Quote: "Nukes again? Maybe. The United States operates 103 nuclear power reactors—that's a quarter of the world's total—even if the most famous U.S. nuke isn't even real."
Questions: Why do we have so many nuclear reactors? Wasn't the US supposed to destroy their nuclear power by 50% or something?
Comments: This was the first line of the article, but after reading a little, I found it out was probably the only one that interested me. First of all, we have enough nuclear power to bomb the world ten fold don't we? I don't think we need all of that. There are so many other ways to get fuel other then nuclear fuel. I personally think it's dangerous as heck. It puts humanity in so much danger for what, fuel that is possible bad for the environment anyway?

Quote: "'There's far more coal than oil," Audus said.

'Even the most pessimistic person would probably be fairly happy to concede there's at least 200 or 300 years of coal in the ground.'

'In which case,' he added, 'clean coal technologies will be extremely useful.'"
Questions: Is this being done now? What is the financial cost?
Comments: This segment was sort of interesting This technique will take a while. We know that. Is this waiting worth it? At this point, we're going to run out of oil and the world will be in a huge frenzy for energy. I still don't understand what's the con with using solar panels and electricity. I suppose some things will always run on coal and gas, but electricity is so plentiful that's it's not even funny. I REALLY don't think the sun will "lose" energy. I don't think it's possible, it's a huge ball of energy. If the sun goes supernova, we're all going to die anyway. It's an unlimited energy source, I'm befuddled at why we don't invest in using it and shifting technology towards electricity.

Questions:
How did you communicate?
How did you get your news?
How did you entertain yourself?
What was the most difficult gadget you had to give up and why? What about the least difficult sacrifice.
Were there any surprises for you?

The things I did was basically sleep, talk to family, and actually draw on paper. Nothing surprised me really because I know I would do all those things. When I was younger, I use to use plants and rocks to entertain myself for hours on end. My family wasn't really rich so we couldn't buy video games or computers to play with. It's just how I was. I suppose that's how I came up with a creative mindset. Being without my laptop was a little difficult because of the massive amounts of work I had, but other than that, it was okay.

I communicated to people by talking. It was Thanksgiving so this wasn't really a big change. I don't use the telephone much anyway so it wasn't a big deal. Whatever I communicate with my family, it's only something important and is usually done over email. Even so, it was Thanksgiving break and there wasn't anything I needed to tell them anyway, they were all at the gathering.

My cousin stayed over my house for a while and we played board games. When family was over for Thanksgiving, we played Apples to Apples and ate food. For once in the family meal, I helped with the cooking since I really had nothing to do. I thought it was more productive then to use my time wasters like drawing.

There aren't really any other electronics I use, so my laptop was the only thing I was banned from, but like I said, I know how to entertain myself without my computer. I mean, that was the foundation of how I grew up. I started with drawing on paper because drawing on the computer.

Energy Resources and Climate Change

This is what my mom said. There are different forms of energy that are available. We use to run on gas for the stove, but everything else is powered with electricity. That is actually the only thing we are billed on, it's no longer water. The advantages are we need light at night to see, therefore, it it beneficial for us to have electricity. We could use a fire for light, but t he inefficiency of that is so massive and the risk of it catching something on fire was high.

We also use electricity when we need warm water for baths and heat for food to cook. The disadvantage for us it that electric stoves cost more than gas stoves. Also, if you don't know how to buy the right light bulbs, your electricity can be drained quicker and run up your bill. What's also wasteful is that if you have poor ventilation, you lose the heat you gain from electricity.

Climate could change by seasons and the influence of the sun. Even so, climate change is often misdirected to the public by politicians. My mom says that the switch in season could cause damage. The climate change could also effect people, like people with season depression. The strong sun in the summer could sometimes damage your skin as well. On a global note, the climate is growing to be very extreme, making transition even harder. Here is where we have issues like Global Warming.

There wasn't much things she knew about global warming. I have to admit, I don't know much about it either. All I know is that global warming has to do with climate change but what influences too is cows. Haha. I mean, climate change itself can damage everything. From going hot to cold from hot to cold, of course that's hard to adapt to. I can't adapt that fast.

World Food Crisis:
Reflection: To be honest, I think we are in such a deep hole that we are going to lose many more people then we want. We lose thousands of people everyday with things that could be avoided. When it comes to the food crisis, at this point, I think it's best for the sustainable agriculture. Sooner or later, all of our soil will be complete crap. While water and stuff like that is important, we carry so much attention to it. From what we watched before, there are farmers losing their farms because of the financial crisis, but they are skilled in taking care of the soil. Even though we won't be producing as much food, we are producing better quality food. If we don't turn around now, we will go down a road of generic food and soon destroy all our natural resources trying to maintain that genetically modified food.

Financial Crisis and World Hunger:
Reflection: As we talked about in class, I think micro loans is a really good idea. I mean, even I feel like I could save up some and go to a third world country and help them out. When I think about $2 pretty much saving a family, that could really impact you. I find it sort of ridiculous that we aren't using this system yet; we've even proved that it works. They were talking about agricultural credit and health care/insurance, but we don't even have to think that far yet. For now, micro loans don't require so much. 98-99% is paid back, even if it is with minimal interest, small amounts add up. I also agree that social business should be an important part of the new economic system.

Pesticides:
Reflection: I mean, this is a tough subject. What will we do without pesticides? I would think that we should research about alternatives though because it's sort of silly to poison plants to keep insects away from them but at the same time poisoning ourselves. I don't thoroughly know the health regulation for that, but it's like people willingly put up with this. It is an ongoing problem. Some people can tolerate it, some people can't. Some people are lucky, some aren't. Even so, it's such a common thing that something should be done about it. Isn't there some sort of plant combinations you can use to keep pests away? I don't know, while reading this, I always thought there was just something more.

Cheap Food:
Reflection: Okay, I think this is ridiculous. I was sort of irritated that they made the farmer's conditions so dramatic. Like, I understand, well I haven't experienced it, but I understand with their first example about farmwork being a dangerous job. Even so, I wanted to look more at the problem at hand and that problem is that they aren't getting properly rewarded for the hard labor they do. I find it sad that a cup of noodles is 50 cents while a salad is $2-$3. I agree with this article when it says for people to buy organic foods and make ingredients in the food more transparent. Half the time, I don't know what I'm eating. I remember talking to someone before, I can't remember who, but it was about how manufacturers can put "0g Trans Fat" on their labels if their Trans Fat is below .5g (Rounded to 0g) which is shocking. If you eat a lot of these foods, that trans fat is going to add up. Why not eat vegetable and organic food where, I don't know, there is NOT TRANS FAT?

If you were going dedicate your energies to champion one of the issues in any of the writings, which would you choose and why? In your opinion, what is it about your particular choice that ranks it above all others?
All of the problems sort of tie into one. The problem is where to start. The one I would try the most at which I feel is more doable and realistic then the rest is the micro loans. If I was decently rich, yes, I think I would start a small business in impoverish countries. If that's really all it takes to save a family, I'd be down for it. At this point, I'm thinking more of opportunities for other people. We have to start somewhere. In the long run we will have to approach the world food crisis and the pesticides. But as a regular everyday person, I feel like loaning out what seems like a little to me to people who know how to use it and invest in something for their family is more ideal then for me to buy like... a fancy car. Even so, coming in close second would probably be the cheap food. I mean, trans fat in foods is like plastic for the earth. It just doesn't break down and it's horrible for us. Unfortunately... yeah, just read my reflection on it.

Water Resources:
16. Describe how dams and water diversion projects are used to manage freshwater resources. What are the benefits and costs?

Which benefit of water diversion projects is false?
a. Irrigates prairie land
b. Materials are cheap
c. Improve water treatment
d. Provides food and nesting land for animals


Air and Land Use:
16. Explain how urban sprawl affects the environment?

What is one affect that urban sprawl has on the on the environment?
a. No more land for animals
b. Lack of food for wildlife
c. Polluted air quality
d. All of the above


Food and Agriculture:
3. Describe the need for soil conservation?

What are the benefits of conserving soil?
a. Increases soil productivity
b. Makes it so any plant can grow in that soil
c. Have more space available to plant
d. Grow nutritious food

Tundra:
"Only time-unimaginable stretches of time that conceal from human eyes the dynamic natural forces shaping the Earth-creates the illusion of stasis. But sometimes, if you're lucky, you come upon a place where time seems compressed, where you can feel in your bones how kinetic even geology really is."
Questions: What is a good example of something daily that we come across that is like compressed time? Is there ever compressed time? What are other things that act upon the Earth? At what rate are things growing, melting, and dying at?
Comments: This was such an interestingly worded quote. This makes me think in motion, realizing that everything around us is doing something as time passes. If you leave a facet dripping and a bowl under it, the bowl will fill. Yeah, I sort of ignored the whole article after this quote. I suppose this quote sort of made it more obvious that time is passing and things are changing, which is perfect for the tundra because the whole problem is ice melting and building up water pressure against dams. May result in future flooding. I think they portrayed that message well.

Rainforest:
"Even though all gorillas found in zoos around the world are western gorillas, little is known about their behavior in the wild."
Questions: What is being done to collect this information? What is being done to preserve natural animal behavior? Are they rehabilitating gorillas for the wild?
Comments: Throughout the article, I liked the journey. The paragraphs were ordered in an understandable fashion. This quote stood out to me because, I suppose it's more philosophical, but it got me thinking about animal rights in general. Weird, I know, but that's what it did. For me, it sort of started me along the other paragraphs where they talked about the diet, habitat, etc. It made me think that what they're observing is harmless, why aren't we doing something like this more efficiently? We may have the species, but we may be losing the unique animal behaviors if they really don't even know how they act in the wild.

Freshwater:
"This is considered ground zero for screwing up. But it can also be ground zero for success."
Questions: Even if we're at ground zero, doesn't that mean we haven't made any progress? Since we've done everything wrong, what has happened to make everything right?
Comments: I sort of didn't like this line. First time I heard something like this, I was a little like, "Oh, that's cool that's cool." but it was worded different. I'll be honest, this whole article was sort of long and boring. They had a lot of opinion and life story with facts sort of in there. It didn't help me read along. This line particular just made me go, "Gosh, get on with it." There were too many events to try and support a few points. I didn't really find the last line about "we're river people" inspirational either. It was hard to follow and didn't make me interested in the issue at all.

Freshwater: Why do fresh water salmon swim upstream?
They swim upstream for different reasons. It could be that there is no light at night so they look for the light of the moon. The most common reason is that they lay their eggs upstream because it is safer from predators there and there is more food.

Marine: Are there type of omnivore plants in the coral reef?
Yes, there is the Sea Fan that eats tiny plants and animals.

Desert: How else do animals survive in the dry desert?
I found a website with an organized list of them here.

Forest: Why do tropical forests have poor soil?
"In the rainforest, most of the carbon and essential nutrients are locked up in living vegetation, dead wood, and decaying leaves. As organic material decays, it is recycled so quickly that few nutrients ever reach the soil, leaving it nearly sterile."
I found more information here.

Grassland: What sort of animals are poached and why?
Two of the most common animals poached are elephants and rhinos. The rhinos have a horn that fetches high prices on the black market. Elephants have ivory tusks that also sells wells. Not only that, the elephant has around 1000 pounds of edible meat.

Tundra: What other dangers do the animals in the Arctic Tundra have aside from cold?
Polar Bears are dying due to global warming because the ice under them melts and they drown. Global warming also changes habitats for seals and leaves no nesting grounds for turtles. Also, food and shelter is sometimes scarce for the carnivores living in this region. For animals with fur, poaching is also taken to account because of how much fur costs.