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.

 

Antikythera Wreck

There was a ship that got wrecked and sank to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea 2,000 years ago.  And now, a group of scientists have traveled to Antikythera, Greece to send down a yellow sea vessel to take pictures of it for the first time.

This shipwreck seems to have a really interesting history.  Before these researchers went down and took these pictures of the ship a few weeks ago, no one knew what it looked like and if they did, they were dead.  It must have been strenuous, but worth it, for the divers in 1900 who brought up some of the treasures from the ship, as well as the "Antikythera Mechanism."

The Exosuit looks pretty cool.  I would wear it.

Globalization

According to the thing I read, globalization is "the process of global social, economic, and environmental change that leads to an increasingly integrated world."

Though this thing is evidently many years old as it compares thing in 1950 and 1970 to what was in 2002, it's probably very accurate, as it mentions the global economy being to $47 trillion in that year. It also predicts that by 2010, most people in the first would will have internet, and at least half the people in the third world will have internet.

Globalization is affected by the environment, in that international trade has aided the spread of microbes.  In addition to this, things like the winds, ocean currents and rivers have made the movement of pollutants in the world much more frequent.

There are things both good and bad that have happened as a result of globalization.  Many people in the world have computers, but it's at the expense of more pollution in the ocean.

My Environmental Ethics

I never took the time to think about this.  I do know, that many parts of the earth are polluting the air and oceans, and being wasteful of all their resources; and sometimes, I'm one of those people.  So here, I guess I need to write about how my morals connect to environmentalism.

Most of the time I focus on how much water I use.  When I go to the bathroom, I always flush the toilet, but it's almost never that I wash my hands. I've never spent more than 25 minutes in the shower.  When I make coffee in the morning I fill it all the way with 12 cups, but not all of it gets consumed in that day.  I drink water often, but unless if I have it one of those water bottles (which I only use on camping trips), there's no real way for me to measure how much of it I consume.

I don't think any of the furniture in my house contains formaldehyde.

I've never feed canned food to my dogs.  There's a farm in town that's selling organic vegetables; I might buy from them some time, and not let it go to waste.

My family has always carried groceries in plastic bags, and we just let them pile up in the house.

Oceanic Organisms (Final)

   Many creatures that live in the ocean have been studied immensely throughout the course known as Marine Biology.  This includes, but isn't limited to:  Cnidaria, Cephalopods, Chordata, and Walruses.  For all of these things that exist, they play some role in their ecosystem, show mannerisms that are in some way dissimilar to other species, and have some kind of great relationship.  It's more than just small fish being food to bigger fish being food to human; there exist other creatures that make the vast ocean something more deep.

   There exist simple worms in the aquatic world: phylum Platyhelminthes, phylum Nemertea, and phylum Nematoda.  In phylum Platyhelminthes, their bodies are composed of muscle, and had simplistic digestive systems.  The round worms that are Nemertea have a one-way digestive system.  Those that are in phylum Nematoda are parasitic, feasting off marine organisms.

   Marine reptiles are not that different from terrestrial reptiles; the thing making them relevant here is them living in an aquatic environment.  Traits of all reptiles are that they have cold blood, lungs, and reproduce by laying eggs.  There are three orders that are mostly exclusive to marine reptiles: Crocidillia: that's the alligators, crocodiles, and caimans, Chelonia: which are turtles and tortoises, and Squamata: they are snakes and lizards.  It's not just marine reptiles that aren't fish living in water, but there's also class Aves, the only class that has feathers, their limbs are wings, and they eat fish.

   Last but not least, there are of course the bony fish that everybody knows about, but are just not referred to as "bony."  In class Osteichthyes, they have jaws, skeletons, and scales.  Most bony fish reproduce externally.  The two orders of fish that fisheries find the most important are Clupeiformes:  herrings, pilchards, and anchovies, and Gadiformes: Pollack, haddock, and whitings.

And that's most of the stuff I learn this year in this class.

Hot Turtles

Climate change is a problem in this world; the worldwide temperature is going up little by little every year.  It affects the lives of people because the oceans will rise, making there be no land to live on.  It has an impact on animals in the same way as well.  It affects sea animals because it will warm the oceans, eventually becoming too warm for them to live in it.  Humans are what is causing this climate change. They produce carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases, and unleash them into the air of the earth.  This is due to things such as the burning of fossil fuels, and the destruction of forests.  So the answer is simple; stop humanity.

Abalone

An Abalone is a different type of mollusk.  There are around 70 species.  They're in class Gastropoda, part of family Haliotidae, and of the genus Haliotis.  Haliotis translates to "sea ear," fitting seeing as most of them are ear shaped, and live in the ocean.
Picture taken from http://www.marinebio.net/marinescience/06future/abintro.htm

Protecting Marine Resources

Marine wildlife plays somewhat of a role in my life, in that I do sometimes eat fish, and I've been on some boats on the ocean a few times in the past year.  I believe that there needs to be some regulation with people hunting fish, so as to not annihilate ecosystems just so that these people can make some money.






The use of marine resources doesn't impact me that much on a personal level.  Like I said, I sometimes eat fish, but not very often, and I don't hunt fish, so all these things about fishing crews throwing back unwanted fish, isn't my fault.  However, after seeing the movie "Blackfish," I do feel sympathy for any marine mammals who are kept in captivity in such a way.






My thoughts on the protecting of marine resources can be more broadened by the things I learned in this class.  My Code of Ethics now is to eat fish more often so as to make it worth it for people who hunt them, and to not go to Sea World, because doing so would contribute to exploiting lives of real marine creatures.  I also intend to avoid littering the beaches or oceans, which I already do anyway.


Image taken from http://www.arb.ca.gov/ports/marinevess/ogv.htm

Whale Watch Field Trip

Yesterday I went to Gloucester and went on a boat.  It went several miles south east, past the breakwater, into the open ocean that had strong, fast hard-hitting waves.  After going about 26 miles or so, there were whales, Fin Whales, thirty of them, which is a very rare happening, seeing a pod that huge according to experts.  Most Fin Whales are born in the lower part of the Atlantic, in the month of January, and then by the beginning of spring, they go up here. Finally we went back to land, but it was quarter to three by the time we got back to the school, so I ended up walking home.


And my research project was very well done in my opinion.

Clam Dissection Lab Report

The clam is in kingdom Animalia, phylum Mollusca, and class Bivalvia.  There are numerous species of clam, such as Ark Clams, Duck Clams, Giant Clams, and Pearl Oysters.  The most common clam in Maine is The Portland Clam.  They are called Bivalvia because they have TWO hinged parts.  Clams have one foot that allows them to move.

The clam I dissected was 7 centimeters long, and six centimeters wide, weighing 126 grams.  When cracked open, the texture felt that of any fish that I've ever felt.  The mantle and gills looked a bit nasty.

What distinguishes this animal from others that I've observed, is that it does have organs that most of the others have, but they appear to be different.  There was some symmetry.  Organs that both the clam and the human have are the foot (though clams have only one), and the heart.

Field Trip to the Aquarium

Okay so, on Wednesday, we went to the New England Aquarium in Boston, but I had already gone there a few months before.  Anyway, we saw many marine organisms there, such as penguins, fish, sea turtles, and they swam around artificial coral, because I guess they couldn't afford any real coral.

I saw this one creature known as the Long Fin Bannerfish.   It was white, with two black stripes.  All that it mostly did was swim, sometimes with different fish, other times with ones of its species.  There was not that much else to observe about them though.

I also some these manta rays that would swim in circles.  I was able to touch some of them when they came by and I put my hand in the water.  Their bodies felt slick and slippery.

Finally I saw this short film about this kid from the South Pacific who goes around many islands meeting some marine organisms.  He meets this whale that he was originally scared of, but when he swam down to meet it, they became friends.  It was pretty awesome.

PHOTOSYNTHESIS

Photosynthesis is when a plant of any kind takes in the light from the sun, and converts it into energy for itself in order to have it grow.  In the experiment to see live synthetic photosynthesis, I tried two methods;  one was when I put a piece of spruce cutting in a test tube of water, in a Becker, and then  put it under a light.  In this one, the water had looked like it was bubbling or boiling, if not very slowly.  The other was when I took  a test tube with a spruce cutting in it, put it upside down in a Becker of water, in which the water would be in the test tube.  The water warmed, and bubbles started coming up, one every four seconds.  In conclusion, yes.

Geologic-Biologic Timeline

The class spent a week and a half doing a project regarding the prehistoric eras of the Earth, starting from the Cambrian period, to Tertiary.  We were split into groups and had to research one of these periods.  My group was Tertiary.  I learned that the Tertiary was mostly what the Earth looks like today; the mammals were diversifying, Pangaea was splitting to make the continents known now, and halfway through there was a worldwide ice age.  This all happened between 2 to 65 million years ago, after all the dinosaurs died.  I worked well with my one partner in this project.  We looked through the books we could find, jotted down information we thought was important, and wasted no time trying to make it all look good.  The other groups in the class also did well with presenting the things they found.  The Triassic period had many forests, and saw the first turtles.

Relationships Among Marine Organisms.

This week in Marine Biology, there was an activity where each student had a necklace with the name of some marine organism, and we held parts of a string to represent a food web.  I, was a baleen whale.  In the food web, I was connected to the person labeled "krill;" the marine organism known as krill are very abundant in the Southern Hemisphere, and that's where baleen whales often like to be, because krill is their favorite thing to eat.  In the 11th century, baleen whales were hunted down by people for their oil, which they would use for lamps.  Baleen whales are probably the favorite meal of bull sharks.  There is an interdependency between baleen whales and  phytoplankton.  Krill EAT phytoplankton, so if they weren't around, there would be less to no krill.

Image taken from     http://science.howstuffworks.com/zoology/marine-life/baleen-whale4.htm