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Environmental Citizen and Stakeholder

I think this course has really helped me solidify how I feel about being an environmental stakeholder and citizen. I’ve become aware of how passionate I am for knowledge about the environment, as well as spreading my ideas of how to help the environment. There are so many ways to make an impact and none of them are too small. I’ve solidified the idea that education about the environment is the first step in activism for the environment because if people aren’t able to identify what the problem is, then there’s no way to come up with a solution. Another form of activism that I enjoy is just enjoying nature. I think people need to take more time to slow down and reflect in nature. For me, being in nature is one of the best ways to preserve it. Just going for hikes or walks in your favorite outdoor places is one of the best ways to show people that you care about it. It obviously goes many steps further than that but this goes to show that it does not take much to be an activist. Any activist, no matter how involved they are or not, is advocating for the protection and betterment of the environment and I think that should be recognized. Just by enjoying nature you are inspiring other people to create a relationship with nature and their environment which in turn helps the earth, with the hopeful assumption that the person you inspire is going to do something to make the planet a better place. I’m all for people using reusable straws and only buying organic and sustainably sourced products, but I really believe that the best way to help nature is to experience it. Thanks to this course, I feel educated about how I can make a change on this planet in a way that is beneficial for the environment, and I also feel confident that I can pass that knowledge along to another person. Education is the first step towards making a change.

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Practicum Essay

This semester during my time in Introduction to Environmental Studies, I chose to work with the St. Roses Garden Club and food co-op in order to fulfill my practicum requirement. St. Rose’s Garden is a club here at Fordham University that’s main focus is in gardening and supplying food to the people of the Bronx, but before we get into the details of the club, it is important to look at the environmental history of where we are working, the Bronx. 

While the garden itself is on Fordham University’s campus, the Bronx as a whole has a pretty interesting environmental history. Before this campus was a university, it was farmland, and before that it was a green space untouched by humans. One of the most notable environmental features of the Fordham area is the presence of the Bronx River, not at all far from Fordham’s campus. Scientists believe that during the Pleistocene period, the Bronx River ran all the way from its’ source in upstate New York, through to the Long Island Sound.  About 240,000 years ago however, a glacier dredged its way through the Bronx and altered the course of the river (Bronx River Alliance).  Further human intervention in the past 200 years has also changed the course of the river, but not quite so drastically. The people that were first believed to be associated with the river were the Mohegan Indians. They used the river for transportation, food, and a place to live. In the 1600’s some of the land surrounding the Bronx River was purchased from the Mohegan tribe and mills began sprouting along the banks. The water was clear and safe for consumption before the late 1800’s and was even considered as a potential source of drinking water for the people of New York City, before it became as huge as it is today. Now, the water is more polluted and unfit for consumption. In the mid 1900’s as the state of the Bronx began to decline, the health of the river also started to decline. Construction of the Bronx River Parkway provided a road for cars to drive on and experience the beauty of the river and the surrounding park, but it had adverse effects on the river itself. Further construction of highways and bridges distanced people living in the community from the river itself which is why in 1974, residents of the Bronx banded together to form the Bronx River Restoration Project in order to clean up some debris in the river itself 9Bronx River Alliance). Now, we have organizations like the Bronx River Alliance who advocate for the health of the river and protect it from further environmental challenges. 

Fordham, being located so close to the river, has worked with the Bronx River Alliance in the past and continues to advocate for environmental safety and advocacy in the Bronx. One way students at Fordham help promote environmental actions is through the St. Rose’s Garden club. The St. Rose’s Garden club partners with a farm in the Bronx, Norwich Meadows Farm, in order to grow sustainably sourced fresh food for people in the Bronx and the Fordham community (Fordham Sustainability, 2014). The St. Rose’s Garden club has their own garden on campus (although it is kind of hidden, which is why it is now well known about in my opinion) where we grow food with the intention of sharing it. Our partner farm, Norwich Meadows, helps us provide even more food and allows us to give back to the community at large. Each spring, summer, and fall, Fordham offers the community the chance to buy “shares” from Norwich Meadows, that with the funding of the shares provides sustainably grown fresh food to those who are willing to buy it. This service is especially important to an area like the Bronx where access to healthy fresh food that’s sustainably grown is very minimal, and the little access people do have to it is rather expensive. Through Fordham’s CSA program with Norwich Meadows, residents of the Bronx and Fordham community can receive their share of fresh fruit and vegetables for prices as low as approximately $2.00 a pound (Fordham Sustainability, 2014). The food arrives straight from the supplier, Norwich Meadows, which means they are no intermediary retails or suppliers and thus helps keep costs low and affordable, while also providing a farm to table environment that many people who are environmentally conscious look for.

This semester was my first semester working with the St. Rose’s Garden Club and I had a great time with it. The beginning of the semester was rather slow (we only had one meeting) because of the weather, but as soon as the nice weather hit towards the end of March/ beginning of April, the garden has been operating in full swing. My first meeting working with the Garden was just a general clean up of the space. There was trash and debris floating around the garden that would have made it difficult to work with, so our first task was just clearing up the space. I got to learn about some of the hydroponics’ that go along with growing things in the garden, which I had never learned about. I helped set up some of the plants in the water to help grow, which was a step in gardening I was unaware of. Unfortunately, I did not get to check back in on them much throughout the semester but it was nice having a crash course in it. Beyond clean up, the bulk of my work in the garden included planting and weeding. A little bit past the midpoint of the semester the club decided that we were ready to plant, so we planted in nine different garden boxes (All named after planets, which was aesthetically pleasing I suppose) which gave us a nice variety of plants to grow. Variety is key to the gardening experience here at Fordham because we are looking to offer as much fresh food as we can to the community, and those who purchased CSA’s from Fordham and Norwich Meadows. Cleaning and planting took the majority of the work that I did with the garden, but I also helped with weeding throughout the rest of the semester to ensure that the plants were getting as much nutrients as possible. I spent 2-3 hours a week in the garden once the club started up, so overall I spent about 14-18 hours working.

As a practicum and case study, most of my knowledge that came from this experience was about soil sciences and proper ways to help things grow. It also helped a lot with education, which I think is one of the biggest proponents of activism. If people are not educated on a topic then they can’t help come up with a solution. I myself found that I was learning a lot while also helping others to learn as well. Throughout my semester we tested the pH of soil in the garden to make sure it was growing and meeting our standards, while making sure the plants were healthy. I also learned a lot about composting. At the beginning of the semester, the St. Rose’s Garden Club had a compost pin, but it was kind of sad to be honest. However, on April 29th, the New York Botanical Garden came to Fordham to do an extreme composting makeover for us in the garden. They helped us clean up our current facilities for composting as well as providing new materials and facilities that will make composting easier in the future. They helped us clean out our current compost bins and hooked us up with soil and topsoil that made it easier to start new compost bins. In the future, composting at Fordham will be easier thanks to the New York Botanical Garden’s interventions and thus the garden will flourish more easily due to healthy soil, which as we’ve learned in the class this semester, is a key building block to life. While the club itself does not aim to fix a wide multitude of environmental problems or policies, we are doing our part on a small-scale, which as I’ve noted in previous blog posts, can be incredibly important. By planting fresh food we are at least helping to draw some of the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and are definitely having a positive impact on the environment, regardless of how small that impact might be. Most importantly however, is the education aspect of this practicum/case study. I have said in almost all of my blog posts that without education there is no way we can find a solution to the environmental problems that our planet is facing. By working in the garden this semester I’ve had the opportunity to learn from hands-on experience all of the work that goes into planting and caring for plants, as well as why it is important to share our resources with those in the community around us. By working in the garden I have addressed issues such as soil health and conditions to grow plants in, as well as how to use water and other resources for planting in a sustainable way. Some of it is as easy as turning the hose off inbetween watering plants to reduce water waste. By providing for other people we are also encouraging them to think about their sustainable practices and what they can do to help the environment. Education really is the biggest take away from this practicum for me and I feel content with that being my main take away, because that means that we are one step closer to finding a solution to any number of environmental problems the planet is facing. As long as people are educated on issues and motivated to fix them, the solution is out there waiting to be found.

                                                 Works Cited

Bronx River Alliance. (n.d.). Natural and Social History. Retrieved from http://bronxriver.org/?pg=content&p=abouttheriver&m1=9

Gilbert, A. S., & Wines, R. (n.d.). The Environmental History of Fordham’s Rose Hill Campus. Retrieved from https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzKbjVLpnX0RSHlWM2tKbjRmcmM/view

St. Rose's CSA. (2014, August 28). Retrieved from https://fordhamsustainability.wordpress.com/st-roses-csa/

Van Buren, J. (Ed.). (n.d.). Internships: Bronx River Alliance, NY Botanical Garden, Wildlife Conservation Society (Bronx Zoo). Retrieved from https://legacy.fordham.edu/academics/programs_at_fordham_/environmental_studie/internships_bronx_ri_75801.asp

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Tick, Tick… BOOM!

I feel like almost every week I start these posts off with something along the lines of “this issue is the most detrimental to our planet today” and I want to say that’s true about this week too, but before we get into this weeks combatant (air pollution) I think we should take a moment to recognize why this keeps happening. From my understanding, it’s because all of the issues we’ve been talking about in class and reading about from the textbook are issues that truly are deteriorating the health of our planet and every living being on it at an alarming rate. It’s easy to look at one issue and dissect where it comes from and how we might be able to stop that issue in a vacuum. However, there are so many types of pollution and attacks against the environment all over the world that it would be irresponsible to pretend that all of these events are happening in isolation. They all feed off each other, which is why it makes the challenge of saving all of the environments around that world that much more difficult. The simple fact of the matter is that humans are rampaging the planet we call home from all different directions, and cutting down on one form of attack isn’t necessarily going to make the other pollutants easier to deal with. So, while we should definitely be looking at how to control invasive species, stop water pollution, and stop filling landfills, we should also step back and realize that they are all apart of a bigger picture, and they are all just individual strands in the blanket of disgust that humans are covering the planet with. It’s good to try and tackle problems one at a time but it would be inappropriate to pretend that fixing one issue is enough to help the planet, we need to start saving the planet from as many angles as possible. 

Yesterday was Earth day and I’d like to talk about what Earth day means for our society in 2019, and I will get to it later, but first let’s learn some things about air pollution. 

To begin understanding air pollution, we have to talk about the atmosphere first. An atmosphere is a layer of gases around the Earth that is held in place by gravity. The atmosphere is divided into two different layers, the troposphere and the stratosphere. The troposphere is the layer closest to earth and holds around 80% of the air mass on Earth. The troposphere contains all of the air we breathe, and is composed of mostly oxygen and nitrogen. However, there are some dust particles floating around, as well as water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, argon, and nitrous oxide. All of these gases are the things we are inhaling every time we take a breath. The troposphere extends about 11 miles upwards into the sky, but is the smallest of all the layers of our atmosphere. Air pollution is a mixture of particles in the air at dangerous volumes that are harmful to living beings when they breathe in the air. When reading this chapter, one of the ideas presented that was new to me was Indoor Air Pollution. Indoor air pollution includes all of the activities that humans do inside their houses, and it turns out that indoor pollution might have even more harmful effects than outdoor pollution, mainly because we are trapped inside our houses with the pollutants at dangerously high levels. It’s estimated that the average home contains air that is two to five times more polluted than air outside, but in extreme cases can be up to 100 times worse, and Indoor pollution in cars can be up to 18 times worse! Think about it, the air you are breathing in your own home is even dirtier than the air outside, and it’s all because of the way we live! Burning wood, coal, and other chemicals inside or in open flames are the leading causes of indoor air pollution, and the effects are the worst in underdeveloped countries. The rise of indoor air pollution can also be seen prominently in developing countries, where the burning of coal and other fossil fuels remain as one of the largest sources of energy because it’s cheap. Well, it’s cheap to buy but obviously the impact coal has on the environment should make it rather expensive but alas, that’s how a world devoted to capitalism runs. The fact that air pollution inside is far worse than outside air pollution is an immense health concern given that most people spend about 75-90% of their time inside, being exposed to those dangerous concentrations of pollutants.

But even being outside poses some very serious threats for people, just by breathing. In California, air pollution alone claims the lives of about 250,000 people and costs more than $200 million in medical expenses. However, developing countries have it much worse. It is estimated that in China nearly 750,000 people die annually from air pollution (Rinkesh, 2017). Also in California, asthma (one of the more tangible direct effects of air pollution) is the leading cause for school age children to be absent during school. People are aware that we need a change, but aren’t doing anything about it. This leads me to what I have to say about Earth Day…

Earth day was yesterday and I think that people in our society like to use Earth Day as an Instagram Holiday, if you will. Every Earth Day I can remember since high school turns out to be just a day for people to post pictures of their favorite travel locations or scenic landscape shots they took with captions like “This is the only Earth we have stop destroying it!” or my favorites “Stop using plastic straws and water bottles and recycle more!”. Listen, I get it. I really do, I too, have used the occasion for a subtle flex on my Instagram profile, and I think it’s great that people are trying to raise awareness to the issues that the planet is facing. However, I think that most people stop their involvement in Earth Day after they post the picture. It just seems very hypocritical to me to post a picture on the Internet encouraging others to start saving the Earth, when the user themselves isn’t doing anything besides posing for a photograph. Imagine how much better off the world would be if people took an hour out their day to plant trees and help reduce air pollution instead of looking at their phones on Earth day. Awareness is one thing but it takes direct action to make a change, and posting a picture just isn’t big enough.

Word Count: 1,134

Blog Question: How can you celebrate Earth Day as a holiday while actively working to do something better that’s worthwhile for the planet?

                                                 Works Cited

Rinkesh. (2017, January 05). 40 Facts About Air Pollution. Retrieved from https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/various-air-pollution-facts.php

Air Pollutants- What Are They? [Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.marlborough.govt.nz/environment/air-quality/air-pollutants-what-are-they

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Ugh I’m Soooo Out of Energy!

Hey everyone! This weeks topic is a little bit different than those in the past because it’s a resource in a different way than we have been focusing on. Today we’re going to be talking about energy: Renewable vs Nonrenewable and the advantages and disadvantages of both. Let’s dive in! First, what is energy? Energy by definition is the ability to do work. In order to move any part of my body, or even just to think, my brain has to perform work in order to do the desired function. Energy can come in many different forms like kinetic (moving my arm), electrical, chemical, potential, mechanical, and more. Energy is all around us and fuels every exchange we make in the world while we’re living here. Fossil fuels like coal, natural gas, and oil are examples of nonrenewable energy sources. When the energy stored in a fossil fuel gets used up, there’s no getting it back. They take millions of years to form within the crust of the Earth under very specific conditions, so they technically are renewed at some point, but they’re not renewable in a human’s life time. Other sources of energy like wind, sun, and flowing water can be used to create energy over and over again, which makes them a renewable energy source. Recently, the world has been trying to switch over from a predominantly non-renewable energy market to one that is more sustainable and utilizes more renewable energy sources. 

 The reason many people still use fossil fuels (especially developing countries) as energy sources is because they are cheaper to use than renewable sources. However, fossil fuels are detrimental to the overall health of the planet. Fossil fuels are the leading cause of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere, which is also the leading cause of global warming and climate change (EPA).

However, as science and technology progress we as a society are coming closer to unlocking the secret to renewable energy. In current years, the cost of renewable energy has been decreasing and thus the use of renewable energy like solar power has been increasing in popularity. In the US about 18% of all energy used came from renewable sources in 2017 (Wales, 2018). Countries like the US and Canada have also made pledges to produce almost entirely renewable energy by the year 2050, with cities like Los Angeles pledging to be 100% renewable by 2050 (Walton, 2019). Clearly, people want to use renewable energy because they know it is better for the planet and the well being of everyone living on it. The problem is that companies still prefer to use fossil fuels so that they can make a bigger profit, because most people in this world thrive off of a capitalist economy in the United States, whether they know it or not. That goes into another rant thought, so why don’t we get back on track and talk more about energy, shall we?

As mentioned in my blog before, energy comes with different qualities depending on how it is used and sourced. For instance, high quality energy comes from high-quality sources, and it takes high-quality energy to mine more high-quality energy. We also know that when high-quality energy is used, some of it is lost as low-quality energy that can’t be used nearly as effectively. Net energy is the amount of usable high-quality energy that is given off from a certain quantity of an energy source. When oil was first being used as a source of energy, it had a higher net energy because most resources were found in large concentrated deposits that weren’t too deep underground, so it didn’t take that much energy to drill down for it, transport it up to the surface, or transport it to useful energy to consumers. Now however, as the hunt for oil slows down due to supplies dwindling at alarming rates, the oil is less concentrated and loses more to low-quality energy, the net energy decreases. Not only does it require more energy to find oil nowadays, but it is also much more expensive. This loss of high-quality energy to low-quality energy is known as energy waste. Almost 84% of energy used in America is wasted, that means only 16% of what Americans pay for for electricity and energy is actually used. That’s a huge waste of energy! One of the biggest wastes of energy comes from our cars. American society revolves heavily around transportation and unfortunately most people don’t utilize public transportation. Instead, most Americans travel places by using their own car that is typically not very gas efficient. Instead of people sitting together in one vehicle like a bus, most citizens that can afford it choose to drive their own vehicle for the sake of comfort and luxury. Obviously, we all want to be comfortable and having your own car makes that super easy, but it also has a direct attack on our planet. In 2017, only 1.15% of cars sold in the U.S. were electric cars, meaning that the emissions coming from cars were most carbon dioxide, and further lead to global warming and climate change (Bellan, 2018). 

The trend for electric cars has continued to rise every year since they’ve been on the market, but the majority of Americans (and people around the world) are using gas-guzzling cars and polluting the planet at a speed unprecedented to anything like it before. Scientists believe that “humanity has about 12 years to avoid the most dire consequences of climate change. To avert catastrophic sea level rise, food shortages, and widespread drought and wildfire, emissions must be reduced by 45 percent from 2010 levels, and by 100 percent by 2050” (Bellan, 2018). That’s a little bit more than a decade! People should be freaking out but most citizens are complicit in watching the earth crumble around them, and I think it’s mostly because of ignorance and a sense of not being important enough to make change. At this point, I don’t think people can say that they aren’t aware of the environmental crises our planet is facing every day. We are constantly bombarded about how awful our planet is doing and how fast we need to act in order to fix it, but most people aren’t doing anything to help. Yeah, people use reusable straws now I guess but that just is not enough. Change has to happen soon, but it needs to be big enough to make a difference as well. I think ignorance comes in to the conversation not in the fact that people do not know what the problem is, but rather that they do not know how to help. I understand why people feel like one person is not enough to make a change, but the reality of this situation is that any help matters. Creating your own compost bin is one more person composting in the world, which means there’s one more person creating healthy soil. And who knows, you might inspire your friend to start composting, and then maybe even your whole neighborhood. Change starts at the small scale and while it may not seem like enough, it leads to bigger reactions. I agree change on a small scale is not enough given the planets current circumstances, but any change at all is a start, and we need some small changes in order to spark a massive movement. In terms of energy, this means that more people need to start buying electric cars or taking public transportation, and supporting companies that provide clean, renewable energy. Without baby steps at the beginning, the solution to the energy crisis can’t start running, and we as a planet need the solution to start sprinting forward if we are ever going to have a chance to reverse the damage already done, and then continue to live sustainably.

Word Count: 1,310 Blog Question: How else can people make the switch to clean energy without switching to electric cars or solar energy? How can we hold corporations more responsible for the type of energy they are using and selling?

                                                  Works Cited

Bellan, R. (2018, October 16). The State of Electric Vehicle Adoption in the U.S. Retrieved from https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/10/where-americas-charge-towards-electric-vehicles-stands-today/572857/

Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data. (2017, April 13). Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data

Wales, M. (2018, November 01). The Cost of Renewable Energy Versus Fossil Fuels. Retrieved from https://www.naturespath.com/en-ca/blog/cost-renewable-energy-versus-fossil-fuels/

Walton, R. (2019, May 08). LA now biggest U.S. city to announce 100 percent renewable energy goals. Retrieved from https://www.power-eng.com/articles/2019/05/la-now-biggest-u-s-city-to-announce-100-percent-renewable-energy-goals.html

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Water You Doing to Our Water Supply?!

Now, I know I’ve started blog posts with something similar to “This week’s topic is about one of the most important things on Earth because…” but this time, I think it really is the most important resource on Earth. That’s right, we’re talking about water! Everyone’s favorite drink! Well… it should be at least. There’s nothing more refreshing in the morning than an ice cold glass of water to get your day started. Well, in my opinion anyway. To start, we’re going to take a look at something called a water footprint. A water footprint, similar to an ecological footprint, is a summary of the amount of fresh water used to make a specific product or service. You’d be surprised how much water it takes to do almost anything! For instance, did you know that the average pair of jeans uses nearly 11,000 liters of water? That’s nearly 3,000 gallons!!

In this case, the business is me and the product or service is just my daily living for a year. My yearly water footprint is about 943.2 m³ per year, and that’s not even including all of the water that I drink! I’ll be honest, I’m not really sure what number I was expecting but this activity definitely makes me want to cut down on my water waste!

Speaking of water waste, why does it matter? We have so much water on Earth we’re never gonna run out! Right? While it may be true that we have a lot of water on our planet, we don’t have access to all of it. Water covers more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, but only approximately 0.009-0.024% of it is drinkable liquid water. 97% of the water on earth is in the ocean, meaning it is too salty for human use and consumption (National Geographic, 2017). The other water is either in sheets of ice, or underground freshwater deposits. Clearly, this means most of the water we see is unusable to us. Bummer! However, we have ways of working around it. In fact, some of the most important water resources we have are underground! That’s right, the majority of the water we use for everyday production comes from groundwater, water that moves from high elevation and pressure to lower points of elevation and pressure mostly due to gravity. Water seeps into cracks in soil, gravel, and rocks and works its way into the ground until a layer of impenetrable rock prevents it from moving any farther. The water pools in underground layers called aquifers, underground caverns and porous layers of sand, gravel, or rock that water flows through underground. Underground caverns have been known to host underground rivers and streams where the water moves freely, but the porous sand and gravel keep the water more stationary. Because all of this water is fresh water, it makes it a pretty well sought after resource. But it’s underground! So how do we get to it? We use pumps! The pumps bring the water to the surface, and the groundwater is usually replenished naturally thanks to precipitation and run off percolating to the aquifers. Once we use the water, nature takes care of recycling it through the hydrologic cycle. The hydrologic cycle is responsible for recycling and cleaning water that has been used, distributing the now clean water, and gathering dirty water that needs to be cleaned and redistributed. The three major steps in the water or hydrologic cycle are evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. The cycle works like a charm! That is, unless we pollute the water or take from natural water sources too excessively before they have an opportunity to refill themselves… but we’ll get into that soon. One of the biggest issues with pumping water is that we’re pumping heavily excessive amounts of water. The gigantic Ogallala aquifer, located in the Midwest and going as far south as Texas (yeah, that’s REALLY big!), supplies water for almost a third of the United States! This aquifer is the biggest in the entire world and supplies seemingly endless supplies of water (key word being seemingly, obviously). The biggest issue with the Ogallala aquifer is that it has a really slow natural recharge rate, so it takes a REALLY long time for the aquifer to refill itself, it’s essentially a one time supply for the way humans use water in our lifetimes. The Ogallala Aquifer is being pumped at a rate of 10-40 times faster than the recharge rate, meaning that eventually, humans are going to suck this aquifer dry and future generations will not be able to use this. Another factor that depletes the available amount of water for human consumption is pollution, which is our next topic. 

When water becomes polluted it is contaminated with chemicals that make it unfit for human consumption. Funny enough, humans are the ones that cause pollution so we are literally just wasting precious water! We know that we have a finite amount of water on this planet but we continue to do activities, in the U.S. and worldwide, that dirties our water and makes it unclean to ever use again! It’s baffling to me, but I guess that’s beside the point. Water pollution falls under two categories: point and nonpoint sources. Point sources of pollution are easy to identify because you can see exactly where the pollutants are coming from. Some point sources include drainpipes or sewer lines. Nonpoint sources are harder to trace back to the origin because they spread pollution over large areas. An example of a nonpoint water pollution source would be run off from crops and farmlands that contain chemicals like DEET and other pesticides. There has been much greater success in controlling pollution from point sources, because it is expensive to identify and fix pollution from nonpoint sources.

The majority of the world suffers from not having enough access to clean water. Sometimes, I think people from the US may not be sensitive to this issue because we live our everyday lives without ever having to even think about what it would be like to experience that. However, recently (or maybe not recently now, unfortunately) this has been tested here in our home country in Flint, Michigan, where their drinking water has been not only unusable but also dangerous (causing rashes, increase in lead blood levels, and hair loss) for more than five years at this point. The crisis started in 2014 when the city decided to change its’ water source from the Detroit system to the Flint River in order to save money. However, prior to this the Flint River acted as a waste dumping facility for businesses and families alike, so the river itself was already in bad shape. When Flint decided to switch over to the river as their new water source, they also decided to skip on some of the rules and regulations for clean water as well as the procedures used to actually clean the water, meaning the water wasn’t being cleaned. Five years later and the residents of Flint still don’t have clean water but yeah…. Let’s continue to focus on whatever idiotic thing the president has to say about immigrants next, instead of focusing on real issues in the country.

Word Count: 1,210 Blog Question: What would be the most effective way to help the citizens of Flint? How can we possibly reverse what has already been done?

                                              Works Cited

Competing for Clean Water Has Led to a Crisis. (2017, January 27). Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/freshwater-crisis/

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Coming Back Around

On this week’s blog we take a bit of a turn from the usual topics. In the past we’ve covered topics that reflect how damaging humans have been to the environment and the effects it has on the Earth, but now it’s time to look at how the destruction of our planet is also destroying human livelihood. This chapter focuses on the risks and probability that comes from some of the damaging activities humans do to the environment. In this, they specify that harm from human activity affects us in the form of pathogens, a harmful organism that can do damage to another organism. Humans are susceptible to 1,400 different pathogens, potentially even more! There are five main types of pathogens: bacteria, viruses, parasites, protozoa, and fungi. They commonly appear as dangerous ailments to humans in the forms of infections and diseases. The other types of hazards that are non-living beings include chemical, cultural, natural, and lifestyle hazards. Chemical hazards include chemicals in the air, soil, and water that humans are exposed to due to human activity. Cultural hazards include driving on highways with other drivers, walking home by yourself in an unsafe area late at night, and robbery. Natural hazards are less in the control of humans, and include disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornadoes. Finally, lifestyle choices like drinking, having sex, and driving too fast are all examples of lifestyle hazards.

According to the textbook, the most serious threats posed to humans are infectious diseases. In the early 1900’s infectious disease was the most common cause of death, but thanks to medications and resistances like antibiotics it has decreased sharply. Now, the leading cause of death and sickness are nontransferable cardiovascular diseases and cancers. It’s important to note that all of the leading causes of death save for one are brought on by disease or infection. Human fault, like injuries, appear relatively low on the level of danger they pose. 

This means that more of the leading causes of death are from sources that can be preventable. This is good news for almost everyone, except for the fact that some bacteria have been known to resist certain antibiotics and thus become harder to kill off. For example, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacteria that commonly causes Staph infections. Staph infections generally occur in people who have been in areas like hospitals or healthcare settings, which is why the bacteria became able to resist the antibiotics. Bacteria reproduce very quickly (some can produce 16 million offspring in just 24 hours) which makes it more genetically resistant to antibiotics through natural selection. MRSA is still only treatable by antibiotics, but it is much harder to kill and requires a more precise formula to kill the bacteria. Now that we’ve covered biological hazards let’s move on to the next biggest threat to humans, chemical hazards. A toxic chemical is any chemical that can temporarily or permanently cause harm to a human or animal. 

There are three major types of toxic chemicals and they are carcinogens, mutagens, and teratogens. Carcinogens are toxic agents that lead to cancer. One particularly common form of a carcinogen is asbestos. Asbestos hits especially close to home if you’re a theatre kid here at Fordham, because we’re being exposed to asbestos almost any time we enter Collins Auditorium! “The tough, tiny fibers in asbestos help strengthen products like roof shingles, ceiling tiles, and car parts. Yet if these fibers break free and you breathe them in, they get lodged inside your lungs” (Web MD). Collins had a bit of an asbestos break out a few years ago where it was found in excess in one of the stairwells (the main stairwell for backstage travel mind you) so I’ve probably been exposed to the virus more than I would care to admit! However, carcinogens often take years, in some cases even decades, to show up with any measurable negative effects so often people underestimate the seriousness of coming into contact with carcinogens. Cigarettes and tobacco product are loaded with different types of carcinogens, but because it takes a long time for the harmful effects to show up in a person’s life, they often don’t realize what their behavior and actions will do to them in the future; like developing cancer from a harmful chemical. A mutagen is any substance that causes mutations in the DNA of humans or animals. Often times, DNA changes cause by mutagens harm the persons cells and may even cause them to develop diseases like cancer and defects. Mutagens may show up in food and beverages, but also manifest themselves in the form of radio waves and x-rays that are potentially harmful to humans in excessive quantities. Finally, teratogens are toxic chemicals that cause harm or defects to fetuses or embryos. Alcohol is a teratogen, which is why pregnant or expecting mothers are often told not to drink.  Teratogens take much less time than carcinogens or mutagens do to take effect, which is why if a mother has an excessive amount of alcohol or other teratogens their baby is at a much higher risk of being born with a noticeable disease or defect that will effect the child immediately, as opposed to many years in the future like carcinogens. 

Now that we know all about the different threats to humans on the small scale that brings us to our final topic for the day, Solid and Hazardous Waste. Waste makes up a pretty generic term for things that have been used or discarded that can’t be used anymore. This is a pretty arbitrary idea for humans, but on a broader scale there is no such thing as something going to waste. Nature recycles just about everything and the waste from one organism might spark life for another one. Solid waste (any unwanted materials we produce that are not a liquid or a gas) is broken down into two categories. Industrial solid waste is all of the waste from businesses and factories, while municipal solid waste (MSW) makes up all of those same things that come from houses and people. Most solid waste, both industrial and municipal, ends up in either the ocean, rivers, or other bodies of water, or massive landfills where all the other garbage accumulates. It might also be burned in incinerators which help clear up space, but adds to total pollution worldwide. The other major category of waste is hazardous or toxic waste, which threatens human health or the environment because it is poisonous, dangerously chemically reactive, corrosive, or flammable. Waste can be recycled back into new energy in some cases, but there are often many trade offs. Some of the advantages of burning waste include reducing space taken up by waste, creating energy, it concentrates the hazardous substances into ash that can later be buried or stored of properly, and the sale of the energy produced reduces the cost of doing this procedure. Some disadvantages or burning waste include that they are expensive to build and maintain, they use up a lot of energy, produces more hazardous waste in some cases, emits CO2 and other pollutants that are harmful to the environment, and it encourages waste production. The only way to reverse the effects that waste have on humans and the Earth is to stop producing so much waste, but in a capitalistic society like the U.S., and as other countries around the world begin to develop, the prospects of less waste becoming a reality seem slim to none at the moment.

Blog Question: When it comes to waste, is it enough to hold individuals responsible or should we start by putting the blame on larger corporations? Word Count: 1,256

                                                  Works Cited

Difference Between Mutagen and Carcinogen | Definition, Causative Agents, Function, Effect. (23, December 2018). Retrieved from https://hair-restore.info/relationship-between-and/relationship-between-carcinogens-and-mutagens-cause.php

The top 10 causes of death. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death

10 Common Carcinogens You Should Know About. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/cancer/know-common-carcinogens#1

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Soil Sciences

Soil plays an important role here on Earth because it acts as the beginning and end of life in almost all cases. When an organism dies they decompose and their nutrients are absorbed back into the soil. The soil thus births new life when plants start to grow and provide food for other animals. Soil is very important in the circle of life. Soil is constantly being made and recycling other biomaterials so it is constantly changing, and it can date back to millions of years old! However, thanks to humans, soil worldwide is being poisoned and stretched outside of its limitations because we are using fertilizers and other chemicals too aggressively in order to produce food and other cash crops as fast as possible.

The use of fertilizer in soil has some pretty toxic effects that might actually weaken its ability to grow food in the future. By injecting soil with nitrogen and other pesticides to promote the growth of certain crops, they are actually stripping the soil of its natural nutrients. Nitrogen and other artificial nutrients end up being absorbed by the plants in every season, but it also removes nutrients from the soil itself so the soil cannot grow anything without extra assistance. This makes the soil ineffective and can have adverse effects on plants that have already rooted in that soil. These plants might face death or genetic mutations in some cases. Nitrogen can also be ineffective as fertilizer because it commonly winds up in bodies of water after rainfall, which poses threats to fish and other aquatic life. 

The film “Symphony of Soil” that we watched in class focuses on why current methods of farming, like using pesticides, are dangerous to the environment and how and why people should strive for more organic farming methods. It emphasizes the idea of leaving the soil better than we found it in order to provide the same opportunities we have for future generations. If we strip the soil bare of all nutrients, like we are currently doing, then any future generations will be deprived of the same diets and nutrients that we were privileged enough to keep.

Recently in the news, soil has been a big topic of conversation. Studies done by the United Nations have shown that up to one million species are up for extinction, and a leading factor in this decline of biodiversity is rooted in the soil. The problem being that soil worldwide  is losing carbon at an increasing rate. “Specifically, 5.6 gigatons of annual CO2 emissions are sequestered in marine and terrestrial ecosystems. That’s equivalent to 60 percent of global fossil fuel emission. The finding released in a report May 6 also found that it is not too late to stop this decline, but action is needed immediately at the local, country, and global level” (Stine, 2019). As you can see, carbon poses a serious threat to the eco system. “For soil, it proposed ‘sustainable agricultural practices that enhance soil quality, thereby improving productivity and other ecosystem functions and services such as carbon sequestration and water quality regulation.’” (Stine, 2019). Even celebrities like Bill Gates have pointed out the dire need to make a change, citing that agricultures contribution to climate change is almost identical to electricity (24% and 25% respectively). One of the ways to combat agricultures impact on climate change is to promote “no tillage” agriculture. Most modern day farming practices involve a procedure called tilling, where farmers disturb the soil after crops have been harvested in order to bring nutrients to the surface so that future crops have a better chance of growing. Every time the soil is disturbed like this it releases carbon into the atmosphere. Non-tilling farming encourages farmers to spread compost on the surface of the soil for nutrients instead of tilling which prevents the loss of carbon from the soil. As plants grow and die, more carbon is added to the soil this way and very minimal carbon is lost in the growing process. The healthier the soil is, the better adept it is at absorbing carbon. So, the healthier the soil is the more carbon it will have in it which is another reason why farmers should practice non-tilling farming procedures. Non-tilling, or as it is sometimes also known as- Carbon farming, is more expensive and time consuming than conventional farming procedures so we need policy and support to encourage farmers to practice more efficient farming practices. Things like tax credits, lower insurance premiums, and other financial incentives would prove useful to farmers to ensure that they are farming in a way that’s healthier for the whole planet. Personally I think they should have to do it just because it makes more sense for every one on Earth, but I understand they have to make a living too somehow. 

Our current goal should then be to remove as much carbon as we possibly can from the atmosphere, and have it anchored in the soil somehow. Carbon farming is one way to do that but it’s not hardly enough to reverse the damage of climate change that has already been taken against our planet. The effects of excess carbon in our environment are beginning to manifest in physical ways that only show how much danger this planet is in. “…our climate situation has grown more dire and the carbon-sequestration message even more urgent. The levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have risen to 410 parts per million. The California fire season has expanded from a seasonal phenomenon into a year-round reality. Meanwhile, the dwindling Colorado River has become less and less reliable as a water source for the cities downriver—and for the irrigated agriculture that supplies food for much of the United States. Canada’s permafrost has already warmed enough to begin melting, which, if left unchecked, will release huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. And the same holds true for the vast Siberian permafrost” (Wood, 2019). So, while we have an idea of what the problem is (climate change), and we know what’s causing it (pollution, carbon, etc.), and we know how we can solve it, or at least attempt to make it better (Carbon farming, for example). That just leads us to actually trying to solve the problem. One of the biggest issues here is that the damage we have done to the planet is on such a global and huge scale that it’s going to be incredibly difficult to try and reverse. Even if we stopped producing any form of pollution whatsoever at this exact moment in time, we’d still have to figure out how to get rid of the pollution that we already caused. We have a long long way to go and we might not even be on the right track at the moment the way our country and the world is treating the planet every day, but hey, if this doesn’t make you feel hopeful that we can fix climate change with enough passion and dedication from young people and scientists, I don’t know what will.

Word Count: 1,180 Blog Question: What do you think is the biggest reason we as a society haven’t made more of an effort to protect our soil, do you think it’s ignorance? Or something else?

                                                   Works Cited

Stine, D. D. (2019, May 06). 1 million species face extinction - soil could be a solution. Retrieved from https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/442303-1-million-species-face-extinction-soil-could-be-a-solution

Wood, W. (2019, May 06). How Carbon Farming Can Help Stop Climate Change in Its Tracks. Retrieved from https://www.thenation.com/article/agriculture-carbon-farming-ranching-soil/

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Diversity Under The Sea and Eats Up Above

The title doesn’t have quite as much charm as Sebastian from The Little Mermaid does, but it’ll have to do. This weeks topics are kind of similar to last week, but this time we’re taking it underwater for part of it. Continuing the journey from last week we’ll be talking about biodiversity under the water (aquatic biodiversity), and then we’ll go back above the surface to talk about soil, agriculture, and food. 

Let’s dive in shall we? (I’ll see myself out…) Aquatic biodiversity refers to all of the life that lives underwater in our world whether that be in a river, lake, ocean, estuary, etc. Similar to biodiversity on land, the biggest threat to aquatic biodiversity is humans. Since the time of industrialization, humans started dumping their garbage in oceans as a means to get rid of the waste, without thinking how it will impact the life in the ocean as well as the negative implications of having garbage floating in the ocean and accumulating into trash islands.  

Humans also disrupt aquatic biodiversity through pollution, overfishing, introducing invasive species to susceptible habitats, and the rise of global warming. Specifically, some of the most at risk species in our oceans include coral reefs who have recently been in a lot of stress due to ocean acidification and pollution. “As atmospheric temperatures rise, so do seawater temperatures. This warming causes corals to lose the microscopic algae that produce food that corals need, placing stress on the corals. Without this algae coral also lose their coloration—a condition known as coral bleaching because the loss of algae reveals the white color of the calcium carbonate structure underlying the polyps. Severe or prolonged bleaching can kill coral colonies or leave them more vulnerable to other threats such as infectious disease” (EPA, 2018).

In fact, a few years ago some scientists believed the situation was so dire that the world’s largest coral reef, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, had died. While the reef is not dead, its health is in a steady decline and it might be seeing its final days soon. The Great Barrier Reef is close to 1,400 miles long and is so grand it can be seen from space! Unfortunately, in 2016 and 2017 the reef was exposed to two bleaching events that severely negatively impacted the health of the reef as well as the life that the reef supports. Scientists believe that as much as 50% of the barrier reef has died (not just fallen victim to bleaching, actually dead) in the past two years, and about 1/3 of the reef died within nine months of the bleaching events. Coral are similar to humans in that we don’t produce our own food and we rely on other organisms to give it to us. When coral is being bleached, it rejects the algae that lives in the polyps and doesn’t have any source of food or nutrients. This means that the coral slowly start to starve themselves and die of malnutrition. It’s sad to think about the destruction of one species thanks to human ignorance and willful evils, but it makes it so much worse to think about the implications the reefs themselves have on ocean biodiversity as a whole.

Coral reefs are living organisms themselves, but they also act as a home for other species underwater. In fact, coral reefs are believed to be the biggest, most diverse ecosystem on the planet (even more diverse than the rainforest). Coral reefs are home to almost 25% of all aquatic species despite taking up only 1% of the ocean floor! (Coral). These numbers can be hard to pinpoint because the oceans are still largely some of the most unexplored places on Earth, but if anything that means that a loss of coral reefs mean an even bigger loss of aquatic species. “ Coral reefs, thanks to their diversity, provide millions of people with food, medicine, protection from storms, and revenue from fishing and tourism. An estimated six million fishermen in 99 reef countries and territories worldwide—over a quarter of the world’s small-scale fishermen—harvest from coral reefs” (Coral). A loss of coral reefs entirely would have dramatic impacts on the world at large, and we should be doing everything to protect these biodiversity hotspots!! Again, like biodiversity on land, the biggest ways we can help to protect it are to educate about the importance of biodiversity, and the use of laws and protection acts to make sure that we’re keeping as many species around as we possibly can.

The next topic isn’t super closely related to aquatic biodiversity, but hey, everything in nature is connected isn’t it? Our next topic is food, soil, and pest management. Without the coral reefs we would be losing all kinds of seafood’s, so that’s something right?

In America, we have a steady flow of food importing and exporting from the country everyday, and the vast majority of people living in the US have something to eat every day. We call this food security, knowing that you will have food to eat whenever you need it. However, one in six people in developing countries do not have food security and deal with chronic hunger and malnutrition throughout their lives. Approximately 3.1 million kids die of hunger each year, and starvation accounts for 45% of all deaths in children under the age of five (Turk, 2017). One of the main limitations of growing enough food is having healthy soil that can support the growth of different foods. “ Soil is a complex mixture of eroded rock, mineral nutrients, decaying organic matter, water, air, and billions of living organisms, most of them microscopic decomposers” (Miller). Soil supplies the nutrients plants need for growth, and also purifies and stores water for use and consumption from the plants. As soil matures, it begins to form layers or horizons. Most matured soils have about three to four horizons. The horizons on the top have most of the organic matter in soil, where it is easy for plants to access with their roots in order to help them grow. Living beings like, earthworms, bacteria, and fungus thrive in the top horizon. The middle and lower horizons are mostly different crushed up rocks and inorganic material that sinks down and is transported by water. The pores in between soil hold air and liquid water and take up close to 50% of the soil room. While there isn’t as much soil in the ocean as on land, it is a major building block for life on Earth!

Word Count: 1,096 Blog Question: Should we try to make land soil healthier or try to reverse ocean acidification first? Which would have a bigger impact on biodiversity?

                                               Works Cited

Coral Reef Biodiversity. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://coral.org/coral-reefs-101/coral-reef-ecology/coral-reef-biodiversity/

Threats to Coral Reefs. (2018, May 04). Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/coral-reefs/threats-coral-reefs#main-content

Miller, G. T., & Spoolman, S. (2018). Living in the environment. Boston, MA: National Geographic Learning/Cengage Learning.

Turk, C. (2019, March 15). 15 Striking World Hunger Statistics. Retrieved from https://borgenproject.org/15-world-hunger-statistics/

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Preliminary Practicum Essay

For my practicum essay I decided to become a member of the St. Rose’s Garden Club at Fordham. St. Rose’s Garden is a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) organization that focuses on the growing, buying, and selling of sustainably produced and locally sourced fruits and vegetables to share with the Fordham and Bronx community. St. Rose’s Garden works with Norwich Meadows Farms to accomplish these goals. Norwich Meadow Farms is located in Norwich, NY and their many exports are sustainably sourced vegetables and ethically raised chickens. They sell the majority of their products directly to customers through green markets and CSA’s throughout New York City. It has proven difficult to spend a lot of time working on the practicum because unfortunately, the garden is currently out of season. As there are no crops being grown, St. Rose’s Garden doesn’t have any produce to share with the community. We had one meeting earlier in February where we discussed potential meeting times that work for everyone in the club, but beyond that the club has been relatively inactive. However, in order to combat that I have been reading and doing research on the agriculture surrounding New York City. I’ve also begun composting at home and trying to eat no meat or dairy products at least once a week in order to become more sustainable. So far, I would estimate about six to seven hours of work into the practicum thus far. I realize that this is under the required minimum for the practicum thus far, so I plan on spending a minimum of 2 hours/week on my practicum after the midterm when the garden is more operational in order to make up for lost time. When the garden is operational, future duties will include delivering the produce to Fordham and the Bronx community, as well as helping set up and run food stands similar to a farmers market. Duties will also include planting and maintaining vegetables being grown on campus at Fordham in the St. Rose’s Garden itself. In preparation for planting the produce, we will be clearing out the garden and cleaning up the space to make it more suitable for vegetable growth. Also, special to this year specifically, when the weather warms up the St. Rose’s Garden club is going to build a shed from scratch to house tools in that will make maintenance of the garden easier.

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Man Made Mass Extinction

Species on this Earth are disappearing fast, way too fast. It’s estimated the at the current rate we are losing 0.0.1-0.1% of species every year, and these numbers would only escalate as the extinction process continues (Panda). With an estimated 100,000,000 species on Earth, that’s 1% of species every year! 

Figure 1. Species under threat globally.

The issue with these numbers is that humans are the reasons these numbers are so high. “That's good news, because according to a review published on May 29 in the journal Science, current extinction rates are up to a thousand times higher than they would be if people weren't in the picture” (Dell’Amore, 2014). Some scientists say that the rate at which we are losing species on this planet is one of the most serious environmental issues we face today. These two chapters in the textbook are all about how we can sustain biodiversity in both species and ecosystems. The extinction of either a species or an ecosystem has a direct impact on the other. To start, we’ll talk about sustaining biodiversity from a species approach. Some species have the cards stacked against them when it comes to extinction, and they have behavioral characteristics that make it easier for one species to go extinct than another. Some of these characteristics include low reproductive rates, specialized niches, narrow distribution, feeds at high tropic levels, fixed migratory patters, rarity, commercially valuable, and large territories. All of these things put species at a natural disadvantage, but as most environmental issues on this planet are caused by humans, humans are also the main reason other species are going extinct.

The textbook cites four reasons why humans should care about and try to prevent the large amount of species that have started going extinct since we showed up on the Earth approximately 10,000 years ago. First, some species provide natural services and resources that humans benefit from. For instance, bees pollinate most of the vegetables and fresh food we eat, and birds provide natural pest control by eating pesky insects. By eliminating these species humans disrupt ecosystems as a whole because every species impacts the ecosystem they live in. Second, some species provide economic services to humans. For example, we sell fruits and vegetables that we grow to make profit, or we use trees for paper and other wood items. Another way species can produce money is through ecotourism. An elephant who is hunted and killed for his Ivory is only worth about $21,000 when sold on the black market. However, that same elephant can be worth as much as $1.6 million in ecotourism opportunities throughout its life if it is kept alive and healthy (Platt, 2014). Third, humans should care about the species going extinct because we have a responsibility to future generations. My grandchildren will never benefit from the biodiversity that sustains the earth today because in 50 or 60 years from now millions of more species will be extinct by the time they are born if we keep up the current rates. Think of how many arctic species are going to die out because the earth is becoming too hot to host them. Finally, humans should care about other species going extinct because we have an ethical duty to protect them. It should not matter to humans whether or not we can capitalize off of another species when it comes to protecting species. We were all born on this Earth and I have a right to be here just as much as every acorn does. Human’s should not consider themselves more important just because we are “more intelligent” than other species. Scientists use the acronym HIPPCO to remember the main ways that human activity causes the extinction of other species. HIPPCO stands for: Habitat destruction, degradation, and fragmentation; Invasive (nonnative) species; Population growth and increasing use of resources; Pollution; Climate change; and Overexploitation. Loss of habitat is the most endangering factor to species at risk of endangerment. Species that live in specialized places like the arctic or tropical islands are especially at risk because these ecosystems are specifically designed for these species and without the perfect environment for them to live in, they have nowhere else to go and would become extinct. After habitat loss and destruction the biggest cause of species extinction is the introduction of an invasive species. An example of this can be seen at one of my favorite national parks: Yellowstone. Yellowstone was known to house a large number of native Cutthroat Trout throughout the park, but the species began dwindling after the introduction of Lake Trout into their ecosystem. The invasive Lake Trout started hogging all the food from the native cutthroat trout which became an issue for the native species, but it also affected the eating habits of Yellowstone’s famous bears. The native trout at Yellowstone usually spawn from a source upstream and outside of the park where bears had ample opportunity to snack on the delicious cutthroats. Unfortunately, the lake trout did not spawn upstream for the bears to eat, and instead continue to breed in the deep sections of the lake where the bears cannot get to them. The lake trout continue to eat the cutthroat trout’s food supply (and sometimes even the cutthroat trout themselves) to this day (Rivard, 2017). 

Figure 2. What Can You Do?

Invasive species also degrade the habitats to which they don’t belong, which is why it is important that species stay where they are supposed to belong. Now that we know why sustaining biodiversity is important from a species approach, let’s look at the ecosystem approach. For an ecosystem to disappear would be a lot more tragic than just a species disappearing. If a species goes extinct, overtime the ecosystem has a chance to adapt to its’ absence, or in the most dire circumstances the ecosystem will die out over time. However, if an entire ecosystem were to go extinct then all of the species that live within the ecosystem are likely to go extinct as well. A modern day example of this would be the Amazon Rainforest. Almost half of the world’s known species call the Amazon home, and they can only be found in this rainforest. That means that if the Amazon rainforest were to disappear (which could happen in as soon as 100 years at the current rate of deforestation) that the Earth would lose almost half of its biodiversity (Vidal, 2017). The results of this would be catastrophic as humans would lose access to the majority of the worlds modern medicine ingredients as well as countless species of plants and animals that would never be seen again. In order to combat the degradation of ecosystems, scientists have devised a four point plan to turn to in the face of emergency ecosystem degradation:

1) Mapping: Keeping detailed records of the earth’s ecosystems and what species are contained within it. 2) Locating and Protecting: After mapping, it is crucial to locate the ecosystems that have the highest threat of becoming extinct. Once located, the most at risk should be protected with an emphasis on plant biodiversity and ecosystem services. 3) Restoration of as many degraded ecosystems as is humanly possible. 4) Promoting bio-diversity friendly development by offering breaks and incentives to private landowners who are committed to protecting endangered ecosystems and species.

While this plan is rather ambiguous and hard to implement, it is a start nonetheless. Finally, it’s important to note that biodiversity is not equally distributed around the world. There are approximately 17 countries, often called “megadiversity countries”, that contain 2/3 of all the worlds species. Some scientists believe that these ecosystems and areas should be protected first and most importantly because they are “biodiversity hotspots” and are often home to some of the rarest forms of life. Many scientists agree that in order to stop the extinction of individual species we have to stop the degradation of the world’s ecosystems first. In order to solve the problem, we have to get to the root of it first. Humans are not entitled to this planet and it is our job as citizens to protect the earth and ALL of its’ inhabitants to the fullest of our ability.

Word count: 1,359 Blog Question: Should we focus on protecting species first or aim to protect ecosystems/environments as a whole?

                                                   Works Cited

Dell'Amore, C. (2014, May 30). Species Extinction Happening 1,000 Times  Faster Because of Humans? Retrieved from https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/05/140529- conservation-science-animals-species-endangered-extinction/

Panda. (n.d.). How many species are we losing? Retrieved from http://wwf.panda.org/our_work/biodiversity/biodiversity/

Platt, J. R. (2014, October 08). Elephants are Worth 76 Times More Alive Than Dead: Report. Retrieved from https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/elephants-are-worth-76-times-more-alive-than-dead-report/

Rivard, K. (2017, November 08). Invasive Species: Unwelcome National ParkGuests. Retrieved from https://www.nationalparks.org/connect/blog/invasive-species-  unwelcomed-national-park-guests

Vidal, J. (2017, January 23). We are destroying rainforests so quickly they may  be gone in 100 years | John Vidal. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2017/jan/23/destroying-rainforests-quickly-gone-100-years-deforestation

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Planning for the Future Will Help in the Present Too

This week, our topics are both heavily influenced by human activity on the Earth: Urban Design, and population control (and in accordance with that, overconsumption). Without humans, these are issues that earth would not have to face by itself, and thus these are entirely manmade issues. First, we should talk about population control because without the increasing growth of this planets population, we wouldn’t have to worry about designing better and more efficient cities. Obviously, we have limited resources on this Earth and one of them is the amount of space we have. Currently there are approximately 7,690,000,000 people on this Earth (WorldoMeter). In the beginning of the 1900’s there were approximately 1,600,000,000. In just 100 years the population had a growth rate of well over 500%.  

To put that into perspective, in the 8,000 year period between 8,000 B.C. and 1 A.D. there was a growth rate of about 0.05%. 

Currently, we have a population growth of about 1.5% (relatively low), which accounts for an additional 82 million people per year worldwide.  We’ll touch on this again, but one of the reasons that the population growth is growing so rapidly is not because of a huge increase in fertility, it is actually because the mortality rate is decreasing and thus it is taking longer for people to die. The average life expectancy worldwide in the 19th century was between 30-40 years old, where as now the average person can expect to live close to double that, between 73 and 80 years old (Roser, 2013). As more and more people are living longer lives, that means the average person’s consumption rate will increase drastically because they have an incredibly larger amount of time in which they have things to consume. It is important to note however that not all population and consumption are controlled equally, and often times poverty stricken areas are stuck with the negative effects of overpopulation and overconsumption that wealthy groups and individuals get to enjoy. As we discussed in class, 85% on the human population comes from countries that are still developing or have yet to be developed, yet 90% of the population growth every year is contained within these same countries. This means that the majority of the human population is being crowded into countries that do not have the resources (money and space) to properly accommodate them. This brings a person’s quality of life plummeting to the lowest possible levels. Adding on to the injustice that is population control and overconsumption, about 15-17% of the population that resides in developed countries control 75% of the consumption of goods and services worldwide. This means that the rich and privileged people born into developing countries get to consume what they please and do not have to worry about the problems they are creating because they do not deal with the consequences directly. This further continues the systemic cycle of poverty and cripples the chances of a developing nation to become a fully developed country. If New Yorkers think the subway is crowded, imagine how crowded public transportation in China or India is!

Earth is having a hard time keeping up with human activity as it is with its 7 billion plus human inhabitants, and as that number keeps growing the Earth is going to have a harder time dealing with the consequences of humans. In fact, we could be running out of time to save the earth. Some scientists are saying that if we don’t start to reverse the effects of humans on the planet by as early as 2030, the effects will be nonreversible and we’ll have sealed our fate as a species (Sutherland, 2018). Currently, if every single person on Earth lived like the average American the Earth would only be able to sustain that life for about 1/5 of our population, or approximately 1.5 billion people (Hwang, 2018). This does not even begin to compensate for the growth of humans expected to come in the following years, and only analyzes current levels of consumption and population, which means the problem is only going to get worse. As discussed in class, almost half of the population of the world live with less than $2.50 in American money every day, and 80% of the world survives on less than $10 (Shah, 2013). These numbers struck me as surprising so I tried to evaluate my own daily spending and here is the math I came up with. My monthly rent is $850, which comes out to about $28 a day. I budget about $50 on food in a week which makes up about $7 a day. My monthly electricity bill is around $35 which is about $5 a day. In a week I usually spend about $15 a week on transportation via the subway, so we’ll call that $3 a day. These are all of the things that I use on a daily basis, which does not take into consideration the fact that sometimes I will buy new clothes, or spend money on tickets to see a show, or other purchases that are not directly for my every day needs. This also does not take into consideration my environmental impact and how much money I am actually spending like in a full cost analysis. This means that at the bare minimum I am spending is about $45 a day, approximately 15 times more than someone living in poverty! I am also a college student living on a budget so I’m sure the average price for an American is WAY higher than mine!

As the population continues to climb, people find themselves in more and more crowded living spaces. Cities in particular tend to host the most life and contain the most people. They take up 4% of the Earth’s land but more than half of the population lives in a city (Lavelle, 2019). Cities are important because they act as major hubs for human activity, but often times they are associated with high levels of economic footprint. One way that we can slow down the effects of human consumption and overpopulation is to make cities more sustainable. Here are a few ways cities can aim to be more sustainable, whether that be adopting new policies or creating them as new cities are being built:

1) Vertical Gardens: Many cities lack the green space to grow food, but have plenty of vertical real estate to take advantage of. Much like skyscrapers present the opportunity to hold more people, vertical gardens are the modern day approach to how to be greener in cities. These gardens can help grow sustainably sourced foods as well as help eliminate some of the cities carbon footprint. 2) Resilience to natural disasters and climate change: In 2017 the World Bank invested over $4 billion into disaster risk management in cities. By building cities to prevent natural disasters like having floodgates and earthquake proof buildings, there will be less money to spend on repairs in the future.   3) Access to public resources: Many cities have public features like garbage clean up and recycling programs, as well as public transportation, good education, and public health centers. However, if not everyone can access these systems fairly then the wellbeing of the city goes down. This means to make these services available for everyone including the poor and poverty stricken, instead of just the wealthy who can afford to live without it on their own dime.

Blog Question: Would it be more effective to try and tackle problems of overpopulation first or overconsumption and why?

Word Count: 1,251

                                              Works Cited

Growth Rate [Digital image]. (2019, February 26). Retrieved from http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

Hwang, A. D. (n.d.). 7.5 billion and counting: How many humans can the Earth support? Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/7-5-billion-and-counting-how-many-humans-can-the-earth-support-98797

Lavelle, M. (2015, October 03). How Do We Make Cities Sustainable? Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/energy/great-energy-challenge/big-energy-question/how-to-make-our-cities-more-livable-and-sustainable/

Roser, M. (2013, May 23). Life Expectancy. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy

Shah, A. (2017, January 7). Poverty Facts and Stats. Retrieved from http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats

Sutherland, S. (2018, October 17). We have 12 years to save the world. What      do we do now? Retrieved from https://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/we-have-until-2030-to-save-the-world-what-do-we-do-now-to-tackle-climate-change/114959

World Population: Past, Present, and Future [Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved February 26, 2019, from http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

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Economy and Politics in the Environment

As we as humans are rampantly destroying the earth, the biggest obstacle we face in fixing it is finding the money. There are plenty of motivated people who want to help the earth, but there’s a limited number of resources to use in order to achieve this, and unfortunately our capitalist society does not value the environment enough to allocate the proper funding our environment needs. Instead, we pour tons and tons of money into production and manufacturing that only adds to the carbon footprint and our environmental guilt. As our country moves forward we hope that our economy will continue to grow infinitely, but because the environment and the economy share a direct link this is not possible. Environmental growth relies on the trade and manufacturing of earth’s natural capital. Not all of the resources on Earth are 100% renewable, which means these resources will eventually be depleted. Also, the use of earth’s natural capital in production of goods leads to pollution that the environment may not be able to support after extended periods of distress. The primary concern of a business should be to make a profit, but businesses are run by people, and people live on earth. It’s a person’s individual duty to care for the earth, which should take precedence before profit. Without the Earth there’d be no businesses to run. 

Profiting while not harming the environment should thus be a businesses biggest concern in this current day and age. It’s not enough to make a profit if you’re causing more monetary damage to the environment. In order to promote sustainable business practices while also turning profits governments around the world have placed in effect different taxes, tax cuts and incentives that ask businesses to be responsible for the environment as well as their businesses. Of these taxes different taxes we have industrial pollution taxes, individual revenue based taxes, and incentivized taxation. Industrial pollution taxes are taxes that are placed on the amount of pollutants and harmful toxins the business produces in a year. In 2002 the Swedish government placed a tax on nitrogen in the use of space heating, electrical productions, and industrial processes. Nitrogen had been identified as a large component of acid rain and respiratory problems, so the government placed a tax rate of SEK 40/kg NOx emitted for all types of fuel. In doing so Sweden was able to eliminate 30-40% of nitrogen emissions (MetaMag). Individual revenue based taxes are aimed at individuals instead of businesses, but also look to hinder environmentally unsafe practices. In 2002 Ireland imposed a tax on all plastic bags. If you wanted to bring home your groceries for free you have to bring your own REUSABLE bags, if not expect to pay a price for the plastic bags you usually get at the grocery store. The tax led to a 90% decrease in the use of plastic bags and generated $9.6 million in funds for environmental projects around Ireland (Irish Environment, 2015). Incentivized taxation works a bit differently than the two tax programs outlined above. Rather than forcing people to pay extra for the costs of their products and practices, incentivized taxation gives money to people and businesses who are actively practicing environmentally safe practices. The government encourages people to think about their sustainability practices and rewards them for the good work that they are doing. An example of this would be solar power incentives. For instance in the Bronx, the government will aid in the installation of a solar panel system 25% of the costs or $5,000 which ever comes first. The government is already paying some of the cost to install it for you, and on top of that they offer a $300/ kW monthly rebate for those who use their solar energy systems to power their home.

Figure 1. Solar System Installation Facts. 

Furthermore, if a family’s solar panels are producing more electricity than the household needs to consume, the family can sell their excess energy back to their electric company for a profit (Solar Estimate). Incentives and taxes like these can be especially useful to poverty stricken families around the world. As we can see, the economy and the environment go hand in hand together, but both of these things require people and policies to make changes. One way we can attempt to change the economy to better benefit the environment is through the use of law making and legislation, which leads us to our next topic- Politics in environment. 

Change can only happen when people get together to make it happen. It’s hard to organize entire movements and groups of people to do anything, so naturally we let the government do what we want to fix the environment. Yes, this means that politicians are the ones who are trying to change the world for us. Politicians are the ones we voice our concerns too and who introduce laws and legislation to help reflect what the people of our country want. One U.S. representative in particular has been making strides to create a more sustainable future for America is congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Cortez is one of the youngest U.S. representatives and her policies and opinions reflect those of the younger generations of America. She has been in the spotlight since she has been sworn into congress, most notable for her Green New Deal. The green new deal proposal is a set of laws and policies that, if enacted, aim to make America a more sustainable country. It aims not only to lower carbon emissions and pollutants in America, but it also strives to redesign America’s infrastructure so that non-renewable energy will be a thing of the past. The green new deal aims to switch America to totally renewable energy sources by the year 2030, eliminating all fossil fuels and nuclear power plants from the country (Green Party). Renewable energy sources like solar, geothermal, hydrokinetic, and wind energy would be used in its place. All of these energy sources promote sustainability and economic stability.

Figure 2. Green Policy Support.

 The proposal plans to create as many as 20 million jobs devoted to bettering the sustainable practices of America. “It will provide jobs in sustainable energy, transportation and manufacturing infrastructure: clean renewable energy generation, energy efficiency retrofitting, intra-city mass transit and inter-city railroads, weatherization, “complete streets” that safely encourage bike and pedestrian traffic, regional food systems based on sustainable organic agriculture, and clean manufacturing of the goods needed to support this sustainable economy” (Green Party). Ocasio-Cortez’s plan for a more sustainable future is more radical than any that has been proposed before, and people are excited about it. More than 80% of registered voters are in favor of the proposal (Gustafan and Rosenthal, et al. 2018). However, this proposal does not come without its’ downsides. Most notably are the financial limitations this proposal would face. “We will need revenues between $700 billion to $1 trillion annually for the Green New Deal. $400 billion will be for the public jobs programs. Estimates for the transition to 100% clean energy start at $200 billion a year”, but, the good news is this might be an attainable goal. “Economists predict that we can build a 100 percent renewable energy system at costs comparable to or less than what we would have to spend to continue our reliance on dirty energy. The International Energy Agency estimates that limiting warming to 2° C would require an additional investment of about 1 percent of global GDP per year, which would be $170 billion a year for the US [19]. The former chairperson of the Intergovernmental  Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has made similar estimates” (Green Party). 

So, while America exists in a state of turmoil given the current political climate, we have a very exciting possibility to fix what’s wrong with our country environmentally. I don’t know about everyone else, but if we can’t kick the cheetoh out of office, we might as well ignore him as best we can and focus on fighting the good fight and making our country a better friend to the environment.

Word Count: 1,341 Blog question: What other ways besides fixing infrastructure and providing incentives for sustainable practices can the government come up with to make America a more sustainable and environmentally friendly country?

                                                     Works Cited

Carlock, G. (n.d.). Green Policy Support in the Median State [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.dataforprogress.org/green-new-deal

Facts about installing a 7.45kW solar system in Bronx, NY [Digital image]. (n.d.).  Retrieved from https://www.solar-estimate.org/solar-panels/bronx-new-york

Green New Deal – Full Language. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.gp.org/gnd_full

International Environmental Technology. (2015, April 2). What are Environmental Taxes? Retrieved from https://www.envirotech-online.com/news/air-monitoring/6/breaking-news/what-are-environmental-taxes/34066

The 5 most successful environmental taxes in Europe. (2018, July 03). Retrieved from https://metamag.org/2017/11/23/the-5-most-successful-environmental-taxes-in-europe/

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Education is the Best Prevention

Welcome to this week’s blog post! We jump ahead a couple chapters in the textbook in this weeks post- all about Environmental Ethics. To begin, the textbook lays out a few of the different major Environmental Worldviews- how a person thinks they have a relationship to the rest of the world. For starters, it is important to mention that most people have very Human-Centered (Anthropocentric) environmental worldviews. Humans as a species are irrefutably a greedy species. We take what we want without regards to what it does to the earth or people around us. This is evident in the way we treat the Earth. Humans make up only 0.01% of the total species of life on Earth yet humans are solely responsible for the destruction of 83% of the mammals on this planet (Carrington, 2018). Other studies show that humans are responsible for 95% of climate change happening currently, 70% of arctic sea ice loss is due to humans, and up to 67% of whale deaths from 1970-2009 could be traced back to human activity (Baral, 2012). What’s even worse is that humans have only been around on Earth for approximately 66 million years of its 4.5 billion year history. That is only a small fragment of Earth’s total lifetime, less than two percent! Due to the destruction that humans have been able to cause so far it is clear that the majority of us operate with a Human Centered Worldview where we care first about humans and second about any other species or form of life. Humans care so deeply about themselves that scientists have described the time we are currently living in as the Anthropocene, or the age of the humans.

The other environmental worldviews include life or earth-centered worldviews (biocentric). These environmental worldviews value can be as limited as individual species, but they tend to be less selfish and are aimed at life as a whole, or the entire biosphere. Of these worldviews we are presented with the ideas of Planetary Management, Stewardship, and Environmental Wisdom. Each has an increasing accountability for humans to take care of the Earth. Someone who thinks that we are Stewards of the Earth think of themselves more highly of the Earth, and that the Earth is here for our wants and needs. They also believe that resources are indeed limited but because of our technology and ingenuity we will always be able to replenish. A steward believes that we should be economically beneficial to the Earth because we should act as though we are there to care for the Earth, and the Earth for us. To them, resources are limited but we will probably not run out in our lifetime, but that does not mean that resources should be wasted. Someone who practices Environmental Wisdom believes that we are entirely part of nature and protecting our biosphere should be our number one priority at all times. It is our goal to live sustainably as we possibly can and to leave the Earth in good shape for future generations.

If more people adapted environmental worldviews like stewardship or environmental wisdom, we’d be at a better place in the world. But alas, that’s not the case. As pointed out in the textbook, humans have increased resource efficiency by 30% in the last three decades, but we also use about 50% more resources now than we did thirty years ago. This is a problem because everything on earth is limited. This leads to the question how can we live more sustainably?

There are a lot of ways to help out the earth like recycling, using renewable energy sources like solar, taking more public transportation, or buying waste free grocery products. However, of the four (very limited) suggestions above, only one of them (taking public transportation) is easily attainable for someone of low socio-economic status like the average person around the world. This leads us to our next topic, which is environmental ethics. How can we determine who’s to blame for everything going wrong in our country right now? Is it fair to place that burden on anyone specifically, evenly, or should we be blaming anyone for it at all? Environmental ethics determine what is wrong and what is right in regards to the environment.

Another important, maybe the most important way of all, way to help out the Earth is through education. If people do not learn from the mistakes we have made in the past, then humans are just going to continue to repeatedly destroy our planet. If more people were informed about the impacts their everyday choices make in regards to sustainability, I truthfully think more people would be a lot more conscious about the earth. Personally, I think more people would enjoy spending more time outdoors if they knew just how unique and fascinating nature is. I think there is a lot of danger to come in future generations because kids are not spending as much time outdoors, which means that they are potentially becoming apathetic to the issues that are going to be crucial to their wellbeing and livelihood when they grow up. In the past, studies have found that children ages 3-12 spent 27% of their time watching TV, and only 1% of their time outdoors. Also, a study done by Coyle in 2005 showed that 2/3 of the public failed a basic environmental quiz, and a whopping 88% of the public failed a quiz on basic energy (CT Woodlands). Clearly, environmental education needs to be improved. In the work done in studies gathered together by CT Woodlands, it is clear to see that there are plenty of benefits to environmental education besides environmental empathy. Some of the benefits are: Helps build critical thinking and relationship skills, helps foster leadership qualities (taking charge to make a change), Self Control/Self Discipline Benefits for Children with ADD, improved focus, increased cognitive thinking skills, and plenty of health benefits. One of the leading organizations today in environmental education is the National Park Service (NPS). Not only does the NPS educate through lectures, presentations, and guided nature walks, but they also have wonderful programs for the prevention of environmental harm. By spreading information to kids (and adults too) they are planting seeds in adolescents brains that will hopefully spark an urge to save the planet. If people were to stop becoming educated to the issues we face, we wouldn’t know what they are and if we don’t know what they are we can’t figure out how to stop them. Environmental education is especially important in America because of not only how wasteful we are, but also because we are privileged enough to have access to education. If we have access to education, we should learn about the things that matter.

Word Count: 1,127

Blog Question: Is it true that the Earth has enough for everyone’s needs but not everyone’s greeds? Is it possible to have enough for everyone’s greeds sustainably or will we as a culture have to figure out how to deal with less stuff and more things with intrinsic value?

                                                    Works Cited

Baral, S. (2012, December 4). Cause and Effect: The damage humans have      done in Earth's history. Retrieved from https://greenerideal.com/news/environment/1204-the-damage-humans-have-done-in-earths-history/

Carrington, D. (2018, May 21). Humans just 0.01% of all life but have destroyed  83% of wild mammals – study. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/21/human-race-just-001-of-all-life-but-has-destroyed-over-80-of-wild-mammals-study

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Environmental History and Where it Will Take Us

Figure 1. Environmental History of U.S., 1970-2002.

Hey everyone! This week we don’t have much textbook material to go through, but the topic for this week’s post is all about the history of the environment. So, in this post we’ll be taking a look at different events that were important to the environment during human’s brief time on Earth and see how they have impacted the world we live in today, or how it hasn’t impacted the world. We live in an extremely beautiful country. America offers a wide range of scenery and biomes and habitats to explore, and as cool as they are we as American’s haven’t been doing our part to take care of them. It’s super easy to feel overwhelmed by the current state of our environment, in America and around the world, and while it may be easy to be pessimistic about everything that’s going on and how fast the environment is deteriorating, pessimism is not going to be helpful at all. In fact, it should be comforting to know that America has (or maybe had, considering what the giant cheeto in office is doing to the preservation efforts in this country) some of the best environmental protection laws in the world. We do value the country’s landscapes and everything they provide for us, but the country cares more about capitalism right now.

This wasn’t always the case though, and history proves that Americans really do care about our country and have tried their best to help it in the past, and I’m sure we’re going to step up our conservation game in the future. Environmentalism really started taking place in America in the 1900’s. America created one of its most effective organizations of promoting environmentalism in 1916 when they created the National Park Service. The National Park Service (NPS) protects national parks, shrines, and monuments and takes care of promoting environmental education to its visitors as well as promoting conservation and sustainability. The first park to be designated a National Park was Yellowstone in parts of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho in March of 1872 (yes, Yellowstone is so old it predates the National Park Service itself). 

Yellowstone holds a very special place in my heart as I have a lot of friends who have worked there as Park Rangers in the past couple years, as well as having spent an extensive amount of time in Yellowstone and its backcountry doing backpacking trips with my friends and lover. Yellowstone is a very magical place, and it makes sense why designating Yellowstone as the first National Park sparked the interest of Americans to now have almost 60 parks! Creating national parks in America have inspired countries all around the world to designate specific areas of land to protect, but also market as a thing of beauty. I think sometimes the park service can go wrong when they try to capitalize off of the beauty of the land they protect, but I can still support them knowing that at the end of the day they are trying their hardest to do what’s best for the Earth.

While I think it’s great that America has inspired so many other countries to create National Parks, it is concerning that other countries around the world are looking at us as a role model of how to treat the land we own, which I don’t think other countries should. Mainly because the US is such a developed country that I don’t think other countries should strive to industrialize as much as the US has. It is one thing for a country to be inspired by how we aim to protect our land, but we are also destroying it pretty quickly. For underdeveloped countries this could prove deadly, as we don’t need any more countries trying to industrialize to add to more levels of pollution to the Earth. The problem with this is that those countries aren’t looking to America because it is successful at maintaining the natural beauty of our land, but rather because we bring in and spend so much money. I think if countries cared more about preserving their land and reversing the catastrophic effects humans have caused around the world, then most people would be a lot happier and the world might be a better place. Alas, people think that power comes from money and so the world is in a constant battle for who has the most power, while not caring about the environmental toils that show up in its wake. One period of human history in America shows that we have tried and are continuing to try to save the environment. In the 1960’s and 1970’s American legislation began going into effect in order to help the environment. During these years when environmentalism was the predominant concern of these legislators, modern day environmentalism was born. The Carter and Nixon administrations ushered in important pieces of legislation like the Clean Air Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Environmental Quality Improvement Act, and even established the first Earth Day, that continues to be celebrated as a national holiday every year.

It’s clear the government has been helpful in recognizing the importance of the land that we live on, but it’s also clear that without the government we might not have an environment left protecting. For instance, during the government shutdown of 2018-2019 that lasted almost a full month, plenty of National Parks were shut down due to insufficient funding. This means there was no supervision during the parks at all during these times and the effects guests had on these parks were disastrous and could take lots and lots of time to fix. Rangers at Joshua Tree National Park in the Mojave Desert say that some of the trees that were cut down by visitors during the shut down could take as long as 300 years to grow back to their healthy form before the incidents took place. This leads me to wonder that if the government didn’t have protections set in place to preserve our lands, how destructive would humans be? Does the government have too much power if humans are inherently destructive? If the government didn’t exist would we as a society care about our environment enough in order to fix it, or would we have already wiped it out entirely by now?

Finally, the documentary “Manufactured Landscapes” takes its viewers on a journey of the new “landscapes” that have been formed thanks to human activity in China. These landscapes are usually filled with garbage and rubble and are a testament to the atrocities the human race has committed against the Earth, not only in China but all over the planet. The sights in this film are sad and disgusting, but stand as a reminder that we as humans have to do better. Planet Earth is so beautiful and it is a shame to see so many people stand by and let it happen.

So, I think the world is in a fragile place. We’ve never been more advanced in terms of technology, but the Earth has never been in such poor shape. Is our technology a greater feat than the burden we’ve placed on this planet? Only time will tell.

Word Count: 1,209

Blog Question: Are doing enough to preserve environmental history? What would happen if we lost records of past environmental events? Why should we care?

                                                     Works Cited

Conley, A. (n.d.). Environmental History of U.S. [Digital image]. Retrieved from    https://slideplayer.com/slide/7541578/

[Map of U.S. National Parks]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.terragalleria.com/parks/parks-map.html

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Biodiversity Everywhere, For Everyone!

Hey everyone! This week we have a lot of info to cram in so summaries are going to be brief and sparse. Also a quick note about the past two blog entries; I had read the syllabus wrong so their content is a little off what it’s supposed to match, so chapter two won’t be included in this week(because it was already covered), but starting with this week we’re back on track, woohoo! Now, let’s get to it.

Figure 1. Biodiversity Hotspots.

Chapter four is all about biodiversity and evolution. Species evolve over long periods of time (Tens of thousands to even millions of years!) in order to adapt to their environment or overcome a new environmental challenge that the species had not had to face yet. Humans were particularly good at evolving useful traits, and some scientists might say we have developed one of the most useful tools in evolutionary nature: opposable thumbs. They allowed us to build tools to hunt and start fires that snowballed into the civilization we have today. One of the concepts they discuss in this chapter is the idea of species richness and species evenness. Species richness is about the different kinds of species living in one area, the more species the more species richness the area is said to have. Rainforests tend to be very species rich due to their high levels of biodiversity. Species evenness doesn’t depend on how many species are present, but rather how many of each species there are. Areas where there are even numbers of all of their species are even have more species evenness than areas that are dominated by one or more species over others. In order to memorize this concept I like to think about the freshmen dorms here at Fordham. For instance, Alumni Court South would have a lot of species richness (if we count types of students as different species for the sake of this example) because there are so many different types of students there: athletes, nerds, theatre kids, try hards, film buffs, hipsters, wanna be social media influencers, etc. etc. It’s really a conglomeration of different species, like a real ecosystem. While ACS would be high in species richness, the overwhelming amount of football players that live in the basement makes it not very high in species evenness. Loyola Hall on the other hand, tends to attract only a specific type of student i.e. the honor students. In order to live in Loyola you have to be an honors student. This means that Loyola is low in species richness, but very high in species evenness as all of the students who live there are the same “species”. If there were ever a shortage of food, the football players in the basement of south would probably win over the rest of us because they’re gonna hog all the food, but I’d hate to admit that freshman football players could potentially be more evolutionary advanced than I am. One additional side note I’d like to add from this chapter is about every bronxite’s favorite pest: cockroaches! Often referred to as nature’s ultimate survivors because they can survive nuclear radiation, but all it takes to kill them is hot water and hand soap! Take that you nasty dinosaur bug things.

As we move on to chapter five we keep the ideas of biodiversity with us but this time look at how different species interact with each other, and how each of these interactions is key in maintaining an ecosystem. The textbook tells us that there are five different interactions to be had in the animal kingdom. They are: interspecific competition, predation, parasitism, mutualism, and commensalism. Interspecific competition occurs when members of different species interact to compete for the same resources, an example of this would be many different animals gathering at a watering hole. Predation is probably the most thought of interaction in the animal kingdom and is composed of a predator and their prey. The predator eats the prey and while it may not seem like a great situation for the prey, this exchange is helpful to both species as well as an ecosystem as a whole. Parasitism occurs when one organism (the parasite) feeds off another organism (the host) usually by living on or inside the host. An example of this could be a tape worm living inside an animals stomach, but I think a better example might be my brother who graduated two years ago and is still living at home with my parents who pay for just about everything he does (get a freaking job already, Jack!!!). Mutualism is an interaction that happens between two different species but both of them benefit from it mutually. This is one of my favorite pairings in the animal kingdom for one example alone: the crocodile and the plover bird. Plover birds are small birds that work in tandem with crocodiles to receive food. After crocodiles are done with a meal, they open their huge mouths and let the plover bird pick their teeth. The bird gets fed, and the crocodile gets a clean mouth- everyone’s happy (I just think it’s adorable that these birds are essentially crocodile toothpicks/brushes)! My mom likes to pretend that my brother living at home is an example of mutualism because he cleans and helps around the house every once in awhile, but I know he’s being a parasite, trust me. Finally, commensalism is an interaction that is beneficial to one organism, but has virtually no effect on another. An example of this would be the remora fish and sharks. Remora fish have special suckers attached to its fins that let it hook on to other animals like sharks. The remoras then get to use the shark as free transportation and protection from its predators. All of these interactions feed into another concept in this chapter, which is population control. Environments have to have protections from allowing one species to grow/shrink out of control, and an imbalance in this relationship can cause stress on a whole ecosystem. For instance, in a study done by the University of Washington’s School of Environmental and Forest Sciences they found that when wolves did not have enough room to roam, they were not able to control the population of coyotes (a common prey for the wolves). The population of the coyote’s started to increase as the area the wolves had to roam was cut down thanks to human activities. This could in turn cause other animal populations, like deer for instance; to decrease because now they have more coyote’s hunting them and the same amount of wolves in a smaller space. Obviously not ideal for the deer.

Before we move onto the next chapter there’s one other thing I want to discuss and that was one of the critical thinking questions posed by the book: What is an example of environmental resistance that humans have not been able to overcome? This question struck me because I had a hard time trying to come up with an answer. My only thought is something like a disease or cancer that we do not have a cure to yet. I feel as if humans have been particularly destructive whenever there’s an environmental obstacle they need to overcome, so there is not much left for us to conquer, but I could be very much mistaken (and honestly I hope I am)! In this next chapter we move onto another factor that influences biodiversity, which is climate. Climate can be simplified to the idea of weather in a given area over time. Instead of regurgitating from the textbooks we can use what we know for this! One of the main causes of global warming comes from harmful emissions of gases that are depleting the ozone layer, like CO2. Here are some of the effects CO2 has on the environment:

-More frequent extreme weather (very very hot days and very very cold days instead of normal temperatures) 

-Decreased snow cover 

-Increased ocean levels

-Increased climate variability

-Increased ocean acidification.

All of these pose threats to biodiversity on Earth because some plants and animals can only survive in certain climates, so with the climate changing so frequently it would be harder for them to survive and thus decrease biodiversity all over the world.

Word Count: 1,383 Class Question: What is an example of environmental resistance that humans have not been able to overcome?

                                                 Works Cited

Butler, R. A. (2005, August 18). Biodiversity Hotspots [Digital image].

Hoffman, A. (2017, November 23). Climate change and biodiversity. Retrieved from https://www.science.org.au/curious/earth-environment/climate-change-and-biodiversity

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Earth is Dying and Scientists Need Help to Fix It

In the last chapter the textbook identifies that there is a problem, the Earth is dying, and the second chapter opens up by highlighting the people trying to fix it- scientists! The textbook introduces the readers to the scientific method so they can better understand how scientists approach problems, and uses the case study of Bormann and Likens as an example of the process. In this, they find that trees help soil stay in place and the soil helps trees retain water and nutrients. Next, the textbooks introduces useful skills that a scientists should have and while most seem pretty arbitrary, there were a few that stuck out because I had never thought of them as skills related to the science community. For instance, creativity always seems like a good trait to have in the arts for obvious reasons but it never occurred to me that a scientist would need to be creative in order to come up with new hypotheses and ways to test them. Another important point the book brought up is to check for the legitimacy of information, especially since we live in the day and age of the Internet. I just thought this was interesting because I’ve never seen an academic source like a textbook mention something like that and for some reason it struck me as being oddly self-aware. Next, they go on to talk about scientific theory and why scientific theories are to be regarded with respect and should never be taken lightly. I like that the book brought this up and it reminds me of when people try to debunk evolution “just because it is a theory and not a fact”. I always like to remind people that gravity is just a theory as well; as this goes to show how widely accepted scientific theories are and should be. In order for a hypothesis to be proven true, it must go through many tests to determine the validity. When a hypothesis has been tested and becomes widely accepted by a group of experts in a given field, they reach a scientific consensus and the hypothesis is regarded as a theory. To close out the beginning section of this chapter, the textbook brings up five limitations of science. These are less about what science is good and useful for and more about what it can’t do. They are: human error, proving something absolutely, many complex variables, statistical tools, and ethics.

Now that the textbook has taken care of what it takes to be scientists, it’s finally time to get into environmental studies! Well, sort of… before we can start studying the environment we need to understand what it’s made of. In order to do so the textbook takes us on a quick trip through the basic of chemistry and explains the building blocks of life around us (Thankfully it’s just a short one, AP Chemistry was my least favorite class in high school). Life is made up of tiny molecules of things called atoms. Each atom is made up of a unique number of positively charged protons (unique for each element), and also contains negatively charged electrons and neutrally charged neutrons. The combination of protons and neutrons gives an atom its atomic mass number, and the amount of electrons an atom has determines its charge. Atoms that lose an electron become positive isotopes and those that gain an electron become negative isotopes. All of these things put together create matter, and matter makes up every observable thing in the universe. Cool, done with chemistry, thank god. On to biology! Matter comes to life in cells, the fundamental structural and functional units of life. Within cells are instructions for what they contain, DNA. DNA is what makes you a human instead of a cow and what makes you yourself instead of your brother. DNA is sort of like the c++ of the biology world. Scientists can study DNA and try to decipher what it means but the true magic of DNA happens when it is translated by the body (like machine code) and performs its intended function. DNA contains tiny sequences of nucleotides that are called genes. Genes are responsible for individual traits and inheritance. A group of thousands of genes make chromosomes. All of these things (matter, cells, atoms, all that good stuff) make up the environment and the interactions that occur in the environment. In order for everything to take place in the environment we need energy! Next in the textbook we talk about chemical changes that require energy to take place. Chemical changes and equations are important to environmental studies because they can be used to determine how natural processes happen over time like a tree rotting or food decomposing in an animals digestion track.

So what is energy? It can be defined as the capacity to do work or transfer heat. There’s a finite amount of energy in the universe, which means that it cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred. There are two types of energy- kinetic and potential. When an object is in motion it is using kinetic energy but when it is at rest, say like a ball at the top of a hill, it has potential energy. Changing potential energy to kinetic energy requires work to be done. One form of kinetic energy that is not as obvious is heat. 

The majority of the heat on this planet comes from the sun and we harness it as solar energy. Solar energy is the most readily available source of energy we have on Earth and in more recent years we have been able to harness its energy for useful ways like powering our electrical homes and heating our water. The popularity in solar energy in recent years had skyrocketed (a growth rate of 59% from 2006-2016) and it is becoming one of the best alternatives fuel sources to fossil fuels and other non-renewable resources (Moalem, 2016). Because the energy in the sun is renewable it is one of the best examples of practicing sustainability. Other renewable forms of energy include wind, geothermal activity, and hydropower.

Figure 1. U.S. Solar Panel Installations by Market Segment, 2010-2013.

Next the textbook introduces a concept that was new to me, energy quality. Some forms of energy are more efficient than other and often times in energy transfers the energy goes from a high quality resource to a low quality resource. For example, high speed wind is a high quality energy because it can do a lot of work like powering a wind turbine or blowing tree branches. A low quality energy disperses more than a high quality energy so it can not do as much work. For example, the heat given off by the molecules in my body vibrating is not enough to heat anything else up so it would be low quality. When energy changes it goes from a useful energy to a less useful one (high quality to low quality) and the low quality energy is usually given off as heat that becomes so dispersed in the environment that it can not do enough work to transfer energy. This concept is known as the second law of thermo dynamics. To wrap this chapter up the book gives us three big ideas 

1) There is no away. Everything is recycled, and nothing is ever lost completely. (Except my iPhone I dropped in the pond in 11th grade. That’s definitely lost forever for sure.) 2) You cannot get something for nothing. This idea is sort of like the economic idea that there’s no free lunch! If you get a free lunch then yeah, upfront it may look like you did not have to pay, but the government probably increased your taxes or something else shady. 3) You cannot break even. This idea is exactly like playing a slot machine. They always say if you work at the same machine long enough you’ll eventually win, but that’s just a scam from casinos to get you to keep playing. Sure, you might win some money back but you’re never going to be back where you started.

Word Count: 1,353 Blog Question: The world is ready and able to power itself with renewable technologies, so what do you think is the biggest reason we haven’t made the switch yet?                                                Works Cited

Moalem, M. (2016, September 22). We Could Power The Entire World By Harnessing Solar Energy From 1% Of The Sahara. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/09/22/we-could-power-the-entire-world-by-harnessing-solar-energy-from-1-of-the-sahara/#16beca1fd440

U.S. Solar Panel Installations by Market Segment [Digital image]. (2014, January 9). Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2014/01/09/ant-solar-users-to-pay-more.html

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Why should we care about the earth?

The textbook opens by letting the readers know that there is a problem, and this book is here to help us do two things. 1) Identify the problem and 2) teach its’ readers how to think critically about the environment in a way that promotes sustainability and strives to fix the current issues we face. The problem being that Earth has been sustaining itself and all of the creatures that live there for 3.5 billion years, but as of about 10,000-12,000 years ago (especially since the beginning of the twentieth century, the start of the Industrial Revolution) Earths natural resources have been disappearing at a rate faster than the Earth can renew them.

Figure 1. Earth Overshoot Day, 1970-2018.

 This concept is known as natural capital degradation. Without the renewal of these resources the Earth is totally devoid of them, and once they are gone there is no getting them back. Humans have been burning through resources increasingly faster that the planet we call home can replenish them, and it’s having major tolls on the Earth. Earth Overshoot day is the day in a year when humanity has consumed more natural resources than the earth can replenish in a year. The solution the textbook proposes is sustainability. Obviously, it is impossible to undo the damage humans have caused to Earth, so some scientists believe it is now our duty to slow down the consumption of Earth’s natural resources so that Earth can continue to restock on its’ precious materials and resources. In other words, scientists that care about the environment are working hard to discover new and efficient ways to further the advancement of our society while also ensuring that our planet remains a safe place and open resource for generations to come. If we, as humans that live on the Earth, could figure out how to live more sustainably then we would not have to worry about the state of our planet after we leave. There are three major principles of sustainability (or lessons from nature) that are suggestions for how humans can aim for a more sustainable future. These principles of sustainability are solar energy, biological diversity, and chemical cycling. Solar energy is considered a renewable energy source because we are not expecting to lose the power of the sun for at least another 6 billion years. With that being said, solar energy is a prime candidate for alternative sources of energy because it will not run out, but it is also in space so it cannot be monopolized by any major corporation or groups of corporations. The power of the sun will always remain open for anyone to harness, which makes it useful especially in undeveloped countries once they have access to the proper technologies to harness its energy. Biodiversity is variety of all of the different types of life found on Earth and how they interact. Without all of Earth’s species living together it could cause problems for other species and the Earth as a whole. Finally, chemical cycling is the process of reusing chemicals necessary for life from the environment, to a living organism, and then back again. Scientists use these three principles to study new ways to improve sustainability on Earth, with the hope that we can all eventually start to help heal the Earth instead of destroy it. 

One of the major stressors on Earth’s health is pollution, and more specifically the ludicrous amount of pollution humans have been forcing Earth to be subject to. Pollution is the contamination of the environment due to excess levels of chemicals or energy that are harmful to the environment. There are two types of pollution; point and nonpoint sources. Point sources are identifiable sources like a smokestack from a factory, whereas nonpoint sources are harder to trace back to the source, like pesticide run-off into a stream or river. 

Figure 2. Point and Nonpoint Sources.

The issue with pollution is that it becomes hard to stop once it is already prevalent, and there are two ways to try and slow down the effects of pollution. One being regulating access to resources that cause pollution through government control, the other being to sell these resources to private companies in the hopes that they will take better care of them. Something I found interesting in the text is that when it comes to pollution and creating a more sustainable world they have placed importance on the actions of the individual. They use examples of a poverty-stricken village with a small population that only use up so many resources like wood to burn and fish to eat, and then doubling back to show that the same village with a bigger population can cause deforestation and overfishing over their resources. This is obviously a valid point, the more people there are the more resources they are going to use, but I find it surprising that the authors of the textbook did not mention the effect major corporations are having on the environment. While I agree I think every single person should be more mindful of their waste and should aim to live more sustainably, I also think large businesses should be held accountable for what they are doing to the environment. The Carbon Majors Report, a database of publicly available emissions figures, shows that a small group of only 100 companies are to blame for almost 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since 1988. “The report found that more than half of global industrial emissions since 1988 – the year the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was established – can be traced to just 25 corporate and state-owned entities. The scale of historical emissions associated with these fossil fuel producers is large enough to have contributed significantly to climate change, according to the report” (Riley 2017, par. 4) Of the businesses, most are oil companies like ExxonMobil or Shell that work directly with fossil fuels. While I think it is critical for every human to do their part with helping their planet, it is wrong to let corporations that profit off of the declination of our planets health walk away without taking the majority of the blame when they are doing the majority of the damage. Sure, greenhouse gas emissions are only one form of pollution, but they are the leading cause of global warming and the ever-growing holes in the ozone layer. Sure, using a reusable water bottle will help on the small-scale if one person does it and on an even bigger scale if everyone does, but if the company’s selling plastic water bottles were held accountable and forced to stop manufacturing so much plastic the turn around would be a lot faster.

The textbook goes on to identify five key sources of  environmental problems, they are: population growth, unsustainable resource use, poverty, excluding environmental costs from market prices, and increasing isolation from nature. While all pose serious threats to the environment, the last two were the ones that struck me the most. I thought it was interesting that the textbook did not mention that although it does not look like businesses are paying for the environmental tolls of their product, they actually might be. Good businesses should strive to earn a profit on all of their transactions, so they sell their products for more than they are worth. I’m sure each business breaks down what they do with the profit from each sale they make, but I’d go out on a limb to say that some of that money goes to funding safer and more environmentally safe manufacturing processes, especially as time goes on and we have new pieces of legislation like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal that is trying to make more environmentally friendly infrastructure. Finally, the last of the five key sources of environmental problems shocked me and disappointed me a little bit as well. I have never before thought that one of the reasons we as a society are so quickly destroying the Earth we call home is simply because not everyone has been able to experience its vast beauty and appreciate all that it does for us. I know people personally who have never gone on a real hike before, and that idea kills me. Apathy should be no reason to continue on this path of destruction, but it makes me wonder how I can force other people to care.

Blog Question: Which is more important: Education for prevention, or clean up for restoration? Word Count: 1,367

                                                      Works Cited

Cooper, L. (n.d.). Point and Nonpoint Sources [Digital image]. Retrieved from      https://slideplayer.com/slide/7532335/

Feldman, S. (2018, August 13). Earth Overshoot Day Comes Sooner Every Year  [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/chart/15026/earth-overshoot-day-comes-sooner-every-year/

Riley, Tess. "Just 100 Companies Responsible for 71% of Global Emissions, Study Says." The Guardian. July 10, 2017. Accessed January 16, 2019.https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/10/100/fossil-fuel-companies-investors-responsible-71-global-emissions-cdp-study-climate-change.