Environmental Geography

Costa Rica, as the first Latin American country to do this, has approved legislation to ban sport hunting. Once they reformed their conservation of wildlife law on October 2nd, the new law of banned sport hunting but “still allowing culling and subsistence hunting”, was approved by President Laura Chinchilla. This initiative will help to support the biodiversity of Costa Rica that brings in it’s annual tourists, which is 5% of the country’s GDP.

Breakfast of Biodiversity

altaylor22 — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 18:19:27 +0000

Mmmm What’s for breakfast…

This book explains much of what I have learned and am learning in majority of my classes and what is of peak interest to me. Ever since I was little I have wanted to “save the rainforest,” and as I get older and become more educated, that motto seems so much more complicated than my naive ignorance allowed me to believe. There is so much more to conservation than I expected and so many different things contributing to one devastating problem. In this book they start with bananas and how this one particular industry can destroy a forest and how a six stage process (pg 4) is the core of it all.

Politics/government, (un)employment, and agriculture are all big contributors to deforestation. They lead to destruction of the forest in order for people to survive based on unsustainable methods.

My favorite quote from this book is:

“The only way to reverse the pattern of the past 500 years is, first, to understand the complexity of the web that creates the problem in the first place, and, second, to develop a strategy that shreds that casual web.” Preface x

It’s spot on. We cannot fix anything unless we know what mistakes we have made, learn from them and correct them. When productions are not based on and correspond with natural processes, we are going to have problems; and we are basically just setting ourselves up for failure every time an artificial and polluting (non-recycling) system is introduced. Nature is cyclical; everything is used, reused, and recycled at some point or another it the life process and it is something we can definitely learn from.

Erika’s Digital Portfolio

ejkazi — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:20:40 +0000

Readings:

Week 1: 8/29 Intro to Erika Kazi

Week 2: 9/5 Cronon The Trouble with Wilderness

Week 3: 9/12 Abbey Desert Solitare

Week 4: 9/19 Landscape Course Connection

Week 5: 9/26 Coates Nature (preface and ch. 1-5) *presentation

Week 6: 10/3 Coates Nature (ch. 6-9)

Week 7: 10/10 Robbins et al Environment & Society

Week 8: Fall Break

Week 9: 10/24 Robbins Eating Animals

Week 10: 10/31 Hodgkinson How to be Idle

Week 11: 11/7 Vandermeer & Perfecto Breakfast of Biodiversity

Week 12: 11/14 Robbins Lawn People

Current Events:

Week 2: 9/5 Issues of Fish and Caffeine

Week 3: 9/12 Earth at Tipping Point

Week 4: 9/19 Surviving Without Ice

Week 5: 9/26 Heating up the Abyss

Week 6: 10/3 Our Future Under Water

Week 7: 10/10 Map of Green House Gas Emissions

Week 8: Fall Break

Week 9: 10/24 Yawn

Week 10: 10/31 Not So Permanent: Permafrost

Week 11: 11/7 Leading the Way to Sustainable Consumption

Week 12: 11/14 Eco-Healthy Lawn

Week 13: Thanksgiving Break

Week 14: 11/28 Lady Gaga Ferns

Week 15: 12/5 No Current Event

Week 16: 12/12 ”Green Battery”

Project:

Week 2: 9/5 Erika’s Project Ideas

Week 6: 10/3 Preliminary Project Proposal

Week 10: 10/31 Project Timeline

Week 15: 12/5 Progress of Project Presentation: Composting (powerpoint)

Project Presentation

ejkazi — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:18:27 +0000

Composting

After meeting with one department, it seemed as if my Departmental Sustainability Project was moving too slowly. Everyone started to become overwhelmingly busy. I took this opportunity to switch my project to creating composting on campus – in the Hamilton Williams dining rooms. The link above is a powerpoint presentation of my progress, and an illustration of what can be done in the future to help improve this initiative.

“Green Battery”

ejkazi — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:52:00 +0000

Rose madder — a natural plant dye once prized throughout the Old World to make fiery red textiles — has found a second life as the basis for a new “green” battery.

More than 3,500 years ago, civilizations in Asia and the Middle East first boiled madder roots to color fabrics in vivid oranges, reds and pinks. In its latest technological incarnation, the climbing herb could lay the foundation for an eco-friendly alternative to traditional lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. These batteries charge everything from your mobile phone to electric vehicles, but carry with them risks to the environment during production, recycling and disposal.

How it works is basically that biologically based color molecules, like purpurin and its relatives, seem to be pre-adapted to act as a battery’s electrode. ”These aromatic systems are electron-rich molecules that easily coordinate with lithium,” explained Professor John.

This discovery will be made to come to market in the coming years. Knowing that this sort of green technology exists is important for the future of sustainable energy methods.