WRITING ASSIGN 5

Richard Bell

In Chapter 8 of communicating nature I was particularly fond of the section on how the media chooses news stories. On page 223 it reads “news is a socially created product and not a reflection of objective reality.” I find it interesting how the news is supposed to appeal to the dominant culture, yet blinds that dominant culture to issues not reported. Since many news stories are influenced by money or by the most shocking statistics, environmental issues have taken a back seat. Even when environmental news is reported, there is a trend to present a two-sided story. I think it’s unfair to still have to present global warming as a topic that is up for debate. This method of presentation alludes to an uncertainty of the peril that the earth is in, despite there being significant data suggesting otherwise. News outlets need to present the facts and data of environmental issues and offer solutions that allow concerned viewers to take action.

Gary Snyder talks about winning hearts and minds of people through peace. He says that bioregional ideas have shifted and that people are learning and staying in “their place.” He says that the understanding of different ecosystems and improvement of environmental knowledge is very important for the people of any region.  My favorite idea of his is the idea of “home based knowledge,” where you combine local knowledge to extrapolate an understanding of the world as a whole. I like this idea because it encourages local understanding which breeds culpability and responsibility for local problems and does not outsource the worries to wage-based citizens.

Chapter 8

Kerry Harris

WRTG 3020

25 February 2013

Chapter 8: Growing up I never was one to want to watch the news. The reality of all the horrible things that exist in our world was always a scary thought I wished to push away. However, as time went on, news was forced more and more into my life. The chapter discusses all the ‘social reality’ of the news and how it exists today with majority of it being about the nonsense of celebrities, etc. This is such a sad reality considering the condition of our environment. Having a really close family friend as a cop, I was able to realize a couple years back how much goes on in reality that the ‘social reality’ does not depict. All the actual violence, murders, burglaries, etc. that exist and are uncovered in the media really made me question the role of the media, which is further being questioned considering how much about the environment goes unsaid. As the issues of the environment become more and more serious and important, I hope that as a social role the reality will be reported in the media for all to understand.

Greenwashing

Many of us like to talk the talk, but how many of us walk the talk? Are companies any different? The CEO’s and bosses of large and small companies usually have to answer to their shareholders, employees and others, like their husbands wives and kids. They have been taught that they are supposed to earn the most dollars from the sale of their products. If they don’t society will shun them, and make them outcasts. People in the U.S. are brought up from the earliest times of their youth to make dollars. If they don’t, no one will love them or theyt will be considered losers. 

So is it any surprise that a company will do whatever it can to make more money? Will any of us pay a company just to be good citizens? Can our society find it within themselves to fight against the staus quo?

We can complain all we want about “greenwashing” but it won’t do any good until people start to really pay attention to what they buy and from whom.

There are people out there selling things that are not greenwashed, they are not easy to find but you can. Also it never hurts to let the manufacturer of your favorite product to know how you feel. It’s not easy and is usually a vain effort, but at least you can say you gave it your best.

Communicating Nature: ch. 6 & 7

writing assignment 4

Consumption

Consumption, Spring 2013, Philipp Wickey

U.S. citizens consume far more than they need to. People change their clothes every day, eat more than their bodies need, use single serving containers, and work more and more hours to buy more and more stuff. It’s sickening to see the thousands of pounds of packaging that gets thrown “away.” Take walk along any road and start to look at how many plastic bottles, cigarette lighters, bottle caps, and plastic bags are out there. People treat the Earth like a fucking garbage dump.

I watched a movie trailer last night called “Midway,” it’s about an island 2,000 miles from any other land where birds go to birth and raise their offspring. They are feeding the chics theses pieces of plastic. The filmmaker films the actual graphic images of the birds dying from human junk. It’s incredibly painful. Although I have known about the subject for years, it never ceases to cause me a great deal of heartache. Today I nearly beat the shit out of some kid for throwing his cigarette butt on the ground. It makes me physically sick to witness that sort of behavior.

As for our insatiable consumption, I do not understand it. I cannot fathom how people think they need more and more. Millions of people get out of bed and go to jobs they hate to prostitute their bodies and minds for someone else to get wealthier from their labor. These workers get told “you can be rich to!” What a bunch of bullshit. Quit thinking about your selfish little life. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

Communicating Nature Chapters 6&7

Every time we go in the Internet or watch T.V. we are bombarded with advertisements.  Although advertisements attempt to promote social values, by using backdrops or forms of advocacy, however they ultimately sell private goods.  Nature and the environment are used rather often in advertisements, whether it be in a car commercial, or an advocacy commercial to save animals.  Nature is used in advertisements to help consumerism and promote materialism.    Rather than promoting nature as this wonderful aspect of the world, the capitalist principle has overtaken the world of ads and commercials, and as a result we are becoming increasingly detached from nature.

What makes animals extremely unique is, “we can only understand them in terms of our own experiences, language and emotions, and interpreted within our social, historical and cultural contexts.  Advertising although it detaches us from nature, it also appreciates nature.  Sports cars and sports teams are named after animals showing American freedom and pride.  Even though there are eight different types of value orientations towards animals, they all show interest towards different aspects of animals.  Animals throughout history have meant a lot to nations and people.  Today the bald eagle is used as the symbol of America. Ultimately, animals have become such a large part of our world that we use them frequently in mass media.

Communicating Nature: Ch 6&7 Response

The Ferrari logo correlates a fast car with a horse, but there is nothing environmentally friendly about a Ferrari.  The Jaguar may be a luxurious sports car, but it isn’t solar-powered.  Yeah, your Dodge Ram may be a hybrid, but it still runs on gasoline.  You’re greener than I am, but you ain’t green with a capital “g”.  We are all guilty.  I have nothing against hybrids and fully promote the positive step in the general direction of reducing our carbon footprint.  But as consumers in a capitalist society, we must be aware that nature has been totally manipulated by corporations and advertising agencies all around the world.  As Corbett notes, “nature is pristine, not endangered, and holds simple solutions to what are essentially complex dilemmas, lifestyles, and choices (148)”.  Maybe if we lived in a utopian society, this would actually hold some truth behind the advertisement.  However, our connection to the natural world has become a device through which mass media promotes happy and healthy living—even if it is at the expense of the natural world.  I seldom see an ad on television where nature is portrayed as just nature.  It almost always correlates with us being asked to buy a product—9 times out of 10 that will eventually lead to some sort of negative effect on the environment.  I find disturbing that a company can slap a “better for the environment” sticker on their product and make it seemingly more environmentally friendly.  Oh that box is made from 100% recycled materials?  I should definitely buy this for my son.  These products still promote consumption with minimal environmental effects.  The product rarely elaborates on how it benefits the environment.  It usually will provide the consumer with some arbitrary statistic with no accompanying information.  In my opinion, all companies—no matter how large—should have strict constraints when advertising their product.  Like Corbett mentions in Chapter 6, the “oxymoron of Green Advertising” should be completely removed from our society.  If the product doesn’t directly benefit the environment, it shouldn’t have any affiliation with being Green.  Our society banks off the extortion of animistic and natural imagery, yet gives very little back in hindsight.

Chapter 6&7

Chapter six examines the dilemma people face with giving into advertisements and popular culture. Many people argue that even though many companies promote “green” products, they are actually driving consumers further from the environment and disconnecting their consumers from nature. Corbett analyzes four types of environmental advertisement techniques: nature-as-backdrop, green product attributes, green image, and environmental advocacy. Advertising goals are to link desire of health and solitude with qualities within materialism. As people within a certain culture, we all have the desire to fit in and advertisements take advantage of that downfall and ultimately push people further from the natural world. Chapter seven analyses the power animals have on our interpretation and attachment to the environment. Corbett states, “animals are powerful place-markers and symbols of what is natural and wild, and represent the antithesis of technological culture”(212). Animals mean a lot to people, our love and astonishment with their way of life is something we overlook and take for granted. They matter so much to us because they give us a connection to nature that cannot be obtained elsewhere and maybe even because we need a sense of wonder and admiration that not even materialistic products can give us.

 

Chpt 6&7

Chapter six and seven of Communicating Nature discuss exposure to advertising, particularly focusing on environmental advertising and use of animals. The main focus is around how nature is used as a backdrop for material things that we “should” buy. I think that this is generally true of advertisements; playing at human’s vulnerability to need nature to get them to purchase material objects. I do think that much of my purchases are based on this idea. I “need” a tent to go camping, a sleeping bad that keeps me cozy warm, and a mattress pad. I do think that these things enhance the comfort of nature, but why do I need that seventy-two dollar filter water-bottle when most places I hike have waterfalls, a built in purification system that is free? Why do I need a special pair of hiking boots when a solid pair of tennis shoes that I use for other things are sufficient? Why do I need that special waterproof carrying case for my phone, shouldn’t it be off and put away?

The chapter about the use of animals is in advertising also holds pretty true in my perspective. Smokey the bear was an actual bear cub that was rescued from a forest fire, decades later he is still one of the most recognized “fictional” characters; pants and hat included. Yet, preventing forest fires is one of the US Forest Services biggest mistakes, along with eradicating wolves. Millions of dollars later and wolf reintroduction still heavily argued, mostly because livestock owners have the right to protect their animals. A big part of me agrees with them, I do think they have the right to protect livestock on private property, pre-eradication they could. Other people’s concerns are socially construed that wolves are going to eat their children from garden bassinettes.  

Ch 6 + 7

Chapter 6 revolves around picking apart modern advertisements and attempts to reveal their true motivations.  People are constantly persuaded into purchasing products that will make them fit in with what is considered current.  Products that are advertised as green and sustainable are normally the most widely accepted, but these businesses simply use these terms as positive adjectives to improve their products visual worth.  Just because American Spirit cigarettes are “natural” does not at all make them any more healthy for a smoker, nor does it make those cigarette butts any more degradable.  As human nature, we want to fit in, and succumbing to the false realities of advertisements is the best example of this.  Chapter 7 brought up a very interesting point regarding our attachment to certain animals.  Some people connect certain animal behavioral patterns with themselves, ultimately resulting in a loving attraction to some and a dislike of others.  I guess this goes along with why some people like cats and some people like dogs, or similarly with any other animal.