EcoCMUSpring21

 Teagan Lovin  I read an article called “Climate Change: Global Sea Levels”. The article talks about how sea levels are rising due to icebergs melting. It has risen 8-9 inches since 1880. The amount it is rising keeps going up per year. Although 8-9 inches doesn’t seem like that much it can make a big difference. Islands people live on soon can not even exist. 40 percent of Americans live on a sea coast but soon those people will not have a home to live on due to water levels rising. Water levels rising also risk businesses that are near the coast. If they end up going under water we will not have those supplies that business gives us.  The article also takes about water level rising means more frequent high tide flooding and hurricanes. All of this put together adds to people losing their homes and there jobs and not only people living in the coast will be affected. Now is the time for change in the way we live   https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-c...

Us Humans and wild animals face new difficulties in life for survival everyday because of the climate change that has been rising. More harshly intense climate changes like rising seas levels and heat waves are in fact  harming animals all across the world and are destroying their habitats. This issue is also affecting people's communities.  As climate change keeps getting worse and worse, we keep having dangerous weather events around the world and they are are becoming common and more frequent. Individuals across the nation of the United States are facing the consequences and are getting hit the death  threatening catastrophic  events. I feel like the United States  and other countries around the world should focus more on helping these animals and certain individuals  getting affected with this rapid climate change. https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/effects-of-climate-change

 Ahram Solis People over look that some populations around the world don’t have clean water and one of the is India. Almost half of the country’s don’t have access to clean drinkable water  because their water is polluted with trash and other harmful stuff from sewer systems. The reason for all these items getting into the water is India has the second most population in the world and the Indian government doesn’t have many relegation on this. The first time I learned about this crisis was in my chemistry class in high school because we had to make a filter that could clean polluted water. The website the water project is a foundation that trying to solve this problem and says, “India is expected to worsen as the overall population is expected to increase to 1.6 billion by year 2050”. This shows that many people are going to die because they don’t have the basic thing to survive and will be a bigger problem along the road. https://thewaterproject.org/water-crisis/water-in-cris...

 The big problem with food and other countries it is said to the latest in 2018 about 821 million people in the world were malnourished. It has been said almost in one and nine people or without food which does not lead a healthy or active life. The biggest race is hunger and malnutrition in the nation, it is bigger than any disease such as AIDS ,malaria, and tuberculosis combined. As far as we know right now I personally think Africa has to be the most highest percent with malnourishment, and Latin America and the Caribbean has also been improving at least 7%, has an Asian western Asia it has been getting better since 2012 at least more than 12%. I see America for being called the most wealthiest country I say we should have some type of way to help other countries with hunger and having a good types of water systems such as in Africa they have to walk with a pot or tub over their head to bring water from a river to come bring it back to their family. So hopefully one day this won...

 People in taxes are expected to pay much more than they ever have due to recent weather conditions with pictures going around all over news outlets and going viral online. Lawmakers and even the governor of the state have promised help but haven't come out with an official plan yet. The State has a Derugalted energy market meaning that some Texans are forced to work with private companies this an example of when the American capitalism system fails its citizen, causing them to pay these ungodly bills over things they cannot control. The weather was so bad that it had frozen wind turbines and natural gas production choking off the supply lines and leaving the demand so high many Texans were left without heat and left freezing during the winter stor m.  

 There's so many problems with water around the world but one big problem is the sanitation of water. Two million people a year die from the water not being able to drink because of how unsanitary it is but people still drink it to survive. Eighty percent of disease in developing countries is caused from the lack of water supply and how dirty the water is. Not only is the sanitation of water horrible but women and girls in different countries have to travel every day to get water for the whole day for their families. The trips they take to get water take up to six hours to travel to the water spot and back. Of the lack of water in countries it pulls girls out of schools to help their families with water supply, since the women have to drop out of school for this it leaves the boys to stay in school because they need to be educated so they can provide for their future families. https://www.h2oforlifeschools.org/page/water-crisis?gclid=Cj0KCQiAj9iBBhCJARIsAE9qRtCWDQi_hFtZ2yaeVmhyym16...

 Hannah Bailey  In my previous blog I wrote about the different kind of waste disposals and how they affect the environment. It was portrayed that landfills was a not environmentally friendly. Let’s find out why or why not. According to department of health and environmental control(DHEC), landfills are way to expensive to be called a dump. How a Class 3 landfill works is that the waste is placed in a cell located in a specific section in the landfill. Then a compactor comes and crush the waste down in order to safe space. As the Cell is being filled, a new cell is being created. It is rare to have more then one cell being filled at the same time. Once the cell is full they covered it with soil. This can raise the question of what is the waste doing to the environment? The landfill uses a lot of systems to protect the environment as much as possible. The bottom liner system is used in order to prevent the environment from coming in contact with any waste. There is also a syste...

For this weeks blog post I’ll be discussing what affects Land degradation has on the environment. Land deterioration is tne loss of the productive capacity of the soils for present and future. Land degradation is a global challenge that affects everyone through food insecurity, higher food prices, climate change, environmental hazards and loss of biodiversity services and it is all happening at a worried pace, and contributing to a dramatic decrease of productivity of croplands. Globally, about 25 percent of the total land area has been degraded. When land is degraded, soil carbon and nitrous oxide is released into the atmosphere, making land degradation one of the most important contributors to climate change. If this trend continues, 95 percent of the Earth’s land areas could become degraded by 2050. While reading the article they talked about how the Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) is a concept that can help communities, businesses, and governments reconcile the need to increase f...

  Britannica had an awesome story on Agriculture and when reading through it the article that caught my eye was the one about Sumer. In this section of the article it talks about Sumer which was a little civilization in Mesopotamia and it was located between the Tigris and the Euphrates. Sumer was a part of the early dynastic phase and they were first in development of a nuanced writing system based on the Sumerian language. During their time period they were learning how to domesticate sheep and goats and they were using them for multiple different purposes and they kept breeding and figuring out more ways to use the anim als for help. Then the name cattle was born and they continued to have large herds of animals and as the town started to grow more they started to domesticate more and more animals. https://www.britannica.com/topic/agriculture/Early-agricultural-societies

 Jessica Seaton Global warming is said to produce more intense rainfall, it has increased in the 20th Century and could possibly increase in the 21st century. With rainfall, temperature and CO2 changing constantly it is really impacting our rate of soil of erosion. When there are larger levels of rainfall and runoff, soil is taken along with it. They are some time periods that it can rain for days on end and this ruins the soil because it all gets washed away by the rise of water reaching the land. Even if the rainfall was to decrease it is said that the soil is still susceptible to erode due to decreased biomass production. The article mentioned that farmers are also a reason soil erosion is expected to increase, which does make sense. If farmers are not rotating crops, they could potentially ruin the soil.  https://www.jswconline.org/content/59/1/43

 Rasmus Svensson There is nearly 785 million people on earth that lack access to safe water and around 2 billion people lack access to toilets.  The organization Water.org is helping those people to get access to safe water. It can affect many aspects in a life not having access to water. Women and girls spend 266 million hours every day finding a place to go to find water. Women are unfairly affected by the water access because, in most cases, they are the one who makes trips to collect as much water as they found, so by getting safe water nearby it can help them find some time for other important activity such as work, school and caring for family. Children stand in a similar position than the women, by helping them, they will get more opportunities to study and go to school.  Another issue would be water related diseases, more or less 1 million persons die each year because of water related diseases.  Especially now with COVID-19 there are families all around...

 Levi Elfrink Endangered Species Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Clean Water Act and National Environmental Policy Act are all put in place for species and environmental protection as stated in the names. My source states that these acts and protection laws are under arguments because of how strict they are and how unnecessary they seem. These acts are mostly dismissed by political driven individuals that seem to miss the point of what they are for. For example the Endangered Species Act was put in place in 1973 to  protect imperiled species such as eagles. These acts and laws are put in place for a reason and they need more help to gain traction. These are the statistics which proves it needs to be taken more seriously. https://defenders.org/issues/defending-conservation-laws

  Nicole Price N/A. “Hippopotamus.” African Wildlife Foundation , www.awf.org/wildlife-conservation/hippopotamus#:~:text=The%20primary%20threats%20to%20both%20hippopotamus%20species%20are%20habitat%20loss%20and%20deforestation.  There are two species of Hippos: the Pygmy Hippo and the common Hippo. They happen to be the third-largest land mammal and they happen to be at risk for extinction. Now, while the Pygmy isn't a general target for subsistence hunting, they are known to be hunted opportunistically by 'bushmeat' hunters.  What is subsistence hunting you might ask? Well in general terms, a subsistence hunter will hunt strictly for the sake of survival,  and so subsistence hunting is done strictly for survival. Others may hunt for a number of reasons, sport being one of them. These creatures are hunted for their meat, fat, and ivory. But most will try and say it's for the sake of minimizing human-wildlife conflict. Hundreds of these creatures are being taken out y...

  Carliss Howell: Renewable Energy Looking into more information regarding energy, I decided to take a dive into the world of renewable energy. There is a lot of information out there within articles about what renewable energy is, how it is positively affecting our world, and more. Today I am going to tell you a little bit about what renewable energy is, the different variety of sources and some of the pros and cons of each one.             Renewable energy can be defined as energy that is sustainable or something that cannot run out (endless). This type of energy can be referred to as “alternative energy” because it can be used as an alternate means for other non-sustainable sources. There are several different renewable energy sources which include solar energy, wind energy, hydro energy, tidal energy, geothermal energy, and biomass energy. Solar energy is all based on sunlight, it is renewable because it is abundant and a...

 Most Agricultural Issues today is mainly within the farming industry such as with income, you need to have some type of money to run through every season so the farmers can deliver quality products at the end of each harvest year round. For such thing to happen to a crop you need to have the best farming equipment for harvesting. I know when I was younger I would always go work in the fields with some family in Arkansas, it can be hot, cold, rainy, we have to work in order to get money for my family. But in order you got to have good crops you got to have good soil, water, and good climate. You can’t just dump a whole bunch of water onto the soil and expect it to keep growing.    https://www.agsolutionsgroup.com/top-5-issues-affecting-agriculture-in-2020/  

 River's near the equator are flooding the oceans making marine life fail. The two big rivers making this a huge problem for the marine life are the Congo River (located in Africa) and the Amazon River (located in South Africa). The rainfall from these areas is causing flooding into the river which is pushing the fresh water from the river at a heavy flow into the ocean and the marine life which needs salt water is getting more fresh water causing the marine life to fail. The Amazon River alone is the biggest river to release fresh water into the ocean and the Congo River is right behind it making a flow of 10 billion gallons per a second into the ocean. These rivers are causing bulges at the location of where the rivers end and go into the ocean.  https://eos.org/research-spotlights/river-plumes-near-the-equator-have-major-effects-on-oceans

  Ahram Solis The demand for oil is is high because everyone uses it for transport, so we need to get our oil from under the ocean floor to get more. There’s high risk from oil rigs built on the ocean because there’s a chance for oil spills and this isn’t easy to clean up. People have to act fast when a spill happens because it can reach to sensitive areas along a coastline that damages marine life. Dispersion, burning, skimming are the things that have to be done when oil spills happens and that contributes more to climate change.   Oil is damaging to sea life because it  creatures harsh elements for animals to swim in and can I said potentially kill them. For instance,  Dolphins and whales can inhale oil, which can affect lungs, immune function, and reproduction. This can also affect us because oil kills sea life  we eat or sea life can have small particles of oil too. The only way I see we can solve this environmental problem is to stop using oil and start to...

 Teagan Lovin 2/20/2021 As you know you use water in everything in your life. In the article “environmental issues on water” talks about how early miners dig gold through hydraulic fracturing. Later we found out that this practice dirtied the water causing to choke aquatic life in those streams and rivers. Another issues we have in America is in California, farmers built levees that pumped water all through California. In doing this it causes them to drain out the wet lands in California. Due to this happing California had to change the laws when it climes to using water. The new system they use is call instream. This system help the wildlife in the California ecosystem, it also helps the plants. Although even though you think this is all great some people didn’t. The article also talks about a backlash people felt like all these changes in California, meant they were putting the ecosystem above the people. This was very wrong, if we don’t start to conserve our water there will be ...

  Agriculture has become a powerful industries to be in and it has really helped the economy and world we live in. In my first blog post I talked about the upbringing of agriculture and I felt like that was a pretty good base for later posts to come. The article I read was talking about investing more time and money into agriculture data. The USDA thinks investing more time into collecting data for farmers and other crop growers would help with supply and demand and it would help others understand more about agriculture. Thinking more in depth about the irrigation systems and how water supply is important for crops to grow and for farmers to have a good number of crops. 95% of water for irrigation systems are delivered to those farmers and they use it for all of their primary functions. The irrigation systems that farmers use are mainly underground systems and the use of these help them manage how much water is used and how often they use them. The data the USDA uses helps every y...

 The Recent Snow storms that been raging across the entire united states have been a travesty to all amercian's with over 73% of America Covered in snow at one point . I went home for the weekend on valentines to spend time with my girlfriend and still havent been able to return to campus due to my hometown getting 8+ inches of snow fortunately for me. we never had the power go out however the big state of Texas there was power outages all over the state when me and one of my friends from the big state were playing games and his power went out. there have been multiple videos on my twitter feed showing homes without heat and i remember watching a video talking about the mayor of colorado city texas telling the citizens not to expect a handout ,but isnt it the governents job to provide how can the common families control whether or not they have heat due to the weather? texas wasnt prepared for this at all and it shows i want to know where all of the energy went whenever the people ...

  Plastics us individuals use on the daily usually end up in the oceans that we all admire and travel to swim in . Having plastic in the ocean is one of the biggest issues in the world right now because it is  affecting the animals that live in those oceans filled with plastic waste.  Some of these animals actually end up dying because the plastic will get stuck around their neck and eventually kill them. Most people don't realize that this issue also affects our health because plastic breaks down and release toxins that can damage our body. To reduce the plastic waste issue we can voluntarily clean up beaches or any area near water to prevent plastic and other waste from reaching that point.  https://chinadialogueocean.net/14200-how-does-plastic-pollution-affect-the-ocean/

                                                   Attacks against the Endangered Species Act   Nicole Price       In 1973, the 'Endangered Species Act' (ESA) was established in the hopes of protecting ecosystems and the imperiled species that reside. Once in office, our 45th president, Trump, and his administration made many proposals toward weakening the ESA. These proposals included that of ending the practice of giving threatened species the same protection as the endangered as well as incorporating measures that would allow people to consider the economic impacts of an enforced ESA law to name a few. Basically, this would mean that these animals would lose all protection if deemed necessary based off of their level of conservation. These levels range from least concerned to extinct. Based on Trump's laws, animals in the vulnerable and...

  With climate change happening it is said that the global temperature will rise between 3.6-10.8 degree Fahrenheit over time. This will cause many different tragic events such a species extinction, water shortage, loss in agriculture and forestry. Hotter climate means the water will evaporate quicker, causing less run-offs. It also means agriculture will be drastically effected because of increase in droughts in certain areas, it will be useful in colder climates because they will be able to maintain their agriculture better. Different altitudes will be effected differently with the warming of the earth, some will have positive outcomes while other will have negative outcomes. It is mentioned that forestry will prosper in the next century because of replacement or dieback in certain timber types. Although, it means more extinction of certain species of plants and animals.   https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/conference-papers/impact-climate-change-land

 Levi Elfrink How to protect As the saying goes “we should all do our part” can easily be related to everything we do. In this sense, it’s about the animal kingdom. When reading my source, I had an arrogant mindset and I thought I knew at least most of what it meant to protect wildlife and for once I was right. I did have a good understanding to get my foot in the door to help. We all have the capability to adopt pets, volunteer at animal programs, and visit zoos. However, not all of us are confident to speak out about or even know enough about animal trafficking. This subject, while I don’t have a lot of knowledge, I do know is a serious problem. Did you know that over a 2 year period, it is said that over 100,000 elephants where killed for illegal ivory trade. A kilogram of it will sell for 3,000 dollars on the black market. While I personally am understanding and do participate in controlling the population, there is no denying that this is senseless killing and it needs to stop...

 Our water pollution is getting to the worst it's ever been. While trying to figure out a solution for water polluting some people don't think that there's a solution for it but they're wrong and there is a solution to the pollution problem. Right now the cost to up keep our water from the pollution is costing us more than the machines we are spending our money on that is causing the pollution. The pollution from the waters is containing toxic chemicals causing illnesses from the waterways. Not only is it causing illnesses in humans but it's also poisoning the marine life in our oceans. Some of the main causes from water pollution is by industrial waste, sewage, oil leakage, and plastic waste. And again there are ways we can fix this huge problem that is happening in our bodies of water, yes it will take a long time just like it took a while for us to pollute the bodies of water but it can happen and one way we can do this is by educating others that are around us a...

Rasmus Svensson 17/2/2021 Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies like  lakes, rivers, oceans, etc... Which is often cause by human activity .  The  effects of water pollution can be disastrous, not only to the creature that lives in it but to humans as well, but it depends on type of Chemical that is released, depends on the concentration of it, and it also depends on of the location of where it takes place. The effect of the chemical varies depending on the chemical that is dumped. The main issue about water pollution is the organisms that lives in the water. The aquatic animals that can't survive in a polluted environment and sadly most of them will end up dead on beaches because of the chemicals. Pollution will also disrupt the natural food chain. Because the humans are also concerned by the natural food chain, the humans will be affected by the contamination of the aquatic animals. Ecosystems are being changed or even destroyed in some areas because...

  Carliss Howell : Hydraulic Fracking                  As I am reading and learning more about information regarding energy, I am beginning to realize that all aspects are connected in one way or another. Hydraulic fracking is a small method of the broader process of unconventional development of oil and natural gas. This method uses technology that is driven for extracting oil, natural gas, geothermal energy, or water from the deep underground. This process takes around three to five days to complete. This is completed by injecting liquid and materials at high pressure to create small fractures within tight shale (rock) formations to stimulate the production and safely extract energy from an underground well after the drilling has ended and the rig and derrick (lifting device) are removed from the site. Fracking has impacted U.S. oil and natural gas production greatly. According to IPAA.org, from 2007 to 2016, a...

 Hannah Bailey  There are many types of waste disposal that I was unaware of. Some that are environmentally safe and others that are not. It didnt cross my mind to think of where exactly does our waste go? The different types are recycling, compositing, incineration, sanitary landfills, ocean disposal, and plasma gasification. The phrase “Reduce. Reuse. Recycle” was repeated over and over in grade school. Recycling is one eco friendly way to get rid of waste considering it turns the waste into something that can be used again. Compositing, another eco friendly type, takes different kind of waste like old food and turns it into something that can be used for gardening or crops. Incineration just burns the waste however runs the risk of harmful chemicals in the air. This is the most inexpensive way to dispose trash even though it is not the most beneficial to our environment. Landfills are exactly as stated,  pieces of land that are being filled with compacted waste. This a...

 Teagan Lovin  Water conservation  I read an article about the benefit of water conservation.  The article basically breaks down the reason on why we need to care about water conservation, how it’s not just the scientist problem we can help create a solution. If you think about it water is the reason we are here on this planet. It helps to grow plants and the food we eat. It helps water and feed the animals that we eat. Due to the growth in population water is becoming more limited. This could end up causing a food reduction because like I said we use water to grow the food we eat. Another reason you should care to help with water conservation is it is used for recreational use too. Not only pools but it also keeps our lawns nice and green. This is just some of the reasons you should care about water conservation along with many more  https://www.thebalancesmb.com/conservation-efforts-why-should-we-save-water-3157877

 -Briann Beyer Bodies of water all around us are being polluted and we don't even realize it. This not only effects our bodies of water but also the water we drink from. One of the ways that our water is being polluted is sewage systems and industrial waste discharge. These grounds that our being polluted are going into our drinking drinking water. So now not only is our ocean being infected by our own pollution but also the water we take in daily. This pollution can come from so many types of organic or inorganic and so much more. The pollution going into our water needs to be fixed and how are we going to help. (https://wwf.panda.org/discover/knowledge_hub/teacher_resources/webfieldtrips/water_pollution/?)

                                     Food is a big problem. Kinda? -  Victoria Olivarez         The world is having a big food global problem, which can also be called “production, processing, and distribution of food throughout the world” which is said in this website that is linked. The organization called Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is having four dimensions. Which is Increased Biofuel Production which indicates being harmful to plants, animals, corn, and palm oil. Which has made it a lot harder for small farmers to do their thing and maintain control of their property. Also, limited food access is also an issue, many people suffer from chronic undernourishment and about 15% suffer from lack of food in their in home. Which you can also find in the reading. Meanwhile this has been a problem for awhile now and the farm policy that runs...

  Wildlife conservation is the way of practicing the protection of the animal species and the  habitats they survive in. The Endangered Species Act,  is the establishment and protection of public lands animals live in, and the responsibility of public practices that conserve wild animal populations.  With The earth continuing to grow at a fast rate, it is also meaning that more and more humans are taking up natural resources. This is endangering the existence of animals and their habitats. Programs like the  World Wildlife Fund and  the Wildlife Conservation Society are working every day to slow down the extinction of animals and also protect the earth's biodiversity at the same time.  https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/wildlife-conservation/