Hi everyone, my name is Johnna Puhr. I’m currently a junior studying Environmental Systems Engineering at Penn State University Park. I grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana on the bayou. I grew up fishing and playing in the swamp. For a living my family in Louisiana catches and distributes crawfish and some crabs. My freshman year of high school my family relocated to Pittsburgh, PA where I currently reside. Right now I’m not entirely sure what career I want to pursue with my degree. Ideally I would like to work for a big company as their environmental consultant. I love anything science related so, my interest in this course is to learn about our impact on the environment. I’m taking this course as part of my degree requirements but excited to see what I’m going to get out of it.
An issue that I’m concerned about that geography can address is our impact on the environment and natural resources. I don’t think we realize that everything we do impacts the environment in some way. While looking through Module 1 I was really surprised by the drought in Folsom, California. The entire lake dried up in just three years. For another class I’m taking I had to watch the documentary Tapped, which is about the water bottle industry. This documentary revealed that by 2030 we won’t have any clean drinking water. I think water is something that we all take for granted, but is a necessity for life. As we learned in Module 1 human- environments interactions is how human decision making shapes the natural environment. Obviously, as seen in Folsom California we need to start making different decisions before we have no water left. Sustainability is key to every decision that we make when it comes to our impact on the environment. We need to be able to go about everyday activities without causing significant environmental changes. Every day we are depleting a number of natural resources, but what happens when they’re gone?
Hi Johnna,
My name is Ben and I’m from Pa! I am commenting on your post because i strongly agree with the issues you have brought up. I believe that the use of natural resources must be monitored closely or else we will have severe consequences. I also saw the documentary “Tapped” and thought it was very interesting. Here’s a link to my blog if you want to check it out: https://wp.me/p3RCAy-aTF
Hi Johnna,
I really enjoyed reading your blog and it caught my attention from the beginning because I’ve never met someone that used to live in the Louisiana bayou and it sounds like an awesome place. I am also from Pittsburgh so I can only image the adjustment after moving; they are very different places! This is the link to my blog if you’d like to know more about me, http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/01/20/getting-to-know-me-alicia-janocsko/.
I am also intrigued and scared at the fact you talked about that by 2030 we won’t have any clean drinking water left. I definitely agree with you that as Americans we have taken a lot for granted and we don’t realize the damage we are doing until it’s to late to make a change. More people need to ask themselves the question you posed at the end; what happens when they’re gone? Maybe then people would make more of an effort to acknowledge this cause and effect the human race has on our environment.