1. In Module 10, we’ve read about how there are many threats to biodiversity today. The biggest threats can be remembered by using the acronym H.I.P.P.O. Draw a system diagram showing how one of the effects can be a danger to biodiversity. Make sure to include at least 5 components.
2. In 215-350 words, define what H.I.P.P.O stands for. After defining H.I.P.P.0., use the biodiversity threats that have been defined and compare them to your hometown. Make sure to use your hometown and not State College.
3. In 215-350 words, draw on concepts from this module to determine what you can do to decrease the loss of biodiversity in your hometown.

System Diagram:

The acronym H.I.P.P.O. stands for Habitat Loss, Invasive Species, Pollution, Human Population, and Overharvesting. Habitat loss occurs when a particular area is converted from usable to unusable. An example of habitat loss is deforestation and mining. Pottsville, PA can relate to several of these topics within H.I.P.P.O.  Pottsville is known for its coal mining. Pottsville also has strip mining. Strip mining is where they dig massive holes in the ground to extract coal which destroys vegetation and changes natural flow of water from the ground. Strip mining also pollutes drinking water from sulfur. Another example of habitat loss in my hometown is deforestation. My hometown is surrounded by woodlands. Near my house, landowners hired contractors to cut down several miles of trees to sell the trees for lumber. This leads to deforestation and now there is no vegetation on the land. This results in soil erosion which contaminates our streams and creeks with muddy water. This in turn, kills of wild life that depends on the stream clean oxygenated water. Pollution is the discharge of toxic synthetic chemicals and heavy metals into the environment which has a huge impact on species abundance and can lead to extinctions.  Pottsville has also contributed to pollution.  Back in the days, abandoned mine shafts from deep mining have turned into hazardous waste illegal dump sites. These illegal dumping sites were polluting the water.

In my hometown, there are several ways we can decrease the loss of biodiversity. We are creating more problems that lead to climate change such as deforestation, loss of environment, and pollution. The first thing we can do to decrease loss of biodiversity is use natural resources or renewable energy. By doing this, we won’t be strip mining and creating large holes where we kill off trees. This will then lead to less water pollution because we’re not destroying the natural flow of underground springs and rivers. Also, we won’t be mixing sulfur into the underground springs. Instead of using coal or fuel oil (which pollutes the air), people can use natural gas or windmills. Another way to stop polluting in my hometown is to cut back on using pesticides and fertilizers in lawn care. For example, if birds pick worms out of the ground, the worm is already contaminated with pesticides which will then kill the bird or won’t allow it to reproduce.  There are a few ways to cut back on deforestation. Now there are laws that prohibit clear cutting of land and we use selective cutting to cut down certain trees with certain sizes for lumber. This leads to less erosion and contaminates being dispersed into our rivers. Another way to decrease loss of biodiversity is to recycle more often. The more we recycle the less of wastes that go into the landfill. My family doesn’t recycle as much as we should.

In my diagram, I mainly focused on the interactions between the US and other countries involving the Copenhagen Accord. I first started off my diagram with the issue of climate change. The burning of fossil fuels and the releasing of greenhouse gas emissions contributed to climate change. There was not a plan to find ways to stop climate change, so the US created the Copenhagen Accord. Therefore, seeking negotiation chips, the US state department sent a secret cable in 2009 seeking help from UN diplomats across a range of issues, including climate change. In order to pass the Accord, the US needed to gain support from other countries. The US thought by spying, hacking, and sending death threats to other countries that they’ll gain their support. Their plans did not work. The communications of these bribes and threats were released to the public when the cables were released. The countries that were against the Accord, were upset with the ways the US were trying to negotiate. After the cables were released, other countries demanded the US to pay high amounts of money to gain their support. Therefore, the US paid the demanded money. This led to 116 countries associating themselves with the accord and also 26 others having intentions to. I personally think this wasn’t the best solution for decreasing climate change. I did not agree with how the US used threats and bribes to handle things. However, the Accord did make an impact and led to decrease in climate change.

There was a lot of information to take in after reading this article. Prior to reading this article, I have never heard of the WikiLeaks Cables and the problems that have occurred. Climate change is a very important topic and needs to be addressed in the right way in order to solve it. Human activities have contributed to climate change by adding CO2 and other heat trapping gases to the atmosphere. Climate change is already starting to transform life on Earth. As I stated before, I do not agree with some the methods the US used to get support from other countries. Threatening other countries is absolutely not the right way to go about things.  I’m sure the US could have thought of different approaches to gain support and help other countries. For example, the US could have tried to convince other countries in favoring for the Accord or set up conferences with other countries and try to come to a conclusion together. The US did however raise awareness of how important climate change is and how it’s affecting Earth. In my opinion, I think the State Department Cables should have been publicized and notified to the public. As a person, you have the right to know what’s going on where you live. From module 4, the collection action problem was discussed. I believe this article falls under this problem. Collective action problems are widespread throughout environmental issues such as climate change. Climate change is a challenging collective action problem due to its massive scale.

1. My hometown is Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Pottsville is located in Northeastern Pennsylvania. I found the Nathan World Map of Natural Hazards very interesting to survey. Using the Nathan World Map, the map showed that Pottsville is in zone 0 for Earthquakes, zone 2 for hailstorms, zone 2 for winter storms, zone 3 for tornados, and zone 1 for wildfires. Also, my area is very susceptible for increase in heavy rain shown in the first map. I would have to disagree with the tornado rankings because my hometown does not experience tornados. It’s rare we experience a tornado, maybe once every four to five years. I do agree with the level of rankings for hailstorms and winter storms which we do experience. Overall, it was hard to exactly tell what the weather is like for a specific town. I tried to zoom in on the map, but after zooming in the map became blurry and hard to read. 
2. From the Hungarian National Association of RSOE and EDIS map, the disaster I chose is a biological hazard in Angola, Africa which started on February 16^th 2016, at 3:12 AM. The biohazard level is a high of 3-4. There is a yellow fever outbreak and unfortunately 168 people are dead and 1,132 people are infected. It is the first epidemic of the disease to hit the country in 30 years. There is no specific treatment for the viral hemorrhagic disease which is transmitted by infected mosquitos. Vaccination is the most important preventive measure against yellow fever. There is a very rare chance for my hometown to experience yellow fever. My hometown is not exposed to mosquitos all year round unlike Africa. We’ll experience mosquitos in the summer especially if it’s hot. My town is less vulnerable because we’re much smaller than Angola.  As I stated before there at already 1,132 people infected and my hometowns population is approximately 4,500. Angola’s population is much larger with approximately 21.47 million people. Therefore, most of the population in my hometown would be infected. One way to lower vulnerability for this type of biological hazard would be to take precautions for disease outbreak such as vaccinations and be educated on the severity of yellow fever.
3. When I searched for natural hazards in Pottsville PA, not many sources came up. My hometown earthquake index is 0.09 (“Pottsville”). This earthquake index is ranked #846 in Pennsylvania. According to USA.com, the chance of earthquake or tornado damage in Pottsville is about the same as Pennsylvania average and is much lower than the national average (“Pottsville”). Pottsville is at a zero risk for volcanoes. A risk for a tornado is 115.81 (“Pottsville”).  According to the source, in 1992, Schuylkill County (where Pottsville is) was affected by a tornado that had a distance of 17.8 miles and a property damage of 2.5M (“Pottsville”). Two people were injured from that tornado in 1992. I was not born to witness this tornado, but my parents do remember it.
4. There are several actions that can be taken to reduce vulnerability in my town. We need to be aware of potential issues that can happen and be properly prepared. Also, being educated can help avoid natural hazards from happening. Pottsville can experience severe rain and winter storms. To reduce the effects of these disasters we can keep people off of the roads besides emergency vehicles. If a natural hazard type of event is going to occur, stock up on items that you and your family needs to keep you nourished and safe. What I can do is watch the local news and be well prepared for natural disasters approaching. Being prepared is the most important.

Source for #3:

“Pottsville, PA Natural Disasters and Weather Extremes.” – USA.com™. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2016. <http://www.usa.com/pottsville-pa-natural-disasters-extremes.htm>.

My hometown is Minersville, Pennsylvania. My address states Pottsville but I live within the Minersville Area School District. I have a strong connection to Minersville because I have lived here my entire life. I have not lived in the same house my entire life. My dad likes to build, so my family and I have moved quite a bit! Most of my family members, such as aunts and uncles, live within 25 minutes of me. The population of Minersville is approximately around 4,500 people. Minersville is a very small town and I would consider it to be an Automobile Suburb. In town, there are a few sidewalks with small shops, but a car is needed to get from one place to another outside of town. If you live in the main part of town it’s easy to walk to the public pool, the schools, and more. Minersville and surrounding towns provide public transportation systems such as buses. The neighborhood I live in does not have sidewalks. There are a couple stores such as a pharmacy, grocery store, hair salon and restaurants about three minutes if I were to drive from my house (not a safe walk). This area of stores is called King Village. People who live in town and do not have a car can walk to this area.

The first city from the module that I want to discuss about is Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts.  Beacon Hill is north of Boston Common and adjacent to downtown Boston. Just like Beacon Hill, Minersville is an urban area designed to make walking distances reasonable. Beacon Hill is similar to downtown Pottsville (which in 5 minutes away from my house) because it includes several places to work, to shop, and seek entertainment, among other things. Walking in Pottsville is a more attractive option if you’re going to places within the town. Unfortunately, not a lot of people use bicycles or walk. Most people rely on cars or busses to get from one place to another. Beacon Hill makes the environment more sustainable because reduces the amount of health issues and decreases pollution from automobiles. My town can lean ideas and methods from Beacon Hill to reduce these issues in order to stay more sustainable.

The second city from the module that I want to discuss about is Rochester, NY. The picture shown in the module looks similar to the terrace I live in. Rochester is an automobile suburb with a variety of neighborhoods just like Boston and also my hometown.  Rochester, there are no sidewalks because they are built with the assumption that people will not walk along the streets. This is similar to the neighborhood I live in. To get to destinations such as a grocery store, offices, restaurants, and banks a car is needed. If Minersville was to redevelop and put in more sidewalks and make stores and offices in a much closer distance, we could be a lot more efficient.  Much like Rochester, very rarely does anyone walk to get anywhere unless they are down the street. This would lead to fewer cars on the road which would help reduce pollution and also people walking to bus stops encourages exercise.

A social norm that significantly influenced my food choice is when I started college. In my house, my family tends to eat more on the healthy side. Ever since my grandmother had a heart attack her doctor told her she can’t eat certain foods that she would eat on a daily basis and absolutely no salt. My family decided that we should help my grandmother follow her diet and eat the same meals as her. It’s definitely a change, but it’s a better choice for our health and especially my grandmothers since she has diabetes. I tend not to follow this diet while I’m at school. I sometimes go out for lunch with my friends or I’ll grab something quick at Sheetz or McDonald’s right across the highway on my break between classes. My college cafe does not offer much choices of healthy food. The only thing I would consider healthy in the cafe is the small salad bar. These bad food choices I make at college doesn’t help the healthy food choices my family makes at home. The social norm here would be that there’s not enough time to go somewhere and have a healthy meal. Grabbing food at fast food places is more convenient for people who are in a hurry.

The societal issue that I could connect to my paragraph above is obesity and lack of nutrition. There are many factors that play into the causes of obesity. For example, a person who is considered obese may be that way because of genetics. Another example could be that a person may not exercise and not watch their food choices.  As stated in module 6, we obtain more nutrition from food while minimizing the use of natural resources and environmental impacts. Sustainable food consumption is a choice that should be followed which is good for our health and the environment. I think that we should change the social norm of unhealthy eating habits to making time to supply your body with healthy food choices and nutrition.

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The first case study I have chosen is from Colby College, and it takes place in Japan dealing with bicycles as transportation policy. This is the link to the case study: http://personal.colby.edu/personal/t/thtieten/trans-jap.html .This case study focuses on how Japan has adopted the bicycle as an essential component of transportation. In order for bicycles to be accepted as a mode of transportation, the atmosphere for cycling must be appropriate. Gasoline in Japan costs 3.1 times the rate in the United States. A sixty-mile trip in Japan can cost close to $60. The government of Japan were highly in favorable of bicycle transportation. Due to favoring bicycle transportation, the government raised automobile registration to $1,000 a year and parking fines up to $1,500. By doing this, the government achieved their goals by restricting pollution-emitting vehicles. This study and ideas relates to term unsustainable development discussed in the module. Unsustainable development is defined as things that we are doing today that we cannot continue to do in the future. We are harming our environment by all of the use of automobiles daily.

For the second case study, the location of the development study is in China. In this case, the focus is on water scarcity and climate change. This is the link to the case study: http://chinawaterrisk.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Chinas-Water-Crisis-Part-1.pdf . China‘s water pollution is a result of industrial waste water discharges, untreated domestic sewage and non-point source pollution mainly from agriculture. Water-stressed environments such as those in China face difficult times as climate change threatens to exacerbate an existing water crisis. China‘s population is estimated to increase by around 10% to a population of 1.46 billion over the next 20 years. The pressure on already scarce water resources resulting from rapid urbanization coupled with the demands of quadrupling per capita GDP by 2020. The government in China decided to take action by constructing a project which involves three phases with routes in the west, east and centre of China, which will ultimately transfer 36 billion cubic meters of water per year from the South to the North. The Eastern and Central line was completed in 2014, and the Western line won’t be completed till 2050. This study relates to the term sustainable development mentioned in the module. Much of our development depends on natural resources that either cannot be replaced such as water.

Currently, I live in Pottsville Pennsylvania. In my hometown, we do not use bicycles as transportation and we have a sufficient supply of water. My town is vastly different from Japan. We strictly rely on automobiles to get us from point A to point B. It’s rare to see a person riding their bike down the highway to get to their destination. Japan’s government raised their automobile registration and fines to help save the environment. Fortunately in my hometown, water scarcity is not a problem. My water supply comes from a reservoir on the Gordon Mountain which is about 20 minutes from my house. This reservoir provides water to surrounding homes and areas. There was a storm that occurred in my hometown Wednesday night. There is still a lot of flooding in surrounding areas, and these areas may be experiencing dirty water. Examining where and when these case studies takes place is important because we can gather information from other resources and see what materials are and are not available. It’s important to look at case studies like the ones I’ve listed because we learn more about our own environmental issues and how we can help fix them.

1-a.

In my hometown of Pottsville, PA, the water supply chain starts in the reservoir in the Gordon Mountain. The water makes its way through the pipes at the bottom of the dam and then into a filtration system. When it enters the filtration system it is then purified. After it’s purified, the water travels through piping to each individual home. The pipe decreases in size so the pressure remains the same. The water than comes into our house through a lateral pipe (3 quarters on an inch) through the water company supply meter. Water travels through the branch lines into each individual appliance. After the water enters and goes through the house, the excess waste water goes down the drain through a trap. The trap stops the sewer gas smell from coming into your house. The waste water ends up into the Waste Water Treatment Plant located on the Pottsville/Minersville highway about 4 minutes away from my house.

1-b. Water Usage on February 9th

Shower- 15 minutes- 2 times- 74 Gallons

Brushing Teeth- 2 times- 0.25 Gallons

Flushing of Toilet- 4 times- 1.6 per flush- 6.4 Gallons

Washing Clothes- 1 time- approximately 20 Gallons

Washing Hands- 5 times- with sink running for 20 seconds- 4 Gallons

Washing Dishes- 1 time- hand washed for 10 minutes- 5 Gallons

Drinking Water-  spread throughout the day- 0.50 Gallons

Cleaning my dogs pen- 3 bucket of water- 4.5 Gallons

TOTAL-  114.65 Gallons

1-c. 

For my experiment, I tried to cut back on the amount of water I used in the shower, brushing my teeth and washing the dishes. The main areas I prioritized my water usage were in drinking water, washing my hands and cooking. My hygiene and health is very important. The largest amount of water I use is while I’m shower. I thought of several ways I could cut back on water while I’m in the shower. First, I could shower in a shorter amount of time. Second, I could turn the water off when I’m applying shampoo and conditioner. I cut back on water while brushing my teeth by turning off the water until I’m completely done. While washing dishes I filled up the sink with water and only turned the water on when I needed to rinse off several dishes. The experiment on living off of two gallons of water was not successful for me. I approximately use 114 gallons of water per day then all of a sudden I tried using only 2 gallons for a day. In my chart in 1-b I use more than two gallons just to wash my hands several times a day. Geography plays a big role in water use. We are very fortunate for the amount of water we have unlike other countries. We don’t live off of two gallons of water a day like families in Haiti. This experiment was definitely a difficult challenge.

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

It is more important to perform good acts. I hold this view because I believe performing good acts benefits you as a person. Doing something good does not only affect you but also the ones around you. Performing a good act is as simple as holding the door for someone, donating a dollar to a charity or to a little girl who is raising money for her basketball team. Any person can look at themselves as a good person, but not have actually done anything to make them a good person. Sometimes they actually do bad things and they don’t want anyone to know. I know when I help someone it brings happiness to me and to them. Performing good acts for the right reason will make you a good person and will have many positive effects. Without good acts, there are no changes happening in the world. Doing good acts will always make a positive difference in your life and also others.

Question 3: Does the process by which decisions are made matter more than the outcomes of these decisions?

The process by which decisions are made matter more than the outcomes of these decisions. I hold this view because I would rather take time and process on the decisions I can make rather than jumping ahead to the outcome of the decisions made. Everything we do is a process. Considering the options you can make will allow you to have an insight on what might the outcome will be. I wouldn’t want to be held for a bad outcome because I didn’t take time to properly process all of the decisions. When my grandmother was in the hospital last October due to having a massive heart attack, three doctors came out and confronted my family saying they wanted to rush her in for emergency open heart surgery. Another doctor then came out and disagreed with open heart. The doctor waited Friday through Sunday to process the decisions he was going to make on what the right procedure he was going to perform. My family was grateful for his long decision process because my grandmother wouldn’t have survived the recovery of open heart surgery. The ideas of distributive and procedural justice go together and are both important concepts, but I believe that procedural justice is more beneficial.

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

My own life is the same as others, no more or no less. I hold this view because I wouldn’t want to be treated less than anyone else. It depends on how you look at it. If a person was in jail for murder, I would obviously want to be treated differently from them because of what they did. Just because someone may have more money than me doesn’t mean I should be treated differently. We are all humans even though we may have different lives. I want to be a teacher in the future and I would not even think about treating a student different than the others. The thought wouldn’t even cross my mind because of how I would make the students feel. Not all children live the same lives or are smart as some of the other classmates. There’s no reason they should be treated differently by teachers due to some of their slight differences. Your life is just as equally important as others. I tend to put other people’s needs before my own, but I don’t look at my life differently from theirs. I do it because I care about that person.

The core idea of my diagram is to show how the biogas plants interacted with both systems. I used system perspective to show there were both positive and negative effects in each system. The main issue presented in my diagram was how the wood burning stove presented a lot of negative effects. The wood burning stove needed firewood which caused the children to have lack of education, to do homework and to have meals. The use of firewood caused smoke which led to many negative effects. First the smoke was harmful for the environment, but also the smoke was causing health issues. The production of the biogas plants solved the negative issues leading to a positive feedback loop. The biogas generator benefited the environment by using cow manure. My diagram also shows how the composts from the cow dung benefited both women and farmers. Women sold leftover composts to farmers which then led to double income and farmers increasing their deals. The outcome of biogas generators benefited both the community and the ecosystem. My diagram has both similarities and differences to figure 1.5 in the Marten reading. Marten and I diagrams are both set up similar to one another. However, our concepts were different. My diagram focuses more on smaller effects. There are similarities and differences because there are many different ways to look at a diagram. What can be learned by comparing the two diagrams is that there are many different ways you can compare the concepts in both systems.

Hello everyone! My name is Kelsey Somers and I am currently a sophomore at Penn State Schuylkill. I have spent my whole life growing up in Pottsville, PA (Home to America’s Oldest Brewery). My major is Early Childhood Education grades PreK-4, and I’m minoring in Special Education. I will be attending Penn State Berks in Fall ’16 for my last two years. I would prefer to teach first or second grade since I have observed in a first grade classroom for an entire semester. You can find me waitressing on the weekends. I took this course because it is required for my major, but I’m also interested in Geography because I want to see how humans affect the environment and what could be done differently to help our environment. One fact about me is that all of my favorite sports teams are from Philadelphia… and yes I’m still an Eagles fan after this season.

The topic issue that caught my attention the most in module one was Human-Environment Interactions. A human-environment interaction is a relationship between people and their environment. One of the main concerns with human-environment interactions is sustainability. The term sustainability is defined as to understand how human activities can exist without disrupting the ability of natural ecosystems to function. There is a great concern about whether social and ecological systems can coexist, and this has helped advance the importance of sustainability. Another important concern following sustainability is governance. Governance is how people make their decisions and how there is an external force to limit their range of options. The term sustainability is a major important focus because scientists need to be able to determine how human activity will not destroy the environment around them. Humans are always readjusting to their environment and we need to understand how we are both positive and negatively interacting.