Bill McKibben Part 2

I do agree with Mckibben that people relatively see farming as easy and simple. However, he could not be more right saying that it is far from simple. I have seen this first hand; I have family in Columbus who lives on a farm, and I have heard about the many things that go wrong and the work that goes into farming. It's also crazy to think that farmers now look on youtube to find out the newest methods other farmers have come up with. I'm pretty sure my aunt and uncle have probably done that, too!

His section on soil is eye-opening. I didn't know that industrialized farming is ruining soil, and that is frightening. 

I was really confused in the section talking about the economy and how we have built things too big. I was especially confused when McKibben said that building these huge industries were more dangerous than nuclear plants. Thankfully, it all started to make sense when he presented this analogy, "think the analogy I use in the book is you know we don't need a racehorse exquisitely bred to go as fast as possible, but whose ankle breaks [the minute] there's a [divet] in the track. We need [a ploughhorse] built for not for speed but for durability." A very clear image popped into my head when I read this analogy. Also, when McKibben gives the analogy of a terrorist coming to attack his solar panels, it also gave me a better understanding as to why we should not have these massive industries in the United States.

The terminology for kids spending too much time in front of a video game is quite humorous, "videophelia." It really is a good point that if kids are spending less and less time outside they are not going to care about the Earth as much as the kids who spent their entire child hood playing outside. 

Over all, it really is an interesting pod cast. I especially was intrigued by the technology aspects McKibben covers. Also, my results from the bioregional quiz show that McKibben would definitely shun me for my knowledge of my surroundings. I only knew/guessed on four of the questions.