Assignment: Explain in 200-250 words how invasive species are bad for Biodiversity.  Include a systems diagram.

Invasive species are one of the sneakiest threats to biodiversity out of all of the factors. The reason is because total wildlife population may stay the same, while one single species is taking over.  Say we have a small lake with a certain fish’s population skyrocketing.  Most people will see this and think it’s good news, more fish means more biodiverse to those who are uneducated.  In reality, this one kind of fish is taking up all the food, space, and other resources in the lake, while the other fish get less and less.  After awhile, you will be left with only the one kind of fish, unless a major change happens.  Suppose this one fish is also a fierce predator to the other fish.  This means that as its population is going up, more and more other fish are getting killed at an exponential rate.  This can happen to any kind of animal, not just fish.  There had been a species of bird living in Guam for years, until World War II when a cargo ship accidentally carried over a deadly snake.  These snakes continued to kill every bird, until they were nearly extirpated from the area.  This is one example of why we must be mindful of what animals we are taking to what places

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2. As you can see according to the chart, climate change is definitely connected to the wiki leaks situation.  The thing that started it was the over emission of green-house gases. This led to the gradual onset of climate change, which has been talked about for years already.  This climate change being as serious as it was, led to officials creating the Copenhagen Accord Plan, which was an attempt to cut back a lot of greenhouses gases and other harmful products that may have been hurting the environment.  However, not every nation had signed this bill to protect the environment.  When all these other countries heard of the secret negotiations that the US and its allies were involved in from the leak, they were obviously upset.  This forced the United States to pay hundreds of other countries to participate in this act, which in the end cost the United States thousands of dollars.  If the wiki leaks had never happened, these secret documents would never have made the public which would would have allowed us to continue our ongoing negotiations, without having to pay thousands to all other countries.  This is where the bad comes in from these leaks.

3.  I still think that everyone has a right to see these documents, no matter how much money it may cost the government.  The people of this country are the ones who pay taxes, and if we can’t even be informed on what our government is doing with this money the citizens will start to revolt.  This is somewhat related to the idea of sustainability, where we the government has to give us information in order to keep us happy, but also wants to keep as much as they can away in order to save money.  The way that wiki leaks does this however, should not be allowed because it is breaching the trust of every employee in the government.  If nobody in our government can even trust each other, there is no way that our country can continue to thrive and develop.  I believe information should be free for all, but if you have to break the law to obtain this information than you are just as bad as the people trying to hide it from everyone.

According to the Nathan World Map of Natural Hazards, the biggest hazards in my hometown are tropical cyclones.  Apparently, these winds can even reach up to 300 kilometers per hour, which could easily devastate an entire city.  My home, being located in Bucks County, also is susceptible to hail storms, which I have seen multiple times before.  However, I feel these findings from the map may not be 100 percent accurate.  While I do see hail once in a while, it has never been to the point of it causing danger.  When it comes to “tropical cyclones”, I think the wind is fairly calm where I am from, especially compared to what we have been experiencing here in State College lately.  The Nathan World Map of Natural Hazards does do a good job at getting the general sense for hazards in your area, but there is definitely some discrepancies when it gets to the more local level.

One type of hazard that really interests me is Biological Hazards.  These can include many types of diseases and viruses that are capable of spreading from human to human.  There was recently an outbreak of Elizabethkingia meningoseptica, a disease that affected 44 people and killed 17 of those.  If this were to happen in my hometown, I think the sickness would not spread nearly as far as it did in Wisconsin.  I live in an area where the population is very spread out, so it would be much less likely to come in contact with someone affected by the disease.  Also, we live a short drive from Philadelphia which has multiple very good medical facilities.  The one thing that could make it a little more prominent would be the fact that there are a good amount of children and elders in the area, who are more likely to get infected.  When it comes to scale, I would think that this town was more populated than were I am from, which may have caused it to spread even easier.  Even though it was only 44 people infected, that is a huge number for this deadly of a disease. Due to the probable smaller scale of my hometown, the impact would most likely be a lot less.  The citizens of my hometown would be much less vulnerable to this outbreak than the citizens of a city like Philadelphia or New York.  The fact that these places are so crowded, and also have a high level of people in poverty, would make the outbreak much more likely and much more severe.  Biological hazards like this one heavily depend on where they occur.

My hometown is a suburb about 45 minutes from Philadelphia called Ivyland.  I would definitely consider this town an automobile suburb, due to the fact that I have only one neighbor that would be considered even close to walking distance.  The population of my town is probably somewhere close to two or three hundred, because of the way the houses are so spread apart.  One cool thing about my town is that it is almost surrounded by woods.  This allows for some awesome views especially when the leaves start to change in the fall.  It is definitely a different feel than it would be living in a city, but after getting used to the peacefulness of being secluded, it is hard to live in a crowded area.

One city that caught my attention from the module was the urban farming in Chicago.  These farms will be able to supply hundreds of people with food, which may be a problem in a big city, but more importantly, it provides a relaxed and scenic view for its citizens.  Gardening can be a huge stress reliever to many people, and by giving these people places to grow natural plants is very important.  This relates to my hometown, Ivyland, because we already have tons of plants and wildlife all around us.  As I stated in the first paragraph, these views always provided me with a sense of relaxation or calmness even in the most stressful of times.  To incorporate this into many cities would, in my opinion, lower a lot of the anxiety and depression that seems to be running rampant today.

Another city that has really good ideas when it comes to sustainability is Curibita, Brazil.  They claim to have one of best subway systems in the world, and it could be saving not only the consumers, but also the world.  This system has busses running just about every minute, while still keeping their service cheap and affordable.  In my hometown, there is virtually no public transportation at all.  This results in everyone driving a car, everyone having to buy gas, and worst of all: everyone polluting the environment,  If my town took an approach more similar to Curibitas, we could save ourselves cash while also saving the environment.

I feel social norms are a huge factor in whether a person tries a certain food or not.  If you see a bunch of other people eating a certain food and really enjoying it, it is natural to want to try this over a random, less well known dish.  For me, this meal was sushi.  My family was never really into sushi, so I had never tried it up until a few months ago.  All of my friends had been raving about how good it was and were so surprised that I had never tried it before so, of course, I gave it a shot.  When I finally got my plate, I was really excited to see what all the hype had been about.  After a few bites, I came to the realization that I really wasn’t a huge fan of this food.  I now realize that I had bought into the hype of sushi that had been going around, even though almost every person in my family didn’t like it.   This shows how social norms and expectations can influence you to try something you may not have tried before.

While giving into to social pressures may seem harmless at times (like in the example above), sometimes it can lead to negative consequences.  In todays society obesity is a huge problem that seems to be growing more and more every year.  Part of the problem is that millions of healthy Americans are eating at places like McDonalds or Burger King.  While this may be a well deserved treat if left to a few times a month, it becomes a problem when it is happening multiple times a week.  When people that already have trouble controlling their eating habits see all these people eating this terrible food and turning out fine, it puts an idea in their head that the food is really not that bad.  Societies outlook on nutrition can be very persuasive in whether someone eats a certain way, whether for better or for worse.

One case study that really interests me from the given websites comes from the small island of Sri Lanka. The Indian Ocean Nation is planning to capture all the heavy rainfall in the upcoming weeks, and use it during irrigation “dry periods” which seem to be happening more and more often on the island. The organization also plans to use the water for electricity, in a system similar to that of a dam. The goal is to adapt to the climate change that has already occurred, and prepare for even more in the future. This relates to our class because this organization is developing in a way, which will benefit the human society, while also helping the ecosystem to have live plants all year round. This is a very first sign of the effects of global climate change. The article can be found at:

http://www.irinnews.org/news/2015/12/07.

Another case study I found to be intriguing takes place in Uganda. The country has been trying to improve for a while now, but it finally seemed like things were working out. However, recently a project that would have helped pave roads all throughout the country has been cancelled due to sexual assault claims. The people of the villages in which the construction is happening have filed multiple reports of sexual abuse and mistreatment by the employees. This relates to the class by being an example of a developmental downside. The people of this country would have been much happier if the road development never happened, and they aren’t getting much benefit from it anytime soon. Development can lead to very positive things, but also some very negative things. This article can be found at:

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jan/12/world-bank-cancels-uganda-road-sexual-assault-claims.

These cases are somewhat related to an issue with development from my hometown, in Bucks County, PA. We had a new restaurant planned to open, which everyone was very excited for, as there weren’t many other options at the time this took place. Once the construction started however, roads were closed for weeks and people began to become very frustrated with the whole process. The way this can relate to both cases is because it was meant to improve the lives of everyone in the area (such as in the first case) but it actually became a huge negative for everyone that lived in the area (not nearly as severe as in the second case, but the same concept.) This just shows how in every development, there are downsides that need to be taken into consideration, but sometimes these negatives can leave long-lasting impacts.

My hometown, and as it seems many others, actually uses an underground well system to supply water to most of the houses.  The well for our house can be seen from the front window, looking like two identical large mounds.  We even planted grass back on top to make it look even more natural.  To get the water from here to our house, we have a high-pressure jet pump in our basement, which is connected to the underground well.  This jet pumps water into two huge containers that can store it for future use.  The only problem with this system is that during a power outage, we can only use the finite amount of water that we have saved up.  After the water is used for cooking, cleaning, or bathing, it is then filtered back into the ground so it can be used again in the system.  I feel is one of the better systems out there for water usage as it uses very little power and is very sustainable.

My attempt to live on two gallons of water a day came close being successful, due to my habit of drinking almost two gallons of bottled water alone.  The showering was the first thing I cut back on, taking one that take probably less than 5 minutes total.  Next, as I brushed my teeth I made sure to turn off the water instead of letting it run the entire time. The only downfall was my habit to have a water bottle on me at almost all times of the day. This was definitely my biggest priority, because I hate the uncomfortable feeling of being dehydrated.  Geography would make a huge difference in this experiment because if I were to live in a much hotter climate, I would be sweating a lot more doing random activities.  This will lead me to take one or even two extra showers.  There are also many other reasons it could change, such as a lack of access to water.  Overall, I feel my experiment went a lot better than I thought it would have.

1. I believe that the actions a person takes are far more important than their particular virtues.  A person can say anything they want, but they will not be taken seriously if they do not follow what they say.  If a politician speaks about how pollution is a rising problem and must be stopped, yet continues to pass laws favoring high-pollution companies, most of the public won’t consider them an ecocentric person.  Likewise, if a person complains all day about how global warming is a huge issue, but continues to drive a gas-guzzling Hummer to work everyday, their words mean nothing.  However, this does not mean that virtues are not important.  Moral virtues are what, most of the time, lead to moral actions.  If a businessman truly does not believe that global warming is a real issue, he most-likely will not take any steps towards fixing it.  Virtue and action may go hand and hand, but what you think means very little if it is the opposite of what you do.

4. In my opinion, the ecosystem should matter more in the way it impacts humans rather than its own sake.  The first reading for this module consisted of a man trying convince an audience that a certain national park should not be turned into an energy-creating dam.  Although this article is very well written, I disagree with his main argument.  While the park may be a “grand” place, the benefits we can gain from building a dam a far too important to overlook.  The clean energy that a dam will provide can power almost an entire city,  which, in the long run, will end up helping the ecosystem.  This is just one example, however, I feel most situations like these should be looked at from an anthropocentric point of view.  If we pass up on opportunities to evolve and benefit as a species just to preserve nature,  we miss the chance to progress as humans.

5. I also believe that the pleasure and pain of humans is much more important than that of non-humans.  One of the reasons why humans are on top of (or even removed from) the food chain is because we learned to work together to get things such as food and warmth.  Ever since the beginning of our species, this will usually result in the death of other animals to be used as meat and/or clothing.  While we shouldn’t go out of our way to harm these other species, we also should not hesitate if we need to use them to benefit ourselves.  While a horse or a dog may still be able to suffer, it comes nowhere near close to the severity of a human-being, our own kind, being in pain.  Species sticking together is a natural part of life and while we shouldn’t go out of our way to make non-humans be in pain or suffer, we should still prioritize us over them.

Biogas in India is one of the simplest real-life examples of how a social system can impact an ecosystem and vice versa. The ecosystem starts as just natural resources, such as livestock and trees, as shown on the diagram. These natural resources are eventually turned into fuel, because of the societies necessities of cleanliness, food, and some sort of income. As the demand for these grow with a growing population, the people begin to produce their own crops, adding to the natural resources of the ecosystem. This cycle will continue to grow until eventually; the soil dries up and can’t be used anymore. This is one of the easiest ways to understand the “IPAT” equation, because as the population rises, the impact on the ecosystem (the soil being used up) becomes greater until it reaches its carrying capacity, in which the population will have to either make a significant change, or begin to drop.

This chart differs from figure 1.5 mostly because of where they both go into detail. The chart that I have made goes a lot more into what they are using the resources on specifically, (cooking, cleaning, money, etc.) instead of why they need these things. Figure 1.5 has more detail into why these things are in such demand (the population rising, resulting in the need for more food.) I feel in terms of the big picture, these diagrams are both very similar, with different details in different areas.

Hi everyone. My name is Seth Goldberg, a first-year engineering student currently enrolled (like the rest of this class) in Penn State University. As of right now, I am living in the infamous East Halls along with the other freshman. I grew up in a small town outside of Philadelphia called Newtown where I have lived all my life. Once I graduate from here, I hope to work with some form of audio engineering, whether it be designing stereos and speakers or helping design the inside of concert venues because of my love for all types of music. This course specifically interests me because I feel a lot of people in our society overlook how dangerous some issues are and how soon they can significantly impact our planet.

One very important issue to me that I hope to learn more about is the idea of climate change. With all the natural disasters that have happened recently (including: multiple earthquakes in Japan, an almost three year drought in California, and much more turbulent weather) it is hard to think that we are not destroying this planet. With an issue this widespread, the problem is obviously not a single event, so it interests me to learn about the variety of causes that have lead to climate change instead of being taught that it is solely caused the burning of fossil fuels. Along with the causes, I would like to learn about what we can do to save this planet. I am looking forward to an entertaining and informative semester learning about the place we all call home.