Kaitlyn Bretz

Climate change is a serious threat to the modern world, primarily due to its global nature: actions in one region of the globe disproportionately affect other areas of the world, and any environmental effects from climate change develop incrementally and are difficult to see except in the long-term. To look at climate change effectively, we need to take into account the temporal and spatial scales used to frame an issue and decide what depth, or scope, is required for the most accurate assessment.

 

The most common visual format illustrating climate change are satellite images showing shifts in Earth’s surface and atmospheric conditions. This perspective allows us to see global phenomena all in one frame and better analyze global conditions caused by climate change. However, by using false-color images from space we distance ourselves from the actual problem. As I learned in GEOG 343: Political Ecology, even though humans live on Earth’s surface it is easy to disassociate oneself from the environment when the primary perspective is from space. In this course we addressed the problem of satellite data, namely Global Information Systems (GIS), during a discussion on the 1997-1998 Indonesian forest fires in Borneo (Harwell, 2000). Satellite imagery was also used in my ENVR 201: Environmental Science & Policy Lab, where we used satellite images to quantify deforestation in Brazil (images & maps below). With the advent of GIS and satellite imagery in the late 1990s, the world was able to see the devastating affect the forest fires had on many Southeast Asian countries. GIS was also able to identify the areas where the forest fires started and track their spread throughout the island of Borneo. While people thousands of miles away were able to look at the data and make conclusions on the cause of the fires, they were still far removed from Indonesia itself. This distance resulted in local people being ignored in analyses and their first-hand perspectives to the fires were virtually ignored. From this conclusion, I realized that in my future research projects I need to use a mix of spatial scales to properly understand a certain area and time. Because of the missing dialogue with local individuals, I plan to gain experience in qualitative data with field research methods and emphasize my interactions with local communities throughout the duration of my research. Because past actors ignored local citizens, it became easier for individuals in power to blame the locals. In Indonesia, we talked about how even though the true cause of these fires could be identified through GIS, the government consistently blamed Swidden (“slash & burn”) farmers for the forest fires. However by expanding the time scale and looking at Indonesian policies and economy from several decades prior to the forest fires all the way through the end of the fires, I realized that the local form of agriculture was not to blame, rather Indonesia’s push for development and economic growth (especially in the Palm oil industry) set up the nation for serious forest fires. The situation of misappropriated blame is not unique to Indonesia and has been repeated all over the world for many decades, and is continuing to be a large concern in current environmental management and conservation efforts.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A central idea in Political Ecology is that “choosing when to begin and end a story profoundly alters its shape and meaning,” (Prof. Kneas, Lecture, 2016). This idea is prevalent not only in current academic studies, but also within my research as an undergraduate student. I have been working with Dr. Jennifer Pournelle on her Sealands Archaeological & Sustainability Program (sealands.org) since January 2015 when I took her class ENVR 499: Research in Environmental Science and then continued working for her under a research grant from the South Carolina Honors College during the 2015 summer. While my project in Sealands dealt primarily with establishing marsh stratigraphy from soil core samples outside of Basra, southern Iraq, an integral part of my project included the looking at the history of the area and how the local people used the marshes through time. By understanding how communities have used the marshes and the geographic and political history of the area, Sealands can then lay the base for future marsh restoration projects in the area, specifically for the new MaRSHiI program that Dr. Pournelle is developing (see flyer). The Euphrates and Tigris marshes have existed for hundreds, if not thousands of years, and from my preliminary results they experienced a marine transgression, formed a saltwater marsh, then a freshwater marsh, a lake, and most recently a freshwater/brackish marsh (image below; abstract). Today however, the majority of the area that Euphrates marshes covered is now dry and barren, with only small areas of extremely brackish marshes remaining. Because of the Sealands program and Dr. Pournelle’s work in southern Iraq, I was able to expand my scale of analysis and see why the marshes are so barren today. I learned that with the start of the Gulf War in the early 1990s, the American forces and their allies convinced the Iraqi communities in southern Iraq to support their efforts against Saddam Hussein. Eventually the American forces and their allies retreated, leaving the Iraqis they had allied with virtually unprotected, and in retaliation for supporting the western nations, Saddam Hussein systematically drained the marshes using every piece of heavy machinery in Iraq. You can see the kilometer-wide ditches and drainage lines on Google Earth even to this day (image below). Because of this history, the purpose of my research changed: my research is helping explain the different environments the marshes are capable of sustaining and providing information for future marsh restoration efforts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While choosing when to begin and end a story alters its shape and meaning, deciding where to begin and end a story can alter it just as much. Understanding the spatial scale of something is essential, especially when you are looking at global phenomena. I have found that a good strategy to analyze a certain area is to look at it from the periphery, or ‘edges’, to the core, or ‘center’ of the region. By looking at something from a different angle, we give ourselves a new perspective and way to interpret an issue. This is a central theme in ANTH 515: Tradition & Transformation in Islamic Cultures, where I learned Islamic culture from the time of Muhammad’s revelations in Mecca to the modern-day Islam found all over the world. In order to look past the stereotypical narrative of Islamic history, ANTH 515 looked at the spread of Islam from the edges to the center, as described by our text, “Islam: the View from the Edge” by Richard W. Bulliet (1995). We looked at the history of Islam in Iran, Saudi Arabia, northern Africa, and Southeast Asia in order to understand the differences in cultures, how Islam is practiced, and to dispel common stereotypes, all of which are illustrated by my notes on the development of different schools of Islamic thought and the spreading of Islam throughout the globe. The study of Islam from the edge helped me not only outline a basic methodology for assessing the history of a region, but also to support my career goals to work in Indonesia. Indonesia holds the largest Muslim population in the world and also practices a unique school of thought, the Malikis. I know now that I will have to expand my spatial scale and look beyond Indonesia’s borders in order to understand the social dynamics within and around Indonesia.

 

Understanding the idea of scale is important in general, but especially so on a case-by case basis, when the end goals for a certain project depend on a particular scale. In environmental conservation, the scale of project is decided by an organisms’ requirements, the natural extent of an ecosystem, current human settlements, and the potential budget. In ENVR 571: Conservation Biology I learned how to outline a basic procedure for designing terrestrial and marine reserves. I describe the process of identifying key organisms, determining the proper scale of a project, and outlining a potential reserve design in a series of essays written throughout the semester (below). In order to design and implement a successful conservation project, particularly a reserve, you must have a solid understanding of the area and the goals of a project: for instance, a terrestrial reserve designed for a small species of amphibian that traverses between a couple of ponds will be much different than a terrestrial reserve designed for larger predatory species such as wolves or any large cat, which in turn will be massively different from a marine reserve designed to accommodate species that reproduce via spawning. Conservation Biology introduced me to the concept of fully researching the target species and end goals of my conservation project, and how my research will ultimately determine the scale and scope necessary for success.

 

Any potential of me reaching my career goal relies on my ability to enter an area and being able to understand the social, political, and environmental dynamics affecting it. In order to do this, I must have the skills to look at both broad global and narrow community-centered scales and scope of a region and understand how they work together. My undergraduate education has taught me the fundamentals of this process and I am willing and able to expand my abilities in this area throughout my career.