Environmental Science - What I Think

The first term is just about up.  The teacher wants me to give some sort of assessment - a review of sorts, and all that was done in this class.  So, that's gonna happen.

First off, I'll say that overall this class was very fun and interesting with what was being talked about.  There were things that were talked about; all these things existed.  They were relevant, given how environmental they were.  I really like it when the things I learn in a class are what I think they will be.  Sometimes in this class the teacher would ask that we bring news articles about environmentalism.  When this happen, a student would read about what they found, and this would inspire fascinating and engaging discussions.

However, there were some faults to this class that were just as evident as that of the things I liked.  For one thing, some of the students were very obnoxious and disruptive, never on task, and took almost no work here seriously.  If there's any advice I can give to the teacher in the future, it's that she should put more discipline on this kind of idiotic behavior, being more and more severe should it persist.  If students are goofing off and spouting out irrelevant nonsense that makes no contribution to the class or what we're learning, it implies that they think the teacher and this class is some sort of joke.  You're the teacher; you automatically deserve they're respect, and you need to show that, and remind them of that in the event that they don't seem to be taking anything seriously.

Also, there was the time during the course that we had to read this book known as Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.  While it makes sense for this to be even brought up in an environmental science class, I feel as though having us read the whole thing was a bit of a drag.  I feel like reading a few excerpts from the book during class and writing some short paragraphs about each would've been more effective, because while this book might have had a strong influence on environmental politics in the 60's, just about everyone in the class agreed on it being repetitive and dull.

So let's recap.  I liked learning all the relevant topics in relation to environmentalism, as well as finding things on our own to share with the class.  My few gripes were that of the teacher never doing anything about the idiocy demonstrated by students who appeared to not be taking her or her lessons serious.  Silent Spring was relevant to this course, but reading it in its entirety was burdensome.

7/10 Would take a class with this teacher again... wait, that's right.  I am!  See you 2nd semester.

Reducing our Carbon Footprints

Yesterday we took a few quizzes where we answered questions regarding how we do things in our lives, such as transportation, shelter, electronics, such and such.  For one of these quizzes there were subtotals to each category, then we had to add all those subtotals, after that divide that number by this other number, and that would be the number of planets needed for the human race, if every human lived just like us.  Of course it was individualized, so these numbers were different for everyone.  For me it was 8.21, for this other kid in the class it was like 3.

We then had to list a few things we could do to perhaps make that number lower.  I considered not using a laundry dryer and instead placing my clothes out in the yard below the sun.

Do you want to find out your carbon footprint?  Feel free to do that here, http://www.nature.org/greenliving/carboncalculator/

Ice Cores

We did this thing where we examined some sticks of ice.  One was pure ice, another had some specks of dirt in it, the last had a lot of frozen dirt.  We found that they all varied in masses and volumes.

We measured the Ph of each one.  The first was quite low, the second slightly high, the last at the highest; 13.  This shows proof of climate change affecting the Earth.

A Jump that is lacking in Sound

Check it.  There was this book in 1964 called Silent Spring.  The writer, Rachel Carson, was concerned about the traces of chemicals in stuff.  This thing call DDT was being used as pesticides, but it was doing more than killing the bugs.  So, Rachel Carson went on for over 300 pages saying a ton of things which basically boil down to, "YO MANE, DDT SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And then in the 70's everyone was all, "YEAH THIS STUFF SUCKS!!!!!!!! LOOK AT ALL THE ANIMALS THAT GOT CANCER BECAUSE OF IT!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE SHOULD BAN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

My Biodiversity Hotspot

It is the Cape Floristic Region in South Africa.  There are plants and ostriches.  The native plant species are in danger by these invasive species, and the plants in this place altogether make up 20% of plants in Africa.

Dynamic Earth Assignment

The conditions of the earth today can easily be connected to how the earth was millions of years ago.  Although just one man’s existence is irrelevant to the large scale impacts this earth has felt, there’s still reason to think about it.  With stuff like Snowball Earth, the fossils and El Niño, this stuff is worth talking about.

The earth was once a huge mass of ice millions of years ago, but eventually converted itself into an environment suitable for all sorts of life; this of course is the theory of Snowball Earth.  If it had really happened, it had to have ended right before the Cambrian Explosion, when lots of life started to happen.   Also, glaciers do exist in this world, and it’s possible that they came to be back when the supposed Snowball Earth was happening. And then there were volcanoes, which possibly contributed to ending this ice age known as Snowball Earth, with their Co2.    In addition to this idea, other hypotheses include what is called “Slushball Earth.”  What this theory is, is that there was water still in the Equator, allowing the hydrologic cycle to still happen on Earth.  Another interesting, although hard to believe hypothesis, is the High-obliquity hypothesis.  This has to do with thinking the Earth’s axis tilt was 60 degrees, thus explaining the latitudes.

 

Fossils are things that once lived, in effect saying things about how Earth was like in the past.  According to index fossils, fossils symbolizing a specific era in time, the organisms that existed in different times show some differences, therefore some sort of indication of evolution, and perhaps showing how the Earth was becoming different in those times.

And then there’s El Niño.   One example being when it was discovered by a crew on a thing known as the RV Conrad, it is a warm current that occurs in the ocean every year around December.  It is possible to associate El Niño with global warming, in that there have been more occurrences of it in the span of just a few   years.   What is also generally regarded as truth is that the only reason for the great number of El Niño is due to it being in the beginning of global warming, and they simply declined in strength as time went on.  This proves that things are happening.

So, the theory of the Earth having been a giant snowball millions of years ago, the fossils, and El Niño; what do they really say about the conditions of the Earth now, in relation to the past?  As it is only a theory, Snowball Earth can’t really show that there are things living on this planet, but it’s still believable.  Fossils, as they were once organisms, prove that life was able to exist on the planet, meaning that the Earth must have been of decent climate millions of years ago. And El Niño certainly can’t say much about the past, but it shows that global warming and climate change might be an important issue now.

Mt. St. Helens - Back From The Dead - Questions

When did Mt. St. Helens erupt last?
1980.

Where is Mt. St. Helens located?
It is located in the Cascade Mountains.

How much magma is released during the eruption?
Millions of tons.

What is pyroclastic flow?
A mass of rock.

How far from the summit is Spirit Lake located?
4 miles.

How many people were killed by the eruption?
57

How far away was the last victim?
 13 miles.

How many birds disappeared during the disaster?  How many insects?
Thousands and billions.

What happens to Spirit Lake?
It is recognizable.

Explain what the landscape in this region looks like after the eruption.
Death.

What is the "Pacific Ring of Fire?"
It is a vast arc of volcanoes running for thousands of miles.

Explain what has caused the volcano at Mt. St. Helens to erupt?
Pressure 60 miles.

What did the ecologist find when he first came to the mountain after thee eruption?
Death.