chapter 15 Uncertainty in Climate Change
If I were in the place to vote on greenhouse gas reduction I would need substantial evidence that something needed to be done. The models are constructed by computers, so they are based on statistics, they don’t account for many variables such as what the factories of tomorrow will produce both produce and emissions. I would like to know multiple figures; cost of filters, cost of new machinery that’s pro-environment, cost on the environment if nothing is done and exponential growth of pollution growth. As a Congress member I would need to know how much money would be taken from the government to make this process happen. I would weigh inaction more than action. Things can be done as preventative measures and those are cheaper than the effects of a fully blown environment.
cases
Development of Cartography
Mark Newman and Michael Gastner have developed a means of mapmaking that perfectly distorts images. They use a variable, such as cancer in New York State and depending on how many people in a given area have cancer, their area in the state grow proportionally. Their maps are ones in which there are minimal local distortion, lines stay very true to their original form. The uses are endless for this type of technology once it is produced efficiently.
1.) Name one function that having a map like this could facilitate? Explain
2.) The presidential race of Gore vs. Bush total votes per state were put into this algorithm and worked out. If a conventional map showing states votes was used it would heavily favor Bush, however what factors led this altered map being very much equal between red and blue territories.
3.) The functions of this technology is not limited to the previous, name and describe an environmental use of this mapmaking and how it would be beneficial?
Save the Gulf of Mexico
In the Gulf of Mexico, plant nutrients, especially nitrate, have created coastal dead zones. They fertilize algae growth and then cycle to oxygen depletion. The reason for this is far north, in the great plains where the overuse of fertilizers is causing this massive flow. Fertilizer applied to crops is the greatest contributor to the pollution that has created the dead zone. Because antipollution practice usually fails, organizations like the Sand County Foundation of Madison Wisconsin is setting performance goals that need to be met by local farmers. This is the answer, but who pays for all of these new regulations? Should the farmers or should a government agency pick up the tab. If this continues without extensive action what may the result be on the environment?
Seminal Discovery
It has become evident from Harvard researchers that a gene responsible for semen viscosity has evolved more rapidly in primate species the promiscuous females than in monogamous females. To test this, nine primates were tested representing the major mating systems. Gorillas have one partner, chimps have a multitude and humans fall somewhere in between. Accordingly chimps are evolving at the fastest rate. Do you think the same goes for humans around the board. The more a female is sexually active, the more likely their kin will be sexually prepared? Will this development lead to a Darwin type of evolution, a survival of the fittest?
Color at Night
Geckos have the ability see colors at night, where humans go color blind. We, like most vertebrates use two systems of light sensitive cells in our eyes. Lizards lack one of our mechanisms the rods and therefore are more apt to using their cones. Can the same thing be said about deep sea fish? May use of color vision help them to distinguish a predator from prey?
chapter 14 notes
Chapter 14 notes
Earth is a dynamic and constantly changing structure
Layered Sphere- Core(composed mainly of iron), Mantle(less dense, hot pliable layer), and Crust(rocks that float on the mantle)
-Continents are made of tectonic plates
-Earthquakes are caused by the grinding of one plate on another
Rocks and Minerals
Naturally occurring, inorganic, solid element or compound with a definite chemical composition and a regular internal crystal structure
-distinguishable traits of minerals 1.) chemical composition 2.) crystal structure
Rock- a mixture of minerals
Rock Types and How They R’ Formed
Igneous- magma extrudes to the surface and cools rapidly
Sedimentary- due to the process of weathering, many kinds of rocks break down and then are compacted( ex. Sandstone, tuff, and conglomerates)
Metamorphic- preexisting rock subjected to high amounts of heat, pressure, and chemical agents
Environmental Effects of Resource Extraction
-Australia, China, Brazil, U.S., Russia and Canada account for the majority of metal extraction.
-mining of these precious metals(aluminum, iron ore, copper, lead) lead to air and water pollution
Mining-open pit, strip, underground
Processing-to extract metals from the ore, a process called smelting is used
another method is heap-leach extraction , piling crushed ore into huge piles and spraying it with a solution
Conserving Geologic Resources
recycling- aluminum, glass, steel, plastics, titanium, copper and paper
Geologic Hazards- earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes
chapter 14 review questions
1.) The Earth’s layers are constructed as follows; The core is the interior of the Earth. After that is the outer core (semisolid), the mantle and the crust, a hard outer layer.
2.) Mineral is a naturally occurring, inorganic, solid element or compound with a definite chemical composition and regular internal crystal structure. A rock is a solid, cohesive, aggregate or one or more minerals.
3.) Tectonic plates are the parts of the Earth, the big blocks of the Earths crust that form into a large mosaic. They are important because we live on them. We live on the lifts of the continental plates and the oceans are the basin above the sunk parts of the plates.
4.) The reason that there are a lot of Earthquakes and Volcanoes on the Ring of Fire because of all the faults in the area(planes of weakness.) The more faults there are the more likely earthquakes and volcanoes are to occur.
5.) The rock cycle is the creation, destruction and metamorphosis of rocks. The three types of rocks are igneous rocks; made from magma extruded from the surface from volcanic vents. Sedimentary rocks are rocks made from compacted material; sandstone, tuff, and conglomerates.
6.) Some of the worlds most important metals are aluminum, nickel, iron ore, zinc, copper, mercury, lead and tin. The bulk of them are found in the USA, Canada, Russia, Australia, and South East Asia(China).
7.) Silicates, sand, gravel, salts, limestone, and soil. The majority of these are used in construction of roads or buildings. They come from surface pits and have been deposited by glaciers.
8.) Some ways we recycles metals are things like soda can deposits, two thirds of all soda cans are recycled in the US saving twenty times the amount of energy used in the production of new cans. Another way is platinum in a cars catalytic converter. It is highly reusable from old cars.
9.) Some hazards associated with mineral extraction are; most obviously the removal of the surface. Other effects are air and water pollution, lastly dangerous things like cyanide and mercury are released into the atmosphere from metal extraction processes.
10.) Some of the leading geologic hazards are earthquakes, volcanoes, floods and landslides. These things displace land, ruin fragile ecosystems, interfere with habitats and increases the pace of mass wasting.
chapter 14 vocab
Core- interior of the Earth, composed of a dense, intensely hot mass of metal, mostly iron, thousands of kilometers in diameter.
Mantle- surrounding the molten outer core is a hot, pliable layer of rock.
Crust- the outermost layer of the Earth is the cool, lightweight, brittle layer of rock that floats on the mantle.
Tectonic Plates- breakup of crust into huge blocks, convection currents move these plates across Earths surface
Magma- molten rock
Mineral- a naturally occurring, inorganic, solid element or compound with a definite chemical composition and a regular internal crystal structure.
Rock- a solid, cohesive, aggregate of one or more minerals.
Rock Cycle- cycle of creation, destruction and metamorphosis or rocks
Igneous Rocks- magma that has been extruded to the surface from volcanic vents that cool quickly to make basalt, rhyolite, andesite, and other fine grained rocks.
Weathering- exposure to air, water, changing temperatures, and reactive chemical agents that slowly break rocks down.
Sedimentation- deposition of weathered materials
Sedimentary Rock- sedimentary materials that have been compacted over a long period of time; sandstone, tuff, and conglomerates.
Metamorphic Rock- preexisting rocks can be modified by heat, pressure, and chemical agents to form this
Smelting- roasting ore to release metals
Heap-Leach Extraction- piling crushed ore in huge heaps and spraying it with a dilute alkaline-cyanide solution. The solution percolates through the pile and dissolves gold
Earthquakes- sudden movements in the Earth’s crust that occur along faults(plans of weakness) where one rock mass slides past another one.
Tsunami- giant seismic sea swells, earthquakes in the ocean are the cause
Volcanoes- undersea magma vents that produce much of the Earth’s crust.
Mass Wasting- mass movement, in which geological materials are moved down slope form one place to another.
backup information on year long project
The first clean air act was enacted in 1955. It was known as the Air Pollution Control Act of 1955. It has been revised three times (1963, 1970, and most recently in 1990). The national government lobbied for this act to passed. It was evident with the high amounts of air pollution were a detriment and problem that needed to be dealt with on a national level. It was the nations first piece of legislation on the issue. Its purpose was to provide research and technical assistance relating to air pollution control.
The second act was the Clean Air Act of 1963. It was used to improve, strengthen, and accelerate programs for the prevention and abatement of air pollution. It was ammened multiple times to include standards for automobile emissions and research into dividing the country into Air Quality Control Regions.(AQCRs).
Clean Air Act of 1970 was an act to amend the Clean Air Act, to provide for a more effective program to improve the quality of hte nations air. It was a bit ambitious however. It strictly regulated emissions of cars, put research into noise pollution in cities, and put legal suits on people or organizations that did not cohere with the law.
The final and most recent Clean Air Act came in 1990. Its purpose, to ament the Clean Air Act to provide for attainment and maintenance of health protective national ambient air quality standards, and for other purposes. It took the control of pollution out of what used to be under the states control and put it under the national government. This particular Act installed teh Best Available Control Technology (BACT) to reduce the amount of air toxics.
The process of environmental safety like this is an evolution. That is why it is important to my year long project. It moves and acts as the environment does.
sea otters
The Sea Otter has had problems in Alaska, its population has decreased dramatically. Federal and state aid should be put into this development because any element of the environment that experiences a problem like this tends to snowball into other effects. The first step that needs to be taken is find out what is decreasing the otter populations.
Possibility’s for this as noted by the New York Times were a migration, or a disease. The problem with this answer was that their were no bodies to be found, anywhere. Dr. Estes, the head of a research team discovered that killer whales were the answer.
If I were in charge of this investigation I would want to know more about the whales. Specifically, what factors in their lifestyles has made them want to eat sea otters, because historically they had not. Has their been a depletion of another food source for them. Test this by monitoring a whales diet, dead whales usually have residue of what they have eaten in their digestive tracts. It wouldn’t be hard for someone informed with this. Another thing to do would be to measure how many sea otters have been eaten in areas where the water is deep enough for killer whales to get them and too shallow so that they cannot come into contact with them. The answer tells you if and why they are eating the killer whales.
Who really cares if there are decreasing numbers of sea otters. Everyone should be concerned. Sea otters consume one third of their body weight everyday to keep themselves warm. Without them their the population of the clams, and sea urchins would grow exponentially and hurt other aspects of the ecosystem. They would overwhelm and may hurt fishing food sources by consumption of themselves.
chapter 13 chapter in review
1.) Yosemite was authorized by Lincoln in the middle of the Civil War to protect its resources from the settlers. Yellowstone was the first national park because of U.S. Grant, its purpose was to protect the curious nature of its geysers.
2.)Pollution and noise from snowmobiles put wildlife, vegetation, and park workers at risk. They also leak gas and oil. Off road vehicles compact soil and cause erosion. Air pollution and acid rain damage all ecosystems.
3.) The reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone makes neighbors of the park nervous that their are these dangerous predators around even though they stablize prey populations.
4.) Areas protected have been growing on a global basis for 50 years. The areas where growth is most prevolent are Asia, North America, and Latin America.
5.) The ideal MAB must have a core zone where their is limited human interference. A buffering zone around that where a couple human influences can exist and then a multiple use area on the outer ring.
6.) Wilderness is an area of undeveloped land affected primarily by the forces of nature, where a man is a visitor who does not remain, it contains ecological, geological, or other features of scientific or historical value.
7.) Wetlands provide food and a habitat for a lot of species, at least a third of endangered species spend some time in these wetlands. They are threatened by our discharge and dumping into them. The Clean Water Act was developed to stop this.
8.) The tropical forest and the grassland have been most effected by humans. We have cut done billions of trees in these forests and lost numerous species because of it. Overgrazing takes place in our grasslands.
9.) A landscape is the factors that make up a geographic area such as grade, materials, location. I live on an island, it is a big rock that sticks out of the water, this is evident because my house is on a rock.
10.) Restoration means to bring something back to a former condition(the forests in our country)
Rehabilitation refers to attempts to rebuild elements of structure or function in an ecological system without necessarily achieving restoration(florida everglades)
Remediation is a process of cleaning chemical contaminants from a polluted area by physical or biologal methods(St. Lawerence River)
Reclamation describes chemical or physical manipulations carried out in severely degraded sites such as open pit mines or large scale constructions(SMCRA)
Recreation attempts to construct a new biological community on a site so severly disturbed that there is virtually nothing left to restore(ponds in the clean water act of 1977)
chapter 12 questions for review
1.) Forests 2.)Tropical rainforests in Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia are dying the most. The ones that are growing the most are the forests in North America.
3.) Ruined ecosystems, increased pests, lower level life forms take over, loss of indiginous peoples and rare organisms, increase in levels of O2 gas.
4.)Clear cutting is a process in which all trees are cut down regardless of whether they are mature enough to do so, the ones that are not ready are thrown away. Below cost timber sales encourages the mass consumption of wood because its being sold at prices way below it should be. These are bad because excess trees are cut down because of both of them.
5.)Salvage logging is a removal of dead or dying trees from forests damaged by fire or disease. Forest thinning is a process to take out trees that may be best taken to encourage the growth of other trees. Its all good because it takes what the environment is using less actively, its bad because it takes away from a process of nature, decomposition.
6.)The advantages of monoculture foresting are high profit and yeild, saving money because clear cutting is prefered, the problem is that they encourage pests and disease infestation.
7.) Swidden agriculture is a slash and burn technique. An area is designated, trees are dried out, then burned, after the process is over there is a rich seedbed of ashes. This is better for some areas because it is a very natural process, the environment is ready to hangle this technique.
8.) Overgrazing leads to animals eating down to the roots of plants, the plants dont exist after and the soil goes bad, once there is nothing to hold the soil, the livestock turns up the soil. These are ideal conditions for forage species.
9.) Semi fertile soils can be used and cows will take it and use it where it would not be profitable to grow or live reasonable organisms.
10.)Examples of recognition of indigenous land titles are as follows; the Yanomamami in Brazil; aborigese in Austrailia have taken back the Circular Quay; and Nunavut in Canada has been returned to the Inuktitut tribe.
chapter 13 notes
Chapter 13 Notes
Preserving and Restoring Nature
Parks and Natural Reserves
Occupy a small percentage of our land however they protect valuable cultural/biological resources
Park numbers have grown in recent years however they are being challenged in recent years
Wildlife, Lands and Parks serve many often contradictory demands
Forms of recreation, wildlife habitat and extraction of timber oil minerals and gas
Globally protected areas have expanded ten fold in the past 50 years
Need to meet diverse needs(hunting farming and protection)
Developing Countries
Suffered from poaching and logging
Recent efforts like the Man and Biosphere program have tried to balance man and ecological needs
Landscapes
Patchiness and heterogeneity are characteristics
Ecosystem management involves long periods of time, human resources and a maintaining of biodiversity and ecological systems
Restoration Ecology
Restore
Rehabilitate ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS
Re-Create
Hope to maintain original species in their original locations( but how authentic should it be?)
