In the first section of the learning assessment pick a (local, state, or national) park of your choice and place it into one of the protected area categories that we learned about in module 10. In the second section explain the biodiversity of your home town while reflecting on H.I.P.P.O. (habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, human population, & over-harvesting).

Section #1:

The park i decided to pick is a state park near my hometown.  The parks name is Tyler State Park and resides in the rural area of Newtown Pennsylvania along the Neshaminy creek.  Tyler state park is home to a wide variety of different animal and plant species.  The park provided several miles of bike and walking paths in addition to several hiking trails.  Patrons at Tyler State Park have many activities to choose from when they arrive.  You can play there 18 hole Frisbee golf course, rent a canoe and travel down the Neshaminy Creek, or explore the historic buildings that reside on the country side.  After reading the Globalization of Biodiversity Concerns section of module 10 and going over the 6 protected area categories I tried to fit Tyler State Park into one of those categories.  I believe the category that best fits Tyler State Park is category 5 (Protected Landscapes/seascapes).  I picked this because there are protected historical farm lands and buildings that reside on the property of Tyler State Park and are a big factor when it comes to drawing patrons into the park.

Section #2:

My home town is Yardley Pennsylvania.  Yardely is in the eastern part of Bucks County along the Delaware River.  Yardely is home to a lot of different species of animals (deer, squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, birds, etc…)  and plants and is primarily a rural area  with the exception of the small downtown area in Yardley Borough.  Even though Yardley is a very old town that was founded in the 1600’s it was primarily farm land until recent history when it was developed into a suburban residential area just north of Philadelphia.  After reading through module 10 and the concept of H.I.P.P.O. (habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, human population, & over-harvesting), I started to think which one of these factors is most applicable to my hometown.  I think the two biggest factors that apply to Yardely is habitat loss and human population.  Habitat loss because like I said Yardely for the majority of its history was primarily a farming community and that was lost when the town started to develop into a residential suburb of Philadelphia.  A lot of land was sold and turned into housing developments and consequently animals that used that land before were forced to relocate.  I also picked Human population because the increase in humans in Yardely was the cause of this loss of habitat.

Section 1:

I started my diagram with just “climate change”.  I did this because climate change is the basis of this whole issue and it is an issue in its self that affects the whole world and the nations that inhabit it.  Since climate change is a very pressing issue that our world faces today it inevitably will lead to a need to find a solution that will either stabilize are resolve the world’s climate change crisis.  This need to stabilize our worlds climate was discussed in the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit in 2009.  this was good news fro the future of our world but it unfortunately wasn’t the best thing for business.  If we are successful in finding a way to become less dependent on fossil fuels or eliminate them entirely we will see a massive redirection of billions of dollars which will affect many nations economic well being, some for the better and some for the worse.  This potential redirection of wealth triggered several unethical actions by several nations, including the US and China.  These questionable actions are all to promote each nations own agendas and to make sure that they come out on top after the Copenhagen Accord begins to redirect billions.  The US was found to be requesting personal intelligence on leaders of foreign nations from the UN on several issues, one of which being climate change.  This information that was acquired lead to the US offering financial “support” to foreign nations in order to get them to support the US’ agenda.  The US wasn’t alone in the unethical actions.  China implemented “spear phishing attacks” on the office of US climate change envoy.  These attacks contained a code that would give hackers full access to sensitive intelligence, luckily these attacks were unsuccessful.

section 2:

The Wiki-leaks situation brought a lot of light to an issue that affects the world.  Even though there was a handful of unethical actions during this scandal the basis of the it is good.  The world’s super powers are taking an interest in the well-being of our ecosystem and the practices that are threatening to damage it.  When comes to the issue of the cables being leaked people are on the fence about how they feel about it.  I personally think that its okay that the public knows about the events taking place in our world’s governments.  I think that keeping things a secret is never a good idea because eventually something like the Wiki-leaks incident will happen and people will be upset.  If governments are upfront about issues they are trying to solve and alliances they are trying to make than it will be better for the public and will give the public a sense of involvement in its government’s objectives.  Even though I am in favor of the public knowing about the State Department Cables I am not particularly as happy about the way the US conducted the climate change diplomacy.  After reading the article it seems as though a lot of countries, including the US, were dealing with some sketchy strategies in order to gain power.  Instead of taking the opportunity to try and make the world a more sustainable place, nations used the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit/Accord as a tool to gain power.  When unethical strategies are being implemented I want, and expect, the US to be the moral high ground.

Part 1:

I was born in Northeast Philadelphia but have spent most of my life in Yardley, PA.  Yardley is located in Bucks Country which is about 30 minutes north of Philadelphia and 10 minutes from Trenton. Yardley is primarily an automobile suburb because it is in a lot of farm land so things are pretty spread out, except for in the borough which is a small “downtown” and mostly pedestrian oriented. From the 2010 census about 2,500 people live in Yardley. I am very connected to Yardley because I have spent most of my life their. Also when I lived in Philly I traveled to Yardley to play hockey and met a lot of friends so when we moved I was around all my friends and got to go to school with them in the Pennsbury school district.

Part 2:

The first city I am going to talk about is Beacon Hill which is located in Boston, MA. I chose this city because it reminds me a little bit of how the borough is in Yardely. Like Beacon Hill, Yardely is very historic and was founded in 1683, so it has a historic feel in its architecture and layout. Even though this layout is very appealing to walk a lot of residents still drive as their primary  from of travel. I Like how Beacon Hill promotes walking which is good for everyone involved. Walking results in less infrastructure costs because the roads aren’t being abused by cars and walking promotes healthy living for the residents. I believe that this approach can be adopted by Yardley and improve the city’s sustainability.

The second city I chose is Copenhagen, Denmark. I found Copenhagen very interesting because bike travel is considered a norm there and here bikers are almost considered a nuisance. It was a big risk they took disallowing cars in the main street of the city in 1962 but it ended up working wonderfully. I also like how Copenhagen changed old parking lots into town squares and they now have eight for residents to enjoy. I think that their approach to sustainability is a unique and very effective one that can be implemented in any city, including Yardley, PA.  With the close proximity of businesses and activities in Yardley Borough I think they could close the main street, just like Copenhagen, and remain to be just as, if not more, successful in there economy. Also the benefit for the residents and the environment would be massive, less car emissions, and more exercise for residents.

1. The first case study I chose is located in Paris during the Lima Paris Action Agenda thematic session on Buildings. The case study is discussing the desire to reduce global building emissions by 50% by 2030. http://www.wbcsd.org/Pages/EDocument/EDocumentDetails.aspx?ID=16630&NoSearchContextKey=true
   1.  In my case study WBCSD’s low carbon technology partnership initiative (LCTPI) is meeting in Paris, France along with 150+ business and 70+ partners to come up with the development of climate changing technologies. In this article they are discussing how they can reduce the worlds building emissions by 50% by the year 2030. This is a global initiative to eliminate unnecessary energy use in our buildings, which is the largest source of energy consumption in our global economies. One way they will help organizations around the world develop more efficient practices is with their “Energy Efficiency Toolkit for Buildings” this toolkit will provide organizations a variety of methods to be more energy efficient and give them models that will best fit them. This case study relates to the sustainability development section in our module because it is a way that we can achieve desirable development that is also sustainable, which is a major goal for our society.
2. The second case study is a little more specific, as opposed to the first case study. It is located in Reno, Nevada and is titled “Living with Limited Resources”. http://www.patagonia.com/us/contribution/patagonia.go?assetid=1964
   1. This case study was conducted by the outdoor recreation company, Patagonia.  Its purpose is to show how they are making efforts in within their organization to promote more energy efficient buildings and a more energy efficient company. In their quest to have a sustainable business Patagonia is tapping into a variety of methods to develop a sustainable environment. They have technology on the forefront of energy efficiency, such as “Skylights track the sun and translucent roof-mounted smoke vents reflect natural light into the Reno Service Center”. They also have things as simple as motion detectors that turn off lights when no one is in the room. All in all Patagonia is embodying the concept of sustainability and operates with that in mind everyday. They are a small example of how we can achieve our major goal as a society, To develop as we desire but remaining sustainable in the process.
3. This past summer I lived in Denver, Colorado while I was on internship. Both of the case studies that I have discussed relate very much to Denver. Being from  Philadelphia, a place that isn’t quite on the forefront of green initiatives, I realized all the efforts that Denver, and the surrounding communities, are making in pursuit of an energy efficient city. It was commonplace to see rows of houses/office building with solar panels all over them in efforts to harness the suns energy. Also most things in Denver are recycled local products, including building materials, which helps reduce the rate at which we are using our natural resources. From my case studies I think we can learn that energy efficiency isn’t a difficult thing to achieve in our buildings, and it is critical that we do achieve it because buildings are the worlds #1 source of greenhouse emissions.

1A – I am from Morrisville PA, which is just 20 minutes north of Philadelphia. Since my home is in such close proximity to a major city, such as Philly, we get our water supply from the same place. There are two water processing plants that produce the water for the great Philly area. The first water plant is the Belmont and Queen Lane plant. This plant takes its water from the Schuylkill river and treats the water for bacteria and other harmful contagions. All of the water treated at this plant is sent into the city. The second one is the Samuel S. Baxter plant, which takes water from the Delaware river and processes it to a usable quality. After all of the water is cleared of all debris, bacteria, etc… it is then pumped out to the city and surrounding suburbs. One of the destinations is the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority, who test the water again and send it into the county. Once the water is finished being used at a residence/business it travels through sewers back to the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority.

1B – February 8, 2016

15 Minute Shower = 75 G

Brush Teeth = 0.5 G

Bathroom = 6 G

Hands/Face Wash = 1 G

Drinking Water = 0.25 G

Total = 82.75 G

1C – I am proud to say that I was successful in living a day with only two gallons of water. That being said I am not so confident that anyone would have wanted to be around me while I completed this challenge. My main tactic for conserving water was to cut out my morning shower out of my day completely. this alone drastically reduced my water consumption, but still not enough to bring it down to two gallons. My second tactic, which really helped me, was to go camping the day I was reducing my water consumption. It may sound crazy, since its the middle of February, but my roommate and I were well prepared and up for the challenge. Since I was camping I didn’t have to use a bathroom for my personal needs and basically all of my water consumption was used for drinking and some washing. Even though I was successful in living a day with only two gallons of water, It was difficult and I would not like to do it everyday. It was evident in my experiment that water consumption is based off of availability and lifestyle. Just because we live in a p[art of the world where water is readily available to us doesn’t mean we should keep consuming water a the rate we are.

1. Is it more important to be a good person or to perform good acts?
   1. Initially when I looked at this question I thought “well of course it’s more important to be a good person”.  The more I thought about it though, the more I began to think that its not as obvious as I had previously thought. I definitely think that both, being a good person and performing good acts, are important but in the end I think that performing good acts is the more ethical choice. I am justifying my choice in two ways. the first is, if you perform good acts then a greater number of people can benefit from these acts and therefore have a better impact. Secondly if you are performing good acts then there is a good chance that you are also being a good person and you can have the best of both worlds.  of course there is the possibility that you are not a good person and you are just performing good acts but I have never encountered a person of that kind. So in the end I feel that it is more ethical to be a person that performs good acts.
2. Does the process by which decisions are made matter more than the outcomes of these decisions?
   1. I had some trouble deciding what side I am on when it comes to this question. I do believe that it is very important that matters be handled correctly and in a procedural manner. this procedural approach to crime is what keeps our society from crumbling into anarchy. Unfortunately there are flaws to this approach and it sometimes leads to bad individuals not serving time for crimes they may have committed and therefore leaving potential dangers in society. When things of this nature occur it is easy to think “well why doesn’t someone just do something about it instead of the police being held back by procedural constraints. This also presents some issues for society. When it is cool to see someone act as a Batman type hero and take justice into their own hands, what they are doing, most of the time, is illegal. Sometimes these vigilante acts can escalate and then that person is just as bad as the criminals they were trying to stop. So I will be on the side of procedural justice, because I think it has more good aspects to it than bad and in the end helps society more.
3. Do ecosystems matter for their own sake, or do they only matter to the extent that they impact humans?
   1. Unlike the other two questions that I answered for this module, I had no problem deciding where I stand on this question. In the history of this planet we are pretty new to the club. In my opinion it is crazy to think that this world is here to serve humans and that’s it. The ecosystem matters for their own sake because they re animals, just like us humans, who are trying to live their lives. If we as humans think that the ecosystem is just for us to use then we will undoubtedly run this planet dry of resources and sooner then later there will be no ecosystem for anyone to live in. So in the end I definitely think that the ecosystem does matter for its own sake and it is definitely more important than just the impact that it has on humans.

In my diagram I’m showing the connection between the family in the village and the biogas generators. As seen in the video children often collect sticks along withe their mothers in order to have fuel for the home and for cooking. In addition to the trees and shrubs acting as fuel the farm now becomes a fuel source not only for the family but also for the new biogas generator that is being used. Once the biogas generator is being used then all of the ecosystem becomes fuel for the human population of the village. And with this new kind of energy production the women have the opportunity to create a fertilizer business out of the waste the generators produce. Now instead of just giving the village a way to cook with no smoke, the biogas generators give the family a chance to be fully self sufficient and makes their lifestyle sustainable for years to come. When comparing my diagram to figure 1.5 in the Marten reading I see some similarities and also some differences. In both diagrams we chose children and human population as social systems and all of the ecosystems i picked were also in the Marten reading. Where our diagrams differ is my choice to put ‘women’ in my diagram. I feel as though the women in these villages are a very important social system that needs to be taken into account. We have similarities because i thin k there is no way around certain systems such as the biogas generators and human populations. We have differences because the diagram is subject to the eyes of the creator, some systems might be perceived as more important than others by certain people. I think, from the comparison of my diagram to the one in figure 1.5 of the Marten reading, we can lean more about the women’s role in the villages and also their roles  in making the villages more sustainable and self sufficient.

Hi everyone, my name is Ryan Daley and I am a senior here at Penn Sate studying professional golf management. I currently live in the Meridian Apartments downtown and have been there since my sophomore year. I grew up in North East Philadelphia and then eventually moved to Yardley which is in the suburbs of Philadelphia. After I complete my studies I plan on pursuing a career in golf club management and merchandising. I am taking class because it satisfies a requirement for my major but I also have an interest in geography. Some other facts about me are I played hockey for almost all my life and played at the collegiate level my freshman year before injuries sidelined me and I decided to transfer to Penn State. I also avidly back country ski and snowboard, and hope to move out to the mountain west in the near future.

After reading all the material in the first module I became aware of the many ways  geography can be useful and it was definitely to my surprise. An issue that was brought up in the module that I am interested in exploring a little more is the climate change problems that our world is facing. A lot of people in the world either have no idea that climate change exists, or refuse to acknowledge it as a legitimate problem. I think that the study and practice of geography can help remedy this lack of knowledge by providing more maps that display the effects that climate change is having on our world. Hopefully these maps can change the way people think about their energy consumption and pollution practices.