About this Blog

Blog...?  For those of you that DON'T know...

‘A blog is a website in which items are posted on a regular basis and displayed in reverse chronological order. The term blog is a shortened form of weblog or web log. Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called “blogging”. Individual articles on a blog are called “blog posts,” “posts” or “entries”. A person who posts these entries is called a “blogger”. A blog comprises text, hypertext, images, and links (to other web pages and to video, audio and other files). Blogs use a conversational style of documentation. Often blogs focus on a particular “area of interest”, such as Washington, D.C.’s political goings-on. Some blogs discuss personal experiences.’
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

Where will I be?  What am I doing?

For those of you that know me, you might have heard me talking about my upcoming travels to Australia.  Well this is it, as I update this page it is T-minus 6 days till I board the plane to Australia for the next three months.  This blog is an account of my travels, (possible?) hardships, feelings, thoughts and every other word you can think of...

The title...what is with it?  What are the "lessons from The Giving Tree?"
As some of you might already know, The Giving Tree was a (children's) book written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein and first published in 1964.  It was also (according to my mother) one of my favorite books as a child.  Since its publication this book has been surrounded by various interpretations, both good and bad as well as huge controversy.  As I read this now while in my late 20s and studying Biology, I only see one interpretation; that is our relationship with our planet Earth and most especially, her 'Trees' or natural resources.

Our home and its natural resources are peril.  Our relationship with Nature and the Earth is one of misunderstanding and most often one-sidedness.  Using this book as a model of "what-not-to-do", I hope to share with people the importance of 'Nature' and the role it plays in our lives.  As Anthony D. Fredericks said, "...an allegory about the responsibilities a human being has for living organisms in the environment."  Which I think states perfectly what we need to do if we want to have a future on this planet.

I promise that I will try and update this as much as I am able.  Living in the rainforest (like I have before?) has its advantages but reliable internet is not one of them (as so I am told...) So just add this page to your favorites and check weekly (that is the possible timeframe of when I will update my current 'doings').

For those of you that do not know me, and by happenstance stumbled upon this page, I welcome you to read along.  My name is Lucas and I am an undergraduate at UIC (University of Illinois at Chicago) currently studying Biological Sciences.  This fall (2013) semester I will be studying abroad with The School for Field Studies in their Rainforest Studies program.  This program is about 3 months long (September 2013 till December 2013) and focuses on environmentally charged issues like; natural resource management and the ecological principles behind rainforests.

The Centre for Rainforest Studies (CRS) is in the 'Far North' part of North Queensland.  The Centre is about 15 minutes (about a half a mile into the rainforest) from the tiny town of Yungaburra on the Atherton Tableland.  Cairns is the nearest and largest city which is about 70 minutes northeast of the Centre.  The Great Barrier Reef has its home in Cairns.

Please click on the links above and below and learn something new about a part of the world not too many people know about, let alone the rainforests that exist in Australia.

Program Website (The School for Field Studies)
Go Fund Me Website