Environment Diary #8
Due February 6
posted by Mr. Enns at
6:20 PM
Geography 12
Heritage Christian School's Geography 12 Blog
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
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ReSurf
http://www.enn.com/lifestyle/article/39232
Summary:
Who: ReSurf Recycling and Green Foam Blanks, two Southern California based organizations.
What: ReSurf Recycling and Green Foam Blanks, two Southern California based organizations, have developed new methods in recycling what was believed to be an unrecyclable material, “polyurethane.” Of the 750,000 surfboards made every year, the majority are made of this not so eco-friendly material. At ReSurf Recycling, they transform old surfboards into asphalt or concrete to pave city roads and turn old wet suits into yoga mats. Green Foam Blanks teamed up with Just Foam Blanks to create the first ever recycled polyurethane surfboard. These boards are proving to measure up to modern surfboards in durability, lightness and function alike, just without the waste.
Where: Southern California
When: February 3, 2009 09:12 AM
Why: During the surfboard production process, toxic chemicals, carbon dioxide, and volatile organic compounds are released into the atmosphere and a further 20% of the foam is wasted in the shaping process. Until recently, the foam was presumed to be unrecyclable so it accumulated in landfills and produced heaps of waste. However, in an effort to become more eco-conscious, these companies have developed new and exciting ways to reduce, reuse and recycle.
How: These companies have already started to put this plan into action, with recycled surfboards already on the market and old board being turned into asphalt all the time.
My Opinion:
Seems like this is a great opportunity for surfboard companies and surfers alike. Not only does the company get to become more eco friendly and reduce their impact on the environment, but the surfers also get to help the earth by recycling their old boards and purchasing recycled ones. I think all the surf companies and surfers should invest in this opportunity. The boards are as good as or better in quality to the old ones, with durability, lightness and functions alike, they just produce so much less waste, which, as we all know, is a great thing. So, go green, and surfs up!
-Ashleigh Miller
Environmental Journal:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/12/AR2006061201266.html
Polar Bears Turn To Cannibalism
“ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea may be turning to cannibalism because longer seasons without ice keep them from getting to their natural food, a new study by American and Canadian scientists has found.
The study reviewed three examples of polar bears preying on each other from January to April 2004 north of Alaska and western Canada, including the first-ever reported killing of a female in a den shortly after it gave birth.
Polar bears feed primarily on ringed seals and use sea ice for feeding, mating and giving birth
Polar bears kill each other for population regulation, dominance, and reproductive advantage, the study said. Killing for food seems to be less common, said the study's principal author, Steven Amstrup of the U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center.
"During 24 years of research on polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea region of northern Alaska and 34 years in northwestern Canada, we have not seen other incidents of polar bears stalking, killing, and eating other polar bears," the scientists said.
Environmentalists contend shrinking polar ice due to global warming may lead to the disappearance of polar bears before the end of the century.
The Center for Biological Diversity of Joshua Tree, Calif., in February 2005 petitioned the federal government to list polar bears as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Cannibalism demonstrates the effect on bears, said Kassie Siegal, lead author of the petition.
"It's very important new information," she said. "It shows in a really graphic way how severe the problem of global warming is for polar bears."
Deborah Williams of Alaska Conservation Solutions, a group aimed at pursuing solutions for climate change, said the study represents the "bloody fingerprints" of global warming.
"This is not a Coca-Cola commercial," she said, referring to animated polar bears used in advertising for the soft drink giant. "This represents the brutal downside of global warming."
The predation study was published in an online version of the journal Polar Biology on April 27. Amstrup said print publication will follow.
Researchers in spring 2004 found more bears in the eastern portion of the Alaska Beaufort Sea to be in poorer condition than bears in areas to the west and north.
Researchers discovered the first kill in January 2004. A male bear had pounced on a den, killed a female and dragged it 245 feet away, where it ate part of the carcass. Females are about half the size of males.
"In the face of the den's outer wall were deep impressions of where the predatory bear had pounded its forepaws to collapse the den roof, just as polar bears collapse the snow over ringed seal lairs," the paper said.
"From the tracks, it appeared that the predatory bear broke through the roof of the den, held the female in place while inflicting multiple bites to the head and neck. When the den collapsed, two cubs were buried, and suffocated, in the snow rubble."
In April 2004, while following bear footprints on sea ice near Herschel Island, Yukon Territory, scientists discovered the partially eaten carcass of an adult female. Footprints indicated it had been with a cub.
The male did not follow the cub, indicating it had killed for food instead of breeding.
A few days later, Canadian researchers found the remains of a yearling that had been stalked and killed by a predatory bear, the scientists said.”
Who: Polar bear population
What: In recent years, polar bear populations have been driven to starvation due to melting ice and lack of food. Their numbers have been plummeting and lately, evidence is surfacing that they have been driven so far into starvation that utter desperation has caused them to become partially cannibalistic, eating their own species.
Why: Lack of food and resources have driven them to the starvation. Their only options are face death, and furthermore, extinction of the species, or turn to partial cannibalism when needed.
Where: Anywhere that polar bears are found (Arctic, Alaska, etc)
When: For the past few years up to the present until it is resolved.
My Opinion: It’s a horrible, brutal thing that polar bears are facing. The fact that they are that desperate shows that as humans, we need to be more considerate of the huge obstacles species around the world are facing from our selfishness that has caused global warming. It affects many species and will continue to until we find a solution to this ever-increasing problem.
Hungry, Hungry.... Caterpillars
http://www.enn.com/wildlife/article/39255
Summary:
Who - people in west africa
What - people dying, crops dying
When - February 6, 2009 09:10 AM
Where - west africa
Why - caterpillars are eating them away
How - crawling all over your body, scratching you and eating your skin, also they eat and destroy crops
In my Opinion - hahahahahahahahahah...killer caterpillars
“Taiwan coral reefs "turn black" with disease”
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/39259
Coral reefs off the southeast coast of Taiwan have turned black with disease possibly due to sewage discharge, threatening fragile undersea ecosystems and tourism, a study released Friday said. The discovery on a problem long suspected but seldom documented shows that coral is suffering widely in waters up to five meters (16.4 feet) deep and 300 meters offshore from two outlying islands, said researcher Chen Chao-lun of Taiwan's state-funded Academia Sinica. "This is a large distribution and we had no previous information," said Chen, whose began doing research with local environmental groups in 2007. "If you snorkel, you'll see it's black. If it's all black, there won't be too many tourists." Coral reefs, delicate undersea structures resembling rocky gardens made by tiny animals called coral polyps, are important nurseries and shelters for fish and other sea life. They also protect coastlines, provide a critical source of food for millions of people and are potential storehouses of medicines. Taiwan's study did not pinpoint a cause for the diseased coral, but untreated sewage may a factor, Chen said. On Green Island, a tourism hotspot and one the sites surrounded by diseased coral, garbage and excrement are dumped into the surrounding azure waters while reefs are often plundered by coral-robbing tourists, officials and long-time divers say. The Taiwan researchers have sent their report to the government and plan to check for problems in other offshore areas known to support coral, Chen said.
Summary
Who: Taiwan’s Coral Reefs
What: They are turning black with disease
When: February 6, 2009
Where: Southeast coast of Taiwan
Why: The coral reefs have turned black with disease due to sewage discharge which is now threatening fragile undersea ecosystems and tourism
How: Since the surrounding area of these coral reefs are tourism hotspots, garbage and excrement are dumped into the surrounding waters which is damaging the reefs. Along with this, there are also coral-robbing tourists.
My Opinion
I personally am getting rather tired of reading all of these things and find that these assignments are rather depressing. There’s never any positive news, always negative. I guess that’s what the world has come too. It would be nice if people would stop acting stupid and get their acts together. The world is slowly
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/science/earth/07enviro.html?_r=1
Who: President Obama
What: Reversing the Bush campaign’s view on the environment
Where: U.S. of A.
When: Now
Why: Bush opened numerous oil and timber yards. Greatly hurting the environment.
How: Reversing laws set down by the Bush campaign
My Opinion: This is the first step of many of reversing the business man approach that the Bush campaign brought to the White House. These new laws and regulations will help people across America and through that the world around them. These laws include giving alternative forms of energy (I.E. wind, solar, hydro) more of a chance, cleaning the air of all pollution not just the dangerous minuscule particles. The U.S. of A. is also under going discussions with China to help with there pollution issues. In other words the world may yet get out of this crisis if we humans are in fact the cause of Global Warming.
Article Summary #8
Rebekah McMurphy
February 5th, 2008
Geography 12
Extreme Weather in Arctic Regions
http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/39246
Who:
Study led by a member of the International Polar Year project (The observing system research and predictability experiment).
What:
A dramatic climate change that is reducing the ice cover in the Arctic. As the sea is retreating, ice leads to rapid changed in the weather conditions in these areas.
When:
Recently within the last years the Arctic regions have been melting lots, and will continue to do so.
Where:
Artic Regions, Arctic Ocean, and large ice sheets.
Why:
Global warming is causing ice to melt, and these areas that used to be covered with ice will now be exposed to new kinds of severe weather.
How:
Arctic weather has many faces. While the conditions over the Arctic Ocean ice sheet are frequently calm and cloudy, the warm regions with open ocean surrounding it are host to severe weather, such as explosive mid-latitude storms, polar lows and arctic fronts.
My Opinion:
I think it’s sad that global warming is really having an affect on the Artic by melting its ice. It will start to affect commercial businesses like fishing companies, oil industries, and shipping. It will increase the extreme weather in these areas, and therefore making businesses shut down, which I think is too bad. There’s really not too much we can do about it though, just getting better forecast systems to know what kind of storms might be ahead. It’s just sad that global warming is starting to take this kind of action on the Earth.
Taiwan coral reefs "turn black" with disease
Resource:
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/39259
Who: Researcher Chen Chao-lun of Taiwan's state-funded Academia Sinica.
Where: The coastline of Taiwan near 2 islands I
What: Due to carelessness towards the environment, the coastline of Taiwan and its once beautiful coral reef is becoming polluted and on the verge of complete destruction.
When: February 6th 2009, but it has been an ongoing research since 2007.
Why: It has turned the coral reef into a gross polluted area because of carelessness to the environment, and sewage toxins. Continuing to dump these things into the sea (garbage, sewage, plastics) will cause the coral reef to reach an end.
How: Sewage, and wastes from tourists had turned the coral reef into black water; clearly polluted. This is extremely harmful to the habitats and nursery of the fish that populate that area, as well as it effects humans and their ability to grab resources from the coral reef.
My Opinion:
Coral Reefs are one of the most fascinating and beautiful things existing in the sea. People really don’t understand how much damage they really are doing to the environment. They are ruining perfect creation, and affecting not only the fish, but we are affecting ourselves. We will miss out on witnessing amazing creation waiting to show itself to us under the sea. We will affect the availability of resources from the ocean, because the ocean can no longer maintain life. In my opinion, the people of Taiwan should do everything in their power in order to save the coral reef. It would be a shame to lose something so beautiful, and natural.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Andrei Eremia
Tropical Deforestation
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Deforestation/
Who: Villagers in Brazil
What: Tropical Forests
When: March 30, 2007
Where: the Tropical Forests of Brazil
Why: People need more farming land.
How: The villagers need more farming land, but naturalists do not want to deforest because it holds over half of all the insect population in the world.
My Opinion: I think that Brazil should keep most of their tropical forests because they hold a lot of insects and they look very cool. Those villagers should be able to cut down a few acres for farming but no more than that. They environment they are in needs to be respected, and not completely cut down.
http://environment.about.com/b/2009/03/02/rescuers-save-whales-and-dolphins-stranded-on-tasmanian-beach.htm
who: the dolpines and whales
what: dolphines and whales are stuck on King Island
where:King Island, which lies between Tasmania and Australia.
when:Monday March 2, 2009
how:There are many theories for why whale strandings occur—from the idea that underwater seismic activity or navy sonar disrupts their internal navigation systems to the notion that the highly social creatures refuse to abandon a member of the pod that is ill or injured—but the reasons are not well understood by scientists and there is little conclusive evidence about the actual causes.
Rescuers have saved 54 pilot whales and six dolphins from among roughly 200 marine mammals that stranded themselves Sunday night [March 1, 2009] on King Island, which lies between Tasmania and Australia. The rest of the animals died.
Volunteers worked tirelessly alongside Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service employees to refloat the surviving whales and dolphins at high tide and return them to the sea. By the time the animals were discovered on the beach, only 63 whales and seven dolphins were still alive.
Many local people pitched in to help with the rescue efforts; one volunteer estimated that as many as 80 percent of King Island residents were on the beach working to keep the whales and dolphins cool and moist until they could be carried into the surf. Rescue volunteers also included a few tourists who were visiting the area. (Watch the video.)
While the rescuers worked to save the whales and dolphins stranded on the beach, a large pod of whales milled around offshore, raising concerns that another mass stranding might occur if the free and beached whales continued to call to each other.
"It is pretty darn sad, you can hear them crying,” said John Nievaart, a local businessman who operates Naracoopa Holiday Cottages and spoke to a reporter from the Hobart Mercury. "There are as many volunteers as whales down here. We are keeping them wet and have got them covered with anything we could get our hands on: bedspreads, blankets and towels.
"Some students from Clarendon College in Victoria managed to get a baby whale back in the water, but it came back to the pod twice,” Nievaart said. “It was heartbreaking to watch.”
Mass strandings of whales and dolphins occur worldwide, but this stranding involved an unusually large number of whales, and dolphin strandings are relatively rare. Tasmania seems to be a stranding hot spot for whales as they follow their migratory paths to and from Antarctica. More than 400 whales have stranded themselves in Tasmania over the past three months, and there have been other mass strandings in years past.
There are many theories for why whale strandings occur—from the idea that underwater seismic activity or navy sonar disrupts their internal navigation systems to the notion that the highly social creatures refuse to abandon a member of the pod that is ill or injured—but the reasons are not well understood by scientists and there is little conclusive evidence about the actual causes.
My respones:
I think alot of it has to do with global warming and the changing of the temperatures.I feel bad for these animals beause they get stuck with all of our problems and our greed. But i truly think alot of it has to do with global warming.......
Summary: Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is the spreading of a city and its suburbs over rural land at the fringe of an urban area. Residents of sprawling neighborhoods tend to live in single-family homes and commute by automobile to work. Low population density is an indicator of sprawl. Urban planners emphasize the qualitative aspects of sprawl such as the lack of transportation options and pedestrian friendly neighborhoods. Conservationists tend to focus on the actual amount of land that has been urbanized by sprawl.
The term urban sprawl generally has negative connotations due to the health and environmental issues that sprawl creates Residents of sprawling neighborhoods tend to emit more pollution per person and suffer more traffic fatalities. Sprawl is controversial, with supporters claiming that consumers prefer lower density neighborhoods and that sprawl does not necessarily increase traffic Sprawl is also linked with increased obesity since walking and bicycling are not viable commuting options. Sprawl negatively impacts land and water quantity and quality, and may be linked to a decline in social capital
Who: Everyone
What: Turning our world into a concrete jungle. Urban Sprawl
Where: Cities
When: Every since we started building cities.
Why: Low population density is an indicator of sprawl. Sprawl cause obesity
How: Urban planners emphasize the qualitative aspects of sprawl such as the lack of transportation options and pedestrian friendly neighborhoods. Conservationists tend to focus on the actual amount of land that has been urbanized by sprawl.
My Opinion its true that most places in the southern states are not pedestrian friendly. No one walks anymore. My mom always got mad when I decided to walk somewhere. “Haley it’s not normal to just be walking down the road!” she would always say she thought it was “WT” (white trash). Not very many people walk in the suburb of Aledo, Texas resulting in fat people. People should atleast get bikes or a gym membership.
Oil-Soaked Australian Beaches Named Disaster Zones
http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/39447
Who: Australia, National parks at Moreton and Bribie islands
What: Cargo ship oil spill…
When: March 13, 2009
Where: Australia, National parks at Moreton and Bribie islands
Why: Because a cargo ship spilled…
My Opinion:
I think cargo ships should learn how to drive. And how to be more careful while driving. So that they don’t spill oil and pollute the planet even more. I mean, it’s slightly lame that oil is spilled in the ocean, when the ocean didn’t do anything to the cargo ship. Right?
--Maegan
ARTICLE:
http://www.enn.com/climate/article/39581
WHO:Peoples of sydney, Austrailia and other surrounding cities
WHAT: The hole in the ozone layer at the antarctic is growing closer to austrailia and is causing massive droughting in the sydney area.
WHEN: April 3rd, 2009
WHERE:Sydney, Austrailia
WHY: GLOBAL WARMING!!!!!!!! AHHHHH, but seriously its way too hot down there I think they should perhaps share with us.
HOW: Greenhouses Gases are punching the ozone right in the face, and it's going to punch us back twice as hard pretty soon.
Opinion: Simply do what we can to reduce greenhouse gases, and other pollutants such as halting production of gas power vehicles and force ourselves to create a new technology to power our vehicles.
Jesse Ord
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28286252/
US proposes protecting 7 penguin species.
Who: Jerome Maison
What: The united states are proposing to protecting 7 species of penguins in antarctica
When: Wednesday, April 1
Where: Antarctica
Why: They are going onto the endangered list
How: They plan on putting 6 of the species onto the threatened list and 1 more onto the endangered list.
My Opinion: Penguin populations are in jeopardy, and we can't afford to further delay protections I think it's great that they are doing something its only sad that it's taken this long for the American gov to notice.
Australia lists Tasmanian devils as endangered
updated 3:19 a.m. PT, Fri., May 22, 2009
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30881574/
CANBERRA, Australia - The Tasmanian devil, a snarling fox-sized marsupial made notorious by its Looney Tunes cartoon namesake Taz, was listed in Australia as an endangered species Friday because of a contagious cancer that has wiped out most of the wild population.
The upgrade from "vulnerable" under Australian environmental law entitles the world's largest marsupial carnivore to greater protection in the island state of Tasmania, Environment Minister Peter Garrett said in a statement.
Devils do not exist in the wild outside Tasmania, although mainland zoos are breeding captive populations as a strategy against total extinction.
Their numbers have declined by 70 percent since the facial cancer was first reported in 1996. The disease is caused by bites inflicted on each other's faces as part of a bizarre mating ritual or while squabbling over food. It causes grotesque facial tumors that eventually prevent them from feeding, leading to starvation within months.
"Strong action is being taken to find out more about this disease and to stop its spread," Garrett said.
The government has already committed 10 million Australian dollars ($7.8 million) over five years to research the disease and support captive breeding programs, but scientists say more is needed.
Summery
Who: Tasmanian devils, the future, and Australia’s biodiversity.
What: Numbers have declined by 70 percent since cancer was first reported in '96.
When: 96-09.
Where: Island state of Tasmania.
Why: Facial cancer, this disease is caused by bites inflicted on each other's faces as part of a bizarre mating ritual or while squabbling over food. It causes grotesque facial tumors that eventually prevent them from feeding, leading to starvation within months.
How: supply the devils with medicine, set up breeding zoo’s, keep disease barrier.
I think we should do everything we can to preserve this species, not only can it effect an entire food web, but it is also a cool cartoon guy.
Jamie Fielder (2009) E.D.A. Retrieved June 6, 2009 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30881574/
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