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.