Climate Change

Climate change is easily the most frustrating thing we have studied so far.  It seems like everyone but a few denialists knows that its happening, but nobody is really willing to do anything substantial to fix it.  I recently sat through a really well done presentation in my PRC class about China and the environment, and many of the things he talked have been reflected on in our class.  He talked about the social injustices of the sustainability movement with the exportation of plastic recycling to China from the United States, he talked about the Cancer Cities that have sprung up around the high tech regions, and he talked about water pollution and land degradation in the name of progress.
None of these are new issues (with the possible exception of the cancer cities) yet the Chinese government has not done anything concrete to change it.  Our presenter listed several plans that the Chinese had, and then told us that none of this plans are really able to be enforced in China, the government values expansion and growth of environmental sustainability.
This seems to be like an extreme example of the world's opinions and actions in general.  Everyone pays lip service to the environment then passes laws with enough loopholes to be a pretty goof fishing net.  Not that you'd want to eat any of the fish you could catch in 7 of China's main 9 lakes.

Oh, Grizzly Man

Timothy Treadwell, to me, seemed crazy.  Apart from that, however, I think he was a very interesting person and had nothing but the best of intentions.  Treadwell spent 14 summers living among the grizzly bear and other wildlife in the wilds of Alaska.  He did this as a self-described "gentle warrior."  Being a gentle warrior meant that he came in kindness and love, but when challenged, he would rise up defend himself.  It also meant that he felt he would serve as the protector of the grizzlies (as though they need protection from puny humans) and save them from evil humanity in its many forms.
Some aspects of his escapades in Alaska have an ecofeminist feel to them.  Tim does not believe that he is superior to nature, or that he should dominate it in any way.  Tim went to Alaska to become a part of nature, to commune with the wildlife, to learn from them and to become a part of their society.  It is in that last aspect, however, that I think Tim deviates from established ecofeminism.  I don't think that traditional ecofeminism would call for its followers to leave human society and try to become a bear, which I firmly believe Treadwell would have loved to do.  Apart from deviating from ecofeminist theory, I think Tim deviates from pretty much every other environmental theory we covered so far.  The closest he comes to fitting in anywhere is the deep ecologist theory.  However, he doesn't feel that humanity in general is evil, and he doesn't disdain human relationships.  He dated several women, and throughout his filming, he showed a desire to be in a successful relationship.  He did think that humans caused suffering for animals, and as his filming progressed, he got more and more pissed off at society in general, especially at the people he felt were most at fault, the Park Service.  This made no sense to me whatsoever.  The Park Service in Alaska regulated bear hunting in order to sustain healthy grizzly populations and it was the Park Service that was responsible for allowing Timothy to get to his beloved Grizzly Maze in the first place.
I think the goal Timothy was trying to accomplish could have been achieved more successfully if he had used different methods.  Tim was trying to save the grizzlies don't need a human living among them to save them.  They need educated people who know that bears are intelligent, powerful, and important to the ecosystem to protect them.  Tim could have lived with the bears for however long he wanted, shot footage that was actually useful, not just him professing his love for bears, and then taken this footage to schools and tried to teach children to love bears from a distance.  That a distant respect for grizzlies would prevent poaching and over hunting, as well as preventing more people from dying the same death Tim and his girlfriend did.