Project Ideas – Jeff

I would like to investigate the use of biogas plants as an alternative source for home heating/cooking. I would look at their current use in India and how they are designed. Also what is the best type of “fuel” to put into these plants that basically produce methane gas that is piped into the home.

http://www.ganesha.co.uk/Articles/Biogas%20Technology%20in%20India.htm

http://villageearth.org/atnetwork/atsourcebook/chapters/biogas.htm

A second project Idea would be to investigate the plant and animal species that are present in North America to see if there are any native species remaining or if our current biota is all introduced from other places, in a sense all of the species would be invasive. Most of our crops that we plant in the U.S. are not native to this land and were developed some where else and then introduced into this continent.  Also see how species ranges/distributionshave changed over time given the interactions between humans.

~Jeff

Jeff’s Response to the Meadowlands

I really enjoyed the book because I didn’t feel bogged down with a lot of facts, that it was just a combination of all the expeditions Sullivan had to the area. Also it opened my eyes to see that wilderness could be different for different people. It is in the eyes of the beholder. I never new that an old dump could be a nature experience to someone, but the book shows that as old as the meadow-lands are, they are so much to tell. Even being on old dump there is still life there. This area has been an attraction for outdoor TV shows because it holds a lot of wildlife mostly waterfowl and is situated just outside of New York city.

I also feel that the supplementary material went along very well with the book. I liked how Cronon expressed to us that wilderness is a human construct. There is no place in the U.S. that hasn’t been touch by humans. Most of the old growth forests are gone, and what we perceive as wilderness is just second growth. Humans also attach terms to anything in an attempt to describe it, and make it make sense for the human world. Wilderness is something humans build up so others have a place to visualize or go see. In fact, wilderness can be anything a person wants it to be. Just like the Meadow-lands; They were Sullivan’s wilderness and the place he missed the most when he wasn’t there. The meadows hold a lot of history and Sullivan attempted to learn about it and present it in a well organized fashion to the rest of the human world.

~Jeff

response to Meadowlands

I really enjoyed reading The Meadowlans and the other supplements because they tied in very well together because while reading The Meadowlands. My view of what I viewed as wilderness before reading the book I would have just viewed it as an old dump worth beyond trying to save and having no meaning to it. After reading it I have learned to enjoy and expand more of the unconventional wilderness. And the book gave me the urge to go The Meadowlands and find other hidden unconventional wilderness spots.

Leslie

response to Meadowlands

I very much enjoyed this book and i believe it is an excellent first book for the course.  This book is a broad overview of many environmental issues that this country and the world are facing even today, forty years after the book was written.  Sullivan is an easy writer to get into and has both a sarcastic, humorous side, and also a very thought-provoking side which draws readers into the topic at hand.  I think this is an important book for many groups of people to read, because many people (myself included) do not even know the Meadowlands exists; and for something as terrific as the meadowlands to be right under our noses and not even know it is quite an issue.   As I have read Desert Solitaire, I believe the Meadowlands is a perfect book to be the “opening act” for this more intense and serious read.

Dezaray

Eagle Responsible for Power Outages

This is a very humorous story of a Bald Eagle that apparently ran into a transformer while trying to “lug”  a deer head about and, in turn, causes the power outage of about 10,000 people in Juneau, Alaska.  Now, this is not a funny story because an amazingly beautiful animal has died, but because of the fact that we are getting in the way of wildlife and when we suffer because of our lifestyle, it becomes the problem of the animal.  Now, this is also a very cool story just thinking about a bald eagle carrying a deer head, because these are some magnificent birds, and then are even much larger in Alaska than they are here (and the deer probably are, too!)  Finally, I am very sad to hear that the eagle died (and i guess the deer, too?)  but I am elated to hear that 10,000 people went without power because of it (and image how cold it is in Alaska right now!!) 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070130/ap_on_fe_st/eagle_power_outage_5

Dezaray

White House accused of misleading public on climate-change

when did science results have to become politically correct or form to the ideas of your party or alter them so they do

 Leslie

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-070130warming,1,2764193.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Leslie Project

For my fisrt project idea is research the effects smart growth has on the environment, society and economy or my second idea is research the effects of global warming on the coral reefs and oceans.

Steelhead stocking in the Great lakes- Possible Project

I’m obsessed with fishing and so i believe it might be interesting to look into the steelhead stocking program in the great lakes.  The program stocks over 2 million steelhead in lake Erie alone every year.  The reasons for this massive number are that the lack of the native steelhead habitat, (their originally an ocean run fish from the western states), lack of any real spawning grounds, and heavy human fishing pressure. Only 15% of steelhead reproduce naturally in the Erie tributaries each year.  So here we have what is usually a beautiful, wild fish from the west, out of place and not adapting in the east, where the only way to keep them thriving is to stock insane number of them.  Why do so?  

 -Joe Berlyoung

http://www.ohiodnr.com/wildlife/Fishing/fairport/steelhead.htm

http://www.familytyes.com/artman/publish/article_45.shtml

Salmon and Steelhead runs to return to Snake and Columbia rivers

The snake and the columbia rivers were damed up in the 1960′s and 70′s to provide energy resources for the surrounding area.  Almost immediatly after that, the salmon runs stoped and the sockeye salmon was put on the endagered species list, due to the detrimental effects of the dam.  The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission sucessfully sued the federal government over the degradation and now a judge has issued a final warning to the federal government, to find a away to improve the salmon and steelhead runs and help the fish, or else the dams will be destroyed.  Nature winning out over man for once.   

http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Issue?issue_id=338
    

Joe Berlyoung

Response to Meadowlands

I did enjoy the book about the Meadowlands.  It was easy to read and interesting, providing information about an area i never knew existed and insights into its past and future.  The mosquito chapter, though, was boreing.  Books that describe places of wilderness untouched by man in most ways, however, are more appealing to me than this quasi wilderness garbage dump superfund site. 

-Joe Berlyoung