Colloquium-- Outside of the States!

This was an unbelievable experience. This colloquium class and its thoughts

on sustainability do not just apply to SW Florida. Being temporarily in

Colombia I am still thinking of what I have learned so far on sustainability

and I am applying it to the environment here. For the this week’s blog I had

to go on a freshwater field trip so I went to a small town outside of Bogota

the capitol called Jenesano. In this town there is a river called El Rio de

Jenesano and it runs right through the town. It’s a beautiful place to be

because it is not like a town in the States, it is small and influenced by

the colonial Spanish times of Colombia. Not much technology is around just

the simple one or two computer café´s. So if you are thinking it you are

right, the town is full of nature. Surrounded by mountains the river and the

town lie in bowl type of location. Shrubs and Eucalyptus trees are

everywhere making the smell in the air refreshing and way more refreshing

then the synthetic glade bottle smell.

Now back to river and its relation with the town, I´d have to say it’s a

grey area, because it is very useful in their everyday needs such as a

source of water for cleaning and farming but as the population grows it is

slowly losing its maintenance and it’s not a direct focus of the town to

preserve it. In some areas it is being polluted you see trash around and

it’s sad because you travel away from the technological city life to an

isolated town and you still find the effects of pollution. However, it is

not on a large enough scale where it is impossible to enjoy the river.

The town does not provide special ecosystem trips to tour the river instead

it is there for the simple enjoyment of the people. Recently water companies

have stepped into the water control of the river because due to strange

fluxauting weather here, water levels have been very high at some points and

extremely low in others. This has caused extreme flooding in some areas and

destruction of homes, bridges, and agriculture as well. Since it is only

recent that a water company stepped in to control the river there aren´t

many regulations and so it is up to the land owners to take the initiative

to not build so close to the river or farm next to it.

I feel that now with government companies steeping in there soon will be

some regulations with water and land control to preserve this beautiful

environment. People with the want to live in a sustainable world and

conserve towns such as this one that have such a beautiful backyard with a

magnificent freshwater river running behind it should focus on the education

of sustainability in small towns. Teach them what it means to conserve this

land, what the effects are, how to continue living with their old customs

and still be green these are all important education strategies that should

be met in order to conserve such land. This land has been isolated for many

years and it is the entrance to more lands that are further away from the

city and provide even more wild land so preserving this land is important to

keep urbanization from reach the next city and so forth. Bulldozing such a

beautiful land would bring urbanization to a land that does not need it.

There are enough condos in the city and building more in a neighboring land

such as this one would eliminate a place where people can escape from their

business life and relax in a peaceful simple one.