July 9

This day was our last day of class, our last field trip, course evaulation, and paper 4 was due. This paper was probably my least favorite out of them because I felt it was very choppy and not really sure how I wanted to express myslef.

I really enjoyed this class a lot. I appreciatee everything Dr. Morris has taught and explained to us. THis open my eyes to a lot of knew things and how I can make a difference. This class has a bad rep, but I will pass the word to take Dr. Morris for Colloquium. This class wasnt bad at all, but probably one of the best class I have taken so far at FGCU. I appreciate eveything and I will carry all this knowledge with me for the rest of my life.

Thanks
David Royster

History

The downtown Ft. Myers field trip displayed much history. I never knew that we had a farmers market where many people sold local and organically grown crops. I never knew the Caloosahatchee Indians lived here in Ft. Myers. Or about FT. Myers was a party city at one point and everyone went to the Pleasure Pier. Or about the Garden of Palms that has many different species of palm trees from all over the world. Or that Fort Myers got his name form a particular general whose last name was Myers. And this fort was protected by African American soldiers who were apart of the Union and not the Confederate. The Confederate could never take over the fort. And that Fort Myers is one the most segregated cities in the US. There so much history within Ft. Myers that i never knew about, but now I know.

Downtown Fort Myers

This field trip was to display our environment as human beings. We have distorted the natural environment since, but we must live as well. I never thought about our environment as natural. We have the technology and knowledge to do certain things, why not do them. We live on Earth too, so we must do what we have to to survive and coexist. This is something I have never considered, but it all makes since. We can't live on Earth for the Earth, but for ourselves so that we can survive. We must adapt to changes to the planet and the planet must adapt to us. Some of our methods may be erratic, but we our trying to fix the problems we have created.

Sanibel Flats

Sanibel Flats was the book I chose to read for our last paper. This is actually a good book, but it starts off really slow. It takes a while to get interesting, but the process is necessary to provide details and insight. I'm not one to really read books, so this is different for me. Reading about Doc, his environment, his life, and saving his best friends little boy is all very interesting. White is a very amazing story teller, and now will look up other books he was written and/or other mystery books.

FGCU Solar Panels

FGCU wants to build a sustainable environment, by building 2 million watts of solar panels. This would provide 2 megawatts a day, saving 22 million dollars over a 30 year span. These panels would be tracking sun from east to west and provide 27 percent more energy than your typical solar system. FGCU is also considering building solar panels on top of the parking garage and above Alico Arena. FGCU wouldn't be the first university to building a solar system, the University of Arizona also has a 2 million watt system.

Babcock Ranch

This city is starting to be built this year and it is north of Fort Myers, in Charlotte county. It is 17,000 of acres and surrounded by 73,000 acres of Babcock ranch preserve. This is a 100% solar power city, with a low amount of energy coming from wind power. This system would provide 75 megawatts of energy, sustainable water management and conservation, street lamps designed to reduce light pollution, electric car chargers, a smart grid system, green roofs to minimize energy requirement in buildings, and 20,000 jobs. I think this is an incredible task, taking place and I would love to visit this city when it is finish. This is a good step in the right direction and possibly change what our future will look like in other cities.

Enduring an Energy Future

Well in the presentation I spoke about the quote on page 148. It was talking about the government get tax revenues and subsidies to utilities for there use of conventional fossil fuel and coal uses. I would preferred to see them give those to the companies in an effort to switch to renewable energy. Giving them incentives for things that the planet would benefit, rather than giving them incentives so that the planet can continue to suffer. Also we set the an example to the rest of the world with this change, because everyone wants be like the US. Since many countries are just going through there industrial revolution, they can adopt renewable energy as well.