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.