. Governments are constantly trying to keep the world the same and make it run smoothly for themselves. That just isn’t realistic though, the thing that makes nature so beautiful is that it has the ability to change. Change gives way for improvements to yourself, to the state of the environment. A forest with no room for growth, needs to set fire so that the next generation of trees can feed from the nutritious ashes. Without that change, the forest will still die, just much slower and without replacement since there would be no nutrients. If there is no change in our own lives, we remain the same person, behaving the same way which we might not necessarily be happy with. It is the mistakes, the life altering decisions we make that change our perspectives and make us think about our own effect on the world. And when we change we become happier for we see our own growth. Concrete cannot grow unless we make it. Nature grows without us and it will continue to grow long after humankind is gone. Look at what happened with the dinosaurs, the whole planet desolated by a giant rock and yet the plants still grew, the animals were able to survive and the whole planet started a new.

I love nature because it lives. Truly lives. We waste so much of our time doing things we have been brainwashed into believing is important. Going to work to do our part for society, to feed our families, to have a purpose. I don’t need to go to work all day to feed my family. I could hunt, garden and forage to feed my family. In that same sense I would be doing my part for my own society and my purpose: to care and protect the things I love most in this world by spending time hunting, gardening, and foraging with them. That is all I want and all I have wished for since I learned about colonization when I was a little girl. To hide from the society the government has forced upon us. I want to live in nature and live because of nature. I don’t want to help the economy grow until there is no more nature left. We spend so much of our time tolerating our livelihoods and wishing we were actually living, it’s sad really. Working for the man to bring home our pays for love. The love we crave out in nature, going on vacation with our loved ones seems like a dream most of the time. At least we treat it like it’s a dream. Like we couldn’t quit our jobs right now, stay home with our families, and walk outside to enjoy the beaches, waterfalls, and forests around us instead. We could, the problem is we have become too reliant on technology to provide for us. To make the work of harvesting hundreds of animals easier, to make going to the grocery store and grabbing some food easier, to make providing for our families easier. But is it truly easier? We end up hating so much of our lives, filling it up with regret for not actually being with our loved ones because we were too busy working for the man. It doesn’t feel easier. Not to me anyways. I crave to be wild, to live the way animals are supposed to live. I don’t want to worry about the bigger issues in this world and trying to make my own small, miniscule effect. There’s no point in doing that. Wild animals don’t do that, and we wouldn’t have to either if we lived naturally too. The modern world doesn’t make sense to me and nature does. That is why I love it.

lmenvs3000w22

Hey Davana!

I love the message of your post. I think a lot of us are so mindlessly running through life, so it is important to remind ourselves every so often that we aren’t meant to be living our lives on autopilot.

In addition to that point, I also love your incorporation of colonization into this post and how this has a large influence on how some people perceive themselves within society. This relates especially to Indigenous populations, as the effects of colonialism in Canada can still weigh extremely heavy on these people. I think you articulated this point very well.

Governments, both in Canada, but also globally, have created a system whereby we must work day in and day out to live, however, I feel as though most of us can now recognize that this isn’t living, only simply surviving. As well, if you don’t want to be complicit in this mind-numbing system, you are labelled as lazy or unmotivated, which is completely backwards. To your point, we will never change if we’re acting like machines.

I appreciate your point also about how nature is ever-changing and that within our system, we struggle to find an economic place for it. I like this point especially, as I have recently been learning about environmental economics in one of my other courses. In this course, I’ve learnt that economists have been trying for a long time to put a dollar value on nature; for example, how much can we say a lake or the biodiversity of a plot of land is worth? From what I’ve read, there is no way to actually do this. In addition, I don’t believe that we need to attribute a dollar value to nature in order to believe, from an economic standpoint, that it is important to society. That is largely the aim of environmental economics - to attribute a dollar value to something in order to then attribute value to it. Actually, I don’t believe that we can put a price on nature at all, no matter how hard economists work towards this goal. If we continue trying to place our value in nature based on a dollar amount, we fail to appreciate anything inherently valuable about nature at all. The system we govern our societies with is broken, and I think the fact that we believe we can value the environment based on what it’s worth can speak to that.

Overall, this was an excellent post, I really appreciate your take on this. It was very unique and I think it was very well articulated!

Lauryn

The Most Amazing Thing About Nature - The Human Diving Reflex

I had trouble coming up with something I wanted to write about for this post. There are so many incredible things about nature; I mean simply the fact that it exists in the complex way that it does is a feat in itself. I’ve finally landed on something that might not typically be related exactly to nature, but I do believe speaks to the impressive and extensive relationship humans have with nature.

Over the summer, I read a book by James Nestor, titled Deep: Freediving Renegade Science, and what the Ocean Tells Us about Ourselves. In this book, he dives deep (pun intended) into the world of freediving, the competitive and human aspect of it, as well as how it can be used within science to aid in discoveries (Nestor, 2014). Of particular interest to me was in a section where he discussed what he called “the master switch of life” (Nestor, 2014). This has been better described in scientific papers as the mammalian diving reflex, or diving response, whereby mammals undergo certain physiological changes when submerged underwater (Godek & Freeman, 2019). This response has been found in all of the mammals studied in experiments relating to this reflex (Godek & Freeman, 2019).

While it is not known for sure why this occurs, it is thought to occur in mammals as a way of conserving oxygen (Godek & Freeman, 2019). When submerged underwater, the human heart slows, blood vessels constrict, our spleens constrict, blood pressure increases, and we see a reduction in blood flow (Foster & Sheel, 2005; Andersson et al., 2002; Gooden, 1994). All of these responses are thought to redistribute blood to our vital organs and conserve oxygen (Godek & Freeman, 2019). By redistributing this blood to our organs, we are able to keep our brains and hearts oxygenated for longer, thereby increasing the amount of time we can stay underwater (Nestor, 2014). Similarly, with less blood pumping throughout our bodies, we are better able to conserve oxygen, making us able to stay underwater for longer (Nestor, 2014). Submersion in water is the only thing able to trigger this response in humans; even just splashing cold water on your face can prompt this physiological response! This is something I find incredibly profound.

As Nestor notes, Swedish scientist Per Scholander made great progress in understanding this phenomenon with his experiments (Nestor, 2014). He found that human heart rates immediately decreased when underwater, with some divers noting a drop to around 20-30 beats per minute, but, in his experiment, he instructed participants to dive underwater, strap themselves into workout gear, and perform short, vigorous workouts (Nestor, 2014; Foster & Sheel, 2005). Even after performing these workouts, the participants' heart rates still dropped (Nestor, 2014)! These results have been verified by other researchers, with one study finding that participants performing simple exercises with only their faces immersed in water even still saw decreases in heart rate and increases in blood pressure (Andersson et al., 2002).

After learning about this response over the summer, I decided it was time to test it out for myself. My backyard has a pool, so I suited up and got ready. I had my mom and sister supervising just in case, and I took my three deep breaths, then submerged myself under water. After about the first 30 seconds, I felt my lungs burning and it just about took everything in me not to come up for air. Somehow I fought off my initial bodily responses and toughed it out, and after that, the burning feeling went away and I felt, what I can only describe as, peaceful. I could physically hear my heartbeat slowing in my eardrums - the rhythmic thump-thump sounds becoming further and further apart. It was almost like I could feel my whole body tighten underneath the physiological processes happening. I felt calm, and if I was trying to count how long I’d been underwater in my head before, I had completely lost track as my mind went blank. It was almost like I was in a meditative state.

When I came up, my sister told me that according to her timer, I had only been underwater for just over a minute and a half, but to me, it felt like I had been under there an eternity. I tried and tried again, just wanting to push myself and see how long I could stay under, and I finally was able to stay submerged for nearly three whole minutes! Never in my life had I ever been able to come close to holding my breath for that long, but in one afternoon, I was able to experience and teach myself first hand the wonders of how the human body reacts underwater, and it amazed me. For me, and many others, this was not only a physical response, but a mental one. The mind and body shifts when underwater.

To be clear, I don’t exactly recommend doing this! I wanted to experience this reflex, but I was also trying to see how long that reflex would allow me to hold my breath. I had my sister squeeze my hand every 30 seconds so that she could check if I was responding and squeezing back. Additionally, since I had begun reading the book and learning about this stuff, I had been practicing holding my breath out of water before actually trying it in water. Holding your breath for long periods of time underwater can be extremely dangerous and can lead to blackouts consequential drowning, especially if you’re doing it unsupervised! Just a side note, but back to the post…

We can essentially bypass our body’s terrestrial form to undergo a transformation that allows us to better survive underwater. You might say that this is simply a survival response, and you would probably be right, but I think this can provide insight into something much deeper than that. I think that our bodily reactions to being submerged in water can largely speak to the fact that we are connected to all parts of nature - land and sea - more than we even know. As Nestor mentions extensively in his book, the feeling of triggering this diving response is indescribable to most people who are attuned to what it is and how it has the innate ability to calm us.

I have always found that many people have some sort of aversion to water. For some reason or another, people just don’t like water, unless of course they’re swimming in a heated pool or relaxing in a hot tub. I’ve heard most people claim that they don’t like the unknownness that comes with water, usually lakes or oceans. I used to be one of these people. The ocean was terrifying, and even when swimming in lakes, I was on edge, always half expecting something to grab me by the leg. But, if our bodies are programmed to undergo such a profound physical and mental response to being in water, why would we ever consider water as something that is inherently not for humans to explore? After understanding how this human response to being underwater triggers something so amazing within us, it is hard to argue that we are not all connected to water in some sort of special way. Once we understand this reflex, we can understand the undeniable human connection to water and nature.

Humans and nature are inherently connected in so many ways. While many of us have a fear of water, it uniquely helps us to achieve certain responses that we cannot elicit in any other way, and in this way, we are explicitly connected to it, be that in an evolutionary, survival, or spiritual way.

So, overall, the most amazing thing I know about nature, is that we, as humans, are connected to it in ways we might not even know.

I would encourage everyone to look into James Nestor's book that this post was largely inspired by! It was an incredibly interesting read, especially if you have an interest in diving, or specifically free diving!

References:

Andersson, J., Linér, M., Rünow, E., & Schagatay, E. (2002). Diving response and arterial oxygen saturation during apnea and exercise in breath-hold divers. Journal of Applied Physiology, 93: 882-886.

Foster, G. & Sheel, A. (2005). The human diving response, its function, and its control. Scand. J. Med. Sci. Sports., 15: 3-13.

Godek, D. & Freeman, AM. (2019). Physiology, diving reflex. StatPearls Publishing.

Gooden, B. (1994). Mechanisms of the human diving response. Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science, 29(1): 6-16.

Nestor, J. (2014). Deep: Freediving Renegade Science, and what the Ocean Tells Us about Ourselves. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

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Music and Nature

This was a difficult blog prompt for me because I have never really associated nature with music. The only way I used to think about this was bird songs but as I thought more about this prompt I realized that music and nature are more intertwined than I had previously thought. Birds use calls and songs to both communicate with each other and to attract a mate. Birds are not the only animals to do this, whales, frogs and crickets all do the same. Many birds have their own distinctive calls by which other birds can distinguish them. Whales do the same thing but their frequency also changes between the species of whales, and then within species, many individuals also have their own calls. Another thing I realized was that the rattles of rattlesnakes sound very similar to some percussion instruments like maracas. These rattlesnakes shake their tails to ward off predators or attract and distract prey. A cool fact that I learned the other day is that movie producers use loon calls in their scenes to create an eerie feeling through the sound, loons are not native in any of these environments but are used for their chilling call.

When I think of nature in music, my mind goes straight to whistle notes. Whistle notes are extremely high-pitched notes that artists like Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande use in their music. These high notes always remind me of bird calls because the pitches are very similar. I also think of spa music in which nature sounds like rain or waterfalls are incorporated with piano playing. This type of music invokes a sense of relaxation and happiness. Most instruments are made with natural materials and music has been around for an extremely long time. There were flutes made from bones or wood pipes, percussion instruments were a favourite of prehistoric music instruments because any two things hit together that makes a sound can be called a percussion instrument. Natural materials are still used for instruments today, like wood for violins or animal skins to create a hand drum.

When I think of songs that remind me of nature, I think of two different songs; “rainbow connection” and “what a wonderful world”. Rainbow connection is a song from the muppets, it is sung by Kermit the frog. My grandpa introduced me to this song as well as introducing me to nature, we would always listen to this song while we sat on the porch watching the sunset at the cottage. The song also reminds me of a beautiful swamp/marshland as this is the background behind Kermit when he sings this song. “What a Wonderful World” is a song by Louis Armstrong and is from the late 1960s. This song is extremely popular and is featured in a bunch of movies, one of them having Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson singing the song. This beautiful song describes scenes in nature such as “trees of green, and red roses too”.

lmenvs3000w22

Hi Isabelle,

I love your post this week! It actually made me think of some things that I hadn’t previously considered.

When I was writing my original post, I had a relatively easy time finding music in nature, but a harder time finding nature in music. I came up with the fact that artists use sounds from nature and natural imagery in their music to entice listeners. I gave such a simple answer, but your answer to this question is what really stuck out to me about your post. I never would have thought of whistle notes when thinking of where we can find nature in music. This is a really interesting comparison!

After reading this comparison I decided to look up whistle notes and birds to see if I could find anything interesting between the two. I actually found that whistling in general is said to attract birds, which I never knew! I would think that this is because the birds identify the whistling noise as a call from their species. I found online that for budgies, a type of bird normally kept as a pet, whistling or mimicking their tone can make them feel safe or excited, and is said to strengthen the bond between the owner and bird (Harris, 2022).

Photo of two budgies!

Aside from this, I also was introduced to nature from my grandpa, so I enjoyed reading about your experiences with him and hearing how he introduced you to the Kermit the Frog song, as well as nature.

Thank you for sharing this week! Again, I really enjoyed reading your post!

Lauryn

References:

Harris, S. (2022). Do budgies like it when you whistle?. Budgie Central. Retrieved from: https://www.budgiecentral.com/do-budgies-like-it-when-you-whistle/

Music and Nature

Music can be found everywhere. As Gray et al. define it, music is “patterns of sound varying in pitch and time produced for emotional, social, cultural, and cognitive purposes” (Gray et al., 2001). This definition is extremely broad, and the only true requirement is that the sounds are produced for some sort of purpose.

This definition, I suppose, wouldn't necessarily include things that I consider to be music within nature. I would include things such as the waves of the ocean crashing on the shore, the sound of running water from the streams in the forest behind my house, and the sound of the wind rustling the leaves in the fall. None of these things necessarily are produced for any emotional, social, cultural, or cognitive purposes, however, I do think that they can elicit emotional responses, as well as contribute to certain cultural, social, and cognitive experiences. Because of this, I would still consider them music.

These musical elements contained within nature can allow for people to form deeper connections with their surroundings. For me, at least, I find it an incredibly moving experience to hear the rush of water crashing over the edge of the rocks while standing near a waterfall, or when hearing the birds chirp early on a summer morning while the sun rises. In this way, the sounds in nature trigger an emotional or cognitive response from me. In addition, these sounds lend themselves to certain social and cultural purposes and experiences. In a social and cultural sense, the sounds of nature can help to unite groups of people and connect them with certain experiences. For example, on hikes with my friends, when we all stop to listen to the birds or rustling of the trees around us, it feels like a unifying experience. In this way, this natural sort of music brings us closer together. In a strictly cultural sense, we can see that the music in nature can bring cultures together as well. For Canadians, the sound of a loon, for example, can make us feel more connected to our culture or maybe give us a sense of pride in our country.

Additionally, the musical sounds found in nature can actually have certain health benefits. I had no idea about this before researching for this post. Some beneficial outcomes identified in individuals who listen to natural sounds can include decreased pain and stress, improved mood, and increased cognitive performance (Buxton et al., 2021).

For all of these reasons, it seems to me like the music found in nature can be considered music in the strict sense of the definition given by Gray et al., above. The music found in nature moves people to have emotional and cognitive responses, as well as serving a purpose in the cultural and social sense.

The question of where nature is in music is more difficult to answer for me. I suppose a lot of the time, artists use sounds from nature in their music. When thinking of examples of this, my mind immediately went to one of my favourite summer albums, “Nice Colors”, by khai dreams and Atwood. The songs on the album largely incorporate bird noises in the intros which evokes a certain feeling of familiarity. Additionally, many artists might use certain natural imagery in their song lyrics, allowing the listener to create a picture in their head. This is sort of a silly example, but Nelly Furtado’s song “I’m Like a Bird”, where she sings the lyric, “I’m like a bird I want to fly away”, can create a picture in the listeners mind of nature and birds flying. Another example I can think of is Yellowcard’s “Ocean Avenue”, which sort of allows listeners to visually picture what that place off ocean avenue might look like (silly example again, I know!).

Making use of nature and how the artist chooses to interpret nature within their music can add a certain depth to their music. Drawing on natural imagery by way of song lyrics can help to further deepen whatever emotional, social, cultural, or cognitive purpose that the artist was going for.

A song that immediately takes me back to a natural landscape is Blink-182’s “All the Small Things”. My friends and I went on a camping trip in the summer between our first and second years of university. While all sitting around the campfire one night under the stars, this song came on and we all instantly just started singing. We all love Blink-182 and from that point on, it sort of became our song and a running joke within our friend group. Although it was such a small moment, it is something that my friends and I still cherish, as it still reminds us of what a fun and interesting trip we had.

References:

Buxton, R., Pearson, A., Allou, C., & Wittemyer, G. (2021). A synthesis of health benefits of natural sounds and their distribution in national parks. PNAS, 118(14): 1-6.

Gray, P., Krause, B., Atema, J., Payne, R., Krumhansl, C., & Baptista, L. (2001). The music of nature and the nature of music. Science, 291(5501): 52.

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Ancient things and the importance of history

There is no peculiar merit in ancient things, but there is merit in integrity, and integrity entails the keeping together of the parts of any whole, and if these parts are scattered throughout time, then the maintenance of integrity entails a knowledge, a memory, of ancient things. …. To think, feel or act as though the past is done with, is equivalent to believing that a railway station through which our train has just passed, only existed for as long as our train was in it.

(Edward Hyams, Chapter 7, The Gifts of Interpretation)

This quote is something I do not agree with but understand where the author is coming from. This quote explains Hyams’s opinion that ancient things are not as important as the effort that has gone into conserving and interpreting them. Hyam also explains that although that past has already occurred there is no reason to believe that we are done with the past. The first part of the quote is what I don’t agree with. I believe that there is merit in ancient things. Ancient architecture, art and knowledge are not only extremely important now but also very important in the time they were first created. The way ancient people behaved and the knowledge they amassed is really important for the basis of a lot of our knowledge and behaviour. For example, we still use some of the mathematical equations from ancient Greece, the building techniques of the ancient world are not only still used but also the basis of architectural advancement, our number system comes from ancient India and art techniques based in ancient times are still used and built upon today. Even though I am not an artist I believe that all art has merit and although preserving it makes it visible to more people, it doesn’t need that to hold merit, if the art reached even just one person then it is important. Ancient things also held merit to the people who used or admired them and should therefore hold merit in modern time. I do see the authors side of this part of the quote though because so much work has been put into conserving and preserving these ancient things. The merit of ancient things also includes the preservation of it, conserving and preserving these ancient things gives them merit to people now, because they are able to see ancient things.

I agree with the part that that past is not done with yet. We are still using knowledge and techniques from ancient times and all of our knowledge is based on the knowledge acquired in the past. This part of the quote also reminds me of the popular quote by Winston Churchill: “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. These quotes are similar because they talk about how the past is not done and how we are constantly thinking about and using things from the past. The Winston Churchill quote is very poignant when it comes to war and other dark parts of history. If we do not think about the causes and learn from the consequences from the past then we are likely to not understand the problem of doing it again.

In terms of nature and interpretation, it is important that we remember history and conserve ancient things. In my opinion, remembering our history is important for conserving our planet because we know what Earth was like in the past and how we have changed it. Interpretation of history is also incredibly important because it provides the public with more knowledge and many people find history really interesting (like me).

lmenvs3000w22

Hey Isabelle,

I enjoyed your post this week! I appreciate your take on the quote and it actually made me rethink my own ideas of what Hyams was trying to say.

Your interpretation of the quote focuses a lot more on conservation of historical things and from what I can tell, you interpret the quote as saying that the reason these historical things are significant is because of the conservation efforts that have gone into preserving and interpreting them. I did not get this from the quote at first, but I do see your point. What makes a lot of things historically significant is how we conserve it and how we personally interpret and value a given thing. This is especially the case when looking at architecture and art. Some people might place a high level of importance on historical pieces of art, so therefore the preservation of that part of history is very important to them, however, others might not care about the preservation of art at all. The same goes for architecture.

I originally took Hyams as saying that in order for historical things, or history itself, to be significant, that it needs to be seen together as a whole and not as a stand alone object. For example, the Mona Lisa becomes a lot more significant when we understand who painted it, the context regarding the artist, etc.

At the same time, however, I do think that there is some inherent value in historical architecture, art, and knowledge, and even if it is not presented as a whole, there is still value and integrity to be seen. To go back to my above example, the Mona Lisa still has inherent value due to its beauty, technique, realism, and other things, even when it is totally separated from the artist and his historical significance. Especially after reading your thoughts on the quote, I do think that this is something significant to point out; the fact that some ancient things have inherent value outside of their historical context.

Again, I appreciate you sharing your views on this topic! It made me think about the quote in ways that I hadn’t before, which is always welcomed!

Lauryn

Understanding History - Edward Hyams

After reading this quote quite a few times, I think I can understand what Hyams is saying. Here, I take Hyams as saying that ancient things, or history for that matter, can not stand alone, and that by itself, these things aren’t particularly significant. These things must be kept together in order to maintain “integrity”, or in other words, all parts of history must be known, or all pieces of an ancient thing must be modelled together. He then goes on to say that if we behave as though the past is only in the past and it did not shape our current understanding of the world, that we lose part of this historical integrity.

I think a lot of the time, even if history is “kept together”, complete, and fully understood, it may still be seen differently depending on the type of person interpreting it. These differences in interpretation would likely stem from things such as different upbringings, cultural backgrounds, etc. Different interpretive accounts of history can change the meaning of it, how it is perceived by others, and how it is understood. This is why I think Hyams is saying that we must keep history together in order to maintain integrity.

There can’t be much left up to personal interpretation when relaying history. While it is true that personal interpretation of nature can be helpful for allowing others to see nature in a different light, if we were to do the same thing with history, we would be skewing the events, making them no longer objective historical facts about how the world came to be. It is important that with history, we must liit personal interpretation and keep it as factual as possible. If we don’t do this, we risk losing the integrity that comes with a fully factual historical account.

In addition to this, Hyams suggests that if we don’t value the past, or if we simply forget about it or act as if it doesn’t matter, that we lose part of what makes our world what it is today. We need to account for history when considering our present future otherwise we stand to neglect certain people, things, places, etc. that may deserve special considerations. If we “forget” the past, we also forget the wrongs we have done, the good things that have happened, and the people, places, and things involved and relevant to how we have come to be today. This goes back to keeping the past whole. If we can’t understand history as a whole and understand how it is important to us today, then it's hard to even see how anything is significant at all.

Overall, I think that while interpretation is important, it cannot be used in all aspects of life. We must limit our personal interpretations of history, no matter how much we might want to make interpretive judgements based on things such as culture and upbringing, as this can alter historical facts. We also must always keep in mind our history and how it is significant even today in terms of how it has shaped the present.

Lauryn

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Controversy of Veganism

This week I had a hard time figuring out what to write about. This week my sister decided to go vegan and did a lot of research on why veganism is the way to go. This made me question what some of the cons to this diet can result in. We all know how many advantages there are but I thought it would be interesting to research the negative effects on the environment!

Does veganism contribute to environmental conservation? Eating a vegan diet has been said to be the most effective way to reduce your environmental impact on earth. Although this may be true, vegan diets and the reduction of meat consumption while gaining grain products harms animals and degrades the environment.

A professor at the university of south Wales, Mike Archer, explained how vegans can do more harm to animals by illuminating the one thing they rely on; plants.

The production of wheat and other grains in Australia result in 25 times more animals being killed per kg of usable protein, animal cruelty, and more environmental damage than farming red meat. In order to produce these grains, agriculture kills thousands of animals and plants by clear cutting native vegetation.

Not only does veganism affect animals and the environment, but it also heavily impacts the human species who partake in that lifestyle. According to WebMD, veganism may result in risks including brain health, hair loss, strokes and depression. The lack of protein, iron, vitamin B, and zinc can cause detrimental health problems.

Although consuming meat creates a lot of greenhouse gas emissions, I do not believe it makes up for the fact that the vegan lifestyle wastes land that could be consumed by people. The protein from livestock costs a lot less lives per kilogram. I believe it is a more humane, environmentally friendly and ethical dietary option.

I do not necessarily believe that veganism is bad, but I do think that there are many other ways to conserve the planet and help save plants and animals where people can make an actual change. Donations to animal-oriented organizations and the reduction of waste can have a much more healthier impact than a vegan diet.

Before reading a paper on this topic, I did not have much of an opinion about vegan diets. I still believe that going vegan is a good choice and I support anyone who lives that way. All I know is that there are many pros and cons to the lifestyle. This includes:

Pros: Prevention of overfishing, Overpopulation of cows for food cause pollution, preventing livestock emissions

Cons: Extinction of almond trees - because of high demand, Highly processed foods (tofu) can be bad for environment (Made in factories)

What are your thoughts on veganism? How do you think being a vegan affects environmental conservation? Do you think the pros outweigh the cons?

Reference:

https://dailytitan.com/opinion/benefits-of-a-vegan-diet-dont-outweigh-its-environmental-impact/article_10079b1c-a13e-11eb-aefd-9363be1e574e.html#:~:text=Vegan%20diets%20don’t%20resort,degrade%20the%20environment%20as%20well.

lmenvs3000w22

Hey Lauren,

I loved reading your post this week! It was especially interesting to me as a former vegan.

I’ve been vegetarian for almost 10 years now, and around 2016-2019, I was fully vegan, before going back to just being a vegetarian. When I first went vegetarian, and then vegan, I never had any environmental concerns in mind, and instead I purely did it for my own ethical and moral reasons. It wasn’t until I was older and started reading more into it that I discovered the environmental reasons for transitioning to a vegan/vegetarian diet.

The points you raised are interesting. I’ve never considered the idea that veganism might actually be worse for the environment than a typical meat-inclusive diet. If I’m honest, I’ve never really questioned the fact that veganism is better for the environment. While I see the value in your argument, I did want to point something out.

Much of the production of grain/staple crops is actually for livestock consumption, not for human consumption. For example, 77% of global soy is used to feed livestock for meat and dairy production, and additionally, only 7% of global soy is used for direct human consumption in the way of soybean products (Ritchie & Roser, 2021). In addition to this, we have become a lot better at growing soy over the years, resulting in higher yields and increased production (Ritchie & Roser, 2021). Both of these factors lead to overall less deforestation in today’s world, since we now have more productive fields, we need less area to grow (Ritchie & Roser, 2021). So, while it might be true that deforestation for staple crops is still happening today (although at lower rates), I don’t believe it’s fair to blame a vegan diet on this, since the main consumers of these crops is the agricultural industry.

Additionally, I also want to note that while there are definitely some health risks to adopting a vegan diet, these largely only come about when someone improperly adopts this diet. Most vegans who eat a well balanced diet and supplement things they can’t necessarily get from their diet, such as vitamin B12, are not at risk for any of the health threats you mentioned.

Ultimately, for me, the pros of a vegan diet do outweigh the cons. While veganism isn’t something that worked out for me, I think there are still many benefits, and would definitely encourage anyone wanting to try it out to do it! Nowadays there are hundreds of vegan products that make transitioning to veganism from a meat heavy diet super easy!

Again, I just want to say that I appreciate your approach to this post. I always value seeing the other side of things, so I want to thank you for exposing me to possible reasons why veganism might be bad! I’ll make sure to read through the article you referenced to expand my knowledge!

Lauryn

References:

Ritchie, H. & Roser, M. (2021). Forests: Soy. Our World in Data. Retrieved from: https://ourworldindata.org/soy#citation

Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature

I briefly mentioned in last week's post about interpreting nature through art that I am currently in an advanced philosophy of the environment course and that we were currently talking about aesthetics. This topic has been something I’ve been thinking about for a while now, so I thought I’d expand on it more in this post. I would love to hear some thoughts on the topic!

The main idea of aesthetic appreciation in nature seems to be that we should value certain natural things (species, landscapes, etc.) simply due to the fact that they are aesthetically pleasing. Many philosophers actually posit that we should take aesthetic value of nature into account when making decisions about things such as conservation and biodiversity, among other things. Some philosophers even go so far as to say that aesthetic value is the main factor we should be taking into account when discussing conservation. But how do we define aesthetic value? I’ll outline a few of the arguments I’ve read about below:

Allen Carlson has argued that in order to have an objective idea of aesthetic value, we need to be able to appropriately categorize nature (Carlson, 1981). He argues this by way of analogy, and uses Picasso’s Guernica to illustrate his point. He states that we are not able to fully aesthetically appreciate Guernica unless we view it as a cubist painting, as this is the correct category to view it in. He says that unless we view art in its correct “category” that we are not able to fully appreciate it, and are at risk of passing incorrect judgements (Carlson, 1981). He expands this argument to include nature as well. For example, he states that while it is plausible to perceive a whale as either in the category of a fish or in the category of a mammal, but it would be more appropriate to perceive it in the category of a mammal, as this category better describes the biological aspects of a whale (Carlson, 1981). Carlson thinks that once we are able to correctly categorize nature, then we are able to appropriately appreciate it from an objective standpoint (Carlson, 1981). However, to put things into biological and geological categories, is to include scientific distinctions within the world of aesthetic appreciation.

Another aestheticist, Lilly-Marlene Russow, has a different take on appreciation. She thinks that our appreciation for nature comes mainly from aesthetics, and moreover, often comes from the encounters we have with individuals of a species (Russow, 1980). This is to say that what we value when it comes to appreciation is the existence of an individual and the existence of individuals like it and our encounters with this individual and those like it. So, according to her, we “admire the grace and beauty of the individual Bengal tigers that we may encounter”, and through the value we extend to that individual that we encounter, we might then seek to protect or conserve those individuals and ones like it on that aesthetic basis (Russow, 1980). To her, this is the only way we essentially value nature; this is how we judge why a species matters (Russow, 1980).

In addition to this, there are many other philosophers who don’t agree that aesthetic judgements have a place in environmentalism. Robert Loftis, for example, argues against aesthetic considerations. According to him, he doesn’t believe that aesthetic considerations can be justificatory forces when it comes to conservation and environmentalism (Loftis, 2003). He believes that aesthetic considerations are superficial, as they generally seek to only preserve “positive” aesthetic qualities (Loftis, 2003). This means that while beautiful ocean landscapes may be safe and worthy of conservation, less “positive” or “aesthetically pleasing” landscapes, such as swamps, are not deserving or worthy of conservation. When we argue for conservation based on beauty, we are being superficial. This is especially the case since it doesn’t seem as though we can objectively define beauty.

Emily Brady also introduces a new take on the issue of aesthetic appreciation. She rejects Carlson’s view, and argues that science-based approaches to aesthetic appreciation simply do not work. She instead puts forward a model of aesthetic appreciation that makes perception and imagination central (Brady, 1998). According to Brady, the amount of effort we put into our perception of nature, the more or less we appreciate it. She uses the example of great landscapes vs. mudflats. We need to put less effort into seeing the beauty of a great landscape and more effort into seeing the beauty of a mudflat (Brady, 1998). According to this model, everything can have some sort of aesthetic appreciation, but how much appreciation just depends on our efforts. She also includes imagination in her model. Brady says that we need to use imaginative properties in conjunction to perceptual ones in order to truly appreciate all that nature is. Without our imaginative powers, we wouldn’t be able to fully appreciate things in front of us. For example, we might see an old tree and its old bark and the image of a “seasoned old man” may come to mind (Bradty, 1998). In this case, we are using our imagination to further our perceptions, which Brady thinks will ultimately allow us to further appreciate the tree (Brady, 1998).

I know it doesn’t totally seem like this relates to the course, however, I think this topic actually does in many ways. How we view, appreciation, respect, and perceive nature will ultimately have an impact on how we interpret it. How we value nature - the considerations we believe are important, the importance we place on it - matters. Additionally, these arguments might be important for some people based on conservation/preservation grounds.

I have many thoughts on this topic, but to put it simply, I heavily reject the idea that aesthetic value has a place in environmentalism and conservation, but I would love to hear everyone else's thoughts! What do you think of these arguments, as I have outlined them? Do you think that aesthetics considerations should have a place in conservation at all? Or should we strictly use ecological/biological considerations? Do you find yourself agreeing with one of these arguments more than the others? How do you define aesthetics? Why do you value nature and do you think aesthetics are important?

I’m looking forward to reading some thoughts on this!

References:

Brady, E. (1998). Imagination and the aesthetic appreciation of nature. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 56(2): 139-147.

Carlson, A. (1981). Nature, aesthetic judgment, and objectivity. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 40(1): 15-17.

Loftis, R. (2003). Three problems for the aesthetic foundations of environmental ethics. Philosophy in the Contemporary World, 10(2): 41-50.

Russow, L. (1981). Why do species matter?. Environmental Ethics, 3: 101-112.

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Nature Through Art

Ok, so I will be honest. As soon as I read the blog prompt for this week, I was a bit worried. I am no artist or art interpreter, no matter how much I tell myself I can "see the deeper meaning" in a painting. My boyfriend, who is very artistically inclined, always tries to explain to me that art needs to have emotion and personality, which I struggle to understand while doing anything artistic. So trying to interpret nature through art may be a bit of a struggle for me, but I will try my best to navigate through this prompt!

Who are you to interpret nature through art? For starters, I am a student learning about all the different aspects of nature. Through university, I have learned the ins and outs of different animals, plants and ecosystems that are in our world today. From a micro to a macro scale, I'd like to say I am pretty knowledgeable in anything ecology-based. But to dig deeper, I have always found a sense of peace within nature - it's almost like my second home. Whenever I am stressed or feeling down, I walk to my local park and listen to the sounds of the stream and the wind in the branches of the tree. I have always felt happy exploring different areas and checking out the views, etc. - however, happy never fully encapsulated how I felt. There are so many other emotions attached to various features of nature; it's hard to pinpoint an exact feeling.

So, due to the nature of this blog post, I decided to google "nature art." As I scrolled through the images, there were a lot of stunning pieces, but I only connected to some. I tried to interpret the feelings and emotions behind each image. However, I only seemed to connect to a few. However, this made me realize - everyone has their own interpretations of art and nature. No one person shares the same feelings towards a particular part of nature; everyone expresses it differently. That's why no art piece is the same; "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." So in regards to the question, I am not qualified to interpret nature through art (for obvious reasons). Not one single person is - there are no qualifications that can make a person truly understand the purpose behind an art piece. I believe the interpretation lies in the "eye of the beholder." No one person is right or wrong about what an art piece is trying to convey. All that matters is that the interpretation is meaningful to you.

Now, like myself and many others, sometimes it's hard to see the beauty in some aspects of our world. For myself, it's art, but for others, it may be nature. As nature interpreters, it's our job to help people understand the beauty of nature. That comes from "the gift of beauty," which can help others connect within nature. Through my interpretation, "the gift of beauty" is assisting people in getting that "Aha!" moment, where they realize a forest isn't just a bunch of trees. This "Aha!" moment happened to me while driving to Florida with my family. As a child, I used to H A T E doing road trips, mainly because it took forever to get to the final destination. My parents would drive through the mountains in Virginia and North Carolina, typically stopping to enjoy the view. As a child, I couldn't care less - they're just mountains. However, about four years ago, I decided to do the dreaded drive with my parents. However, it was different this time around. When we stopped, the view was breathtaking; I had no clue why I complained. This was my "Aha!" moment, which was very important to me. So hopefully, as a nature interpreter, I plan to teach people nature's sense of beauty so they can get their "Aha!" moment too.

Here was my exact "Aha!" moment while driving down to Florida. The video doesn't really do it justice.

~Nicole

lmenvs3000w22

Hi Nicole,

I was also a bit worried when I first saw this prompt, as I am absolutely not an artist either! However, even if you were worried about this post, I think you still made some excellent points, and I really loved your post! I think you made some great connections between art and nature.

I am happy you mentioned the fact that you didn’t feel connected to every image of nature that you came across. This happens to me sometimes and I almost feel bad about it some of the time. Although I can appreciate the beauty of all landscapes, I don’t feel equally connected to every landscape. For example, I feel like I’m a lot more connected to forest sort of landscapes than ocean ones, even though I can appreciate that they’re both still beautiful. Given this, I agree that it’s definitely true that everyone has their own interpretations of nature and art. To go along with this, I also agree that interpretation, in art and nature, is something that is completely subjective. We can’t expect every person to hold the same views on an art piece or landscape as another, and we also can’t say that one person is right or wrong about how they interpret something. Nature and art are so ambiguous, and there will never be one right answer about how to “properly” interpret these things.

Additionally, I appreciate your idea of the gift of beauty. I think you captured the essence of the gift of beauty very well, which is helping others connect with nature. That “aha!” moment, as you mention, is something that is so important in assisting people with. This is a moment in which people finally begin to understand the beauty of nature, and even if they might not have a full appreciation of nature, this is where a passion for nature begins to grow for many. As an interpreter, being able to assist in helping people have that “aha!” moment of discovery would be so rewarding and hopefully something I can look forward to helping people with in the future.

Loved your post! The connections you made were awesome!

Lauryn

smgmenvs3000w22

Nature, Art, and the Gift of Beauty

Who am I to interpret nature through art?

I believe that anyone can interpret nature through art. Many of us are familiar with the common saying; “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, which fundamentally applies to art and its ambiguity. A painting or drawing doesn’t need to be perfectly symmetrical or realistic to resonate with its audience. If the desired outcome is to convey ideas and emotions, then anyone can create art. It is arguably not just a right to interpret nature through art, but a responsibility, to share our experiences through a variety of mediums and learn from art created by others. Sharing of art is the sharing of emotions and experiences, which benefits us and ultimately serves to help protect our landscapes by elevating understanding and reminding others of its beauty. It also is a universally spoken language, and allows us to connect and share no matter the native tongue of our audience.

The connection between nature and art, for me, is the ability to take a piece of the forest or ocean or meadow, and preserve it so while I am doing homework in my room, or sitting on a bus in the middle of the city, I can be taken back to moments where I felt at peace in nature. Putting paintings on the wall of beautiful Canadian scenery, or even just having a photo album on my phone full of nature photos from my most treasured places, affect my mood.

How do I interpret the “gift of beauty”?

My interpretation of the “gift of beauty” is teaching others to appreciate nature to their full capacity. Stopping to take it all in (on a hike, for example) is difficult for some people, and finding this “gift of beauty” can take practice. Teaching someone to use every one of their senses, not only sight, can help them to ground themselves in their setting. Our textbook describes the principle of the “gift of beauty” as “Interpretation should instill in people the ability, and the desire, to sense the beauty in their surroundings- to provide spiritual uplift and to encourage resource preservation” (Beck et al., 2018). I place an emphasis on the word choice of “sense”, reminding us that beauty is not a purely visual idea. Practicing looking at the vastness of a forest atop a hill, listening to the songs of birds, smelling the freshness of the trees and flowers, feeling the wind blowing through your hair, tasting the crisp air, will provide the most immersive nature experience possible. One of my favourite places to just stop and sense the beauty of nature is at my cottage. Specifically in the mornings, before the lake has woken up, when the water is still and covered in a layer of slowly drifting fog. I take out the canoe and paddle along the shore, where I can hear the sounds of the forest and the drops of water from my paddle hitting the water’s surface, and I just breathe it all in.

My dog, River, looking out over the misty morning lake.

References:

Beck, L., Cable, T.T. & Knudson, D.M. (2018). Interpreting Cultural and Natural Heritage for a Better World. Sagamore-Venture Publishing.

lmenvs3000w22

Hi Serena,

I loved reading your post this week! I think you made some really insightful connections between nature and art. I like your idea that this connection is the ability to take nature and preserve it as a moment you can go back to when you need.

I also completely agree that art is something subjective. Art, in large part, is something that is meant to be left up to the audience’s interpretation. Similarly, if we view nature as art, we can see that the landscapes and environments that surround us are also meant to impact different people in different ways depending on how the person interprets them. Additionally, similarly to how you say art is supposed to evoke emotions and experiences, nature also does the same things for many people.

Your interpretation of the gift of beauty is also something I love! I agree that we do need to “practice”, in a sense, appreciating nature and sensing the beauty in it. We can’t expect ourselves to be able to appreciate nature to the fullest extent without first having a sense of what to look for, listen for, etc. Being able to get in tune with all our senses, as you mention, can help audiences ground themselves. I do agree that this, however, is something that most people need to be taught, as again, we can’t expect ourselves to be able to just know how to tune into all of our senses when we first start getting into nature. Once we get a sense of what to look for, we can begin to fully appreciate the nature in front of us. This is maybe when the gift of beauty starts to kick in for some people, once we begin to appreciate nature to its fullest extent.

Great post! I’m looking forward to reading more from you!

Lauryn

Nature and Art

I have never been much of an artist myself, but that isn’t to say that I don’t still appreciate art on a daily basis. One of the ways that I do find myself appreciating art on a daily basis is through nature and its various landscapes, creatures, and environments. The textbook mentions that art can elicit certain emotions, such as empathy and sympathy, and that art is something that while eliciting emotional responses, also is an intellectual experience (Beck et al., 2018). Given this, it is easy to visualize nature as an art form. Nature is something that elicits sympathy and empathy, among other emotions (i.e. awe, excitement, and curiosity), as well as being something that is intellectually valued.

In this way, I am largely someone who looks at nature as I would a piece of art. When I’m in nature, I make sure to stop and really take in my surroundings. I make sure to take note of the surroundings, what colours stick out to me, the organisms present, the noises I hear, and so on. This is certainly an emotional experience, and oftentimes I am in a state of awe when I’m in nature, but as well, it serves as an intellectual experience. It is particularly intellectual to me as the more I am in nature, the more I feel I learn about it; the ecosystems within it, the way it works, and so on. As I mentioned, I am by no means an artist or have the capabilities to “properly” judge or critique artworks, however, nature seems like a sort of artwork that everyone is able to enjoy and interpret in their own way; there is no wrong way to interpret nature through the lens of art.

“The gift of beauty”, as the textbook describes it, states that, “interpretation should instill in people the ability, and the desire, to sense the beauty in their surroundings - to provide spiritual uplift and to encourage program and facility design” (Beck et al., 2018). This definition lends itself well to this discussion regarding art and nature interpretation. As we become better at interpreting nature, (we begin to notice the little things, or we spend more time in nature), we will inevitably begin to sense the beauty in our surroundings. This is similar to a person who interprets paintings, for example. The better they become at interpreting paintings (they spend more time learning about the artist and their intentions or spend more time generally exploring art), the better they will become at seeing the beauty or intention behind them.

I personally see the gift of beauty as something that grows and develops over time. We can’t expect to be necessarily “good” at interpreting nature when it’s something new to us. I would say that we have to work to cultivate an understanding of the beauty in nature and the complexity of the connections within it. As mentioned above, we begin to be more observant. Once we are able to better interpret nature, we are able to instill the ability and desire to sense the beauty in the surroundings in not only ourselves, but also others. This is to say that once we understand the gift of beauty, we are better equipped to explain this gift to others through our own interpretation.

Ultimately, I would note that there is just something so inherently beautiful about nature, and this is why it is so easy to see nature as a form of art. Being able to discover this beauty as I get more and more into nature is something so valuable to me, and I can’t wait to explore and discover more of nature in my future!

Side note - I’m currently in an advanced philosophy of the environment class, and we’ve been talking a lot about nature from an aesthetic appreciation/value perspective. I think this topic relates well to this week's prompt, as many of the papers we’re currently discussing make connections to actual art works and draw comparisons between art and nature to help explain why nature should be valued based on strictly aesthetic reasons (strange argument, I know!). I’ll attach a few of the papers we’ve read below in case anyone is interested in reading!

Papers on aesthetic value:

Brady, E. (1998). Imagination and the aesthetic appreciation of nature. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 56(2): 139-147.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/432252

Carlson, A. (1981). Nature, aesthetic judgment, and objectivity. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 40(1): 15-17.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/430349

References (for blog post):

Beck, L., Cable, T., & Knudson, D. (2018). Interpreting cultural and natural heritage. Sagamore-Venture Publishing LLC.

kpmbenvs3000w22

Privilege in Nature

Nature interpretation is a privileged industry, but it doesn’t have to be. It is something that people with privilege has created, but it is something that with a little work, we can make it so everyone feels the rush and amazement when learning about nature and what they can do for nature.

My working definition of privilege would be any part of your life in which something in which you do not have control over has given you an unfair advantage over others. This could be race, this could be wealth, where you live etc.

Unfortunately, when people have privilege, there are others who do not, usually people of a certain age group, minority, or a person with a disability. These people do not always have the option to visit nature to learn and take in its beauty. This is shown by the crowds going to national parks, as noted in ‘Interpreting Cultural and Natural Heritage for a Better World’ the majority of visitors are not within any minority groups.

This is something that needs to be fixed, as it is everyone’s responsibility to help care for our planet, and nature interpretation is something that will be a guide t us humans on how to do that. Now the question is… how do we make sure people are feeling more welcome and more excited to come out and learn about all these things? That is up to us, as a future nature interpreter I would love to make sure as many people as possible are comfortable coming to a guided tour.

Some things I think are important to think of is the risk vs reward of changing things in order to make it more accessible, as it should be something that rewards us a lot more than it will negatively affect any part of nature. Things like added pavement paths for people who are unable to hike through the forest will help, however this may negatively affect the nature, as the pavement impedes on the ground in which the plants will grow! But having things like pressed down paths are a lot better and have a much higher reward, and this has been tested at a few National Parks and for sure works.

Another obstruction that turns people away would be any type of language barrier they might have. If the goal is to get information to as many people as possible, this is something that would be very tricky to do if the person cannot understand the information you are trying to convey. This could be solved with a number of different solutions. One could be to have a variety of audio tours available in different languages, although this comes with the risk of someone feeling out of place as they are the only person not listening along to the person tour. Another one could be having multiple multi language interpreters on site at a time in order to best aid any and all visitors.

All of these solutions come at a cost, but the goal is to find the one which the reward is greater than the cost.

lmenvs3000w22

Hey Katharine,

I enjoyed reading your post this week! I thought that your take was interesting, and I totally agree with your working definition of privilege.

The question of how we can make people, largely those who are a part of a minority group, feel more welcomed within the world of nature interpretation definitely seems a little overwhelming. With that said, I do love your suggestions on how we can do this! It is true that many nature trails are largely inaccessible to those who are not able bodied, so adding in paths, or other things such as ramps, would be a great idea. This would help ensure that everyone has a chance to get out and explore, regardless of their ability to hike through rough terrain. I understand that this may have adverse effects on nature, as you mention, however, I do think that including these in some areas (not all) so that people can join in would be worth it. I also do think that pressed paths are a great idea as well, however!

I also love your idea of having audio tours in different languages in order to accommodate non-english speakers. I think in a place such as a museum, zoo, or aquarium, this could work great! I know I’ve been to a few museum exhibits with videos, and there’s always an option to listen to them in languages other than English (usually French or Spanish). I also think that including signage and maps in different languages in Provincial parks or other nature areas would be helpful! This might help draw some people out into nature who might not speak English or are not able to follow the English marked maps.

For most of these solutions, I think the extra cost of either money or harms the environment is definitely worth it if it means that minority groups get to join in and get to experience nature. Getting people excited about nature and nature interpretation, especially groups who are often otherwise excluded from these things, is so important. This is one way we can work towards closing the gap between those with obvious societal privilege and those who may lack some forms of obvious privilege.

Great post!

Lauryn

ajcenvs3000w22

The Role of Privilege

I believe that the role privilege plays within nature interpretation is one of inclusion and self-awareness. To be more specific, once a privilege is acknowledged it can then be applied to an inclusive interpretation strategy, ie, once an interpreter is grateful and understanding for the fact that they can hear normally from an objective standpoint, as opposed to having a hearing disability of any level, they have the opportunity to include and participate in strategies that will enable a whole separate demographic of individuals to partake as visitors in whichever interpretive activity is being presented. For example, the interpreter could wear a microphone, or a microphone connected specifically to an individual’s hearing aids. There are many privileges that exist, and it is important to practice self-awareness to know/learn your own privileges. This can be visualized as an invisible backpack, in which are many special amenities such as maps, keys, clothes, etc are kept, which are at our disposal whenever we need, except not every backpack contains the same amenities, and it is our job as interpreters to be aware of this fact and be as inclusive as possible. If I were to explain this concept from a personal standpoint, I would describe privilege as to any circumstance that furthers an individual’s position or ability to accomplish any set of tasks, this could be any situation from blindness to the colour of an individual’s skin.

Within my blog, I have been attempting to start learning how to teach my current audience of 3rdyear university students about plant micropropagation. So far, I have not considered many variables as to the backgrounds or contents of the individual's invisible backpacks who read my posts. I have read over some considerations that may help my blogs be more inclusive, these include addressing economic, cultural, and communication barriers, in which I have not given thought to in the past, how I need to learn how to reach audiences who may not have access to the internet, or may not speak English, or may not have the slightest experience with any plant science terminology at all. I believe that with practice, I can learn to reach further visitors to my blog and have them feel more included.

lmenvs3000w22

Hey,

Great post this week! Self-awareness in relation to privilege is something that is so important and not mentioned enough! It is easy enough to identify one's own privilege (ex: being middle class, being born in Canada), but it is a whole other thing to identify them, become aware, and then use that awareness for good or to generate change.

Additionally, I love the example you used of an interpreter that can hear well and how they can identify that privilege of theirs and then participate in an interpretation strategy that includes a microphone or something for audience members who are deaf or suffer from hearing loss. When I think of my own privilege, I don’t usually stop to consider the fact that I am able bodied. I am able to walk on my own, I can hear well, and can generally see well too. It is something often overlooked by many, so I appreciate you using this example to help bring awareness to this type of privilege.

I also appreciate the fact that you mention what you and your blog are aimed at doing. I am largely unfamiliar with plant micropropagation, and I love that your goal is to spread information about the topic to your fellow students. I am also happy to see that within this goal of spreading information, you are thinking of ways that you can do this in a more inclusive and effective way based on other people's blog posts! I love that you want to take other students' ideas into consideration when it comes to spreading info about the topic of plant micropropagation. I’m looking forward to reading more blog posts about the topic!

Lauryn

Nature Interpretation and Privilege

Privilege plays a role in every aspect of life. It can be defined many ways, but I would say that my working definition would say that privilege is something that gives a person or group certain benefits, advantages, opportunities, or special treatment based on characteristics of that person or group.

I am privileged in more ways than one. I am a white female who grew up in a middle class family, in Canada, in a decent sized city, and has access to a good education and health care. I have never faced any considerable barriers in regards to being able to afford education, affording health care, nor have I ever been oppressed due to things such as my race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexuality, or religion. I am extremely privileged within the society I live in, and it is unlikely that I will have to face some of the hardships that some people around me will. I was born into privilege - I was born white, born in Canada, born into a family with a stable financial background. It was nothing more than pure luck that I have many of the privileges I do today. And due to these privileges, I have been awarded certain benefits, advantages, opportunities, and special treatment, without even realizing it.

Based on privilege, as I mentioned, certain groups will be awarded more benefits and opportunities. This is clear for many forms of nature interpretation I can think of. For example, every nature interpreter I have encountered in my real life has been a white male. Any aquarium or zoo that I have ever visited, the interpreters have been white males. When I think of TV shows that include nature interpretation, such as River Monsters, or Man vs. Wild, all include white male hosts. Bear Grylls and Steve Irwin (and his family) come to mind when we think about iconic nature interpreters (in a mainstream sense), and both are white males. It is clear what group dominates the interpretation industry. Privilege is evident here, as one group, namely white males, are awarded more opportunities within the space of nature interpretation than others.

Additionally, much of nature interpretation is catered specifically towards certain groups, while others are completely ignored. This is to say that much of nature interpretation is generalized. As an interpreter, it would be easier to generalize about a group of people, their beliefs, background knowledge, or reasons for being at a certain place. The problem with this, however, is that when we assume things like this, we’re at risk of leaving certain groups out.

The textbook notes that interpreters don’t know their audience well and often have misguided beliefs about them (Beck et al., 2018). It is also said, however, that in order to effectively serve your audience, you must know them and be able to gauge their beliefs, values, and motivations (Beck et al., 2018). For interpreters, it would be helpful to identify and learn more about certain barriers that a specific group may be facing, such as a communication or cultural barrier. If interpreters are able to learn more about these barriers on their own time, they would be able to better implement techniques that allow certain minorities to feel more a part of the interpretation. This would also help me to better learn about their potential motivations, beliefs, and values, which would ultimately lead to a better experience for both the interpreter and the audience.

It is important to note that it is likely that these generalizations happen because some interpreters are so privileged that they don’t even stop to consider certain things or barriers that other groups or individuals may be facing. Someone who comes from a middle class family, has a good knowledge base, was born in a Western country, and speaks english wouldn’t likely stop to consider how they should alter their interpretation style to cater to other groups who are not as privileged since they themselves may have never had to consider this before due to their own privilege.

Ultimately, it seems as though the world of nature interpretation is largely catered towards groups with already existing privilege (white people, those who speak english, are financially privileged, etc.). This is an obvious problem, and one that can only be fixed by people who actively acknowledge those who are not currently included within our Western framework of interpretation and work to include them in this discipline.

References

Beck, L., Cable, T., & Knudson, D. (2018). Interpreting cultural and natural heritage. Sagamore-Venture Publishing LLC.

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