Blog 3- Wapusk National Park

I think Parks could meet dual mandate of protecting it's species and allowing access to humans to enjoy their beauties. The Parks need to educate people more on how to leave less of a footprint when entering this realm. Education would give a great work opportunity for local Native Americans of the area because they are the ones that know the land and animals best. Education of wild animals is not done in zoos, it is best done where the animal is at ease, in a natural environment. We have seen the other day what an animal in capture can do, there was a killer whale who recently killed its trainer that had been working with the whale for years. The trainer was a 14 year experienced trainer who trusted the whale. Animals are always unpredictable. I learned this when I started horse-backriding as a child. Horses most definetly have a mind of their own and will listen when they want to. No matter how much time you spenc with them, they are meant to be wild. I've gotten bucked off by horses so many times, ran over, and I've to hold on for my dear life so many times. This explains that animals are wild and zoos should see attacks such as the killer whale as a reason to stop this animal cruelty. National Parks and protected aread around the world need to introduce an education program that allows visitors to enter these areas only with Natives of the area. There we can all learn to appreciate Natural life, land, plants, and the animals. This is important because we are losing our connection to land and animals.

Wapusk National Park is a very remote Northern park that is home for many polar bears. The park should most definetly limit access to visitors because it is a very fragile area. Polar Bears are facing huge dangers of extinction, and by humans going up there coming in contact with the bears puts humans at great risk of attacks. The bears that attack are immediately put down, either relocated or killed. Wapusk needs to minimize the human-bear contacts for the well-being of both parties.

Blog 3- Alberta Tar Sands Reflection

This would be the most controversial issues of today. It is even hard for me as an environmental student to say that I want the Alberta Tar Sands to be completely stoped. Of course I want them stoped but if done so bruptly there would an immediate world crisis.

I want to begin by explaining my only reason why I think Alberta's oil industry cannot be stoped. It is simply an economical reason, I have worked for a certain Alberta oil company therefore I have met many men and women who have made a living doing this. These people come from across the country and some from the Filipines because there are no work opportunities like this back home for them. Alberta offers well paying jobs for people to be able to support themselves and their families. This is the number one concern for them, they need this industry because it is the only way for them to make a living. Many of these people were unfortunate in their lives and could not afford to go to university, therefore they chose a path that would they could live a comfortable life. For example, many of these people come from the east coast. Their ancestors thrived from the fishing industry, but now that it is no longer booming, there is no work for them. They chose to move to Alberta, not so much they want to but because they have no other choice. Another example of a common person I have met in Alberta would be one of many Filipinos. These men came up here to Canada, putting themselves in debt and taking a risks by leaving there home land. The reason they have done so is so that they can send money back home to their families and community. In the Philippines they could barely feed themselves. A third example of person in Alberta would be the McMillan family that I have worked with. There were 3 out of 4 brothers that I worked with. They were all scaffolders, their uncle was my foreman, all their uncles, their dad and grandfather were also all scaffolders. Now these 4 brothers knew only this, it was a part of them, a part of their familie's past.

Taking the Alberta Tar Sands industry away we need to replace it with something as equal. We all know life is expensive, and we need to work to make a living. So far, Alberta has provided many opportunities for people who had none. We need to work with these companies and not against them in order to make changes. In order to have a strong economy and a healthy environment together is simply to give a man a job, give him something to be proud of.
We are making small changes to our fossil fuels intake. The newest one would be the fact that the Hummer SUV has been discontinued. The Hummer was the most inefficient SUV on the market, now we simply need to target the other inefficient vehicles.

Blog 3- Activity EXXON Mobil videos

EXXON Mobil are selfish, they support the scientists that mislead the public into believing lies and false theories about global warming.

We shouldn't lay laws on what people are able to say, this is the most obvious right; the freedom of speech. If people have proof to back up what they are saying then the government has no right to edit the work. EXXON Mobil is paying scientists to block the message that global warming is a severe crisis. Along with EXXON blocking this message there is the white house doing the same. The video I viewed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUyQMYiRCcw) on EXXON Mobil said that Philip Cooney, who is a lawyer working for the government as council of environmental quality, edited papers on global warming with a heavy hand. After Cooney resigned from the White House, he then went on to work for Exxon Mobil. In this video it spoke about a paper called "Our Changing Planet" that was passed through a political screen. Cooney was the one editing this paper, he made changes such as: "the world is undergoing change" to "the world may be undergoing change". The phrase "we are heading to a point of no return" was completely vanished and the word danger could not be used.

This makes you think about what is really happening in the white behind closed doors? What pieces of information do they have that we do not know about? How can politicians be in denial of these scientific facts being true or not?

We have been using fossil fuels for over a century now, there are ways to get out of this rut we are in, there are ways faster than we think. Fossil fuels are costing more money than the leading energy sources which happen to be sustainable. We have the opportunity, the choice to use different things.. Since the United States are the largest contributors of greenhouse gases, they should be the first to fund new technologies and lead on implementing them.

We have to make these clean technologies available to those who want to make knowledgeable decisions, not only to those who can afford them.

The government of Canada does offer fairly valuable benefits for those who invest in energy saving products and technologies, these can include building your proper home with geothermal earth power, this would cut your annual energy bills from 50% to 70%. Not forgetting to mention that this system is environmentally friendly, it draws on soil temperature to heat or cool your home.

The eco-ENERGY Retrofit Homes program offers a $4,375 grant for geothermal installations that replace an existing heating system.

The video did not shock me too much because politicians in business suites for me all work together. They work for the same reason, some cash in their pocket. These politians, in fact every person, has to start putting some thought and feeling into what actions they do, what they write and what they teach. Doing so we would be able to have a clear image that the Earth's services will be extremely expensive if not impossible to offer for future generations.

Blog 3- A Sand County Almanac

Aldo Leopold was an activists for the worth of all living things, he supported the value that humans had to manage and protect wild lands. In this selection Leopold speaks of an ethical relationship between humans, animals, and the land.

A mountain is home for many creatures, from wolves to bunnies, from squirrels to deer. The diversity of an ecosystem is important as everything is interrelated to each other. A mountain can support many kinds of species but could not sustain itself if one of these animals exceeded in population.

Leopold remembers when he was a child and he seen a wolf before him, he had a trigger itch because he thought that since less wolves meant more deer, then no wolves would mean a hunter's paradise. He sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.

Since then Leopold has lived to see state after state extirpate their wolves, he has seen many wolfless mountains, with this came many mountain slopes have a surplus of deer trails. He has seen bush and foliage grazed, and trees defoliated. In the end this has lead to starved deer bones dead of its own too-much. Leopold has then suspected whether deer live mortal fear wolves, or if a mountain lives in mortal fear of its deer. It is the wolf's job of trimming the deer or herd populations.

We all live to want safety, prosperity, comfort, long life, and dullness. However this is achieved it all comes to the same thing peace in our mind.

Politics and economics are no longer competition, it is replaced by ethical co-operative mechanisms. These mechanisms are becoming more complexe as population density increases. Ethics in politics and economics deals with relations between individual, it then tries to integrate social organization to the individual. Yet there is no ethic relating man to land or to the animals and to plants. Land is still property, it is a priviledge not an obligation. Land stripping is not only unwise it is wrong, yet society still does not believe this. Such example to prove this would be the present conservation movement.

All these ethics evolve to be that the individual is part of an interdendant system. Instincts promt humand to compete but ethics prompt us to co-operate. Land ethics is simply including soils, waters, plants, and animals.

Our economy is heading away from land consciouness rather than toward it. Humans have no relation to land, to him it is simple space between cities where food grows. Most humans are bored when outside a city, unless it involves golf courses. Land or natural things is something humans have outgrown.

It is right to think of preserving integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it thinks toward a economical perspective.

The evolution of a land ethic is an intellectual and emotional process. Conservation has good intentions but are still in need of understanding the land and moving away from an economic land-use. Our present problem is that of attitudes and implementations.

Blog 3- Principles of Conservation

In this selection, Gifford Pinchot explains how to achieve the maximum value of resources for human use rather than for preserving wilderness.
The conservation of natural resources movement has had the fastest progression and spread in the most directions as any other movement. It is believed that conservation began with forestry; the ideas about the forest, the principles of the service of the forest.
The conservation movement now has immense force, first only relating to forest now beyond natural resources. Back in 1907 few people even knew what conservation meant.
Conservation principles are simple yet decisions to implement it is not so easy or direct. Development is the first principle of conservation, natural resources exists on this planet for the benefit of humans. Resources are used for current generations prior to thinking about future ones. Coal is the main natural resources that drives our civilization, and if extrapolating it to the point there is no more, that would mean we were well deservant.
Conservation now stands for the use pf water-power, it allows for immediate construction of navigable waterways, just like the broad construction of railroads. The development of our natural resources and the full use of them is the duty of our generation.
The second principle of conservation stands for the prevention of waste. We have come to terms that waste is not a good thing. Forest Fires used to be seen as acts of god, now they seem to be controlled by men. The human race's duty is to control the earth it lives upon.
The effort the stop waste is considered to be controlled by economic law, but in fact the effort comes before the actual stopping.
Third principle of conservation would be that the natural resources must be developed and preserved for the benefit of all and not for few.
The conservation idea means "the greatest good to the greatest number for the longest time." (4).
It is the duty of people to act to benefit the people. Conservation demands common-sense to problems for the good.
The conservation point of view is for the education of people as well as in forestry, it applies to politics as well as the earth.
We must apply common-sense to all problems for the Nation's good.

Blog 3- More Profit with Less Carbon

In this selection Amory B. Lovins speaks of the advantages to business and the environment of energy efficient and renewable energy sources. The environmentalists say costs will be worth it and government officials say extra expense will be prohibitive. In fact both are wrong, the costs will actually be lowered.
Enhancing efficiency and switching to less carbon emitting fuels is as important, the world economy has been decarbonizing. In the past two centuries carbon rich fuels (coal_, have given way to fuels with less carbon (oil and natural gas) or none (solar and wind power). By combining the production of heat and electricity it can extract twice as much useful work from each ton of carbon emitted, which would dramatically reduce total carbon by 2050 even as the economy expands.
Improving the whole building engineering can be applied to any building and factorie.
Transportation uses 70% of the total US oil, and 1/3 of the nation's carbon emissions. There is opportunity for enormous efficiency by using light weight material and aerodynamics without compromising comfort, safety, and affordability. With new metal allows - advanced polymer composites- cars can be big, comfy, protective without being heavy, inefficient: this would save oil and lives.
By 2050 US oil consumption could be phased out completely since there are two other fuels coming to the market. The first is ethanol made of woody, weedy plants, and corn is now the main source for ethanol blended with gasoline. The second fuel is replacing oil with lower carbon natural gas, becomes cheaper and more abundant.
By phasing out oil there could be a $70 billion saving per year and also it would lower US carbon emissions by 20%. This would eliminate social and political costs. If the country would become oil free then petroleum will no longer be worth fighting for.
Switching to an oil free economy would happen even faster if politicians would stop encouraging development that makes people drive so much.
Efficiency improvements are occuring with wind power being the greatest success story. In Denmark wind power accounts for 1/5 of all energy, and in Germany wind power accounts for 1/10 of all the energy consumed.
Energy efficiency can outpace economic growth if we payed attention to solar and wind power.
The good news about Global Warming is that it is cheaper to fix than ignore because saving energy is profitable.
Climatic problems are created by millions of bad decisions over time, but climate stability can be restored by millions of sensible choices.
Markets will naturally favor choices that generate wealth, protect climate, and build real security by replacing fossil fuels with cheaper alternatives.
This technology-driven convergence of business, environmental and security interests- holds out the promise of a fairer, richer, and safer world.

Blog 3- Works Cited

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Thomas Easton, 2009. Classic Edition Sources Environmental Studies Third Edition.

Lovins, Amory B. More Profit with Less Carbon. Thomas Easton, 2009. Classic Edition Sources Environmental Studies Third Edition.

Flavin, Christopher. Dunn, Seth. Reinventing the Energy System. Thomas Easton, 2009. Classic Edition Sources Environmental Studies Third Edition.

(4) Pinchot, Gifford. Principles of Conservation. Thomas Easton, 2009. Classic Edition Sources Environmental Studies Third Edition.

Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac. Thomas Easton, 2009. Classic Edition Sources Environmental Studies Third Edition.

Blog 3- Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis (IPCC)

Greenhouse effect first implemented by Jean-Baptiste-Joseph-Fourier in 1827. Svante Arrhenius proposed this effect would change the Earth's atmospheric temperature by four to six degrees Celsius. Most scientists agree that the warming will be accompanied by changes in the world's weather patterns, and increase the sea levels significantly. The data that these conclusions come from have been debated for many years.
In 1988, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was established to assess scientific, technical, and socioeconomic information relating to the world's climate change. In 2007, the IPCC clearly stated that "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level." Later sections can be found in the following link: http://www.ipcc.ch/. Other reports released in 2006 include http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/independant_reviews/stern_review_economics_climate_change/sternreview_index.cfm.
Almost all of the few remaining critics of the reality of climate change are employed or funded by industries and nations that taking action would impact them financially.

Human and Natural Drivers of Climate Change

Global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane have increased substantially as a result of human activity since 1750. These measurements are taken from ice cores ranging back thousands of years. The carbon dioxide is due to burning of fossil fuels and land-use changes, while the release of methane and nitrous oxide is directly realted to agriculture.

Carbon Dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas. In 2005 the global atmospheric concentration was the highest in 650,000 years and in the past 10 years the concentration has been the highest since the beginning of the measurements in 1960.
The primary source of increased CO2 levels has been fossil fuel combustion, the land-use change issue is significant but a smaller contribution. Estimates of Carbon dioxide emissions concentration have a large uncertainty.
Methane has also peaked in 2005 for its global atmospheric concentration, which exceeds by far the measurements from ice cores of the last 650,000 years prior. It is very likely that the growth of methane concentration is due to to anthropogenic activities superiorily from agriculture and fossil fuel use.
Nitrous Oxide atmospheric concentration has increased from pre-industrial value and has continued to grow at a constant rate since 1980. More than a third of Nitrous Oxide emissions are anthropogenic and primarily due to agriculture.
The understanding of anthropogenic warming and cooling influences on climate has improved to a very high confidence level.

• The carbon dioxide radiative forcing has had the largest change for any decade in at least 200 years.


• Anthropogenic contributions of aerosols (primarily sulphate, organic carbon, black carbon, nitrate and dust) all together produced a cooling effect. Aerosols affect radiative forcing, cloud albedo, as well as cloud lifetime and precipitation.

Direct Observations of Recent Climate Change
Global Warming is now undeniable from observations in global average air and ocean temperatures, melting of snow and ice and rising sea levels.

• Eleven of the last 12 years (1995-2006) rank the warmest years since 1850. Urban heat island effects are real but local, and do not have value in the warming growth rate.
• New analyses of balloon-borne and satellite measurements show warming rates similar to surface temperature records and are constant.
• The average atmospheric water vapour content has increased since the 1980's due to the extra water vapour warmer air can hold.
• Average global ocean temperatures have increased in depths of 3000m, and the ocean has been absorbing more heat which causing seawater to expand therefore increasing sea levels.
• Mountain glaciers and snow cover has decreased in both Hemispheres which has contributed to sea levels rising.
• Ice sheets mass have been reduced, thinned or lossed.
• Sea level have rose at a rate of 1.8mm per year which is still increasing.

Continental, regional, and ocean basin scales changes in climate have been observed. These changes include Arctic temperatures, precipitation, ocean salinity, wind patterns, and extreme weather including droughts, heavy precipitation, heat waves and intensity of tropical cyclones.

• Average Arctic temperatures have increased at almost twice the global rate in the past 100 years.
• Arctic sea ice extent has shrunk by 2.7% per decade.
• Maximum area of permafrost has decreased by 7% in the Northern Hemisphere since 1900.
• Trends from 1900-2005 have been observed about precipitation and has showed huge changes throughout the globe.
• Changes in precipitation and evaporation over the ocean has increased salinity in low latitude areas.
• Westerly winds have strenghtened in both hemispheres since the 1960's.
• More intense and longer droughts over wider areas since the 1970's.
• Frequency of heavy precipitation has increased over land masses.
• Widespread changes in extreme temperatures have been observed over the last 50 years.
• There is evidence of increased tropical cyclone activity since about 1970, related to increased sea levels. The storms have become more intense and frequent.

Understanding and Attributing Climate Change

Most observations of global average temperatures since the mid-twentieth century has changed from likely to very likely due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.

• It is likely that increases in greenhouse gas concentrations alone would have caused more warming than observed.
• It is extremely likely that climate change of the past 50 years can be explained with internal forces, and very likely not due to known natural causes.
• Warming has been detected in changes of surface and atmospheric temperatures, upper several hundred metres of the ocean, and contributing to sea level rise. The warming and cooling is very likely due to greenhouse gas increases and ozone depletion.
• It is likely there has been anthropogenic warming in the past 50 years over every continent except Antarctica.
• Small-scale temperature changes are very difficult to detect.
• Anthropogenic forces are likely contributing to changing wind patterns, causing severe storms.
• It is more likely than not that anthropogenic forces have increased occurance of heat waves.

Analysis of climate models have constraints from observations are likely to range.

• The global average warming range is from 2-4.5 oc.
• It is very likely that climate changes of seven countries prior to 1950 are from natural forces.

Projections of Future Changes in Climate

For the next two decades a warming of about 0.2 oc per decade is expected, if levels of warming were kept constant, there would still be a further warming of about 0.1 oc per decade.

Continued release of greenhouse gas emissions at or above the current rate would cause further warming very likely larger than that of the 20th century.

• Current advances in climate change models enable best estimates.
• Best estimates for climate predictions are currently at 1.1 oc-2.9 oc for low scenarios and 2.4 oc- 6.4 oc for higher scenarios.
• Warming reduces land and ocean uptake of carbon dioxide.
• Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations lead to an increasing acidification of the ocean.

Now, there is higher confidence in projected patterns of warming.

• Warming is expected to be greatest over land and at most in the Northern hemisphere.
• Increase thawing of permafrost is expected.
• Sea ice is expected to shrink in the Arctic and Antarctic.
• Tropical storm tracks are expected to move poleward.

Anthropogenic warming and sea level rise will continue even if greenhouse gas concentrations were stabilized.

• Climate carbon cycle coupling is expected to add carbon but the magnitude is uncertain.
• If radiative forcing were stabilized by 2100 there is a 0.5 oc warming still expected.
• Thinning of the Greenland ice sheet is expected to continue beyond 2100.
• Antarctic ice sheet is projected to be too cold for melting, it is expected that the ice mass will increase due to an increase in snowfall.
• Past and future anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions will continue to contribute to warming for more than a millenium.

Blog 3- Reinventing the Energy System

In this reading, Flavin and Punn argue that by combining the effects of societies needs, invention of new technologies, and increase in severity of environmental problems will influence the rapidity for efficient energy and decrease the dependance on fossil fuels in order to replace it with renewable energy.

In 1893, the combination of the "best minds" predicitons for the next century were that electrical power would be universal, and that steam and all other sources would be replaced. They could have never predicted the spread of suburbs, or the use of fossil fuels to an extent that would raise sea levels, destroy ecosystems, or increase heat waves, floods and droughts. Today the internal combustion engine is the prime mean of transportation and electricity is taken for granted as if the supply would be gone it would be an emergency. Today energy price is low so to find new energy sources that are reliable, affordable and convenient is beyond experts' knowledge. China and other developing countries have been pouring billions of dollars in the construction of coal mines, oil refineries, power plants, automobile factories, and roads.


Fossil fuels- coal, oil and natural gas, provide 90 percent of energy to industrial countries and 75 percent of the energy worldwide. Petroleum seems irreplaceable but what is already known is that energy forecasts can overlook what later seems to be obvious. If we look at our societal, environmental, economic and technological changes it seems we are already entering a global energy transition.

The outline of the new energy systems are emerging, thanks to the revolution of new technologies and approaches. The main sources for this energy are the earth's- the sun, the wind, and other renewable energies. The main source for energy could be that of hydrogen, the lightest and most abundant in the universe.

This transition would mean homo-sapiens would return to their roots. That is muscles, plants, sun, wind, and water to provide heat, light, food, shelter and movement. The next century will be moving away from fossil fuels as this last century was a move toward them. Although it make several decades to move to develop a working system, we can finally anticipate the transformation. By relying on non-renewable resources we have built an economy on patterns that cannot be sustained for another century. The foundation for new technologies will affect the lives of billions of people in the twenty-first century and beyond.

Past energy transitions have occured due to changes in technology and a wide range of social, economic, and environmental forces. Limitations of resource availability could be one force to push the world away from fossil fuels in the next decade. Natural gas and coal may last until the end of the twenty-first century but oil will not. Approximately 80 percent of the oil produced today comes from reserves discovered before 1973. The total world production has increased less than 10 percent since the 1980's. A recent analysis of data on world oil reserves shows that there is roughly 1 trillion barrels of oil to extract, and 800 million barrels of this has already been extracted. The world's oil reserves are already half gone, and the projection is that the production will peak by 2010, and then begin to decline.

Long before we run out of fossil fuels, the environmental and health issues will push us to a cleaner energy system. Fossil fuels burning are the leading source of air pollution, water and land degradation. Combustion of coal and oil is linked to lung cancer, and other respiratory problems and causes urban smog and acid rain. Ecosystems are being disrupted, and toxic chemicals impair water quality.

Localized problems are obvious but it is the global environmental effects that are raising question to our energy economy. Experts believe human activities are ending the global climatic stability that has endured in the past 10,000 years.

Kyoto Protocol is working on reducing carbon emissions by 60-80 percent and will eventually cut carbon emissions completely.

Today the fast growing economy is not producing food or automobiles it is software, telecommunications and broad range of services. This information Revolution like the industrial Revolution will have its own energy needs. These mechanical machines require reliable energy, which is now fundamentally powered through the internet by power grids and gas lines. Technologies that can meet the demands of developing countries at a minimal cost will become prminent in the twenty-first century.

Today new energy systems are being produced with electronics, synthetic materials, biotechnology, and software. Compact fluorescent lightbulbs are now being replaced with light-emitting diode which are twice as efficient and last 10 times longer. Wind power emerged just over 1,000 years ago as a serious option for generating energy. Wind power is now economically competitive with fossil fuel generated electricity. Improvements in trapping solar energy has reduced costs by 80 percent in the past two decades, the solar cells are now being built in shingles, tiles, and window glass, allowing buildings to generate their own electricity. Fuel cells use electrochemical process that combines hydrogen and oxygen, producing water and electricity. Today's fuel cells are now twice as efficient as traditional engines.


Solar energy looks more prominent for countries like Mexico, India, and South America, while countries like Canada, Russia, and China have large wind resources. The energy transition is still fresh in developing countries most of which are leaping beyond with new technologies.

As we are "de-carbonizing" the world economy becomes more geopolitically controlling.

United States with only 5 percent of the world's population is using roughly one quarter of the world's energy supply, consuming twice as much as Japan and 12 times as much as China. In the United States the energy demand is overwhelmed by an increasing demand for more energy. Increased driving, larger homes, huge kitchens are energy hungry and require alot of fuel.

Studies show that focusing on human well-being instead of consumption, we would be able to develop goals that will lead us to a sustainable lifestyles for the entire world. The change in our energy system will bring focus on the connection between human-well being, energy, and the environment rather than treat energy as a commodity. This will have a more promising investment for future generations and in a livable planet.

Blog Reflection- Environmental ethics

Environmental ethics lie right in the middle of Anthropocentrism, Biocentrism, and Ecocentrism.
Anthropocentrism is important because we need to look out for our own species. That is what animals do and that is what is in our nature. We must give food to the hungry, hope to the needy, give life to a baby and give care for free. I did not write these words, it is from a very motivating song that we should get the priviledged to listen to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH9Eckixo-o&feature=related. Xavier Rudd is amazing at inspiring people to protect nature and to take care of people. His song gives a message that we must do good to our planet. By doing so we must look out for each other, adopt a anthropocentric way of thinking without compromising the well being of other species. This would be the Biocentric outlook that to protect our environment we need to adopt the idea that every individual living thing has the same right to live as humans do. They will take care of themselves, we must only let them do so by giving them space to prosper. That would mean to adopt a ecocentric outlook which is protecting ecosystems in whole so that every species can survive and us humans can enjoy the irreplaceable services the ecosystem provides for us.

Online Activity

After looking at these photos and watching this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9TyHzP-8b88b8, it reminded me how inspiring nature can be for myself and for so many more people of my kind out there. Andy Goldworthy first words in this video are: "I don't think the earth needs me but I know I need it." This could not be any more true especially after reading the selections for this blog listing all the services our ecosystem supplies for us. Nature provides us with so much positive things that we cannot put a price tag on it. Trully Andy's art brings me back to the state of mind that it is man and nature, not man vs. nature because man will always lose. His art makes me think of the connection we have with every being on earth. We have to remember that we are just another animal depending on this planet, the only thing we have more is the capability to destroy it. We are using our knowledge in ways that are useless. Andy's art shows the true beauty of nature and it's powerfull capabilities to destroy. His art is not digitally enhanced or altered, it is not produced or changed artificially, or conditioned and disguised, it is not sharp or flat or expected. GoldWorthy's art can be decribed the same way as if you were to describe the word Nature.

His art is capturing, it is very creative and amazingly different than the usual. That is to what you find in nature; diversity, changes and things you would not expect. His art brought me back to when I was a child, when I were to have a grim day or a great day, I would sometimes go in my backyard in the forest and sit back on an oak tree with a piece of paper and colored crayons. I would draw what I would see, and even though I would sit mostly by the same tree I always had something new to draw, everytime I would go there. This is what I did when I was alone, either that or I was building forts with branches I would find on the forest floor. Nothing was permanent, the forts I built are not lying there still today but I still found it in me to do that. Something like Goldworthy's art, it is not permanent but it is a time he gets to spend precious time alone, which is so important, it helps you reflect on yourself and connect with nature. Without those moments, we feel rootless. In those moments we feel the smallest subtleties, like the wind getting stronger, I relate this to when I do Yoga. Yoga is about feeling the air you breadth pass through your body and feeling every bit of yourself, and letting your mind come at ease. Andy does this through his art. Just like his art is not permanent, Nature will not be permanent if we continue the way we are. Although some day man will lose and nature will take over.

Selection 12- Ecosystems and Human Well-being

The world's ecosystems provides us with clean water, food, flood control, disease management, climate regualtion, spiritual fulfillment and natural resources and the list goes on. The need to protect these ecosystems must be implemented by government, economics, social behavior, and knowledge in order to achieve sustainability of these ecosystems.
Over the past 50 years these ecosystems have changed rapidly ad substantionaly. Some humans have benefited from this but in fact many people and regions have been harmed. There are problems associated with the current management of our world's ecosystems: resources are being degradaded and used unsustainably including fresh water, fishing, water purification, natural hazards and pest control. The full cost of the loss and degradation of our ecosystem services are difficult to measure, but they are substantial and growing. Second problem is that changes being made to our ecosystems are accelerating, are irreversible and show great consequences for uman beings. Examples would be disease emergence, alterations in water quality, and regional climate shifts. Third problem to ecosystem degradation would be the principle factor that it is causing poverty and social conflicts.
Environmental degradation will grow worse in the next 50 years, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, and excessive nutrient loading will become more severe. The changes needed to fix these growing problems are substantial and are currently underway.
An effective sustainability management approach requires substantial changes in institutions and governance, economic policies, and incentives, as well as social and behavior factors, technology, and knowledge. Actions must be taken in various sectors such as agriculture, forestry, finance, trade, and health. Groups that are dependant on ecosystem resources need to promote, encourage, and implement services which would substantially lessen the severity of the problems.
Over the past 50 years humans have altered the ecosystem more than any other period in our planet's history. These changes include:
1. Land that has been converted to cropland now covers one quarter of Earth's terrestrial surface.
2. Approximately 20% of the world's coral reefs were lost.
3. The amount of water passing through dams has quadrupled since 1960.
4. Since 1960, flows of reactive nitrogen in terrestrial ecosytems have doubled.
5. The atmospheric concentration of carbon has increased by about 32%.
Most of these changes represent loss of biodiversity, either the population size or majority of species is declining, and the Earth is becoming more homogenized such as the extinction rate of species has increased by as much as 1,000 times.
In order to meet the significant increase in population size food production has increased by two-and-a-half times, water use has doubled, wood harvest has tripled and hydropower capacity doubled.
Capital gain has had growing effects to the degradation of ecosystem services, changes in ecosystems, and growing poverty, or inequalities among people.
Among ecosystem sustainability there are three other major worries we need to think about. These are hunger, child mortality, and disease among all of us.
Past actions to slow or reverse the degradation have improved the well being of our ecosystems but they do not keep up to the growing pressure and demands. Substitutes can also be developed to meet our needs but the cost are generally high and negative on our environment.
It is weak human and institutional capacities on management of ecosystem services, under investment, lack of public awareness, and lack of awareness among decision makers that pose threats to the possibility of sustainable management of our ecosystems.

Selection 11: Will hurricane Katrina Impact Shoreline Management?

Erosion was one of the effects of Hurricane Katrina that received the most attention in 2005. There was also many comments made against wetland damage, insufficient storm defenses, or flood control plans, and poor dike construction and maintenance. Global warming will worsen these problems through rising sea levels and more frequent, stronger storms. Current efforts to restore shorelines and rebuild infrastructures are a waste of money and damage ecosystems.

Since Hurricane Camille in 1969 the buildings destroyed were replaced with high-wind building code infrastructures. But these buildings were only built to withstand 120 mph winds. The same scene of debris and concrete pads are all that was present after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The extent of damage inland were the same, if not surpassed, that of Hurricane Camille. Katrina was a major event, but for those who worked with the coastal science committee know that it has happened before and will happen again.

There is also Dauphin Island in Alabama, that has a worst record for reoccuring destruction than Mississippi coast. On the 15 mile long island, Katrina destroyed 150 homes even though it wasnt near the storm's dangerous center. The residence of the island have since moved inland because of the storm's damage and the rising sea level. Dauphin Island has had many severe storms and has been repeatedly rebuilt: Hurricane Frederic (1979), Danny (1997), Georges (1998), and Ivan (2004). This frightening record should be enough to discourage intense future development. Dauphin Island is a classic example of a location that should not have been developed or rebuilt multiple times.

Coastal population have soared along with construction, big cottages rebuild small ones and high rises replace big cottages. City mayors indicate that Hurricanes are "good" for cities in the case of urban renewal. Post storm properties increase without the thought of rising sea levels or future more intense storms.The National Shore and Beach Preservation Association (NSBPA) primary goal of beach nourishment is to save lives and properties. The sad truth is that coastal development destroyed beaches and created risks in the first place. Removing the oceanfront development the beaches will restore themselves. The beach replenishment project does nave negative impact on the environment such as killing all organisms and near-shore ecosystem when pumping sand to an area.

Irresponsible development of vulnerable coastal areas is costing the federal taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. Many researches suggest that a rise in sea surface temperatures (from Global warming) will increase storm severity and longer duration. Also we have seen a rise in the number of storms which means the future of costal properties does not look desirable. There are several obstacles to prevent rebuilding:

1. The ones who are considering to prevent everyone from rebuilding are considered insensitive. They are simply advocating that the federal government should use the rebuilding dollars more wisely.

2. Those who abandon communities are viewed as defeated but this is insanity. Dauphin Island is a sandbar therefore rebuilding is irresponsible and risk taking.

3. The US cannot continue to support those who want to live and work on the coast. It is not simply an environmental issue, this is an issue of fairness.

4. If you want to live in high risks areas you pay.

Although difficult to decide which communities should be abandoned we have the knowledge and the data to identify which areas we should pull government support from.

The project to restore Louisiana's coastal wetlands and delta barrier islands is likely not a good idea. The 14-15 billion project is thought to do little to mitigate storm impact. If there is such a high amount of money, all the US wetlands should be looked at and the funds should be spent where the rate of success is more likely.

Hurricane Katrina's impact should bring an opportunity to rethink the national coastal policy.

Blog Reflection- Purpose of Connecting

Yes, if we take time to connect with nature our decisions will be influenced for the positive.

This past weekend I went to cut a tree down on the river with my father. I took his quad out and he took my uncles quad, both with trailers in the back. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed doing this not only spending time with my dad but being outside during winter, sliping and sliding on the ice, when eventually finding the perfect tree that will provide us with one or two months of heat for the following winter. My dad thought me at a very young age which trees to cut and which ones to leave and let grow. Due to erosion the tree we chose would have fallen in the river by next summer so we cut this beautiful oak tree that had taken 25 plus years to grow providing us with beauty, while purifying our air from carbon through respiration , providing habitats for many squirrels, birds, owls, and many micro-organisms. I learned at a very young age to appreciate nature and connect with it in a way that makes you feel like a minute being on this planet. My serene place as a child and even more as I grow into an adult is most definetly laying back on a massive oak tree and hearing nothing but chants of birds. I had lost that for a couple years when I moved away, in fact I went to the complete opposite place in the world that was filled with cars, police sirens, four walls, no grass, no trees, barely any birds, I had went to Edmonton to work and make something of myself while figuring out what direction my life should be going. Coming from a quiet, natural location and heading to work in the Alberta Oil Industry was a huge change. It led me more towards wanting to devote my life to natural resource conservation. I don't think I would of ever thought of doing that if I would not of had a connection with nature in the first place, growing up. I appreciate more the heat that the tree provides me, with the simple oldest way of keeping us warm, that is fire. Now some people living in the city might get to appreciate nature when going off camping, or hiking but I grew up with it, it is embeded in me and the next thing that I want to embed is how to do the best I can to teach this to future generations and of course current ones as well. A connection with nature can teach us values that will most definetly influence our decisions about what we chose to eat, buy, trow out, or make us think twice about leaving the tap running.

I have always thought about how people sitting in an office in Ottawa could make decisions about where our waste is deposited, or what is most important, our economy or our environment without having a connection with what nature is and what it is doing for so many of us. The management approach to conservation that we need to take, cannot be understood from books, pictures, attending sessions, taking statistics or from sitting in a vehicule watching the outdoors. The values we need to encode in our management approach can be learned simply from taking time to appreciate the natural beauty of OUR planet earth and building a knowledge that the only way to go is to preserve and conserve life and to have a more biocentric outlook on life. If we do this we will find simple, non-technical solutions to solving this world crisis. By changing our morals and values, we will make more conscience decisions in our daily lives.

Selection #7 Tragedy of the Commons

Garrett Hardin, the author of this selection, controversial views on population, evolution , and birth control earned him an international reputation as an influencial, outspoken critic of the ecological and environmental community. The best known print was the "Tragedy of the Commons" where he explains a story of a pasture becoming overgrazed and destroyed because each herdsmen who's animals grazed on it considered only their families needs and not the future needs for the use of this land. Hardin compared this to the worlds food source from the oceans because the ocean is essentially not privately owned. His research went to prove that more food simply increases the population of the world.

In the past technical problems were solved with technical solutions. Technical solutions is defined by one that requires change only in the techniques of natural sciences, with little or no change to our values, or ideas of morals. The concern is the important concept of a class of human problems that can be called the "no technical solution problems". For example the game of tick-tack-toe would fit this class. It is well known that the game cannot be won, assuming that the opponent understands the game perfectly. In other words, there is no technical solution to this problem.

This class of problems has many more members, such as the population problem. People must let go of many priviledges they now enjoy, in order to solve this problem, because the population crisis cannot be fixed by farming the seas, or genetically modifying plants to grow faster. In a simpler term, the population problem cannot be solved technically no more than winning the game of tick-tack-toe.


We have a tendency to assume the actions taken individually are presumably the best for an entire society. If this assumption is correct, the assumption of each individual deciding what is the optimum population will continue. We need to reexamine our freedoms to see which ones are defensible.

There are both positive and negative results of tragedy of the commons, for example a pasture will bring an income to the farmer by selling the cattle. The negative effect would essentially be overgrazing, which is shared by all farmers using the same land. Each herdsman continues to add another cattle and another without any limits, the problem is the world has limits. Therefore if we continue this idea of individual benefit the society and future generations will suffer. The oceans of the world currently suffer but maritime nations still continue to respond about the freedom of the seas. They claim the oceans have abundant amount of resources, they are bringing many species of fish and sea mammals to extinction. Presently, National Parks have the same idea concluding the tragedy of the commons, since they are open to everyone. We must chose to either sell these parks as private land, or continue to inforce stronger regulations that will keep most people outside the parks.


We can say that pollution is working the opposite of the tragedy of the commons, such as pollution is additioning not diminishing things from our natural environment. We continue to add sewage, chemicals, radioactive waste in water, and dangerous fumes in the air, into our environment which will lead to a world wide tragedy of the commons crisis. Solving these problems means coercive laws, but the laws are always outdated so they must be changed to fit to new perspectives. The pollution problem we are facing is essentially one from an abundance of people on earth all contributing their share of wastes.


Our society is deeply commited to a welfare state, supported by the United Nations, heance our freedom to breed means everyone who is born has the same rights to the commons really locks our world into a tragic course of action. This being said we must supress the human rights of reproduction supported by the United Nations.

We make a mistake when we think we can control breeding of mankind in the long run. It would take us hundreds of generations to reproduce like this, but nature can take revenge and Homo Contracipiens will be extinct. Our desire for children is hereditarily so the message must be passed down hereditarily.

The way we will push family responsibilites is through coercion and not prohibition, with careful biased options. Mutual coercion is plausible, not that we have to enjoy the idea such as taxes. Our system is "like father like son" is the only system invented so we comply to it. We all make assumptions that only perfect systems work.

Selection #6 The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis

In this reading Lynn White, Jr. the author, argues that Christianity is to blame for the dispositions that have resulted in environmental degradation. The world's religions have given people a view of nature as having no reason but to serve humankind. This attitude, along with the power from modern science and technology , has unraveled an ecological crisis that is continuing to retrograde. Man's unnatural treatment of nature is considerably wrong and has had bad results.

This dialogue begins with Aldous Huxley speaking of a place in England, a serene grass convered everglade, where he had spent many happy years as a child. When he returned in his later days, the area was overgrown with brush because the rabbits inhabiting the area were killed off by a disease called, Myxomatosis, that was introduced by local farmers to reduce the destruction of crops. White, being a somewhat barbaric then added that these rabbits were brought to England in 1176 most likely to enhance the protein diets of the peasants. Humans introduce alien species to an area to solve a specific problem, then when these species begin to be inconvenient or costly they are simply killed off. This enhances the fact that changes in human ways of life causes changes in nonhuman nature. Theses changes happen everywhere and in greater severity. In many regions terracing or irrigation, overeagerly hunting, overgrazing or the cutting of forests by Romans to build ships to fight wars or for expeditions, cause profound changes to our Ecology. The history of ecologic change is still so incipient that we still do not know what has happened or what the results will be.

Natural science, an effort to understand the nature of things, has evolved in several generations and among several people. Similarly, technology has been growing at times quickly and other times slowly. When Western Europe and North America merged science and technology, the theoretical and experimental approaches evolved into our natural environments. Scientific knowledge nowadays means technological power over nature.

When the first cannons were fired, in the early 14th century, they affected ecology by sending people mining for potash, iron ore, and charcoal resulting in deforestation and erosion. Nowadays a war faught with hydrogen bombs would alter the genetics of life. In 1285, London had smog problems from burning coal, presently burning of fossil fuels threatens to change the chemistry of our atmosphere, this significance we are only beginning to understand. Today's growing sewage and garbage deposits are sure to create unmanageable problems.

Our ecological crisis is emerging from our democratic culture and can only be solved if we rethink our principles, our laws.

Our science today is the heir to all the sciences of the past, presumably from Islamic scientists skills and acuteness, such as al Razi in medicine, or other Islamics in optics and mathematics. Today, around the world in whichever language, science is Western in style and method. Since our science and technology was mastered in the Middle Ages, we must study the assumptions and developments of the Midievals to understand their present day impact on our ecology.

Until recently, agriculture has been the chief in occupation. Plowing has gone through much evolution beginning with the use of oxens to machinery nowadays which were enhanced to yield from family size to larger yields. "Formerly man had been part of nature; now he was the exploiter of nature." In the Middle Ages, men are plowing, harvesting, chopping trees and butchering pigs. Man and nature are two things, and man is master nowadays. The religous study of nature was profoundly artistic rather not scientific. From the 13th century on scientists explained their motives in religious terms, until the 18th century religion became unnecessary to many scientists. Human ecology is deeply conditioned by beliefs about our nature and destiny-that is, by religion. Christians, especially in the Western World, have an anthropocentric view. Christianity bears a huge burden of guilt because most Christians believe we are superior to nature, they are willing to use it to extrapolate it for our slightest needs.

Most technology and more science will not get us out of this ecological crisis unless we find a new religion or rethink our old one. Most people do not think this as a Christian view is irrelevant since no new set of basic values has been accepted in our society since those of Christianity. We cannot save this ecological crisis until we reject the idea that nature has no need other than to serve man, since this view is religious, the remedy must essentially be religious.