EcoCMUfall21B

 Today I want to discuss something that after doing reading on the topic of conservation and extinction i have become aware of. The Extinction Rebellion. I am new to this topic but I find it extreamly interesting. The Extinction Rebellion (XR) has been in the press an increasing amount of time since its launch. This group uses mass civil disobedience and non violent action to demand attention to climate change and demand action be taken as well. I feel that regardless of the imperfections this rebellion might have, it brings a sense of urgency back to the table when discussing climate change, which i think is necessary. This group has many supporters and critics as any group as this one does. According to the Resiliance website for XR “ XR suggests that when your government is driving you and your family over a cliff, it is no longer a legitimate government. Rebellion against it is permitted – indeed, it is  required . But XR is insistent that such rebellion must be nonviolent...

 So we’ve heard a lot about global warming in class but I wanted to take a closer look because my main topic I got assigned was land issues I wanted to look at how global warming was effecting the earths landscape and what exactly that was doing to the environment. So when global warming occurs there are a few things that go on that effect our land. For starters there are more hot days and fewer cold days as well as longer and more intense heatwaves will become more common. Storms, floods,  and droughts will also become more common. Right away these things would have a more immediate impact on the land and they’d be things we’d be able to tell we’re going on almost instantly but what about some more long term effects    One thing you’ll hear a lot about is the ice caps melting causing sea levels to rise. Which will cause a lot of costal populated areas to eventually be completely submerged under water. That probably one of the main concerns scientists have with globa...

Rice farming today and how we are going to change before 2030  For this weeks blog I'm going to pull it a whole different direction. This week I will be talking about how rice farming is working along side the climate change. Rice farmers are working together to find out new and better ways to be farming their crop. One thing I know they are working toward is lowering the amount of water that they are using along with reducing the methane emissions. Rice farmers are having to work double or even triple what other farmers are having to produce. On average according to the article I found the average American eats half a pound of grain yearly, while Asians are eating up to eight pounds a year. Rice farming is the fourth largest footprint of farming in the United States. By 2030 we are really trying to reduce the greenhouse gases and the amount of water used to grow the rice. But we are still trying to keep in mind the fact that it requires a lot of water to keep microbes growing with...

This week I am going to talk about Cold fusion. What is Cold fusion? According to Wikipedia, "C old fusion is a hypothesized type of nuclear reaction that would occur at, or near, room temperature." In other words, this type of fusion does not need to be a million degrees in order to work. According to the World Nuclear Association, Cold fusion was discovered by two researches Stanley Pons, and Martin  Fleischmann.  The World Nuclear Association goes on to state, "' N-Fusion', or 'cold fusion', involves the electrolysis of heavy water using palladium electrodes on which deuterium nuclei are said to concentrate at very high densities." In other words, they were able to replicate an ignition with out having to heat up to ridiculous temperatures.                                                          ...

  Waste disposal in the U.S. Caleb Monnig https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-26/local-hazards-grow-as-u-s-garbage-overflow-is-shipped-out-of-state Averaging 4.9 pounds of trash per person a day, the U.S is the most wasteful country on the planet. Over the last 3 decade, the U.S. recycling and composting has more than doubled, however the nuke broke of available landfills has shrunk by 74%. Of the 580 landfills owned by municipalities, 300of those will close over the next decades as they reach capacity. Although we are running out of landfills and they continue to shrink, the amount of waste continues to grow, which will soon create more and more environmental stress to communities. In Maine, their waste generation increased 2.5%, where much of the at waste went to Jupiter Ridge Landfill, along with hundreds of thousands of tons of waste from other states. Since 2012, the amount of waste going into Jupiter Ridge has increased by 31%, and if nothing is done to slow this ...

      Primates are key to tropical biodiversity and happen to be the most similar species to humans. This means apart from obvious factors, they are a translation of wild humans. Their genome is so alike to ours that they often are subject to testing for numerous products before being released for public consumption. Even so closely that certain monkeys may receive test vaccinations and medicine. For them to be so similar to us it isn’t an unfair assessment that their struggles in nature could be foreshadowing what will be in the future for us.     60% of Non-Human primates are currently threatened with extinction and 75% are seeing population declination. One of the largest contributors to this situation is of course human industrialization. This is less concerning though for our primates. This factor has contributed to many species endangerment and population declines. One of the most important discoveries in contribution to the non-human primate populati...

  Modern Green house - Connor Sullivan     When looking for my new subject for my blog about agriculture and new advances I  came across the modern greenhouse. I have heard this word plenty of times but never really understood what it truly is but now that it is coming up in my topics I  researched it a little more.     The article from the website PlugandPlay gave some examples and benefits for the modern greenhouse. T he entire global greenhouse market currently produces nearly   US $350 billion  in vegetables annually, of which the  U.S. production comprises less than one percent.  Nowadays, in large part due to the tremendous recent improvements in growing technology, the industry is witnessing a blossoming like no time before. Greenhouses today are increasingly emerging that are large-scale, capital-infused, and urban-centered.     I think that greenhouses could be the new future of farming they are very tech heavy an...

  The consequences for humans In this week’s blog, we are going to talk about the consequences of deforestation for humans and especially for the Indonesian tribes. We always talk about how deforestation affects the environment, but it also affects us. In this article, they talk about the life of two Indonesian tribes who suffer from deforestation. We need trees for our palm oil because this product is used in almost everything: household, food, etc. It is so important that they invented a system that provides the trees with water even during dry seasons. However, because of this system, the tribes don’t have fresh water anymore so they have to rely on rainwater. Another bad effect of deforestation is that now, the tribes can’t grow and gather certain types of foods that can only be found in the forests. Thanks to all this, most of the tribes are underfed and have bad hygiene and health. I really hope that this is a wake-up call for every person on this planet. If we don’t act now,...

  Rainforest No More By:Laurel Devenney  https://www.conservation.org/blog/3-ways-climate-change-affects-tropical-rainforests   As we know global warming is a continuing issue that is affecting not only us and our plants but our animals. I've talked about how global warming has been affecting animals and creatures such as the polar bears, frogs, bees, and so much more. Today I will be informing you on global warming and its effects on our animals in the rainforest. The rainforest, known for taking in most of our carbon dioxide to form it into oxygen, is being destroyed for its land to build and its trees for mass production of things such as paper and wood. Now these aren't just trees that take in carbon dioxide but are home and shelter for many animals that live within the rainforest. But with limited shelter, animals that live here are without a home or a place to hide from predators. So why is this an issue? There are over 30 million species of plants and animals in th...

For this blog post, I will be talking about the current situation happening in California. Many of you may not know but in the last few days, Northern and Southern California have been having severe rainfall and set the highest record last Sunday since the 1980s. In less than 24 hours, 5-7 inches of rain fell all over California. The high-impact helped the regional drought and helped the fire season but started flooding and mudslides. A bomb cyclone was reported too, intensifying the storm bringing hurricane severe winds that were 50-80 mph. These rainfall are clearly caused by climate change and if this keeps ongoing...California may be a possible hurricane state for the first time. This problem has both ups and downs because it helps the state not be at risk of another drought but the floods can become very pricy to fix.  Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/10/25/atmospheric-river-record-rain-california/ Destiny Perez

 Blog 7:                                                                        Forest Degradation: Forests around the world are under threat, .one of the reasons are the threats manifest themselves in the form of deforestation and forest degradation.One of The the main cause of deforestation today is the agriculture and the main cause of forest degradation is illegal logging. In 2019, the tropics lost worth of trees every single minute. In our planet, the forest cover around  31% of the land area. They also help people thrive and survive, for example, purifying water and air and providing people with jobs.   Another 13.2 million people across the world have a job in the forest sector, also 41 million have a job that is related to the forest. A lot of animals also rely on forests to live.  ...

  Soil pollution Waste proliferation and soil pollution is getting worse and is threatening our future for human and the environments health and the global food production. When soil pollution is bad it can cause the food, water, and air that we intake them as humans is another downfall. There are other factors that cause soil pollution such as: pesticides, waste production, and industrial/mining. All of these ways are terrible for the Earth and hopefully soon we can limit or lessen the soil pollution. https://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1403627/icode/ Megan Aubuchon

  Don’t drink from tap, Canadian city says, as gasoline suspected in water supply https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/13/canada-iqaluit-drinking-water-gasoline-arctic-territory-nunavut After finding suspected indications of gasoline in the city's tap water, officials in Canada's northernmost capital have declared a local state of emergency. Residents of Iqaluit, the Arctic territory of Nunavut's capital, have been advised not to consume, boil, or cook with the city's water. The Nunavut government issued a public health notice late Tuesday, stating that it was testing the city's water for suspected petroleum hydrocarbons. The results of the tests will be available next week. Until then, the authorities advised against bathing newborns and infants in tap water, although Iqalummiut can use it for showers and cleaning. Residents reported that their tap water smelled like gasoline, prompting the city to launch an investigation into its main drinking water supply l...

  Save the bees By:Laurel Devenney  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210112085357.htm   This week I watched the movie Honeyland and it inspired  me to turn in my work this week with my blog. Today for global warming I am going to be talking about how it affects the bees. Bees are very important in the world and do a lot more than we think. Bees are responsible for pollination of our plants to help keep them alive and well. With habit changes the bees are unable to find places to live as well as places to do pollination to create honey for their hives. Another problem is the change in the temperature. Now that global warming is causing warmer winters, it is creating problems for bees to reproduce and some species of bees are starting to die off because of the weather changes that aren't normal. Bees are very important in this world and have many jobs and tasks that help us in the world so we need to put a stop to the destruction we are doing before it's t...

 Forging a path to progress for Haiti’s water and sanitation By: Avery Bohon  https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/haiti-water-sanitation-wash-crisis-earthquake/ In Haiti, which is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, almost 60% of the population live below the poverty line of $2.41 a day, and millions struggle to even find clean drinking water. While the lack of clean drinking water and sanitation had been a major problem in Haiti for years, the situation became dire in 2010 after a massive earthquake destroyed many of the few existing sanitation systems that were left. With Haiti being the poorest nation, it is more vulnerable to natural hazards, with more than 90% of the population at risk. With that being said, the water and sanitation sector now has means to achieve progress with close collaboration with the government and DINEPA (Direction nationale de l’eau potable eat de l’assainissement. Hopefully this problem gets solved quickly!

 We are on the verge of a 6th mass extinction and no one is talking about it. Species are declining 1000 times faster due to human interference. The united states have taken strides to help reduce the risk of extinction sure, they passed the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection act, but the people are still going about life as if nothing is wrong. It takes more than a bill to be passed to stop something of this nature. It takes each and every one of us being informed on the issue and actively trying to stop it. There is still a major threat to these species and Climate Change is responsible. According to Defenders of Wildlife " invasive species and diseases are being spread to new, susceptible populations. The ESA and other conservation laws are politically controversial and at risk of being weakened"  Something that we can do to help this issue, to begin with, is one, Speak up for nature. We can do this by supporting our national parks, supporting local co...

 The ozone layer is a region of the earth’s stratosphere that contains high concentrations of ozone that protects the earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation’s of the sun. Ozone layer depletion is the thinning of said region caused by green house gas being released into the atmosphere by human activity.  The ozone layer thinning is a huge problem for the future of the world we live in. Not only will it harm the environment but this will also effect Animals, marine life, and Human health as well. If the ozone layer gets completely wiped out then we will be exposed to the suns harmful ultraviolet radiation. For humans this will cause skin cancer, severe sunburns, and a weaker immune system resulting in a short life span.  It also will lead to skin and eye cancer for certain species and it will cause plankton to become extinct resulting in the destruction of Marine life’s food chain since plankton is a vital source of food for some marine life.  So how can we stop this...

This week I'm going to talk about the dangers that are presented with nuclear fusion. Not so much the disadvantages, like cost and sustainability, etc. I'm going to focus specifically on the dangers. I've not yet done this so I figured, what the heck. According to the folks at connectusfund.org, one of the main concerns with fusion is radioactive waste.  Image courtesy of https: //www.colourbox.com/image/yellow-symbol-of-radiation-on-a-steel-background-image-1744361   According to the folks at  connectusfund.org,  waste produced from fusion is different than that of fission. This leads to people often confusing the two "With a nuclear fission reactor, the radiation is alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma rays (which can penetrate your skin and break apart the bonds in your DNA structure, giving you all kinds of cancer)." (connectusfund.org, List of Cons of nuclear fusion #2) Connectusfund.org also states, "In contrast, in a nuclear fusion reactor, the...

    How GMO are affecting the environment.    Do you know what GMO stands for? If not here is some facts and information on how GMO’s do not hurt you or our environment. With my background knowledge and the help of  https://massivesci.com/articles/gmo-excerpt-environmental-damage/ . Fun fact without GMO’s you would not have a seedless watermelon. I know that my stance on this is not always what is right in some peoples mind but if you understood the facts and content then you might agree with me. As stated in the article farmers can spray their crops and kill most of the weeds and not kill or affect their crop.  When talking about the environment GMO are helping the soil and all the insects that live within the soil. With gathered research and information from local farmers, the  https://massivesci.com/articles/gmo-excerpt-environmental-damage/  found that over the past 20 years GM crops have been producing way better than  NON-GMO ...