Redwoods

Since the arrival of California as an American territory, logging companies have brutally cut down thousands of the almost 2000 ear old redwood groves. However with increased environmental awareness and more conscious logging processes, recovery is becoming more and more likely. Even loggers understand the crimes that have been committed against nature through past processes using terms such as nuked, blitzing, even going so far as to call it rape of mother nature, all perfect ways to describe the evil of the clear cutting history of logging companies. now in an effort to repair the damage logging has turned to a more sustainable method; selecting only the runts with in a stand allowing strong trees to grow, this provides both income for the short term, and sustainable logging for the future.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/10/redwood-management/fay-text/4

A Yellow Volcano

In an article by Joel Achenbach, it talks about the yellowstone being a volcano. It all started on August 29, 1870, when a 30-year-old Army lieutenant named Gustavus Doane, took an exploratory expedition in the Yellowstone region in Wyoming.When he came across the summit of Mount Washburn above the Yellowstone River, he noticed that something was missing from a stretch of the Rocky Mountains. The weird thing he saw, was what he didn't see, which was mountains. For miles and miles, the only elevations were in the distance, and Doane said he saw "one vast crater of a now extinct volcano."

Yellowstone is a volcano, and not just any volcano. The oldest, most famous national park in the United States sits squarely atop one of the biggest volcanoes on Earth. Doane was wrong, however, in one crucial respect. Yellowstone's volcano is not extinct. To an unsettling degree, it is very much alive. This is probably because the Yellowstone volcano was a supervolcano which are quite deadly. The last three super-eruptions have been in Yellowstone itself. The most recent, 640,000 years ago, was a thousand times the size of the Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980, which killed 57 people in Washington. These are facts that I did not know. Some other questions is whether or not people in the Yellowstone are afraid that the volcanoe would erupt and kill them? The other question is how is the volcanoes alive but just a crater?

Chris Sharrett

INDIA RAIN

The droughts in India are something that the natives rely on for everything, food and source of income. I never realized until reading the article on India's rain that sometimes people in India go seven whole months before seeing sufficient amount of rain. When they do get rain it is generally monsoon season, and if it does not come soon enough the seeds they planted will dry up and die and if the rain comes down torrentially it will wash away the seeds before giving them to time root.

The locals, in order to be less dependent on the monsoon, developed a watershed program to make use of the water when it comes. It is called Watershed Organization Trust or WOTR. The prediction of when monsoons will occur used to be easy and now with global warming its becoming increasingly difficult for farmers and environmentalist.

In order to try and tap into water more efficiently certain places and people in India have begun tapping into ground water to help with the supply, but lack of money to fund it and lack of water in general is a problem. All of the issues regarding water is hurting the India economy and lives of hundreds of thousands. Families are losing fathers due to suicide because of the rain.. this may sound absurd but because of the lack of rain they are losing their crop which means they are in debt in alot of cases and can not support their family. the suicide rate for men has tripled sicne 1995. To help with all of this India has encouraged planting more trees and wildlife and also banned grazing animals in certain areas for a number of years to help with run off what not to get the vegetation back.

The pictures are shocking at how dry the land is when it is not monsoon season. There is definitely improvement going on. and one of the funny pictures i saw was of the men all under the shower or water mushroom.

Overall the article was very eye opening and i think that if india continues in this direction they will achieve their goal one day.

Kamchatka Salmon

The Kamchatka Peninsula is a vast blade of land stabbing southwestward through cold seas from the mainland of northeastern Russia. The area of Kamchatka is consisting of many wild habitats, and also is home to 350, 000 people. The people here are over fishing the beautiful rivers that are in Kamchatka. The rivers in Kamchatka are are where at least 20% of all wild salmon come to spawn. The salmon are so vital to this area though, its a matter of sustainability. The salmon are being over fished, but the people need economic growth and food. The people are so reliablke on the salmon, there modo is this "Kamchatka was created by nature as if for the very reproduction of salmon." The saying is right, the area is perfect conditions for salmon to breed. Permafrost is almost absent, rain is plentiful, drainage is good and steady, and because of Kamchatka's isolation from mainland river systems, its streams are empty to other fish except the salmon and a few other fish breeds. But, the fish are being over huntyed, the post soviet economy left kamchatka with no choice except to use the salmon to stay alive. The salmon have a rough journey after being born, the have to survive and make there way to the ocean and circulate until its time to return to the river and reproduce, and every year the number that returns gets smaller and smaller and in return the number of offspring grows smaller and smaller. and with the same amount of fisheries the salmon will all be gone soon. Some thing needs to be done to relieve the people of Kamchatka, and the salmon. Without the salmon the whole economy of Kamchatka would fall apart, along with the river system itself. Thats how vital the salmon is to the the people and habitat of kamchatka.

Ryan May

South Georgia

Resurrection Island, also known as South Georgia is a beautiful island with a variety of different climates, animals, and plants. South Georgia has weather that is unpredictable and changes regularly. This is due to its southern latitudes and low-pressure areas. The island is known to have some of the strongest winds in the world. There are many different animals such as penguins, fur seals, elephant seals, and kelp gulls. The island usually has krill brought up by currents from the Arctic Peninsula. One or twice in a decade this krill upbringing dose not occur. This is a problem because many animals rely on the krill for food and many interesting animals follow or come for the arrival of the krill. Because of global warming sea ice has been melting and shrinking. The krill rely are are dependent in the winter on this sea ice to survive. This may have something to do with why they are not coming some years. The warming is strongest near the surface which does not help with the issue of melting sea ice.

I think South Georgia is a beautiful island with a variety of wildlife. All the ice and glaciers are beautiful. I hope, in the long run, the island and other places like it do not end as a result of harmful human activities. It would be a shame to have something so amazing and unique go to waste because of the human race.

-Taylor Neuburg

South Georgia

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/12/south-georgia/brower-text/5

The fact that this island seen the recovery of many endangered species is excellent news that shows in some cases environment protection is working. However it is also disturbing that the factor that allowed for these species to recover in the first place, the krill, is slowing decreasing. This could result in the destruction of this place should such a vital source of food be lost. I also find it impressive that such radically different climates can exist on the same island

Ryan Cowen

Monsoons more important than we thought?

The country of India falls and rises depending on the rain of the horrible monsoons. During the month of May the land heats up, wells dry out, and agricultural depletes. At that point everyone talks about the monsoons that usually come by around early June. Here in India the monsoons come in a cyclic way which we have talked about before in class. Agricultural and the Government depend on the rain to settle the heat down. The heat triggers power cuts, and now the government has to supply water to wells and other villages. We have talked about the how weather have effected not only the environment but also the government. It came to my attention even laws were passed and groups were created to help these water deprived areas. The Watershed Organization Trust (WOTR) was created. People’s families depend on these monsoons and rains so much that it affects their lives. Valmik the 16 year old boy and his families borrow money for seeds and every year the seeds get broiled and baked that they become useless to farm, so he and his family work in the sugar canes for money so they can buy seeds next year and hope for the right amount of rain. Its shocks me that the whole country can be affected just on how much or how less of the rain they get. India is a developing country and with the amount of people, lack of health and education if they don’t get the water they need to survive and keep the country running it is probably a huge hit on them. I wonder if other countries such as the U.S. are taking attention of this and offering open hands. Obama recently invited India’s Prime Minister to a state dinner so I am expecting a good outcomes from that and hopefully some help.



Prem Patel!