Below are some of the challenges that I believe have made me illiterate to the environment:
-Fear. As some of you know I am not the biggest fan of touching animals. Why? I can't really say, as a child and youth I had a number of bad experiences with animals (wild and tame) but over all my exposure was extermly limited so I never became comfortable with them.
-Science, Math, Economics. Not my stongest subjects in school and I have never really had the energy or interest to explore them outside of school.

Here are some things that have made me literate to the environment
-An understanding that my actions effect the environment on a local and global level, whether it is where I get my coffee, clothes, food, travel. This I mostly owe to my older sister who was/is a little activist.
-Opportunities. Working at summer camp and learning about the forests and land around us, working year round at camp and learning about different habitats for work so that I could teach them to kids, in Winnipegs inner city which inspite of the opstacles has done a lot of amazing work for the environment. Personal interest in the environment, learning more about composting, exploring.

I know that I have things to learn to become more environmentally literate, but as I stated in the last blog, I think that maybe too much education is put on environmental literacy and that sometimes experiences more then make up for education. I am more or less happy with whether I am. I view the importance of my community and how we as a group are literate, because they understand economics and science, explore the insides of a woodpecker, because like me they have a sense of their impact.