For the first part, write about how deforestation has affected you in your own personal life. (150-200 words)

For part two, write about what problems it would cause for the environment and what action could be done to help reduce the problem. (250-300 words)

1.       Deforestation affected me personally because my mom was born in Brazil and she has a house in Manaus, Brazil which is almost in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest. When I was younger, we used to go there every year and visit my family and stay in the house in Manaus. I have always noticed the deforestation in the area, but in the more recent years it has become almost impossible to go there without seeing the effects of it. One of the best things about going to my mom’s house in Brazil was that the house was in the middle of nowhere and it was relaxing. Since the deforestation increased, the house does not feel like it is as secluded as it was and it makes it a lot less relaxing. This was how deforestation affected me on a personal level, but it does so much worse on an environmental level.

2.       The Amazon Rainforest has the greatest level of biodiversity on the planet for how small the total area is. It contains over fifty percent of the world’s biodiversity as stated in the lesson, and there are many species of animals and plants including many that have medicinal value. Deforestation leads to habitat loss for the animals which causes them to lose their homes and food, which increases their chances of becoming endangered. There are millions of plants in the rainforest and it says in the lesson that we only tested about one percent of the world’s plants to see if they have medicinal uses. This means that deforestation kills potential medicinal plants and nobody even knows that were destroying our medicine. Also, since the resilience of an ecosystem depends on the amount of biodiversity, destroying the parts of the rainforest lowers the overall resilience of the ecosystem because much of the biodiversity is destroyed. There are many different actions that can be done to stop or reduce deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest. It says in the lesson that a big promoter of deforestation is the poverty of farmers causing them to clear more land in order to plant more crops. One thing that the United States can do to help reduce the deforestation in the Amazon is to help improve the economy in Brazil. If the economy improves, the farmers would not need to expand their lands by destroying the forests. Although the Amazon Rainforest is not located in the United States, I still believe that we should help stop the deforestation because that particular rainforest impacts the entire world.

1.

2. In my diagram, I showed the main points of the Copenhagen Accord and the tactics that the United States uses to gain the support of other opposing countries. At the beginning of the system diagram, it shows that the climate change starts the whole thing. The increase in climate change causes the Copenhagen Accord to come about which is a plan to decrease the greenhouse gasses emitted. In order for the Copenhagen Accord to be put into effect, the United States needed to gain the support of many different countries. The United States did this by unethical means. In order to get the support of the smaller, island countries like the Maldives, the United States bribed them with large payments and the countries accepted these bribes because the climate change affected them the most and they needed help. Another tactic used was to threaten the opposing country. For example, Ethiopia was initially against joining the Accord and having United States aid them, but the US sent them a confidential cable saying to “sign the accord or discussion ends now”. Ethiopia realized the threat and accepted to join the Accord if President Barack Obama personally assured that they will receive their aid money. For the larger, more opposing countries, the United States used confidential cables find information on the opposing countries. After all of this is done, the Copenhagen Accord was supported by 75% of the countries in the United Nations. Having the support of the majority of the countries could lead to the improvement of the climate, which is the endpoint of my system diagram.

3. I believe that the cables should have been made public because the people have the right to know what is being done to try and help the environment. I think that the more people that know about it the more of a collective action it would become. If fixing the change in climate becomes a collective action, the more people would be trying to fix the problem so it would be more affective. Also, I believe that the governments should partly base their decisions about fixing the climate change on the thoughts of the majority of the people. I do not agree with some of the methods that the United States used to gain the support of the opposing countries, but I cannot say that it did not work. Although it was unethical, the United States gained the support of over 116 countries in the United Nations and there are more that are going to join. With the support of all of these countries, the Copenhagen Accord can be put into effect and the climate change would decrease by reducing the greenhouse gas emission. The United States had good intentions when trying to gain support, but the methods were complete unethical propaganda. Other methods could have been implemented like honest negotiations when trying to gain the support of opposing countries. The United States should have tried change the opinion of opposing countries by educating them on the danger we are getting ourselves into and making them genuinely want to help the environment instead of being forced to or being bribed.

1. In my hometown of Kingston, Pennsylvania, there are really no natural hazards that occur. Since it is right along the Susquehanna River, the only natural hazard that I have witnessed in my lifetime was a couple floods. It shows on the Nathan World Map of Natural Hazards that right around my area tends to get a lot of heavy rainfall. It also shows that my area is prone to having hailstorms, but I do not believe I have ever seen hail that could do any serious damage. The Nathan map document is extremely useful when trying to find the hazards over a large area, but it is difficult to examine areas on a small scale like a city or county.
2. After looking at the map of the Hungarian National Association, I decided to learn more about the volcanic eruption in Alaska. The Pavlof Volcano erupted on March 28^th and there were no casualties. My hometown cannot experience this kind of natural disaster because there are no volcanos in the area. Since the eruption is happening in Alaska where the population density is so small, there are no casualties caused by it. If a volcano was to somehow erupt in my area, many people would be harmed and the damage cost would be great. Also, the people in my town would not be prepared for the volcano at all. People who live near a volcano are much more prepared for when the volcano erupts because that is something to be expected from living there.
3. The biggest threat that my hometown has of a natural disaster is a flood. When there is heavy rainfall, or snow melts in New York, the water runs down the Susquehanna River and causes the water levels to rise. When the water level rises too much, the area around the river floods. In 1972, the water level in the river reached about 40 feet and my area had a flood that devastated all the towns in the surrounding towns. If you talk to any older resident of one of these towns they will tell you about how terrifying the flood actually was.
4. One action that could be done in my town is to raise the levees along the river. This would allow the water level to be able to rise more without overflowing and causing a flood. Another action would be to spread awareness to all the citizens of the town. If the people have more knowledge about the flood risk, they will be better prepared. Anybody can help perform these actions and help to make the community safer. One thing I can do is to spread awareness of the risk and try to educate the people so they are more prepared for the hazard.

The town that I live in is Kingston, Pennsylvania and there are roughly thirteen thousand people that currently live in the area. It is about twenty minutes away from the city of Scranton, where the television show “The Office” took place. I believe that Kingston would be considered an automobile suburb because the majority of the people use cars to travel around. Even in the summer you don’t see a lot of people walking unless you are at a park. I do like the town I live in but one thing I do not like is that it is not very social. Because of the lack of people not using cars, you rarely see people outside hanging out unless you go to a park in the summer.

 The first city that I chose from the module is Bogota, Columbia. The city bans care on a 75 mile stretch of their streets every Sunday. This promotes physical activity outdoors and as a whole it improved the atmosphere of the city. I believe that this is something that my hometown needs to start doing because it would force people to be more active and more social. Sometimes I feel that the overall mood of Kingston is not very good and if we do what is done in Bogota, the people will be happier and it would lighten up the mood. Also, by promoting physical activity and restricting the use of vehicles, the obesity rate in Kingston would definitely go down, which is always a plus.

 The second city that I chose is Havana, Cuba. One reason I chose this city is because that is where my dad was born and he moved here when he was in his teenage years. The other reason is because Havana is almost completely self-sustainable. Because of the embargo with the United States and the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba was forced to become as self-sustainable as possible. I believe that the people of Kingston should start to promote urban agriculture and try to rely less on purchasing their food from grocery stores. This would be healthier for everybody and it would save people a lot of money. Also, the food that you do not eat could be sold as another source of income aside from their current jobs.

There are many social norms that are going around affecting everybody’s choice of food. One social norm that has affected my family is vegetarianism. So many people around me and my family have become vegetarians either because they believe it is a healthier lifestyle than eating mean or because they are against animal cruelty. My mom used to eat meat, but one day she decided to try vegetarianism because she was always extremely against the mistreatment of animals. That was almost 4 years ago and she has not eaten meat since. She was affected by the people around her trying to get everybody to become vegetarians and she adds to the social norm by trying to get people to take over the vegetarian lifestyle.

Vegetarianism can be connected to many societal issues some of them include obesity, deforestation, and nutrition. When people eat too much meat, they tend to be less healthy and most of them become obese. So vegetarians tend to be healthier in the long run. If people eat less meat, there would also be less deforestation because a huge amount of land is currently being used for livestock to graze. If there were less people eating the meat from livestock, there would be no need to expand the land to raise the livestock. It also says in the lesson that since livestock are not as efficient as plants when it comes to the energy transfer, there would need to be more plants eaten by the livestock in order for us to gain enough of the needed energy

1.       After looking at a few case studies, I chose to write about the one regarding solid waste management in Ireland. The source of this case study is an article from Colby-Sustainable Development. The problem stated is that solid waste in Ireland has increased tremendously in the past few years and the biggest element is the plastic bags. It says in the case study that supermarkets and stores supplied the people with 1.26 billion plastic bags and only 0.5% of them were recycled. In 2002, the government of Ireland the Plastic Bag Environmental Levy which removed almost all plastic bags and replaced them with cloth or paper bags. This levy reduced the plastic bag consumption about 95%. The case I chose ties in with the lesson because the reduction of plastic bags helped to improve the well-being of the people by developing a better system of bagging.

http://personal.colby.edu/personal/t/thtieten/litter.htm

2.       The second case study I have chosen is one about a reforestation program in India. The source I got the article from is Lafarge Worldwide. Deforestation in India has become a huge problem over the years and Lafarge has taken a role in planting trees in areas of India. It says in the case study that Lafarge has planted 70,000 saplings to help the reforestation efforts and that the saplings planted typically have an 80% survival rate. This means that eventually, there will be about 56,000 more trees throughout India. This act allows future generations to have wood for building and the animals would have a larger environment to live in. this ties into the lesson because the whole point of development is to improve the state of society for the future.

http://www.lafarge.com/en/india-a-reforestation-program-support-local-biodiversity-plans

3.       Both of the case studies I have chosen can relate to my home town of Kingston, Pennsylvania. Every store you go to gives you a plastic bag when you leave. Since Kingston is a pretty big town, there are many plastic bags that are not recycled properly and go to the land fill. My town would benefit greatly from the use of cloth or paper bags, just like Ireland. The second case study relates to my hometown because there is a place that my friends and I take our vehicles off-roading and it has recently been affected by deforestation. Where there was once many trees surrounding the trail, there is now just open land. This may not seem like a big deal, but if the trees continue to be cut at this rate there will be almost no wooded areas around me. Therefore reforestation developments need to be put into action.

1a

In my hometown of Kingston, Pennsylvania, the water supply comes from the Pennsylvania American Water Company. The company supplies the water using underground pipelines going to all the houses throughout a vast area in Pennsylvania. They supply water to about 36 counties within Pennsylvania delivering about 193 million gallons of water per day. Some of the households in the area get their water from the Huntsville Reservoir, but this is more for the people located outside of the city in the suburbs. After the water leaves the households through the sewage system, it goes to the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority whether you get the water from the PA American Water Company or the Huntsville Reservoir. This is a facility located in Wilkes-Barre where the water is treated after being used and is sent back to the original companies to be reused.

1b

Average Daily Water Usage

1c

After looking over my average daily water usage, I realized that it would be extremely difficult to live with only two gallons of water per day the way I am living. A change in my daily schedule is definitely needed. I would need to cut my shower out completely because the average shower uses about five gallons of water per minute. The biggest priority I would have would be to use it as drinking water. Once I have a sufficient amount of water to drink so that I am healthy, I would use the rest of the water I have for hygienic purposes like one round of washing my hands. Anything else that I could do would be exceeding the two gallon mark. Personally, I would fail the two gallon test because there is no way that I could go to the bathroom without flushing the toilet or washing my hands. I could not go without a shower every day and I am extremely thankful that in Pennsylvania, there is no “two gallon limit” on the water. If I was to live in Haiti for example, I would definitely be struggling.

1: Is it more important to be a good person or to perform good acts?

I personally believe that it is more important to perform good acts than to just be a good person. If you are a good person or say you are, then that doesn’t help at all. Good people are supposed to protect the environment or help people who are not as fortunate as most people. I believe that most people would have more respect for someone who helps a person in need rather than someone who believes that they should help a person. It is better to donate to charity or volunteer at a soup kitchen than to believe that it would be a good idea to do it.  I am not saying that it is not important to be a good person and have good virtues because it really is. It says in the lesson that most of the time by having good virtues directs a person to doing good deeds. Although overall I do believe that doing good deeds is more important than being a good person.

2: Do the pleasure and pain of non-human animals matter as much as the pleasure and pain of humans?

I do believe that the pleasure and pain of non-human animals matter just as much as humans. Just because the animals do not think like humans do, it doesn’t make them less important. I know for a fact that animals still feel love, pain, hunger, sadness, and because I can tell just by my dog. I can tell that my dog feels hunger because he moves his food bowl when he wants food. I can tell he feels compassion because when I am sick he does not leave my side until I feel better. Because of all this I treat my dog like he is a part of my family. I believe that animals have the same feelings as humans and it is unethical to think or act otherwise. Humans should not kill animals for sport because the animals are just like humans. They just do not think the same.

3: Is your own life worth more than the lives of others, the same, or less?

To me this is the most difficult question on the list. It is hard to decide which to choose because most people believe that they should put themselves first and that you are the most important person in your life. I do believe that I should do whatever makes me happy in life but overall, I do not believe that my life is more important or is worth more than the life of any other person. A person should not be considered to be worth more just because they have more money or is healthier. Every single person is born and eventually dies no matter who you are, what you do, or how much money you have. I believe that a person’s life should have equal value whether you are the President or just a homeless guy on the street. It is obvious that people value their family members more than other people but overall, I believe that all lives have the same worth.

The diagram explains the benefits of the Biogas Generator, both for the ecosystem and the social system. It shows the Human-Environment System in a visual form. The society explained in the video used firewood as their main source of fuel for cooking. Burning firewood increased pollution and also increased deforestation. The diagram above shows how the Biogas Generator removed burning firewood by using cow dung to produce methane gas which fueled the generator. Burning methane gas creates much less pollution than burning firewood does. The decrease in the use firewood slows down the deforestation in the area which impacts the ecosystem drastically. The generator also produces compost. People then sold the produced compost which increased their incomes and also created more jobs for compost sellers.

My diagram and the diagram given by Gerald Martin have many similarities and differences. For one thing, both of our diagrams show how the Biogas Generator affects the Human-Environment System in the Indian society. A difference between our diagrams is that he included how the generator affects farm fields. My diagram leaned more toward pollution and how the generator reduced it while his diagram leaned more toward the population aspect of the system. There are similarities because there are many ways to look at the situation and not one of them is more correct than the other. Whether you look at my diagram or Martin’s, you will still get information on how the Biogas Generator affects the Human-Environment System.

Hello everyone my name is Eric Acosta and I am currently a freshman at University Park. I grew up in Kingston, Pennsylvania which is about 20 minutes from Scranton. My intended major at the moment is aerospace engineering and I am also thinking getting a minor in astronomy and astrophysics. I am leaning toward this major and minor because I have always loved studying astronomy and I would love to be an engineer for NASA one day. In high school I had an Environmental Science class and my teacher really opened my eyes to how humans are impacting the earth. I took this course because I wanted to learn even more about effects of humans. Not only did I want to learn more I believe it is extremely important to know as much as you can about the subject because the knowledge is definitely going to be necessary in the future.

One topic that interests me is the change in the earth’s climate. Its been noticeably warmer than it has been in the past and it is definitely because of human impacts. I read an article once that said that the earth’s climate naturally fluctuates between periods of warm and cold over many years, but this warm period is too extreme to be from natural causes.  I remember when I was younger it used to snow at least every week during the winter months and this year it wasn’t until January did we see our first snowfall. It may not seem like its that bad but at this rate, who know what the future is going to be like. people need to start burning fuels more responsibly, polluting less, and caring more about the environment. It might not affect us at the moment, but if we continue with our ways, our children or grandchildren will definitely feel the affects.