A Lesson in Sustainability: France

It's been a good while since I've written in this, but I do have a good excuse; I have moved to France!

France is different in many more ways than the language, the age of the villages, the holidays, the way people greet each other, the dishes, the weather, etc. Though I have discussed France's lack of political activism in conservation and ecological awareness with passionate French men, France is miles ahead of the United States in sustainability.

For one: At the grocery store, there are no bags. You have to bring your own, buy your own at the store, or simply go without a bag. (The U.S. is making an effort towards this, but paper and plastic bags are still conveniently available)

Secondly, most people buy what they can at the farmer's markets: produce, poultry, beef, sea food, cheese, milk, beans, clothes, bread--everything. Farmer's market products are not only cheaper than a supermarket, they are locally grown or produced and are thereby more sustainable than the imported Spanish tomatoes that are sold at the supermarket. (And much more sustainable than the South American imported produce I mentioned in a previous entry). Plus, you get to support a farmer rather than a farming industry.

I do not have a car. Yet, I can walk to the farmer's market and two super markets. I can walk to the pharmacy, clothing stores, the train station, the pub, and several different churches. When I do take transportation, it's the SNCF train or I ride in a car with someone else--and it's usually more than two people in the car. The cars, at that, are all manual transmission, are usually small passenger cars, and do not waste energy on air conditioning. I ride my bike, as do many others, and cyclists are respected on the road.

There are no clothes dryers. This may sound absurd, but it's actually pretty great. I spent about 3 hours sitting in a garden (see above) waiting for my clothes to wash, then hung them to dry. All while sipping tea and reading Dostoevsky. I actually enjoyed doing laundry. My clothes smelled better, I felt better, and it cost less both financially and ecologically.

There is no air conditioning, and heating is only used certain months of the year. All houses and buildings have these magic things called windows--with curtains and shutters that can go from covering the entire window, to having holes for light, and can even be rolled up to any stopping point until they no longer touch the window pane. The windows can open from the top and let in a little air, or they can open completely. The curtains and the shutters can block out sunlight when it's hot, and block out the cold when it's cold. In between, you can let in cool breezes--especially during the day.

Most of the houses and buildings are built into older structures: most of the houses I've been in were built inside of 400 year old farms, 500 year old stables, the working quarters of a castle or an old village. The architecture seeks to work with its environment and even that is more sustainable than America's well known suburban landscapes.

Everything is in smaller portions. And I'm not starving. But, I don't feel obligated to eat as much, and I feel better after I eat. Even coffee--it's served in a small cup, but the ingredients are so rich that a little cup does the job better than a larger cup in America--and it's actually a little cheaper (unless you're in Paris, of course). There is less waste, less consumption, and less energy to transport said waste and consumer products.

I can't begin to tell you how amazing the food is. I never knew a tomato could taste like something! And they're red, are often grown without harmful pesticides or unsustainable farming techniques. (Though, the French call "organic" food "Agriculture Biologique", and there is a difference) The industrialization of agriculture is not as strong in France as it is in the United States, and most of what you eat is actually from a real, pastoral image farm. There are, however, plenty of American industry products to buy for a much higher price in most supermarkets.

While I was at the farmer's market with my friend Claude, we were invited to lunch by a painter. The French are very welcoming, and we ended up staying at Raymond's house for a few hours eating a several course lunch, getting a tour of his garden, learning about his paintings, work within his house and the history of where he lives. The vegetarian fad has not quite hit France, and people are often interested to talk to me about why I chose to not eat meat.

When we got to his house, I couldn't believe how beautiful it was. Eating in France is thought of as nourishing the body, of spending time with those you love, and of taking the time to slow down. All too often, eating in America is fast, squeezed into a thirty minute break (in a French high school, the lunch break is at least an hour), and is made from boxes, jars, and bags.

Like I said, it's amazing how much more flavor a silly tomato has when you grow it locally and naturally. Raymond lives off the vegetables, herbs and fruit in his garden, eats eggs from his chickens, and only goes to the market for meat. And I can honestly say that the quality of taste and nutrition is worth the effort to keep up a garden.

So, I leave you with this: America has no excuse. Sure, it will take time for America to adjust its infrastructure--we can't simply start walking across the suburbs of Houston and forget our cars. We can, however, stop offering free, unsustainable bags in grocery stores. We can add bike lanes to more cities, promote and support farmer's markets in our towns (there's even one where I went to high school, and I never even knew!), start our own garden--and even start small, and try not using a dryer. Lastly, we should all make an effort to learn about other cultures' sustainable practices and apply them to our own lives, thereby influencing others and promoting change.

(Raymond,the farmer and Painter, and Claude, a fellow teacher and avid reader, in the garden)

France still has a long way to go, but simple habits that they practice make a difference in sustainability.

Sea World As an Exercise in Mindfulness

Kennin and I petting a dolphin at Sea World.

Sea World was by far my favorite place in the world when I was young. A place where you can watch these beautiful whales leap out of the water and interact with humans as if they were as friendly as my dog was unfathomable. I loved all the shows in which human situations are acted out through sea animals, such as the mystery show starring a walrus.

As a teenager and college student, I went back to Sea World to ride the roller coasters, sit in the shark exhibit for an hour, and feel like a kid again. Over the Labor Day weekend, however, I revisited Sea World as a mentor for a five year old and two year old child. This entire summer has heavily consisted of me getting over my fear of children by interacting with my brother's girlfriend's children, and I've been amazed at just how curious and interested they are in the wonders of the world.

Kennin, the aforementioned five year old who watched Shark Week with me, loves sharks. She asked me to teach her about all the fish around us, so I took her hand and started pointing out sharks, talking about their behavior and having her identify them when they swam by. Sure enough, she started to remember them by their features and even responded to another visitor's spoken out loud thought as to what kind of shark had the giant teeth. We walked around the aquarium and looked at different fish, and she was constantly listening to everything I said, watching the fish, and asking things like, "Are they friends?" or "Where does he live?" Her being engaged in stopping and watching the fish instead of passing by inspired other kids and their parents to do the same; at some points, I was nearly lecturing a group of visitors about what they were really looking at in the tanks.

I don't think a lot of people really contemplate what it is they are experiencing when they look at a fish tank in an aquarium, feed a dolphin at Sea World or watch a Shamu show. This mindfulness makes trips to Sea World not only fun, but it helps to better grasp just how beautiful the world really is and how great it is that companies like Sea World use their resources to save wild animals and show the public what they share the planet with. Perhaps it is mindfulness that allows us to have that curiosity we value in children. If we can constantly remind our selves to really think about where we are, who we are, what we are doing and what we are looking at, we can see the world as brightly as we used to when we were kids.

Jellyfish--Vixens of the Sea

Jellyfish are probably some of the most bizarre, beautiful, and often annoying creatures of the ocean. My good friend and former roommate Courtney could sit, stare and sketch jellyfish while at the Aquarium for hours, and even has jellyfish tattoos on the side of her stomach. Because of her appreciation for these pretty critters, I dedicate this post to her.

Why are jellyfish so alluring despite their tendency to have painful greetings? Well, look at them. How many creatures do you know that are translucent and near transparent? Different jellyfish species are between 95 and 98% water, whereas us humans are a little over 60%. Another reason jellyfish are so pretty is probably because they are radically symmetrical, meaning both halves from the central axis mirror each other. Jellyfish do not have a brain, a respiratory system (breathing), a circulatory system (cycling materials, especially blood, around our body), or even an excretory system (filtering nutrients and getting rid of waste). Because of this, jellyfish actually go to the bathroom out of the same "hole" they take in food from.

Jellyfish don't even look like they should be alive with all their simplicities. Yet jellyfish, as a species, are older than the dinosaurs, and there's even thought to be an immortal jellyfish found (Thank you Christopher for showing me the article!). With so little inside their bodies, jellyfish must be pretty amazing at what they do in order to stay alive so long. Their "senses" consist of a neural net, "eyespots" detecting light from dark, and chemo-sensory pits that help detect prey. Jellyfish never stop growing, unlike us who typically tend to stop growing in high school after we've gone through sexual maturity. Without a respiratory system, jellyfish simply "breathe" in oxygen through their membrane-like skin. In order to swim, they use "jet propulsion" by taking in water through a muscular bell and shooting it out behind them. They aren't even fish, technically, because they don't have gills. Many scientists prefer to call them "sea jellies."

With no real internal organs or complex systems, you may wonder how jellyfish even reproduce. Well, jellyfish can reproduce sexually and asexually. Jellyfish are either born male or female, and each sex develops its eggs or sperm inside a pouch on their body. One fine day, the jellyfish will "throw up" their goods, and the goods pass from the stomach through the mouth. The eggs that stick to the lady jelly's mouth will be fertilized. The fertilized eggs become a planula, which is carried around ocean currents for quite some time until it is able to attach onto a surface and develop into a polyp. The polyp undergoes budding, which is like an asexual development of another polyp, and these polyps lead to the medusa stage. Some polyps actually split open through fission in order to become a medusa. Pretty weird, huh?

One jellyfish in particular, the box jellyfish, is known as the sea wasp. This little baby has 64 anuses (I'm serious) and 24 eyes, though they still can't really see. The box jellyfish is by far the most poisonous jellyfish, and it's sting can kill in 3 minutes. The amount of venom in one box jellyfish can kill up to 60 people. What's even more scary is that it can move at 2 meters.... per second. That means it would be pretty difficult to be stung and get back to shore. Thus, more people die from jellyfish attacks than sharks. Australians are well aware of this jellyfish, and they actually go swimming in regions where the jellyfish are located with women's pantyhose covering their arms and legs because the tentacles' little poison dart like nematocysts won't penetrate it. Additionally, their tentacles are near invisible and are pretty easy to get tangled up inside, which is why jellyfish are so good at finding prey despite the fact that most of them use ocean currents to get around. Think about how incredible it is that something so simple in form is not only alive, but has so much power and potential. Here we are, humans fully capable of adapting for life on every continent and have all kinds of fancy organs and systems, but some little thing that poops out of its mouth can cause us to stop breathing. It's pretty humbling to say the least.

Now that I've terrified you, know that most jellyfish species are not capable of killing you. A lot of jellyfish don't actually cause pain to humans because their stings are so subtle. Most of the ones who can noticeably sting you will not actually kill you, though they might make you whiney, and jellyfish are never aggressive. Jellyfish are just another one of the creatures on this planet that are beyond anything we could dream up, and reminds us that fact can indeed be strange than fiction.

Reflections on "Martian Child"

As I mentioned before with Avatar, my step dad and I love watching science fiction films together. My mom, however, is particularly restless and cannot sit through a movie. This trait made our only family trip to the theatre, that I can remember, to see Lord of the Rings particularly painful for her.

There's a film "Martian Child" that employs themes of science fiction, comedy and drama. The premise is that John Cusack's application for adoption finally comes through after his wife has passed, and he's not sure he has it in him to be a good parent. The child chosen for him by the adoption agent is a ten year-old boy who is convinced he's an alien from Mars and is thus why he stays under a box (as the sun is too bright) and wears a weight belt tying him to the ground made out of batteries. As John Cusack plays a famous science fiction writer, the pairing of these two is particularly amusing.

The three of us sat down to watch the film, and I'm glad we did. (My mom didn't get up once) There's a scene in particular when John Cusack is trying to talk to his new son. The kid's Andy Warhol social skills are making Cusack look like an inadequate parent to the adoption agency, especially when the kid steals from others in order to conduct his "mission" of documenting human life.

Here's what Cusack says: Dennis, can I just say one last thing about Mars? - which may be strange coming from a Science-Fiction writer - But right now, you and me here, put together entirely of atoms, sitting on this round rock with a core of liquid iron, held down by this force that seems to trouble you, called gravity, all the while spinning around the sun at 67,000 miles an hour and whizzing through the Milky Way at 600,000 miles an hour in a universe that very well may be chasing its own tail at the speed of light; And amidst all this frantic activity, fully cognisant of our own eminent demise - which is our own pretty way of saying we all know we're gonna die - We reach out to one another. Sometimes for the sake of entity, sometimes for reasons you're not old enough to understand yet, but a lot of the time we just reach out and expect nothing in return. Isn't that strange? Isn't that weird? Isn't that weird enough? The heck do ya need to be from Mars for?

It's surprising when John Cusack can express just how beautiful it is that we are pretty much parasites tearing up our very small corner of the universe, and our lives are pretty meaningless when you compare it to the rest of existence. For us to be alive amid all of this order and chaos is extraordinary enough. I guess when I become upset, lacking in confidence or defeated, I could think about how lucky I am to be a part of all of this--especially since I have no idea how to define "this" with so much out there I will never learn about. Our planet is a very small part of galaxy, and our galaxy is a part of an unknown array of other galaxies in some universe that is apparently constantly expanding. Even on our own planet, we have a lot to learn. There are species we haven't given names to, life in the ocean we are incapable of seeing because of our bodies' inability to withstand the ocean's pressure, ecological phenomenons and animal behavior we can't quite explain. Think about how much you know about the very place you life: how many plants can you name? what do you know about your own body? how does a computer work--really? It's overwhelming how limited we are despite our vast capabilities.

Revisiting Proust on a Night Bike Ride

Photo taken at the Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica.

I haven't been myself lately. For one, I've had the whole water submerged, The Graduate listlessness of coming home from one life and not knowing how to find the next. Secondly, I'm preparing to move to a foreign country where I'll be completely on my own and speaking a language I can't quite grasp. And in all of these attempts to make plans and steps, I'm worried about a family illness that will be much more difficult to help out with when I'm across the ocean. Needless to say, I've been a bit off.

And in the football crazed, concrete, Baptist haven of Tomball, Texas, I haven't found much to confide these discomforts in. Thus, I decide to take a night bike ride. It's colder out now--the sticky heat of a Texan summer is beginning to pass, and I actually felt chills on my skin. Rather than the makeshift headlight I've created out of a headlamp on my bicycle, I rode in darkness. In the beginning of the ride, the stars were barely visible in the clouds.

I started thinking about living in France. And of all the things to think about, I started imagining all the good places I'd find for reading classic literature since I'll actually have free time. I thought about how I'll experience a different climate--how I'll see the trees change color and learn new names for the life around me.

I stopped after about 20 minutes to drink water, and I noticed the clouds were beginning to fade. And I realized I was cold--which was a relief; the heat seems to drive everyone mad. Then I noticed just how dark everything was. I had almost forgotten what darkness was--where everything bleeds together into one shadow and is somehow unrecognizable.

I guess we forget the brilliance of light or recognize the madness of heat until we are overwhelmed in darkness and or reminded of the cold. And in my anxieties of this summer, I started to learn more about the meaning of one of my favorite quotes from literature: Le bonheur est salutaire pour le corps, mais c'est le chagrin qui développe les forces de l'esprit. Happiness is beneficial for the body, but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind (Marcel Proust, Le Tempts Retrouvé, The Past Recaptured). All of this anxiety I feel is completely human, and my ability to confront, face and live with it will only allow me to see more of the beauty in my life.

If you're reading this and have something on your mind, I hope you'll find yourself on a night bike ride. Maybe a walk. A swim in a creek or river. Something that forces you to be alone outside in light or darkness, silence or sound.

Swamp Thing Unveiled

This picture was taken in November of 2009 on an Ecology and Evolution field trip with Dr. White at Loyola University. The canoe trips with Dr. White were one of the greatest aspects of my college education. I encourage anyone curious enough to find a way to take a guided canoe trip in the wetlands.

I was blessed enough to visit New Orleans once again. After having driven from Houston through Beaumont, I was a little grumpy from driving. Once my passenger and I reached the bridges past Lake Charles, we both were instantly relieved at the sight of the wetlands. And it's strange; swamps are generally thought to be horrifying places where diseases brew in infested insects and swamp monsters emerge. The muck and overgrown plants, the seemingly dirty water--it's not as easy on the eyes as a Florida beach. So why was I so relieved to see such a creepy place?

Miami beaches used to be mangroves. (mangroves are like salt-water swamps) It takes a lot of unnatural maintenance and landscaping to convert mangroves into sandy beaches, and is part of why Florida gets so torn up over hurricanes--mangroves and swamps help serve as natural hurricane protection. Beaches can be as creepy as swamps in their own way, as they often get in the way of the natural balances in nature.

Upon the "Bienvenue à Louisiane" sign is also a message to protect Louisiana's coast. Louisiana may not have artificially pristine beaches like Florida, but they do have something incredibly valuable and increasingly endangered. The wetlands surrounding the cities of Louisiana are the same wetlands that Jean Lafitte, a famous pirate in American History, smuggled imports and tricked the British in the Battle of New Orleans. These wetlands carry the sounds of porch music; they house fishermen who live by seasons of invertebrates rather than climate. Louisiana, and especially New Orleans, has such a unique culture that is bred within these peculiar ecosystems that most other people are afraid of.

Anyone who canoes out into the wetlands and watches a sunset can feel just how beautiful a swamp or marsh can be. (Remember: wetlands are literally characterized by permanent flooding. A swamp is mostly water, cypresses, etc. A marsh is full of grasses and water. Swamps and marshes make up the wetlands)

Beyond the beauty and cultural value of the wetlands, wetlands also have quite a few natural perks.

For one, they serve as "sponges" by absorbing and storing water, gradually releasing water; thereby, this process of water storage helps prevent flooding, reduces erosion, and "mixes" water and its components (like soil, debris from plants, etc) so that it flows easier. Thus, there's less hurricane damage, less flooding, less property damage, and healthier ecosystems surrounding the wetlands. Compare this to Miami beaches in which the National Guard has to build up sand bars (which costs A LOT) in order to keep the hotels from literally eroding away. Even in New Orleans East, neighborhoods have been built by drying out wetlands and have shortly ended due to the tendency for flooding.

While the wetlands absorb all of this water, the wetlands are also filtering and cleaning the water. All of the nasty fertilizers, septic tank debris, manure and who knows what are filtered through the abundant plant life and are removed from the water itself. This natural filtration process is so successful that some artificial wetlands have been built in order to treat storm and waste water.

Though the wetlands look like a big green and brown mess, they have an incredibly large array of ecological diversity comparable to a coral reef or rain forest. The balance of life in the wetlands creates an abundance of diverse habitats, allowing for energy to move from plants to small fish and crustaceans, to larger fish, reptiles and even humans. All of this life contributes to fishing industries that help keep Louisiana communities alive.

Consider some of these interesting facts about wetlands from the Environmental Protection Agency:

• In 1991 wetland-related eco-tourism activities such as hunting, fishing, bird-watching, and photography added approximately $59 billion to the national economy. (i.e. if the beauty of wetlands don't convince you of their worth, wetlands are valuable economically through tourism)

• According to the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, almost $79 billion per year is generated from wetland-dependent species, or about 71 percent of the nation’s entire $111 billion commercial and recreational fishing industry in 1997. (Again, wetlands are valuable economically.)

• An acre of wetland can store 1–1.5 million gallons of floodwater. (Wetlands are pretty good at what they do)

• Up to one-half of North American bird species nest or feed in wetlands. (Proof of wetland's biodiversity)

• Although wetlands keep only about 5 percent of the land surface in the conterminous United States, they are home to 31 percent of our plant species. (Biodiversity again)

• Seventy-five percent of commercially harvested fish are wetland-dependent. Add shellfish species and that number jumps to 95 percent. (Biodiversity and economy!)

So. Swamps may not be the ideal location for your next summer vacation. They are, however, beautiful and ecologically productive ecosystems that we should work to protect. Preserving the wetlands preserves the unique Louisiana cultures, the Louisiana economy, biodiversity, property values, esthetic value and helps clean our water. Perhaps the real Swamp Things we should fear are the lumber industries that clear cut the wetlands, the oil industries that trash our wetlands and our own selves for not standing up for these beautiful places.

If you want to find out how to help the wetlands, try the Gulf Restoration Network.

Live Life Like a Sea Turtle

Meet Margot, a baby green sea turtle found by fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico. After a particularly cold winter, this critter was too young to swim into deeper waters to stay warm and thereby froze in shallow water. The Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans took her in and helped her get back on her feet, or so to speak.

I've found it increasingly difficult to fall asleep lately. I'm sure part of it is being out of school and its rhythm, while part of it is just that there's so many things to think about.

On these nights, I sometimes bring a pillow and blanket into the living room to watch the National Geographic, Discovery, or Animal Planet channel. One night in particular I decided to watch the program entitled "Oceans," which isn't too surprising.

Though I am calmed by watching sharks, eels, grumpy sea lions and orcas, I didn't expect a segment on precious little sea turtles to disturb and depress me for weeks.

I don't think anyone can deny that sea turtles are cute. They swim gracefully, and seeing them while snorkeling or diving is surreal. So when I saw the cutest little baby sea turtles hatching, I was pretty excited. Unfortunately, a few other critters were excited that the eggs were hatching, too because several different birds were waiting for a baby turtle to make its way out of the nest. Almost every baby turtle was either eaten by a bird or raccoon near the nest. Some of them were actually eaten by a terrifying salt water crocodile. These turtles are barely even alive and haven't actually become "sea" turtles yet since they haven't been given the chance to reach the sea.

Needless to say, I was upset for weeks. Every time I read about the sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico, I'd get so sick thinking of how much they went through just to live past infancy and how much I hated birds, raccoons and crocodiles for eating innocent turtles.

Once I calmed down, however, I knew it was unhealthy to have something bother me so much. As with anything else, it only gets worse when you try not to think about it. So, I started reading up on sea turtles.

At first, it made it worse. If a sea turtle makes it through the surf for the first time, according to biologist James R. Spotila, it still has less than a 50% chance of survival. The more I read, however, the more I fell in love with sea turtles.

For instance, the sex of a sea turtle isn't determined the way humans are. Humans, as we all know, can inherit either an X or Y chromosome from their father and will become either male or female (technically speaking). Turtle gender is determined by the temperature of the egg during incubation. By this, I mean if an egg incubates at 82º F, he will become a male. If the egg incubates at 88º F, she will become a female. This even means that the position of eggs in the nest can determine what gender the egg will become, as eggs in the center are often warmer than the bordering eggs. Furthermore, if a storm passes through during the middle third of incubation, thereby lowering the temperature of the nest, eggs previously developing into females will become males. How absurd is that?

Additionally, sea turtles' brains contain magnetite, which is an iron compound. Because of this, sea turtles can sense the earth's magnetic field since the magnetite is drawn towards the North Pole. It's like having a compass built in to your brain. This is why female turtles will often find the beach they were born on to lay their eggs many years later (sea turtles often don't lay their first eggs until they are 35--sounds good to me, too).

Despite how cool sea turtles are, there are still very few of them that make it into juveniles. On top of that, beach tourism destroys turtle nesting sites and overfishing makes it difficult for many turtles to survive.

Yet, when turtles are able to live, they really do live. Sea turtles well outlive humans and can live to be over 150 years old! In fact, the Galapagos turtle named Harriet that Darwin brought back on the 1835 Beagle voyage lived to be 176 and only recently died in 2006. Take a moment to think about that. This turtle is older than Darwin's Origin of Species--a book that single handedly altered our understanding of how things change over time. But that ridiculous turtle lived through all of it. The oldest living turtle on record was a 250 year old from the Kolkata Zoo in India. Imagine if we were able to live that long--we would be able to see so much more of the world and do so much more with our lives. Turtles are creatures that may have to truly fight in order to live, but still they live more fully than humans do. Our average lifespan is only around 72 years, yet we spend a large part of it not aware of how lucky we are to be alive.

What can I take away from this besides cool turtle facts? For one, it's hard caring about the world. The more you read and learn, the more you feel incapable of helping all the things that are wrong. However, if we ignore the world and try not to think about it, we only feel worse. By choosing to educate ourselves and face the things that make us uncomfortable, the stronger we are in facing problems and the more beauty we'll stumble upon. Secondly, since sea turtles have to fight a lot harder than we do in order to live, we might as well live life more fully.

Want to read more about these bad asses? I got most of my information in James R. Spotila's book here