Module 10 Learning Activity

• Let’s get personal with biodiversity. Create a system diagram that illustrates how one activity you do in your hometown that decreases biodiversity in the ecosystems near you.

• In a comprehensive paragraph: Think about the event you chose and explain its importance. Is the activity necessary or is it something that just makes life more convenient? Is the activity something unique to yourself or is something everyone in your hometown does(In other words is it an individual problem or a collective problem)? Explain how you would like to change your own actions or the actions of your peers to help increase or maintain biodiversity in your surrounding area.

Completing My Assignment

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2) As we learned in module 7 driving a personal car is definitely not necessary, with successful urban planning cars can become more of an annoyance than a useful method of transportation. I enjoy driving myself into the city because I do not enjoy relying on public transportation unless absolutely necessary. Since my hometown is an automobile suburb most people own cars and therefore prefer to drive into the city like myself. My hometown does have two train stations that have direct lines into many different parts of the city. Collectively as a town if we starting using the train to commute to the city it would effectively reduce the number of cars on the main highways. With less cars comes less traffic, not only will this make every driver super happy it will also reduce the need to build more highways and the pollution that is a result of driving fossil fuel powered vehicles. In addition, I also learned from my final project research the construction of roads produces a lot of pollution, avoiding this pollution is just another benefit of switching from cars to trains. This will allow the local wetlands to stay together as one large ecosystem, by keeping all species together will keep a large gene pool. An ecosystem with more genetic diversity will make it more resilient if the wetlands face a disturbance.

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2) I started my systems diagram at the original cause of all the spying and diplomatic activity, the Copenhagen Accord. Without the hastily written accord in the last moments of the Copenhagen climate change summit, the United States would not have had any drive to diplomatically influence other countries. I then highlighted 3 of the biggest events that were influenced by the U.S. secret cables. The first example was the Saudi Arabian negotiations. The article points out these negotiations with Saudi Arabia were driven the most by financial assistance. The Saudi Arabian oil industry is one of the biggest in the world, as we have learn throughout this course the combustion of fossil fuels produce lots of greenhouse gasses, which directly effects climate change. The United States won over the support of the Saudi Arabian’s government by promising to help transition the source of income of their economy. The second example was low income counties that were easily influenced by 30 billion dollars. This money went to project similar to those highlighted in the carbon offset video.  The final issue I outlined in my system diagram was the significant divide between high and low income nations. The United States, through a secret cable, was able to bully Ethiopia, a low income country, into supporting the accord. I feel this example really helps show the ethical issues involved with getting so many parties to collectively agree on a common issue. Finally, I had all three U.S. cable influenced events linked to preventing climate change as long as countries that received financial assistance used it properly.

3) After reading this module and the assignment article I am honestly scared for what the future holds. Climate change is an issue that can theoretically decimate humanity if left unchecked. The module stated that this severe climate change can push the earth’s planetary boundary. The isotope data suggest civilization thrived because of relative stability, the change in climate is threatening to disrupt the earth’s stability. The only way the world is making any progress to fix it is through spying, cyber-attacks, and large amounts of financial assistance. I believe it is good that these U.S. State Department cables were leaked. Hopefully showing the dirty diplomacy will cause some organization or country to step up to help stop it. As the module stated climate change is a collective action problem, this means everyone should be working together to fix the issue, not one rouge nation (the United States) bribing other countries to follow plans that benefit them the best. While I believe the United States had the right idea by trying to stimulate action, their means of doing so were wrong. I believe the countries involved in the UNFCCC, need to act like adults and understand that this issue is not a financial gain opportunity. I do believe a large scale implementation of carbon offsetting would help solve the climate problem. As the carbon offset video said before the funds that are gained by countries and private businesses need to be used honestly. While just capping the amount of carbon dioxide is a good start, the best case scenario would see the total amount of Carbon dioxide begin to decline.

• 1). After looking at the Nathan World Map is very easy to see that this map is not a good a choice to analyze differences in individual towns since the scale is very large. The color code is also very hard to identify the different zones. It’s hard to even make out the state of New Jersey on these maps let alone the 6 square mile town of Ramsey. I was roughly able to make out that New Jersey on the storm specific maps and they showed that my home state has a low risk of encountering wildfires, a medium risk of encountering tornado’s and hail storms, and medium/low risk of encountering winter storms. On the large map New Jersey seems to be in a zone 3 for tropical cyclones.
• 2). The disaster I looked into was a nuclear event in Washington. The nuclear power plant near Richland had a scram. This means the plant was quickly shutdown due to a cooling issue. Ramsey can experience a similar hazard since the first nuclear power plant constructed in the USA is located in the southern region of N.J. Any large meltdown of this plant would put Ramsey at risk of encountering radioactive material. The scale of this event is on the county level. This means several towns are directly affected by the event. If this event occurred in the New Jersey plant the scale would have to span most of the state since Ramsey is located in north jersey. If this current event was on a state scale the entire state of Washington could be subjected to radioactive material if the plant melted down. People from Ramsey that are closer to the power plant are more vulnerable since radioactive material wouldn’t have to travel as far. The urban density of a town could alter the vulnerability since more people can be effected by the same amount of radioactive material. The only way to reduce Ramsey’s vulnerability is to install a good warning system that will give citizens enough time to evacuate.
• 3). Ramsey is at a risk of flooding especially after heavy rain storms. Flooding is easily the most common hazard Ramsey faces throughout the year. The Nathan World Map did show that New Jersey had a significant risk of cyclones and rainstorms, which helps explain the source of Ramsey’s hydro-logical hazard. According to a map posted by FEMA on Ramsey’s flood risks there are several large areas throughout town that have a high risk of flooding due to numerous nearby rivers and lakes. I have experienced first hand, entire parks and roads become submerged from Super Storm Sandy and other substantial rain storms. The most common damage from this hazard is water damage in houses, which can be very costly to repair.

Work Cited: FEMA Flood Zones, Borough of Ramsey: http://www.ramseynj.com/filestorage/363/397/Figure14_FEMA.pdf

• 4). If Ramsey bolstered the banks of all major rivers and lakes, these bodies of water could take on more water without flooding nearby roads or homes. In addition if people that lived near these bodies of water took precautionary action by installing sub-pumps in their basements and drainage trenches along the perimeter of their homes it would drastically decrease Ramsey’s vulnerability to flooding damage. The best people to carry out these precautionary measures would be Ramsey’s Department of Public Works (DPW). The DPW has the machinery needed to build up banks and dig trenches for surrounding homes. DPW workers are very knowledge about Ramsey and will be able to see what parts of the town are at the highest risk. Individually, I can monitor weather reports to give myself as much time to prepare. I can also help crate makeshift sandbag dams to help defend against flood waters.

• My hometown is Ramsey, NJ. It is located in the northeastern tip of New Jersey. Being so far north, NYC is only 30 minutes away. I would consider Ramsey a medium sized town, compared to surrounding towns. The population has hovered around 15,000 people for the last 25 years. The urban density is low, the main dwelling are single family homes. I consider Ramsey to be an automobile suburb with few sidewalks. While there is two train stations and numerous bike paths, cars are needed to get most places, since a highway divides the town. The trains are manly used for citizens commuting into the city. Main Street is the town hub, there are many restaurants, businesses, and our high school. The streets of Copenhagen are somewhat similar. Even this street with so much packed on a 1 mile road, cars are still the popular mode for transportation, and when the train stops in town Main Street becomes a parking lot. Besides a few local gardeners the idea of urban agriculture is non-existent.

• Comparing Copenhagen and Ramsey is like comparing apples and oranges. Ramsey’s main street gives off a similar feel to many of Copenhagen’s pedestrian streets, but that is really the only similarity. The social norm is to still use cars even in these denser parts of Ramsey. I think it’s fair to assume that Ramsey’s car use compared to Copenhagen’s has caused a difference in air pollution. Ramsey does have some smoggy days every once and a while. Unfortunately, I don’t believe Ramsey will ever be able to eliminate cars as well as Copenhagen. Ramsey is very suburban so everything is very spaced out, which causes a very low urban density compared to Copenhagen. It would just not be effective for Ramsey citizens to walk everywhere. If Ramsey could renovate the bike paths and make a biking bridge over the highway, Ramsey could try and change the social norm from cars to bikes. Without a big change in transportation social norms, the sustainability in Ramsey will never compare to that of Copenhagen.

• I was pleasantly surprised with the video describing Detroit’s urban farming. Detroit’s dwindling population is beginning to drop the urban density to that of a large suburb similar to Ramsey. Ramsey has very little to no urban agriculture besides for a few local gardeners and a monthly farmers market. I feel that Ramsey has the land and a decent climate for a long growing season, in fact Ramsey became populated because of its strawberry farms during the early 1900s. If Ramsey could change their social norms back to local farming, it would not only give Ramsey’s citizens a trustworthy source of fresh food, but the town sustainability will increase. If Ramsey residents staring growing their own food in their suburban backyards, car use would also decrease since people would not need to drive to the supermarket as much. It seems plausible that urban farming could increase Ramsey’s sustainability in more than one way. I believe reforming Ramsey’s social norm to those of Detroit would be possible and the benefits will be well worth it.

During the first few weeks here at Penn State, I made friends who avoided certain meat products because of their religion and own personal views. While most of my other friends are not practicing Hindus, our views on meat were different. As the year progressed my friend started to change his views on eating beef, since everyone else in the group had no religious restrictions on eating any beef products. While no of us ever forced my friend to eat beef, the social norms of our group slowly persuaded him to try it. This is a perfect example that shows how a change in the people you are around can change a person’s own views. Even now that my friend openly eats beef while at Penn State, he still does not eat beef when he visits home. This is due to the fact that the social norm at home is still to no eat beef.
My friend lived an anti-beef life style before coming to Penn State for two reasons. The Hindu religion sees cows as sacred animals, and consuming their meet is considered morally wrong, he also saw a no beef diet as a way to eat on a lower trophic level. As shown in the module, it takes a significant amount of planted crops to produce a single unit of livestock. If the crops used to raise the livestock were fed directly to the consumers more people could be fed. By eating less meat, the crop yields could be used in a more sustainable matter and would be able to provide a nutritious diet to more people, effectively decreasing hunger. I do not believe anyone’s religious views should be compromised to fit social norms. I agree with my friends’ reason that eating on a lower trophic level can be beneficial in solving world hunger. If the social norm of every meat-eater was to limit their consumption slightly, it could have a huge impact on people suffering from hunger.

• The case study I researched from the WBCSB at http://www.wbcsd.org/cement-industry-calls-for-long-term-policy-certainty-as-it-aspires-to-reduce-co.aspx , involves the global cement industry and their quest to become environmental friendly. The goal of the Low Carbon Technology Partnerships initiative) is to reduce CO₂ emissions by 1 Gt by 2030. As of now the cement industry produces 5% of all CO₂ produced by humans, a greener cement industry can be key for the fight against global warming. This case study applies to several concepts in this module including environmental justice and human-environmental interactions. With greener cement factories, nearby residents will not have to deal with as many drawbacks that come with living near a factory. This initiative shows that the cement industry cares about the surrounding residents and values their option on factory pollution. It is clear that human system of cement production has an effect on the natural environment, if the industry can minimize the impact on the environment, the environment could in turn provide more resources to produce cement. A greener cement industry could create a symbiotic relationship with the environment.

• I found my outside source case study about reducing child mortality in Nepal at http://www.cgdev.org/page/case-4-reducing-child-mortality-through-vitamin-nepal. Studies have shown that vitamin A deficiency is responsible for nearly a quarter of all child deaths around the world, the lack of vitamin A compromises the immune system. With a damaged immune system prevalent diseases in Nepal like measles and malaria can easily be contracted. Vitamin A deficiencies arise mainly from undernourishment, and the effects can be as extreme as complete blindness. The NVAP is trying to combat vitamin A deficiency by delivering two rounds of vitamin A capsules to children annually. This development is very similar to the situation in Cuba, outlined in this module. Focusing on healthcare will hopefully allow Nepal to have a life expectancy similar to many high income nations. This program is also facilitating women’s rights within Nepal. The NVAP have employed women, who have minimal rights in Nepal, to help spread this program to mothers all over Nepal. Equal rights for women can be a huge step for the overall development of Nepal.

• I will be comparing these case studies to my hometown of Ramsey, NJ. Ramsey is mainly a residential town expect for one large industrial park on the south side of town. The residential area surrounding this industrial park has seen the value of the property decrease as factories expand. Nearby residents are feeling voiceless, like the people of Camden, NJ, as these factories expand. There has been a large argument for these factories to practice greener manufacturing to hopefully allow these property values to rise again. This situation is very similar to my first case study as they both involve environmental justice, a greener industry will have less negative effects on the environment and the surrounding human population. Fortunately, Ramsey has access to plenty of food capable of properly nourishing the entire population, so the situation in Nepal is not prevalent in my hometown.

Part 1-a

After reading a water quality report for my hometown (Ramsey, New Jersey), I discovered that Ramsey obtains their water from a group of wells, and a bulk purchase from the United Water Company. There is a total of 10 groundwater wells, 8 are in Ramsey while two are located in a neighboring town, but are run by Ramsey. The wells range in depth, anywhere from 180 to 600 feet. The United Water Company’s water is mainly surface water. Ramsey’s water distribution system consists of several water towers placed throughout the town, along with 3 large storage tanks connected to the United Water Company. Since the water towers are driven by gravity, Ramsey will have water even during power outages. The water is pumped to households and businesses via 90 miles of water mains, the pipes range in size to help meet higher demands in certain sections of the town. The water is carried to treatment and disposal sites by over 100 miles of sewer mains that are monitored throughout the year through numerous man holes.

Part 1-b

Part 1-c

*NOTE: I wrote this paragraph as the day progressed

2/6

I did not shower today (yuck), but I did use a handful of water to wash my face. I brushed my teeth once using only a spit full of water to rise out my mouth and clean my toothbrush. I washed no dishes and did no laundry. My priority for water usage was drinking and bathroom use. The best strategy I used to help conserve water was to not use the tap, by only bringing a small cup into the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth made it easier to conserve my 2 gallons. My normal day was a lot more enjoyable than my two gallon day because a lot of my basic household tasks were either altered or erased. I believe I failed, because all of the bathrooms I have access to, they all are equipped with very old and inefficient toilets. I believe climate and geographical location to water plays a large role in water usage. For example if someone lives in the mid-west, it is much hotter and there is less groundwater available which leads me to believe they use less water, than I do living either in Ramsey or State College.

4) I have very anthropocentric views, so I do believe that ecosystems are important in the ways they impact humans. Although I wish I could see natural ecosystems as important stand-alone entities, whenever I think about them I just see them as pools of resources that humans can benefit from. I do not believe we should decimate every ecosystem for its resources. I consider humans taking resources from ecosystems as the circle of life. We take trees so we can build shelter and survive, and we hunt animals so we can nourish ourselves. The organisms in these ecosystems do the same thing just on a lower peg in the food chain. Without taking resources for ourselves we wouldn’t exist. When we study natural ecosystems, all we are really doing is seeing how all the organisms present, perform different functions that make this planet livable for us. For example, we studied plants and found they produce the oxygen we need to breathe and carry out basic bodily functions. I am sorry if some nature enthusiasts disagree with my options, but in my mind the primal reason why keep natural ecosystems intact is because they can provide us with priceless resources.

5) I believe the pain and pleasure of non-human animals do matter. So in most scenarios animal and human rights should be equal. At the same time I do support killing these animals so I can survive. I will never support the inhumane mutilation of animals for fun (i.e. dog fighting). When taking an animals life I feel humans should take the quickest and hopefully least painful method, so aiming for the head and not the leg so the animal can die in agony. This again goes back to the circle of life, I kill an animal to survive, and that animal killed something else to survive and so on. The only way for life to exist and flourish is to take other lives. This may seem like a circular belief, but it makes sense. I believe when an animal is taken out of its natural habit and domesticated, it deserves to be treated fairly. The domestication of an animal puts the well-being of that animal in the hands of the humans.

6) Of all six questions I feel most passionate about this one. Every person’s life is worth the same, in my eyes the answer is so clear cut it shouldn’t be a big ethical question. Classifying the worth of somebody’s life by the color of their skins, what god they believe in, how they are sexually orientated, and so on is just outrageous to me. How can one person feel that they are so much better than someone else that they get to choose who is better. If anyone does feel different, I ask you this: What about yourself makes you superior to everyone else? I am a very altruistic person, I feel you should try just as hard to help someone else as you try to help yourself, because when you are in need of someone you are going to wish they feel the same way. We all want to be happy and successful why can’t we work together to make it happen?

After creating my system diagram, I began to realize the entire system is a series of positive feedback loops. For example, the village people, local farms, and the biogas generator are connected in a positive feedback loop. The farms produces food for the village people, the people eat the food and produce organic waste, the waste is converted to cooking fuel and compost. The compost is then sent back to farms for more food to be grown, and the cycle starts again. With the biogas generator in the village, the act of growing food will produce more food since more compost will be formed. Village farms have reported that the biogas generator compost is giving the farm better crop yields. The Marten reading diagram and my own have very similar system components. At the same time the way they are organized is quite different. My diagram portrays all of the components as one giant ecosystem, while the Marten diagram suggests there are separate ecosystems (Human and natural) that have a few key connections. These differences prove what was stated in the module reading, people can look at ecosystems on many different scales. In this scenario I saw the village as one large ecosystem, while Marten say the people and the natural environment as two systems.  In my mind these two systems need each other to be successful, neither one is perfectly self-reliant. This also reflects back on the reading, both humans and the environment work together in mutualistic relationships.

Hello, my name is Nick Gasparovich and I am a freshman at Penn State. Right now, I am living on the University Park Campus. I grew up in a town in northern New Jersey called Ramsey. I was fortunate enough to live about 30 minutes from New York City. The city introduced me to many different cultures and lifestyles only found in the “big apple”. After school I would love to work for my father at his heating and air conditioning company, designing ventilation systems in the engineering department. I decided to take this course because I took a course similar to this course in high school. I found it interesting how many components of science come together in geography. This insures no dull moments during the class.

            After reading the module I know understand that geography is a very versatile field. I believe one of the biggest issues in the U.S. is our use of domestic natural resources. The governance of our resources is not up to par, since the U.S. has been tagged as a “throw away” society. Depending on other nations for critical resources can severely harm the U.S. economy. For instance Alaska has a significant amount of oil under the surface, but getting to the oil and getting it to refinery poses many challenges. Since Alaska is very untamed maps are missing a lot of detail. If new maps were created with a different scale it would be easier to see where roads should be built. Once the oil is extracted and ready for use the U.S. Government would have to implement sustainable usage plans to insure the oil is used in the best way possible. In this situation geography effects private business, the environment, and the national economy. This scenario shows how versatile geography is.