Interpreting Nature with Zaid

This blog was created for ENVS*3000, University of Guelph.

The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of the University of Guelph.

As this course comes to an end and we all try to understand our roles as interpreters, it’s critical to develop a stance on the issues that the world faces and adjust our moral codes accordingly. We must remember our goals for the future and the plan of action that will lead us there. Do the small things within our daily lives that will lead to larger scale progress and ultimately help us reach the future we need. Our job as interpreters would be to provide information to those that may not have the tools or the access to develop an understanding of nature as deep as ours. Knowing this, we also must pass on our values and morals when it comes to how sustainability and preservation should be approached. This isn’t to say that we should tell people what to think, but rather help them develop their own understanding and connection to the natural world through our own experiences and values. We have to use our knowledge, abilities, and privilege to ensure that the generations of the future carry a need to preserve the natural world even after we are gone.

Technology will help substantially with this issue. The growing prevalence of technology in the pursuit of a healthier future is one that must be taken advantage of. Kids will understand futuristic technology better than we can because they will have grown up with it. The interpreters and ecologists of the future will have tools that we could never have even imagined, designed to streamline the process of learning and then taking action. Imagine something like an electric hovercraft that could make exploring the world easier, or supercomputers that can accurately predict when a natural disaster is going to happen. The world is working towards technology that can create sustainable energy and take measures to prevent/prepare for disasters before they even happen. The experts of the future must be encouraged to take full advantage of the technology that exists and be instilled with a need to innovate. As such, the connectivity that comes from globalization and the spread of the internet will create a network of experts unlike any that’s been seen before. Progress will be exponential, and its direction will be dictated by the decisions we make today. As humanity and technology evolve and we begin to venture out into space, we must carry the same practices and principles with us in order to prevent other planets from suffering the same way earth has. Colonizing another planet would give us the opportunity to start fresh and take actions to maintain a healthy atmosphere as early as possible.

I personally believe that most ecologists and interpreters will bring similar values and beliefs to the field of interpretation and conservation. Most of us know that climate change must be addressed immediately in order to avoid a future in which kids and future professionals cannot realistically reverse the effects of climate change in time. As was mentioned in the week 10 course content, the environmental educator Jacob Rodenburg said that “being an environmental educator in today’s world feels like you are asked to stop a rushing river armed only with a teaspoon.” It can be very daunting to go up against giant corporations and governments that only pretend to care about the environment. It is our responsibility nonetheless to help enact change in current policy and ensure that the politicians of the future understand the importance of maintaining good practices. We must ensure that the kids of today can come to appreciate nature themselves and find their own motivations for preserving the world we live in.

In the interview with David Suzuki and Richard Louv at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Louv defines nature as “anywhere I can be in a relationship of meaning with any species other than my own.” I believe that this is another important lesson that must be passed on to future generations. We must develop an appreciation for all of the other species that we share the biosphere with. As far as we know, they have no way of understanding the implications of living alongside us and what may happen to them if our destruction of the environment continues unchecked. By developing a meaningful relationship with wildlife, we can extend the scope of our understanding beyond the limitations of the human mind. Observing the effect that continuous human advancement has had on other species can help us understand all of the varying effects that climate change might be having and adapt to them accordingly. It is important to pass on the significance of such a connection so that future generations can maximize the amount of information at their disposal. Climate change has already gone past the point of no return several times in the past few decades and those who come after us will have even less time than we do now. For this reason, we have to imbue the lessons that we pass on with a sense of urgency so that the people who go on to make legislative decisions in the future can take the action needed to reverse the damage that we’ve left behind. Canada has already put several acts in place to begin the process of healing, namely their initiative to remove coal entirely from energy production by 2030. Such initiatives must be seen through and more need to be made from its example.

My personal approach would involve a lot of hands on experience. While other forms of media are incredibly helpful in providing a lot of information in a condensed and easy to understand package, the appreciation for the environment required of humanity in the future can only be fully developed when a person has been immersed in nature themselves. In the AGO interview, David Suzuki discusses finding his appreciation for nature in the mountains where he grew up, but so many areas are urbanized now that its harder for kids to find places to develop that same appreciation. Seeing the concepts and processes that we learn about take place in the real world can be an absolutely surreal experience, and it helps to cement the value of these lessons by putting the impacts of our involvement in nature right in front of our eyes. We see the damage that we’ve done but also the potential for repair and even improvement, provided technology advances towards efficiency and sustainability and legislature is made with the needs of everyone in mind. Overall, I believe that our approaches to nature interpretation and conservation for the future should involve the youth as much as possible and focus on helping them find their place within nature. Building the same values and appreciation in them that we hold for nature right now is essential to ensuring that the same values are carried into the future. The fate of the world lies in the choices we make today and the generations of tomorrow.

Thank you guys for a great semester. Reading everyone’s blog posts has been an incredibly fun and enriching experience. I’ve learned a lot more about nature and myself and I can’t wait to see all of the wonderful things that the people in this class achieve. Happy interpreting and I hope we meet on a mountain top some day!

- Zaid

Many people take their critical thinking and problem-solving abilities for granted. Imagine, for a second, where you would be if your parents or teachers hadn’t sat you down when you were young and explained in a human language what a shape was or why they fit into certain specially shaped holes. I have a feeling we’d all be very confused about everything going on around us. Without the ability to communicate complex thoughts and intricate processes with each other, most people would go on living without ever having reached a fraction of their full potential. However, there are several animals that have overcome this inter-species problem and have exhibited an extraordinary ability to think critically and solve problems without the help of English or any other language for that matter. Octopuses are probably one of the top animals on that list.

Octopuses have extraordinary critical thinking abilities and can solve problems with intuition similar to that of a young child. These invertebrates can squeeze themselves through any gap that is larger than their cartilaginous beaks. They can sense several different things using their tentacles including taste and touch. Each tentacle basically contains a brain of its own and can act independently, while the central brain maintains bodily functions and can exert top-down control when it's needed (Hendry, 2021). They can create complicated colours, patterns, and physical projections with their skin in order to blend in with their environment. They sometimes use shells and other debris from their environment to make complex shelters to hide from predators. They have distinct personalities and have even been known to hold grudges against people they don't like. They can be incredibly gentle and curious and at the same time, they can be vengeful and mischievous. They’ve even been observed using the venomous tentacles of the Portuguese man o’ war as weapons to immobilize their prey. They’re bags of jelly that have unlimited potential. The mimic octopus is a great example of a creature that employs all of these tactical skills:

These creatures are incredibly shy and clever so it’s often quite difficult to observe them in the wild doing all of the crazy things that they’re capable of. The picture below shows an octopus hiding inside of a broken glass bottle at the bottom of the seafloor. However, they’ve been observed doing all kinds of crazy things in aquariums around the world. There is a famous story from the Brighton Aquarium in England of lumpfish mysteriously disappearing from their tank overnight. Scientists were incredibly confused because there seemed to be no evidence of the tanks being tampered with. One night, they observed the octopus that lived in the tank next door climbing out of his own tank, opening the lid of the neighbouring tank that contained the lumpfish, capturing one of them, and then carrying it back into its own tank to snack on without leaving a trace. Scientists believe that the clever, eight-armed menace observed aquarium staff opening the tanks and learned how to do so himself (Borrell 2009).

Richard Whitcombe/Shutterstock.com

Dr. Jennifer Mather, a comparative psychologist at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, said in an interview with Scientific American that an animal’s intelligence might be measured by its ability to learn new information and then apply it. She discussed an experiment at the Seattle Aquarium that involved putting octopuses in an empty aquarium with just a simple pill bottle to observe their reaction in a “boring” situation. What would the octopus do when there’s nothing to do? The octopuses figured out that if they used a jet of water to blow the pill bottle over to one of the tank’s water jets, it would shoot back and then return to the octopus. These two octopuses then did this around 20 times. They were basically playing catch! That isn’t even the most amazing thing they’ve done with pill bottles. You know the child-proof lids that they often put on medication that even some adults struggle to open sometimes? An octopus figured out how to open one on its own. It only took 55 minutes, and with some practice, it managed to open it in 5. It took only an hour for this animal to figure out how to complete a task that was literally designed to be impossible for young humans (Layton, 2015). So not only do they play when they get bored, they can also problem-solve better than some human beings. Here’s a video of an octopus learning how to open a puzzle box with a crab in it by observing another octopus. Unfortunately, it was recorded with a potato. Enjoy.

With all of this being said, I wonder what kinds of things they’d have to say if they could communicate with us. Would they have opinions on sociopolitical issues? Can they figure out where this all came from by understanding physics and the nature of the universe better than we can? Could they teach us what it is to be alive or the meaning of life? Could they start a Fortune 500 company? As of right now we have no way of knowing the answers to these questions because we can’t talk to animals. I hope that sometime in the future we can befriend some sort of physicist octopus that can unlock the secrets to intergalactic travel or even the origins of the universe. Who knows, maybe they’ll figure out how to talk to us before we figure out how to talk to them!

Thanks for reading my post! Have a video of an octopus thanking the guy who saved it.

- Zaid

Borrell, B. (2009). Are octopuses smart?. Retrieved 1 April 2021, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-octopuses-smart/

Hendry, L. (2021). Octopuses keep surprising us - here are eight examples how. nhm.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 April 2021, from https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/octopuses-keep-surprising-us-here-are-eight-examples-how.html.

Where is music in nature? I guess you could say that the music in nature would consist of all the noises produced by the ecosystem. The sounds of wind and rain play a large part in setting the scene for a natural landscape. For example, a thunderstorm can change the feeling of a landscape completely. Many people love stormy nights, not only because of the rain and the lightning, but also the occasional rumble of thunder. Small rumbles in the distance can provide an eerie background to any setting and when you least expect it, a huge boom shakes your entire being and snaps you back to reality. The song “Riders on the Storm” by The Doors makes excellent use of these sounds. The rain and thunder in the background provides a constant atmosphere of mystery and Jim Morrison begins the song with some eerie lyrics; “there’s a killer on the road, his brain is squirming like a toad”. The same mysterious thunder and rain are then used right after to provide a sense of passion and romance when Morrison says, “the world on you depends, our life will never end”. The piano solo after heightens this with a cascade down the piano that mimics rain (at 4:16 in the video below). The tone of the song shifts considerably but the rain and thunder in the background remain constant and provide a sense of mystery and adventure throughout.

Additionally, all of the animals that compose an ecosystem make unique noises that can blend together into a symphony of sounds that plays constantly. Insects are so numerous and varying that they tend to make up the background noise of most ecosystems. One might think that a forest is quiet and peaceful at night when, in reality, there is almost always an orchestra of insects playing a ridiculously loud medley of every song they know. It could be hypothesized that early humans began experimenting with pitch and time to make music after hearing the animals around them doing it. Many birds use such songs to convey a variety of messages such as danger, happiness, or biological signals to inform the other sex when they’re ready to mate. Such messages can be accompanied by complicated dances and other visual effects like bright colours to help convey these emotions as clearly as possible. People in the modern day go to the club and show off their colourful outfits and fire dance moves in an attempt to convey similar messages to the people around them. Perhaps humans realized that the same could be done to convey complex human emotions and ideas, tell stories, and educate younger generations of the adventure that is being an adult human. If every known human culture has music like Krause et al. (2001) say, there must be a reason. It seems like music is often used to communicate when language can’t do the job. As such, the use of music and dance are critical to our abilities to interpret nature and convey its importance to people of all walks of life. Just as indigenous cultures use songs and dance to tell their youth about history and stories of a human being’s journey, we must also learn to tell stories and express complicated concepts in ways that everyone can appreciate. “Wildlife DJ” Ben Mirin did something similar when he began making music that incorporated recordings of bird songs and other animal noises. He made these songs live on his children’s show to teach his young audience about the various noises that animals can make to communicate with each other.

Now we ask, where is nature in music? The Doors and Ben Mirin incorporated the actual sounds of nature to transport the listener to a natural landscape. However, two of my favourite songs about nature incorporate no natural sounds at all. Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) by Marvin Gaye and Wondering Where the Lions Are by Bruce Cockburn (lol) use soothing and peaceful instrumentals alongside thought-provoking lyrics to convey the sensations of being within nature and all of the emotions that come with them. First, Mercy Mercy Me discusses the various ways in which humanity has destroyed the world’s natural ecosystems. The song consists of 4 short verses in which he brings to light a different problem that the world faces.

“Where did all the blue skies go? Poison is the wind that blows from the north and south and east.”

“Oil wasted on the ocean and upon our seas, fish full of mercury.”

“Radiation underground and in the sky, animals and birds that live nearby die.”

“What about this overcrowded land, how much more abuse from man can she stand?”

The soft piano and guitar combined with the thought-provoking lyrics almost make me feel guilty for being a person. Of course, it does help that Marvin Gaye has one of the most soothing voices in the history of the universe. It just goes with trees and serene, picturesque places for some reason. He shines a light on several ecological problems that humanity created while transporting the listener to a natural landscape through his ridiculously serene voice and instrumentals. On the other hand, Bruce Cockburn uses his song to discuss the amazing things that nature can make a person feel. Apparently, the song was written in 1979 in response to a momentary conflict between China and Russia that seemed like it could escalate into a nuclear exchange, according to a contributor on the lyric website Genius (Genius, n.d.)

“Sun’s up, uuh huh, looks okay, the world survives into another day, and I'm thinking about eternity, some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me”

“Up among the firs where it smells so sweet, or down in the valley where the river used to be; I got my mind on eternity, some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me; and I'm wondering where the lions are…”

“Young men marching, helmets shining in the sun; polished as precise like the brain behind the gun (should be!); they got me thinking about eternity…”

The playful guitar strumming along with his lyrics that provide strong imagery transport the listener to a natural landscape that provides a sense of peace and calm that I associate with being on a quiet cliff somewhere overlooking a huge forest. It describes a beautiful place that’s worth protecting at all costs, but not when protecting it means destroying it and ourselves as well. These songs can tell a story an convey emotions that would be difficult to express through words alone. The sounds and sights associated with them are critical to understanding the landscape and the gravity of the situation that it faces. One song that does a fantastic job of providing these sights and sounds is “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver, but I have a feeling that we all know that one and I don’t really need to explain it. This post is long enough as it is. Here's a more disturbing rendition instead.

Anyways, music is a very powerful tool that can be used to demonstrate the emotions and significance that can be associated with nature. It’s an essential tool for any nature interpreter and I am excited to see how styles evolve to relate to the changing times (I can’t wait to meet the person that can create a peaceful and serene EDM song that gets the same kind of message across). Thanks for reading my post!

- Zaid

PS. Have some 90s rap so that these fools know that you’re environmentally responsible and you keep it real in these streets (Parental Advisory: Explicit Content)

Genius (2021). Wondering Where the Lions Are. Retrieved March 15, 2021, from https://genius.com/Bruce-cockburn-wondering-where-the-lions-are-lyrics

Gray, P. Krause, B. Atema, J., Payne, R., Krumhansl, C. & Baptista, L. (2001). The Music of Nature and the Nature of Music. Science. 291. 52-54.

Unpack this quote:

There is no peculiar merit in ancient things, but there is merit in integrity, and integrity entails the keeping together of the parts of any whole, and if these parts are scattered throughout time, then the maintenance of integrity entails a knowledge, a memory, of ancient things. …. To think, feel or act as though the past is done with, is equivalent to believing that a railway station through which our train has just passed, only existed for as long as our train was in it.

(Edward Hyams, Chapter 7, The Gifts of Interpretation)

This week (Week 6), we discussed the role of history in the field of nature interpretation. The quote above touches on a subject that we did not discuss in depth within the content and which, in the past, has been a sensitive subject for many.

Bias exists within all forms of academia, within science and the humanities alike. Nature interpretation brings these two subjects together to some degree and for this reason, bias must be heavily considered before any form of interpreted material is accepted. As so many famous people have said in the past, history is decided by the victor. In many cases of conflict, the opinions and views of the losing party are often overtaken by those of the victor. In the interview with Robert Sutton, the chief historian of the US National Parks Service, he discusses the importance of presenting all viewpoints when considering a historical event in order to most accurately understand the true nature of the event. He discusses the Battle for Pea Ridge and, as he states in the video, the story told of the battle often only recounts the surface details such as the who, what, where, when, and why (who won, how many died, when and where it took place, etc.). The story that wasn’t told was of the 1000 Cherokee warriors that fought alongside the Confederates to maintain slavery’s legal status in the USA. Many of the Cherokee commanders were in fact slave owners and wanted to ensure that their slaves were not freed. This side of indigenous history is even more rarely discussed than the nationwide oppression and genocide of their peoples. Within Canada, the history of indigenous oppression is briefly touched upon in middle school and high school, but the fact of the matter is that majority of Canadians do not understand the true nature of modern and historical indigenous reserves. In fact, the suppression of groups within conflicts is a growing issue in modern times. Media outlets in countries that are seeing active conflict are often controlled to show a positive bias towards the oppressors. In some cases, the events taking place may be downplayed or even flipped to portray a more positive image of the country/government in order to cover up the true nature of the situation. One such local example is the conflict between nonindigenous commercial fishers and Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia. Each party wanted to claim a larger part of the lobster fishery because they felt they were entitled to it as either indigenous peoples or as citizens of Canada. The conflict was the reason behind many protests for indigenous rights in Canada, with some escalating into physical conflicts between the parties. Another international example is that of the Uyghur Muslims in China. China has been legally operating concentration camps for nearly two years and is just now being addressed by international governments. In the case of both of these conflicts, the question remains how they will be presented to future generations and how the outcome of such conflicts will change how they’re remembered.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7408638/lobster-conflict-timeline/

- A timeline of the lobster conflict in Nova Scotia.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/09/asia/china-uyghurs-xinjiang-genocide-report-intl-hnk/index.html

- A CNN report on how the situation in China regarding the Uyghurs is evolving.

The quote above discusses the importance of maintaining integrity within history and all of the negative effects that can come from excluding one group's perspective from an event. Doing so is just as absurd as passing by a train station and believing that it doesn’t exist beyond the few moments in which you experienced it. All of the people within the train station could be experiencing the same thing that you are, and within their minds you may only exist as a face that passed them once on a train. There is more to a place or a time than one person’s perspective and the only way that history can be accurately recounted is to consider perspectives from all parties involved. Bias in academia and media cannot exist for us to remember the world as it truly was. Within the context of nature interpretation, the points of view of everyone involved in the changing nature of a landscape must be accounted for so that not only can the ecosystems be better understood, but so that they can be appropriately preserved as well. Knowledge systems and historical data from indigenous, local, and scientific groups must all be closely considered so that no person, place, or thing is neglected within management strategies and law/decision making. Thanks for reading my post.

- Zaid

To be honest, I didn’t really know what to write about this week. However, after reading this week’s Courselink content, I decided on one of the biggest scientific topics that we can cover as university students: Climate Change! I know it kind of seems like I'm beating a dead horse with how much I talk about it on this blog, but the fact is that if we don’t do something soon, this horse is going to get right back up and beat us dead instead. As students of science, all of us end up at this topic one way or another. Within this course, one could argue that the main objective of our becoming nature interpreters is to share the importance of appreciating and preserving the natural world with those that might not have the opportunity to think about these things as much as we do. With that being said, one of our primary objectives in interpreting nature with the rest of the world would be to help educate them on the effects that we’ve had on our global ecosystem and what will happen if we don’t act soon to reverse these effects.

This is a video showing the amount of plastic waste that humans produce each year. Spoiler: it’s a lot.

As I was reading the other blogs, I came across several that covered topics like growing your own produce and encouraging sustainable practices in our everyday lives. But one that really stuck out to me was Kat’s post about the alien invasion that we are experiencing around the world. Invasive species are spreading further into global ecosystems and the effect that they can have on local wildlife is unprecedented. This got me thinking about what actual extra terrestrials might think if they visited our planet and saw the condition that it was in. Considering the effect that humans have had on the world in our relatively short history, could we not be considered the most prolific and destructive invasive species ever? We have spread at crazy rates into ecosystems that we’re not native to and it only takes us a few years to leave a lasting, and sometimes irreversible, impact. Set up a factory, pollute a river, destroy an ecosystem in the blink of an eye. On top of all of that, we’re the ones that are largely responsible for spreading those invasive species in the first place! If any of you guys have watched Kingsman: The Secret Service, you know that Samuel L. Jackson thinks that humanity is a virus on earth and global warming is the fever that’s going to flush us out. I don’t think planting homicidal SIM cards in everyone’s phones is the most effective solution, but I do agree that we’ve done a lot more harm than good.

This is drone footage of a fire at a rubber plant in Jonesborough, Tennessee. The fire burned for several days and polluted several local streams with burnt rubber and other pollutants. The giant black streak in the middle of the sky is the fume trail from the fire. 

It’s easy to go on a doomsday rant about how we’re destroying the world. The tough part is coming up with long term solutions that the average person can get involved in. Social media has at least helped with the second part of that. Snoop Dogg’s soda stream commercials and the effort to keep plastic straws out of the ocean, or Greta Thunberg’s angry rants in front of the UN sort of mark the beginning of the globalized solution to climate change. Everyone is taught as a kid not to litter, but campaigns like this have helped shed light on how these things directly impact the environment. Seeing an ocean covered in plastic can be quite shocking but I'm pretty sure everyone gets mad when they see a sea turtle in pain because there’s a plastic straw shoved up its nose. I won’t post the video of that here because every time I see it it makes me want to fight whoever threw that straw in the ocean, but you get the message. As people start to care more about the little things like metal straws and cutting the loops on disposable masks before we throw them in the garbage (and not on the ground), we can start to make some sort of change in the world. The next step is to make sure that everyone else knows about the bigger issues that lurk behind these ones and to convince those that can make a global change to do so immediately. The first step to becoming a space faring race cannot be that we had to take over another planet because we destroyed our first one. I think the aliens would be pretty disappointed with us if we couldn’t even protect our own planet from ourselves.

Thanks for listening to my rant about climate change! Here’s a video of an ostrich chasing two guys on bikes. It is terrifying how fast they can run.

If I’m being honest, I don’t really know how to describe my relationship with nature. I guess for me it’s a place of ultimate peace and quiet, somewhere I can escape to when there too much going on. In a sense, I guess nature is kind of like a drug. Not in the same destructive ways of course but more as a means to force your body to relax when it seems like you can’t. Just like a glass of wine or a nice joint at the end of a long day, it’s a way to quiet your mind and induce some kind of chemical relaxation within your brain. Going for a walk in the woods after a stressful day often has the same effect for me. The serenity of nature can put all of the problems weighing on my mind into perspective and help me handle them with a clearer head.

A photo of the view from the Niagara Escarpment at sunset. Taken by me.

I was very fortunate to grow up in Mississauga because it meant that my backyard was basically the Niagara Escarpment in the Halton Hills region. I went on countless adventures here as a kid, either on school trips or weekend hikes with my family. I remember on one school trip to Crawford Lake in the Halton Conservation Area, a rumour started to spread on the bus that the entire bottom of the lake was covered in the bodies of horses that died there. Naturally, a lot of the kids started to panic but this sparked a kind of morbid curiosity in a lot of the boys. We asked absolutely anyone we could find in the park if they could explain the horses and every single one of them would just look at us with a confused expression. This was probably because there weren’t actually any horses at the bottom of the lake, but this weird rumour had instilled a sense of adventure in my friends and I that made us want to explore the rest of the huge natural area that our teachers had introduced us to. Even now, when I see a crevice in some rocks or a mysterious trail that goes off into the woods, that sense of adventure comes back and I get the strong urge to do something potentially stupid.

A mysterious forest in Belarus that I would like to explore. Photo by @nanichkar on Unsplash.

I think this is where my sense of place comes from. My teachers taught me about what I was exploring and introduced me to the scientific side of nature. Hikes with my brother helped me learn how to explore on my own and what my surroundings meant in a larger context. My friends and family give me a sense of place when they share in my enthusiasm for the mysterious and exciting nature of the natural spaces that exist all around us. I believe that my understanding of nature has evolved as I’ve grown older and smarter, but my curiosity has stayed the same as when I was young. From what I’ve read, it seems like that’s the case for most of the people in this class and that makes me really excited for the future of conservation and the world in general. All we can do is hope that it stays that way. Thanks for reading!

Who am I to interpret nature through art? I am an individual of course! Every person’s perspective is a little bit different and for this reason I believe that art is simply an individual’s way of expressing this perspective. Even a cover of a song or a remake of a painting is someone’s unique interpretation of a piece of art. As such, nature exists to be interpreted by people who have the privilege of experiencing it and shared with those who do not. A painting of a landscape may inspire feelings within a person about that place that they may not have experienced otherwise. To be able to see something through someone else’s eyes is a concept that seems practically impossible but is quite simple in reality. When you look at a picture or a painting, you are seeing the artist’s interpretation of the subject. It helps to see things through a new lens and consider things from a new perspective. These new experiences help us to grow as people.

Lucius R. O'Brien Sunrise on the Saguenay, Cape Trinity (1880) Courtesy of the National Gallery of Canada.

I have never been very artsy so paintings have never really struck a chord with me, but for some reason this painting makes me feel a sense of adventure that I can’t quite describe. All I can think of is how much fun it would be to sail on that lake or base jump from that cliff!

As a student of science, I believe that this is an area that is often neglected in our field. Scientists are not usually asked to express their ideas in artistic ways, opting for concrete research published in peer reviewed scholarly papers instead. It seems to me like the social diseases described by Dr. Kurt Hahn, as outlined in our Unit 4 content, have only become more prevalent as time has progressed. The decline of initiative and enterprise, memory and imagination, and skill and care are especially concerning. The rise of technology and social media have made it much easier to become a passive observer of the world around you rather than an active participant. We aren’t taught to be whimsical and creative in our ideas and the ways that we express them.

However, these things have also created countless new ways to express yourself. During this pandemic in particular, platforms such as Tik Tok have grown substantially and present a new opportunity for people to share information and their own unique perspectives with the world. Educational content has become more popular with people posting things about science, history, art, culture, and just about anything else you can think of. I believe that this is “the gift of beauty”. People being able to share things that they are passionate about in their own creative and unique way. Is it not our job as nature interpreters to help others find their own sense of beauty within nature? To do this we have to be able to communicate our perspectives in as many different and creative ways as we can.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeJa2CMT/

The fact that I have absorbed more information about indigenous culture from Tik Tok than from my Canadian education is probably pretty concerning and speaks to how effective platforms like this are for education.

For this reason, I believe that art should become a much bigger part of scientific education. Art, in any form, can help to convey complex ideas in ways that are more easily understood by a larger variety of people. After all, not everyone is trained to read, understand, and learn from scholarly articles like we are. I think that kids should be taught to think and express their ideas creatively from a young age. As we learn more about the world and we deal with complex concepts such as climate change, it will only become more important to refine the mediums through which we share information. Being able to share these concepts with the general public is probably the most important responsibility for us as scientists. That’s why I am so excited to make podcasts for our class! Training our ability to creatively share ideas with people is crucial to our education (not to mention making a podcast is way more fun than sitting down and writing an academic paper!).

With all this being said, I want to ask you guys a few questions:

- What are some artistic mediums that you believe science should expand into?

- How do you believe younger generations should be educated about the world and how it is changing?

Thanks for reading!

- Zaid

Literature Cited

In this unit, we defined “risk” in several different ways. The first and probably most commonly used definition of the word is as follows: “the possibility that something unpleasant or unwelcome will happen”. I think most people would agree with this definition and it is understood that people take risks of their own free will. But we never defined the word “privilege”. To me the word privilege means to be able to do or say something without being concerned with the potential outcome. In other words, being able to take risks without fear while knowing that there is a possibility of something unpleasant or unwelcome happening as a result. We, as people living in a first world western country, take risks every single day without thinking about them. We can walk around and explore our surroundings freely without the fear of being kidnapped or killed. We have the ability to freely practice whatever religion we agree with without the fear of being persecuted by society for our beliefs. We have the ability to say whatever we want (within reason) without the fear of being murdered by the people that disagree with us. But we call these things “rights”, not privilege.

Two men arguing about their beliefs at the United States Capitol in Washington D.C.. Photo by @mariagrklens on Unsplash.

Being able to live this way without realizing that it is a privilege, is a privilege. People say stupid things on social media all the time and they get lost in the stream of information that comes with being able to use those services on a daily basis. In other countries, people are not so lucky. Censorship is rampant. Journalists get murdered for speaking out against corruption in other parts of the world all the time. Just last year, people in Hong Kong were arrested for peacefully protesting the tyranny of the Chinese government. They were forcefully silenced by the very people they were trying to expose for forcefully silencing people.

People in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong protesting against the Communist Party of China. Photo by @arturkornakov on Unsplash. 

Here in North America, we were able to elect a president that openly supported white supremacists along with his vice president that openly hated gay people. Even with all these privileges, people in our own society live in fear of taking risks. Women (and men to a lesser degree) have to stay vigilant whenever they go outside by themselves for fear of being attacked. Minorities have to stay vigilant whenever they go outside for fear of being profiled or targeted because of their race, gender, or religion. Both groups have to stay vigilant because they may not be treated equally within their own society. Poor people can’t afford to take risks like buying the latest phone because they’re probably more concerned with paying off debts or where their next meal is coming from. Humans within our own privileged society have been robbed of their basic privileges.

People protesting systemic racism in the United States during the Black Lives Matter Protests last year. Photo by @eadesstudio on Unsplash.

My ideal role as a nature interpreter would probably be that of some sort of forest tour guide. I would hang out in the forest and when people come along and would like to learn about the wonders that they see before them, I can take them into the belly of the beast and give them a first-hand experience. I’ve always loved exploring new places and trying to understand different kinds of wilderness, from giant underwater ecosystems to deserts that look completely barren. But for some reason, the huge mountains and forests that Canada is known for have always been my favourite.

Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta. Photo by @john_artifexfilms from Unsplash.

A lot of forests look the same on the surface. But once you start exploring them, you can find so many hidden gems that are completely unique to that single plot of land. A hidden creek where squirrels and tiny fish come to hang out together or maybe a crevice with all kinds of hidden secrets inside. For legal reasons, I'm not condoning climbing into random crevices since it’s usually a pretty stupid and reckless idea (if you haven’t seen 127 Hours, you should. It’ll give you a good idea of what I'm talking about. Fair warning, it is very unnerving and gets a bit gory). But if you find one, it might be worth looking around.

Antelope Canyon, Arizona, USA. Photo by @josephgardnerphotography from Unsplash.

Places like these represent a perfect example of how a forest, and all other kinds of wilderness in fact, can be so much more than just the random trees and animals that people might see on the surface. It’s kind of obvious and cliché to say that to a group of science students but it seems like a lot of people don’t spend as much time thinking about these things as we do. The quarantine has definitely encouraged the general public to get outside and explore the natural areas that exist around them more, but I guess it’s our job as nature interpreters to point out all the cool things that other folks might miss or overlook. When I envision this job, I imagine an old growth forest with sunlight peaking through the tops of trees that are hundreds of feet tall. The kind that make you question the nature of your reality when you stand beside them.

Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California, USA. Photo by @mischievous_penguins from Unsplash.

The fact that organisms like these can even exist is absolutely mind blowing to me and sharing this kind of amazement with other people is one of my favourite parts of being outside. Seeing the redwoods of California is high on my bucket list so I suppose that would be a great place for a job like this. Unfortunately, the most exotic place I’ve seen outside of Canada is Daytona Beach, Florida so I guess I have to explore the world a little bit more before I can decide. It’s daunting to see all of my classmates’ posts about all the amazing places that they’ve visited, but it’s inspiring at the same time and it saves me the trouble of thinking of cool places to visit 😉. My next step, after finishing school of course, is to get my pilots license so that I can go see all of these amazing places with my own eyes.

Aerial view of Costa Rica. Photo by @sammgrdichian from Unsplash.

Along with my degree, learning to fly tops the list of skills that I might need to become the ultimate nature interpreter. I figure I should learn about what I’m looking at first and then find my own ways to go out and see them. Flying over the forests of South America or the savannas of Africa would be pretty amazing. In addition, it would probably be helpful to learn a few new languages so that I can explore and learn with people from all over the world. I hope to see every crazy and magnificent place that the world has to offer, provided we can keep the Earth healthy long enough for me to see this through. Regardless, the world is extremely large and even more confusing in a lot of areas but I hope to be able to interpret it all one day!

I guess I’ll end this with a few questions to get your perspective on this:

What’s your favourite type of ecosystem to have an adventure in?

When you’re out exploring, do you like to listen to music or do you prefer the sounds of nature? And if you do like music, what kinds of music do you like to listen to?

What kind of interpreter do you hope to be?