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Maria Fernandez-The seed of justice

Maria Fernandez

My participants name is Franco Israel. We have been friends for about a year now. We met at the beginning of our first semester as we both joined the UCF community at the same time through UCF Global which is the department for international students. Franco is originally from Peru, Arequipa. I asked him to help me on this project because ever since I met him I noticed that he had a very unique point of view. He gives off the vibe of an old, wise soul even though he is only 21 years old.

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“Planting a seed and watching it grow” Originally, when observing this view, we could appreciate it with sweet undertones. However, when we stop to ask, What have we actually planted? Was it on contaminated land? With what water have we fed our harvest? We spiral into an even deeper thought: maybe that is just it. We receive what we give back, and what have we given the environment? every type of pollution to ever exist, chemical dumps, endless fires, and just so much damage to an irreversible level. Now, when considering how this connects to our health, we get what we give, and due to the fact that we have not given much good, maybe our receipt was our health 

pandemic. Nevertheless, at the same time, this also ties in to the ancient belief in Hinduism and Buddhism of karma, which is how our actions ripple with consequences. If we genuinely do good deeds, we are rippled with good karma back, and the same happens when we do “bad” things.

This image was taken in Arequita, Peru, to illustrate the simple cycle of life that, throughout the years, we have overtaken and transformed into a whole complex situation. This has had positive and negative effects. This changed our whole dynamic, representing our cycle of giving and taking. Due to the actions we have been taking, we should consider what we can do to prevent causing more harm to the planet. Latin America has the highest amount of forest remaining but also the highest level of deforestation. According to previous research on the reading about deforestation in Latin America, led by Graziano Ceddia, “improvement of agricultural productivity alone is not enough to prevent agricultural expansion and deforestation in Latin America. Instead, the institutional context is vital, including environmental policies, rules, and regulations.” Knowing all this, we could put it in perspective, and as my participant said, ask ourselves: What do we actually want to give? What seed do we want to plant?

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The world looks so dim. It is dark and gloomy in this picture. But there is something beautiful about image.pnghow real it is. This photo resembles, for me, a wake-up call, as it’s the beginning of the day, but you can also sense the tone the day will bring. This shows the beauty in the sadness of our environment. This is something I believe is always there if we really look for it. The mountains look bare and naked, perhaps even honest, silently begging for help or kindness for the world. We have forgotten the simplicity of existence and have been drowning in an obsession for luxury cars and expensive things. cars that harm us, as we harm the environment. This image causes me to feel like I should take a step back, hop off autopilot for a minute, and really take it all in.

This photograph was taken in Cuzco, Peru. Here, the participant ties in air pollution in the transition from the most simple thing in life, perhaps the way it used to be. The image portrays the calm before the storm for me; in agreement with Franco, it looks like the silent, beautiful pain of the environment. We have become so absorbed by our routines that we forget to stop and smell the roses. However, at the rate we are moving and the amount of air pollution we are creating, when we actually remember to stop to smell the roses, they probably won’t be there anymore. We need to stop and reevaluate the moves we have left on this game of life, because the way we have been spending our already scarce natural resources like they are backed up by a magic wand of unlimited supplies, we won’t make it very far. The theme for this picture is a wake-up call for environmental justice.

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This imageimage-1.png resembles what Hannah Montana once said, and I quote, “the best of both worlds.” I can see how we have accomplished living in a world with nature while respecting it. We haven’t always been the best at coexisting in a world that isn’t only ours. However, I believe that after COVID, we began to appreciate our environment and “the outside world” because we couldn’t be in it for a while. Now, we work towards more environmentally friendly cars and options in general to try to reverse or at least reduce our negative impact on the planet because the planet influences us as well. I believe everything works together in unison. For that reason, we have experienced such extreme weather and conditions never seen before.
The photograph was captured in Arquita, Peru. The participant provided a helpful point of view when observing our behavior in unison with the environment. This brings a different perspective than the previous images, where he provided a more concerned, action-inductive tone, rather than this one, which is filled with hope and harmony as we observe our new dynamic with the environment after COVID-19 as we relearned to appreciate, respect, and value more the “outside world” due to our lack of access to it because of quarantine. Nevertheless, Franco also mentioned how there are still many things we have to improve and many ways to go.
All in all, the ongoing theme provided by these images is our environmental karma. The cycle of giving and receiving to and from the earth We witnessed undertones of hope and rage riding the same wave of change. How our dynamic with the world has evolved again and again for better and worse and better. How we have failed and succeeded in coexisting on a planet that is not only populated by us, but lastly, wondering what seed you want to plant in this world?

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Environmental Humanities PhotoVoice Project Matthew Copyright © by The Students of HUM2020 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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