Bioregional Quiz and McKibben Podcast

The bioregional quiz made apparent a huge lack of knowledge about the environment humans are surrounded by. The human race has become so preoccupied and busy with the material things of life it has become so easy to ignore simple facts such as who lives next door, or what kind of species and plants live in the same bioregion as specific humans. The bioregional quiz probably put many people who thought they knew facts about their surroundings to shame. A point that sticks out in the McKibben podcast is that this generation was born onto a different planet than they now live on.  Aside from that comment, it was stated that this new or altered earth can no longer support economic or population growth. All of this is a result of poor maintenance of wealth and resources. Since the United States is so used to the idea of “bigness”, there is a struggle with becoming local because of the fear of becoming “too small”. McKibben also states that it would be helpful to measure things other than growth to help the United States shy away from the strive for always being so large.  Working on a local scale would provide a stronger sense of community thereby giving a closer connection to the natural world.  Lastly, McKibben touched on the fact that stability, and solidity are needed instead of means that could “wreck” or fall apart.