First Post of 3rd Nine Weeks (DUE Feb 5th)

[Mr. Dove]

Please respond to this topic post to complete your first post for the third nine weeks. PLEASE RESPOND TO ONLY THIS POST. If you wish to appropriately comment on your classmates post then respond to their thread in this discussion. 

[Hannah Bingler]

A. Environment, pollution, and human health

B.In California, one third of the state lives where air quality does not meet US standards, despite smog levels falling 15% to 20% since 2003. Smog remains above federal health standards in the most of Los Angeles, the San Joaquin Valley, Sacramento, and San Diego. The assessment happened after a very dry and stagnant winter, which has supposedly worsened air pollution in not only California, but also the Southwest. In the San Joaquin Valley, it is estimated that only one quarter of the population has air quality that meets the federal health standards for ozone, even though the number has fallen 35% since 2003. Reducing this poor air quality over the next decade will require major cuts in nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds.

C.I choose this article because I think that air quality is very important to not only our everyday lives, but also our environment. Reading this article has made me concerned to why California isn't doing more to fix its air quality, and why residents aren't really trying to stop it either. I think that a lot of people could benefit from reading this article because it could potentially effect everywhere in the US, and the world.

D.Barboza, Tony. "One-third in state still live where air does not meet U.S. standards." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 23 Jan. 2014. Web. 4 Feb. 2014. <http://articles.latimes.com/2014/jan/23/local/la-me-0124-california-air-20140124>.

[Hunter Critzer]

A) Sustainable use of natural resources/ Biodiversity

B) This article discussed the decreasing amount of biodiversity for our marine ecosystems, and how it will change our lives as humans if we are not more careful by being sustainable and allowing biodiversity to grow back.This article continues by saying that overfishing and depleting biodiversity in our seas and oceans is generally overlooked becasue lack of habitat and degredation of biodiversity on land is closer to us. This thought may seem true in many minds; however, the article is quoted by saying, "Fishing is central to the livelihood and food security of 200 million people." Therefore, if we do not change our ways, those 200 million people could be out of food and/or out of jobs.

C)This article shaped my way of thinking about marine biodiversity and the importance of it greatly. I never realized how many people, especially in developing countries, depended on fish as their means of staying alive. In a situatuion such as this, I believe it would be best to strictly regulate fishing so that fish populations can restock and the biodiversity will be repleished. I would also not allow business to invest in fishing becasue that will cause even a greater amount of over fishing to try to make a large profit. I believe this important more for the younge generation becasue if we do not stop the depletion of the resource we will not have them in our future and the world would be much different in an unpleasant way.

D)Nuttall, Nick. "Commercial Fishing Is a Threat to Marine Biodiversity." Biodiversity. Ed. Debra A. Miller. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2013. Current Controversies. Rpt. from "Overfishing: A Threat to Marine Biodiversity." Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 5 Feb. 2014.

[Ryan Jacobson]

A. Climate System

B. With our society trying to figure out ways to make life here on earth healthier, several stores including Walgreens, Avis, and 7-Eleven are trying to reduce their emissions and energy usage for big savings. Solar, wind, and other renewable resources are being used to reduce certain energy uses. There has also been talk that if certain big companies don't try to switch their way of using energy, there's a potential price you have to pay for releasing carbon emissions.  

C. It's important to realize what type of impact we have on our environment. It's about time that the bigger corporations are starting to take part in a way to start conserving. Energy usage is a big problem that people don't really recognize. That emissions are very hazardous, and can have an impact on depleting the ozone, but also effecting our personal health. There have been many studies in which carbon emissions and the burning of coal are linked to lung cancer as well as asthma. If there are cheaper and healthier ways (which there are) we should take time to invest in them, for everyone's sake.

D. Burger, Andrew. "Reduce Peak Power Demand For Big Energy Savings." Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability News: 7-Eleven, Avis, Walgreens Reduce Peak Power Demand For Big Energy Savings. Environmental News Network, 04 Feb. 2014. Web. 05 Feb. 2014.

[Lauren Cosner]

A. Climate

 

B. With the climate changing, the ice begins to freeze sooner in the year and thaw out earlier. Also the thickness of the ice has been affected by the climate. In 2011 the Artic lake ice was up to 38 centimeters thinner than it was in 1950. Lead author Cristina Surdu said " we've found that the thickness of the ice has decreased tremendously in response to climate warming in the region." The research team used satellite radar imagery from ESA to figure out that 62% of the lakes in the region froze to the bottom 1992.  By 2011 only 26% of the lakes froze to the bottom. There is a difference between fully frozen lakes and lakes that did not freeze all the way. Overall the climate is putting a huge dent into how many lakes freeze all the way through.

 

C. I chose this article because I think it's very interesting that due to the climate change lakes don't freeze as much as they used to. This article effected me by showing why people used to be able to ice skate on ponds and local lakes but now a days they can't. If I were in this situation, there wouldn't be anything dramatic that I would be able to do but maybe I would  be able to spread awareness about the climate changing and global warming. I liked this article because it was interesting to me.

 

D."ENN: Environmental News Network -- Know Your Environment." Wildlife and Habitat Conservation News: 24 Fewer Days of Winter Ice. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2014

[Alanna Breeden]

A. Human Health

B. This article is about the Bird Flu that is passing through China and other countries in the southeast of Asia. The strain of Bird flu is  H7N9. The first case was reported in march of last year, and has increased to 300. About 25% have died. The last large affecting strain of Bird flu was H5N1, that took 5 years to hit the 300 mark. Another new strain is appearing as well, H10N8, although it is just at 2 cases, with 1 death. The H7N9 virus is spreading more through poultry breath than feces, this means the fecal testing in markets may miss the infection. The spread of H10N8 and H7N9 don’t kill the poultry or show any signs so farmers are reluctant to test because one positive would mean they have to kill their entire stock that looks healthy. It is unconfirmed if the virus can spread person to person.

C. My reaction to this article was one of concern. The fact that it is coming from a birds beak and not it’s feces makes it much more dangerous in my eyes; you can’t find the infected breath and take it away, it’s being breathed in and floating around. Another point of concern is the lack of information about it passing human to human, two distinguished scientist disagree. If it does pass from human to human, we may have an epidemic on our hands. This article makes me much more cautious about germs and infections, especially around flu season.

D. McNeil, Donald Jr. “Cases of New Deadly Bird Flu Surge in China, Experts Say.” NY Times 4 2 2014

[Wade Goodrich]

A. Sustainable use.

B. At the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit, many automakers opted to subtly incorporate "green" technology into their new cars, rather than to blatantly advertise them as revolutionary eco-friendly cars. Ford introduced the new F150, which is up to 700lbs lighter than the previous generation Ford truck. It uses aluminum for body panels, and has a new (also aluminum) 2.7L turbocharged "ecoboost"  six cylinder engine, which should be capable of class leading fuel economy. 

VW introduced a "bluemotion" Passat with a gasoline-electric powertrain, as well as the Audi Allroad shooting brake, which also uses advanced hybrid technology derived from Audi's Le Mans endurance racers.

Tesla continued to show off its all electric Model S, and announced that is had sold 6900 Model S's in the last part of 2013. 

A small company called Via Motors showed a GM truck(Chevy silverado) with a solar powered electric powertrain.

C. Carmakers are beginning to use advanced "green" technology in regular vehicles, and "green" cars are selling faster than ever. I chose this article because it shows a trend in the auto industry to stop building cars completely focused on being outwardly green (nissan leaf, chevy volt...), but instead putting hybrid and or more efficient gas engines into cars that people already buy. This shows that we are smoothly making a transition to more efficient vehicles, which is very important for the future of the car. Also, this is an excellent way to get average people to adopt "green" technology, and to help preserve the environment, even if they don't want to. 

D. Garthwaite, Josie. "Five Energy Innovations from the Detroit Auto Show." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 16 Jan. 2014. Web. 04 Feb. 2014.

[Sebastian Glickman]

A. Environment

B. This article is about a syndrome called the "Sea Star Wasting Syndrome," which causes the arms of a star fish to rip off from their bodies. In the article it said that the syndrome would give the star ulcers that caused the arms to twist off or rip off. They are beginning to think that there is a pathogen in the waters that could have been spread through currents or recently become deadly to star fish. From observations from divers and scientists it seems that the syndrome is being passed along from starfish. Because they don't know what exactly is causing the star fish to get the syndrome they aren't sure how to help yet.

C. I chose this article because it caught my eye when it said that the arms of the starfish were actually crawling away. It freaked me out but also interested me. It freaks me out that scientists still don't know what it is that is affecting the starfish. The starfish are literally being torn apart by something that can't even be seen by the human eye. Also, in the article they mentioned that the pathogen, if it is one, could have just recently become deadly to the starfish but always been there. This is kind of scary because what if it continues to change and affects more organisms in the ocean.

D. Botelho, Alyssa. "Starfish ripper hunted in wake of marine deaths." New Scientist. N.p., 5 Feb. 2014. Web. 5 Feb. 2014. <http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25003-starfish-ripper-hunted-in-wake-of-marine-deaths.html#.UvMSVxBdWSo>.

[Caroline Firer]

Caroline Firer

A.Environment, Pollution, and Human Health

B. This article was about a study conducted by Oceanographers Fiamma Straneo at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Patrick Heimbach at MIT on ocean level rises and what contributes most to the increasing sea level, warmer waters or warmer atmosphere? Greenland became the area of study since it was concluded that that waters around greenland have been the warmest they have ever been in the past 100 years. After testing some variables, a process called "Sub-marine melting" has been deemed as one of the main causes of water level rises. Sub-marine melting is when glaciers whose ice sheets are beginning to melt, run off into coastal basins or fjords. This exposing the ice sheets to have direct contact with the ocean. This contact creates warm like temperatures which cause the fjords to flow even more heavily. However warmer temperatures in the atmosphere have been charted to increased surface melting which also increasing sub-marine melting by creating more run-off. When the water from the fjords mix with salty sea water in contributes to heat transfer from the ocean to the ice. Both areas (warmer water and warmer atmosphere)  are to blame for rising sea levels. 

C. I chose this article because it was on the front page of enn.com which symbolized that it was both recent and important to read.  Rising sea levels are also alot bigger issue than most people think so i think everyone would benefit from reading this piece. It shows that theyre is not a single source that makes water levels rise but confirmed two and maybe even more. Both confirmed however can be modified if humans intervened and cut back. 

D. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, . N.p.. Web. 6 Feb 2014. <http://www.enn.com/wildlife/article/46990>.