Blog One: Summer Event

In early August this summer, I went on my annual camping trip for ten days on Eagle Lake. Eagle Lake is located in the town of South River, Ontario that is roughly about four and a half hours north of Hamilton.  During this trip I took part in many activities such as hiking, kayaking, mountain biking, swimming and of course, relaxing and taking in Ontario’s natural environment. Since I was with my family, I had a lot of time to reflect and take in the true natural environment. In fact, I actually kept a journal of particular things I truly notice on my camping excursion. Looking back at it now, I realized there were a lot of observations that came to my attention when I was there. For instance, I mention how noticeable the air quality was and how much cleaner it actually felt to breath. I also took into account how much wildlife was actually there and surprisingly how much they interacted with us.   Nevertheless, reflecting back on my trip in general, has made me aware of how sustaining environments and creating good habits is so crucial to our planet.  Returning to nature made me realize that all the activity I do in an urban setting uses an overture of higher energy sources including fossil fuels and production of green house gases. In this environment I was able to enjoy the reconnection with nature and did activities that did not expend copious amounts of green house gases. I realized that these non-carbon footprint recreations still resulted in just as a delightful experience.                                                                                                             From a sociological standpoint, it provided an opportunity to interact with my family members on a one on one communication level by simply sitting a around a fire or taking hikes through the woods. This also made me realize that although fires do great a small carbon footprint, it burns a lot less green house gases then driving through a urban setting to find entertainment.
            On a global standpoint, this can relate to many issues occurring in our world. For example, the proportionality of global warming to growing carbon emissions are our fault. We take for granted what seem to be such simple tasks in our everyday lives and we do not think the outcomes of it for the future. From basic things such not sorting your garbage and recycling properly to idling in traffic for hours. Many of these actions are spiraling affects that create issues as big as global warming is to us right now. We need to start asking questions like “why isn’t the air around us as clean as it is four hours north of us?” and act upon finding a solution. Many of the solutions are easier then we think. For instance, changing to more efficient running light bulbs.  It saves money, saves energy, and preserves our planet from high CO2 levels (by not running factories etc).