1. The assignment I was thinking of doing deals with biodiversity hotspots. It deals with researching a biodiversity hotspot. The summary of the research should include the areas location, commonly found species in the area, and factors which lead to biodiversity loss. Then after the summary I was thinking of going to IUCN Protected Area Categories and determine which category would apply to the area and why I think it falls in this category. The response I think should be more than 250 words and less than 600 words. I also think that including the links that were used is mandatory.                                                                                               The location that I chose was the Caribbean Islands. In the Caribbean Islands there are about 13,000 species of plants and 6,500 single-island endemics. Also there are more than 600 bird species, in which 160 of them are endemic in the Caribbean Islands. Another thing that the Caribbean Islands have is nearly 90 mammal species. The Caribbean Islands is rich in the reptiles with over 500 species and which 470 of them are endemic. About 170 species of amphibian which include the four families of frogs, such as the Bufonidae, Dendrobatidae, Hylidae, and Lebtodactylidae. The Caribbean Islands also has more than 160 species of freshwater fish, in which 65 are endemic to the islands. Since the arrival of humans in the islands about 4000 years ago, the environmental degradation started to occur. The first wave was the deforestation of sugar cane plantations. The second wave was the impact of human settlers which introduce alien species to the area. Some examples of this is the agouti, a land tortoise and the white-tailed deer. According to the IUCN Protected Area Categories, the Caribbean Islands have about 13 percent of the hotspot protected. There is a need for better management, monitoring and enforcing the protected area in the Caribbean Islands. A lot of local organizations promote the conservations efforts of the Caribbean Islands. Some of them include the group of citizens and scientists in the Dominican Republic, in which they help support and manage Jaragua National Park. This is one of the largest land and sea parks in the hotspot. Another group that helps out is the Foundation for the Protection of Marine Biodiversity, in which they work with the fisherman and the government to promote maintainable use of the country’s marine resources.
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3. I think that biodiversity is important because every living thing was created and exists for a reason. The reason is anthropocentric because all lifeform have some kind of use on our planet either it could be small or large they all deserve to live here. We need biodiversity to survive because without plants and animals we would not have food or air to breathe. The plants could give us oxygen in turn we give them carbon dioxide to breathe. The animals provide us with protein through their meat source. We also have to be careful on how much we hunt for food because we do not want any species of animals to become extinct in the process.

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2. I mainly focused on the exchanges between the climate change, the cables, and their result on gaining support for the Copenhagen Accord. During the article, it tells how each country wanted the accord to be adopted but it also encourages each nation to focus on ways to reduce the greenhouse gases. This allowed easier access to rapidly growing countries than that was proposed by the United Nations. In the beginning of my diagram I tried to explain how climate change fortified the construction of the Copenhagen Accord. The United States was pushed to find ways to gain the approval of countries that did not support the accord. I broke down ways in which the United States fought to change the attitudes of some of these countries. Some of the thing they used to fortify the countries were spying, cables, money and threats. All the countries in the article had to commit to make some changes to reduce greenhouse gases. Many of the countries have agreed to make a change, so in the diagram I tied it together by showing how over one hundred and sixteen countries decided to support the accord. There were a lot of countries in the article, but here are a few that I mentioned were United States, Ethiopia, Maldives, and Saudi Arabia. Also I showed how twenty-six countries are going to commit to the accord on a later date. It seemed that the ways in which the United States encouraged support by spying, cables, money and threats have worked.

3. When I finished reading the article, the cable leak made it more difficult for the collective action than it did before. For the collective action to work it needed groups of countries to work together to reduce the discharges of greenhouse gases. In the article it tells how United States got other countries to support the accord. One of the ways was to promise a country financial aid. Some of the countries did the reduction just for the money it was going to receive. If the countries do not get the financial aid that was promised they might stop any effort to reduce the greenhouse gases. Both countries and individual need to reduce the greenhouse gases because these gases could affect our future. We need to realize that the climate change could affect how plant life survives in the future and how each one of us adapts to the changing of climate. Some of the climate changes that we might experience is the hot temperatures and rising of the rivers or streams due to the melting of the snow that we had during the winter months. The United States might be frustrated by the other countries that do not want to help support the accord. I feel we should not threaten countries to help reduce the greenhouse gases. They should want to do this freely to help their people to survive the climate changes. If we have conversation with our neighboring countries about the greenhouse gases and what each one of us can do to reduce it we might be able to have a better future for our children.

1. I live in Schuylkill Haven, PA which is the southern part of Pennsylvania. According to the first map, my area looks like it is very susceptible to flooding. I only reminder one time in which our area really flooded it was around 2010. The area got flooded about 7 blocks from where I lived. The second map shows that my area is either zone 2 or zone 3, which is in the low side of hailstorms. The third map shows that my area can get winter storms with wind peaks less than 80km/h. The fourth map shows that my area is in the zone 2 of the tornadoes frequency. The map was hard to read since you could not zoom in to the area in which you want to look at very well.
2. The area in which I choose to look at was the Pavlof Volcano in the state of Alaska. This eruption happened on March 28, 2016. There is not enough information on the eruption there. I know that my area will never have a volcano eruption like they had in Alaska due to the fact that there are no volcanoes in my area. If this would happen in my town I feel the whole town would be destroyed due to the eruption. Everyone in the town would be dead or moved away from the area to a safe zone. The houses and schools in the area would be burned or covered in lava.
3. Schuylkill Haven, PA is a very small town. There was only 2 recorded earthquakes with a magnitude of 3.5 or above in my area. Both of these happened before I was born. The first was in 1964 and the last one was in 1984. When I looked at the tornado index, it said we had 51 historical tornado in my area. I looked at the affected county and found 2 that affect my area. The first happen in 1981 and the second in 1992 which was before I was born. I looked at the other weather extremes and found out that we had 606 floods in the area, 664 hail and 2,203 thunderstorms winds. I feel we are very susceptible to thunderstorms winds because that was the highest weather extreme. The link I used for this information is http://www.usa.com/schuylkill-haven-pa-natural-disasters-extremes.htm.
4. The only action that I could see that we could prevent is the flooding of my area. The way they could prevent this is by building a floodwall around the dam and by the river that runs through Schuylkill Haven. The best people to perform these action are the town council and the mayor. The only thing I can do is make sure I listen to the news when there is an extreme thunderstorm and be prepare to leave the house with some of my belongings and cat. I will have to find a place that would accept pet in shelter. If they give us enough warning about the disaster I could try to help my parents move everything to the higher levels of our house.

I live in Schuylkill Haven, PA. Schuylkill Haven is located about four miles south of Pottsville and about 89 miles north-west of Philadelphia. Schuylkill Haven has a pedestrian-oriented type of town. People here could walk to local groceries stores and medical centers. They could even walk to nearby schools and university. Schuylkill Haven have about 5,341 people living in the area. I have lived here all my life and went to school here. I even go to the doctors that are close by since they are within walking distance from my house. I also am going to Penn State Schuylkill since it is close to where I live. I feel this is a good place to live since you don’t necessary have to learn to drive. The only bad part about living here is that there are not many places for people to go to get entertainment, such going to a movie.

The first city I decided on talking about is Boston, Massachusetts. The reason why I chose this city is because it is similar to my own town in which I live. In this city there are place in which one can work, shop and seek entertainment. This city was designed to make walking very easy to do. When it was first developed walking was the main source of transportation, now that most of the people that live here could afford cars they chose to still walk. The people in this neighborhood chose to walk to most of the place since it is more attractive chose. I could see myself living in this kind of town since I do not drive and do not have a car to do so.

The second city in which I will be talking about is Venice, Italy. The reason why I chose this town is because it is surrounded by water which makes driving a car impossible. They use gondolas to get from one place to another. In this town a lot of people use the gondolas to get to work or to shop downtown. This is different from where I live and from Boston by that you could not walk to where you have to go. The factor that I am looking at when I am discussing this city is that it is an urban form of living. This is dominated by mostly human activity. In this city you will hardly see a place where they can grow their own food.

1. I grew up here in Schuylkill Haven. My eating habits normally consist of microwavable meals and fast food. One reason why I eat this way is because of the work schedule of my father. The reason why the work schedule is an influence to the way I eat is because my mom would have to make supper at two different times. If she makes it for me, it will be too early for my dad and might have to be reheated for when he gets home. If we make it for when he gets home, I might be in class or have already eaten because of being hungry. Another reason why we do this is because it is convenient and quicker than making a home cook meal. We normally have home cooked meals on holidays.
2. I think the society issue that would impact my food choose is obesity. Since I only eat one big meal a day and only get exercise when I walk from the parking lot to class and then from class back to the parking. The food that I choose to eat is way too convenient for me and has a lot of preservatives in it. These preservatives are not healthy for me in the long run. This is a bad combination since I am young and my mom’s side of the family has heart condition in it. I am trying to eat healthier but with my class schedule and my father’s work schedule, this seems to be impossible. I could possibly eat healthier by eating a salad at the Hidden Café between classes.
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1. The first case study I read was from allafrica.com, and it talked about the Zika Virus in Africa and how the UN agencies stepped up the response measures following the Declaration of Public Health Emergency. On February 1, 2016, there was a declaration of a public health emergency of international concern that regarded the cluster of microcephaly and other neurological disorder in relation to the Zika virus. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Zika virus has spread quickly and has been detected in 25 countries. They diagnose the virus by measuring the heads of a newborn at least one day after birth. If it is below a certain level they feel the disease could be responsible for this diagnose. Even though there is no real conclusive evidence that links the Zika virus to the microcephaly, there is enough concern to warrant immediate action. I feel since the development of the Zika virus we have to be concern with traveling to any country that might contain this virus especially if you are pregnant. http://allafrica.com/view/group/main/main/id/00041183.html.
2. The second case study I read was from the Center for Global Development (CGD, and it talked about how to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in Thailand. This case study was done between 1989 and 1990. The quantity of direct sex workers in Thailand that was infected with the HIV had tripled. It went from 3.5% to 9.3% and within a year it reached 21.6 %. The male who were tested when they entered the army at the age of 21 had rose six times. It went from 0.5% in 1989 to 3% in 1991. Since then the government have been spending about $375 million to the national AIDS program. Most of the money went to the treatment and care of the infected people. This has made the number of people with sexually transmitted infection (STI) to fall from 200,000 cases in 1988 to 15,000 cases in 2001. I feel if this continues we will see less people with the disease. http://www.cgdev.org/page/case-2-preventing-hiv-and-sexually-transmitted-infections-thailand.
3. My hometown is Schuylkill Haven, PA. In Schuylkill Haven there is not a real scare on any diseases. The children here are vaccinated from polio and small pox before entering the school system. When they reach the middle school age they are vaccinated from mononucleosis which is referred to as the kissing disease. Once you are of college age they give you a booster for this disease. Most of the parent in this region get their children vaccinated but there are a few that refuse to vaccinate. These parents put other children at risk of getting the disease if they contract it. I feel that all children should be vaccinated upon reaching school age no matter what your religion is. The reason I feel this way is because I do not think that it is harmful to anyone if you are vaccinated. As far as I know, there has not been an outbreak of the Zika virus or HIV in this area. Both diseases causes’ kids to be sick and some may die from them.

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I am going my water supply chain on Schuylkill Haven.  The source of the water comes from surface water from the Silver Creek Reservoir, which is fed by Tumbling Run. About 4 million gallons of water is withdrawn per day. About 10,000 customers is served by the water system.  Silver Creek Reservoir is where the water supply intakes are located. About 6.1 square miles of land drain into the creek upstream from the intake. This land upstream of the intakes is 0.2% agricultural, 89% greenspace/forested, and 0.2% developed. The remaining of the land is open water. After that it goes down the drain which then goes to the sewer plant. The sewer plant is located on Saint Charles Street. This is also the location of the recycling center for the borough. The residents could take their cardboard boxes, newspaper, junk mail and yard waste down here also. The borough also conducts recycling of computers and other stuff at least once a year.

1B.

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I mainly use the water for cooking and drinking. I also did quick wash up in the tub. After my tub wash I used the water to flush the toilet with. The main priorities that I set for my water use was for cooking and drinking any water I had remaining I used to clean up and flushed the toilet. The one thing that I could do is to cut back on the time I take my shower. I feel that it was a failure due to the tub bath using most of the water I had. I used a lot of water to take my shower compare to my tub bath. Since we live in a place where we are not restricted on the amount of water we get to use some people may use more or less water depending on what has to be done for the day. The amount of water used may also depend on the amount of people are in a family. The more people in the family the more water you will use.

Question 1: Is it more important to be a good person or to perform good acts (virtue ethics vs. action ethics)?

Question 1 answer: I think it is better to do good acts than being a good person because I believe that actions speak louder than words. I cannot think of a situation where I would not do something to help another person. When I was younger I found a twenty dollar bill in the middle of an isle I took it immediately up to the cahier and she and I look to see if anyone else was in the store. She saw that my mother and me where the only ones in the store at the time. She gave me the money back and told me since I helped her look to see if anyone was in the store that I may keep the money for my good deed. She told me that I did the right thing by trying to find the rightful owner of the money so I should be rewarded for my good behavior.

Question 2: Do the ends justify the means (ends ethics vs means ethics)?

Question 2 answer: I think it depends on what the goal is that you are trying to achieve. If you are trying to get good grades and you stay up late to study and miss a couple of hours of sleep to do so and your grade is good than it was worth staying up late. I believe that if your grades or good and you feel tried the next day and still get a good grade than the lack of sleep is worth the grade. On the other hand if you stay up late to study and your grade is bad then it was not worth it in the end. I believe than the sleep is worth more than the grade because you did not improve with less sleep. If your grade improves with less sleep than the late night studying is worth the lack of sleep the next day but if it does not than it is not worth the lack of sleep the next day.

Question 6: Is my own life worth more than the lives of others, the same, or less (selfishness vs. altruism)?

Question 6 answer: I think my life matters the same as anybody else’s because I believe my life is not less or more important than anybody else’s. I believe that everyone’s life matters equally no matter who they are. For example, if me and a friend were being held hostage by a gunman I would try to come up with a plan to save both of our lives and get out of the situation safely. I would even try to get the gun away from him using some of the self-defense moves I learn while I was a girl scout. If me and my friend were able to get out safely I would consider this plan a success but if one of us is killed or injured during this than I will feel guilty if I survived and my friend did not. If we were able to get the gunman to be capture without anyone being hurt that would also be a good thing.

My name is Christina Liptak. I am 20 years old and live in Schuylkill Haven. I have lived in Schuylkill Haven all my life. The career that I am planning on pursuing is being a teacher for pre-k to 4^th grade kids. If I am unable to pass the Pect PAPA or Praxis tests then I am thinking of changing my major to HDFS. The first reason why I am interest in this course is because it is something I need for my major. The second reason is because I thought this class would be interesting. I have an older brother that is ten years older than me. He went to Penn State Hazelton to become a Physical therapist. I also have two cats. Their names are Tigger and Sparkle. I am also in the anime club here at Penn State. I also like to draw as a hobby.

One issue I find myself interested in is climate change and its continued impact on Earth. For some reason there is a portion of the population that does not believe climate change due to human factors exists. I think we should focus on showing more visual impacts to others, and begin to invest more money in reversing or at least maintain the current climate. This would include spreading more ways to increase sustainability in order to influence the people to work together to reverse global warming.