Blog #4

caption reads: Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it isn't there.

Reading summaries: 

Ecosystems and Human well-being

Every human being on the planet depends on the ecosystem for the basic essentials to survive(food, water, shelter, and clothing). However to meet our needs, we have drastically depleted the planet’s diversity of life in such a way that it is threatening our very existence. The article goes onto discuss 4 major findings on the planet’s biodiversity problems, the first being: Humans are irreversibly depleting the earth’s biodiversity with our current patterns of meeting our needs.  For example, we have converted 30% of the earth’s land into crop land, where only a single species of plant grows, 20% of the earth’s coral reefs were lost and a additional 20% were degraded within the 20^th century. Second, the changes made have benefited human-well being, but come at a growing cost in the form of environment degradation. The third finding is the degradation of the ecosystem services could grow significantly worse in the first half of the century. Finally the challenge of reversing the degradation of ecosystems while meeting increasing demands for their services can be partially met under some scenarios, but these involve significant changes in human policies and practices. An example of a change would include: investment in agricultural science and technology that can sustain the necessary increase in food supply without harmful trade offs to the environment. However changes have been implemented in the current day, but they are not keeping up with the demand for natural resources.

Living downstream: An ecologist looks at cancer and the environment

The article takes a first person, narrative form discussing the authors experience with cancer. The author goes onto say that he is diagnosed with cancer at an early age, although his biological family does not have a history of cancer, his adopted family does. Many of his household family members are diagnosed with a variety of cancers, or have already perished due to cancer. Also many members of his community share the same fate. The article also discusses that the cause of cancer is caused by a change in a single amino acid in the DNA sequence which leads to a different protein being produced in the human body. Some causes of this mass array of cancers are located in the rivers, ground water, and even the air. Problems with addressing carcinogens in the environment are that cancer research is focus on heredity, when only a small fraction of cancer is hereditary. Heredity plays a main role in determining who will develop cancer (i.e. making one more susceptible to developing it) but ultimately the main cause of cancer is that humans are polluting the environment with carcinogens which gets into the food that we consume. For a safer future of public health, the principle of least toxic alternative should be implemented, stating “ toxic substances shall not be used as long as there is another way of accomplishing the task”.

Our stolen Future

The well being of the human race is directly connected to the well being of all other species on this planet. Research has shown that damage within animal species is slowly making its presence among the human species. All species within planet earth are interconnected, although humans live in our self constructed cities, we sometimes forget that we are not too different from our animal counter parts. The pollution we put into the environment affects all aspects of life, humans are also inhabitants of the planet, and by polluting the earth, we are killing ourselves. The article goes onto discuss different research that has been done on the topic of levels of endocrine disrupters with animal testing, and that higher levels of endocrine disrupters have been used in the experiment than a normal human diet. However lower levels of the same endocrine disruptor has shown equally alarming results. Ultimately, the effects of chemicals humans put into the environment are now coming back to haunt us.

Environmental Justice for all

The article begins with environmental justice is being deprived from developing countries, and that these developing countries are helplessly being exposed to the uncontrolled dumping of pollutants in their native ecosystem. Naturally people were against the pollution of their home and stood up for their rights to live in a clean and safe environment. Over time with continued protest and the public demand for government intervention, some progress was made. With advocates like Martin Luther King jr. Fighting for the rights of colored people, the voices of environmental dumping were heard. However despite the progress made, and the various cases discussed, the new President Bush administration actions are eroding the years of work that people have fought for. Currently they are being more lenient with companies expansion without restrictions on control of pollution created, which will eventually lead to pollution for all people.

Life and Death of the salt marsh

The article discusses the natural beauty of what is a salt marsh. The different experiences one can have when visiting one of these marshes, a mixture of sea and sat water, sounds of grass in the wind, and the movement of tides. Despite this natural beauty, some have been killed with the trash from industrialized cities. The smell of the salt water has been replaced with hydrogen sulphide, and the ground is oozing around ones shoes with the depletion of plant life. The dangers to the salt marshes are directly related to human activities, we destroy these marshes by dredging, building, filling and polluting. Even the marshes we wish to protect, we still end up destroying. Building access roads, boat launch ramps and other means of access still hurt the marsh. It comes down to the question, which marsh do we preserve, and which do we destroy?

Activity: How we wrecked the ocean

After watching the ted talk, I cannot help but feel disgusted to be a member of the human species. The relentless pursuit of profit fueling the creation of more goods leading to the creation of more wastes is astonishing. I find it shocking the idea that the earth's oceans can go from bountiful life to a toxic desert in a life time. I am not saying that I am better than any other human being, because I too am wasteful, however with this being said, I completely agree that the only way to save the ocean and its biodiversity is to change ourselves. Personally I love wildlife, fish especially because I am a fisherman, seeing the images of the coral reefs, and fish sizes change over a span of only a few decades really opened my eyes to the environmental crimes the human race is committing to feed our addiction to material wealth. I truly wish that everyone in the world could understand what is happening to our oceans, because the thought of a dead ocean is heart breaking.

In class blog reflection:

Personally I do believe endangered and vulnerable species need to be protected, but keeping them in a zoo is not the way to do it. As a matter of fact, I believe the idea of a zoo is cruel to animals. Take for instance the polar bear. The polar bear's home range that was said in class is something like 35km, yet in a zoo, they are forced to live in a habitat not even a sliver of their natural home range. Within this cage, they fed and given an area to sleep but their freedom is taken away. Similar to a Human being in prison (human zoo), polar bears lack anything that can mentally stimulate them, they show signs of stress (pacing), and generally don't breed very well in comparison to the wild. The idea of saving a species by putting them into a cage for the rest of their lives as salvation I feel is ridiculous, we may as well grant mercy in a swift death. I have visited zoo's as a child and enjoyed the experience, however now that I am older, I will not support zoo's at all.