Avatar and Maffi Biocultural Intro by Jeff Goodemote

In the movie Avatar, I believe that the main conflict is that Parker and Colonel Quaritch wants unobtanium, a rare rock that can only be found in the sacred Na'vi tree, and do not realize what this tree means to the Na'vi. They also do not see that the Na'vi are about nature and do not want to change what they stand for. Meanwhile, Jake and the army will stop at nothing to obtain this mineral because of how much it is worth, and end up threatening the Na'vi to leave, and when they do not they end up destroying the land to get what they want. Jake ends up in the beginning of the movie on the same mission as the Colonel and Parker. Jake ends up getting to know the Na'vi and understanding what they are about and that his people are harming not only something beautiful, and meaningful; but destroying Mother Nature all at the same time. He really starts to understand the meaning of their land and how sacred it is. The master narrative of this conflict is that the Colonel Quaritch needs to reason with the Na'vi to leave, so they can obtain this rock and no one gets hurt. The Colonel and Jake meanwhile are anthropocentric, because they view themselves as the higher being; and that their need for this mineral is more important than nature, which is, the Na'vis' way of life. Also, the movie demonstrates a paradigm when Jake permanently uses the avatar body for the rest of his life. The movie Avatar, demonstrates narrative self when Grace compares the Na'vi way of life to their way of life. Jake demonstrates biocultural conservation when he goes into his avatar body and tries to learn their way of life.

The Biocultural Diversity Intro and Avatar have a lot in common, in the fact that, the movie and the story are both ethnocentric; because in the beginning of the movie, Avatar, the scientist are telling Jake what the Na'vi are like, he has to learn the language, and they almost evaluate the Na'vi way of life. Also, they compare it many times to what they do in their way of life. An example of this is when Jake goes into observe them for his mission and then tape records himself on what he observed, as well as, what he thought of it and reflects on it. In the Biocultural Diversity Intro, Maffi evaluates that the Tzal and the cultural change. As well as, observing the medical issues that they were having then, now reflecting on it in the story and in what Maffi saw. The film also, in many ways displays dualism, in the way that in the movie there is good and evil dualism. This is seen, because the Colonel and Jake were considered the bad guys, because they want unobtanium for profit. Then, the Na'vi are considered good, because they are the ones being invaded; they are just living their life and their land is being invaded, just because the Colonel and Parker want unobtanium. So, they think they are more important than the Na'vi are, so Parker and the Colonel will do anything to get this rock. In the Biocultural Diversity Intro, it uses an example of extinction of experience, when the reading says that in a market economy the human environment relationship becomes non relevant in our lives, because we do not use our resources effectively, we just take advantage of them. Which is what happens in the film, Avatar, when the Colonel and his army invade the Na'vi people just for one rock; and could care less about the land and its' resources, and then rely on all technology.

That in their case, nature itself becomes irrelevant to them just because they live in a market based economy. Jake brings about a huge indirect driver, when he realizes what he is doing later on in the film. He then instills this on Grace and the rest of the scientists, that what they are doing is wrong; as a result of this, Grace and Jake turn on the Colonel and Parker. Then, they go behind their back and bring their equipment to a mountain, where it is hard to be found. The Biocultural Diversity Intro relates to this concept, by trying to give the readers a message to not completely destroy nature and to take care of the resources that God intended us to use wisely. To support this Maffi says, "As local peoples are removed from their lands, or subsist in severely degraded ecosystems, and are absorbed into a market economy in which normally there is little room for traditional subsistence practices and resources use, local ecological knowledge and beliefs and the accumulated wisdom about human environment relationships begin to lose their relevance to their lives" (Maffi, pg. 6).

Mechanistic World: Avatar & Merchant

The world is a place where most people are greedy and only want things that will make them rich or famous, no matter at whose expense it is. Parker Selfridge is the prime example of this, he only wants to get the precious mineral that lies underneath the Na'vi, a native group on Pandora. The Na'vi are a people that don't have machines and technology, but have each other, and are happy for that. They feel they are connected through the trees and the ground, and in a way these are their ancestors. Selfridge's reductionism of the Na'vi is the basis of a tactical maneuver to eradicate their existence, if necessary, for self satisfaction. The Na'vi's Master Narrative, like the early society of humans in Merchant's literature, "Radical Ecology", was that the place they lived was sacred and it was their life source. The humans, led by Selfridge, are highly technological and care only about money. In a greedy move, Selfridge tries to move the Na'vi off the land through diplomacy instead of militaristic ways because he is afraid of the bad PR, but he is also ready to use force if necessary. The muscle behind the operation is Col. Miles Quaritch. In the film, Avatar, Selfridge exemplifies Merchant's Mechanistic Worldview of human society. The trees, the land and what was contained within the land that are so important to Na'vi are simply the valuable parts of a world sought by Selfridge for personal gain with no consideration of the destruction that would be caused by removal of these parts.

To try and get the Na'vi people off their land, Selfridge has built these "avatars" to go in and study the Na'vi and learn their ways, so it would be easier to get them to leave. One of the humans that had an avatar created specifically for him was a marine. Unfortunately, he was killed in combat right before he was going to be assigned to the avatar project. Luckily for Selfridge, the marine had a brother, Jake Sully, that would still be able to connect to the avatar since they shared some of the same genes. Jake was a former marine that was paralyzed from the waist down in combat. He was ordered to participate in the avatar project in the place of his brother, but the deal was sweetened when he was also promised that if he did it well, they would pay for the spinal surgery to fix his legs. So, Jake goes into the avatar project where he can control a shell that looks like a Na'vi person so he can "become" a Na'vi and try to convience them to leave their land.

Jake at first is loving his new body because he can run and do things again that he couldn't with his human body. He gets cocky and ends up being chased by a deadly beast. But Neytiri, a Na'vi princess, saves him and introduces him to her tribe. She shows him around and what the Na'vi people are really about. Jake starts to see life in a different way. His atomism approach to the Na'vi society is altered as he realizes they are more than just savages that function in an individualized capacity. Jake begins to understand the beauty in their world and how corrupt the humans have made it. The paradigm he once believed about the Na'vi people was shattered as he discovered they were not the savages his world portrayed them as. They weren't just a primitive people; they had souls and a meaning in life.

When Col. Quaritch sees that Jake isn't going to get the Na'vi to move, he draws from his narrative self and decides to take matters into his own hands. The Col. believes he is the dominant force of all those involved whether they be Na'vi or human. He brings in his helicopters and planes filled with missles and bullets to drive the Na'vi off their land, even if it meant killing the ones that tried to stay. His actions represent anthropocentrism, showing a total disregard for the existence of the Na'vi and their "mother land." Similarly, Merchant's reading portrays a society progressively centered on itself by abusing natural resources with no intent of replenishment. He didn't care about the individuals, he only saw savages that wouldn't submit to his will. He didn't care about the children, the elderly, the men or the women. He saw them as a group of people that were in between him and his paycheck. With the missles and bullets, he shot the tree the Na'vi lived in. The tree burst into flames and fell to the ground. The fire burned the ground and destroyed the land. All of this destruction was a result of his selfish desire to reach the minerals that laid beneath the hometree of the Na'vi people. This scene eerily symbolizes the quote below from Merchant where the humans did not hesitate to take action to destroy the Na'vi's "earth" to capture the resources it held and satisfy their selfish desires.

"The image of the earth as a living organism and nurturing mother served as a cultural constraint restricting the actions of human beings. One does not readily slay a mother dig into her entrails for gold, or mutilate her body. As long as the earth was conceptualized as alive and sensitive, it could be considered a breach of human ethical behavior to carry out destructive acts against it." (Merchant 43)

Jake tries to save the Na'vi by rallying them with other tribes and fighting along side them against Col. Quaritch and his army. Jake knows that they are using bows and arrows against machines and guns, but he believes that together the Na'vi can prevail over the terroristic humans invading their land. It comes down to Jake and Col. Quartich in a final battle where Jake is in his Na'vi avatar and the Col. is in a big fighting machine. Jake ends up killing the Col. and saving the Na'vi people. They send the humans away and bring peace back to the Na'vi's land.

There are many examples of dualism in the film Avatar: Na'vi vs. human, scientists vs. military and good vs. evil and the list goes on. Of primary focus is the dualism between scientists and military. The scientists want to study the Na'vi and learn their way of life and how they exist. The military see the Na'vi as a mission - search, find and conquer.

Avatar and Cronon, The Wild Side

http://www.entertainmentwallpaper.com/download/10020116/

High across the tree line of a lushes, green world is the start of a new beginning for a crippled war veteran and former marine, Jake Sully. Jake is on his way to Pandora, a lush Earth-like moon orbiting a blueish Jupiter-like planet. Jake was presented with a unique opportunity. His mission is to take the place of his deceased twin brother, Tom, a scientist who was in part of a highest level program overseen by corporate and military strategists. The idea of wilderness and the meaning of wilderness that Cronon refers to his literature, “The Trouble with Wilderness” are reflected throughout this film, Avatar. We as humans question the master narrative, the crisis of how we see the world also known as the crisis of perception and throughout Avatar “I see you” has a double meaning. What does wilderness even mean? For Cronon wilderness stands as the last remaining place where civilization has not been impacted by the human disease, the human race is Earths own personal cancer. The human present in nature fails because humans cannot live in nature nor live without because everything we do we cause harm to nature. The trouble with nature is our own perception; nature is a manmade perception, a social construction that we have been telling ourselves for generations. Nature is not just the forest but it is also the trees in our backyards and in our front yards, the grass that grows between the cracks of the sidewalk. We have set nature as a privilege sublime; we hold nature to be as beautiful as the Rainforest and the National park. This is not the only thing we set to a high standard, many women held beauty to a high standard. Not only is the wilderness “natural or wild” it is beautiful.

Jake attempts to thank Neytiri for helping him fight off the dog-like attackers. Neytiri meets his thanks with scorn, tells him all this is his fault, that they did not need to die, and that he should “go back” to where he came from. Jake asks if she felt that way, why she helped him, “you have a strong heart, no fear” she explains “but stupid.” Jake attempts to follow Neytiri up into the trees, asks for her help, and says he want to learn. She tells him to go back and that the sky people can’t be taught. Just then the seeds of Eywa reappear and start to land on Jake. Neytiri explains they are “very pure spirits.” The idea of Romanticism is that nature is above civilization; Muir was a Romanticist, who believed in ecocentrism, the view that recognizes the ecosphere rather than the biosphere as central of importance and attempts to readdress the imbalance created by anthropocentrism.  The Na’vi people do not find themselves higher than nature they see themselves as equal, as part of nature. Muir explains that nature involves the experience of the beauty that holds nature so powerful. Nature has a religious element that Muir explains it is an encounter with God viewing wilderness as a grand cathedral.

 

Jake is presented to Neytiri parents, Eytukan and Mo’at, Jakes tells them that he is a warrior, “dreamwalker” and his intention is to learn from them. Mo’at tastes Jake’s blood and announcement it is the will of Eywa for him to live with the Omaticaya and for Neytiri to teach their ways of life and customs. Wilderness to the Na’vi people is how they see wilderness as an experience. The wilderness is no small problem, how we see wilderness is the result of the lost of natural resources, our national identity and our masculinity. Masculinity is represented in Avatar through the characters of the Colonel and Parker. The operation is due to the fact that Hometree sits atop of massive deposit of unobtainium and Jake appears to be their best shot to convince the Omaticaya to move or advise the Colonel how he can force them to do so. Parker believes the “wealth of the world is in the ground all around [them]”. The only thing in their way is the “fly bitten savages that live in [Hometree]”. The “savages are threatening their own operation, and they must fight terror with terror for the sake of the base’s survival.” Savages have characteristics of animals, fierce, violent, and uncontrolled. The Na’vi people show none of these characteristics but because they are different from the humans in the film they must be savages because they are not human.

 

“The immeasurable height Of woods decaying, never to be decayed, The stationary blasts of waterfalls, And in the narrow rent at every turn Winds thwarting winds, bewildered and forlorn, The torrent shooting from the clear blue sky, The rocks that muttered close upon our ears, Black drizzling crags that spake by the way-side As if a voice were in them, the sick sight And giddy prospect of the raving stream, The unfettered clouds and region of the Heavens, Tumult and peace, the darkness and the light- Were all like workings of one mind , the features Of the same face, blossoms upon one tree; Characters of the great Apocalypse, The types and symbols of Eternity, Of first, and last, and midst, and without end.” -Cronon p.11

 This quote perfectly explains the idea that wilderness is all around us, no matter where you turn wilderness is everywhere we cannot run from wilderness we must learn to live and accept. Wilderness has not disappeared into the abyss we as humans are fixed on the wilderness. The wilderness tells our story, our national identity. Also the feeling that you are one with nature instead of knowing is one of the lessons Neytiri tries to explain to Jake. The bond with Jake’s direhorse is very important to the Na’vi. There is a Na’vi-forest connection. Neytiri explains to Jake that all energy is borrowed and one day we have to give it back. Jake seems to comprehend this and as he says a prayer for an animal he hunted and just killed, Neytiri says he is ready for an important rite of passage, to bond with and ride a Declan, a flying mountain teradactal. Jake’s lack of fear and successful bond with his Declan earns him respect of the Na’vi warriors even, Tsu’Tey. Jake makes the bond and as he ride the Declan, remarks that he’s not much of a horseman but he was “born to do this.” Even though Jake has no feeling in his legs as a human, in his Na’vi body he can do about anything. And with this new body he is seeing the world in a different perception even though he is not in his body, his mind is connected and the Na’vi people basically reborn Jake. When he returns to his human body he brings that perception with him.  Jake distinguishes himself as one of the Na’vi people; he feels this opportunity is for him to start over. He feels very connected to the Na’vi people and to the forest. When he is back in reality he is called a dreamer and a betrayer of his own race. The Colonial and Parker do not see what Jake can see, they feel that the Na’vi people can just pick another tree and move. Jake asks Eywa to look into Grace’s memories and stresses that humankind killed their mother, earth, the entity that protects the balance of life. Jake does not want to destroy the Na’vi people’s connection to the forest. The Tree of Souls is the most sacred place to the Na’vi. This is where the Na’vi people can communicate with their ancestors, and feel what they felt in the past. Also the Tree of Voices the Na’vi people bond with these trees they are also bonding with nature. The Na’vi people believe that have an interconnection with Eywa such that they cannot exist independently as a whole, or they cannot be understood as a whole without the reference to Eywa. The Na’vi people have an organic worldview that regards Eywa as greater than them.

 

Toward the end of the film Jake is now outcast from both sides, his human and his Na’vi. Jake was in the place where the eye does not see. The Na’vi people did not understand that Jake was reborn he understood to connect with the forest he fell in love with the forest and he couldn’t live with himself if he was a part of the operation to completely destroy the forest for the desire of unobtainium which has no value to him. He dreamt of peace but sooner or later Jake needed to wake up and fight terror with terror. Earth was dead and Jake was not going to let humans kill the Na’vi people’s Eywa. Jake felt the connection he had with the Na’vi people and he was not going to let his second chance slip away.

 

 Avatar is a film full of dualism; we have the military vs. scientist. The military desires power, greed, and will do anything to obtain these desires. But the scientists they desire understanding and the compassion for wilderness. They see more to wilderness than the military because the military is more masculine, they feel that the wilderness is for the men to build up experience get their hands dirty to become a better man. Also the dualism between Human vs. Nature, the humans must survive on Pandora, this unfamiliar wilderness must be explore and tame so that humans can feel powerful. When really nature was there first and humans must adapt to the wilderness. Avatar also tells a repeating story of a white American male that at first wants to tame the wilderness for the good of the humans but then with many challenges and struggles he realize that is not the way and he wins the heart of the natives so that he can teach the humans that wilderness is more powerful than they really think. This story is played in many movies, books and in even reality. The story belongs to white landowning Christian American males because they are viewed as the most powerful race of any other race.  

Learning to Grow Roots: Avatar and Leopold

Although the movie "Avatar", has many themes, the one that I found most interesting was the grave transformation of main character, Jake Sully. In the beginning of the film, Sully was a macho marine blinded by his own anthropocentric master narrative. He was completely Gun-ho on persuading the Natives to move out of the needed territory and was quite ready to use force if necessary, regardless of what it meant to the Na'Vi of to their environment. He saw the Na'Vi as an underdeveloped culture with inane concerns. His assumption that this world was filled with precarious life soon changed after he lived among them and felt the sense of community with the clan. He began to understand the importance between the system of trees and developed an ecocentric perspective. By experiencing the symbiosis with the Pandora native, Neyiri, he developed an ecological conscience which allowed him to put his narrative behind him and act on the opposite side of the dualistic view that now told him that the Na'Vi were not people of primitive culture but one of great strength and fortitude. The Na'Vi was able to connect with nature and live without the technology that we thought they needed.
One conversation that I thought illustrated so much about humanity was between Jake and Parker. Parker had told Jake that he didn't understand why the Na'Vi wouldn't just move. They would give them .."schools and education, but they want mud". Jake had discussed in one of his personal diaries that "There's nothing we have that they want". This is really the moment that I feel Jake begins to oppose his original dualistic view to move to the other side. He knew that the 2 cultures are so vastly different, but he realized he may not be apart of the stronger culture just because we have things like formal schools, electricity and technology. These people manage to live fulfilled lives and support and rich culture even without these things. This makes me question who really then is the strongest of the cultures in our own world? Is it the 'super powers' who rule the world with force, domination over all creatures and organisms, those who live through technology and electricity, democracy, and mass manufacturing with a mechanistic worldview, or is the culture manages without technology, sees the intrinsic value in things and not just a price tag, those who live with a sense of sovereignty and whose Master Narrative doesn't include mastery of all, but is incommensurable to us. It is so vastly different from our culture that we are jaded in our judgements and seek imperialism as a way for us to help them live up to our own standard when in reality they are the true top of the hierarchy as they can survive among nature with that which we cannot imagine living without. We are so set in our own humanistic view that choose not to try and understand how and why another culture lives the way they do, but instead force our own paradigm on them. When they chose to decline our "offer" of government and technology driven lives instead of accepting it, we chose to dominate them and push our own views in by force. This video, as comical as it may seem, has many truths in it. It relates Avatar to so much of the real world and where we have previously stood and continue to go.




When we chose to put our own views so far in front of anyone Else's, we miss out on things we could be learning. I believe that Jake's inability to use his legs in the 'real' world and ability to use them in Pandora was a metaphor. When lived in our own culture he followed the paradigm that was the anomaly and saw the Na'Vi as primitive and stubborn for not wanting to leave the area. It's as if he was 'paralyzed' from seeing the Master Narrative of the Na'Vi. After living among the Na'Vi, he began to appreciate their views and not only understand them, but also live by them. He was able to see through their eyes and 'walk again'. He developed a new ability to "Think like a Mountain"(Leopold). The quote from this article by Aldo Leopold "a mountain has live long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf" reminded me of the scene where Jake ties his tail to the tree and speaks to 'her' for advice about the following war(Leopold, p.2). As he know sees himself as apart of the system he asks nature for advice as he is apart of it and is aware that the battle will also effect their environment. He sees the importance of his relationship to the environment enough to know that he isn't fighting for himself or for humanity, but also for the wilderness that's apart of him. The key word in the quote is 'objectively'. The mountain 'objectively listens' and is able to hear the wolf in a way that someone who is not apart of nature cannot. The mountain can understand why the wolf howls and for what. In the article "Thinking Like a Mountain", the hunter has a new perception for the wolf he once loved to hunt, once he sees the "green fire" in the wolfs eyes. He's able to become closer to nature because he saw the emotion and experienced the sadness of the wolf's loss of her babies. Jake was able to feel the same connection after becoming a Na'Vi and seeing through their "green fire(d)" eyes the destruction that his culture was causing.

Jake began to become interconnected within the system of roots in within Pandora's trees that connected the entire community to it's environment. That connection gave both Jake and the natives the ability to appreciate the land around them and have an ecological conscience. "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and the community of the biotic environment. It is wrong when it tends to do otherwise". (The Land Ethic, Leopold, p.9) Jake saw that what Parker and the Colonel were doing was wrong as they were destroying not only the habitat where the Na'Vi lived, but their whole sense of life and community. By taking away their trees they were taking away the Narrative by which they lived by. Although Jake was a marine he was overcome with a feeling of disenchantment by the imperialistic sense of it all. By forcing views on someone you are tearing apart their "....integrity, stability and community...".
" Land, then, is not merely soil; it is the fountain of energy flow through a circuit of soils, plants and animals"(Leopold, p.6). The importance of this Land Pyramid for Jake is what made him stand up and fight against his own kind. It's strong system that connected the community helped him overcome his ignorance for that which was different from everything had ever known and became 'De-paralyzed' by his previous anthropocentrism enough to do what was morally and ecologically right.

Avatar and Plumwood Comparison

The film Avatar can best be described as a movie illustrating the conflict between different cultures, beliefs, and their roles in nature. The story line is that of an indigenous group of people, the Na'vi, who live harmoniously with nature. The master narrative for them is to co-exist with nature in a way that both can benefit and neither one harms the other. They are not anthropocentric in the way that they see themselves as being equal to nature, and they do not view themselves as being higher in importance. The conflict is between that of the Na'vi people and a capitalistic group of soldiers and scientist who are out to harvest unobtainium, an extremely valuable mineral that exists in great abundance in the land that the indigenous inhabit.

The relationships and characters in Avatar can easily be compared to Plumwood and her experience with the Crocodile that nearly took her life. In "Surviving a Crocodile Attack" Plumwood is trespassing in the home of the crocodile, and subsequently is putting herself in danger. Plumwood had always had an anthropocentric view of the world, and believed that as a human she was at the top of the food chain. Jake Sully in Avatar also recognized himself as being above other cultures, because he associated himself with being human. That is until he interacted with the Na'vi people and falls in love with a particular one named Neytiri. Suddenly Jake is transformed by the Na'vi people and sees things in a while new light. In this aspect of the story Jake symbolizes Plumwood because both are characters being antagonized in the story. The antagonist in Avatar is the Colonel, his minions and Parker. They are all working toward a common goal of gathering unobtainium for their own personal gain, and in the process are in no way concerned with the well-being of anybody but themselves. Jake believes that the Colonel and Parker are on his side, until they suddenly turn on him, just as the crocodile turned on Plumwood. The linking postulates between these two stories connect the master narratives in a way that they viewers and readers are able to relate them to one another. In "Surviving a Crocodile Attack" as Plumwood is being viciously attacked she is thinking to herself "This desperate delusion split apart as I hit the water. In that flash, I glimpsed the world for the first time, "from the outside," as a world no longer my own, and unrecognizable bleak landscape composed of raw necessity, indifferent to my life or death." This is th emoment that Plumwood realizes how small she is compared to the big picture. Up until now she thought there was some sort of dualism between her and nature, when she wasprivileged above the crocodile, and had certain rights that were exclusively for her. She was blinded by her view of her narrative self and egocentric point of view. She is quickly awoken from this bleak misinterpretation when she sees her own life flashing before her eyes.

The irony involved in Avatar involves Jake Sully, and ho whe is initially working for Parker, the Colonel, and Grace, a scientist who sides with the Na'vi people, but by the end of the film Jake turns on "his people" and starts to identify himself with the Na'vi. In the beginning his goal was to get the Na'vi to trust him so that he could convince them that it was in their best interest to relocate themselves away from "Hometree" which is the Na'vi peoples direct line to Eywa, the Na'vi people's "God". Hometree is a feministic part of the film, because she is viewed by the Na'vi people as being fragile in existence, and nurturing. Much like a mother would be to her own children, the Na'vi people believes that Eywa takes care of them. Jake begins to work his way into the hearts of the Na'vi people by first gaining the trust of the elite male, the father of Neytiri. The Na'vi soon follow in the footsteps of the leader, because the Na'vi tribe is ran much like a patriarchy where the oldest male is looked up to and emulated. In the Na'vi tribe the leader is seen to be one with extreme masculinity who can protect and make decisions for the group as a whole. After Jake gains teh trust of the Na'vi, he begins to try to connect with Eywa. The Tree of Souls represents "mother nature" as a whole and shows the femininity by looking dainty and fragile. You can see this in the scene where Jake connects with the Tree of Souls and warns her about the "sky people" coming to attack her people. Ironically Jake ends up trying to protect the same people that in the beginning he was out to get.

Avatar has many hidden metaphors, including the one where Jake says, "I was a warrior who dreamed he could bring peace. Sooner or later though, you always have to wake up." The hidden metaphor is that Jake is trying to say that when he is in the Avatar body he is trying to bring peace, and make a change. Being in his Avatar body was like being in a dream that you don't want to wake up from. A dream that in some ways is better than your reality. This is how Jake perceived the Na'vi world. A dream from which he hoped he could be a part of forever. This can be compared to Plumwood's thought as she was initially being attacked by the crocodile and was thinking, "This is not really happening. This is a nightmare from which I will soon awake." In this scenario Plumwood hopes that her reality is a dream, because what is happening to her is unimaginable. Plumwood's reaction is an example of a paradigm of inheritance. Plumwood was more than likely taught that from past generations that she was not vulnerable because she is a human, so she inherited the same thinking, thus explaining her reasoning for being so shocked by being victimized by the crocodile. A repeating metaphor in Avatar is howthe Na'vi says "I see you". These three words are a way of communicating and connecting with another individual on a deeper level. When the Na'vi "sees" someone it is a metaphor for loving or acknowledging the other person. When a Na'vi says, "I see you" it is the ultimate compliment and form of respect by the Na'vi. It is their way of finally accepting Jake as one of their own.

The theme seen in Avatar is a common one within many films. The white male protagonist goes into a foreign culture, which is orignially the enemy, but then realizes his wrong ways and is reborn as a new person and finds solidarity with the indigenous people and he ends up leading those people to stop the group of people that he uses to belong to. The entire conflict is in some ways culturally contained, in which someone from a culture can change and turn on their own culture and change it, and ultimately save other cultures in the process. The success of Avatar and films like Avatar can be contributed to people's desire to route for the underdog. In Avatar, the Na'vi are originally the underdog, who ends up coming out on top. Viewers can't help but want for the Na'vi to succeed becasue the Na'vi seem innocent and worthy of triumph.

Greenwash Watch: A "Second Skin" for Bananas

Image Credit Del Monte

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/03/greenwash-watch-second-skin-banana.php

 “Bananas come in the perfect package already, a disposable, compostable skin that doubles as a handy banana holder. But that's not good enough for Del Monte, which introduces individually wrapped bananas as a “Natural Energy Snack on the Go.” And what were they before? According to the Daily Mail, there is method in this madness; while the trial may seem bizarre at a time when big businesses are under pressure to reduce packaging waste, Del Monte insists the addition of a clear plastic bag is actually a green measure. The company claims that the bag contains ‘Controlled Ripening Technology’ which extends the shelf-life of the banana by up to six days. The banana is put into the plastic bag when it is green and, according to the manufacturers, goes on to ripen more slowly than if it had been left in the open air. Environmentalists are outraged at the unnecessary packaging, noting that "Nature has designed out the need for bananas to have extra packaging, “but the company is challenging that it is better.” James Harvey, Del Monte's UK managing director, told the Fresh Produce Journal, “Del Monte's new CRT packaging is designed to provide significant carbon footprint savings by reducing the frequency of deliveries and the amount of waste going to landfill. The packaging is also recyclable.” Reduced carbon footprint? Recyclable? How these words have become insulted.” - Lloyd Alter

Similar to this article is this video, Atheist Nightmare,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4yBvvGi_2A

This video explains that God has made the perfect banana for humans, every characteristic of the banana clearly acknowledge that the purpose for the banana was for humans to eat. But everyone does not know and even I did not know that humans have taken the “real banana” and chemically alter the DNA of this banana so that the bananas we eat do not produce large non-edible seeds. The banana we know today is man-made.

Now the banana producers want to give the banana a “second skin”. Eventually the future generations will grow up with their bananas in plastic bags. This is a perfect example in explaining Cronon “The Trouble with Wilderness” and Leopold “Land Ethic”. 

In Cronon, first we find meaning to what he means by “the trouble with wilderness”, at a glimpse the first thing that pops into the mind is trouble? What is wrong, are we doing something wrong? But we must ask ourselves this question what is wilderness? For my perspective wilderness is a grand forest, an area where no humans have interfere with the wildlife, it is untouched by man. And this is the perspective for many humans, but Cronon gives another side that no one has really taken into consideration. Cronon say wilderness is the tree in your backyard, the grass that grows between the cracks of the sidewalk. Basically if it’s natural then its wilderness, then we must ask ourselves what is natural? We have two sides, we have Pincho that believes in modernism and then we have Muir that supports Romanticism. Both sides have their own definition to what is natural. Pincho argues on anthropometric, which is regarding humankind as the central or most important element of existence. Also he has instrumental reason which is a specific form of rationality that focuses on efficient means to achieve an end. While on the other hand Muir focuses on ecocentrism; which recognizes the ecosphere rather than the biosphere, as the center of importance, and attempts to readdress the imbalance which is created by anthropocentrism. Muir explores the beauty and experience of nature rather than focus on masculinity.  Pincho was imposed that nature was only for the elite white Christian “American” males with landowning rights. The wilderness should be conserved so that men can go out and experience hunting and the joys of the wild because this knowledge made them manlier. Who was right?

The real trouble with wilderness is that it is nothing but a social construction, it is our own perspective. It is the crisis of how we see the world, a crisis of our own perspective. I have grown up going to the supermarket and picking bananas off the display without them being individual wrapped. During that time that was considered normal but now that the CEO of Del Monte believes that bananas should be individual wrap. By doing so their freshness will be preserved and this new wrapping is for the greater good, what should we believe? Should we believe that the banana needs a “second skin”? If so why, what is the reasoning behind the desire for a “second skin”. The CEO is basically slapping nature in the face that the original skin the banana was provided with is not enough for humans. The original skin does not have “Controlled Ripening Technology” that was developed in the new “second skin”. What should humans believe now; this new technology is capable of slowing the process when a banana ripens. This technology is giving a new perspective on how we might be saving money because and everything is revolved around money, we are either saving money or making more money. In this case the CEO is making more money with this new technology and the consumers are saving money. This new technology is for the great good for the people and only the people. The procedure to make plastic requires chemicals, oil, and other resources that is harsh on the environment but the CEO is saying this is perfectly fine because the plastic is recyclable. What should people believe is truth, is the truth masked behind fancy words that appeal to humans: recyclable= saving money, saving the environment or is it?  

“What then is truth? A movable host of metaphors, metonymies, and; anthropomorphisms: in short, a sum of human relations which have been poetically and rhetorically intensified, transferred, and embellished, and which, after long usage, seem to a people to be fixed, canonical, and binding. Truths are illusions which we have forgotten are illusions- they are metaphors that have become worn out and have been drained of sensuous force, coins which have lost their embossing and are now considered as metal and no longer as coins.”  (Nietzsche, 5)

This quote from Nietzsche really sums it all, “truth are illusions which we have forgotten are illusions”, basically he is saying anyone can tell us that a banana can be place into a preserve freshness bag then show us some evidence that this bag contains “Controlled Ripening Technology” and then in the next couple of weeks a “normal” banana will be a banana from the past Everyone will come to think that bagged bananas are completely natural. And it’s not just bananas they are experimenting with, we have seedless watermelons and seedless grapes, how did they become seedless? The same process of how bananas became seedless.  These fancy words, “Controlled Ripening Technology” appeals to humans because humans love technology, the United States is made on technology because technology makes our lives so much simpler.  We depend on technology on everything we do in our daily lives; we are so in gulped with technology that one day technology will take over our lives. As simple as inventing the cell phone so that we can communicate across the world now we are inventing plastic bags that slow down the ripening process of bananas. My question to the CEO of Del Monte, what is the difference between a regular household air lock plastic bags verse their plastic bags that contains “Controlled Ripening Technology”? I believe there is no difference between the two; it is just another invention of man.

Mans invention of tools has enabled him to make changes of unprecedented violence, rapidity, and scope.  (Leopold, 145)

Wilderness will never disappear, but humans cannot live in wilderness without causing harm and destruction to wilderness. In our perspectives nature has failed and it is up to humans to fix nature, humans are like nature’s own personal cancer. And wilderness is the only remaining area where civilization and the human disease have not fully infected.  Wilderness is part of American identity when we first arrive to the New World we were scared of the New World because it was so vast and unexplored. We did not take into consideration that the Native Americans did not see what we saw of their land, so we excluded them from our explorations. In the years to come our perspective of wilderness changed we saw the land as a grand cathedral rather than something that is coming out to get us. Also our respect for nature changed or so w thought it did, because now we face global warming and other environmental issues. The designer for the “second skin bananas” stated that the plastic that the banana will be placed in is recyclable and provides significant carbon footprint savings. And I questioned how? Wasn’t the original packaging that the banana was given biodegradable? The original packaging involved zero recycling and a huge significant carbon footprint saving. What is the difference between the original packaging and now that the banana will be in a plastic bag? I would believe costs would increase and then it’s starting to make sense, the cost of producing a normal banana is not covering profit so companies must figure out a strategy that will lure more customers. Right now in this era majority of Americans are thinking “green”, if the CEO of Del Monte said their bananas involves  reducing carbon footprint and everything is recyclable Americans will take that into consideration and figure on yes that make sense we approve bagged bananas over just buying them expose.  Also considering the amount of money Americans would be saving because who knows how many bananas goes to waste every day and with the new “Controlled Ripening Technology” these bags are capable of, our banana will stay fresh longer than original bananas.

Americans have set a standard too high another example is beauty for women. We set the bar that we must conserve every natural aspect but by doing so we are destroying everything natural. We must consider all the problems of the world to solve the whole because wilderness is no small problem. We must “think like a mountain”, view life that we are all part of a cycle, if we remove one part the whole mountain will collapsed. If Americans believe our bananas should be bagged we must look at all the parts and ask ourselves what was so unnatural, what was the real problem with the original banana? Why must they be in a bag? When we can answer these questions then we can start moving on to the next question what the trouble with wilderness?

One quote I really enjoyed from Leopold is:

“Land, then, is not merely soil; it is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plants, and animals. Food chains are the living channels which conduct energy upward; death and decay return it to the soil. The circuit is not closed; some energy is dissipated in decay, some is added by absorption from the air, some is stored in soils, peats, and long lived forests; but it is a sustained circuit, like a slowly augmented revolving fund of life. There is always a net loss by downhill wash, but this is normally small and offset by the decay of rocks. It is deposited in the ocean and, in the course of geological time, raised to form new lands and new pyramids.” (Leopold ,145)

This statement really sums up of what I’m been trying to explain, our land is not just soil it is where we receive our energy that is provided through plants and animals. We are one giant land pyramid, when we die and when animals die they are decomposed into the ground and are place back into our foods. We take something simple as a banana and alter the way we see a banana this perspective can cause serious damage to our land pyramid. We take civilization above nature, we don’t take it into consideration that if we destroy a part of the cycle the pyramid will collapsed.  So next time when you eat a banana think about what would you do with the bag rather than just taking the peel and throwing it in your garden to decompose, that plastic bag is adding one more step.

Realistic Expectations

After reading the article by William Cronon,'The Trouble With Wilderness', I couldn't keep away from the idea of closing off nature to man. I can understand that to preserve the glory and the sanctity that makes nature so provacative, we have to stay out of that which is labeled as "wilderness" so we don't destroy it. I feel like that would give nature the 'red button effect'. You tell someone over and over of the grave consequences of pushing the red button, but because telling us we can't, it makes us want to push it that much more. By adding the aspect of forbiddeness to wilderness are we just not making nature that much more appealing?Is it not in a part of our DNA as humans to want we can't have? By putting a "Keep Out" sign on nature we are creating a secret backdoor that although only certain people are allowed to enter, the exclusitvity of it makes us want it that much more. We then are hosting a whole plethora of other issues by not allowing humanity access. Nature and the utility of its resources is then to become the new black market for trees, land, coal and other goods. Although its hard to imagine someone chopping down a tree and selling it somewhere to someone in the public going unseen, we could also think that of the same thing about the black market for human organs. Who would have thought you could remove someone's kidney, sell it, put it in someone else and go virtually unnoticed.
I have a much larger appreciation for living among nature. By exposing us to the natural world and living with it every day of our lives, I would hope we can have a better understanding for life and that nature is life. If we block it off as a forbidden part of our nation it will almost appear to be non-existant. It will seem like a nice idea that existed long ago that our grandparents tell us about or a make believe story that we read about in books; having the idea constantly in the back of our heads that maybe this wilderness we hear about and never see is just a fallacy. The real struggle here in preserving nature is not seperating us from it, but the same struggle in the quest to happiness; appreciating what we have when we have it. Because we see it every day on our walk to school, drive to work, "between the cracks of the sidewalk", it begins to lose its appeal. Some driving force needs to kick us in the ass and show us what we have while we still have it. Unfortunately this can't be pictures in a textbook or in National Geographic, it has to hit so much closer to home for us. Whats truly unfortunate is that we can't see it in the plant we have on our balcony that dies because we forgot to water it one too many times. We too blinded by the dissappointment of "why did this happen to me?" than to think and realize "how could i have done this?"Who would want to admit and take full responsibility for the destruction and the decline of a planet with a surface area of 500,000,000 square kilometers?
We cannot deny the concept of backgrounding, in that we have a dependence on nature whether we like it or not. We cannot live without the air we breathe or without ground with which to step, or water or food (to in our case otherwise manipulate).We must put more emphasis on our need for nature, rather than our need for domination.
The perpective on nature is that its resiliency is infinite and that nothing we will do will keep it from coming back."We can be ethical only to something we can see, feed, understand, love and otherwise have faith in." (Leopold, 144)
If we do not love among nature and take that extra step back to really see and perhaps even marvel at its wonder, we cannot possibly feel the great importance behind saving it, and otherwise making the effort.
I feel like the answer hear is not keeping humans from nature but to respect it while we are in 'the wilderness'. We need to make sure we don't cause any further damage to our environment by using the knowledge we now have of the effects of our actions. We can't continue to make the same mistakes knowing the outcome isn't postivie for anyone. In addition to that, we need to use the technology and resources we now have to correct the mistakes we have already made as much as we can. In this video, it discusses what can be accomplished when the problem is recognized, addressed and corrected with the right mindset, financial resources, tools and technology.
http//www.youtube.com/user/BPplc?v=JL6ooGCMlSs&feature=pyv&ad=6746199733&kw=ocean#p/u/15/_TN8_TN1sPU
This is a man who can really appreciate the value of nature as he has lived among it for so long. Because he incorporates his life within nature, he is responsible for how he and others use it and within it. http//www.youtube.com/user/BPplc?v=JL6ooGCMlSs&feature=pyv&ad=6746199733&kw=ocean#p/u/14/Zeq6fht34mQ
http//www.youtube.com/user/BPplc?v=JL6ooGCMlSs&feature=pyv&ad=6746199733&kw=ocean#p/u/17/9QkxNOQNvlQ
http//www.youtube.com/user/BPplc?v=JL6ooGCMlSs&feature=pyv&ad=6746199733&kw=ocean#p/u/12/AI11XY-e8bo
These are all very short and completely worth watching as it shows that even though a huge corporation like BP royally messed up, they are showing that they can make it right by doing everything in their power to clean it up for humans, animals and the environment. BP is really leading the way for other companies to hopefully jump on the bandwagon.
Leopold stated in the article, 'Land Ethic', "An ethical obligation on the part of the private owner is the only visible remedy"(leopold,144). This is exactly what BP is trying to accomplish. They are making what they did right by not only claiming responsibilty for their actions, but by going a step further and correcting them.
We can only hope that once BP has fixed this catastrophic mess that they will take the proper precautions to not let it happen again. Unfortunately, BP hasn't taken enough precautions to prevent this as many environmentalists believe that BP still has errors in their drilling that make them vulnerable to another oil spill. So this leaves us questioning once again as a society; do we commend BP for making a large effort and putting a lot of their own finances to clean up what they had done, or do we slap them on the wrist for not making a big enough effort? I personally believe in babysteps. While it is BP's responsibility to fix their mistakes, we need to set a positive example for other corporations in saying we do appreciate your efforts. Thank You....but here's what else needs to be done and take every precaution in preventing this from happening again. Fortunately, we may not have to choose sides. The Obama Administration is trying to move forward with their ban on 'offshore drilling'. Although this may cross boundries with the concept of lassiez-faire, it needs to happen as the risks these oil companies take effects the entire globe and everyone's future. We can only hope that this is the first of a multiple step program in finding alternate energy sources because the reality of it is we need energy from somewhere. If we close the door to 'off shore drilling' we need to open a window to a new (hopefully renewable) energy source. Although as BP makes these seemingly small babysteps, we cannot underestimate the importance of these actions; we must remember that you have to learn to walk before you can run.

Oh Mother, Nature.

In Merchant's "Science and Worldviews" the true voice of Mother Nature comes out. The way Merchant compares the Earth to a human body and the way we function shines a whole new light on her [Earth] and in it she looks as beautiful as ever. Never before have I actualy thought of the world in quite the way Merchant explains it.

"A commonly used analogy was that of the female's reproductive and nurturting capacity

and of mother earth's ability to give birth to stones and metals with "her" womb through

marriage with the sun" (pg. 42).

This truly portrays earth as a human. Giving her the ability to reproduce just as humans do to be wed just as humans are. It makes you think of earth as something more than what we just walk on and use for our own selfish gain. In this metaphor Merchant shows the earth is just as important, if not more important, than a human being is, and without "her" life as we know it would not exist. It's much like how although woman are often taken for granted, if they no longer existed, then soon nobody would exist, because we are the ones who are able to reproduce, and keep this world going. This reminds me of a discussing we had in class about an animated picture with the quote,

"Housework is what a woman does that never gets noticed... until it isn't done"

by Evan Esar. This just goes to show how you can take the little things for granted, because you just expect them to be done. Many times the things that woman do are pushed into the background and ignored, so that they are unappreciated. It's difficult to grasp this concept for many people, that mother nature is valuable and not a renewable resource that can just be replaced. When you have been taught something your whole life it is difficult to change your way of thinking, but Merchant helps you to do just that. We as humans take for granted just what it means to be a human. In another paragraph merchant wrote,

"Nature must be "bound into service" and made a "slave," put "in constraint," and "molded"

by the mechanical arts" (pg. 45).

How true is that? Nature has been enslaved to humans. We are forever taking nature for granted and taking and taking, but never giving anything in return. We are abusing the privileges that have been given to us. Nature should not be enslaved to us. We should all realize that being able to use Nature's resources is not a right, but instead see it as a privilege which can, and will be taken away if we keep treating it the way that we have been. Merchant discusses how

"The management of natural resources depends on surveying the status of existing resources,

and efficiently planning their systematic use and replenishment for the long-term good of those

who use them" (pg. 53).

What I take from this is that it is impossible not to use some of nature's resources, but it is important that we do not over use her, and abuse her. We use nature only to try to improve our lives and yet all we are doing is destroying nature as we know it by over using what she has to offer.

When I think of us using Mother Nature to get ahead, with the result of us hurting her, I think of the BP Oil Spill off the Gulf Coast. The oil being spilled into the waters of the earth was a misfortune that could have been prevented if not for the carelessness of those involved. The waters can represent the "lungs" of Mother Nature and the oil that was leaked into her "lungs" represent the toxic nicotine and tar that contaminate her. Many people practice domination mastery in which they believe they have superiority over earth, instead of realizing that they are merely inhabitants of her wonderful existence. Not all humans are to blame for what happened during the BP Oil Spill, but most everyone does play a slight role in it. Vew people can honestly say they have never used oil, making them slightly responsible for the BP Oil Spill, because if oil wasn't in such high demand, then they wouldn't have been drilling for it to begin with. Humans haven't always been like this. Years ago humans were able to live on a bare minimum, and didn't find things like automobiles (what oil is most commonly used for) and such a necessity. Humanity has become such an egocentric existence where we seem to think only of ourselves. During the oil spill tons of oil leaked into what Merchant would call Mother Earth's "mucus," "blood," "saliva" and "sweat" (pg. 42) yet another part of her was contaminated by the carelessness of human actions. Until humans realize tht we are not special and the world doesn't revolve around us, Nature will continue to be the victim.

The picture can be credited to ADANnews