Project Description – Steelhead in the Great Lakes

My course project was done on Great Lakes Steelhead.  Steelhead are not native to the Great Lakes watershed and as such they are purposefully introduced invader species.  My project delved deep into the world of steelhead from their habits and spawning to the history of the stocking programs and what it is that make us fish for them and why we put them in the lakes at all.  The Ohio DNR runs the steelhead stocking programs as a business, to make a profit.  I used Microsoft Power Point to create a presentation that was 29 slides in length and roughly 38 minuets in time, using many pictures and graphs. 

-Joe Berlyoung

 picture from Joe Berlyoung

Project – SWC

My project outlined the mission and purpose of the Save the Waves Coalition as well as the inner workings of waves, surfing, and coastline degradation.  It started out with basic lessons about how waves work, the physics behind surfing, and the environmental and social implications of surfing and coastline development.  The presentation gave three case studies and lots of statistics outlining the benefits of surfing and the importance of preserving natural coastline.  Visual displays were used to show the mess that coastal development is causing, but also to reinforce the explanations behind how waves work.  Overall the presentation gave the audience a basic understanding of why groups like SWC are so adamant about preserving natural coastlines (mainly surf break points) and promoting the lifestyle of surfing.

-ARB

Real project idea

My official project was on ecotourism and effects on the natural environment. I found that there is a lot of resources that deal with this issue. One of the problems that I came across was that there were no set conditions that made it qualify as ecotourism. The most interesting thing I leaded about ecotourism making it a better option then regular development but there are still many indirect and direct effects it has on the environment. I though that best way to go about researching the topic was to research your interest and use the resources from there to build the presentation. Some good advice is to start as early as possible, include as many different medias as possible to make it interesting, clear visual aids. And during the presentation slow down to talk clearly and look at the audience as much as possible. But the most important tip make sure to can continually express your excitement for your idea that people hearing it might enjoy it more even if the person may not like the topic. Leslie

Nature, Unsettling of America, How to be Idle and Breakfast of Biodiversity-All rolled up in one

Peter Coates’ book Nature was terrible.  The content could have been astounding, however the tone and the way the book was written, almost as a machine, just ruined the whole experience for me.  As a whole i thought the ideas he put forth were very similar to those authors which we have read previously, and I will not be recommending this book to future classes or any one I know (perhaps replace it with Aldo Leopolds’ A Sand County Almanac, Awesome!) 

Wendell Berrys’ book The Unsettling of America also will not be on my favourite books list.  Again the ideas presented were quality yet the manner in which they were presented left a bad taste in my mouth.  I would not suggest this book to future classes. 

Changing things around now, Hodgkinsons’ How to be Idlewas a marvelous book.  It is extremely readable and hard to put down.  I would be hard pressed to find another peice of writing that so eloquently illustrates the quest for idleness and non-productivity.  I would absolutely suggest this book to future classes. 

Breakfast of Biodiversity was also a good book.  It presents intellectual thought about the rain-forests’ destruction as well as presenting scientific information in a readable manner.  The first person accounts of the authors, Perfecto and Vandeermere, also help to illustrate the problems in the rain-forested regions of the globe.  I would suggest reading this book to future classes.    

Joe Berlyoung

Breakfast of Biodiversity

I really liked the topic of the book and it focusing on the global problems that rainforests face and how politics play into it. What I think I found most interesting was learning what is affecting the rainforests, it is not just large corporations but there are problems with poverty and the search for bring home food for the family. I liked how the history time line was presented it was more helpful to understanding the background behind deforestation then in some of the other books we have read this semester. I also liked presenting about political ecology a subject that I find very enjoyable and want to learn more about it and how there is a need for ecology to be more effective in today’s societyand how and what can be done to solve them that the disturbance it is not only multinational corporations attempting to take maximum profits, but the over all problem is food insecurity and the lack of land ownership. But I am still questionable as to the future of general environmental protection and conservation and not just the rain forest. Over all loved the book a must keep. Leslie 

BoB reading

Reading Review: Week 11

 

Breakfast of Biodiversity 

This was a very informative book as it shed some light on the global problems that rainforests face and how politics come into play. This book presented a lot of facts that were helpful in understanding the background behind deforestation while remaining interesting, as it was not as thick and heavy with the facts like some of our previous books. It is interesting to learn what is affecting these rainforests, that it is not just large corporations but also a problem with poverty and the search for food. These areas are relief valves. The book brought to my attention a whole other field of study that I never really thought of: political ecology, as politics are ever increasing and needed for ecology to be effective in today’s society. The book gave some valuable insight into ecological problems plaguing the world and methods that can be done to solve them. This has been one of my favorite books so far and it deals with a very interesting but hotly debated topic.

 

~Jeff

Review for How to be idle

Reading Review: Week 10

How to be Idle 

I really enjoyed this book and thought that it fit in nicely reading it over spring break. It was a very easy read and a good change of pace after the harder reads like nature. This book shows that much of American society has to slow down and enjoy life before it passes us by. I really agree with lying around in bed, and I find myself doing this often. It is a time when I do a lot of my thinking and I know people or have heard of them who have pads a paper next to their bed to write down ideas when they come to them.

It feels really good sometimes to just sit back and do nothing but to enjoy your surroundings. This book gives something for a lot of college aged kids to relate to as some just do nothing on the weekends but it is a time to relax and recuperate. I found it interesting the way the book was presented as it depicted a 24-hour cycle of a guy’s life. I liked how Hodgkinson incorporated many philosophers into the book and described how Americans should go against the social norm to be idle. I feel more people should strive to get the most pleasure out of life no matter how that is, if it is by being idle or not.  

~Jeff

Unsettling of America review

Reading Review: (Week  

 

I enjoyed this book and found it pretty easy while informational and it brings to the forefront some of the environmental and sociological problems that our society is faced with and these problems stem from the ways we respond or for that matter don’t respind to them and the evironment with our actions. A lot of issues in society deal with agricultural and how a lot of land is being comsumed for new housing developments and that the only way to farm os to be a large corporation. Farming is now a business and can no longer be done by small scale family farms. There is definitely a link between society and the environment including the way that we precieve it. Just like the first day of class and the words we wrote on the board. Agricutlure has been precieved as the backbone of civilization and without it the human race would be left without food unless we wnet out and produced it ourselves. I really lik how Berry refered to food as a weapon because in realtiy it is. If you don’t have food you starve and you will be more likely to give in to the powers that use food weapondry. Over some generations there has been changes in attitude toward the leading to a change in attitude toward life and society; people now want ease with out hasel and they want it fast. That is why there are so many fast food chains. We are now a fast-paced society the relys on machines. Every aspect of life is becoming mechanized, so it will preform faster but not nessecarily more efficient.  

~Jeff

Response to Nature

Nature  

I did not enjoy reading this book so much because it was very think and weighted down with way too many facts that didn’t seem to fall right into place. It was hard to get through and didn’t seem to keep my attention for very long. It was different than any previous book, as it was not based on personal accounts but was more of an analytical analysis of nature over timw, from its begining to the current.  

This first half (chapters 1-5) of the book was really hard to get through but did provide some insight on the origins of agriculture but mainly how the industrial revolution really shaped they way the humans farmed and could expand into new territories. This new mind set of people didn’t fear nature but found that it needed to be conquered, and people should move out onto the frontier. The second part of the book (chapter 6-9) seemed to be more interesting and was my favorite part of the book as Coates goes into aspects of environmentalism such as the Nazi and British environmentalism, leading into modern-day environmentalism.  

Even though this book got more interesting near the end but I still found it hard to manage through it. This book was a major contrast to the previous books and was a very sudden change of pace, and that this book seemed more like a text book or enccly[idia with all the facts, I just wish that the information in this book could have been presented in a manner that was easier to read.  

~Jeff

New Climate Change Report Released- Aash

April 10th, 2007; Bangkok, Thailand.

      Warming temperatures will cause increased drought and sea-level rises in Australia and New Zealand by 2030 and threaten ecologically rich sites such as the Great Barrier Reef.

      The South Pacific Islands will be swamped by sea level rises as well as freuqency of cyclones. Island economies also will suffer as warming waters damage coral reefs and hurt fishing industries.

      A summary of the full, 1,572-page document written and reviewed by 441 scientists was released Friday. This document tries to explain how global warming is changing life on Earth.

      For Australians and New Zealanders, the warming temperatures will be felt mostly through increasingly extreme weather events. “Heat waves and fires are virtually certain to increase in intensity and frequency.”

      link: http://enn.com/printerfriendly.html?id=894&cat=sci

-Aashrai Sarin