I also really liked the part about the flaws that are found in the idea of tourism to places of “natural beauty.”  It is really interesting, and to a large part true how he says all of the luxuries and other things that people want on a vacation take away from the natural beauty of a place and just turn it into another touristy slice of American pie.  I have always been a person who likes to go to National Parks that are secluded from other people and things such as cars, hotels, and things like this.  I spent a month in the Wind River National Park in Wyoming and we saw fewer than 100 people outside of our group of 12.  It was great to be surrounded by nature all of the time and really feel like you are a part of it.  One highlight for me came when I was about a mile from camp trying to find water and stumbled upon about 20 elk.  The alpha male of the group looked at me for a while then made a barking noise and they all ran.  It was very cool to be able to see something like that.  I liked this book and I wish I had my original review of it.

-Tropical rain forests cover only about 7% of the earth’s surface but are home to more than half of all the plant and animal species of the world.  They are also home to a large percentage of the plants used to make medicine.  These attributes point to the necessity of the rainforest.  Here is a picture of un-photogenic Charlie in one of the rain forests of Costa Rica

-Something I found interesting over the summer and was mentioned in the first half of the book is that corn fields in Iowa or wherever have much more nutrients than the soil in rain forests.  Most people think of the rain forest as a very lush environment where anything can grow but they forget that so many plants just leach out all of the nutrients from the soil.  This is why farming in areas that used to be rain forests is so hard to do.

-It is pretty amazing how much the banana has hurt the rain forests.  The Standard Fruit Company and the United Fruit Company did anything and everything to secure land in these countries and even used the CIA to make sure that the governments of these countries give them land, tax breaks, and anything else that they desire.  When I was in Costa Rica we drove past some of the banana and palm plantations and they are very crazy looking because of the monoculture that is being used.  I think this picture is of a palm plantation but it could just as easily be a banana plantation.

-The next part of the book that caught my eye was when the author talks about some of the ways that people can practice sustainable farming in areas like this and this caught my eye because our group went to an integrated farm like this.  The book points out that the crops should be rotated based on where the strongest and weakest soils are and then using specific plants, such as clover, which is a nitrogen fixer, in the places with weaker soils.  The farm that we went to was great because it was a fully functioning farm within a tropical rain forest.  The farmers had just received the government ok or whatever as an organic farm.  Apparently this takes about a year to achieve and now they can sell to Americans who have “gone green” and are able to get a lot more for their products now.  Here are a couple of pictures from this farm.

-The next thing that caught my ever-wandering eye was the part about the technology that has led to what we consider to be modern farming in the developed world.  It is pretty hard to believe how much something like DDT was used on crops without really looking at the long term effects of this pesticide and it really shows that while the developed world has access to more ways to farm, it does not always come up with the best result.

Questions to Consider: 1.  What are some ways to stop or at least slow down the loss of rain forests worldwide?  2.  Should people spend the time and effort necessary to make these changes before the rain forests disappear forever?  3.  Is a cheap price for bananas worth the loss of so much of the world’s rain forests and if not then why do people continue to buy bananas from these companies that are promoting the destruction of the world’s rain forests.

I, for one, feel that the loss of rain forests is a very big deal not only because of the loss of all the species of plants and animals, loss of potential pharmaceutical products, loss of carbon dioxide changers, but also because they are extremely beautiful places to visit.  Even in Costa Rican parks, which swarm with American and British tourists year-round, the beauty of the place is really breathtaking and this piece of how it was should be preserved for all future generations.

The state, which I will be doing my project on, is the great state of Tennessee.  I was born and raised in Nashville, TN and I have travelled throughout the state during my lifetime, with my parents, school, and Widespread Panic.  Tennessee is special because it is divided into three very different sections: West Tennessee with Memphis as the hub, Middle Tennessee with the capitol of Nashville, and East Tennessee, home to Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Bristol.  Each of these sections has its own culture and things that make them great.  I found some sites on the internet that will help me find the census data about the population of Tennessee and here they are.

Sources from the internet

1. Population growth or loss per county from http://www.epodunk.com/top10/countyPop/coPop43.html
2. Population projections for both state and counties from http://www.tennessee.gov/tacir/population.html
3. Quick facts about the state from the US census bureau website http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/47000.html
4. Population taken from the various US Censuses from the Census Bureau http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFPopulation?_event=Search&_name=&_state=04000US47&Submit.x=11&Submit.y=7&_county=&_cityTown=&_zip=&_sse=on&_lang=en&pctxt=fph
5. Demographics of the 2000 census taken from the US Census Bureau website http://censtats.census.gov/data/TN/04047.pdf

I also have come up with fifteen places of importance in the state and will mark them on Google Earth, but here they are in Text.

1. State Capitol and Capitol Mall, Nashville
2. Ryman Auditorium the original home of the Grand Ole Opry, Nashville
3. Battle of Franklin, Franklin
4. Battle of Shiloh, Pittsburg Landing
5. LP Field, home of the Titans, Nashville
6. Graceland, Memphis
7. Rendezvous, best ribs in the world, Memphis
8. University of the South, Sewanee
9. Lookout Mountain and Rock City, Chattanooga

10.   The Great Smokey Mountains, East Tennessee

11.   Bristol Motor Speedway, Bristol

12.   Neyland Stadium, Knoxville

13.   Pancake Pantry, Nashville

14.   Vanderbilt University, Nashville

15.   Lorraine Motel, Memphis