Final Assignment!

SUSTAINABILITY: Is the idea or practice of living life with as little negative impact as possible on the environment. That is to say that one would use the minimum amount of resources necessary in order to support a quality, but not extravagant, way of life. Not only should would one uphold this way of life in order to not to use unnecessarily and bring about negative environmental impacts, but also to make sure that everyone in an ecosystem has the resources needed and not just a few people.


I chose a picture of soil because before this class, I wasn't aware of the amount of time and effort that was put into analyzing soil for different uses. I was aware that there were different layers of the soil horizon and different types of soil, however I didn't really give it much thought. The soil present in an area dictates what can grow there. It also interested me how different soils have different characteristics, such as how permeable something is, and amounts of organic matter. I just thought soil was soil. To me it didn't matter whether the soil was classified as having more salt, sand, and silt, things should always grow. Now I know better.

I decided to find some of picture that represents money because when solving environmental problems, it seems like there's never enough money. Amongst all the disadvantages of any alternative energy source that is less harmful than current energy sources is the expense. Solar power, for example, seems to be practically free and lacking any sort of pollution because it comes directly from outer space, however the equipment needed to process solar energy can be extremely expensive in the active solar energy realm. Through out the entire year I believe one of the things that have been discussed the most, and have made the biggest impression on me, is just the overall impression that the entire world seems to lack the finances to repair the damage they have done. Money is not impossible to get, and there are methods to make it easier to implement new energy source techniques, such as including environmental costs in consumer prices. While this would make many things more expensive, perhaps that would help appease the severity of the affluenza.

Kwashiorkor is not the typical hunger disease. In many ways, it seems as if the process of starvation has been reversed. Instead of the lack of food being the cause of malnutrition, it is too much food that doesn't contain amounts of protein efficient enough to sustain life. All of the food is ingested and the quantity that is eaten goes straight to the belly, but instead of supplying nutrition to the rest of the body, it goes through and merely satiates the hunger. The lack of protein in the foods eaten, such as rice and other grains, causes the muscle tissue to deteriorate and the organs to fall forward, giving the appearance of a bloated belly. Eventually, though they are ingesting food, the lack of protein causes the diseased to suffer from a new kind of starvation. This really surprised me because I wasn't aware there is other hunger diseases besides simple starvation and APES really taught me that hunger isn't about just a lack of food. It is important to get a balanced diet, not just because it's healthier for the body, but also because it's the difference between life and death.