Intro to Environmental Studies Spring 2026

  Why Aesthetics Matter in the Environment When I first hear the word “aesthetics,” I don’t really think about the environment. I usually think about art or something that just looks nice. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized aesthetics actually plays a big role in how we treat the environment, even if we don’t notice it. People are way more likely to care about places that look good. If you think about somewhere like  Yellowstone National Park , it’s known for being really beautiful, and because of that, people want to protect it. The views, the wildlife, all of that makes people feel like it’s worth saving. At the same time, there are other places that are just as important, like wetlands or swamps, that don’t get the same attention because they’re not seen as “pretty.” Even though they actually do a lot for the environment, like helping with water and supporting animals, people don’t always think about them the same way. I’ve also noticed that how a place lo...

  Piore, Adam. “The Global Hunt to Unlock the Healing Powers of Poop.” National Geographic 249, no. 5 (May 2026): 64-81.  This article followed the efforts of scientists studying gut-bourne bacteria. They set out to create a database of the world’s microbiome, by identifying and naming gut bacteria from different populations. They took stool samples and analyzed them within 30 minutes. They compared the samples of people from industrialized nations, rural farmers, and isolated humans like the Hadza. The Hadza live off the land, similar to ancient people, they hunt various animals and gather various plants for consumption. Their varied diet was reflected in the species diversity and richness in their stool. When compared to the sample of the industrialized diet, the Hadza sample showed a much larger community or bacteria. These samples allow researches to isolate specific bacteria that can be helpful or harmful to the host human. This data will help future researchers to possi...

  Montgomery, David. “Why the Antarctic Seafloor is a Time Machine.” National Geographic 249, no. 5 (May 2026): 38-41.  There was another short article in the same National Geographic magazine that related to the study of climate change. In Antarctica, researchers are studying undocumented parts of the Ocean floor in an effort to better understand climate change. The Southern Ocean plays a major role in absorbing human-caused carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. On the seafloor, or benthic zone, the scientists collect filter feeders and take core samples. The water in this zone is largely unaffected by climate change and offers a pre-Industrialization look into the organisms that thrive there. The goal of the researchers is to make a case for preserving these unique ecosystems because the data would prove valuable for future research. By better understanding the health of these environments, it may be possible to improve the health of others. 

  Nordhaus, Hannah. “The Sneaky Genius of Nature’s Brightest Thinkers.” National Geographic 249, no. 5 (May 2026): 16–37.  Reading this article helped, along with my wife, to persuade me to add more native wild flowers to our yard to support pollinators. One of the interesting things from this article, a behavioral ecologist used tiny magnetic transponders to track the movement of bees. They plan to study the data to see how bees think with regards to weather and pattern. They proposed it being beneficial for aiding endangering plant populations or in conservation efforts. Scientists were also able to determine that bees have simple problem solving and counting capabilities. The article also highlighted 20 different species of bees. Many of varying size and color, it was fascinating to see how they each fill a pollinator niche in particular ways suited for their unique physiology. The article also talked about themes which were presented in class. The different roles and the ...

  The documentary we watched about ranching and working with natural systems was encouraging to me. The couple from Texas was inspiring because they were able to maintain a large number of cattle with just the two of them. It is more profitable to work with the land rather than trying to control, a concept that can help to improve the practices of our current meat industry. The ranchers who rotated their cattle grazing areas on a scheduled system were better able to maintain the health of their animals and the health of the land. The plants were not over consumed and species diversity was better when the animals were roasted off the land and the plants were given time to recover. The cows also benefitted by having a more diverse and robust diet, it actually significantly reduced the number of sick animals in the herd. It also benefitted the ranchers because they no longer had to spray chemicals to control weeds, reducing costs and the risk of toxic exposure.

  The video we watched in class about the families that moved their cattle along the river was fascinating to me. The distance they covered on continuous horseback was surprising. It took about 2 weeks to make it to their destination, a winter pasture that provided sustenance for the herds. It's a knowable undertaking but it seemed like a difficult journey, especially with the legal status of some of the land, part of a traditional route for the migration. It may become impossible for the families to continue their way of life if too much of the land is sold to owners that won’t support their traditional ways. I also thought it was interesting to see how much of a negative impact inflation had on the ranchers ability to maintain an adequate profit margin. It was sad to see the number of traditional family owned ranches dwindle over the years as some went out of business.

  The video we watched about the Bison was especially interesting to me because of the link between behavior and genetics. The scientists were able to relate their instinctual behavior to their genes as a built in survival mechanism. The bison were introduced into a mountain environment and they were naturally able to climb to higher elevations in a search for food, when it became seasonally scarce at the lower elevations.. I was impressed by the broad impact the bison’s natural behaviors were on the ecology. For example, the depressions the bison created from wallowing were beneficial to insect species diversification. I’m curious as to how these instincts are coded into the bison’s DNA. The understanding of their impact on the environment is critical to understanding how a keystone species impacts an environment.