1. Explain the concept of biodiversity, and relate it to other course concepts.
   1. 1. “Biodiversity is a measure of variation and richness of living organisms at a particular scale.”  This is the definition of biodiversity given from the module 10, and it talks about how there is a lot of variety on Earth, especially in all of the living organisms that are present.  Scientists estimate that there are about 50 million species alive in the world today, with that number increasing every single day.  Biodiversity is a very important concept to civilization, and it helps establish the world we live in.  If there was no biodiversity, our world would not be able to advance to what it is today. The module discusses anthropocentric and ecocentric reasons as to why biodiversity is important to us.  Biodiversity is important for anthropocentric reasons such as that all of the different organisms can provide us with important scientific information like medicine, food, and more.  Biodiversity is important for ecocentric reasons such as, benefitting from knowing that it exists, and benefits our society.  Biodiversity can exist in other things other than just organisms such as parks, plants, trees, and more.  These are all important things to protect so that they can stay established, and continue being a major part of our world.  Biodiversity can influence other aspects of geography like human environment interactions, individual and collective action and more.  There are also many factors that can influence biodiversity such as disturbance, longevity of the system, diverse habitats, and more.  Diverse habitats can contribute to biodiversity by because the variability leads to differences in environments, rather than just having a uniform environment.  Disturbance also influences biodiversity by creating many different habitats, and creating evolution.  All in all, biodiversity can be described in many different ways and talks about the difference and variety in life on earth.
2. Draw a concept map of the factors that deal with biodiversity.
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3. Talk about a relevant example of biodiversity in some aspect of your life, and explain if it is more ecocentric or anthropocentric.
   1. There are many different aspects of biodiversity that exist in my life, but the one that I think is most prominent is the different varieties of people.  From race, to gender, to age, to knowledge, to other characteristic traits, these aspects of humans create a lot of biodiversity.  These aspects also are what help the world continue to evolve into the intricate system we currently live in.  Through out all of the different races of humans we have, there are many different habitats that we all live in.  Culture is a main aspect that can help determine our diverse habitats, and in my life personally there are a lot of different habitats that people live in.  From the suburbs, to the city, to the country, to the beach towns, I know a lot of people living in different areas which contributes to biodiversity.  Following that, there are large areas that encompass all different kinds of individuals which is another aspect of biodiversity.  In my point of view, I think that this example is both anthropocentric and ecocentric.  I think that it is anthropocentric because all of the different kinds of people can provide different scientific evidence for how we evolve as humans, and how each individual physiologic components are similar or different from the next.  I also think that it is ecocentric, because it is enlightening to know that there are many different kinds of people in the world.  It would be very boring, and dissimilar if we were all the same so adding biodiversity into the world contributes an interesting factor.  Finally, it is very important to have all of the different kinds of people in the world contributing to biodiversity, and this biodiversity is increasing every single day.

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2. The WikiLeaks article was a little confusing to me, but I did my best to dissect the article to get the main points out.  Looking at my diagram, it starts with the green boxes, then the blue, then either red or yellow, then the purple boxes, and it ends back up at the blue box.  This article describes how the whole problem originated with an increasing release of greenhouse emissions due to fossil fuels and other things that are bad for the environment.  All of these things are coming together to create climate change throughout the world.  In order to fix this, the UN had a convention for climate change, and there was the creation of Copenhagen Accord plan.  The goal of this plan was to help with climate change, and reduce the amount of greenhouse emissions.  The US was in favor of this plan, but not many other countries were.  The US needed allies with them to be in favor of this plan so they started secretly negotiating that included threats, hacking, and more.  Eventually the information was leaked and there was distraught brought on by the other countries.  They demanded a large amount of money in order to be in favor of this plan.  Since the US was focused on getting their way, they paid the large amounts of money to the countries.  Once the US did this, then those countries would be in favor of the Copenhagen Accord plan.  In total, there were 146 countries that were going to be in favor of the plan, as well as 26 countries that had the intention of joining.  All in all, the US bribed these countries to be in favor of the Copenhagen Accord plan so that green house emissions could be reduced, and climate change could hopefully be reduced as well.
3. In my opinion, I do not think that the United States went about this issue correctly.  In this class we have discussed the concept of ethics, and I believe that what occurred was unethical.  The US was just focused on creating their end means that they did not care about the route taken to get there.  I understand that greenhouse emissions and climate change is a serious problem, but I do not think they went about this the right way.  I also do not think that the negotiating should have been leaked.  There are a lot of foreign affairs go on that most of the world does not know about.  These negotiations or whatever else goes on should be kept private, and between the parties involved.  On the same note, climate change is a collective action problem.  All of the countries that eventually were in favor of the Copenhagen Accord plan are contributing to climate change.  If together each country owned up for their contribution to this issue, a change could have been made.  Instead, United States was worrying about themselves, and switched the problem from collective action to individual action.  They did this by only being concerned about what they wanted, and tried to solve the problem on their own when in fact a lot of other parties should have been involved.  I don’t think that the United States should have been conducting the climate change diplomacy in the way that it did.  But I also do not think that there is a simple solution.  There are many different countries involved in this problem, and until the UN has a better solution to come up with it, I think this is where our world will remain.  Every participant in the UN should be in some type of agreement of a plan to follow in order to fix this ongoing problem of climate change.

1. Looking at the Nathan World Map of Natural Disasters, there are a few things that this map says about my state/town in particular. The map claims that NJ has faced an increase in heavy rain, or that we will face this problem in the near future.  The map also says that this state is in Zone 1 for hailstorms, zone 0 for winter storms, zone 1 for tornados, zone 1 for wildfires, and that there are more storms during La Nina, and less storms during El Nino.  The map also notes that we have usually normal amounts of precipitation, and our weather stays mostly the same.  This map indicates that there are very few natural disasters that occur in my area.  This holds true, which leads me to think that the Nathan map is well suited for this task.  It seems that this is a reliable source to use.
2. On March 28, 2016 there was a chemical spill in Chicago’s Far South Side.  500 gallons of sulfuric acid were spilled at a building, but the firefighters that arrived at the scene were able to clean it up before anyone was harmed.  This resembles a hazard that could definitely occur in my town, or near my town.  The large city of Philadelphia is located very close to me, so there are highly traveled highways within minutes of my house.  There is a large risk of something like this occurring due to either a tractor trailer transporting these chemicals could turnover, or there could be a factory spill.  Due to our location, and the heavily traveled and populated area there is a high vulnerability for this occurrence.  This disaster that occurred in Chicago was not on a large scale, and mainly just affected the people near the building.  This is relevant to my hometown because there are many places where something like this could occur.  Since the scale would be similar in my hometown, I do not believe the impact would change, and firefighters would be able to tend to this issue.  This disaster could be severe if it involved other people that would be harmed by the chemical spill.  It could also be severe if it leaked into a major source we use such as our water system.  Due to the possible severity of the issue, there are many different vulnerable people in my town.  Some are not economically stable, so if there was a chemical spill that contaminated our water supply, these type of people would not be able to buy other water possibly.  Or, if people do not have house/car/health/any type of insurance, and there was a chemical spill on the highway that impacted their car/health this would make them extremely vulnerable to this situation.  Others that are very stable might not be as vulnerable to these situations. My town’s overall vulnerability could be reduced by creating regulations on the amount of chemicals one is allowed to transport at a given time, so if something like this was to occur it would result in only a small scale problem.
3. Resources:
   1. “RSOE EDIS – – Event Reports (Earthquakes, Events, Tropical Storms, Tsunamies and Others).” RSOE EDIS. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.
   2. Versio, 2011. NATHAN (n.d.): n. pag. Web.
   3. Looking at the Nathan map, there was a small risk for wildfires in my area.  This holds true, as there are rarely wildfires that occur.  On rare occasions, there could be a wildfire, and to reduce the vulnerability our town has a sign stating the likelihood of a wildfire for any given day based on the confounding variables.  Looking at the RSOE/EDIS page, there are a few chemical spills located near my state.  This makes sense as explained in number two above.  Something seen on the RSOE/EDIS page that interested me was that a lot of places in the US have earthquakes without most people noticing.  This leads me to think that these natural disasters could occur in my town without most of us knowing, and in face this has occurred before.
4. Looking at the natural resources such as wildfires, and earthquakes (along with other weather related disasters) there are things that can be done to reduce vulnerability.  In my town particularly, awareness can be made.  It is not as common for people to watch the news anymore, so there could be more updates that get sent to the cell phones of the people in my town.  These updates could be informing people if any natural disasters were going to occur in the future, and how to prepare for them.  Having the population educated about the disasters would reduce the vulnerability, and the impact because they could prepare for the disaster in advance, and not be taken by surprise.  The best way to perform this action would be for the government to link with the phone companies, and create some sort of agreement where if there is a natural disaster that will occur, the government officials could inform the cellular companies to send out the notifications to inform the general population.  Personally, as one individual, I can do my best to constantly keep up with the current news, and other factual information about natural disasters.  I can educate my family and friends on what I know so that they hopefully educate their families and friends, and a domino effect is created to overall reduce the vulnerability.

1. The town that I live in is Marlton, New Jersey.  It is located about 15 minutes from Philadelphia, and lot of lifestyle in my community is based off of our location.  There were an estimated number of 6,051,170 in the metropolitan area of Philadelphia, and its surrounding towns.  My town in particular has a population of 45,538 as of 2010. I believe that my town is a combination of the different types of neighborhoods such as pedestrian-oriented in some parts, urban downtown in other parts, and automobile suburb as well.  I think that it is a combination of all of the above because in some parts it has a main street type place with small close houses nearby where everyone can walk everywhere.  There is also parts of my town that are located close to public transportation to philly, and other parts of my town where cars are necessary.  I am very connected to my town, and all of the different neighborhoods, and people make the town the amazing, quaint place it is!
2. One of the cities I chose to relate to my town is Beacon Hill in Boston.  This is classified as a pedestrian-oriented neighborhood.  It is classified as this because it is located close to a major city, it offers many places to work, shop, and do other activities, and one can walk to all of these attractions.  This area makes the environment more sustainable because it decreases pollution from car emissions.  It also improves health by allowing people to walk to all of the different places.  Even though this town would have a lower unit density than a city with tall buildings, it contributes a lot to the sustainability.  This is similar to my town because there is an area of my town where people can walk to stores for shopping, walk to their work, walk to the grocery store, or a neighbors house or more. My city could become more sustainable by creating more main streets similar to this to reduce car use.
3. Another city that I chose to relate to my town of Marlton is Jamaica Plain in Massachusetts.  This is a streetcar suburb and is also located outside the major city of Boston (similar to how my town is located near Philadelphia).  This area had a rail line going through parts of it so that people can easily travel to the city.  This contributes to sustainability and in particular collective action.  This allows for more people to come together to ride this public transportation system, and decrease pollution, or traffic jams.  My town has something similar that travels to Philadelphia, and other major cities, known as the PATCO.  We could increase the sustainability of our town by having more convenient stops throughout our town rather than one or two stops close by.  Having more stops would make it more accessible, and desirable for people to use.

1. Social Norms Influence Eating Habits
   1. Throughout high school, there were a lot of social norms that were linked to eating.  One of these social norms was to go to McDonalds after our high school football games.  So, the majority of the people in my grade would go to McDonalds after the games, eat the food made their, drink soft drinks, and celebrate the big win!  It was almost frowned upon if one did not come because people would say things like “everyone is going,” or “what else are you going to do instead.”  These tactics worked and convinced most people, including myself to always be present.  During the time spent at McDonalds, I personally would eat chicken nuggets, fries, and a big mac, along with drink a milkshake.  It is no surprise that none of these things are healthy, but they were satisfying late at night, cheap, and what most other people got as well so I felt I almost had to join in!
2. Social Norm Leading to Societal Issues
   1. The social norm of going to McDonalds definitely can be connected to many societal issues, but two that are relevant to me are finances and obesity.  Clearly the options served at McDonalds are not healthy, and have a high fat content.  There is also an abundance of food, and as seen in Module 6, this leads to obesity.  It is not correct to say that going to McDonalds after games leads directly to obesity, but it is a factor with among other things that can lead to obesity in the future.  For instance, there were about 150 people in my class that would go to McDonalds after the games, and this could inspire other bad eating habits and contribute to the epidemic of obesity in the US.  Another societal aspect this touches on is a financial aspect.  Even though McDonalds is on the cheaper side, going every Friday definitely adds up.  I believe that our finances should be more tightly regulated by the average population, and not waste our money on poor habits such as going to McDonalds.  But, since it was a social norm at the time, none of these things mattered me because I felt I had to go with the crowd.  I think that even though this is a social norm, I don’t think that it should have to be one, or should have to lead to these societal issues.  I believe that people should be more strong willed (including myself) and not follow these norms, or not feel the need to buy food and contribute to obesity or financial problems.
3. System Diagram Linking the Above Issues
   1. 

1. http://allafrica.com/stories/201602031412.html
   1. The first case study from one of the sources given deals with the Zika Virus.  This study is by Sola Ogundipe, and talks about how the once eradicated virus in the US, Zika, is now coming back as a problem, but is affecting many other countries such as Nigeria (where this study is focused).  It is expected that about 4 million people would be affected by this virus by the end of the year.  The World Health Organization is treating this virus very seriously, and advising pregnant woman not to travel.  In terms of development, the WHO is not sure what to do because even in developed or high income countries like the US, the virus is still persistent.  The WHO wants to use the advanced technology and science of the developed United States, to help find a vaccine, or treatment for this virus so that babies are not born with microcephaly, a brain defect.
2. http://www.cgdev.org/doc/millions/MS_case_1.pdf
   1. The next study that I found was from a different source, and it discussed the concept of eradicating smallpox worldwide, and was written mainly from the World Health Organization.  In the 60’s smallpox was considered a very big deal, and eventually it became eradicated.  It was prevalent in some of the low income countries, and the World Health Organization used the idea of development to eradicate the disease.  The US is a high income country, so the WHO wanted to use the resources of the US to help create a vaccine, or treatment for smallpox.  Along with this came an ethical question if the successes of a developed country should help an underdeveloped country.  The end use of this development idea was to eradicate smallpox, and through the idea of development this occurred!
3. Throughout both of these case studies, it was proven how the varying levels of development impact society, and how one can affect another.  These case studies are similar because they both deal with diseases/viruses affecting a large population, and how higher income countries such as the US were used to fix the problems in the lower income countries.  I currently reside in New Jersey, and these case studies relate to the development of my area.  Since the Zika Virus is a current problem, development plays a large role.  The development in the US is very great in the sense that there is an established civilization, tons of resources, and an advancement in technology.  Through all of these things in the US, and considering the time we are currently residing in where Zika is a problem, these resources, and the development of our country can help this problem in non-developed country.  For example, the developed US can use science, and money to research more and hopefully develop a vaccine.  Through both of these case studies, and the current ongoing problems, development plays a huge role in making sure the end uses are important and relevant to the problems.

1a.

I am from Marlton, New Jersey, which is part of the Rancocas Watershed Management Plan. The water that is used in my house, originates from the Delaware River, which merges with the Rancocas Creek. Rancocas Creek is 360 square miles, and supports 29 municipalities covering three counties. My county is Burling County, and my municipality is Evesham Township. The water from the creek is taken, and brought to the water treatment plan. My municipal township has a water treatment plant there, and the water from the creek comes through where it is then filtered, cleaned of contaminants, and the water levels are tested. Once the water has safe levels, it is dispersed throughout my township to different households. When the water is used in my house, it goes down to the drain into the sewage system where the two water supplies combine and reach the treatment plant again. Once the two sources are back at the water treatment plan, the entire process starts over again. The whole process is a cycle of recycling, and cleaning water so it can be redistributed.

1b.

Usage of Water:

1. Shower: 15 gallons
2. Teeth Brushing: 0.2 gallons
3. Toilet Flushing: 21 gallons
4. Hand Washing/Dish Washing: 8 gallons
5. Glasses of Water Drank: 1.3125 gallons’

Total: 45.5125 Gallons

1c.

For this experiment, I tried my best to only use 2 gallons of water in one day.  In order to do this, I went to the store and bought 2 1 gallon containers of water so I knew exactly how much I was using.  I figured that the most important thing I would need the water for was to drink so I set 1 gallon aside to drink.  Then, I used one gallon strictly for hand washing, brushing teeth, washing dishes, and things like that.  I poured the gallon in a closed sink, and whenever I needed to wash my hands or brush my teeth etc. I get a cup full, and use only a small amount.  This part of the experiment worked out pretty well, and I was able to use this amount for drinking, and washing my hands/teeth/dishes.  The thing that didn’t work out, and was the reason I failed the experiment, was that I had to use water to flush the toilet.  For sanitary reasons, I could not just leave the toilet unflushed and this pushed my over the daily limit of 2 gallons.  I also did not use water to cook anything for this one day in particular and this was a challenge I faced because I use water so frequently in cooking.  This challenge has taught me how I can conserve water, and take individual action to saving the amount of water we use daily.  I can save water by limiting the time I run the faucet, cut my shower time down, and just overall be more efficient with the water.  If I take individual action, maybe I can influence others to do the same, and this can lead to collective action so we can reduce the amount of wasted water.

1. Is it more important to be a good person or to perform good acts (virtue ethics vs. action ethics)?
   1. In my point of view, I think that it is more important to be a good person.  I think that in order to perform good acts, one must truly be a good person and understand the concept of virtue ethics.  Virtue ethics deals with what people should be, and action ethics deals with what should be done.  In order to make the world a better place, I believe that people should come to terms with what it means to be a good person in terms of giving back to the community, putting others before yourself, looking out for the environment, and more.  If the population of the world are able to become good people, then the world can move forward in performing good acts to create a better place.  All in all, I think that they pretty much go hand in hand but I think that in order to perform good acts one needs to truly be a good person first, so that aspect is more important.
2. 1. Does the process by which decisions are made matter more than the outcomes of these decisions (procedural justice vs. distributive justice)?
   2. I think that this is another question where one thing leads to the next, but I believe that the process by which decisions are made matter more than the outcomes.  Procedural justice deals with how the decisions are made, and distributive justice deals with the outcome.  I believe that the process of good decision making is a very important trait for our population to have, and if we were better at making decisions I think that the world would be in a better place.  Decisions are very important, and many people don’t realize the impact their decisions have.  I believe that if one takes the time to plan or think out a decision, then the right decision will be made, and inevitably have a good outcome.  For the reason that decision making comes before the outcome, I think that procedural justice is more important and should be taken more seriously.
3. 1. Is my own life worth more than the lives of others, the same, or less (selfishness vs. altruism)?
   2. This is a very difficult question to answer, because at times I think my answer could vary, but overall I believe that my life and the lives of others are worth the same.  Every person in the world, I feel for the most part has the same worth, and has the same potential in life, some people just chose to live up to the potential while others do not.  There are some times when I feel that my life is worth more, which is kind of a terrible thing to say.  I feel this way when comparing my life to someone that has executed negative actions and are in jail, or something of the sort.  There are other times, when I feel that others lives are worth more than my own.  For example, the life of an innocent child has so much living to do, versus me who is a little far along in my life and did some living.  As you can see, I kind of fight back and forth with myself on this question, but for the most part I believe that my own life is equivalent to others, and that we should all find a balance of being selfish, as well as being altruistic.

One thing that my diagram definitely explains (that was also talked about in the modules) is the human-environment interaction that can occur in many different ways.  It was discussed in the video how humans used a wood burning stove to cook which affected the environment by polluting it with smoke.  Humans also used work from the environment which negatively affected it (this can be seen by the blue boxes).  Sangha came up with the idea of biogas that humans can use that will lead to a safer environment, and a more healthy option.  The boxes in the bottom left of my diagram depict this.  Another concept my diagram is focused on is stability.  When the wood burning stove was used, there were a lot of negative disturbances such as it being time consuming, harmful to the health, and to the environment.  Through the production of biogas, the disturbances decreased as more positive impacts were seen, and the system became more stable.  Looking at figure 1.5, this system also seems to be stable which is one of the similarities between the two diagrams.  Another similarity is that both diagrams discuss the positive effects biogas has on health/environment and the negative impacts the wood burning stoves had.  Besides the similarities, there are also differences such as Figure 1.5 was divided into social systems and ecosystems and it used solid and dashed arrows to depict how they affected each other.  My diagram is more of a continuous web where actions lead to consequences.  There are similarities and differences between these two diagrams because it depends on a persons outlook and creativity.  Each author can think of the connections in their own way and translate them onto paper differently.  It is interesting that with all of the same facts everyone can come up with their own idea to explain a relevant topic!

Hi everyone! My name is Madison Whelan, and I am currently a junior majoring in biology at Penn State University, UPark.  I am from New Jersey, right outside of Philadelphia in a town called Marlton.  When I am at school I live downtown in State College with three other roommates.  After Penn State, I have hopes of going to medical school, and one day becoming a doctor.  In the event that does not work out I still hope to pursue a career in medicine. In my spare time I like to hang out with my friends and family, and just relax!  I am taking this course because I want to enhance my knowledge in geography since no other classes I have taken at PSU are similar to this one.  I am excited to learn more about the topics in this course because I feel that they will help me be more well rounded in the knowledge aspect.

There are many different things under the umbrella term of geography and one that particularly interests me are human-environment interactions.  There are many different interactions between the social aspect of humans that can have tons of impacts on the environment itself.  Human action has caused a lot of environmental change in areas such as climate, wildlife, water systems and more.  The module talks about sustainability and the concern for human societies trying to find a balance of their lifestyle that does not impact the environment.  The concern of ethics also comes in to play as humans prioritize their lifestyle over being environmentally safe.  At the same time, there are many different interactions that occur in the environment that impact human life everyday.  For example, the draught in California that has be going on for a couple years affects human lifestyle.  The population in this area suffer from water shortages, having to move to a different location, and much more.  This environmental issue has also impacted animals due to the water shortage.  It is very interesting to me how one thing can occur and cause a continuous domino affect on things like human society that rely on these sources.  All in all, it is intriguing how there is such a large human-environmental role!