"You can take the animal out of the wild, but you can't take the wild out of the animal"- an old quote used endlessly by animal rights advocates, and mothers who keep declining their child's request for an exotic pet. In today's world, however, scientists have found ways to take the wild out of an animal without having to remove it from its habitat at all. With the development of various endangerment protection technologies, an abundance of species have been saved from extinction. These types of advancements have served very helpful in animal conservation to a degree, until the technology begins to overtake the wilderness to a point where it is no longer wild.
In recent decades, forms of wildlife surveillance and tracking have progressed in an effort for animals. Cameras planted on trees to keep an eye out for the endangered Sierra Nevada Red Fox let researchers know how much danger the species may actually be facing. While it is good to take advantage of the updated resources we acquire, it is not good to take advantage to the point of invasion.
It would be ideal if we were to utilize this technology only to restore an ecosystem, and then leave it untouched after the fact. However, the problem is that in today's world of rapid industrialization, we do not know when to stop: when enough is enough. It seems that everyday there is a new field or park being torn up, and huge houses and developments being placed right on top. As we continue to turn open space into closed, animals all over the world are losing their homes. As a society, we see no direct consequences of such invasions, but the indirect consequences can result in thousands of lost species, that, once are gone, can never exist again. The same invasions occur in protection efforts. Herds of Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep roam Yosemite National Park in GPS collars. These collars were manufactured. The sheep were not.
Humans are currently the species in control, but it is important to think of what we do with our control. In such a technological-based era, we turn to gadgets to fix everything, even the endangerment of a wild species. But what we cannot and should never attempt to control from a computer is the wild in an animal. Doing so would be a cheat on Mother Nature; a disrespect to the wonder of the wilderness.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/13/sunday-review/the-unnatural-kingdom.html?ribbon-ad-idx=6&rref=opinion&module=Ribbon&version=origin®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&pgtype=article
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Sunday, March 6, 2016
TOW #20- IRB 1
Jonathan Franzen's, How To Be Alone, is a collection of essays comprised of memories from throughout his lifetime. However, memories are exactly what is absent in his essay, "My Father's Brain." Throughout this piece, Franzen includes portions of his mother's letters and scientific fact about the human brain in order to share the story of his father's decline.
A lack of communication between Jonathan Franzen's parents did not restrain his mother from stating her opinion. She voiced her feelings in years of letters that were sent to Franzen in the decades before his father's death. His decline in health due to Alzheimer's disease was sent in the form of updates from, "he was in the bathroom shaving at 2:30 AM," to an actual copy of the brain autopsy report. By including these postage excerpts and experiences in his essay, Franzen is able to show his audience the situation through the eyes of his mother. Their marriage, defined as a failure, set the essay up with an interesting perspective. His mother's point of view woven in with Franzen's own outlook on his father's disease was able to show the lack of emotional connection in his parents' relationship. While most people would suffer seeing a loved one die of Alzheimer's, his mother seemed to take it lightly, sending the news along with a Mr. Goodbar and a Valentine. Since the poor relationship was such a main part of the essay, the absence of her letters would result in a missing element to the essay; the story would be flat, from only one perspective.
Another perspective that Franzen incorporates is from a scientific standpoint, with facts about the human brain. He is able to draw parallels between research and personal experience that makes for an enhancement in the essay. One piece of evidence that he constantly refers back to is that a memory is "a set of sensory images and semantic data" that "are seldom the exclusive property of one particular memory." Franzen then follows this up with the broken down memory of Valentine's morning, and his association between the words "Mr. Goodbar" and "brain autopsy." Not only do scientific definitions add a sense of credibility and clarity for the audience, but it allows for a comparison between literal and figurative meaning. Franzen took these factual statements founded in science and compared his own, which were solely founded through personal experience. With this inclusion, he is able to truly show the differences between what Alzheimers disease looks like to an outsider, and what it looks like to him.
In the essay "My Father's Brain" found in How To Be Alone by Jonathan Franzen, he uses portions of his mother's letters and scientific definitions about the brain in order to effectively tell the story about his father's decline. Franzen gives his audience an inside look on the destruction of Alzheimers disease not only on the human brain that falls victim, but to the surrounding people as well.
A lack of communication between Jonathan Franzen's parents did not restrain his mother from stating her opinion. She voiced her feelings in years of letters that were sent to Franzen in the decades before his father's death. His decline in health due to Alzheimer's disease was sent in the form of updates from, "he was in the bathroom shaving at 2:30 AM," to an actual copy of the brain autopsy report. By including these postage excerpts and experiences in his essay, Franzen is able to show his audience the situation through the eyes of his mother. Their marriage, defined as a failure, set the essay up with an interesting perspective. His mother's point of view woven in with Franzen's own outlook on his father's disease was able to show the lack of emotional connection in his parents' relationship. While most people would suffer seeing a loved one die of Alzheimer's, his mother seemed to take it lightly, sending the news along with a Mr. Goodbar and a Valentine. Since the poor relationship was such a main part of the essay, the absence of her letters would result in a missing element to the essay; the story would be flat, from only one perspective.
Another perspective that Franzen incorporates is from a scientific standpoint, with facts about the human brain. He is able to draw parallels between research and personal experience that makes for an enhancement in the essay. One piece of evidence that he constantly refers back to is that a memory is "a set of sensory images and semantic data" that "are seldom the exclusive property of one particular memory." Franzen then follows this up with the broken down memory of Valentine's morning, and his association between the words "Mr. Goodbar" and "brain autopsy." Not only do scientific definitions add a sense of credibility and clarity for the audience, but it allows for a comparison between literal and figurative meaning. Franzen took these factual statements founded in science and compared his own, which were solely founded through personal experience. With this inclusion, he is able to truly show the differences between what Alzheimers disease looks like to an outsider, and what it looks like to him.
In the essay "My Father's Brain" found in How To Be Alone by Jonathan Franzen, he uses portions of his mother's letters and scientific definitions about the brain in order to effectively tell the story about his father's decline. Franzen gives his audience an inside look on the destruction of Alzheimers disease not only on the human brain that falls victim, but to the surrounding people as well.
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