How to think ecologically
An ecological view of the world is looking at all of the connections and interactions between different species, the natural world, ideologies, technology, and statistics. This is a very, very difficult thing to do. It is impossible to know all of the different connections and interactions an organism or item would make. But, one can try to understand it by conceptualizing its relations to everything else in the world. Like a t-shirt it not just a t-shirt. It’s ecology would include the cotton plant(s) it came from, the machinery it came into contact with, its creators/sewers/reviewers, the store it went to, the cashier who handled it, the person who bought it, the store itself, the customer’s mode of transportation, the customer’s abode, the different places, people, and things it will come into contact with from beginning to end. There is no simple answer. Ecology helps someone have a better, deeper view of different items, organisms, and topics.
The ecological perspective alters our perception and relationship to this world. It makes us realize that everything is connected. One action will affect numerous different organisms. The ecological perspective makes us more aware of everything around us, especially the natural world. We realize that so much of an item’s or species’ time is spent in the presence of a human or lives in human-defined constraints. Humans have basically taken over the world. We use most of the land space, most of the clean water, we introduce invasive species to different parts of the world, and we do so much damage. But, the ecological perspective is also supposed to teach us how to make a more sustainable world. Hopefully, we all realize what is happening and we can help fix our actions to be more beneficial to the rest of the world and its’ species.
The ecology of exercise is an example of a new ecology. It involves studying people’s bodily movements to build muscle mass or lose fat, the interactions between exercising people in gyms, classes, parks, or anywhere, the impacts of exercise on the economy, individual, society, and the natural environment. It can possibly find trends between the increased media for gyms and losing weight and the actual lowering of obesity/increasing eating disorders in the world, or the trend between increased media for exercising/working out and the impact on certain foods bought, or the trend between increasing exercising and loss of natural land for gyms/paths.
Exercise ecology could be used to predict the health of future generations, it could predict models for the increase/decrease of gyms worldwide, it could predict the amount of natural land being paved for biking/running/walking paths, create more specialized workout plans for people, and can show the most desired bodily figure.
Exercise ecology would really showcase how humans are changing the natural world, but how can this be made sustainable? Building more gyms and paths is diminishing the natural world and will force more populations out of their habitats and homes. To make exercise more sustainable to the natural world, we can stop building new gyms and paths. We can accept the natural world as is and run on grass and not some paved road. Dance/Zumba classes could be held outside in warmer months; it will waste less energy and cause people to burn more calories, due to the heat. Exercise could easily be more sustainable. People could simply walk/run/bike to work as exercise instead of using some vehicular mode of transportation. Different ecologies and having an ecological perspective shows the interconnectedness of everything on Earth. The realization of these connections will help us fix what we are doing wrong. It will help make the world more sustainable. — Sarah Bullock