Guest Speaker: Vernon Martin

The idea that Vernon Martin presented was really unique... i'm still trying to fully grasp the concept. It was interesting to look at the environment from a more philosophical standpoint, rather than the facts. Martin spoke of the idea of "finding nature at the mall"... the idea that we have become so disconnected from nature that our way of showing we appreciate it and that we care about it is by consuming it. We buy small knick knacks taken from nature: petrified wood, rocks, bat boxes, et cetera; however, in this process of showing that we appreciate nature by surrounding ourselves with it, we are so disconnected from true nature that we do not think about the detrimental costs to nature by removing these items from the natural world to purchase. Its really interesting, this idea that we don't just see things as 1-dimensional, but we give them meaning. This meaning that we give things is so strong that we distance ourselves into seeing the artificial versions of things as more real than the natural. It is a big thing that occurs today in marketing. Businesses appeal to making people feel connected to nature and feel as they're doing good by intentionally building places like rainforest cafe, where there are safari animals and where things aren't the way they are in real life; however, a part of their proceeds help in environmental conservation... appealing to the public. What the public doesn't know is what damages to the environment occured to make that restaurant. Vernon Martin was a very interesting speaker and had an interesting topic, we really do see the map as more real than the territory these days.