Biodiversity – Jared Mummert

1) Do you think anthropocentric or ecocentric arguments are more likely to convince the world that biodiversity is important? (200 – 250 words).

I believe that a mixture of anthropocentric and ecocentric arguments are the best way to convince people that biodiversity is important. I think that anytime something directly benefits us we are more likely to take it seriously, but if we are only concerned about what we can get from something then we are more likely to exploit the resource even further. For example let’s say that we only rely on anthropocentric arguments to preserve biodiversity. We tell people that we need to save the rain forests because the cure for some disease such as cancer may be hidden within its jungle walls. This argument holds solid until we find the hypothetical plant that contains the cure for the disease. Since we are only concerned about what we can get out of the rain forest, we will then likely cut down the entire rain forest in search of more of these plants or others like it. I believe that in order to preserve the rain forests we must consider more than our own direct benefits from it. If we hold a mixture of ecocentric and anthropocentric values, when we find the plant that contains the cure we would still value the ecosystem and its biodiversity for its own existence and preserve it.

2) What are some threats to biodiversity in your hometown or areas near you? (200 -250 words)

In this module we learned about the “H.I.P.P.O.” acronym that  accounts for biodiversity loss associated with habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, human population, and over harvesting. In my area there are a few invasive plant species such as multiflora rose which threaten to choke out native shrubs by preventing them from getting sunlight. We also have insects such as gypsy moths, emerald ash borers, Japanese bettles, and stink bugs that over-consume plants while going largely unchecked by local predatory animals. Habitat loss is another major threat to biodiversity in my area. One native species that is currently endangered due to habitat loss in my area is the bog turtle. Last summer I had an internship with a local environmental engineering consulting firm, and we had an intern on staff who’s only job was to look for bog turtles in areas where we were about to do bridge construction. If he found a bog turtle in the area we would have to redesign the bridge in a way that didn’t inhibit the bog turtle’s travel routs. My company also dealt with storm sewer water that was often polluted by salt and oil from roads. This polluted water would have to be treated so that it wouldn’t harm sensitive fish and invertebrates in the local trout streams.

3) Research a threat to biodiversity that deals with an area other than your hometown or the rainforests. Write a 150 – 200 word summary and site your source. 

I read an article that explained how rising levels of CO2 and decreasing pH in the ocean are causing shellfish to have weaker and ineffective shells. The more acidic water weakens the calcium carbonate shells of shellfish and can weaken the bones of many other marine organisms. While the higher CO2 and lower pH is bad for shell fish, it is great for algae and sea grasses that rely on CO2. This can lead to algae explosions which can choke out other marine life and cause further problems. The lower pH threatens shellfish that we consume directly such as oysters and clams, and also organisms that are food sources for salmon and other fish such as pteropods. It also threatens the coral reefs that are the hub of diversity in the ocean. The acidic sea water eats away at the limestone structures that many coral species construct, and this threatens the entire coral reef ecosystem. Clearly we can see that steps need to be taken to reduce global CO2 and prevent ocean acidification.

Climate Change – Jared Mummert

ClimateChange_jdm5805

This whole story starts with humanity’s need for an energy source. In today’s world, the majority of that energy source comes from fossil fuels, which have shown to be one of the biggest contributors to climate change. The burning of fossil fuels leads to a buildup of greenhouse gasses in the troposphere, which leads to a greenhouse effect caused by the gasses reflecting radiation back towards the earth’s surface. This trapping of heat has caused warming of the Earth’s climate, and most politicians and world leaders believe that we need to slow down or stop this change. World  leaders congregated at the UN’s climate change summit, and tried to push a climate accord that would decrease the amount of greenhouse gasses that we  put into the atmosphere, and provide assistance to poor countries that were the most effected by climate change. As with many international political processes, each country had its own agenda for what should transpire from the treaty. The U.S. attempted to bribe developing countries to reach its agenda, with many of the conversations being via cable. Wikileaks hacked the servers and gained access to the private conversations and then made them available to the public, exposing the U.S.’s attempted manipulation of the smaller developing countries. Some argue that this knowledge should have been public knowledge from the begging, but others condemn Wikileaks for leaking these private conversations. Your view on the U.S.’s attempted manipulation is probably determined by whether you value ends ethics or means ethics. The U.S. was attempting to resolve the climate change dilemma, but could have been conducting itself in a more diplomatic manor in this case.

The thing about climate change that separates it from nearly every other conflict going on in the world right now is that it has the potential to effect every single country in one way or the other. Some countries may find their coastal cities underwater, while other countries may experience extensive droughts, and others may be at greater risk from hurricanes and other massive storms. The point of this argument is that since climate change doesn’t discriminate which countries if effects, all countries should have an incentive to try to bring an end to it. Climate change is also unique in the fact that it requires all countries to work together to solve it. If just the U.S. or just China made efforts to reduce it’s share of greenhouse gas emissions we may see some minor decline in global warming, but certainly not to the extent as if all countries made those changes together. This is why I believe that while the U.S. probably should have conducted itself in a more diplomatic manor while dealing with the climate accord. I believe you should always conduct yourself with the assumption that someone is watching. In other words, don’t do something differently just because you don’t think someone will see. If the U.S. believed that it was conducting itself in an ethical manor, then it shouldn’t have anything to hide. I don’t believe that Wikileaks was ethical in the way that it obtained these conversations, but then again I don’t believe that it should be something that the government should have hidden from us.

Jared Mummert Module 8

1)  I live in York, PA, which is in south-central PA. In the module we read that Pennsylvania is one of the least hazard-prone areas in the U.S., but nevertheless we still have our fair share of hazards. We face < 80 km/hr extra tropical winter storms, Zone 2 tornadoes, Zone 2 wildfires, warmer/dryer El Nino periods, a greater likelihood of storms during La Nina, an increase of +.3 degrees Celsius per decade, and an increase in annual rainfall. This map would have been more beneficial if it were more localized. It was somewhat difficult to determine the barriers between zones for some of the hazards because the graphics were so small. It was good for seeing the contrasts in risks across the country and the world as a whole, but could be improved for finding more localized hazzards.

2) The hazard that I found occurred in Hawaii. It was a shark attack that was characterized as a biological hazard. This type of hazard is very unlikely in my hometown because we about 100 miles from the closest ocean. The only exception would be in the case of a sharknado, where a tornado carries the sharks inland (kidding). Only one person was harmed in the shark attack, and luckily there were no deaths. This type of biological hazard wasn’t included in our discussion in the module, but dangerous animal attacks/encounters could certainly be a huge hazard depending on where you live. For example, if you lived in Australia you would have to be more aware of the threat of snake and spider bites than you would in Pennsylvania. The threat of animal attack biological hazards isn’t a prominent one in my town, but if you lived in an area where sharks were common, you would have to prepare hospitals and ambulances for dealing with shark bite victims.

3) One of the main natural hazards that my hometown of York, PA faces is that of winter storms. In January, Winter Storm Jonas covered my town with over two feet of snow, and closed local schools and business for nearly a week. Most towns aren’t prepared to deal with these quantities of snow, and even after nearly one week some students were not able to make it to school due to snow covered roads. According to The Weather Channel, Winter Storm Jonas caused or contributed to 37 deaths, most of which were heart attacks brought on by people shoveling snow. The Weather Channel also reported that the financial impact across the Northeast U.S. is between $500 million and $3 billion.

  1. Winter Storm Jonas Burries Northeast With Two Feet of Snow. January 24. https://weather.com/storms/winter/news/winter-storm-jonas-forecast-blizzard-warning-january-22.

4) Pre-event preparedness significantly reduced casualties and human impacts associated with Winter Storm Jonas. Meteorologists were able to warn citizens of the impending storm, and they were able to gather supplies ahead of time so that they could have food, water, lighting, and heating sources in case utilities were impacted by the storm. For these types of hazards pre-event preparedness is always crucial. If you ended up without heat, food, or water for extended periods of time it would be very difficult to live comfortably or even survive if you become snowed in. My family prepared by buying extra groceries, bringing fire wood into the garage as a backup heating source, and having our generator handy in case of a power outage. The local township and PennDot are also very important because they are responsible for clearing the roads in my area. This helps to assure that everything gets back to normal as fast as possible.

 

 

Jared Mummert Module 7

I’m from an automobile suburb type town in York, PA. with a population of 45,000. It has some pedestrian qualities, as students in the York City School District must walk or ride a bike to school because there aren’t any school buses. The vast majority of transportation occurs via car though. The city lacks density, and you’d struggle to find a building taller than 7-8 stories in the whole city. It’s not an overly large city, so it would be possible to walk from one side of town to the other, but it would certainly not be convenient to do so, and people usually revert to driving to their destination. There are few bikes on the streets because parked cars lined up on either side of the road constrict the roadways, making it hard to navigate via bicycle.

The second city that I’m going to focus on is Copenhagen. I love how Copenhagen’s shift from automobiles to pedestrian and bicycle traffic has revolutionized the city. It has improved the safety of transportation by eliminating fast moving cars and trucks from its roads, and has boosted businesses. I think that this type of development would be beneficial to York City because it would make the city more accessible, reduce traffic, and lessen it’s environmental impact. It wouldn’t be overly difficult to make this change. First we could start by building parking garages to minimize the numbers of cars parked along the side of the road. We could then replace the parking spots alongside the road with bike lanes similar to that of Copenhagen as we saw in module 4. Overall this would likely improve the speed of transportation in the city and greatly improve its well being.

The third city that I’m going to focus on is Detroit. I like how Detroit is working to utilize free space by installing community gardens and other urban agriculture. This is a great way to get fresh food into the hands of the city’s people at a reasonable price, and little negative impact on the environment. Not only does it improve the people’s diet, but it also helps on the emotional and social side by allowing them to be in touch with their food, and spend time with members of their community. York county is mostly rural with York City in the middle, so space to grow crops isn’t necessarily the cities biggest concern from an agricultural standpoint. However, the sense of community bonding and social interaction associated with these types of gardens could still be improved by a community garden. It wouldn’t be out of necessity, but it could certainly be a very beneficial addition to York’s community.

Module 6 – Jared Mummert

One common food choice that is influenced by social norms is the “I’m in a rush and don’t have time to cook” fast food stop. As college students, and members of society in general, we have all made a food choice based on time, or our lack there of. I would estimate that on 2-3 occasions a week, I stop at a fast food restaurant on or around campus. This decision is usually based on the fact that I don’t want to to go back to my apartment between classes, or because I’m in a rush. I certainly understand the health and environmental effects associated with this decision, but nonetheless I make the stop in order to save short-term time. This is a common decision for many college because our busy schedules and limited budgets often force us to go with food that is cheep and quick.

Two big societal issues associated with this decision are; an unhealthy diet, and excess greenhouse gas emissions. The unhealthy diet associated with this food choice is pretty straightforward and something that I am conscious of when I make this decision. As a consumer, you know that eating cheep greasy food probably isn’t in your health’s best interest, but we often justify this decision because we are busy or in a rush. The excess greenhouse gas emissions is less straightforward. The cattle needed for the fast food emit gasses while digesting their own food, and the travel associated with distributing the food to the fast food chains across the country is an additional contributor. I could reduce these societal issues by buying local groceries and packing a lunch so that I wouldn’t have to buy fast food. The food would likely be healthier, and would also reduce the greenhouse gasses associated with shipping the food.

FoodDiagram_jdm5805

Module 5 – Jared Mummert

Africa: Bees Can Help Boost Food Security of Two Billion Small Farmers At No Cost

http://allafrica.com/stories/201602220806.html

This study examined the importance of bees in food production, especially in Africa, and was conducted by The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. In module 5 we discussed developments that have an advantage due to being geographically blessed. This study showed the importance of bees in that area, and how things would be different without them. Bees play a vital role in pollinating plants, and they do it at no cost for people. Without bees, crops would have to be pollinated by hand, a task that would greatly reduce production. The article said that due to global warming, bees were having a harder time pollinating plants. It recommended that we take efforts to reduce global warming, and also suggested that farmers plant plants that flower year round in an effort to keep bees on their property. Bees have played a vital role in food production in the past, and if we want to continue this trend, steps must be made to ensure the bee’s and our future.

Treating Cataracts in India

http://www.cgdev.org/page/case-19-treating-cataracts-india

This study examined the leading cause of blindness, cataracts, in India. It was conducted by the World Bank’s Implementation Completion Report. Before this initiative, nearly 1.5% of Indian’s suffered from blindness due to cataracts. The World Bank started an initiative  to treat this awful condition in 1994 by setting up fixed camps for cataract surgery. Overall, this initiative was very effective and restored sight to nearly 320,000 people annually at little to no cost to the individual. On average, the surgery only cost $10, yet due to poverty, many people couldn’t afford to have the surgery done. This is an issue of environmental justice, because due to poverty hundreds of thousands of people couldn’t afford this simple surgery to restore their sight. Thanks to this program, nearly 15.35 million cataract surgeries have been conducted in India since it’s inception.

The first case study relates to my home town because it is a reoccurring problem across the whole world. Bee populations are rapidly decreasing, and as they go the price of food will increase dramatically due to lack of pollination. In my hometown of York, Pa, agriculture is a very common way to make a living. My town consists mainly of wide open farm fields and bees are important to pollination in all parts of the world. It is common to see bee houses adjacent to fields in my area. The second case study relates to my home because healthcare is something that many people in the U.S. take for granted, especially with a routine procedure like cataract surgery. Not being able to see due to a very curable disease is unthinkable, and something that nobody should be forced to suffer through. These two studies differ because the first one calls for individual action, and the second one is an example of collective action. We can see that in the case of the cataract dilemma, collective action was very effective at solving the problem, while we will have to wait and see how the bee dilemma works itself out.

 

 

Jared Mummert – Water Usage

Part a) I live in a rural part of York, Pa, and our water comes from a well. York is *well* known for having large amounts of aquifers that contain groundwater. I just realized this while writing the blog, but about half of the school districts or towns in my  area have the word “spring” in their name; i.e. Admire Springs, Bermudian Springs, York Springs, Spring Grove, etc. This leads me to believe that there is no shortage of groundwater in my area. Our well depth is around 80-90 feet which is very shallow considering the average well depth in Pa is closer to 150 feet. The water from the aquifer is pumped up using a well pump, and then treated in our basement using UV light and a variety of filters. After being used, our waste-water enters our septic system. The high water table in our area forced us to install an elevated sand-mound type septic system. This helps ensure that the water is as clean as possible, and that sewage doesn’t leach into our well water.


 

Part b) For this part I measured the time that it took to fill a 2.5 gallon bucket or a 1 gallon jug, and then converted it to gallons per minute for my bathroom sink, kitchen sink, and shower. For the dishwaser, toilet, and laundry machine I read the gallons per use that was labeled on each device.

Shower: 1 shower * 7 mins * 4.1 gal/min = 28.7 gallons

Toilets: 5 flushes * 1.6 gal/flush = 8 gallons

Washing Hands: 7 hand washes * .5 mins * 1 gal/min = 3.5 gallons

Laundry: 1 load * 25 gal/load = 25 gallons

Dishwasher: 1 load * 5 gal/load = 5 gallons

Dishes by Hand: 3 washes *  mins/wash * 2 gal/min = 18 gallons

Brushing Teeth: 3 brushes = < 1 gallon

Drinking Water: < 1 gallon

TOTAL = 90.2 gallons!!!


 

Part C) As you can see, I used roughly 90 gallons of water in one day alone! If I were forced to live on 2 gallons of water for one day I would have to make some significant changes. I would start by cutting out the laundry and dishes, because these aren’t necessities. Just by not doing these two things for one day I would save nearly 48 gallons of water, and more than halve my daily water use! I would also have to load up on cologne, and not take a shower for the day because this is another huge use of water. The hardest thing to cut back on would be the toilet flushes (insert emoji with surgical mask). Just one flush alone would use up over three quarters of my daily two gallon limit! Essentially I would pretty much have to cut out everything other than drinking water and one toilet flush. I could use hand sanitizer in place of hand washing, and could hopefully get away with .4 gallons of drinking water. Of course this is all just a nice thought because on the day that I was going to attempt this I didn’t even make it past breakfast. I woke up and used the restroom and then washed my hands, and just like that I used up nearly all of my two gallons. I didn’t take a shower on this day, but I did drink about half a gallon of water, and the pile of dishes in the sink forced me to wash them. It was much harder than I had anticipated. I definitely cut back on my water use from part b), but I still wasn’t able to accomplish my goal. Geography definitely plays a huge part in water use. We are lucky to live in an area where water isn’t an overly scarce resource, but with the U.S. leading the country in water use  per capita it would certainly be a bad idea to cut back.

 

 

 

Ethics – Jared Mummert

Question four, “Do ecosystems matter for their own sake, or do they only matter to the extent that they impact humans?”

What a great question! I think that any animal (us included,) cares first about the individuals well being, second about their species well-being, and third about everything else. To truly answer this question you  would have to consider an ecosystem where there are no benefit to humans and no “cuteness factor.” I use the phrase “cuteness factor” to describe our affinity towards animals or ecosystems that we prioritize because they are nice to look at (like pandas, polar bears and coral reefs). All ecosystems are tied together, whether directly or indirectly, so it makes it pretty hard to answer this question since there are virtually no cases of ecosystems that don’t have an affect on one another on Planet Earth. For arguments sake lets consider a completely isolated ecosystem, perhaps “in a galaxy far far away,” that has no effect on humans. Would we still care about it? I would argue that the only reason we would is if it had the potential for us to live on it someday, and potentially save our species. So there you have it, the answer to one age old question with one simple Star Wars reference, and a little imagination. Anthropocentrism, the feeling that humans are what’s important, might not be the completely ethical, but it is certainly our logical way of thinking.

Question six, “Is my own life worth more than the lives of others, the same, or less?”

This question is one that I’ve considered many times before I read this module. I think that when it comes down to it, despite our very social nature, we are all born as very selfish people. My brother and I spent much of our early childhood fighting for who got to play with the best toys. It wasn’t until many years of our parents telling us to share that we finally learned that it wasn’t such a bad thing. I think that altruism, or in this case sharing, is a very learned behavior. My brother and I learned that selfish acts led to a scolding from our parents, and in an attempt to avoid reprimand, we adapted by sharing. When you look at the animal world, altruism is extremely rare, and only occurs when there is plenty of a resource to go around. With people it’s not much different. When things are going well as a society and everyone has their fare share, stealing is usually a rare thing. But in cases like natural disasters when resources become scarce, we see vast amounts of looting and stealing. We resort back to our selfish nature. I think the only reason that the initial question is even relevant is due to human’s ability to manipulate our environment to provide enough resources for everyone. When it comes down to it, we are all just focused on our own behalf and that of our family members, but if there is enough resources to go around we don’t mind sharing on occasion. I truly struggled with this question, and changed my mind several times as to which side I was on, so I look forward to reading the replies to this post because there are certainly many flaws in my argument. This is truly a great question.

Question three, “Does the process by which decisions are made matter more than the outcomes of these decisions?”

Of course the outcomes matter more than the way the decisions were made! We could have a dictator running the United States and if every decision he made had a positive outcome, I would be completely alright with that. The problem with this argument is that it is impossible for the dictator to understand what is in the best interest of the entire country’s population. So let’s say that our dictator is a caring person and wants his decisions to best reflect the people’s views. To accomplish this he sets up a board of advisers, each dedicated to a specific region. Their job is to determine what decisions are in the best interest of  their region… and what do you know it we have the makings of a democracy. As you can see, the only importance of “how decisions are made,” is whether that system is efficient at achieving the correct outcome. In other words, procedural justice is only relevant if it accomplishes distributive justice.

 

Biogas Diagram – Jared Mummert

Social System       vs.           Ecosystem

Module2JDM5805

People’s basic need for food has indirectly lead to the destruction of forests in India. People need some source of heat to cook their food, and up until recently the only source for heat in India was to burn firewood. Collecting firewood wouldn’t be a bad source of energy if it were only needed for a small amount of people, but with India’s population nearing 1.25 billion and growing this problem is becoming more and more dire. The growing population could be thought of as a positive feedback mechanism for forest destruction, because a larger population means more firewood required to help heat the food for the people. As firewood becomes scarce, more children are needed to collect the wood. This is a runaway feedback mechanism, often described as positive feedback.

In comparing my diagram to figure 1.5 in the reading, you will notice that there are many similarities, and also some differences. In both diagrams you will notice that the arrows go both directions, meaning there are cases where the social system effects the environment and cases where the environment effects the social system. This makes up a landscape, described as the combination of environmental and human phenomena that coexist together in a particular place on Earth’s surface. The main difference is that the reading’s diagram considered the farm fields and irrigation water more than mine. There were similarities because we both based our diagrams off of the reading, and there were differences because each individual will have different things come to mind when reading something due to creative differences. By comparing the diagrams, I learned that there were some things that I should have included in mine that I left out, but there were also some things that I addressed that the reading’s diagram did not.

Learning Activity: Getting to Know You

Hello everyone! My name is Jared Mummert, and I’m a Junior Environmental Systems Engineering major here at Penn State, University Park. I’m from a small town in York, PA called Dover. Up until about a month ago I was a Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering major, but decided to change to Environmental Systems Engineering when I started realizing some of the effects that the oil industry was having on our environment, in addition to the current uncertainty of the oil market. I think this new major is a great fit for me! If possible I hope to work for a company that treats fracking fluids and helps to mitigate the environmental effects that are associated with oil drilling, or do stream bank realignments. This class is required for my major, but I’m still very interested in taking it because it deals with how people and the environment interact, much like my major of environmental engineering. I chose the online format because the other sections conflicted with some of my classes, but I like the fact that I can complete this course from the comfort of my own apartment!

The topics that I’m most interested in from this course are human-environment interactions and sustainability. We obviously need to utilize natural resources, but we must do so in a way that we don’t beat them into the ground, and use them up before they can replenish themselves. Take the lumber industry for example… We clearly need lumber in our society for furniture, and many other things, but a clear-cut forest will take much longer than a select-cut forest to regenerate. If you only cut mature trees for your lumber purposes, then all of the other trees that are left will be able to now grow faster because they will get more light, and have less to compete with. Obviously sustainability is also a huge issue when it comes to oil drilling and oil consumption . We need oil as a society, but efforts to maximize fuel economy, and minimize greenhouse gas emissions associated with oil consumption will go a long way in maximizing the longevity of this resource.