EcoCMUfall20B

 Fossil Fuels and Greed For some odd reason, the topic of renewable energy is controversial in the United States. Many bills and laws are trying to be passed in some states and in general in the U.S., but don't end up getting passed, why is that? From what I have read about renewable energy is that it is good and it makes the environment better and it has more pros than cons, unlike fossil fuels that are literally destroying the atmosphere and the air we breathe. There are also many studies that show it now costs less to change to using renewable resources than it is to keep using the nonrenewable ones, so why would people not want to make the switch because it is all about money and not the bettering of the environment of the people. The thing is that oil companies know exactly what is going on with the environment and exactly what they are doing to make it worse, they don't care as long as the money is coming to them and as long as the law is not coming for them. The CEO of C...

    The Spotted eagle rays live along the open coast in the warm waters all through out the world. This species is usually seen within the coral reefs but will sometimes enter the protected bays to feed or too mate. This species gives live birth to their pups. The eagle rays can have up to 1-4 pups in each litter. These animals have a low reproductive rate. This species is natural rarity. These things contribute to the facts of the spotted eagle ray being near threatened. This species is not being directly targeted but they are captured by accident by being caught in the fish nets in the ocean. They are usually captured alive to be displayed in public aquariums.  Fun facts about the spotted eagle rays: spotted eagle rays have venomous spines on their tails that are used in defense against threats.  the spotted eagle ray can leap their entire bodies out of water while swimming close to the surface.  spotted eagle rays can be found from the surface to just over 19...

         If we continue to grow at the rate we are using the land now, then eventually, we will have no more  agricultural land to use. Approximately half of our land in the US is dedicated to agricultural purposes. The agricultural percentages are basically split in half between grasslands and croplands. The rest of the land in the US is simply labeled as nonagricultural land, and that is where the urban, residential, and commercial areas would be. As the cities and urban areas in our country grow, the agricultural lands continue to slim down. Along with the agricultural lands slimming, this also means that we are taking animals habitats because their homes are wherever we aren't. So really if you think about it, we need to keep a good percentage of our land as agricultural because it will help the natural elements of our environment. Source: https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2017/december/a-primer-on-land-use-in-the-united-states/

In this blog we will discuss salt, it may seem like it’s another minor contributor to our society but it is actually very significantly. There are 12 version of salt and we use them all very differently some we use in industry and some we use in food. The most common one we know is table salt which is a naturally occurring mineral that all animals need. Salt is very crucial to our health.  The sodium in salt is also essential for nerve function, regulation of fluids in or body, and regulation of our body’s control of blood pressure and volume. Some other uses for salt are for preservative for things like meat packing, sausage making, or fish curing. They can also use salt as a seasoning whenever they package the meats off. In the chemical industry they use salt to manufacture baking soda, chlorine, hydrochloric acid, and other chemicals. Salt is very abundant in our society and our ecosystem, it would surprise how much is in our everyday life. Here’s an example of one we all know o...

Tasmanian Devil When most people think of the  Tasmanian Devil they think of Taz from the Loony Tunes. Although a real  Tasmanian Devil looks nothing like Taz, he has been part of many peoples childhood. The  Tasmanian Devil has a thick-set, squat build, with a relatively large, broad head and short, thick tail. Body size varies greatly, depending on the diet and habitat. The  Tasmanian Devil can also store fat in their tail to use for later. Tasmanian Devil also have the strongest bite that is   estimated to be around 2.2 lbs per square inch. This helps them to crush bones for consumption. They can also open their jaw 75-80 degrees. When  Tasmanian Devil‘s are born they are the size of a grain of rice. Once they are born they have to race blindly to the mother’s pouch because the mom only has four teats and gives birth to 20-40 joeys. The ones that are left behind are then eaten by the mother.   The  Tasmanian Devil is the largest carnivorous mar...

 Hydroelectric Energy     In the worlds attempt to find better more efficient energy source, we have gotten to the point of using hydroelectric energy. Hydroelectricity is a source of energy that has been used for ages, but we have slowly started to make the advancements to improve this form of energy to make it more reliable. This energy is produced by water falling and collecting kinetic energy, that kinetic energy turns a turbine in the water to produce energy. That energy is then sent to all of the customers of that hydro powerplant and the process continues. Hydroelectricity is the next step to making cleaner energy for this world to use.  For more information go to: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/hydroelectric-energy/#:~:text=Hydroelectric%20energy%2C%20also%20called%20hydroelectric,used%20this%20force%20for%20millennia. 

The over-exploitation of natural resources  has a significant impact on our wildlife. Not only have we been neglectful towards ourselves and the environment but, we have also been extremely neglect towards  the different wild life that dwell in the environment and depend on it. In the article it states, "They found the over-exploitation, including logging, hunting, fishing, and the gathering of plants is the biggest single killer of biodiversity, directly impacting 72 percent of the 8,688 species listed as threatened or near- threatened by the IUCN." For example, the Sumatran Rhino and African elephant are being illegally hunted and killed. Actions such as well managed protected areas, enforcement of hunting regulations, and managing agricultural systems in ways that allow threatened species to persist within them, all have a major role to play in reducing the biodiversity crisis. Dejah Flowers Source ; https://www.zmescience.com/ecology/resources-climate-5944

  https://www.plasticsmakeitpossible.com/plastics-recycling/what-happens-to-recycled-plastics/6-innovative-technologies-boost-plastics-recycling/ Another key factor I believe is important for the Technology side of economics, is the use of recycling and different methods we have to use.  One use of technology we have to use is a quick learner, this is a machine for example like one by the name of Clarke that organizes and sorts trash to landfills and products that can be sorted and determined to be used for recycling. This use of technology helps lower the amount of garbage being stockpiled at these landfills that slowly but surely pollute our atmosphere and damage the ecosystem for not only us on land but the ocean wildlife.  Polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) account for two-thirds of our plastics we use, and recyclers typically separate them for recycling. But researchers say that adding a special polymer to used PE and PP can create a tough new plastic that’s ea...

 Lots of technology that we are using today is affecting our environment in many ways. We have been consuming a lot more resources and power than we need. A few of the ways technology is affecting the environment are pollution to the air, water are caused by producing and using technology. Consuming non renewable resources, the element gold is used for technology, coal and other resources are being burned up to create energy too. Technology waste which can be called “technotrash” is another big thing that affects our environment when technology becomes old and outdated people just throw it in the trash, when they throw it in the trash and when it gets to the land fill they release the hazardous materials in then and hurts the environment. The final one I will talk about is clearing land to build factories, and allowing pollution to contaminate the food chain can greatly affect the natural cycle of the environment.  http://www.carnegiecyberacademy.com/facultyPages/environment/i...

In the article from World Wild Life, they talking about the extinction of Rinos. An article from "World Wild Life" States, " At the beginning of the 20th century, 500,000 rhinos roamed Africa and Asia. By 1970, rhino numbers dropped to 70,000, and today, around 27,000 rhinos remain in the wild." This fact from the article shows that the Rino species are dropping rapidly. Many of the Rinos are not living long in their own habitats due to poachers and habitat loss. Even in zoos, there is still a small number of rhinos due to the small amount of Rinos in the world. Rhinos are no longer safe in their own habitats, the only place that they are able to live is in the zoos. Source:  https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/rhino

 Nuclear Energy Nuclear energy or nuclear power is created when nuclear reactions happen mostly when the element Uranium collide with neurons of other atoms to release energy. It does use radioactive materials, but not fossil fuels, it can be dangerous if not used,transported, stored correctly. Nuclear energy is used for heat,electricity things like medicine, and in agriculture. In the United States there is about 99 nuclear plants and 94 of those plants actually produce 20% of the U.S. electricity without using carbon. Like I said since the nuclear plants use highly radioactive and explosive products a con is nuclear accidents, and in the United States we have had at least 56 nuclear accidents and sometimes these accidents cause people to have to be moved out of their homes and affect the health of the people in the surrounding area, so nuclear energy is really controversial in that aspect. https://www.nei.org/fundamentals/what-is-nuclear-energy  https://www.ucsusa.org/resour...

  Today there are as few as 3,800 tigers that remain in the world. There has been a shocking 96% decrease in the population in just 100 years. Illegal trade in tigers, tiger parts, habitat loss and human-wildlife conflict is what has pushed this amazing animal to near extinction. Since 1950, the world's population has triples. With the human population tripling it is causing agriculture expansion. This rapid expansion has reduced the tigers habitat. About half of the world's original forests have disappeared with out any plan to minimise the loss of the tiger habitats.  https://davidshepherd.org/tigers/threats-to-tigers/

Bauxite is an ore that is rich in aluminum that is used for aluminum production. It’s also used for cements and other chemicals. This production aids in the build of road aggregates or just building material in general. In order to maintain something like aluminum production it’s very energy intensive and can take away a large amount of the environment. http://www.australianbauxite.com.au/Bauxite-Types-and-Uses   https://byjus.com/chemistry/uses-of-bauxite/ https://recyclenation.com/2010/11/aluminum-extraction-recycling-environment/

  Energy from the Earth     As I've previously talked about in past blogs technology in the environment has advanced greatly, so much as to create energy from nature. Wind turbines and wind energy are next to solar energy in easy to produce. Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy from the wind and turn it into electricity, there is a gearbox located inside of the turbine that increases the speed of rotation by a factor of 100 to produce more energy.      Wind turbines can be our future, as we progress we will see how using wind power along with solar and hydro power can change the state of our world. For more information visit: https://www.awea.org/wind-101/basics-of-wind-energy#:~:text=Wind%20energy%20(or%20wind%20power,the%20wind%20and%20generate%20electricity. 

              In Suburban areas, towns like to keep things a little more spread out and low density when creating the maps for zoning. They like to separate residential areas from commercial areas, that way the residential area is not too far from people who live there's jobs. In the article that I am looking at by the TN department of health, they say that the reason suburbs grew is because cars became the more dominant way to get to work. In this sense, people can live in the residential area of the suburbs and drive tot their jobs in commercial areas. In the article, they also talk about a method of land use called a sprawl. A spray is a pattern of development that idealizes low quality growth and expansion. In a sprawl method, the area is not going to have a big boom in production or anything such as a city would. instead, the sprawl method would have a town that is simply going to continue growing at a steady pace. The sprawl pattern of devel...

 100% of the suns energy is entering the earths atmosphere but only 50% of the energy is making it to the earth surface for example, the oceans and the land. 30% of the sun energy is bounced back into space by clouds, gases, and particles in the air. If we minimize the amount of gases and particles we release into air we can decrease the amount of sunlight that gets bounced back into space by at least half if not more. With the added sunlight we can have more efficient solar power and we can put more solar panels in sunny places and run off of solar power to produce more energy.  https://climate.ncsu.edu/edu/EnergyBalance  

 Western Long-beaked Echidna Western Long-beaked Echidna  is one of only five remaining monotreme species, an ancient clade of mammals that includes two other long-beaked echidna species, along with the short-beaked echidna and duck-billed platypus. Like all mammals, monotremes have fur and produce milk to nourish their young, but uniquely, these mammals lay eggs rather than giving birth to live young. The Western Long-Beaked Echidna is found in New Guinea. They live in alpine meadows and humid montane forests at altitudes between 1,300 and 4,000 m (4,265 - 13,123 ft). They are believed to lead a solitary lifestyle.  The western long-beaked echidna is the largest monotreme.  They have a body length between 60 and 100 cm (23.5 - 39 inches), they do not have a tail and they weigh between 5 and 10 Kgs (11 - 22 lbs).  They have a long, downward turning snout that is approximately 20 cms (8 inches) in length. At the base of their snout they have tiny eyes and at the ...

Many of the different resources and materials from the environment all have an affect, whether good or bad,  on our day to day lives. Some of these resources are rocks, oil, fossil fuels, plants, minerals, and trees. One of the many things that causes the most harm to human life are fossil fuels. Fossil Fuels is  a nonrenewable energy source formed from ancient plants and animals buried in Earth’s crust for millions of years. Fossil fuel industries drill or mine for energy sources, burn them to produce electricity, or refine them for use as fuel for heating or transportation. Over the past 20 years, nearly three fourths of human-caused emissions came from the burning of fossil fuels. While Fossil fuels to have some benefits to or day to day lives, when burned they release Carbon Dioxide and other green house gases that contribute to climate change and global warming. Sources;  https://www.classzone.com/science_book/mls_grade7_FL/299_306.pdf https://www.energy.gov/science-...

  Many conservation stories focus on the aspect of saving animals. the website that I have found talks about the positive outcomes of different conservation. The types of things that this website talks about are the saving of farming land, the spotting of rare gorillas, reintroducing animals to the wild, a boost of animal reproduction, a new generation of certain animals, How animals are doing after reintroducing them to the wild, projection of red sea corals, and more funding for the conservation. I think that all of these positive events can show that just because an animal is going extinct doesn't mean that we can't save them. It is amazing to see how many animals are now thriving after many years of struggling. Resource: https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/nine-conservation-success-stories-2020/91477/