Ocean Inspirations

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This page is about the amazing people I have had the pleasure of meeting and how they relate to seagrass, our oceans and our environment. I can’t believe I haven’t started this earlier, since there have been many inspirations!

Miss Megan started explaining how she has been reading about the connection of humans to plant life and our environment. As I listened to her I was so uplifted by her passion and caring about our environment.

Brief Discussion Post on “Is All Writing Environmental Writing”:In “Is All Writing Environmental Writing”, Camille T. Dungy presents that our environments, both human and non-human, are intertwined and inseparable. Dungy argues that all writing is contextual to one’s environment and one cannot “compartmentalize [their] intentions]” (2). Instead, every topic of writing is “about our current and past human lives” in relation to the nature of our environment (7). What we do not include in our writing is just as important as what we do because it shows what we do and do not value in our times. Dungy’s argument is supported by her own writing experiences of being unable to separate the non-human environment to the human one and rather “fuzz the lines” (6). She also comments on her experiences of being the editor for Black Nature and the mix of non-human nature with “very human and deeply perilous concern” in their collection of poems (7). By fuzzing the lines between human and non-human concerns, these authors are arguing that human concerns cannot be separated from non-human ones and that there is always a relationship between the two. Dungy concludes by presenting the dangers of placing lesser value on “lives that are not our own” and the importance of attention and compassion to our non-human environment in our writing. I have always thought of my environment in a broad sense; my environment can be the immediate awareness from my senses or the people and things that occupy where I am. Dungy, however, expanded my thoughts on our environments as a complicated and intertwined mix of human and non-human components that make up our reality or existence. By touching upon the fragility of the Holocene, I began to analyze how we as a species have been dominating our environment to an unhealthy extent without regard for other species or Earth. Dungy’s urgency for us to pay attention to the ecotones in our environment is not a message we should take lightly. In order to co-exist in a peaceful and less destructive manner we must look at the margins between each zone, whether that be human or non-human, such as how our actions impact the natural environment and species other than our own. It’s urgent for humans to be more intentional if we wish to rebalance the fragile relationships outlined by Dungy. After reading “Is All Writing Environmental Writing,” I wish to be more intentional in how I convey our human and non-human environments in my writing as well as place more importance on rebuilding and maintaining the fragile relationships within our environments. 

Here is the source material of the beautiful writings of Camille T. Dungy:

https://www.nedretandre.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Is-All-Writing-Environmental-Writing-Camille-T.-Dungy.pdf

Megan also shared this awesome email subscription:

Links:Daily Glass Half Full Email Subscription SignupGlass Half Full Archive of Past Newsletters

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