Karl's NRM12 Blog

      As humans we rely on healthy soil for 95% of what we eat, and most soil used for agriculture has lost 50% of it's original carbon over the years. Soil releases carbon dioxide into the air when damaged, a cause of overheating atmosphere (global warming) as well as acidifying oceans which threatens marine life. We've discovered that we can reintroduce carbon back into soil through the use of plants. This turns atmospheric carbon into carbon in the soil, so it can feed beneficial micro organisms.       We can help raise the earth's potential to store carbon in a healthy way by keeping soil covered with plants in order to extract the atmospheric carbon, as well as crop diversity, and selective grazing. Another benefit to carbon rich soil, is that it can store water during floods and then nourish plants with said water during droughts. Working on increasing carbon in the soil will help with global annual greenhouse gas emissi...

Oliver's Market helps the local economy by buying from local vendors instead of picking the lowest priced items, which helps keep the cash flow within Sonoma County. 27.4 percent of everything they sell is from a vendor within Sonoma County. They're able to turn a profit by buying at the sellers price and then raising it a bit so that they can benefit the community but not go broke doing so. Oliver's is also a business that hires local employees, helping raise the number of jobs for Sonoma residents as well as, again, helping the local economy by not outsourcing work. Speaking of outsourcing, their headquarters are also local, which is yet another thing that helps stimulate the economy within Sonoma County. To add to that even more, they also donate over $300,000 to local Sonoma County charities. Although it's not always a viable option to buy local when the product you're looking for isn't produced locally, there are still more 'Go local' options ...

Consciousness Runs Deep Land Ethic While viewing this, I personally liked how it focused on not only our part in nature but also how widespread and full of experience the earth and it's environment is to everyone. As well as how it brought home that the planet isn't just something to be saved or left by the wayside. I believe that through visual imagery along with the video itself they did a great job in making the grandness of our world seen, from rivers and mountains and trees, all the way down to just simply the air we breathe, making the subject of environmentalism less abstract and more tangible for the masses. I enjoyed this approach because it includes humans in the equation of nature instead of just writing us off as either helping or hurting, and I think seeing it through this lens can help many more get on board with this message as well as doing each of our part out of self preservation as opposed to a guilt driven duty. I'm also not sure if this was...