UNIT 11 BLOG


Vocabulary

Primary pollutant: air pollution directly emitted form a known source.
ex: carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides

Secondary pollutant: not directly emitted by a certain source, but created when other sources react in the atmosphere. Primary pollutants that underwent transformation under sunlight, water, oxygen, etc.
ex: ozone (caused by primary pollutant  nitrogen oxides and VOCs), sulfate and nitrate (acid deposition)

Thermal inversion: warm layer of air at mid altitude covers a layer of cold air below. The warm inversion layer traps emissions underneath and this trapped emissions cause severe air pollution.

Scrubber: removes sulfur dioxide and PM. Mists of water vapor traps them and turn them in to a sludge which is disposed to landfills.

Sick building syndrome: sickness caused by indoor pollution usually due to paints and other building materials.

Pollutants

Sulfur Dioxide (SO2):
- Corrosive gas that comes from combustion of fuels such as coal and oil.
- Respiratory irritant, can affect plant tissue
- Fossil fuels contain sulfur. When burnt, it creates SO2
- One of the primary pollutant
- Primary pollutant that is responsible of causing acid deposition
- Mainly caused by electricity generation

Nitrogen Oxides (NOx)
Nitrogen Oxide - colorless, odorless
Nitrogen Dioxide- Pungent, reddish brown.
- Atmosphere 78% Nitrogen gas (N2)
- all combustion in the atmosphere leads to the formation of nitrogen oxides
- Due to fossil fuel, wood, and biomass combustion
- Causes respiratory irritation

Carbon Monoxide (CO)
- Colorless, odorless
- formed during incomplete combustion of most matter (most commonly vehicle exhaust)
- can also be an indoor pollutant. Natural gas heaters malfunction and poor ventilation.
- travels to blood stream with oxygen, causes headaches and low concentration

Particulate Matter (PM)
- solid or liquid particles suspended in air
- combustion of wood, manure, biofuels, coal, oil, and gasoline
- exacerbate respiratory, cardiovascular disease, lung cancer

Lead (Pb)
- Gasoline additive, oil and gasoline, coal and old paint
- can effect learning ability
- attacks central nerve system

Ozone (O3)
- secondary pollutant
- most abundant and most frequently measured photochemical oxidant in the troposphere
- one in the stratosphere is good, troposphere is bad.

Volatile Organic Compounds  (VOC)
-hydrocarbons.
 - gasoline, dry cleaning fluids, oil based paints, and perfumes
- not yet proven to be harmful

Mercury (Hg)
- Coal, oil, gold mining
- bioaccumulates in to food chain
- attacks central nerve system

Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
- most common green house gas today
- mainly caused by vehicle exhaust
- colorless, odorless
- formed during complete combustion- fossil fuels and biomass
- absorbed by plant during photosynthesis

Smog (sulfurous and photochemical)
- mix between smoke and fog
- when ozone and photchemical oxidants meet it creates photochemical smog

Indoor Pollutants

Asbestos- long thing mineral with insulating properties. Can cause respiratory diseases and lung cancer. Usually become harmful when insulating materials become old and danged and the particles are airborne so they can travel through respiratory systems. U.S. no longer allows asbestos as an insulating system.

Radon-  Radon-222
from decayed uranium. It is a radioactive gas. Radon can seep in to people's house and particles can be attached to air and inhaled by humans. Causes lung cancer.

Greenhouse Gases

Water Vapor
- about 66% of the greenhouse gas is water vapor
- controlled by temperature

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
- chlorine in tje stratosphere
- anthropogenic compound
- ideal for refrigeration and air conditioning
- released to air by escaping leaky appliances.

Connections Discussions

Both Salmon and Coral Reefs are being hugely impacted by the increase in Ocean temperature. Coral reef is suffering from bleaching, which is caused by higher water temperature and carbon dioxide which stresses the corals to release the color pigment it has and later causes corals to die. Death of corals not only effect the population of the corals themselves but the entire ecosystem which they inhabit because many animals live off of corals. Salmons are also victims of high water temperature. Higher temperature makes salmons more susceptible to predators and diseases which caused massive killing of salmons. More carbon dioxide not only mean higher water temperature but also means acidic Ocean water. When Ocean water becomes acidic, salmons lose their main food source due to the destroyed shells of mollusks.

Ozone Discussion

Ozone is usually harmless and actually beneficial to humans in stratosphere. It blocks all the harmful UV rays that can cause skin cancer and other harmful results to earth. But when ozone is located in troposphere, it traps all the heat and is categorized as one of the greenhouse gasses. UV rays that does not make in to the earth, thanks to stratosphere ozone, it bounces off as infrared and be trapped by the troposphere ozone. Also, ozone in troposphere harms plants. It affects their tissue sells, causing them to have diseases like stomata. And being one of the greenhouse gasses, it is responsible for raise in Ocean temperature. Like discussed before, raised water temperature in coral reef area will cause corals to die out which will virtually destroy the entire coral reef ecosystems.

Big Discussion

Some greenhouse gasses are naturally produced but most of the harmful air pollutants that adds on to the greenhouse gasses and more are created by human activities. Almost everything humans do requires energy and most of them creates air pollutant. Carbon dioxide, the most abundant greenhouse gas is mainly from vehicle exhaust. Also factories where they burn oil, coal, and fossil fuels to generate electricity and energy release nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and other harmful pollutants that threatens human health. Lung cancer and respiratory diseases are the main result from smogs and other air pollutants. 
These air pollutants are causing global warming also. And global warming throws off everything in our environment. For example, coral reefs need to be kept under a certain temperature but due to global warming and raised Ocean temperature, coral bleaching is taking place which ends up killing all the corals and other species in that ecosystem due to the loss of corals. Salmons are also a prime example of global warming victims. Higher temperature means that salmons are more prone to diseases and predators. And loss of salmons and coral reefs will do a huge economic damage. So many fishermen, stores, markets, and restaurants are dependent on salmons and other fish. If they were to decrease in number, many people will run out of business either by shortage of product or by serving low quality product. 
Clean Air Act plays a huge role in air pollutant in U.S. Many greenhouse gasses were publicized to people and educated the public how they can be harmful to human health and the environment.

Unit 10 Blog


Vocabulary

Nuclear Fuels: Production of electricity from uranium in nuclear power reactors.

Efficiency: Delivering same services with less energy input.

Cogeneration: Use of fuel to generate electricity and produce heat 

Oil Sands: Slow flwoing, viscous deposits of bitumen mixed with sand, water, and clay.

Bitumen: (tar) Degraded type of petroleum that forms when a petroleum deposit is not capped with nonporous rack.

CTL: Coal- to liquid. Solid Coal to liquid fuel

Modern Carbon: Carbon in the biomass

Fossil Carbon: Carbon in fossil fuels.

Carbon Neutral: an activity that does not change atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.

-CO2 concentrations return to air
-Vegetation grow back where biomass recently harvested
-New vegetation will take up amount of CO2 equal to the amount that was released.

Fuel Cell- Operates like a common battery, but in battery, electricity is generated by a reaction between two chemical reactants, nickel and cadmium and no additional materials can be added. But in a fuel cell, reactants are added continuously to the cell, so the cell produces electricity for as long as it is supplied with fuel. 
- Basic process forces protons from hydrogen gas through a membrane, while the electrons take a different pathway. Movement of protons in one direction and electrons in another direction generates an electric current. 
-Usually hydrogen from nature is explosive so commonly used hydrogen is produced by an energy intensive process of burning natural gas in order to extract its hydrogen and carbon dioxide is a waste product of this combustion. 

Electrolysis- Electric current in applied to water to split it into hydrogen and oxygen. 
-Hydrogen can act as an energy carrier.


Important Units

1 BTUs = 1055. 05585 Joules

kW = 1000W = 1000J /s = 1000000 mW

1W =  1000mW

1mW = 0.001W 

1kWh = 3.6 x 10^6

ppm = Parts Per Million

1 ppm = 1000 ppb 

GJ =  Giga Joule =  1 billion (1 x 10^9 J) = 30 L (8 gallons) of gasoline

EJ = Exa Joule = 1 billion (1 x 10^9) giga joules 


Primary Source Ranking

List #1

Solar
Wind
Hydroelectricity - rotting trees= emission of greenhouse gas
Geothermal - Natural hot springs, mud pools, and other areas can be damaged
Biomass -  burning biomass can impact the air quality
Natural Gas - human health impacts as well as surrounding environment impact
Coal- burning coal is a major source of ozone layer
Oil- may lead to oil spill which completely destroys the marine environment
Nuclear- if exposed to humans and natural environment, can lead to serious consequences that may be hard to get rid of for several decades.

List #2

Oil
Coal
Natural gas
Nuclear 
Biomass
Hydroelectric
Wind
Geothermal
Solar

List #3

Oil
Coal
Natural gas
Hydroelectric
Solar
Wind
Geothermal

List #4

Coal
Oil
Natural gas
Nuclear
Biomass
Geothermal
Wind
Solar


Biofules vs Fossil fuels

Biofuel - liquid version of biomass ex: diesel and ethanol 
Burning this fuel causes air pollutant, releasing carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gasses. There are 4 generations of biofuels
1st generation is made out of sugar,starches, and oil
2nd generation is made out of non food crops or waste
3rd generation is made out of algae
4th generation is made out of specially engineered plants
Biofuels' availability is far greater than fossil fuels because these materials that are mentioned will be produced continuously unlike fossils which have only so much to provide until it is depleted.

Fossil fuels -  fuels made out of fossilized animals and plants that were dead millions of years ago. 
Burning of fossil fuels is the leading cause of excessive carbon dioxide emissions to the air, releasing other greenhouse gasses to our environment. 


Nuclear Disasters

Human impact the incident at Chernobyl had were Leukemia, and various cancers and severe illness from radiation. And this disaster took everyone's home away within 36 hours and desolated that area ever since. Not only did it have human health and economic impact but it also had and still has a huge impact on environment near Chernobyl as well. Like seen on the video, a mice living in Chernobyl is x 10,000 more exposed to radiation that a mice living in a clean area. That means that other animals that live there are the same as well. And the soil and plants are also probably highly exposed to radiation which makes that entire area a "hell" or a ghost town that no one can live probably forever. 


ANWR is a artic coastal tundra that is untouched by humans. Large amount of species live there and are flourishing under the absence of human impact. When the graduate student took photos at the exact same spot as other explorers and professor did hundred years and fifty years ago, the photograph looked pretty much same, meaning that the environment was well kept away from large human impact. But humans are considering of fracking in ANWR in order to decrease the rate of U.S. dependence on foreign oil. If that happens, then those wild animals that were under strict protection will be extinct within few decades and the environment that has been kept the same for centuries will be changed and disturbed in few years. Like the biologist said in the video, some part of the world should be kept away from human greed and consumption for the future generation. 

Reducing Consumption

In the beginning of Chapter 13, tidal, or moon power was mentioned. With windmill type of underwater turbine, people are able to get energy and electricity for the majority of the island. When the tide comes in and out, the strong wave and movements underwater causes the turbines to move which can generate in to an efficient energy. Although we lack technology and practices on this fairly new source of energy, if scientist develop farther on the tidal power, it will be able to reduce the consumption of oil for transportation and everyday use. With electricity made out of the tidal power, people can run on electrical car which will definitely decrease the amount of oil used. 
Another source of energy that can reduce the oil consumption is the solar energy. Just like the tidal power, solar energy is a source of energy that we do not know every thing about yet. The technology and methods are not fully explored and developed yet. However, if we can come up with the solution to all the questions we currently have over solar energy, we will definitely be able to use it as one of our main source of energy that will replace oil or reduce oil consumption. 

Big Picture Discussion

Humans discovered and developed all these different kinds of energy sources for their own benefit. But it is us humans that gets backfired by our own greed. Most of the energies we are using today causes greenhouse gasses to be released to the air, causing various respiratory diseases and severe diseases like cancer and Leukemia.  
But the economic benefits that some people get from these energy sources are immense. Some of the most successful and rich people in the world were able to earn their money through oil and other popular energy sources with peak demand. Because none of us can stop using coal, oil, and natural gas, those who are involved in the business continues to earn a lot of money. 
Like mentioned before, these economic benefits are all just human greed and not only humans but the environment which provides us these materials are being harmed as well. From the Chernobyl video, the catastrophic effect the nuclear radioactive energy had on the area was very well explained. That soil, trees, plants, and animals that live there will never be cleaned again and people will never be able to live there forever. 
Clean Air Act obviously plays a roll in this one because all most all of the energy sources go through burning or heating which releases methane and carbon dioxides, also known as the greenhouse gasses. Also ANWR and what President Obama is trying to do can be a government effort to preserve what little nature we have left in this Earth.

Unit 9

Vocabulary

MSW: Municipal Solid Waste. All the solid waste created by humans, 60% of all MSW are from households and 40% is from commercial and institutional facilities.

E-Waste: E- Wastes are technologies like broken phone, computers, televisions, and etc. They contain mercury and other substances that are harmful to our environment and to us. They do go to landfills but are often not treated properly and are hard to break apart after its use.

Closed loop recycling: Example of this type of recycling would be aluminum. Used aluminum are able to be renewed hundred percent of the time. So no matter what happens, aluminum will always be able to be recreated by the used aluminum.

Open loom recycling: Example of this would be plastic bottles. Used plastic bottles can be reused in many different ways but cannot always recreate new ones with old ones. And due to high demand from the customers, industries must continue to make more plastic bottles.

Compost: Compost is an organic matter that goes through decomposition in a controlled system and environment and turns in to an organic material that makes the soil rich and enhance vegetation.
Usually the compost pile works best when it has the right ratio between carbon and nitrogen. Putting dry material and wet materials in the compost will give a right ration of carbon and nitrogen.

Leachate: When soluble constituents from landfills and and soil gets in to water, it cause the water to leach.

Sanitary landfill: Putting clay at the bottom and sides of the hole, it prevents unwanted and harmful substances to seep out to the soil. Also to cap off the landfill, people often use plastic or clay to make sure that water or air do not get in contact with the wastes inside.

Environmental justice: No matter who you are you need to care and respect your surrounding environment and the laws and regulations that protects the environment.

Incineration: When waste materials turn in to ash and gas. The ash is disposed during the process of incineration and the air is filtered again before it is sent out to the chimney. This gas are useful for energy sources but other factors like health risks and the placement of incineration facility are big problems.

Waste-to-energy: From incinerated waste, the gas turns in to an energy source for electricity and heat,

Superfund: It is a federal government program that cleans up the hazardous waste to protect the environment and health of people.

Brownfield: Property that redevelops a possible contaminated area with pollutant and hazardous substances.

Biomagnification: This refers to a situation when DDT or mercury or other substance exceeds the background concentration of the substance in animal's diet.

Persistence: Length of time a compound stays inside the soil.


Diseases

Plague: Plague is usually found in rodents, spread by fleas. And when humans are bitten by these infected fleas, they show symptoms of bubonic plague. The Black Death in Europe is famous for this bubonic plague that killed thousands of lives back when they did not have any cure for this plague whatsoever. The reason why the plague spread so widely is because once the bacteria reaches human's lungs, it then travels out through spit drops when one coughs, causing other people to be infected easily.

Malaria: This disease is caused by Plasmodium and is transferred by mosquito bites. This disease multiply the parasite in human's liver and damage the red blood cells. It is most common in Africa and South East Asia region and by using curtains that block out the mosquitoes and medicine to prevent and to heal malaria, the percentage of people getting infected to malaria has decreased up to 60%.

Tuberculosis: Transmitted through person to person with droplets while people cough. It is a respiratory disease that can cause coughing, chest pain, weakness, and weight loss. It is a curable disease with antibiotics and correct treatment.

SARS: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome is caused by coronavirus which causes viral respiratory illness. The first reported case on SARS was on February of 2003 in Asia. After that, the disease spread through all around the world. There is no more reported cases of SARS after the huge outbreak but people should still be careful of this disease.


Recycling Discussion

Aluminum is one of the prime example of closed loop recycled material. The old ones can continue to produce "new" ones indefinitely. This will not require more aluminum to be taken out of the earth and can be reused forever. And in developed countries like America, aluminum is a must have material for industries and people's daily lives. By recycling aluminum, you can cut down almost 90% of the price of producing aluminum than the primary production. This will benefit the economy over all. And due to high demand in aluminum, more aluminum is recycled and this means that more labor force are needed. This will provide more jobs to people which will lead the economy in more positive way.
Papers are also one of the main materials that we recycle. By recycling paper and making "new" paper out of old ones, it is doing a huge benefit to the environment. Paper is absolutely essential in our lives and the population is still increasing. This will require more papers to be made, which means more trees to be cut down. Cutting down trees not only take away other animal's natural habitat but can also cause soil erosion and increased amount of carbon dioxide to the air. By recycling and demanding more recycled papers and paper products, less trees and surrounding environment need to be harmed.
Lastly the plastic is bit more complicated. Plastic requires petroleum in the primary production process and this requires a lot of money. And to recycle these plastic bottles is also pricey. So the bottles usually end up in the near by landfills and this does much damage to earth. Plastics, unlike papers, takes longer to decompose underground. When plastics are left in landfills, they will probably be in a same shape for many years. So the environmental gain for recycling plastic, even though it can be pricey, is worth it.

Big Picture Discussion

Like the book mentioned, before U.S, entered the industrial era and became the developed country, people recycled everything. They used cotton diapers instead of non reusable ones, had glass jars, and etc. After the technology developed and people entered the new era, we also entered the throw-away society. And due to large amount of human consumption, we now have problems like recycling and landfills. This chapter especially has a huge human impact because the root of all of these are caused by humans. Humans did not have a slogan Reduce, Reuse, Recycle or landfills and incinerated wastes in the past. Of course recycling, reducing and reusing products and getting rid of wastes like landfills and incineration is a best option for us right now but there are a lot of problems left for us to solve.
There are government legislation like from EPA to control the water and wastes and WHO to control, investigate, and inform the public about diseases. But more we are exposed to these changing environment that is cause by us, we will face more harmful disease and problems later on in the future. 

Unit 8 Blog

Vocabulary

Groundwater recharge: process where water moves downward from surface water to groundwater. Usually occurs below the plant roots.

Levee: a elongated man made or natural wall that regulates water levels. They are usually made out of soil or earth material.

Floodplain: floodplains are usually parallel to the river which is at a high exposure to flood. They usually consist of river sediments.

Dike: a long wall along the sea to prevent any flooding from happening.

Desalinization: it is a process when there is a bit of salt within the water and the water evaporates and this cycle continues on over the years which later result with large amount of salt left underneath the ground with lack of water. This can later kill many plants growing in that soil.

Distillation: using a technology to heat and cool the water to purify the liquid.

Reverse Osmosis: when solvent pass through the opposite of the natural osmosis which allows only the solvent can pass through, not the solute.

Point source of pollution: a water pollution that comes from a single specific location.

Non-point source of pollution: this describes both air and water. basically hard to tell which specific source caused the pollution like the point source pollution but a combination of all things around the polluted area.

Maximum Containment Levels: United States Environmental Protection Agency set up a level for drinking water to be safe.

Clean Water Act: a federal law by U.S. to keep the water safe for people to drink and to prevent any point and non point source pollution at all cost to provide healthy water for everyone.

Safe Water Drinking Act: protect drinking water against both naturally caused and man made contaminants from drinking water.

Types of water pollution

Lead: lead can be present in plumbing or water line at home and eventually contaminate drinking water. This is usually due to a corrosion of plumbing materials. Lead is most dangerous to children. It can cause pre-mature birth, damage on physical and mental growth on infants and can cause disabilities. Long term exposure to lead can cause stroke and nerve system damage to anyone. The standard for the lead in drinking water is 15 ppb and if it is above that, the public water system is required to notify people about the contaminated water.

Mercury: mercury pollution is usually from the power plants. Through air it can travel to local lakes and rivers which will eventually cause fish to be contaminated. People can be exposed to mercury by consuming a contaminated fish. Mercury is extremely harmful when it gets in to human's body. When it goes in the body it acts as a neuro toxin which cause brain and nerve system damage.

Arsenic: arsenic drinking water can cause various cancers like lung, liver, and kidney cancer. Drinking water gets exposed to arsenic by natural earth matters or by industrial or agricultural pollution. There are special filter that has been made to remove arsenic matters from drinking water and people can also learn how to test their arsenic level in drinking water. Usually if it is under 0.5 ppb, the water is usually safe.

Acid deposition/ Mine drainage: acid rain's main cause is air pollution which is caused by industrial factories and power plants. When those pollute the air and it's time for it to rain, those polluted particles rain and harm large scale of our environment. Acid rain mainly cause damage to our soil and plants. It can also have negative impact on human body as well such as causing various skin diseases.  Mine drainage pollution is mainly caused by sedimentation by poorly constructed roads and mine construction. They run down to near by streams and later pollute large body of water. They do get to our drinking water. Acid mine drainage mainly cause problems to fishes and near by environments and animals. Many fishes can die by the harmful substances and lead to negative impacts on other animals that live by fishes.

Pesticides: pesticides used at local agricultural production runs down to near streams and contaminate the water and eventually some drinking water. Pesticides can harm people by inhalation, digestion, and physical contact. If the rate of the pesticide is high, it can cause severe disease like cancer. To unborn child it can cause pre- mature birth that follows physical deformities and damage in physical and mental development.

Pharmaceuticals: Pharmaceuticals are usually used in cosmetic products or for people's health products. They are also often used in agricultural business to boost the growth of plants. They are found in the water streams and the effects are still unknown and that is the scary part. And many drinking water was found to be contaminated by pharmaceuticals but the effect to human body has not been clarifies yet.

Hormones: birth controls taken by humans gets in to water streams and cause some intersex fishes and deformities in other animals. Usually called ethinyl estradiol, this hormone caused by birth controls are a global problem in world's drinking water due to vast amount of women taking the pill. Removing this hormone from the water is a very costly process.

PCBs: Polychlorinated Biphenyls are known to cause cancer to not only humans but to other animals as well. This is usually used as coolant fluids to machines and electric apparatus. U.S. set the limit to zero PCBs due to its powerful toxic characteristic but since so many industrial factories use it, the limit went up to 0.5.

PBDEs: They are used as fire retardant and is toxic to both humans and environment. To humans it usually has neurobehavioral effects.

Oil: oil spills are probably the biggest concerns to people right now. Thanks to bp and other oil companies, oil spills occurred in various Oceans which created large scale of pollution. Oil blocks the air necessary for marine animals which lead to massacre of fishes and birds near the contaminated area. The oil gets to the beach as well, causing shells and crabs and the sand itself to damaged.

Solid waste: solid wastes usually takes a lot time to biodegrade. This causes them to be around our environment which cause long term damage to our environment. These solid wastes are from all over the place like from industrial factories, agricultural business, and from individuals who throw trash in the water. Also they are solid wastes that drifts away from the trash collection industry during the process of removing the trash. These solid waste has the most impact on fishes and marine life in general. It contaminates their food sources and block oxygen they need to survive and can eventually have an impact on our drinking water.

Thermal: most common reason to thermal pollution is by using water as coolant for power plants and other industries. The raise in normal temperature of the water cause oxygen to decrease which affects the entire marine life in that area. This eventually cause decrease in biodiversity and cause negative effects on food chain. Cold water reduce the reproduction of marine animals and slow their activities under the water which can also lead to decrease in population and biodiversity.

Freshwater Resource Discussion

Underground aquifers prevent evaporation of water while it travels to the final destination. Evaporation of water cause loss of money but if it prevents the evaporation, less money will be lost during the process of transporting the water. Also it is less likely to be contaminated by air pollution or any other outside factors that can cause pollution to the water. Lakes and rivers provide drinking water to humans. Many drinking water industries get their water source from local lakes and rivers and filter them in order to sell them to us. This not only give economic benefits to the industries but easy access to clean water to customers. Wetlands and fresh water areas have recreational values and possibly can be a touring spot for traveler. Travelers will spend money around the area and the area near the wetland will have economic benefit.

Water Diversion Discussion

China's South-North water diversion project will be the biggest water diversion project in the world when it is completed. This project will take water from the south of China including Beijing to North, solving many water shortage problem the country face as a whole. The water is planned to be from the Yangtze river. This massive construction will take approximately 50 years to be completed and it has only been its 13th year in to the construction. One of the major economic advantage to this project will be that people in North will have abundance in water supply. They lack water supply like the countries in Middle East. The Northern region is contributing about 45% of GDP of China and increase in water supply will definitely increase the percentage and help China's future economy. Ecological benefit can be decrease in drought in the Northern region where it lacks rivers like the Southern region. If more lands are well watered, more people will be able to farm in that land which will eventually lead to an economic benefit to the Northern region.

California State Water Project is another famous water diversion project. Unlike China, California's Northern region has more rivers and water supplies available than the Southern region. So this project redistributes the water from North to South. South is more populous than Northern region so abundance in water supply in North will definitely be a plus to California's economy. Since the California state water project, California had about $400 billion worth of economic benefit.

Another well known water diversion project is the Karakum project in Turkmenistan. The water resource is from the Amu-Darya river and goes across the Karakum desert. The availability of water made cotton farming possible in Turkmenistan which helped the economy of the country immensely. And this water project prevented drought across the country, especially on the desert areas.

Water Quality Discussion

For agriculture, farmers can use drip or furrow irrigation instead of spray or flood irrigation in order to prevent waters from evaporation. Drip irrigation will directly water the plants and lower the rate of water being evaporating or being sprayed in a useless area. For industries and housing, preventing leaking from pipes will be very important to save fresh water. when waters leak, it may not seem very much but if it goes unnoticed and accumulate over time, it can result in to huge water loss.

Big Picture Discussion

   Most of the water pollution is caused by humans. As our technology develop, it only seems to satisfy the needs of humans and consider humans' convenience not the environmental impact it will have. Mercury, arsenic, oil, and other pollution are preventable if we care more for the environment and use our technology dedicated to cleaner environment and safer drinking water. But on the other hand, massive water division projects like the one that is happening in China is actually giving benefits to economy and environment. The benefits to economy will be that those regions with lack of water source will be able to thrive with increased water supply. It will not only help for agricultural business but industrial businesses as well. 
    Due to increasing water pollution, not only the marine animals but other species are getting effected. Decrease in biodiversity will eventually decrease number of other species that needs those certain fishes to live. This not only effect the environment but people and their economy also. Fishermen will catch less and less fishes and some of them will be contaminated by toxic pollutants. People will eventually consume those fishes and suffer from cancer, deformities, and etc. 
    Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act is the most famous government legislation that deals with water and air pollution. Clean Air Act is related to water pollution also because they regulate pollution in the air which is a major cause of acid rain. And acid rain is one of the major types of water pollution that our environment is suffering from. 

Unit 7 Blog

Forestry Discussion

In order to manage some forests, people often decide to set certain area of the forest on fire. This is beneficial to the forest because it helps to grow new vegetation and kill all the unwanted weeds and negative chemicals that were damaging the forest. If these areas start bringing up new vegetation, it is also economically beneficial. Farmers might own that part of a land and will be able to produce more organic products after the land goes back to normal. But this method of managing forest also has its downside. Many different species live in the forest. And once people burn a particular area of the forest, those animals will no longer have their home anymore and some animals might die due to the fire. This will eventually cause decreased biodiversity in that area.


Global Nutrition Discussion

Meat production is definitely more expansive that plant production for number of reasons. First, animals like cows, pigs, and chicken require a large amount of land. When a farmer can plant about thousands of corns in a certain area, meat producer can only fit few hundred animals in the same amount of area. Also, unlike the plants, animals require more food and care. They need to be constantly fed and their food cost money too. Also meat requires meat packing process but the plants don't. Workers need to cut up specific parts of the animal and clean and sanitized them which requires more manual work.


Genetic Engineering Discussion

Genetically Modified crops are widely used now in modern world. Economic wise it is a lot cheaper to grow GM crops than non GM crops. For example, GM crops are sometimes modified to fight off certain pests and diseases to grow as a stronger crop. But if the industry was to grow non GM crop, they will eventually spend more money on manual labor to keep up with the dying corps and killing all the pests. And also from the Food Inc. documentary, a scientist said that most of the products we buy at the grocery store has genetically modified corns in them. This make it cheaper for factories to make their products and still be able to make large quantity of products that satisfy the consumer's demand.


Sustainable Agriculture Discussion

In order to prevent another dust bowl from happening, farmers must move lands every now and then. Because if they farm in one certain area for years and years, all the crops that are planted will suck the nutrients out of the soil, leaving that area with no nutrients whatsoever. And these soils that lack nutrients will eventually be weak enough to be blown away by a strong wind, which is the reason why dust bowl happened. And farmers can use advanced technology that will not harm the soil and yet get their work done faster than manual labor. These efficient methods not only prevent farmers from having another dust bowl but helps the economy over all. Constant production that matches the demand of consumers will help the economy flow.


Pest Management Discussion

IPM stands for Integrated Pest Management. IPM is known to be a pest management that not only gets rid of pesticides that are harmful to the crops but also makes sure that it does not harm human health nor the environment during the process of killing pests. It is also known to have the least risk while having the most benefits with reduced cost.


BIG PICTURE DISCUSSION

Overall this whole unit has to do with large amount of human impact. Agriculture practice started because of humans and their needs and it expanded to an enormous size to feed 7 billion people in the world. And as the farming techniques gets better with new and more efficient technologies, people's demand on food got higher and quantity of production got also higher. Now food industry takes a huge part in our economy today. Giant companies are mostly in control of all the meat and food that are available to us at the grocery stores and farmers are payed by the companies to farm and raise animals for food purposes. As companies get more powerful and find a way to produce things much faster and cheaper, workers and animals get abused constantly. And this eventually lead to unsanitary practice in the factory and caused diseases like Ecoli and more. In the New Deal, Federal Meat Inspection Act was created to protect the citizens from contaminated meats. Government departments like FDA is also a big part of making sure that people consume safe and healthy food. Also, the governor of Nebraska, Mike Johanns is considering making a bill for Meatpacking Worker's right not only to protect the workers from being abused by harsh working environment but to ensure the sanitation of the factory.