It’s not only the Gulf of Mexico that’s suffering from “dead zones” caused by excess nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus used as fertilizers.
Marine dead zones are spreading in the Baltic sea, and that could cause the entire ecosystem to collapse for lack of oxygen. Dire warnings from Lasse Gustavsson, Swedish head of the World Wildlife Funds branch in Sweden.
This hit me the other day; how does the Republican Presidential Candidate-in-Waiting view the possible mining of uranium just 3 miles from the Grand Canyon?
Senator John McCain (R-AZ) knows the canyon well, he’s reportedly hiked it a number of times, knows where the only uranium mine that operated there is located, yet has said nothing about the 1000 or more permits being sought to explore for uranium near the park. I’ve searched his Senate website, news reports on the issue and his name is nowhere to be seen. Why is that?
Aw, c’mon, pull my finger!
You’ve probably had that one pulled (pardon the pun) on you at least once in your life, and the old guy got a good laugh out of your response. It’s ok, old guys do strange things, I know.
Well, this isn’t about old guys, but sheep, cattle, deer and goats, the premier emitters of methane gas in the world. In this case, nature is “pulling the finger.”
Many of us have been there at one time or another: working in an office or room with empty, white walls. It can make you want to a) either hang something on the walls or b) blow your brains out. Of course, this is assuming that the environment you are in has an effect on you. Scientists recently put the question to the test. Would hanging nature posters on the walls of an office reduce the stress and anger levels of people working in the office?
Note: This is second part of a two-part series. The first part ended by asking: “just what is the ‘intended effect’ of Inherit the Wind?
The play, as the one professor suggested, is trying to get people to think. It specifically wants them to think about and consider the possibilities of evolution and creationism, even if they are inclined to believe in one more than the other. Personally, I think that this is a great goal. I think that toleration, and perhaps even acceptance of both views is necessary for achieving positive progress in the world and in the sciences. Thus, as this website is named Planetsave, I think it’s necessary that people be able to appreciate both perspectives if we are in fact to save the planet.
An understanding of biology and its essential driver, evolution, is probably a necessary precursor for truly beginning to understand that species and resources are not renewable. The discovery of evolution makes me believe that we can to some extent understand how the world works through science. On the other hand, for me personally, it is utterly arrogant to outrightly deny the possibility of there being a god or some other kind of higher power.
Editor’s note: This is the last post in the “Human Interaction with Nature” series from students in Professor Simran Sethi’s “Media and the Environment” course at the University of Kansas. Our own Adam Bowman (who’s training is in videography) created this two-part wedisode on “the current debate about how to manage a growing Grizzly Bear population in the Northern Rocky Mountains.” The webisode was originally published on Friday, May 9, 2008.
Note: This is Part 1 of a two part series. Click here to go to Part 2.
Occasionally I receive emails from publishers who are advertising a new academic journal that they think “will be a good match for my interests.” How kind of them to think of me. In one of these recent emails, free preview access was granted to me for several of these new journals. Even though the Annals of Dyslexia was tempting, the one that really tapped into the nerd inside of me is called Evolution: Education and Outreach. After perusing the table of contents, the one article title that stood out was “Inheriting Inherit the Wind: Debating the Play as a Teaching Tool.” I dove in.
Editor’s note: The fourth part of the “Human Interaction with Nature” series takes a look at efforts to recover endangered animal species. This post was written by Denzyl Janneker, and originally published on Friday, May 9, 2008.
Baraboo, Wisconsin and Basra, Iraq might have nothing in common, but fighting a war and killing endangered species has prompted a common human response - to do an about turn and nurture that which we have destroyed.
Baraboo is known for efforts in saving its whooping crane population, while Basra is emerging from the ashes of war with a skyline dotted with cranes, symbolizing the reconstruction and development initiatives under way. At least that’s the intention. Two words stand out in either respect: Reconstruction and reintroduction.
Wars aside, what is it about man’s insatiable desire to kill animals, whether it’s for hides, horns or a hunter’s trophy? If only animals were like humans, they’d be completely cynical and sarcastic:
“Well, sir you might as just save me the trouble of running off into the bush and hiding. So load your bolt-action rifle and oh, don’t worry about the telescopic sight since I’m just going to be a few feet away. And when my head’s mounted above your fireplace in say 10 or 20 years from now, you can brag to your guests what a tough contest it was.”
Editor’s note: Part 3 of the “Human Interaction with Nature” series focuses on an endangered plant species: echinacea. This post, and the accompanying podcast, were created by Bobby Grace, and originally published on Friday, May 19th, 2008.
I spoke with KU professor, ethnobotanist, and Medicinal Wild Plants of the Prairie author Kelly Kindscher about the sustainability of Echinacea.
Echinacea is a species native to Kansas that is used as a general cure all and as protection against the common cold. In the United States, herbal medicine has gone by the wayside and today the main importer of Echinacea is Europe. The demand has leveled off, but there are still people harvesting the species.
Editor’s note: Part two of the “Human Interaction with Nature” series focuses on human impacts on fauna. This post was written by Lindsay Crupper, and originally published on Friday, May 9, 2008.
While it is obvious that climate change affects humans across the globe, it also affects the animal kingdom as well. For millions of years, animal extinction and endangerment has been a major problem. The Endangered Species International web site states, “Today, 99.9 percent of all species that have existed on Earth are extinct.”
That is truly a shocking statistic. In order to get a better idea of how this problem is becoming more prevalent, I spoke with Liz Harmon, who is the curator at the Kansas City Zoo. Harmon, who has a degree in zoology, has worked at the Kansas City Zoo for four years. Her job as curator entails overseeing the animal department, which includes the staff, animals and exhibits.
Harmon identified over twenty species of animals currently listed as endangered that live at the zoo. Some of the more well-known animals include cheetahs, chimpanzees, gorillas, black rhinos and slender-snouted crocodiles. She certainly agrees that animal endangerment can be attributed to humans. “Animals become endangered for a number of reasons. Man-made reasons include loss of habitat, over hunting, pollution, and changes in the environment (such as global warming).”
Editor’s note: For the last few months, we have run a number of guest posts from students in Professor Simran Sethi’s “Media and the Environment” course at the University of Kansas. We’ve all been pretty impressed with the work these students have done, so we were delighted to agree to publish a small-group final project from students J.J. DeSimone, Lindsay Crupper, Denzyl Janneker, Bobby Grace, and Adam Bowman. They focused on biodiversity in their project, and we’ll publish all five parts over the course of this week. Today’s post was originally published on May 9, 2008.
As humans, we collectively tend to be self-absorbed and not think outside our sphere of influence. More specifically, if something in the world doesn’t directly affect us we give little or no attention to it (I’m one of the worst culprits, myself). As such, it’s very easy for us not to think about what human wastefulness and global warming are doing to our plant and animal life. However, losing our earth’s bio and eco-diversity has frightening ramifications for humanity.
Photo credit: Adam Bowman
Taken in the Uintah Mountains, this photo illustrates what humans could lose unless they act to preserve open spaces.
According to Baker University Biology Professor and Natural Areas Director Roger Boyd, biodiversity is the amount of species in a given area. More broadly, eco-diversity refers to the number of ecosystems there are on the planet. If eco and biodiversity continues to decrease on the planet, then less food is available to sustain life. In essence, all of the earth’s biological life is interconnected; if our furry and scale-covered brethren run out of food, so do we.
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