In 250-350 words I want you to discuss any “biodiversity hotspot,” where it is in the country, it can even be your hometown.  Then I want you to remark on how it impacts that local town and that particular areas habitat.  Then finally I want you to discuss how this biodiversity hotspot can benefit both humans and the wildlife in that area.

In Wellsboro there is a National Monument called the Pine Creek Gorge, which is 47 miles long and sits in around 160,000 acres inside the Tioga state forest. What I wanted to accomplish in my own learning activity would be talking about the benefits this natural monument brings to both humans and various animals.  Now for starters I want to talk about the economic benefits of the Pine Creek Gorge to Wellsboro.  Every year thousands of tourists visit Wellsboro to see the Pine Creek Gorge either to walk the trail from top to bottom, or canoe or kayak through the gorge along pine creek, or to see the leaves change colors during October. This tourism brings a lot of people which in turn brings a lot of potential business for the townspeople of Wellsboro.

Secondly I want to talk about the biological benefits of the Pine Creek Gorge.  The Gorge provides an excellent habitat for all kinds of migratory birds which include wild turkeys, woodpeckers, mourning and black-and-white warblers.  I have also seen several different families of Bald Eagles.  With a large stream full of trout, and bass its great conditions for a large bird such as the Bald Eagle.  Also with 160,000 acres there is a great habitat for all kinds of wildlife, I personally have hunted for both bear and white tail deer in the state park.

Lastly there are hundreds of trails throughout this state park for both biking, running/jogging, and even horseback riding.  I personally have run 25k trail races hosted in the state park that takes you on vigorous trials with beautiful views along the way. This is a classic example of ecosystem protection coupled with human recreation.  With several combined efforts of the USGS, DCNR, and State Park Rangers.   I hope with limited human tampering this state park can continue to serve both humans and wildlife for many more years of come.

2.) This diagram shows the interconnections of Climate change, the USA, and the Copenhagen Accord.  Climate change is a very real and relevant threat to society as a whole.  So the United States drafted the Copenhagen Accord, which was a revision of the Kyoto Protocol, and that would positively impact the United States greatly.  The United States needed other countries to be on board so they used multiple tactics to achieve this.  First to the countries that openly opposed the Accord the USA used cables to spy on said countries to gain “dirt” to use later in negotiations.  Secondly they promised certain countries money if they would agree with the Accord.  Lastly the USA threatened countries to end negotiations with them immediately if they did not agree to the accord.  The Copenhagen Accord didn’t pass because, the USA couldn’t answer how they were going to pay these countries for their compliance. This lead to these said countries to openly question the USA’s ethics, and stopped trusting the USA.

3.) I didn’t agree with how the USA conducted its negotiations at all while trying to pass the Copenhagen Accord.  We shouldn’t be making threats and spying on other countries just to pass a law about climate change.  Our country shouldn’t be trying to pass laws where they benefit greatly, while the other supporting countries do not.  This is never a good approach to foreign relations.  I think when passing a law that can impact the entire world, you need to have open discussions. The law needs to be amended and other countries need to have an active role in the laws creation.  This may take years to pass, but it will have mutual respect with all supporting countries.  Also if you are offering money incentives for other countries to come on board, at least back up the offer, don’t negotiate with empty offers, no country will ever trust you if that’s how you conduct your business.  This is a collective action problem, so it’s going to take a lot of mutual negotiations for an agreement to be reached.

1. When looking at the NATHAN world map of Natural Hazards I noticed that Pennsylvania doesn’t experience many situations of Natural Hazards. We can get an increase in heavy rains associated with a hurricane that follows the Atlantic Coast.

When looking more closely at the NATHAN map it is very hard to increase the image.  It does a great job at showing the global perspective, but if you want to zoom in closer there is no action that allows for that.  Which makes it hard to get a closer look at specific locations.

2. When I was looking at the RSOE and EDIS I noticed that New Zealand has three events happening simultaneously today. Upon further inspection I found that there are three earthquakes that have taken place today all under 3.3 magnitude, with the highest magnitude being 3.2, which is taking place 27.34 miles from Kaikoura.  The positive coming from this is the fact that it’s shallow depth and the people won’t even feel any ground movement.  Now I couldn’t find the “Description” tab located at the top of the page.  I don’t know if there has ever been an earthquake near Wellsboro, PA but there have been 4 earthquakes in the past year with one being a 2.7 magnitude in Downingtown.  So it is possible for an earthquake to happen in Wellsboro.  If such an event were to happen I don’t think the people would be well prepared for it, but with the National Guard base outside town we would have help quickly from them.

If there were an earthquake like the one happening in New Zealand of a 3.3, and the description page on RSOE says the people cannot feel any ground movement, then I am not worried about the impact it will have on our small town of Wellsboro.  I’m guessing the people won’t feel any ground movement in Wellsboro if the same earthquake were to happen there.   However the earthquake in New Zealand is happening far from any town or city, so worst case scenario in Wellsboro would be power outage that could last several days with downed trees on powerlines.

If this event were to happen in or near a trailer park, where all the houses are closely aligned together and are built with less than ideal materials, the damage would be more severe.  That whole neighborhood could be wiped out, all the houses could be split in half or sunk into the loose dirt or gravel.  Several lives could be lost during the earthquake.  However if this were to happen downtown Wellsboro where the houses are very sturdy and very large, the damage would be significantly less.  I would guess that some driveways would be cracked, and some houses might have broken windows or shifted foundations.

3. Wellsboro is a very mountainous area, with rolling hills and deep valleys. The chance for Wellsboro to have an earthquake over 3.5 magnitude is 0.01, and there are no volcanoes anywhere near Wellsboro.  However Wellsboro does have a rather high chance of getting tornadoes, with an index of 52.21, but it’s still well below the state index of 109.77.   Since 1950 to 2010 there have been 1,131 extreme thunderstorm wind events, 266 flood events, and 376 hail events.  Wellsboro is most exposed to any severe winter weather events, and flooding.  Flooding I would say would be the most extreme because we all live in valleys and all towns are on flood plains.  The last major Tornado was in 1983 with a magnitude of 2 which lasted for 9.8 miles and was 30 yards wide.  This event didn’t have any fatalities or injuries, however there was 2.5 million in property damage.

Wellsboro, PA Natural Disasters and Weather Extremes. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2016, from http://www.usa.com/wellsboro-pa-natural-disasters-extremes.htm

4. To reduce the vulnerability of these said natural disasters I think having town meetings where they inform the public about the potential flooding and tornado events, and precautions they can take to better themselves should the need arise. This will increase the awareness of the community and keep them on guard against these disasters.  The groups that could perform the cleanup after said natural disasters would be the DCNR and the National Guard both of which have a strong hold on the community.  The best thing I can do is to be prepared with water and other nonperishables during a flood or tornado event.  Then after the event I could try my best to clear the roads of downed trees in my small community.

My hometown of Wellsboro, Pennsylvania is the biggest town in rural Tioga County.  In the boro itself there are sidewalks that stretch from the center of town to the outskirts of housing developments.  In the town limits these neighborhoods are very pedestrian orientated.  You can very easily walk to and from anywhere downtown following the sidewalks.  However as you get further from town the sidewalks can become just on one side of the road, and eventually stop all together.  There is another neighborhood just two miles from town that is very automobile suburb orientated because there are no sidewalks, and you cannot walk to or from town easily, cars are highly encouraged.  The entire town is car friendly without any narrow streets or many one-way streets, most citizens drive rather than walk. However the town has very pedestrian friendly capabilities.  In the town of Wellsboro, there are 3,351 citizens with a median resident age of 43.9 years. 

The city from the model that is closest in resemblance of Wellsboro would be Rochester NY.  With its automobile suburb neighborhoods it is very similar to Wellsboro in that regard.  The neighborhoods on the outskirts of town do not have sidewalks leading to them, or in them themselves.  It really limits your options in terms of transportation.  Also there are no busses that run in Wellsboro, no public transportation system besides the trolley, which is mainly for tourists. 

The second city would be Boston, with neighborhoods immediately adjacent to downtown Boston citizens are encouraged to walk.  Downtown they can find places to work, shop, and seek entertainment, which is extremely similar to Wellsboro, just on a much larger scale.  Downtown Wellsboro we have many local shops and places to eat, we also have a local fountain portraying Wynken, Blyken, and Nod.  This place is in the center of town, and people come to sit and read or enjoy lunch, or music during the day.  However the transit system in Boston with the streetcar suburbs is a great idea, but I don’t think it could work in Wellsboro. For one we have a large median that runs the entire length of Main Street Wellsboro.  We would have to tear that out, which has gas burning lamps, also a tourist attraction, and widen the roads to accommodate the extra traffic. 

Indonesia and self-sufficient rice production

1.)    The focal question of this case study is, “how has Indonesia’s desire for self-sufficiency in rice compromised its ability to address the issues of sustainable agricultural development?”  During the time span from 1970-1984 Indonesia had increases its irrigated land from 3.7-4.9 million hectares.  With all this new land the government needed people to work it, so they forced out families living in the cities to live in the country.   With huge subsidies for herbicides, pesticides, and rice crop the farmers in turn over sprayed and over irrigated the rice land.  Which in turn had devastating environmental effects due to runoff and water pollution along with economic effects due to inefficient use of pesticides.  Also, the use of extensive sprays created a pesticide resistant bug that damaged 50-60,000 hectares of cultivated rice.  So in short Indonesia’s government led approach to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production backfired horribly, leaving behind extensive environmental and economic damage.  This relates back to previous models because it shows exactly how to not achieve sustainable agriculture.  The green revolution was the first indicator of this, massive amounts of fertilizer coupled with irrigation and sprays may produce a lot of food in a short time, but in the long run it’s not morally correct, it’s not efficient, nor is it environmentally safe. http://personal.colby.edu/personal/t/thtieten/ag-ind.html

2.)    The second case study I chose to research was about the application of waste water for agricultural use.  This takes place in Haroonabad, Pakistan.  So what happens in this case study is the effects of waste water irrigated fields in terms of public health, water, and soil quality.  Then they compared that to regular water taken from a canal.  The main reason these farmers were using the wastewater to irrigate their crops was because it is readily available, and these farmers planted much more high value crops, such as vegetables.  On the other hand farmers who used the canals or ground water for irrigation found it increasingly difficult to use water during the dry summer season due to increase in cost of extraction.  The wastewater had levels of E. coli and worm eggs that exceeded the international standards for irrigation and could pose a threat to human health.  When asked about their health it was reported that the families exposed to the wastewater reported more cases of diarrhea, and the men had 80% higher reports of round worms.   However the farmers who use the wastewater are saving money on fertilizers and hired labor, they also make more money from their crop because of the availability of wastewater.  They have access to this water all year long, and oftentimes over water their fields, a luxury the canal water farmers cannot afford. Even with the human health risks clearly present the farmers are using more and more wastewater to irrigate their field, which means they need a health program to limit the transmittance of worms.  This shows that communities in underdeveloped countries do not have the resources needed to grow food in a secure manner, they are relying on wastewater simply because it’s more available.  The next problem is that technological advancements won’t reach these areas any time soon, simply because their governments aren’t stable enough to allow this to happen.  If countries could reach these small communities and bring technological advancements then we can get more people out of poverty, and take a step in the right direction toward development. 

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=qWXUBAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=international+case+study+on+agriculture&ots=6Plb1rp8wO&sig=O0BRdqd6Zdch3-QJ5Mq5BnVhLeI#v=onepage&q=international%20case%20study%20on%20agriculture&f=false

3.)    Connecting these two cases to where I live seems like a difficult task.  At home, in Wellsboro P.A. there isn’t a need for wastewater because we have springs and lakes, and rivers at easy access for water should we need to irrigate.  Secondly we receive a ridiculous amount of rainfall every summer, so much so that we actually lost 15 acres of snap beans due to rot.  However I do see some similarities, when times of no rainfall we have filled up tanks of water to irrigate corn, soybeans, and wheat.  Though the thought of having to use wastewater is a scary thought, not only because it’s unsanitary it can also cause serious health effects to our consumers.  It really makes me appreciate how easy we have it here in terms of water quality, and water safety.  However the thought of water spiked already with natural fertilizers isn’t a bad thought, however you need a site that can safely handle the wastewater and clean it of all bacteria, and pathogens.  That would save my family alone thousands on fertilizer every growing season.  In a sense this can already be happening, because pig farmers spread liquid nitrogen on their fields, while we also spread manure onto our fields during the growing season. 

1-A:  The water we use for all the houses in my immediate neighborhood come from the same freshwater spring.  The spring is located down the road and hill at my brother’s house, where it is pumped from a small collection shed directly to his basement.  From there it is channeled into his house, and then into the barn that is located 50 feet from his house, this is to water the animals located in that particular barn.  From there the water is pumped up the hill to the main barn, which is 50 feet from the main house, which is where I live.  If the water is not turned on in the barn then it is pumped into our house, and after that it reaches its final stop 50 yards behind the main house in a small, one story, motel where my sister lives.  All waste water is pumped into a collection tank in a yard next to the main barn.  So with all that being said water pressure is best at my brothers and worst at my sisters respectively.  If water is turned on in either barn the water pressure to the house is very limited, so you can easily tell when the water is running.  The water pressure situation is a very touchy subject on the farm, nobody seems to like it when there isn’t sufficient pressure to take a shower, or fill up a pot of water quickly. 

1-B:  When I ran the first fresh water calculator it calculated that I use somewhere around 87.25 gallons of water a day.  This is very interesting and partly concerning seeing an actual figure calculated.  My answers for the calculator are as follows.  I roughly wash my hands 5 times a day, but for less than a second at a time, it’s more of just rinsing them off.  The calculator gave me 1 gallon, which I think could be a little lower.  I answered that I wash dishes by hand about once per day which consumes 8-27 gallons of water depending on how quick and what kind of faucet I have.  I brush my teeth twice a day, and I always turn the faucet off while brushing, so I use less than a gallon of water.  I flush the toilet on average 5 times a day and that was calculated to use 3 gallons per flush, so that’s 15 gallons alone.  I take one, ten minute shower per day which uses 5 gallons per minute with an older shower head, which would add up to 50 gallons of water.  Finally I drink about 4 glasses of water a day, which at 8 oz. of water is less than a gallon per day.  All in all I see multiple ways in which to cut down on water usage, for one I can take shorter showers, I could be more efficient in washing dishes.  Those two are the core usage of water I use per day and cutting those two down can greatly reduce my water usage. 

1-C:   To look at this scenario realistically I don’t think I can possible do it.  I wouldn’t be able to take a shower, or flush the toilet, or wash the dishes that day.  To me I think I have three options, I could take one shower a day with two separate gallon buckets.  Or I could flush the toilet once per day, or I could wash the dishes once per day.  To sustain life the body needs 32 oz. of water a day, which is less than a gallon per day.  This morning I filled up an 8oz glass of water and used that to brush my teeth, then emptied it out and filled it again to rinse my hair before class.  That’s 16oz of water this morning.  I filled up my water bottle after my first class which holds 16 oz. of water.  I didn’t wash any dishes today, and being male it allows myself to be able to pee outside, which I did at home in the bushes which really helped me pass this test.  This test wasn’t fun but it really opened my eyes to the limitations and hardships people go through when we take those same things for granted here in a more stable country.   

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

              To me I think it’s important to have both. You can be a good person, where you don’t cause harm to other individuals in terms of physical or emotional stress. You can also be a good person by having ideas where you could benefit another person’s well-being or emotional state.  Then again you can perform good acts by taking the next step; for example taking the extra time to recycle or helping out a less fortunate individual by supplying them with food or warm clothing.  To me personally I believe it’s most important to be a good person all the while performing good acts.  It’s one thing to agree with ideas like community service and then another thing to perform community service.  To me community service is just one outlet where a good person can go to perform good acts.

5.) Do the pleasure and pain of non-human animals matter as much as the pleasure and pain of humans?

              To be able to answer this question, I first must explain my background.  My whole developing life I have lived on a 560 acre Beef farm in Wellsboro, PA.  I’ve grown up around animals, taking care of them daily knowing they are only headed for the butcher shop.  I understand that farming is a business and we have a business like relationship with our beef cattle.  Their safety and well-being is paramount, because a farm doesn’t make it into its fourth generation without taking care of its animals.  Now there is a mentality I think old time farmers have. (This particular example is related to horses.)  If a horse breaks an ankle, or becomes lame somehow, the farmer no longer can use this animal, nor do they have the finances to have an expert fix the ankle, coupled with rehabilitation it could be months before this animal is ready to walk let alone work again.  The old way has always been tough love, meaning it’s time to find a replacement in that situation.  But now that I am older and have a young horse of my own, who I have bonded with significantly I cannot say I can do the same thing my father has done.  I understand this horses fear, and pain.  I know it has a long life ahead of it regardless if the animal was hurt or not, it deserves that much.  So I do agree with the question non-human animal’s pain and pleasure do matter as much.  But farming is a business so if these animals are putting you in a situation where you can no longer afford the cost the old way takes over. 

6.) Is my own life worth more than the lives of others, the same, or less?

              I have thought of this question many times before this class.  I have run scenarios in my head about this question.  In certain situations my life or the lives of my loved ones for sure are more important than the lives of others.  If someone is threating the lives of my family, this strangers’ life becomes forfeit because they made the choice to attack my family.  Now it’s hard to say what I would do alone and witnessing someone else having a life threating moment.  I want to say I would do the right thing and help this person because their life is significant, but when you actually find yourself in that situation you could have a change of heart. The fight or flight response takes over from there.   Most people would say they would help the stranger if they felt their own safety would stay rather intact, basically wasn’t life threating to them.  But being able to put your own life for the life of another is extremely rare and takes a very courageous and selfless person.  I have the utmost respect for our service men and women around this globe. 

My diagram shows both the negative effects on the human health and the environment, but also the positive affects it can have on biodiversity and the local economy.  Firstly the social section of my diagram highlights key points that children and spending more time collecting firewood, which in turn limits their ability to succeed in school.  Also the wood burning smoke from the wood stove inside the house has a negative effect on the children’s health causing chest pain and eye irritation.  Also the women are spending so much of their time collecting firewood and it is having a negative impact on the environment.   The environment side of the diagram highlights the use of cow manure and water, which is distilled in a large tank for a day, creates methane gas.  This gas then can be attached to a stove and burned.  The leftover material from the tank is called slurry which can be combined with fibrous materials to make a high organic matter compost.  This compost can be sold to farmers which in turn can increase crop yield, which allows the farmers to sell these crops at a higher price increasing their income.  The revenue made from selling the compost is used for furthering the children’s education. 

              The diagram by Marten is very detailed and depicts how two systems are both related and interconnected.  My diagram depicts how two systems, the social and ecological, are both related and interconnected.  My diagram has a specific product which is biofuel and how this affects both systems.  In Martens diagram depicts how the systems interact with its equal.