1. Research 6 regions and make a chart, 3 containing good biodiversity and 3 lacking biodiversity from your knowledge based off of the module 10 reading.
2. Pick 2 regions, one containing good biodiversity and one containing bad biodiversity from the chart above and explain the reasons as to why the biodiversity is good or bad.
3. Think about your hometown. Would you consider it has good or bad biodiversity? Why do you think this? What are ways to improve biodiversity in your hometown for the future?

1.

2. One of the regions I researched containing good biodiversity is the Amazon Rainforest. Being one of the biggest rainforests in the world, the Amazon is home to more than half the world’s biodiversity. The amazon has such great biodiversity from both anthropocentric and ecocentric reasons. Examples of anthropocentrism in the amazon relate to creating medicines from their natural resources and using their natural crops (fruits and sugar cane) for food.   Ecocentricism in the amazon is very complex. Each relationship between species has a different outcome. Hunting, preying, and eating and reproducing are a natural and balanced activities each specie experiences, creating extreme biodiversity in the area. On the other hand, Nigeria is a region that is lacking biodiversity due to deforestation. They are one of the most specie threatened regions in the world. Over the past years Nigeria has destroyed 55.7% of its forest. This deforestation resulted from being a developing country. The trees are used for logging, timber exports, agriculture, domestic purposes, and fuel, which are all problematic factors.

3. I live in a suburban town. There are many neighborhoods and commercial buildings but there is also a bay and unused land. I wouldn’t say my town has great biodiversity but I don’t think it has terrible biodiversity. I think the buildings take away the natural land species live in, car pollution can kill species, and garbage lying around can also cause a lot of harm to the biodiversity in my area. However, the bay is extremely clean and houses many fish and the land is fairly clean and healthy. Some ways to improve the biodiversity in my town is to use less cars, stop building more buildings, and cleaning up the streets. However I think it is impossible to abandon the use of automobiles, I think it is possible to reduce the amount a person drives a car a day. I believe those three factors are the main reason for the decreasing biodiversity. There are towns that are much filthier than my town that gives me inspiration to keep my town clean and healthy to help the biodiversity stay alive.

My diagram explains the connections of the Wikileaks Cables to climate change. Since the US was aiming to dig up dirt on nations in regards to handling global warming and financial aid, they sent a secret cable seeking human intelligence from diplomats, asking the diplomats to provide evidence of UN environmental treaty circumstances. However, the US continued to become involved other ways by sending a cable describing a spear phishing attack on the office of US climate change envoy. Taking place in Beijing, 5 people received emails that were credibly disguised but actually contained a malicious code that hacked their information. The attack was unsuccessful but lead to the discovery of the Copenhagen agreement which was certain nations limiting their greenhouse gas emissions to better the environment. The US further took great interest in this accord and encouraged smaller island states to join and become their best allies due to their need for financing. Another cable that was revealed was the US sending a threat to Zenawi, resulting in the participation in the Accord from Ethiopia. This territory was uncertain about its involvement in the Accord because a lack of trust was present from president Obama. A meeting was then held to assure these smaller states that financial loyalty will be provided, eventually convincing full engagement in the Accord and avoiding climate destruction of 3^rd world countries. One let down was that the Dutch refused to join because they are against using financial aid for political leverage. However, to compensate for this loss Saudi Arabia, one of the top richest countries in the world, agreed to join in order to diversify their economy and become petroleum free. Overall, the Accord has about 75% of the countries that acquire almost more than 80% of the greenhouse gas emissions that will result in more control over the environment and climate change.

I think the State Department Cables should have been made public but in a different way. I think it was improper to “leak” the cables. Yes, leaking the cables unexpectedly leaked the truth and real information I feel as if it was immoral. Rather I strongly think that the US State Department should have set up a press conference and explained the situation. Although revealing the cables this way could cause withholding information or simply lying to the public because the State Departments actions were inappropriate even though it was for a good cause. Threatening Zenawi was completely inappropriate and unnecessary. Instead of stating in the cable, “sign the accord or discussion ends now,” the State Department could have negotiated with the representative to make circumstances fair for each side, rather than giving them an all or nothing option. However, the immaturity of the situation was somewhat made up for when a meeting was held to assure loyalty. I think nations should want to join the Accord not join just because they were bribed or threatened. Even though greenhouse has emissions are extremely important regarding climate change, I also think meetings should be held for each nation to focus on a specific way they can help climate change weather it be focusing on pollution or using natural products to reduce the emissions. Wanting to work together to accomplish this single goal is the key to helping climate change.

On the world map, my town is located at the right middle edge of North America. On the Nathan World Map of Natural Hazards the region where I live is shaded yellow, zone 1, meaning that earthquakes are not that common, which I agree with. New York is considered zone 2 for hailstorms, which surprised me because I have experienced multiple hailstorms before. For winter storms this region is considered zone 3, which is appropriate, based on the amount of severe winter storms I have been in. I am surprised that my town is considered zone 3 for tornadoes because I have never experienced being in a tornado nor have any of my older family members that have been in Oyster Bay, NY longer than me. It is predictable that New York is categorized in zone 1 for wildfires because there is not much unused, dry land that would cause these fires. This map overall was accurate based on the history of natural hazards.

I was interested in a biological hazard in Angola, Africa on February 16^th, 2016 that was last updated March 23th 2016, meaning the disaster is still occurring. This biological hazard is from bacteria and viruses causing fatal disease to humans, known as the yellow fever. This viral disease is caused from mosquitos. Symptoms that occur are fever, chills, nausea, achiness, and loss of appetite. If these symptoms do not go away, liver damage will occur and cause the skin to turn yellow. Whether or not my hometown can experience yellow fever is slim to none. Africa is prone to this biological hazard due to their tropical location and hot weather. When its warm out the misquotes are hunting for humans, whereas New York weather is quite different. Yes, in the summer it gets hot and there are misquotes looking to bite but there are not TOO MANY of them to cause this disease. Also people in Africa are exposed to misquotes all year long whereas the people in New York are only exposed for a few months. Angola Africa has about 21.27 million people and having 1132 people infected is not that many compared to how many people are living In the region, however if this disease infected 1132 people in New York, having a population of 8.4 million, it would cause more damage.   However, knowing that New York has much more advanced prevention techniques, this disease is bound to harm more people in Africa then new york, causing it to affect them more. The vulnerability towards this disease in my hometown varies due to their living situations and money. The people who live in more lavish parts of town would be less likely to be infected because they have the proper protection and resources to prevent and cure the disease. On the other hand, those who are less wealthy are exposed easier maybe due to not getting the right medical attention or not having a secure home to protect them from misquotes. An important factor to avoiding this disease is to be educated about it. My town could improve its vulnerability if they were aware of the danger of mosquitoes and if they were aware of the severity of this disease.

New York experiences a series of natural hazards, some being hurricanes, winter storms, flooding, and earthquakes. It is proven that one natural hazard leads to another. Whenever I experienced a hurricane or even a simple rainstorm, my basement would always flood. This would force us to rip apart the floor and insert a new one. Also during tornadoes, trees would be knocked down and grass would be destroyed. This takes months and sometimes years of recovery and cleaning up.

http://emergencypreparedness.cce.cornell.edu/disasters/Pages/default.aspx

There are a few solutions to avoid natural hazards in my town. For rainstorms and flooding an idea is that people can start raising their houses like people do in more tropical areas such as Florida. This can prevent the need to spend money on redoing whatever part of the house that got destroyed. Another way to reduce natural hazards is beforehand preparation. If the town is warned that a tornado or hurricane or any natural disaster is coming they can prepare for it. This includes activities such as getting gas, getting food, getting water, getting generators, getting flashlights or getting anything necessary for their daily life.

1. I live in Oyster Bay, New York, a small town on Long Island. I would categorize my town as a mix between a Streetcar Suburb and Automobile Suburb. Many people from my town commute to the city, in this case New York City, which is the metropolitan area, via car making it an automobile suburb. There are many people in residential and commercial areas roughly 300,000 people. However, there are many sidewalks in the neighborhood and houses are often walking distance from each other making it a streetcar suburb. I do not live in a neighborhood, I live on a block therefore I am located farther from my town’s services and have no sidewalks unlike those who do live in a neighborhood in my town. Many large facilities such as supermarkets, shopping centers, and offices are located in a distance from the town that a car is much needed. However, smaller shops such as nail salons and little boutiques are in walking distance. I moved to Oyster Bay when I was in 2^nd grade so I made most of my childhood memories here and learned to love this place.
2. The first place I am going to discuss is Bogota. Prohibiting cars to be used every Sunday and holiday can benefit my town’s safety and simply make my town more interesting. Especially in the summer or spring when the weather is nice many people go for runs, bike rides and other activities along the streets. Having no cars on certain days or even reducing speed limits will increase safety and decrease chaos. Having Ciclovis will also benefit my town by bringing the people together to have some fun by doing activities such as dances and aerobics. The problem however is getting people to agree with this event. Cars are used all day everyday to be efficient and manage time. For most people, if they found out cars were banned for a day they would not be happy.
3. Detroit and the state of Michigan use urban farming to help sustain their living. This can benefit my town because Oyster Bay is a suburban town as well. In the video, the man is growing his own crops in his backyard. Although obtaining unlimited amounts of food in my town is an option unlike Detroit, the idea of urban farming, which is pesticide free and has lower costs, results in a healthier living. Using unused or affected land and turning it into a healthy farm to grow fresh produce not only helps the people of our community, but it also helps the environment. There are several places in my town that are suitable to transform into an urban farm in order to improve sustainability.

1. A personal experience in which food choice was influenced by the social norm was in high school. The normal thing to eat for breakfast was a bacon egg and cheese breakfast sandwich from Harborside Deli because it was fast and neighboring my school. For lunch it seemed everybody bought the schools lunch whether it be chicken fingers and French fries or a sandwich from their deli, because they did not have enough time between classes to go out to eat for lunch. Although this food was far from delicious, everyone ate it anyway. Knowing my food intake and my class mates food intake is more than just 1 serving of breakfast and 1 serving of lunch, I would stop at the vending machines located in my school lobby almost 3 times a day and buy candy or chips. This would help entertain me in class as well as others. The influence of my eating habits during high school was simply from time rationing.
2. Eating according to the social norm at my high school came with two societal issues: obesity and not getting enough of certain necessary nutritional needs. A major society issue, especially in the United States, is obesity. My school has the current technology they need to serve us processed foods. These processed foods contain an abundance of fake meat such as my chicken nuggets, preservatives such as the deli section in the cafeteria and actual technology such as friars to fry the French fries and other sides that create the unhealthy eating habits that lead to obesity. On the healthy pyramid, the main consumption is vegetables and the least needed consumption is unhealthy proteins. I find this interesting because most students at my high school are consuming the unhealthiest foods most and the healthiest foods least. For example, I ate cookies, candy, and fried food everyday rather than vegetables and lean protein simply because my school did not offer those types of food. I think if the school is aware that the norm for eating is buying their lunch they should show effort to make improvements in a healthier selection of food to offer.

World Danger’s Need to be Fixed

 Cameroon, located in West Africa, is currently being eaten by the sea. Families and shelters have been destroyed multiple times from ongoing storms that create regional erosion and costal flooding. Being a third world country, citizens of Cameroon cannot afford to rebuild their home more than once, forcing thousands of people to migrate to Kousseri, a village close to Cameroon.   Since climate change is almost inevitable, especially in an underdeveloped country, the government has limited power. Some means of fixing that the government implemented is flood prevention and mitigation strategies, dry area water management, policies for citizens’ movements to safer areas, and improving agriculture productivity. Hans Rosling’s claim that, “the division between the more-developed and less-developed countries no longer exists. Instead, there is a continuum of development around the world with no gap in the middle,” supports Cameroon’s decision to implement policies to help prevent the dangers of climate change. On the GDP map, Africa is ranked under the one of the lowest GDPs. This is because they are still strategizing on how to better their country’s conditions which categorize them as a developing country rather than an underdeveloped country as mentioned above. Knowing the history of Africa’s agricultural production makes it credible that it is a developing country. Since agriculture did not originate in Africa, it is a setback to their productivity compared to other countries. Also another setback is the pollution from developed countries. Sometimes developed countries’ waste products end up in developing countries, polluting their land and air, making their produce life-threatening.

http://www.irinnews.org/node/255785

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a workshop that aims to create cheap technologies that improve living conditions of poorer countries. Once they realized that 90% of the research development was devoted to improving technology for the wealthier people, they came up with solutions to switch the development research to help the poor. Scientists worked with materials that could be afforded by the world’s poorest people, materials that could be fixed easily, and fit technology that is easy to live with. These researchers are trying to create a sustainable development for the poor. Materials being used are eco friendly and people friendly, in other words are healthy and safe. It is known that poor people live in bad conditions and usually die young. In the development maps in Module 5, the countries with the least gross GDP also have the least life expectancy. This is because poor people cannot get their daily needs and resources they need to keep a healthy life.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/11/science/11mit.html?_r=0

 Over the summer I live in East Hampton, New York. Case one is similar to where I live because East Hampton is affected by storms as well. A few years ago a massive hurricane named Sandy destroyed my house. My house was located on the beach near the water, similar to the citizens of Cameroon, and was flooded and gone. However, unlike the people of Cameroon, I was able to rebuild my house stronger than before. Advanced government policies like insurance allowed me to improve my living conditions such as building it farther away from the sea and putting the house on stilts, rather than leading me to move to another town. In case two, a similarity is that the people of my town are always aiming to help the poor. Not necessarily in the technical way but in other ways such as donating clothing, donating food, and donating personal time to help them. Further, technology is always improving in my town, specifically for the wealthier. Alarm systems are constantly being installed and new cars are constantly bought, rather than putting money towards technology for the ones who cannot afford luxurious items. Both of these cases taught me that government regulation can play a huge part in advancing development in my town, whether its for the poor or for the wealthy. People should donate time to help both social groups to enhance lives for the better of the world.

1-a: I live in Oyster Bay, New York, a small town on Long Island. The Oyster Bay Water District covers an area of four square miles having 48.8 miles of water main.   This district has five supply wells that produce 9.2 million gallons of water a day. Our drinking and everyday water usage comes from rivers and lakes that are distributed to industrial facilities and then distributed to homes. The sewer system sends wastewater from certain locations into the waterways that feed our water supply, rivers, and lakes via a water waste treatment plant. Our water treatment plants clean this wastewater and then send it into groundwater pumps, which are drilled into the Glacial and Magothy aquifers, that pumps five wells throughout the Oyster Bay community leading to homes. This water system is described as a loop. In other words, when sending wastewater out of the house, it essentially does the same thing by flowing in the same loop: wastewater being sent to the sewer system goes to the treatment plants and groundwater pumps to be cleaned and distributed.

1-b:

1-c: Living on only 2 gallons of water is extremely tricky. I would designate one half of a gallon to drinking water, because I do not consume a lot of water in a day. The other one half of a gallon would be used for my hygiene, such as washing my hands or attempting clean myself very lightly. The other whole gallon would be used for cooking because eating and having nutrients is very important to me. Knowing this is an impossible scenario, I failed at the attempt to only use 2 gallons of water for a day. To cut down water footprints, I did not keep the sink running while I brushed my teeth and washed my hands. When I showered I did not wash my hair; this cut my shower time down to nearly 2 minutes rather than 10. I did flush the toilet multiple times which itself consists of more than 2 gallons of water. Also, I did end up drinking more than half a gallon of water because working out made me thirsty. This experiment showed me that I waste a lot of water. In part b it shows my actions with the sink continuously running for no reason. This activity taught me not to keep the sink running and conserve water. Geography is very important to water consumption because where I live I have an unlimited supply of clean water, which explains my actions of wasting some water, whereas Haiti has a very scarce water supply which limits people to 2 gallons a day. With little or no water consumption it is impossible to sustain a healthy life. I am fortunate to live in a town where water is not an issue.

4. Do ecosystems matter for their own sake, or do they only matter to the extent that they impact humans?

Overall ecosystems matter for their own sake, however, I think they are crucial when they start to impact humans. Basically, if the ecosystems are failing then society is also failing. I think the importance of ecosystems is underrated because a majority of humanity does not care to educate themselves about how significant it is towards their current lives and futures. However, if it is heard that lives are being affected due to poor conditions of the ecosystems, society will then start to worry. For example, global warming and pollution are all popular topics that concern society. However, I believe these specific topics are popular because they affect daily lives. For example global warming results in flooding or excessive snow which can prevent people from performing daily activities such as going to work therefore they care about the problem. Pollution is also another major topic that affects people because it puts their lives in danger by tampering the food people eat and the air people breathe. Ultimately, I personally think that ecosystems are important even when they are not affecting lives, however I believe society as a whole disagrees.

5. Do the pleasure and pain of non-human animals matter as much as the pleasure and pain of humans?

I am skeptical when it comes to the pain of non-human animals versus the pain of humans. I definitely think that the pain of non-human animals is important, however, I think the pain of humans is viewed as more important by society. I say this because humans can relate to humans more than humans can relate to animals. Although this is not true for all of society, I believe it is true for a majority. For example, animals are used to fulfill our daily needs such as food and clothing. We humans do not think twice when it comes to buying meat for dinner or buying a fur coat for the winter. This proves non-human animals pain is not that important to us. Another example to explain my theory is say a news broadcast shows live footage of a human being harmed, and then shows a live footage of an animal being harmed. I personally think people would be more concerned with the harmed human rather than the harmed animal because we can relate to their pain or imagine the pain they are in.

6. Is my own life worth more than the lives of others, the same, or less?

In my opinion whether to think my life is worth more, worth less, or worth the same amount than others’ lives depends on what kind of person I am being compared to. I do think my life is extremely important. I say this because I have family and friends who affect my life and I also affect their lives. In a case where I would think my life is worth more than another person’s life would be if this person has no morals or righteousness. For a more specific example, if this person committed crimes and is unjust, I would definitely think my life is more important because compared to this person I contribute better things to society and I am a better person in society. In a case where I think my life would be worth less than another person’s life would be if I were to be unhappy with myself and not fully enjoying my life, whereas, the other person would be completely content and satisfied with their life. Lastly, to say my life is worth the same as another person’s life would be in a circumstance where we have similar lifestyles. For example, if we both are pleased with the lives we live regarding family, friends, and living conditions, I would assume the lives we live have the same value.

In my diagram I focus on how people use India’s resources to find a solution to the harmful problem of cooking on stoves. This relates to the concept in module 2, human-environment landscape, which displays how humans affect the environment and the environment affects humans. In this case the environment is negatively affecting society, more specifically, women and children. My diagram displays that women order their children to collect firewood which inevitably leads to children missing breakfast, being late to school, and not having enough time to do their homework, while also creating unsafe and unsanitary cooking conditions in the house. People suffer from irritated eyes and chest pains from the locked smoke in the house. To fix this danger the environment caused, experts decided to create Biogas Fuel Technology. This technology creates safer and cleaner cooking conditions, a cleaner environment, and allows kids to have time for their education. Additionally, this fuel creates waste that women use to sell to farmers to help support their family and education, doubling their income. This allows farmers to improve their crops and earn a greater profit. This is an example of human-environment landscape because society altered their environment to create a safer living.

When comparing my diagram to Figure 1.5 there are a few similarities and differences. Even though Figure 1.5 displays a broader version than my diagram, both figures display how the social system affects the ecosystem and how the ecosystem affects the social system. However, Marten’s diagram focuses more on the population social ranking. For example the Marten explains the generators will mainly go to the wealthy rather than the poor, creating a wider gap between the two groups, which will not totally prevent the current problem of deforestation. On the other hand, my diagram focuses on how society as a whole is improving. Analyzing Figure 1.5 allowed me to have a different perspective on this concept, from seeing a different thought-process. I think that both my diagram and Marten’s diagram are correct, however, they differ due to different interpretations of the video.

Hello, my name is Samantha D’Aversa but everyone calls me Sam. I am currently eighteen years old and freshman at Penn State living in East Halls. I am from Oyster Bay, New York, which is located on Long Island. It is a small town not many people have heard of but I am proud to call it my home. I am currently studying at the Smeal School of Business striving to become a finance major. My two sisters are also finance majors so they help me out with my studies. Also my dad has a knowledgeable background in finance, which also is benefiial. After I graduate I plan on moving to New York City to obtain a job in the financial field. I have a high interest in this class because everyday I observe how the environment impacts society, vice versa. I am eager to learn more in depth about this topic and I think this class will successfully teach me.

One topic that caught my attention relates to social and ecological systems’ relationships. The continuing drought in California from (2012-2014) has destroyed not only the part of the environment where it is located, but is also destroying wildlife and humanity around the world. Harmful effects that resulted from this drought are endangered wildlife, water shortages, and agriculture is slowly being destroyed. Another section that I thought related to this was the environmental policy in the social sciences perspectives section. It discusses that societies policies towards the environment is extremely important. It further states that these policies extend further than the government all the way to schools, businesses, households, and even individual people. If societies policies are so important, why haven’t we found solutions to these problems? I think society, as a whole, needs to work together in order to find solutions to better the environment.