John Rector: The Final Assignment.

At the beginning of the year, my view on sustainability was limited to simply cars and fossil fuels. I thought those were our only problems; or at least, the most pressing. However, this class has shown me that there is a lot more than just automobiles that is causing trouble. Population, dwindling energy supplies, and global climate change are all very pressing matters that I have been enlightened upon. Sustainability is not simply driving your car less. It is a combination of actions and lifestyles that reduce our carbon footprint and help preserve our planet for future generations. Unfortunately, we are not living sustainably. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.
One of the most shocking things I have been shown this year is how serious the current population increase is. I knew that the population was increasing and that it had reached 7 billion, but I did not know how drastically it would continue to increase after it hit the 7 billion mark. Such a rise in population is scary because we can barely support our population now. With America living so unsustainably and countries like India having children die every minute, I do not see how we can continue to thrive with more people. This makes changes in lifestyles even more urgent.
This class has also widened my gaze on the energy crisis. Our continued use of non-renewable resources has us heading down a path that leads to a final energy crisis when they all run out and we have not accessed enough renewable resources. I fear that in the future we will be reduced to an energy-less society due to our failure to heed the warnings of the present.
Perhaps the most serious and most permanent change that we as a people are instigating is the global climate change due to greenhouse gasses. Before this class, I was unsure whether global warming was real or just an invention of environmentalists. But now, after seeing the science behind it, I know that global climate change is indeed real and is becoming very serious.

After taking this class, I have realized what a clean source of energy nuclear energy is. If the dangers can be avoided, which they easily can, nuclear would be a great option for the future.

Climate change is one of the most pressing and permanent dangers we face as we forge into the future. Climate change will change the way we live. If this unsustainable lifestyle continues, we will plunge the earth into an eternity off heat.

Overpopulation is what I have grown to fear most by studying in this class. If we have trouble living sustainably with current population, a population boost will only multiply the horrific effects we are currently seeing such as malnutrition and starvation.

Sustainability is the balence of all aspects of our world. The balence of human population, the environment, animal populations, fuel consumption, pollution, and science create sustainability. The things that stuck out to me most when talking about this concept is how humans contunually cut down trees thinking that they are an endless resource when they arent. Trees are renewable yes, but at the rate we are cutting them down they wont be. Trees produce the oxygen we need to survive and by depleating this resource we are degrading our air quality. This deforestation is also contributing to degraded water quality, because the job of certain forests is to basically filter the water that comes through the area. Deforestation also contributes to deseretification. The areas where forests are cut down are left barren, and without the root systems and trees and plants to shelter the soil, it is left to the wind and rain which results in the erosion of the soil. Desertification is also caused by hoofed animals overgrazing fields. I could go on forever about the connections between all the problems and solutions concerning sustainability, but overall in  AP Environmental Science I have learned that all the environmental problems in our world are connected in some way or another.

The ultimate goal of our society should be to live sustainabily. In order to accomplish this goal we need to find ways to decrease our intake of unsustainable fuels (ie. coal, oil, natural gas) and replace them with renewable fuels such as wind energy, solar power, or hydroelectric power. Once these changes are put into movement the econimic and social aspects will follow in suit.

The growth of the worlds population, fuel consumption, and pollution are way above the levels needed to call our world sustainable. The idea of sustainable living would allow every person in the world to have a steak and a glass of wine for dinner is a good measure.

Genetic enginering is a highly contriversial topic among all people. Scientists believe that it could provide people who do not have means to have stable diets with enhanced foods that could help balence them. For example rice can he altered genetically to provide protein. Another good thing about genetic engenering is that it can change crops to make them more tolerent to drought or flooding, decrease the likely hood of desease, and pest resistance.

APES Final Report-Tripp

At the beginning of this year, I assumed that sustainability dealt only with protecting animal and plant life, protecting ecosystems, and conserving resources to stop pollution, but now I understand clearly what sustainability is.  Sustainability used to be the earth's ability to adapt and change indefinitely. In order to be sustainable, humanity has to exist in such a way that we do not overload the earth with people and that our use of non-renewable resources is not irresponsible and wasteful.  At the beginning of this year, I would never have considered population size to be a problem associated with sustainability, but now i know that it is one of the largest problems with sustainability.  The population of an area determines resource use, energy consumption, and the amount of pollution in an area.  The amount of resources available is the carrying capacity.  The carrying capacity is a limit to how large a population can grow based on resource consumption.  If resources, such as food and water, are used only as necessary, the carrying capacity raises, which allows for greater population size.  Thomas Malthus once said, "There should be no more people living in a country than could enjoy daily a glass of wine and a piece of beef for dinner.".  If we lived as Malthus did, we would greatly reduce the carrying capacity of the earth, as much more energy is required to farm grapes and raise cows, than is required to harvest wheat.  A lowered carrying capacity due to a high standard of living is the cultural carrying capacity.  Sometimes, a cultural carrying capacity is beneficial, because it would limit over crowding.  A larger population also produces more waste and must make sacrifices in environmental protection in order to meet its needs.

  










This is Norman Bourlag. He has been dubbed "the father of the Green Revolution" and is responsible for developing many high-yield varieties of wheat.  Bourlag's break-through has fed nearly one billion people, and decreased world-wide starvation.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a mass of municipal waste moving in a vortex in the Pacific Ocean.  It is estimated that the garbage patch covers anywhere from 270,000 sq. mi. to 5,800,000 sq, mi.  The massive amount of waste makes me wonder how we could have let this happen and why.  There is no real excuse for letting pollution of our seas escalate to this level.  Unfortunately, it seems that we have still not found a solution.

Over-crowding is an issue because it lowers the standard of living in an area because it is difficult to ensure that all of the people get what they need.  Over-crowding also leads to rapid spread of disease and lower hygiene standards. 

Jonathan Holzer - Sustainability: The Final Assignment

     On the surface, sustainability simply means the ability to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely. We have to dig only slightly deeper to find a complex chain of environmental events and human interaction withe the environment. Sustainability is so much more than just trying to survive and adapt. If the human race wants to attain sustainability, we have to work for it harder then we've ever worked for anything. The process of attaining sustainability begins with first assessing the major problems affecting sustainability and then solving said problems. The first and most prominent issue is human population. With the world population having recently reached seven billion people, the Earth is beginning to collapse under the weight of all our needs and whims. Humans are rapidly running resources dry, and the more humans there are the faster the resources deplete. Throughout all forms of humanity, those under the homo genus have been expanding across the Earth. Now, in the 21st century, humans are running out of places to go. Along with population growth comes the other major problems of sustainability. A major problem that is being faced is water deficiency. People assume that they will always have water, but they could never be farther from the truth. Every day countless gallons of water are being poured down the drain because first world citizens think it will always be there. Unfortunately, third world countries and even some American cities are facing water deprivation. Companies capitalize on this by selling the water back to communities at insane prices, and get away with it because necessity outweighs price. Another large problem with sustainability is industry. Industry drains resources at a appalling rate. Industry strips entire forests, decimates wetlands, destroys mountains, and depletes nonrenewable resources. Unfortunately, the problems don't stop with the draining of resources. Industry also causes a large amount of pollution in the creation of the products consumers love to buy. Acid mine drainage, CO2 emissions, and dioxins are just a few of the pollutants industry causes. Its fairly hard to stop industry because corporations control governments, and as long as we keep buying the products they will keep being made. The only way to fix these problems is through hard work. Population growth will be hard to fix, but hopefully if education and medicine is applied then communities won't reproduce as often. To lighten the load of human weight on the Earth, we must conserve and recycle all of our resources (especially water) and learn clean, renewable ways to produce energy and the products consumers love to buy in a more sustainable manner, a manner that doesn't rip through natural resources and cause the a very agonizing extinction of the human race.

     This ecocolumn represents the balance of and ecosystem I learned throughout the year. Having done the project in the first trimester, I was able to truly learn how energy flowed through a system. It starts with the plants, who gain energy from nutrients in the soil, then it moves to decomposition, who gain energy from the decaying, and finally it goes to the fish who gain energy from the chambers above. Not only did I learn about the flow of energy, but for several months we were able to take care of an entire ecosystem and see what caused the downfall of said ecosystem.





     I always knew that the three R's were important, but I never fully understand just how important they were. Throughout my year of study environmental science, I learned an immense amount about the stress placed on resources and how they were quickly being diminished, and thus learned how important reducing, reusing, and recycling are to obtaining a future for the Earth. These techniques should always be implemented and encouraged throughout the seven continents. If we're not careful with out resources, we will need to complete the task of finding a new planet to live on.

     I choose this picture because it depicts how detrimental population growth is to sustainability. The cartoon shows projected population growth and how difficult it is to handle resources with such a large population. Prior to AP environmental science, I never came close to imagining how bad population impacts the Earth, and now I leave APES a changed man. Population growth is a major inhibitor to the goal of achieving a sustainable society

Sustainability-Final Project

When I was assigned the initial blog post in the summer about sustainability, I had difficulty writing it. I thought that the only thing inhibiting us from sustainability was inefficient resource news. I now know that this is completely inaccurate, and that sustainability involves many different components. To me, sustainability refers to our ability to live on the earth while utilizing its resources in such a manner that they are able to supply our needs, without being wasteful or destructive while doing so. Essentially, the definition has not been altered drastically; I have just now attached different connotations associated with it. We, as the human race, do not live sustainably. In many countries such as the United States and China, nonrenewable resources are being used at alarming rates.In other more poverty stricken countries, it is necessary for them to use fires to obtain their energy, which can lead to indoor air pollution and more disease, or the emission of harmful by-products into the air, helping to accelerate global warming. Thus, our lack of sustainability can be witnessed coming from all of the different ends of the world. It is necessary that we do not simply ignore what is happening around us, but learn to live in harmony with the environment. None of us are knowledgeable of exactly how long we can deplete the resources of the earth before we are forced to look for an alternative means, and by then, it could potentially be too late. To me, I believe that there are many roots to the problem that need to be explored thoroughly, and I believe that people around the world need to be educated about our current environmental problems in order to make a change around us.

http://ivarfjeld.wordpress.com/2011/04/16/rising-food-costs-millions-face-poverty/ 

This picture may have affected me the most throughout learning about environmental science this year. It is a sign of extreme poverty. These children are starving. While this picture may be hard to bear, it only represents a few children out of the billions are over the world struggle for food on a daily basis. From an environmental stand point, and as mentioned earlier, poverty is not good for the environment. When people are constantly living in poverty, they struggle just to find enough food to sustain their bodies on a daily basis. This being established, they do not care if they are degrading the environment by building a fire for warmth or depleting crop grounds without letting the nutrients be restored. This, however, should not only be looked at by an environmental standpoint, but simply by a humanitarian standpoint as well. We should help others around the world be partitioning our resources equally, instead of living lavishly and in excess. It is not necessary that we have a TV in every room and go out to eat every weekend, when that money can be more properly spent elsewhere. 

http://www.policynetwork.net/blogs/article/monbiot-odds-un-deforestation 

This above image depicts deforestation. Before taking this class, I knew deforestation was a problem, but I had always associated the problem more with the deforestation of tropical rain forests. While tropical rain forests may be extremely important ecosystems as they are, deforestation occurs all over the world. Billions and billions of trees are cut down each year. Cutting down all of these trees does a number of things. It takes away the natural habitats from animals. Many animals center their homes in trees, and taking them away could possibly lead to endangering that species. Additionally, cutting down trees reduces the amount of oxygen readily available in the environment for us, and drastically reduces the amount of CO2 that they absorb. Another problem associated with trees is erosion. Erosion can lead to sediment runoff and therefore pollute our waterways. It can also deplete that land and lead to desertification. 

http://inhabitat.com/africas-biggest-windfarm-debuts-in-morocco/ 

This last image depicts something positive for me. A source of renewable energy. I believe that people should implement these wind turbines in addition to other renewable energy sources. While wind is not always available the entire time, it is an efficient resource. We should not rely on coal and oil because we do not know when those supplies can end. Wind is a resource that is completely free and efficient during times. Renewable resources are also used more often than people may expect. While the other two pictures depict important environmental problems, this picture helps to show that we are able to progress; we have done it in the past and developed new technologies for the environment, and hopefully we will do it in the future in order to take a step towards sustainability. 

Sustainability: Final Post -- Alex Sciacchitano

I once thought Sustainability was just researching our resource use. After the wonderful year of APES, I now understand that it is much more than studies. Sustainability is the long term aspect of the use of the earth's natural resources and how to utilize resources so that these will last for centuries to come and the effects of such resources and products on the environment and the economy. The population of the earth is growing, and with that, the use of natural resources and the adverse effects to the environment are on the rise. With all 7 billion and some people on the earth, the nonrenewable resources are decreasing at an alarming rate, especially the coal and petroleum reserves. A switch to renewable, or at least more sustainable practices is key in extending the carrying capacity of the earth so that both all people and other organisms can live in harmony. I noticed the little things are some of the most important in changing the world. The switch to LED light bulbs rather than incandescent light bulbs can save a good amount of energy daily and closing windows during the day during the summer months to keep rooms cooler and save power on air conditioning. Little things like this alongside the big time projects like Superfund and CERCLA and such. The green house gas emissions are on the rise. The massive carbon sinks, the rain forests, are being slashed and burned daily, leaving this huge carbon sink in ruin and creating even more atmospheric pollutants in the process. The controversies over things like the Kyoto Protocol don't help the issues either. All the nations involved should have to follow the same guidelines. China's ignorance to the rules lead to the U.S. and Canada's with drawl from the Protocol, and no nation benefits from these petty squabbles. If we wish to save the planet and be sustainable, then we must coexist and all aim for a common goal. If these issues get in the way, then green house gas emissions will rise uncontrollably leading to huge problems. After learning of the issues over the course of the year, I began to conduct my own research. I came across an island in the Bahamas called Star Island. This island is a private island resort that leaves no carbon footprint. The island completely on wind, solar, or hydro-electric power. This island is what the world should strive to be. http://starislandbahamas.net/#/home/


http://www.advanceledlights.com/costben.htm
This picture represents how a simple switch can save both energy and money, two of the keystone points of sustainability. The amount of energy wasted is 25% more with incandescent over LED. Again the importance of living sustainably with the little things in your life.


http://envis.maharashtra.gov.in/envis_data/files/news/apr/pollution%20management.html
This picture illustrates the planet being suffocated by all the countless pollutants tossed into the atmosphere by all the unsustainable processes. The poor planet cannot be left in shambles by the ridiculous unsustainable use of resources and release of the toxic byproducts.


http://advance.org/articles/clean-up-the-world-campaign/
I liked this picture. It shows that people unite to clean up the world and live sustainably. If everyone shared the same attitude, the world coukd become a much cleaner, lasting place.

Sustainability Final Post

Sustainability is the way we, as humans, interact with the environment and use its resources to meet our needs while trying to keep the environment stable at the same time. At the beginning of the school year, sustainability was something simple that I thought basically meant trying to conserve resources. Now, I realize that it expands on that idea so much more. I never knew that so many things affected the sustainability of our world. The most shocking thing to me was the fact that poverty actually hurt the environment. I figured that people didn’t have any money to afford nice things, so they couldn’t overconsume and buy too much junk. I see now that they don’t have the money to be able to watch out for the area around them. For example, they dispose of things wherever it is convenient because they can’t afford to have their trash hauled to a landfill. People that live in poverty can’t always afford to help the environment and themselves at the same time. Another thing that I think is a big problem is that the cost of an object does not reflect its environmental cost, or the cost of the degradation of the environment. To be honest, I never thought about that kind of stuff before I learned about it in class. I just bought the product. However, if that cost was included in the current price of any object, we might not have to worry as much about waste or greenhouse gas emissions. When I buy products now, especially ones made with plastic, I think about how making that one tiny piece of plastic caused a bigger greenhouse gas effect due to the fact that it’s made from oil. This loops to the biggest problem of them all. People aren’t educated about stuff like this unless they take a class, read things on the environment, etc. They have no idea that what they buy causes a huge positive feedback loop that can go in many different directions. I hope that in the future, kids are required to take an environmental science course, so they can live a sustainable lifestyle, and keep the environment’s resources around for future generations.

http://rlv.zcache.com/environmental_issues_small_canvas_bag-p149728305846697950bfrgh_400.jpg
Plastic bags are a huge problem. People just throw them around anywhere. They can choke animals, or they can float around in the environment. The video we watched in class about the ocean garbage patch really opened my eyes because I had no idea that existed. If people would invest in these cloth bags, the plastic bag problem could be greatly reduced.
http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/ear0130l.jpg
Women need to be able to have the option of certain contraceptives, such as birth control, because it would really help to control the population. Overpopulation is a problem because earth doesn’t have an infinite supply of resources. People want the best for their children, so they need to make sure they are educated about environmental problems, such as a lack of education for women, so they can have the best.
 http://animal.kukuchew.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/orangutan-deforestation-for-palm-oil-plantationscenes-from-indonesia18.jpg
Deforestation is one of my big concerns for various reasons. Animals need their habitats just like humans need their homes. The trees also help to lessen the greenhouse effect because they act as carbon sinks. It’s alright to cut down trees as long as more are planted and some are saved on a reserve, so they can continue to be carbon sinks and habitats for animals.

Stuart Gill- Sustainability

The definition of sustainability, for me, has changed from a broad textbook definition to an understanding of a lifestyle that will ultimately allow our planet to survive. Sustainability means to live and leave the smallest environmental footprint possible. As population continues to grow progressively, leading a sustainable lifestyle is becoming more and more difficult, and yet more and more vital. This being said I believe consumerism, point source pollution, and deforestation are actions that are all truly expediting and enhancing the cycle of global warming.

This picture defines consumerism. Consumerism is prevelant mainly in developed countries, especially the Unites States, and it is essentially the belief that one must constantly purchase products to keep up with the demands and trends of society. This is so harmful to the environment because it creates massive amounts of waste that have to be stowed in landfills and dumps which may leak or drain hazardous chemicals into bodies of water and/or groundwater. These chemicals may pollute an areas water supply deeming it undrinkable and costing large amounts of money to clean. 

This picture defines point source pollution. A prime example of this is vehicles. The United States relies heavily on cars and other forms of tranportation that run off of fossil fuels. This is an environmental issue for multiple reasons. The immediate issue is the direct pollution of the atmoshpere via automobile exhaust from the burning of gasoline. Secondly, the fossil fuels used to power these vehicles are mined. Mining is a process that can cause environmental damage through the contamination of groundwater through leakage of rainwater through tailings and also the destruction of large tracts of land and soil in open pit mining.



This final picture displays deforestation. This picture not only shows the environmental devistation of cutting down trees but also the effect it takes on the people involved whose homes may be destroyed. Large areas of trees help counteract our environmental degredation by reducing carbon levels in the atmosphere through photosynthesis. By cutting down trees we are just creating an even larger positive feed back loop that will ultimately alter our planet permenately unless we attempt to live sustainably.

APES Final Project -Peggy (F Bell)

Sustainability, like many words, can have several definitions. The definition of a word can change and grow depending on the context it is used in, but it can also change as the person using the word changes or gains knowledge. At the beginning of the year I defined sustainability as how long something lasts. It was simple, to sustain something meant to make it last longer. Now, the word means so much more. Sustainability is the ability to live in a way that is not detrimental to the planet, to adapt to new environmental problems in an eco-friendly way, and to keep searching for a way to keep this planet around as long as possible. The only way we can sustain ourselves, our race, is if we sustain the planet as well. Taking this class has really given a whole new meaning to the "butterfly effect"(the idea that one small action can have extreme consequences). We live in a pretty sheltered are when it comes to pollution and the fact that we don't see huge amounts of litter or smog allows us to belittle the problems we have caused. One of the biggest issues we face as we move forwards is the lack of knowledge when it comes to environmental science. The fact that we can turn a shoulder and pretend the environment is okay shows ignorant people can be when it comes to the environment. After lack of knowledge I would say population growth is probably the second largest problem we face. The world can only sustain so many people and we are quickly running out of resources. The countries booming in population are generally still developing countries, so these people will continue to live in poverty as the population continues to grow.  

Our trash is invading the homes of wildlife, harming and often times killing them. Animals are ingesting/getting caught in our garbage because we can't make the effort to throw it in a trash can or recycle it. Since we don't see the problem it is easy to ignore that there is one. How long will it take for us to become responsible for our actions?

The quest for new sources of energy, new technology has given us terrifying and unfathomable power. Nuclear power, while it is a cleaner form of energy, has the power to destroy entire villages, towns, and regions. One misstep can lead to the abandonment of an entire region for decades to come , as is the case with Chernobyl.

As we make these mistakes (Radiation leaks, pollution, etc.) we have come to learn how they are affecting our planet and our future. We will never have a chance to start over but we do have the chance to reverse the damage we have already done. Because of this we are now working harder than ever to grow and learn what the world  can become if we take care of it.

Picture 1

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APES Final Assignment -Jerre Stallings

Sustainability is the ability of a society to coexist with their environment, while not ruining it. I think the two major issues of today are: the dwindling energy resources and the ring of trash in the Pacific Ocean. People use fossil fuels so much, one would think it’s a delicious new drink. Fossil fuels now power 86.4% of the world power grids, making us so dependent on it, that if they were to disappear, the results would likely be apocalyptic. Not only are these fuels non-renewable (there is a limited supply), but we will run out in the next century and a half. So new means of energy must be found or we are in big trouble. Our economies would collapse, transportation would be impossible, there would be riots, and most likely global conflict over resources. The world would fall into anarchy, like addicts fighting over drugs. The second biggest issue, the ring of trash in the Pacific Ocean, is the fact that the world is creating so much trash that there is an area the size of Texas in the Ocean where it all collects. These plastics and other non-biodegradable materials will float on in the ocean forever, threatening marine life. We need to clean up and properly dispose of these plastics. Not to mention, we need to phase out plastics all together. We need to replace them with sustainable materials not made from petroleum. Materials that are biodegradable. The environment will thank us, because what we do to the environment today, affects all generations after us.



This is part of the great pacific garbage patch. It is also known as “garbage island” and it is a plague to the environment. It claims marine life everyday with its entangling plastics.


This is what the middle east may look like in the future if we do not replace dependence on oil. Terrorist organizations could hold resources hostage, or destroy them like this oil well burning in Kuwait. The world has already had a taste of conflict over oil during the Gulf Wars, when Iraqi forces set oil wells ablaze when the UN invaded. It not only wasted billions of barrels of oil, it also increased the price of oil, hurting the consumers.


The consumer of the future will suffer as gas prices will continue to skyrocket because of dwindling resources and inflation. People will begin to become enraged when they cannot even fill their tanks enough for the morning commute. Rioting will ensue.

Sustainability Final Project - Renee Lassen

At the beginning of the year, I defined sustainability as the ability of a natural or human system to remain diverse and adapt to a changing environment. While the definition is technically correct, I learned throughout the year that a definition so simple as that cannot begin to encompass all that sustainability means to a growing human society. To me now, sustainability means the ability of an environment to continue to perform its natural services and adapt to changes as they occur. This can be made possible as humans learn to use natural resources more efficiently and prevent degradation to the environment. The human race, as a whole, is responsible for using the Earth in a way that cannot be supported by natural means and is damaging the Earth to a point that is quickly becoming beyond repair by a number of irresponsible living practices. These are problems are those such as the overuse of fossil fuels and other materials (we only have so much of any given element; nothing can really be created or destroyed), a growing human population dependent on large supplies of food and water, a lack of education on the practices that are harming our environment and how we can correct them, deforestation (which can lead to erosion and more carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere), habitat fragmentation (which bottlenecks populations of organisms and prohibits them from adapting as quickly as possible), and a lack of green technology to help slow our environmental impact. At the beginning of the year, it was easy to pretend problems like these were not happening, and the environment’s natural cycles would solve anything that we messed up on. Global climate change was a media myth that was exaggerated by environmentalists for their cause, and fossil fuels were something I could put in my car and not wonder where they came from, where they were going, or how much we had left. But throughout this class, I have begun questioning where all my stuff comes from and goes, and wonder what I can do and what can be done on a larger scale to limit that input and output system, and turn it into more of a cycle. I see now we all need to change our practices to limit the growing number of environmental refugees and give the environment a chance to adapt to our practices, and education is a huge part of it. I understand that the population is growing to numbers that we will not have the resources to support at some point in the near future, and that the strain on the food supply is causing erosion and desertification that only hurts the environment more. Although at first poverty seemed the antithesis of an environmental problem, I see the problems associated with waste disposal, burning of wood and other biofuels for cooking or heat in homes, and the simple desire to survive that can cause environmental degradation. With all that I have learned in this class, I cannot look at the world and the way we use it the same way anymore, and I believe everyone should take an environmental class so that we can begin to make real changes once awareness is brought to the subject.

I chose the cartoons about greenhouse gas emissions and global climate change to show people's opinions on the subject, and how little is being done in comparison to how big the problem is. People would rather ignore global climate change and hide from the knowledge of it because it's scary and an inconvenience to change their way of life, but global climate change is happening and is quickly making the world a warmer place to live. Although policies are being enacted to try and help the environmental degradation greenhouse gases are causing, the policies are going to take a while and need a lot more strength to kick in and make a difference, and greenhouse gases are allowed to turn the world to desert while the policies crawl along. These issues are happening now, and this class helped me realize we need to face global climate change and change our ways if we want to live sustainably.

The picture above represents a forest cut down and burned for paper or for agricultural space in developing countries. This becomes a huge problem to organisms dependent on the forest, as their habitat is destroyed or fragmented and they suddenly have to subsist on a smaller area of space with little or no time to adapt to the changes. Organisms cannot respond to such a drastic change, especially if it continues over time, and many populations of organisms are being shrunk or becoming extinct as a result. Without the necessary organisms to perform natural services, we loose out on our environment's ability to fix our degradation, and may cause irreversible changes if we don't act soon to stop unsustainable practices.

I chose the graphs representing world population growth because I feel this is one of the most serious problems the world as a whole is facing today. Not only is the world population growing at an exponential growth rate, which puts a greater and greater strain on Earth's resources and food supply, but the majority of the world is being added to the developing world. While the majority of those who exploit resources are in developed countries, people in developing countries pose problems as they will continue to reproduce at high rates due to need of children and lack of female education, they will continue harmful wood burning practices to heat homes and cook food, more people are dependent on limited fresh water and arable land supplies in developing countries, more people are doing anything they can to survive and therefore hurting the environment as much as necessary, and less of a percentage of the world's population is educated on the negative environmental impact they are creating. As seen in India's population growth model, even if the growing population is curbed now and the fertility rate comes down to replacement level fertility, a reproductive time lag will ensure that the population of the world continues to grow for years as most people are in the reproductive age, and the problem will continue to get worse. This is a serious problem that needs attention now to help stop environmental degradation.

APES Final Assignment

1. From what I have learned this year, sustainability is meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.  The primary goal of sustainability is to achieve a reasonably distributed level of economic well being that can be perpetuated continually for many human generations.  It also implies using renewable natural resources in a manner that does not eliminate or degrade them.  I believe that the world does not live sustainability, because of many reasons.  One reasons is that the world's population and the impact per person is too large.  Our ecological footprint is too high, making it almost impossible to live a sustainable life.  Another reasons is that mankind expends one years of fossil fuels that takes nature roughly a million years to produce.  In order for the world to live sustainability, we must have increasingly effective pollution controls, increasing agricultural production, and effective soil erosion controls, and more efficient resource use.
2.

http://irawlinson188.blogspot.com/2010/03/bottled-water-vs-tap-water.html

The one thing that hit me most while taking APES was that bottled water is not safer or purer than tap water.  In fact, bottled water is less regulated, and you are more likely to know what is in tap water.  Tap water and bottle water come from the same places, such as lakes, aquifers, and springs.  Bottle water also causes a lot of waste in our landfills.  To prevent this problem, we can use refillable water bottles like the one in the picture above on the right.  Before I took this class, I always believed that bottled water was safer to drink because that was put in my head by the companies that supplied the bottled water.  However, bottled water and tap water come from the same place, are sanitized the same way, and taste the same.

http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/super-gift-buy-an-arizona-landfill.html

Because of APES, I am now more knowledgable about landfills and how they are harming the environment.  There are over 3,000 active landfills today, and 10,000 old municipal landfills, where between 6,000 tons of material everyday is dumped.  Even though there is a plastic liner at the bottom of the landfill keeping the various toxins from seeping into the water table, it does not always work.  When rain falls on the landfill, present liquids reach the liner causing the liner to break.  This allows liquids and water-soluable materials to pass through, and a wide variety of toxins, such as chemicals and heavy metals access to the local water system.  Another problems with landfills is that cardboard, assorted paper, and other materials that would normally break down on its own does not decompose because of the lack of oxygen in the landfill.  What little decomposition does occur creates a natural gas called methan, which has explosive properties if not correctly ventilated.  The methan that is not burnt goes into the atmosphere adding to global warming.  All this information has taught me to recycle a great deal of the material that ends up in the landfills, instead if harming our environment and wasting our resources.  With fewer materials going into landfills, their growth can be reduced, and the landfills can be monitored to contain the toxins that could harm the environment.

http://feww.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/

The destruction of coral reefs is a major problem for our aquatic ecosystems because they play such a major role in our environment.  The destruction of coral reefs effects me personally because I am a certified scuba diver and to see such beautiful coral reefs be destroyed is heartbreaking.  Ten percent of the world's reefs have been completely destroyed.  Why have so many coral reefs been destroyed? Human population has become very large, and the earth is warming.  Human population have contributed to the degration of the Earth's coral reefs because coral reefs can live only in very clear water.  The large population centers near coasts has led to silting of reefs, pollution by nutrients that lead to algal growth that smothers the coral, and over fishing that has led to increase in number of predators that eat corals.  Warming of the ocean causes coral reefs to sicken and die.  Even a rise of one degree in the average water temperature can hurt the coral.  The most obvious sign that coral is sick is coral bleaching, which is when either the algae inside die, or the algae leave the coral.  Without the algae, the coral has no colar and turns white.  In order for the destruction of coral reefs to stop, we, as the people of the world, need to educate the people around us, protect the coral reefs, and help reduce pollution.

Sustainability is the want to strive and aim for methods to endure. For humans, that means living in the environment in a responsible way, realizing that humans do not have a right to empty the natural resources  of earth, leaving nothing for organism that are even more dependent on nature than we are. This opinion, called environmental wisdom worldview is held by most environmentalists and environmental scientists. As I grew up I have learned to take care of nature by not littering, hurting animals, and destroying plants. In APES I have learned that to truly save the earth from our unsustainable ways of life, we have to take larger, more drastic methods into use to change what we really care about. Global warming is one of the issues that feel strongly. Global warming is the perfect example of a positive feedback-loop that humans are struggling to prevent. The continuos burning of fossil fuels such as petroleum and methane in order to create energy is the biggest cause of this problem. However, other things that normal people do are effecting levels of greenhouse gasses. The deforestation and desertification of what used to be big carbon sinks, is keeping the earth from its chance to prevent the rapid increase of carbon in the atmosphere. Now, I see just how important sustainability is the the health of the earth and the population. I know the small individual steps that each person can take and the larger diplomatic steps that we must pressure our governments to take.

I chose this picture because it shows the rapid population growth that the world is experiencing. In December of 2011 the world population passed 7 billion. The picture shows an overcrowded train in India, a country that is experiencing the most rapid population growth in the world. As the population grows out of all proportions, resources will be used at a much more rapid rate, which will eventually threaten the lifestyle quality of the developed countries of the world as resources will become more expensive. The growth in population in developing nations is due to better healthcare across the globe which makes for a lower infant mortality rate, and the urbanization of the people which makes for easier access to important provisions in family life.

I chose this picture because it in a very easy-to-grasp image of the tragic changes that global warming is causing, especially in the Arctic where the increase in temperature is the most severe. Global warming is occurring much faster than I thought it did before I started APES. Polar bear populations are being severely threatened by the disappearance of the ice-caps that polar bears hunt and live on, which is destroying their natural habitat. In order for the polar bears to find appropriate areas for survival, they have to march North where other polar bears already are and the carrying capacity of the ecosystem is overloaded as the resources disappear.

The biggest surprise I got during this course was when I first heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The garbage patch created by continuos dumping of trash in the oceans and trash dumped on beaches that has been picked up by rising and lowering tides. It was predicted to happen in 1988, but the size of the patch shocked most experts. The patch is the size of Texas, and it is widespread across the Pacific Ocean, drifting in several currents.

Parker Lutz

     Sustainability is the long-term maintenance of responsibility, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of stewardship, the responsible management of resource use. In the beginning of the year the issue of the world's ever so quickly rising population sparked my interest. When we eventually covered the topic, my initial speculations about the population were confirmed. I learned that the population is growing at an exponential rate, and that measures need to be taken in learning how we can live sustainably with such a large population.  The world population is expected to reach approximately 9 billion by 2050. What are we going to do with 2 billion more people? Some of the many problems that come with such a large population are the global food supply and the scarcity of natural resources. Also population growth calls for expansion of public services, such as education, transportation, and the evolution of the welfare system. During the beginning of the year I thought living sustainable only pertained to the small things that one individual can do, throughout the year I learned that it is also going to take some very big ideas to keep the world living in a sustainable fashion.






    I chose this image because Global Warming is a very real problem that will no doubt play a role in our future. Global warming is the rising average temperature of the world since in the past 100 or so years. We covered this topic extensively and class and I learned that without change the polar ice caps could potentially melt, and raise the earth's sea levels and alter life for human forever. Luckily, I also learned that there are ways to slow the process and even reverse it. Some ways that humans can prevent and even reverse global warming is by driving cars that get better gas mileage, replant forests after clear cutting, and by investing in renewable energy rather than burning more fossil fuels.

   http://world.edu/polar-bear-scientist-thin-ice-arctic-imbroglio/



     World population growth has always been a topic of interest to me and was even the main point of my first blog last summer.  I find myself wondering how the earth will adapt to accommodate the many new members of the Earth's population. As I mentioned earlier in this blog post this topic was the most interesting to me and my personal favorite. Solving the future crisis I believe we will have on our hands will be done by the work of many strong willed individuals dedicated to prolonging our time on this planet. This topic affected me so much because it is so puzzling, no one truly knows how fast and how much the population will grow by or how we can solve the problem.
http://technickconsulting.com/technicktips/the-turning-point-patience-is-the-name-of-the-game/world-population-graph/




     When I first heard about The Great Pacific Garbage Patch my mind was completely blown. I could not believe that the ocean's currents lead majority of the plastic waste that hits the Pacific to an area where the oceans's currents converge, some reports say that it is roughly the size of texas. The mass of plastic tangles many sea creatures often times resulting in their death.
http://lovetomorrowtoday.com/2009/05/18/update-on-great-pacific-garbage-patch/

Final Project- Lindsay Elliott

     Coming into environmental science I did know what sustainability meant, the earth's ability to survive environmental conditions indefinitely; however, I had no idea about the whole concept of being sustainable and sustainable living. This concept is the concept environmental science is based upon. I did not realize that to make the choice of living sustainably for the environment meant that it would alter your entire life because nearly everything we have become accustomed to now-a-days seems to be harmful to the environment, even though we may have alternate solutions. I knew that it was "good" to reduce, reuse, and recycle, but I did not know how this concept was truly important. This importance is because of how many resources people use every day and the HUGE amount of people using them. I now know there are approximately 7 billion people trying to use these non-renewable resources that have the possibility of running out in my, or my children's, life time because of this excessive use. I now know how important it is to find alternate ways to produce our energy because we are destroying so many things in our path to energy for all these people. I have found that our major problems are the amount of people, the amount of resources used by these people, and the waste from these resources. I know feel that the way to fix all these problems starts with education of the people about the problem; if women are educated than they may have less children, who will be educated to use less recourses and find renewable ones, and then will make less waste because they know that matter is neither created nor destroyed because of the first law of thermodynamics. I believe I will now take "living sustainably" more serious and will know that an important way to improve the problems that face the world today and the world to come is to educate the people.

The amount of trash is not sustainable for the environment. This trash has to go somewhere and we can't have places to put this continuous flow of trash forever. I know I now want to try to produce less trash by always reducing, reusing, and recycling when I can.

 Overpopulation is a huge problem and is in many poor countries that don't know any better. I now realize that a major way to fix this problem is to educate the women and I believe that this education is very important and will benefit the poverty in these over-populated countries.

It amazes me how easy it could be to live more sustainably in the United States and other developed countries. This would alter the way we live and what we do, but not drastically. It would greatly improve our environment.