The author of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation essay believes that we should learn about as many different species of animals as possible, because there is no way to protect them from extinction if we don’t know that they exist. I don’t know enough about this topic to decide weather or not it is necessary to learn about all the different species. What I do know is that species are becoming extinct at very quick rates, biodiversity is important, and that documentation and research of rare species would be a very costly and time consuming for many people. Ecosystems all around the world are loosing biodiversity at a very fast rate. It may be necessary to document the extinctions in order to inform people of what is happening so that they can attempt to change it. On the other hand, in some ecosystems there is so many different species that it would just be a expensive, never-ending process. It could be basically pointless because we would never be able to know about enough of them to come to conclusions of how to save them.
One of the authors main points was that we can not know how to prevent a species from going extinct when we do not even know that they exist. Some people believe that there is no reason to save the species from going extinct, because if they are dying off it must be because they are not able to survive in the current living conditions. Other species that are capable of evolving so that they can live in the current environmental conditions, are allowed to flourish when another species dies off. The earth is a constantly changing place, and all creature must adapt or die. We are not capable to fully understand most of the worlds ecosystems, and we never will despite how much research is put into learning about them.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
The DNA Dance, Meiosis Dance & Mitosis Dance!
The Southern Oregon Arts & Research (SOAR) project was an enjoyable, hands-on experience that embed important basic biology information. Thanks to our project, I will never forget how DNA replication, meiosis and mitosis work. I was very fortunate that I knew all this important information so well, because it was on my Anatomy and Physiology test. If it wasn’t for our Southern Oregon Arts & Research project, I would have missed many more questions on that test. Practicing the dances for Southern Oregon Arts & Research was very fun, and through it I learned some of the information that is taught in upper division biology classes. Because I do not plan on taking a general biology class, the information that I learned from the project is very valuable to me.
A great thing that about figuring out how we wanted to perform the DNA, Meiosis and Mitosis dances, is that it made us use creativity, which is something that needs to be used more often in our society. The most satisfying part of the experience is that we taught other students valuable information, in a fun and creative way. Teaching other the University Seminar students what we had spent three terms learning, was a great way to end the school year. I enjoyed the University Seminar series very much and spending so much time on the Southern Oregon Arts & Research project is a large part of why spring term was so enjoyable to me. You are an awesome professor and I look forward to taking Nursing Genetics with you next year! Have a great summer!
A great thing that about figuring out how we wanted to perform the DNA, Meiosis and Mitosis dances, is that it made us use creativity, which is something that needs to be used more often in our society. The most satisfying part of the experience is that we taught other students valuable information, in a fun and creative way. Teaching other the University Seminar students what we had spent three terms learning, was a great way to end the school year. I enjoyed the University Seminar series very much and spending so much time on the Southern Oregon Arts & Research project is a large part of why spring term was so enjoyable to me. You are an awesome professor and I look forward to taking Nursing Genetics with you next year! Have a great summer!
Book Report: Children and The Environment
The book Children and The Environment, co-authored by the United Nations Environment Program and The United Nations Children’s Fund, is a factual report on how overpopulation, toxins, changes in the environment and other factors are affecting children. It was written 19 years ago, the same year that I was born, which made it quite interesting to me. The premise of the book is that there has never been and never will be as many children on the earth than there were in the 1990s, and that the parents of that generation owe their children and grandchildren a planet able to sustain them. For this report, I will analyze the problems and statistics that are presented in Children and The Environment to see if they are inline with today’s environment, and also explore how psychosocial theories relate to the book.
Articles written by government programs are not typically questioned, and are simply taken as fact. Because Children and The Environment was written so long ago, I was given the opportunity to discover how accurate it is. I took the graphic projections in the book to check how close they came to the real statics. In the first chapter they talked a lot about what the population will be like in 2025 and how many children will there be. The United Nations projected that in 2025, there would be 100 million children in developed regions and 1900 million in developing regions. Statistics show that in developed regions there are 300 million children, and in developing regions there are already 1900 million in the year 2009, proving that the projections were way off! Another projection in this book says that the world population should be approximately 7.4 billion people in 2009, but the population is 6.8 billion. The projection is 12.5 percent over the actual population. It is astounding how far off their numbers are, and it makes me quite wary of all the information presented in the book. Although most information given by governments is highly trusted, the United Nations has not been known for it’s accuracy.
The main claim of Children and The Environment is that there will be more children born in the 1990’s than any decade before or after, and that problems caused by overpopulation will be devastating to the earth and human race. World population has increased at a very fast rate during the past twenty years, but surprisingly living standards have dramatically improved. The amount of people living in extreme poverty has decreased from 52 percent in 1981 to 26 percent in 2005 and is now the lowest in history.
Despite the large percent of error in the book’s statical projections, Children and The Environment does a good job educating readers about how their actions may change the environment in a negative or positive way, and affect people everywhere. It explains how and why a variety of environmental issues effect the well-being of infants, children, and adults. The book makes many important points, such as: How will the world be able to sustain enough food to feed an increased population when the agricultural systems are failing to supply enough to meet the current demand? How could over pollution be prevented? How would diseases, such as AIDs, affect the increasing population in developing countries? Will humans take care of the earth well enough to sustain future generations? All of these are important questions that have been addressed, but not well enough.
In recent years, an increased amount of people have been able to avoid malnutrition. This is because humans have been genetically modifying, mass producing, and pumping food with chemicals, none of which is good for health of humans or earth. AIDs and many other easily preventable diseases remain huge issues in developing countries. Humans have been polluting the air and water and cutting the vegetation of our earth so much that it is drastically changing the environment. Perhaps the world would be better if more people had followed the advice of Children and The Environment.
Extreme poverty is currently defined by the World Bank as living on less than 1.25 US dollars per day. Over one billion people, or roughly one in six, live in such a state. Extreme poverty is most rampant in parts of Africa, Asia, and Central America. Moderate poverty is defined as living off of less than two US dollars per day. Cumulatively, there is about three billion people, nearly half of the world, living in poverty.
If a child is living in poverty, it will effect both their physical and mental development. At each stage of psychosocial development, if a child’s basic needs aren't being met, having a favorable outcome in each stage and moving on to the next one is very unlikely. As I was reading through this book on Children and their Environment, it was difficult not to contemplate the effects of poverty on Erickson's Psychosocial Stages of Development.
As the textbook Development through Life: A Psychosocial Approach and the book Children and The Environment explain, people who are living in extreme poverty do not have food, water, shelter, sanitation, or health care and cannot develop normally. Persistent poverty has harsh effects on IQ and social functioning. Increased exposure to lead and other toxins, and having less home-based cognitive stimulation, account for some of the diminished functioning in poor children. Malaria and tuberculosis are still epidemic diseases in many countries. Children growing up in extreme poverty are at high risk for poor development.
It is essential that mothers have plenty of nutrients and energy available, and avoids toxins during the critical periods of pregnancy for development of each structure to occur correctly. When a pregnant mother is exposed to toxins or malnutrition, it will affect the fetus/embryo in different ways depending on what is developing at the time of exposure. The most crucial human organs, the heart and central nervous system, develop at weeks 7-8 and 20-38, so those are important times periods for mother to be living as healthy possible.
The chart above is similar to the one in Development through Life: A Psychosocial Approach, which shows what parts of embryos and fetuses develop at during each time period of pregnancy. When a pregnant woman does not get enough calories or protein in her diet it often causes the baby to have a low birth weight, have stunted growth, and organs such as the liver, kidneys, heart, and brain, to be smaller. The book Children and The Environment is full of interesting facts and explains many other issues that affect the development of children.
Anyone who finds interest in the book Children and The Environment, would most likely enjoy Al Gore’s book and movie on global warming, President Obama’s plan for providing healthcare to all children, or perhaps Greg Mortenson’s book: Three Cups of Tea about educating women in Afghanistan to help make change in our world. If you want a great in-depth look on our generation's chance to change the world, read Dr. Sach’s book The End Of Poverty. Dr. Sach is a Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He has written this book and joined forces with the singer Bono, to raise money and implement a plan to end extreme poverty by 2025. Dr. Sach and Bono have been eliminating poverty mostly by helping the women in these poor regions with "micro" loans. Giving a woman enough money to buy goats example of how the “micro” loans work. With these goats she can provide milk and cheese for her family. She can breed the goats and sell them. She can grow a business and hire helpers, etc. These kind of loans have a "play it forward" effect and can help the entire region with time. I am planing to continue researching poverty, so that I will be more capable of improving the lives people in need.
In summary, reading and researching the information in the book Children and The Environment has taught me to question information, no matter what source it comes from. It has also taught me that environment has gotten better in some ways, and worse in other ways. The amount of extreme poverty has drastically decreased since this book was published, which is a tremendous victory for humans. Global living standards have increased drastically over the past 25 years because people like Dr. Sach, Bono, Barack Obama, Greg Mortenson and the thousands of other people who have made sacrifices to help the needy. There are so many thing that can be done to improve the environment and the lives of people globally. Every person can help improve our world, including you! If you want to help out, don’t wait, get out there and do something about it! Bibliography
The World Bank. (2009). Understanding Poverty.
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/0,,contentMDK:20153855~menuPK:373757~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:336992,00.html
United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNCF). (1990). Children And The Environment.
Newman, B., Newman, P. (2006) Development through Life: A Psychosocial Approach; ninth edition. Thomas Learning Inc.
critical periods in prenatal development. http://www.cerebralpalsychildren.com/CP1.jpg
Erickson's Psychosocial Stages of Development. http://www.myuccedu.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/ericksone28099s-psychosocial-stages.jpg
McLoyd, C., (1998). Socioeconomic disadvantage and child development. American Psychologist.
Agarwal K.N., (1980). Nutrition deprivation: Effects on feto-placental unit and fetal brain. Dr. K C Chaudhuri Foundation, co-published by Springer India.
Articles written by government programs are not typically questioned, and are simply taken as fact. Because Children and The Environment was written so long ago, I was given the opportunity to discover how accurate it is. I took the graphic projections in the book to check how close they came to the real statics. In the first chapter they talked a lot about what the population will be like in 2025 and how many children will there be. The United Nations projected that in 2025, there would be 100 million children in developed regions and 1900 million in developing regions. Statistics show that in developed regions there are 300 million children, and in developing regions there are already 1900 million in the year 2009, proving that the projections were way off! Another projection in this book says that the world population should be approximately 7.4 billion people in 2009, but the population is 6.8 billion. The projection is 12.5 percent over the actual population. It is astounding how far off their numbers are, and it makes me quite wary of all the information presented in the book. Although most information given by governments is highly trusted, the United Nations has not been known for it’s accuracy.
The main claim of Children and The Environment is that there will be more children born in the 1990’s than any decade before or after, and that problems caused by overpopulation will be devastating to the earth and human race. World population has increased at a very fast rate during the past twenty years, but surprisingly living standards have dramatically improved. The amount of people living in extreme poverty has decreased from 52 percent in 1981 to 26 percent in 2005 and is now the lowest in history.
Despite the large percent of error in the book’s statical projections, Children and The Environment does a good job educating readers about how their actions may change the environment in a negative or positive way, and affect people everywhere. It explains how and why a variety of environmental issues effect the well-being of infants, children, and adults. The book makes many important points, such as: How will the world be able to sustain enough food to feed an increased population when the agricultural systems are failing to supply enough to meet the current demand? How could over pollution be prevented? How would diseases, such as AIDs, affect the increasing population in developing countries? Will humans take care of the earth well enough to sustain future generations? All of these are important questions that have been addressed, but not well enough.
In recent years, an increased amount of people have been able to avoid malnutrition. This is because humans have been genetically modifying, mass producing, and pumping food with chemicals, none of which is good for health of humans or earth. AIDs and many other easily preventable diseases remain huge issues in developing countries. Humans have been polluting the air and water and cutting the vegetation of our earth so much that it is drastically changing the environment. Perhaps the world would be better if more people had followed the advice of Children and The Environment.
Extreme poverty is currently defined by the World Bank as living on less than 1.25 US dollars per day. Over one billion people, or roughly one in six, live in such a state. Extreme poverty is most rampant in parts of Africa, Asia, and Central America. Moderate poverty is defined as living off of less than two US dollars per day. Cumulatively, there is about three billion people, nearly half of the world, living in poverty.
If a child is living in poverty, it will effect both their physical and mental development. At each stage of psychosocial development, if a child’s basic needs aren't being met, having a favorable outcome in each stage and moving on to the next one is very unlikely. As I was reading through this book on Children and their Environment, it was difficult not to contemplate the effects of poverty on Erickson's Psychosocial Stages of Development.
As the textbook Development through Life: A Psychosocial Approach and the book Children and The Environment explain, people who are living in extreme poverty do not have food, water, shelter, sanitation, or health care and cannot develop normally. Persistent poverty has harsh effects on IQ and social functioning. Increased exposure to lead and other toxins, and having less home-based cognitive stimulation, account for some of the diminished functioning in poor children. Malaria and tuberculosis are still epidemic diseases in many countries. Children growing up in extreme poverty are at high risk for poor development.
It is essential that mothers have plenty of nutrients and energy available, and avoids toxins during the critical periods of pregnancy for development of each structure to occur correctly. When a pregnant mother is exposed to toxins or malnutrition, it will affect the fetus/embryo in different ways depending on what is developing at the time of exposure. The most crucial human organs, the heart and central nervous system, develop at weeks 7-8 and 20-38, so those are important times periods for mother to be living as healthy possible.
The chart above is similar to the one in Development through Life: A Psychosocial Approach, which shows what parts of embryos and fetuses develop at during each time period of pregnancy. When a pregnant woman does not get enough calories or protein in her diet it often causes the baby to have a low birth weight, have stunted growth, and organs such as the liver, kidneys, heart, and brain, to be smaller. The book Children and The Environment is full of interesting facts and explains many other issues that affect the development of children.
Anyone who finds interest in the book Children and The Environment, would most likely enjoy Al Gore’s book and movie on global warming, President Obama’s plan for providing healthcare to all children, or perhaps Greg Mortenson’s book: Three Cups of Tea about educating women in Afghanistan to help make change in our world. If you want a great in-depth look on our generation's chance to change the world, read Dr. Sach’s book The End Of Poverty. Dr. Sach is a Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He has written this book and joined forces with the singer Bono, to raise money and implement a plan to end extreme poverty by 2025. Dr. Sach and Bono have been eliminating poverty mostly by helping the women in these poor regions with "micro" loans. Giving a woman enough money to buy goats example of how the “micro” loans work. With these goats she can provide milk and cheese for her family. She can breed the goats and sell them. She can grow a business and hire helpers, etc. These kind of loans have a "play it forward" effect and can help the entire region with time. I am planing to continue researching poverty, so that I will be more capable of improving the lives people in need.
In summary, reading and researching the information in the book Children and The Environment has taught me to question information, no matter what source it comes from. It has also taught me that environment has gotten better in some ways, and worse in other ways. The amount of extreme poverty has drastically decreased since this book was published, which is a tremendous victory for humans. Global living standards have increased drastically over the past 25 years because people like Dr. Sach, Bono, Barack Obama, Greg Mortenson and the thousands of other people who have made sacrifices to help the needy. There are so many thing that can be done to improve the environment and the lives of people globally. Every person can help improve our world, including you! If you want to help out, don’t wait, get out there and do something about it! Bibliography
The World Bank. (2009). Understanding Poverty.
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/0,,contentMDK:20153855~menuPK:373757~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:336992,00.html
United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNCF). (1990). Children And The Environment.
Newman, B., Newman, P. (2006) Development through Life: A Psychosocial Approach; ninth edition. Thomas Learning Inc.
critical periods in prenatal development. http://www.cerebralpalsychildren.com/CP1.jpg
Erickson's Psychosocial Stages of Development. http://www.myuccedu.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/ericksone28099s-psychosocial-stages.jpg
McLoyd, C., (1998). Socioeconomic disadvantage and child development. American Psychologist.
Agarwal K.N., (1980). Nutrition deprivation: Effects on feto-placental unit and fetal brain. Dr. K C Chaudhuri Foundation, co-published by Springer India.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
It is difficult to understand what is going on inside the head of a suicidal adolescent. What can be done to make them happy again? Well, when I think of happiness, I think of warmth and laughter. If there is one thing that adolescents are good at, it is being silly. Anyone can help a person become happy, including friends. The article does not go in depth at all about the study that was done, so I am skeptical of it’s accuracy.. I believe that getting a suicidal adolescent to become happy again would take more than help from the parents and a lover, it would also require support from peers. Quality support from parents would help most suicidal adolescents, but alone could not fix the problems. A group effort is needed. Parents can give the adolescent support and someone to talk to, where the peers can provide fun and a sense of acceptance. All social interactions are important in providing a good environment.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Calculating Your Carbon Footprint
The article Improving your Carbon Footprint by Andy Fusco & Passaic N.J, claims that the online carbon dioxide calculator is an important step in educating and raising awareness to the public about how big their carbon footprint is and what they can do to make it smaller. I disagree with this claim. Yes, it can help raise a little awareness about the issue, but there are much more powerful ways to do so.
Although some people might search the internet to figure out how big their carbon footprint is, not many take this route. Many of the people that do search the internet for a carbon footprint calculator end up using one of the many popular, inaccurate ones, and end up with a false sense of how big their carbon footprint is.
Anyone who goes to school, or watches TV, or listens to the radio, or reads the newspaper, or has conversations with someone that does, knows what is good and bad for the environment. The information is everywhere! People that drive big SUVs or trucks know that they are polluting the environment. Most people know that fluorescent light bulbs are better for the environment than regular ones. Most people know that plants are good for the environment. Just because they know what they are doing is bad, doesn’t mean that they are going to change their habits.
Of people that use an accurate CO2 footprint calculator, many may find the size of their carbon footprint to be enlightening, and it may change their lifestyle. Most people don’t take the time to find and use an accurate CO2 footprint calculator, because they already have some idea of how big their carbon footprint is or could care less about what the carbon footprint calculator says. In conclusion, the online carbon calculator can be an important step in educating and raising awareness for some people, but to most people it is not.
Although some people might search the internet to figure out how big their carbon footprint is, not many take this route. Many of the people that do search the internet for a carbon footprint calculator end up using one of the many popular, inaccurate ones, and end up with a false sense of how big their carbon footprint is.
Anyone who goes to school, or watches TV, or listens to the radio, or reads the newspaper, or has conversations with someone that does, knows what is good and bad for the environment. The information is everywhere! People that drive big SUVs or trucks know that they are polluting the environment. Most people know that fluorescent light bulbs are better for the environment than regular ones. Most people know that plants are good for the environment. Just because they know what they are doing is bad, doesn’t mean that they are going to change their habits.
Of people that use an accurate CO2 footprint calculator, many may find the size of their carbon footprint to be enlightening, and it may change their lifestyle. Most people don’t take the time to find and use an accurate CO2 footprint calculator, because they already have some idea of how big their carbon footprint is or could care less about what the carbon footprint calculator says. In conclusion, the online carbon calculator can be an important step in educating and raising awareness for some people, but to most people it is not.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Marine Migration
The peer-reviewed article The Coming Invasion, by Geerat J. VermIj and Peither D. Roopnarine, claims that as the climate becomes warmer due to global warming, mollusks and other marine species will migrate to the Atlantic Ocean through the Bering Strait. There are many mollusks that thrive in the Pacific Ocean. I am sure that if they did migrate to the Atlantic, it would have a very large effect on the ecosystem. Mollusks have potential to cause other species in the Atlantic to go extinct. Because all native species play important roles in specie interactions and well-being, this migration could potentially be devastating to the current ecosystem.
I do not know enough about ecosystems to predict exactly what would happen if these marine species did migrate, but I do know that they would cause a large amount of change in the Atlantic Ocean, and probably other ecosystems also. These changes are likely to be bad ones. The ocean covers most of the earth and affects everything. If there is a substantial change in a ocean, it could lead to devastating changes in ecosystems everywhere. Why take the risk? I think that the ocean is functioning quite nicely right now, and I don’t want it to change. Everyone needs to take the steps necessary to prevent further global warming.
I do not know enough about ecosystems to predict exactly what would happen if these marine species did migrate, but I do know that they would cause a large amount of change in the Atlantic Ocean, and probably other ecosystems also. These changes are likely to be bad ones. The ocean covers most of the earth and affects everything. If there is a substantial change in a ocean, it could lead to devastating changes in ecosystems everywhere. Why take the risk? I think that the ocean is functioning quite nicely right now, and I don’t want it to change. Everyone needs to take the steps necessary to prevent further global warming.
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