1. Create a Poster bringing attention to either examples of biodiversity loss to raise awareness, or examples of efforts being made to strengthen biodiversity and increase resilience. The poster must include both text and images relevant to the chosen topic
   1. Example poster topics
   2. Biodiversity Loss: HIPPO, European Colonialism, and Deforestation
   3. Biodiversity Conservation: National Parks, Habitat/species management, Protected landscapes/seascape, Managed Resource Protected Area, and connectivity
2. Write a paragraph of 200-300 explaining the topic you chose to show in your poster and how the text and images relate to the concept of either biodiversity loss or conservation

For my poster I decided to focus on Biodiversity loss and how H.I.P.P.O effects it. The first space is the H, or habitat loss. For this I chose a picture of deforestation since it is a major subtopic of habitat loss, as forests are taken over and harvested, all underlying ecosystems are completely destroyed even if there is a method to in place the regrow trees sustainably. The second space is Invasive species which I wanted to show very clearly how one species effects another. In the picture an alligator can be seen getting choked by a snake which is a new enemy alligators are not adapted to defending against, killing populations of alligators which are a huge source of income and an essential part of its local food chain. The third space is Pollution where smoke stacks are seen discharging toxic synthetic chemicals and heavy metals into the environment, depicting our ozone and causing climate change, bioaccumulation, and many other possible life threatening issues. The fourth space Is population growth, it has lost of people in a very tight space. While this may seem too literal I feel it gets the idea across while implying all the problems raised by population growth as the full space is filled just like soon we will run out of space on earth to expand to. The final space is Over harvesting; even with so many examples I again wanted a powerful image that showed the scale in which we take from our environment, its powerful to see how just one ship can have so many fish when the boat itself is a small fish compared to the size and amount of other operations, extremely metaphorical.

My diagram shows the closed loop between climate change and climate negotiations. The need for energy in our day and age has caused major climate change as a whole which is what starts the whole loop. From there people identify the issue and call for things like collective and individual action to help fix it. One collective action method practiced by our world community is having climate negotiations were they come up with agreed upon accords to collectively change in order to better the environment. However, as seen in the diagram while countries like the U.S. who have a big carbon footprint agree to the easily achievable goals compared to our economy, smaller countries refuse to agree as they cant meet these goals as well as hardly contribute to the problem as a whole. This is were bribes and threats from bigger countries come in to play. This can be seen in the cables released by wikilcnks showing how the U.S. was able to pay compensation to smaller countries to just agree for the United States benefit. Although it gives power to the richer countries it does in turn close the loop by forcing these countries to join on ad support increasing mitigation around the world and reducing climate change. In fact with 75% of all countries who signed being responsible for about 80% of the all greenhouse gasses, showing that although the methods may have been flawed and go against most peoples ethics the end product was successful leaving the question of does the end justify the means?

In my own opinion what the United Sates did is completely unethical and wrong. It is not fair for larger countries to use its economical and political muscles to overpower the best interests of everybody around the world. While some people may argue that sometimes you need to just do what you need to do to get something done, I am more of a means justifying the end kind of person. Just as in our very own tax system there should be a sliding bar responsibility depending on the carbon footprint of each country. The United Sates being the largest contributor to green house gases, we should ethically be responsible for making more efforts to reduce, while smaller countries or countries who have a low carbon footprint should have lower minimum responsibility. So while everybody is encouraged  to contribute as much as possible since were all in this together, there would be a sliding quota depending on independent variables of each country. With this being said I completely think that these cables should be released for everybody to see, the government in put in place by the people and for the people so any actions of our politicians is a direct reflection of us and what we want so we shall be informed. In fact with more people informed it makes it easier to make a collective action effort to better the environment so people are aware of the issues and how we are trying to tackle them.

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My town is East Brunswick, NJ, a suburban community part of the New York City metropolitan area. The towns population is 47,512 as to the 2010 census, which is a decent size mostly attributed to its good public school system and vicinity to New York City and I-95 the main highway cutting through the center of New Jersey. The neighborhoods are set up as small communities of developments made by different building companies who build every unit in that area. Each development is along roads like cranberry and route 18 which are main lanes of transportation through the many dense housing sections. This in tern makes it a very automobile oriented community with it being hard to really walk anywhere efficiently. I have a strong attachment to my town as I have experienced all the benefits it brings. My favorite benefit is easily how I enjoy the life of a large suburban community while being close to many other points of interest. My house is 30 minutes from famous points along the Jersey Shore and 40 minutes from one of the biggest and potentially the most popular city in the world.

The first city I chose to analyze is obviously New York City due to its vicinity to me. The city itself affects my town in two ways, income and supply/demand. The city effects my towns affluence in that the average income in the city is much higher then surrounding areas so a majority of the adults in my town fund there relaxed sub urban life with in the hectic metropolitan area also bringing a lot of their energy to my area. It effects supply and demand in that it being such a large harbor and center of shipping it is able to directly supply the demand from the high density towns  near it like my own. Something I can in turn learn from the city is how to handle large density life. With the supply never ending, demand and density in my town is rising and its best to look to areas who have successfully been sustaining a high density area for many years like New York. One way to do this is to fix transportation ahead of time and make it more efficient prior to overdeveloping my area and not being able to move through it logistically. Having a bus or train lane established to the already risen Use Mixture areas as points of interest on a route could help assimilate an ever growing population to my town.

The second city I chose to analyze is a combination of Detroit and Haiti. These are two urban areas where they have put a huge emphasis on agriculture both of the community and their own personal lives. This can be applied to my town in that as our town grows we have been overtaking our original standing farms and filling them with condos and shops. As a community collective effort we can all apply these simple agriculture ideas. From Detroit we can see how using some of the larger home properties with wasted back yards, we can farm specific crops in rotation to help feed the local area, lowering the cost and emissions from food transportation and giving a healthy farm to table product. By using ideas from Haiti we can use small scale subsistence farming to not only again provide healthy and sustainable food but also to improve air quality around developments and improve peoples active life maintaining their farms and even their psychological states.

Everyday people are forced to make food choices based upon what it is they want to get out of it ; however, these decisions can be influenced by other factors like social norms. One time social norms effected my food choice was when I stopped at a restaurant with my friends before my basketball game. While my food decision was to not eat any food since I knew how it hindered my performance and had already made sure I had the proper nutrients earlier in the day, walking in the restaurant to keep them company I was immediately pressed with the pressure of social norms. Being in a social eating environment I felt weird not eating and my food choice shifted towards the enjoyment output of foods with both the taste of the food  and the laughs/happiness brought about by sharing a meal with others as I ordered a big juicy burger with fries. Unfortunately ignoring my instincts due to social stresses, I had a super bad stomach ache and lost the game.

This food choice brought on by the social norm of eating while you are out with others connects to the idea of nutrition. While obesity is still know to be a complex topic due to all of its different factors, I think some of the social norms around eating can be directly connected to it. My story deals with the idea of overeating, while I had all the nutrients necessary for my goals I chose to consume more. In areas like mine where there is a huge surplus of places and types of foods to eat its easy to get lost in the idea that when you are out with others you need to eat with them. Even worse while we overindulge just because 1 out of 7 billion people in the world are undernourished. While I do feel this is a very negative social norm I think it may be to excepted of an idea to just change the norm, instead I think we should we rely on individual action of people in that situation to be a sustainable and responsible consumer.

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

For this case study I decided to focus on alternative energy sources, specifically wind power in Denmark and why its been successful. The idea started in the 1980s and early 90s when they began to put emphasis on advancing their economy environmentally and quickly became the pioneer and world leader in wind turbine energy. The plan was basically to flood the wind energy field combining manufacturers, suppliers, research and educational institutions to create and advance with the best products. This can be seen as a success in how they produce 60 percent of the worlds wind turbines 2/3 which are exported. This connects directly to this module in that it uses the idea of sustainable development, using a wind turbine which can be used over and over forever with only improved efficiency apposed to using up fossil fuels for energy. Also, Wind turbines are super clean, creating lots of energy with little to no emissions or harmful waste product.

http://sesinnovation.com

For my second case study I decided to focus on a company called SES or Sustainable Energy Solutions  innovation who works to solve sustainability problems in the energy industry.One of these problems that they highlighted is the rising level of CO2 and other pollutants due to the use of fossil fuels. Their method for doing this, a new device called the Cryogenic Carbon Capture (CCC) which is a new technology that is the most cost effective and efficient process for reducing C)2 emissions in plants. To do this, it they freeze the C02 out of the exhaust from the plant and then serpsrating the solid from the gas prior to the gas going in to the atmosphere,  reducing carbon and other emissions by 96 to 98 percent. This connects to this module since it tackles one of the main problems brought up with factories being placed near low income homes and neighborhoods. Even though the area still my be considered poor, a lot of the negative effects of their surrounding area can be negating, improving air quality for the people living there.

These two case studies significantly effect the area I live in since it is only 25 minutes from camden which was highlighted in this module. The first case study more directly connects to my town, East brunswick, New Jersey where a lot of families as well as my local government emphasize the use of clean energy. While the movement in my town is more towards the use of solar panels for electricity it still falls under the idea of sustainable energy and we can learn and try and implement new ideas to further our impact on the environment. The use of wind turbines can especially be influential in my suburban town where there are lots of fields placed within an urban setting that aren’t being used and are perfect spots for energy plants. The second paragraph is more a an area connection in that my parents work in the city and everyday drive to work past tons of factories spewing pollution in the air, so bad you need to hold your nose. With new technologies like the Cryogenic Carbon Capture we can start to fix the over air quality of Northern New Jersey.

1-a.

In my hometown of East Brunswick, NJ the water all comes from the Middlesex Water Company. Since their are many towns in Middlesex their are different pumping stations which supply water to the surrounding areas. For my town its the Tices lane pumping station which also supply’s water to South River, Helmet, and Spotswood. At this pumping station The Water Production Division is in charge of making sure the water is safe to drink as well as that it meets the standards established by the New Jersey Department of environmental Protection. System operators for this station take periodic samples daily to monitor it and make sure it hits all the requirements. The Source of middlesex’s water supply come from the Hunterdon County and the Delaware and Rarity River Basin, which combined receive over 40 inches of rain per year which much of is held in reservoir storage. From here East Brunswick takes its portion of 100 million gallons of water per day transferring it into the Spruce Run and Round Valley Reservoirs. After being pumped and used in homes, businesses etc. the system collects and conveys wastewater through gravity and force mains to the Middlesex County Utilities Authority’s treatment facility in Sayreville, NJ, through three metered connection points that are continuously monitored for flow and various wastewater characteristics.

1-b.

1-c

For me being a college student I am able to ignore the water usages such as washing dishes or cooking because they are done for me. So for this experiment I decided to take my water usage down to just two things, drinking water and washing my face. Drinking water is the most essential thing since I work out physically like at the gym as well as many hours mentally on school work and it is important to stay hydrated. I chose the ! minute of face washing because I figured since showers use up such an obscene amount of water and I couldn’t even use one for 30 seconds, I would at least need to clean of somehow. While some strategies could use more efficient shower heads or energy efficient toilets I decided to take a realistic college student approach which is to just reduce consumption. This experiment compares to my 1-b experiment only because it opens my eyes up to how much water we actually use per day. Geography is a huge part of how much water is used and how. For my town which has an abundance of water even in case of extended drought periods I never really payed attention to my water consumption besides the cost aspect. However areas with common drought or distance from a good water source can seriously inhibit the amount of water able to be used as well as what it is used for.

1Is it more important to be a good person or to perform good acts (virtue ethics vs. action ethics)?

My opinion is that it is more important to perform good acts then to be a good person, this however points towards the assumption that good people don’t perform good acts. So for me it is important to separate these things conceptually with being a good person on an emotional level and performing good acts being of a physical state. In which case performing good acts is more important because I believe in making a difference. While it could be argued that being a good person emotionally can make a difference is a persons life who is having a bad day or needs support, performing good acts lends to not only making a difference on a larger scale but also making a difference of larger impact. Is it better to say good day with a smile to a homeless person on the street, or give him a few bucks for food or whatever he may need? Even though their is no real answer to this I feel that the world we live in today calls for more “doing” or more acts of substance.

3Does the process by which decisions are made matter more than the outcomes of these decisions (procedural justice vs. distributive justice)?

The process is definitely more important then the outcome because although getting to a final decision or idea can be significant, the journey of getting to it is where you broaden your knowledge not only of what your subject is but about yourself and what it means to you. Everyone likes focus on the outcome because they don’t want to look past whats on the service, but being part of the process you don’t just see the tip of the iceberg you see the giant substructure of what it took to get to that tip. In addition theirs the idea that its not about how many times you fall, its how many times you get back up, which truly speaks to what process is and how you can learn through your own successes and failures. In fact it even comes down to the idea of what came first the chicken or the egg, if their wasn’t any processes would their be any outcomes?

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

This question is a tough one as in on one hand I feel no attachment to life such that I would feel mine is more than another yet I firmly believe in idea of making the most of the life you live and enjoying it as much as possible. So my answer is no my life is not worth more than others but there is still a presence of selfishness in how I go about living it. This means that if my personal enjoyment came at the cost of another persons life that I would most likely look the other way. However it would be hypocritical to say that this means I feel more important than others in that everyday people use things that effects others lives negatively even if they don’t mean too. For example, people text and  drive which leads to many deaths and injuries, but millions ignore this for their own personal satisfaction.

The core Ideas of my diagram are to show how BioGas generators are coupled Human-Environment systems. This is for two reasons, the first being that the generators are made and operated by man power; however, use natural waste from cows, people, etc. to create the methane gas product. The second is that it creates a positive feedback loop between the two as the cow poops which composts to makes methane gas for peoples use as well as fertilizer to increase crop production feeding the cows and thus making more dung. This is a system where the environment as well as humans rely on each other to better the ecosystem. My diagram is a different method then Marten because while his is an impact diagram showing directly how once thing leads to another and so on, mine is a component diagram showing how some effects are just pieces of another theme. The two diagrams are similar only in that mine follows a path of components that lead directly to the other part of the diagram showing a direct impact that the environment has on educational aspects of Indian kids. From this compare and contrast we can learn that while each method is different they both convey information about a certain topic, yet by incorporating some aspects of each types in to one it can help create a more powerful diagram.

Hi, my name is Nicholas Fudali and I am a freshman. I live in North Halls here at Penn State with the best roommate ever Josh Tubay; however, I am from East Brunswick, Nj and live both there and Belmar, Nj when not here at State. I plan on pursuing a career working on a think team such as an imagineer or part of a Lucas Films team. This course interests me because I am studying architecture and it helps us learn to study scale, especially of an area and how to fit a design in to it. Other interesting facts about me are that I played basketball and once guarded Karl Towns, and that I have my car at school just off campus so I can drive places.