#Amanda Shendruk

[biglisbonnews]

Here's how 10 industries are experimenting with ChatGPT OpenAI’s ChatGPT, an AI chatbot trained on vast amounts of data, debuted in public in November 2022, immediately fueling both concern and creative conversation about the role of AI in the working world. In the subsequent months, the buzz has only grown, as more and more professionals ask: What does ChatGPT mean for…Read more... https://qz.com/heres-how-10-industries-are-experimenting-with-chatgpt-1850087138

[tastydregs]

Here's how 10 industries are experimenting with ChatGPT

OpenAI’s ChatGPT, an AI chatbot trained on vast amounts of data, debuted in public in November 2022, immediately fueling both concern and creative conversation about the role of AI in the working world. In the subsequent months, the buzz has only grown, as more and more professionals ask: What does ChatGPT mean for my job?

Some industries are worried. Educators and academics, for example, have sounded the alarm over the potential abuse of ChatGPT for cheating and plagiarism. One publication boldly announced the death of homework. But others are imagining ways in which AI can be an asset in the classroom.

This balance of anxiety and potential is popping up all over. While programmers use ChatGPT to help them debug their code, for instance, others use it to create malware. And while doctors have seen some astounding cases of diagnostic success from the AI, they’ve also seen horrifying examples of inaccuracy.

As employers and employees consider whether the impressive AI is friend or foe, here’s how 10 different industries have started exploring the uses of ChatGPT.

How is the travel industry experimenting with chatGPT?

🗺️ Travel itineraries: Travel Weekly, an industry magazine, tested the AI to see how its travel recommendations compare with those produced by an advisor with years of experience. ChatGPT provided solid answers to questions like, “What is the best luxury hotel in Paris?” but lacked the nuance that comes from the personal connection that an advisor has with their client.

How is the legal industry experimenting with chatGPT?

⚖️ Court decisions: A judge in Colombia has used ChatGPT to make a court ruling. It’s the first instance in which a court has admitted to using an AI in deciding a case. Judge Juan Manuel Padilla Garcia used the AI tool to answer legal questions about the case, and included ChatGPT’s responses in his decision.

📄 Standard legal documents: A New Zealand estate lawyer asked ChatGPT to write his will. James Peacock explained how the AI walked him through the process, making suggestions along the way. In the end, it wouldn’t write a “real” will for him, but he could get around that by asking it to write a hypothetical will, which it did perfectly well.

How is the real estate industry experimenting with chatGPT?

🏠 Listing descriptions: By typing keywords into ChatGPT, real estate agents are whipping up property summaries. Just a few tweaks from a human, and the description is ready to go out.

A property description on Zillow written by ChatGPT

Screenshot: Amanda Shendruk

How is the marketing industry experimenting with chatGPT?

📃 Writing scripts: Wistia, a company specializing in video marketing, is experimenting with creating AI videos from start to finish. ChatGPT’s role? It wrote the script for the promotional video. After asking it for a 60-second YouTube-style text about making apple pie, one of the marketers concluded that it was “an incredible starting point for a video script.”

How is the education industry experimenting with chatGPT?

🤔 Critical thinking assignments: If you can’t beat it, embrace it. That’s the approach Ethan Mollick is taking as he integrates ChatGPT into his classes at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. To demonstrate mastery of a topic, Mollick asks his students to teach the AI about it and suggest improvements.

✔️ Lesson plans and materials: Educators are constantly creating new teaching materials, like essay prompts, quiz questions, and lesson outlines. Some, like Stephen Lockyer, are thinking about handing that work off to ChatGPT. The primary school teacher asked the bot to create a multi-lesson plan on the topic of volcanoes. “I hate to be that guy,” he tweeted afterwards, “but AI is going to be transformative as a teacher.”

How are lawmakers experimenting with chatGPT?

🗳️ Crafting legislation: Earlier this month, ChatGPT wrote a bill to regulate generative artificial intelligence that was filed in Massachusetts. Ok, it had a little help, but State Senator Barry Finegold said the AI wrote more than half the bill.

How is the health industry experimenting with chatGPT?

🩺 A diagnostic aid: Physicians and academics have begun experimenting with ChatGPT’s ability to diagnose patients. One doctor, Jeremy Faust, called the AI’s reponse “eerily good.” But he also noted that not all the information it provided was accurate. In fact, some of it was entirely “made up” by the bot—which means, given how high the stakes are in medicine, it will be a long time before doctors rely entirely on AI to diagnose patients for them.

How is the publishing industry experimenting with chatGPT?

✍️ Writing articles: A host of news organizations (although not Quartz!) have already experimented with asking ChatGPT to write articles. But these experiments are mostly attempts at finding a quirky angle into the ChatGPT narrative. Officially, the AI’s training data only includes information up to 2021, rendering it currently incapable of writing about current events.

Journalists imagine replacing themselves with ChatGPT.

Screenshot: Amanda Shendruk

How is the tech industry experimenting with chatGPT?

⌨️ Writing code: Programmers are experimenting with ChatGPT’s ability to write good code quickly. One developer was able to build an entire app using the AI, though the output required some human intervention. Cybercriminals are also trying their hand at using ChatGPT, some creating effective malware without any prior experience.

🪲 Debugging code: ChatGPT doesn’t just write usable code snippets, it can also discover the errors in code that doesn’t work. Finding these errors can be both difficult and time-consuming for developers, which is likely why Udemy is already offering a short course on using ChatGPT to “code and debug 10X better, faster, stronger.”

How is the construction industry experimenting with chatGPT?

🗓️ Project management: ChatGPT is able to generate schedules that fit the scope of simple construction projects. Academics from New York University-Abu Dhabi provided the AI with a floor plan, a list of tasks, and a statement of scope. They discovered that, while not perfect, ChatGPT was able to assist with basic project management.

[covertblizzard]

For their next publicity stunt, DC should fire all their male staff and only hire female staff for 10 years (or at least 5 years). They’ve had over 80 years of majority male, I think they can afford this. Male comic writers / artists / editors / etc. can write female characters, so I’m sure female comic writers / artists / editors / etc. can hold the fort for 5-10 years. Exceptions can be made to POC, LGBTQ+, and other marginalised communities, but everyone else (cishet white men basically) should GTFO for 5 - 10 (maybe even 15) years. I simply think this would both be a wonderful publicity stunt, fix several issues that they keep having with sexism (hopefully also racism and homophobia and classism because screw all that shit too), and maybe also fix their creep problem if we’re lucky.

[somebody202]

July 26th, 2017 at 5:55 am President Trump started a series of tweets.

“After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you” (@realDonaldTrump)

Ignoring the bad grammar, let’s break this down.

Trump talked to ‘Generals and military experts’. He says this, however after the tweets came out the Pentagon was ‘surprised’ by the tweets and did not have any notice that Trump was making this decision or announcing it in this public manner (Kenney).

Trump wants ‘Decisive and overwhelming victory’. How exactly does he plan to have an overwhelming victory when fewer people want to and are joining the military. Today goals for enlistment are not being met (Department of Defense Announces Fiscal Year 2018 Recruiting and Retent). There are even talks of having to restart the draft.  And less than 0.5% of the American population is in the military (Reynolds and Shendruk).

Less than half a percent. That is insane. So, Trump is deciding to not allow perfectly able people to serve. And at a time when we need more people to join. 

Trump talks of ‘tremendous medical costs’. But according to a 2015 study in the New England Journal of Medicine about $5 million annually is used for medical transitions in the military. That is 0.01% of the military budget (Belkin).

Quick question: Would you call 0.01% of a budget a ‘tremendous’ amount?

Exactly. It simply is not.

And this is without mentioning that the military spends $84 million (17 times the amount of medical transition) on Viagra (Kime).

Ok, but what about disruption. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has been a judge since 1997. She is an accomplished woman in her field. She has said that a negative impact of transgender people in the military is a claim with no support. And that the ban would cause more of a disruption (Philipps). There is no evidence that transgender people in the military have had or will have any adverse effect.

Through and through it is obvious that the reason for this ban is bigotry. All of the reasons stated above do not and cannot utilize basic logic or evidence.

On a more personal note - Trump ends his tweet with a ‘thank you’. What exactly is he thanking me for? Letting him lie to me about being an ally to the LGBT+ community? For suppressing people without repercussions? Expecting me to 'accept and allow' his bigotry?

Right. We are expected to allow him his bigotry and deny ourselves the 'privilege' of being accepted or allowed as people.

Thank you.

Works Cited (because citing your sources is important)

@realDonaldTrump (Donald J. Trump). "....Transgender individuals to  serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming....." Twitter, 26 Jul. 2017, 6:04 a.m., https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/890196164313833472

@realDonaldTrump (Donald J. Trump). "....victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you" Twitter, 26 Jul. 2017, 6:08 a.m., https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/890197095151546369

@realDonaldTrump (Donald J. Trump). "After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow...…" Twitter, 26 Jul. 2017, 5:55 a.m., https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/890193981585444864

Belkin, Aaron. “Caring for Our Transgender Troops - The Negligible Cost of Transition-Related Care: NEJM.” New England Journal of Medicine, 17 Sept. 2015, www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1509230#t=article.

“Department of Defense Announces Fiscal Year 2018 Recruiting and Retent.” U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, 15 Nov. 2018, www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/1691314/department-of-defense-announces-fiscal-year-2018-recruiting-and-retention-numbe/.

Kenney, Caitlin M. “Trump Ban on Transgender Military Service Begins as Court Battle Continues.” Stars and Stripes, 12 Apr. 2019, www.stripes.com/trump-ban-on-transgender-military-service-begins-as-court-battle-continues-1.576775.

Kime, Patricia. “DoD Spends $84M a Year on Viagra, Similar Meds.” Military Times, Military Times, 8 Aug. 2017, www.militarytimes.com/pay-benefits/military-benefits/health-care/2015/02/13/dod-spends-84m-a-year-on-viagra-similar-meds/.

Philipps, Dave. “Judge Blocks Trump's Ban on Transgender Troops in Military.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 30 Oct. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/us/military-transgender-ban.html.

Reynolds, George M, and Amanda Shendruk. “Demographics of the U.S. Military.” Council on Foreign Relations, Council on Foreign Relations, 24 Apr. 2018, www.cfr.org/article/demographics-us-military.

[chrismaverickdotcom]

Princess Agile Girl and Mr. Strength Man

If you pay attention to me at all, you might have picked up that I have kind of a preoccupation with sex and gender in comic books and superhero movies. Did you miss that? It’s kind of subtle maybe? Oh it’s not? I talk about it all the fucking time? Huh….

Anyway, here’s something weird about doing a dissertation. The way you get into a PhD program is that you become such a huge geek on a single specific topic that you not only want to make it your life’s work, but when you take “breaks” from working on it, for fun, you literally do the exact same shit. Not on purpose or anything… you’re just a huge fucking nerd and you don’t know any better.

Anyway, I’ve been working on my dissertation today… and after banging out a few pages of stuff that I’m sure I’ll rewrite a dozen more times and the actual words that I’ve typed will not be even remotely recognizable from their current draft, I decided to take a break and see what was interesting on Facebook. One of the things that really caught my eye was an article my friend and colleague Nicole Freim found and shared. The title was interesting and I decided to save it for later. I even made a comment to Nicole that I would read it later because it seemed cool but I had to get back to… “dissertationing… ”

Who the fuck was I trying to kid?

So yeah, I failed my saving throw vs. internet and immediately got engaged by the article, “Analyzing the Gender Representation of 34,476 Comic Book Characters” by Amanda Shendruk. I often get really annoyed with both academic articles and popular articles on the intersection of feminist or racial criticism and popular culture. Mostly because they often ignore each other. A lot of internet blogs just sort of spout what is essentially memes rather than valid cultural theory and while well intentioned sort of misses little nuances that makes what they’re saying invalid. At the same time, a lot academic types just discount everything in the popular sphere because “those people don’t have letters after their name. So what can they know?” Both of these things are wrong. Good ideas come from everywhere and to really understand something you have to look everywhere.

So I’m glad I read it… because Amanda Shendruk clearly fucking rocks!

So in her article she analyzes the phenomenon of gendering powers and names in superhero comics. This sort of relates to some research I posted about doing a year ago, when I was reading up on gendering of powers in Mike Madrid’s book, The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book Heroines. Shendruk has taken it even farther though. She related the powers to the diminutizing  of female superhero names… the fact that female heroes are less likely to be called “woman” and more likely to be called “girl” than males are with “man” and “boy.” But even better than just saying it, she did a study. She actually went and counted and tabulated her data by using Comic Vine (a website that coincidentally I cited in my dissertation like an hour before I read it) and she even explained her methodology. She did statistical analysis and everything. It’s an honest to goodness academic study, done in a non-academic setting. And it’s a good one!

She even has charts! Fucking charts!!! I love charts! Almost no one doing academic research on comics ever does data tabulation and it’s super rare to visualize it on a chart. Hell, I went through all the trouble of tabulated data, doing statistical analysis and making a chart last year and I never even used it in the paper. And hers are better because she went all digital humanities and make them interactive and stuff! Amanda Shendruk is my fucking hero!

Seriously, I even bookmarked her article because I may end up referring to it in the dissertation.

Anyway, on the specifics of what she’s saying, I think its fascinating. She figures out the exact percentage of gendering names overall in the Comic Vine database and then discovers the percentage difference between certain gendered terms: 5.7% of female-gendered-named characters have “woman” in their name compared to 30% of male-gendered-names characters with “man.” 12.6% of female-gendered-named characters have “girl” in the name compared to 5.1% of male-gendered-named characters with “boy.”

She even has some random anecdotal data that surprises me. Like, in DC and Marvel, 62.4% of male characters and 62.8% of female characters have powers. Somehow I expected it to be less. It might be skewed slightly by supporting and non-superpowered characters being less likely to be represented in the fan-contributed database. For instance, there are pages for characters like Lois Lane and Mary Jane, but most of the characters from Patsy Walker don’t have pages, unless they also appeared later in Hellcat and all four issues of the original Night Nurse list only one character “Night Nurse” as being in the book, despite the fact that there were actually three protagonists and a wealth of other supporting characters. Still, the fact that these characters are ignored by the contributing fans, probably says as much about the points Shendruk is making as anything else and it’s probably worth continued study. I’m also interested in what the overall percentages are from her data (how likely is a female character to be gender-named at all, vs. a male character) and I’m interested in the regression of likelihood of gendered powers and naming to intermix. Seriously, how is this woman not doing a PhD right now? She should at least be at PCA next year.

All of this makes me really want to get on the podcast idea I had a while back and that I keep discussing with Wayne Wise. I want there to be a show that has a rotating panel consisting of both pop culture scholars and opinionated fans. Every week there would be a different topic of something in popular media (say the Wonder Woman movie, or the Game of Thrones TV show, or any number of new books, comics, music, or video games…  or even just something like say the Super Bowl). Then two academic types and two fans would each write four short critical articles about the media/text and post them to the podcasts blog for each other to read over, as well as solicit audience opinions. This wouldn’t necessarily be just “this is good” or “this is bad” critiques, thought those are ok. I’m actually more interested in analytical articles like I often do with my reviews, or even as in-depth as what Shendruk has here. And at the end of the week, there’d be a show with a roundtable discussion by those four panelists where they address each others thoughts and maybe even audience comments.

Also, I’d probably be drinking during it.

If we ever did that, Shendruk is exactly the kind of person I’d want to invite to be a panelist for a week. The problem is that both Wayne and I are entirely too lazy to have gotten this together. Maybe someday.

Anyway, I’m interested in both people’s thoughts on her article and whether or not you think the podcast idea would be good. Thoughts?

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSaveSaveSave

SaveSave

Amy Fiore Garrison, Tracy Di Marco White, Wayne Wise, Michael Strauss liked this post

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=1449198322001470"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, "script", "facebook-jssdk"));

Princess Agile Girl and Mr. Strength Man was originally published on ChrisMaverick dotcom

[ashleyenst1000]

Intro ENST Final Exam

Ashley Morales

Extinction and Human Activity (10/21/20)

This week’s readings covered extinction and preservation of forests and grasslands. Extinction is natural, but sometimes the rate increases sharply. The background extinction rate is the natural rate of extinction that happens all the time. In fact, most species that have ever existed have gone extinct. However, a mass extinction is at a much more rapid rate than normal, with the causes being poorly understood, but usually having to do with “changes in global environmental condition” (Miller and Spoolman 176, 2021). Recovery from a mass extinction takes 5 to 10 million years, but it allows space for new life to emerge, and at some point the biodiversity returns to or exceeds the earlier levels. 

Extinction rates are higher currently because of us: we are creating changes in the global environment with increased greenhouse gas emissions leading to rises in global temperature, ocean acidification, and habitat loss. We should not be able to “play God” and decide which species live and die because of our own actions. We are becoming responsible for a potential mass extinction event in which we are allowing species to die off rapidly because we are destroying their habitats and limiting their ways of life. Other species have as much of a right to be here as us, not only because we rely on the delicate balance of ecosystems, but because a species’ existence should not rely on its usefulness to humans. 

A species is endangered when there are so few individuals that it is likely to go extinct. A species is threatened when there are enough individuals to survive the short term, but the species is likely to go extinct in the future. Factors that contribute to likelihood of extinction are: low reproductive rate, specialized niche, feeding at high trophic levels, and fixed migratory patterns among other things. However, if species will just regenerate, then why should we care if our lifestyle speeds up extinction? Well, species provide vital ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling and economic services that we rely on such as food crops, medicinal plants, and ecotourism. Additionally, yes species will regenerate, but as previously mentioned it will take anywhere from 5 to 10 million years to replace the damage. Finally, we have to contend with the ethical dilemma of knowingly killing off species with our actions when we could have prevented or at least prolonged said extinction.

“Biodiversity researchers summarize the most important direct causes of species extinction and threats to ecosystem services using the acronym HIPPCO: Habitat destruction, degradation, and fragmentation; Invasive (nonnative) species; Population growth and increasing use of resources; Pollution; Climate change; Overexploitation” (Miller and Spoolman 181, 2021). Invasive species, whether introduced accidentally or on purpose, can take root and disrupt the natural ecosystems of those areas. The issue is not hopeless, as only 1 of every 100 nonnative species is able to be harmful to an area, but when harm does occur removal is expensive and time consuming. Population growth, increased resource use, and pollution are other causes of extinction. Bioaccumulation is accumulation of a chemical in the fatty tissue and biomagnification is when  a chemical works up the food chain and becomes concentrated in the fatty tissue of higher level organisms specifically. Both of these processes are results of increased chemical use by humans.  Additionally, illegally killing and selling animals for monetary profit contributes to endangerment, especially for bigger animals such as rhinos and tigers. In fact, “four of the five rhino species, including the northern white rhino, are critically endangered, mostly because so many have been illegally killed for their valuable horns” (Miller and Spoolman 190, 2021).

The US Endangered species act is among the many laws worldwide to attempt to protect these species, along with protection measures such as wildlife refuges, protected wildlife areas, zoos, seed banks, and botanical gardens. For example, Costa rica houses a lot of earth’s biodiversity, an estimated 500,000 different species, and it has become a leader in preservation of biodiversity by establishing a system of nature preserves and natural parks

Individual species are not the only things at risk due to human activity. Our actions are also threatening entire ecosystems such as forests and grasslands. Forests provide valuable ecosystem services like the absorption of CO2 and economic services like providing raw materials. Forest plants also provide the blueprints or ingredients for medicine. Old growth forests have remained relatively undisturbed by humans for 200 years or more. By contrast, second growth forests are results of ecological succession from large-scale removal by humans or natural forces.

Natural forests are homes of biodiversity. However, tree farms or commercial forests are forests that replace old or second growth forests, and “are usually harvested by clear-cutting as soon as they become commercially valuable” (Miller and Spoolman 204, 2021). Trees are then replanted and cleared cyclically, and farms could be sustainably used to feed the demand for wood products while protecting other forests. There are a few main ways to harvest these trees once they reach the point to be harvested. The first is clear cutting, which is by far the most harmful method. It is the act of completely clearing an area of forest. The second method is selective cutting, which is much more sustainable, and is the cutting of intermediate to mature trees in small groups and leaving the majority of the forest intact to produce more trees with little disruption to the ecosystem. The third method is a variation of strip cutting, which involves clearing only a strip of the forest and leaving the rest. This method is the happy medium between efficiency and sustainability because it spends less time choosing trees but also has less of an impact on the ecosystems than clear cutting. 

Grasslands, in addition to forests, take up a significant portion of land and are the most intensely altered by human activity. We use grasslands for farming, and an issue that arises especially with a population increase and therefore an increase in grassland use. This can lead to overgrazing which is damaging to grassland ecosystems. “Managing rangelands more sustainably and preventing overgrazing typically involves controlling how many animals are allowed to graze in a given area and for how long” (Miller and Spoolman 218, 2021). Rotational grazing is a method that prevents overgrazing in one area and controls unwanted vegetation by frequently rotating the animals that graze in a given area. 

Methods to combat the unsustainable degradation of ecosystems include reforestation, designation of protected forest areas, adaptive management, and ecosystem restoration. Reforestation is “the replanting of forests, especially on degraded and abandoned land” (Miller and Spoolman 216, 2021), adaptive management is harvesting forests using available knowledge and modifying as needed to increase sustainability, and ecosystem restoration is an attempt to reverse damage to an ecosystem and can involve removing dams and invasive species among other things. 

These restoration methods do have an emphasis on the land itself, but being that every aspect of nature is interconnected, the restoration and protection of ecosystems such as forests and grasslands contributes to protection of species and maintenance of biodiversity as a whole. Our actions have sped up the extinction process and the loss of biodiversity, but we can also attempt to fix it through the aforementioned methods. It is important that we start acknowledging our responsibility to the earth and to other species by not making survival any harder with our lifestyles. Whether a species dies off should not be our decision to make. 

Word Count:1236

Blog Question: I remember learning about endangered and extinct species as a small child, and feeling like it was a very pressing issue that I couldn’t do anything about. However, as I grew up the issue was addressed much less. Why put pressure on learning about endangerment and extinction if it is never readdressed? And why put that on a child, when the main culprits are large companies and all the child can do is reduce consumption, and maybe not even that seeing as they are a child in a family who usually has little decision making power?

Bibliography: 

Miller, G. Tyler, and Scott E. Spoolman. 2021. Living in the Environment.

Shendruk, Amanda. 2015. “Infographic: Charting the world's sixth mass extinction.” Maclean's. https://www.macleans.ca/society/science/infographic-charting-the-worlds-sixth-mass-exinction/.

________________________________________________________________

Food Production and Aquatic Resources (10/27/20)

This week’s readings covered food production, scarcity, and water resources and biodiversity. Much of the world experiences food scarcity, where they do not have access to enough access to safe and nutritious food to live an active and healthy lifestyle. Malnutrition, or lack of necessary proteins, vitamins and nutrients, can cause many health problems and hurt the development of children. Food insecurity is mainly caused by poverty, because through poverty people do not have enough money to purchase or grow their own food. Other social issues such as war and environmental issues such as drought also play a factor in food insecurity, intensifying in already poor and food-scarce areas. The ways in which we produce food also influence access to food, and influence environmental issues which may then cycle back and affect production of other types of food. Industrial farming is a major culprit of a lot of problems regarding food production and environmental hazards. In general, we need to decrease our reliance on industrial farming, chemicals, and livestock and start investing more in sustainable agriculture and fishing. Governments need to support this investment, as well as an investment in programs to reduce poverty and increase food security.

There are three major types of farming. Subsistence or traditional farming is farming in a way that uses few to no pesticides or heavy machinery. It relies on human labor and is often seen in smaller farms and in less developed countries. Many traditional farms focus on polyculture, which is the practice of growing many different crops at the same time. Polyculture is beneficial because different crops with different maturity times can provide food throughout a whole year, and different root systems prevent soil erosion and require less fertilizer and water due to the plants’ efficient use of resources. 

Industrial farming is a method common in the United States, and it is defined by the use of synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, heavy machinery, large amounts of energy use and emissions. While industrial agriculture does tend to produce a high yield, it does so at the cost of the environment. Industrial agriculture is known to cause high levels of pollution, especially of water. Industrial agriculture relies on monoculture, which is the practice of planting only one crop across miles, and this reduces biodiversity and in turn leads to increased use of synthetic chemicals. These synthetic chemicals can leach into groundwater and pollute said water. Industrial farming is also characterized by the use of antibiotics and growth hormones in the raising of livestock, and these animals are usually kept in crowded cages. Due to a worldwide increase in meat consumption, animal waste as a pollutant increases. “According to the USDA, animal waste produced by the American meat industry amounts to about 67 times the amount of waste produced by the country’s human population. Ideally, manure… should be returned to the soil as a nutrient-rich fertilizer in keeping with the chemical cycling principle of sustainability. However, it is often so contaminated with residues of antibiotics and pesticides that it is unfit for use as a fertilizer” (Miller and Spoolman 279, 2021). In addition to the synthetic chemicals in the animal waste, it also has high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus, which can contaminate water and lead to the death of marine life due to the excess of nutrients. Another waste product from livestock is methane, which is a very potent greenhouse gas.

The third method of farming is organic farming, which avoids the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, instead opting for a more sustainable approach to farming. Animals are raised on 100% organic feed and without antibiotics. Moving towards sustainable food production would involve making a few changes to the way that we farm. For example, no till farming would reduce soil erosion, and crop rotation, which is when “a farmer plants a series of different crops in the same area from season to season” (Miller and Spoolman 288, 2021), would decrease a need for pesticides because of the variety of crops. Hydroponics is the growth of food in water, avoiding soil at all, and would also reduce the need of pesticides and fertilizers, and through this, would reduce pollution. Finally, the expansion of organic agriculture as a whole would be a good decision for many countries, because organic agriculture builds soil, reduces emissions, is more weed tolerant and matches conventional/industrial yields.

Another source of our food is the oceans. According to the textbook, “about 42% of the world’s people get 15–20% of their animal protein and essential nutrition from seafood” (Miller and Spoolman 233, 2021). However, overfishing and climate change threaten aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity. Our activities degrade ecosystems and habitats, endangering marine life in coastal wetlands, mangrove forests, and coral reefs. Anthropogenic climate change and global warming leads to the warming and acidification of the ocean, and therefore the bleaching and death of coral reefs. In addition to food, marine ecosystems provide economic benefits such as fishing related jobs, health benefits such as nutrients from seafood. The oceans also provide ecological benefits such as generating oxygen, and absorbing carbon dioxide and heat. “Oceans generate 50-70% of the oxygen we breathe, mostly from the phytoplankton floating on or near the ocean surface” (Miller and Spoolman 233, 2021). Because of this, it is integral to monitor damage to marine ecosystems and make sure our effect on them is more positive than negative.

A potential method for sustainable use of fisheries is “open-ocean aquaculture, which involves raising large carnivorous fish in large underwater pens—some as large as a high school gymnasium. They are located far offshore where rapid currents can sweep away fish wastes and dilute them. Some farmed fish can escape from such operations and breed with wild fish, and this approach is costly. However, the environmental impact of raising fish offshore is smaller than that of raising fish near shore and much smaller than that of industrialized commercial fishing” (Miller and Spoolman 290, 2021). Passing and enforcing laws as well as establishing marine sanctuaries and marine reserves are other methods of marine ecosystem protection. 

Government action can be used to both incentivize sustainable farming while reducing food insecurity. Government subsidies such as tax breaks and financial support to organic farms can increase the practice of organic farming which would reduce pollution and harmful environmental effects, while also increasing food production in general. Government programs can also be implemented to reduce poverty, which is a main cause of food insecurity. A final way to reduce food insecurity is to reduce our  consumption of meat in general. According to figure 12.2 in the textbook, “20,000 kilocalories of grain provide 2,000 kilocalories each for 10 people, [while] 20,000 kilocalories of grain provide enough food for a beef steer to provide 2,000 kilocalories for 1 person”  (Miller and Spoolman 262, 2021). If we diversified the plants we grew, we could provide nutrients for many more people than meat could. Additionally, replacing a significant portion of livestock with vegetation would take up less land and prevent further ecosystem destruction.

Word count: 1162

Blog question: If organic agriculture often results in an equivalent yield to industrial agriculture, what would it take for developed countries like the United States to completely switch over to organic farming and sustainable methods?

Bibliography:

Miller, G. Tyler, and Scott E. Spoolman. 2021. Living in the Environment.

Monbiot, George. 2015. “There’s a population crisis all right. But probably not the one you think.” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/19/population-crisis-farm-animals-laying-waste-to-planet.

________________________________________________________________

The Importance of Soil and the Harm of Animal Agriculture (11/4/20)

Since we entered the Neolithic era, farming has been integral to societal food production. Farming relies on the soil beneath us, and its quality and fertility determines our production in terms of quantity per year and longevity. Soil, as well as the microorganisms that live within it, regulate how much food we produce, as well as how much longer we will be able to produce on that land. We can make changes to our methods to increase that longevity and produce food sustainably, while also potentially even improving soil itself. Organic farming and the use of compost methods over synthetic fertilizers are important changes that need to be made to improve and sustain food production. 

In terms of sustainability, something we absolutely do need to change is mass animal agriculture. Livestock farming is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and resource use. Considering the fact that we are already predicted to overshoot safe levels of greenhouse gas emissions and global temperature rise. This overshoot is largely because of the raising of livestock. Livestock also produce a myriad of other issues that make the continuation of raising it unsustainable in the current societal climate, especially if nothing is done, since meat consumption is only predicted to rise in the coming years.  

Focusing on soil first, the basic building blocks of soil are rocks, which break down and release minerals and nitrogen and phosphorus become available for plants to use. 70-75% of soils formed through transportation, and the rest are formed through stationary means. Prairie soils (which the US contains in abundance) are the most productive, rather than forests, because for forests the most of the nutrients is in the organic plants, but in the prairies the root systems help productivity. Finally, around 40%  of US soils are the two best types, which are alfisols and mollisols. This soil can change however, through the impact of tremendous rainfall, especially in Hawaii as shown in the “Symphony of Soil”, and this leads to erosion and loss of nutrients. The impact of the weathering of the soil is an increase in clays, and that limits the ability of water to flow through the soil. How would it flow through the soil? Well soil in composition is only 50% solid, with the other half being empty space, and within these spaces, living organisms thrive and nutrients flow and drive the functions of the whole ecosystem. Some of these organisms are bacteria and fungi, which plant roots actually feed through exudates in exchange for protection through fungal growth around said roots (Koons, 2013).

Minerals and nutrients are a crucial aspect of good soil. According to the documentary, “phosphorus is a nutrient that can only be found in rocks,” (Koons, 2013) and the only ways we can access it are through mining it or through the decomposition work of fungi. Nitrogen is important but not easy to come by: 70% of the atmosphere is nitrogen, but it is stable and it is hard to activate and turn into a usable form. Bacteria are able to take the nitrogen from the air and turn it into its useful form, and because of this, the plants develop a relationship with these bacteria where the plant can grow and the bacteria can perform nitrogen fixation. Nitrogen has historically been a limiting factor to productivity in farming because of its elusive nature, but this has been altered through the use of chemical fertilizers.

Composting has been presented as a more sustainable alternative to synthetic chemical fertilizers, as it is made from completely natural materials and relies on the natural decomposition process. Harvesting crops removes nutrients from the soil in the form of the plants being harvested, so in order to keep the soil healthy and balanced, nutrients have to be added back. This can be done through composting. Compost usually comprised of 50% carbon whose quantity is usually satisfied through straw, 25% green plant matter and 25% dung. Compost fertilizer is cheaper, and just as productive as conventional agriculture with the added benefit of improving the soil through its implementation.

The implementation of compost also combats the harmful effects of synthetic fertilizers. Synthetic chemical fertilizers are high in nitrogen and phosphorus, and their use results in weaker soil and increased runoff. The runoff takes a decent amount of the fertilizers with it, and over time that pollutes larger water sources and leads to eutrophication. Eutrophication is when there is excess nutrients in a body of water, which leads to algae blooms and increased decomposition, using a large amount of oxygen and essentially suffocating the life in that body of water. This causes what are known as “dead zones,” or areas with significantly high levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and algae and little to no fish or other organisms. One of the largest dead zones is located in the Gulf of Mexico. It should also be said that the key chemicals for eutrophication are found in high quantities in livestock manure, and in fact, raising animals is a leading cause of ocean dead zones (Anderson and Kuhn, 2014).

Other issues caused or exacerbated by animal agriculture are water use, greenhouse gas emissions, and deforestation. According to “Cowspiracy”, animal agriculture is incredibly water intensive, taking up 55% of water consumed in the US as opposed to the domestic use of 5%. In terms of greenhouse gas emissions, the meat and dairy industry emits more greenhouse gas emissions than all cars, trucks, trains, boats, and planes combined (the entire transportation industry). Additionally, “animal agriculture produces 65% of the world’s nitrous oxide, a gas with a global warming potential 296 times greater than CO2 per pound” (Anderson and Kuhn, 2014). Finally, the raising of animals for food takes up around 45% of the earth’s land, and is responsible for 91% of the loss of the Amazon rainforest. 

These changes seem so straightforward: replace synthetic fertilizer with compost because it is better for the soil with few if any drawbacks and greatly reduce animal farming and meat consumption because it is better for the environment as a whole. However, the issue is in the institutions that hold the power to direct change. In terms of fertilizer, large corporations hold a lot of power, with large legal teams and governmental backing. There are even seeds genetically modified to be paired with certain fertilizers, and farmers are pressured to use them. The meat industry is more intense, due to the sheer power of the industry itself and the fear of those opposing it. As seen in “Cowspiracy”, even larger environmental entities do not acknowledge damage caused by animal agriculture, because they are membership based organizations and fear backlash if they ask citizens to make a substantial change in their own lives such as reducing or eliminating meat consumption, as helpful as it would be.

Word Count: 1136

Blog Question: Is individual action enough to combat these issues (such as buying organic produce or reducing meat consumption)?

Bibliography:

Cowspiracy, directed by Kip Anderson and Keegan Kuhn (2014; Los Angeles, CA: Appian Way Productions), Netflix.

Oberfield, Cari. 2018. “Organic Fertilizer Or Synthetic: What’s The Difference?” Renergy. https://renergy.com/organic-fertilizer-vs-synthetic/.

Symphony of Soil, directed by Deborah Koons (2013; USA) Youtube.

________________________________________________________________

Human Health Risk and Waste (11/10/20)

This week’s readings and media covered hazards both internal and external. Chapter seventeen of the textbook outlined risk assessment and different types of hazards to human health, while chapter twenty-one covered the waste societies produce and the ways in which it can affect us. A few things are clear between both chapters: we as a culture need to use fewer toxic chemicals. We need to find ways to protect our people from the risks created by industry and we need to find a way to manage and reduce waste also created by industry. 

Primarily, risk is the probability of harm resulting in injury, disease, death, economic loss, or damage. The types of hazards include biological hazards such as bacteria or pathogens, different types of harmful chemicals, natural hazards such as hurricanes, cultural hazards such as unsafe working conditions and lifestyle choices such as smoking. In terms of biological hazards, they often come in the form of infectious diseases, which are caused by bacteria, viruses, or parasites. The two main camps of diseases are transmissible and non-transmissible. A transmissible disease can be spread from one person to another through food, water, air, bodily fluids, or insects, (examples include tuberculosis and the flu). Non-transmissible diseases are caused by something other than a living organism and cannot be transmitted from person to person, such as heart disease. Transmissible diseases can lead to epidemics and pandemics that have large scale effects, such as AIDS and COVID-19. 

Another factor that affects public health is bacterial resistance. Many bacteria have now evolved genetic immunity to common antibiotics and are known as super bacteria. Yet an additional factor that affects the spread of disease is climate change, because “warmer temperatures will likely allow some infectious diseases—especially those spread by mosquitoes and ticks that breed more rapidly in warmer climates—to spread to and thrive in formerly cooler parts of the world” (Miller and Spoolman 410, 2021). Examples of these types of diseases are malaria and west nile virus, which already wreak havoc on warmer areas and may increase their range.

Diseases caused by viruses such as the flu are not affected by antibiotics, with the top viral killers being the flu, HIV, and hepatitis B. Reducing poverty, improving drinking water quality, and reducing unnecessary use of antibiotics both in humans and on livestock have been cited by the World Health Organization as methods to reduce infectious disease spread. 

Bacterial and viral diseases are not the only threats to public health. Toxic chemicals cause temporary or permanent harm to humans, and sometimes even death. These chemicals come in three main forms: carcinogens that cause or promote cancer, mutagens that cause or increase frequency of potentially harmful genetic mutations, and teratogens that cause harm to fetus/embryos or birth defects. These chemicals can affect the nervous system, the immune system, or the endocrine system. Endocrine disruptors or hormonally active agents affect the human endocrine system and cause hormonal issues and imbalances, and these are unfortunately quite commonly used in the forms of herbicides or phthalates. Ways to avoid these endocrine disrupting chemicals include sticking to organic meats and produce and using natural cleaning products, shower curtains, air fresheners, and other products. It is also helpful to avoid BPA, which is a controversial chemical known to leach into water through bottles but whose effects are understudied. 

Risk analysis/management is a practice that identifies and researches hazards and uses evaluation and ranking to try to eliminate risk. Research is limited about the effects of toxic chemicals because use is restricted and there are ethical concerns with research and exposure but experiments involve testing on other organisms, usually rats and mice, and determine the effects of different doses in order to estimate the effects on humans. 

Shifting to a broader perspective, as much as societies have biological and chemical health problems, they also have waste problems that can also have effects on human health and quality of life as well as the larger environment. Humans have essentially created the concept of waste: in nature, everything is used and recycled, if not by one organism then by another. We have created unusable waste, especially solid waste that can be categorized into two groups: “The first is industrial solid waste produced by mines, farms, and industries that supply us with goods and services. The second is municipal solid waste (MSW), often called garbage or trash. It consists of the combined solid wastes produced by homes and workplaces other than factories. Examples of MSW include paper, cardboard, food wastes, cans, bottles, yard wastes, furniture, plastics, glass, wood, and electronics or e-waste” (Miller and Spoolman 538, 2021). Industrial waste makes up a large percentage of total waste created, and municipal waste comes from a lot of everyday items that we have learned to rely on due to their convenience, but can indeed be switched out for less wasteful alternatives, as our MSW has increased over the years.

MSW Generation Rates, 1960-2013

We handle waste in a few ways. Waste management has historically been the most widely used method, which is focused on controlling waste and reducing their environmental harm and involves burning, burying, or shipping waste to another location. Waste reduction is a newer approach that focuses on producing less total solid waste and reusing, recycling, and composting to extend the lives of products. Integrated waste management is a transitional mix of the two, because waste reduction is preferable but won’t happen overnight but we cannot go on just using waste management. There are four “Rs” of waste reduction: refusal, reducing, reusing, and recycling. The first three Rs are preferable because they are preventative rather than dealing with the problem after it has already arisen. Methods of reducing waste include redesigning products meant to be reused or repaired, and reducing or eliminating the use of harmful chemicals in the industrial sector. 

As far as harmful chemicals go, toxic waste is a growing issue in developed countries. Toxic chemicals and radioactive waste need to be handled very carefully and managed differently from normal waste. A common practice in the US is the storage and burial of nuclear waste, which has generally worked so far, but always runs the risk of leaking. Government money can always be used as an incentive for environmental change. Subsidies and tax breaks on recycled/reusable items and manufacturing processes with reduced chemical use can be a strong motivator for companies and consumers. 

When discussing hazards, waste, and toxic chemicals it is important to note that unfortunately they do not affect all people equally. Those who usually bear the brunt of health conditions related to exposure to hazards are people of color and those who live in lower income communities. Grassroots movements that develop from these communities are integral in creating change and can put pressure on larger organizations and governmental powers. In general, there needs to be better management of systemic problems that can have adverse, large scale and long term consequences on humans. 

Word Count: 1156

Blog Question: How can we better protect large scale populations from biological hazards, such as the coronavirus pandemic?

Bibliography: 

Miller, G. Tyler, and Scott E. Spoolman. 2021. Living in the Environment.

United States Environmental Protection Agency. 2016. “Municipal Solid Waste.” EPA's Web Archive. https://archive.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/web/html/.

________________________________________________________________

Water Resources and Pollution (11/18/20)

This week’s resources covered water resources, management, pollution, and solutions. We are mismanaging water resources, and this is becoming an increasingly obvious fact. The mismanagement becomes worse when we realize that most of earth’s water is not even accessible to us, as most of it is saltwater and the rest is either in glaciers or underground. This lack of initial access, coupled with the fact that society habitually pollutes existing water resources, means that we are moving rapidly towards water crises if no immediate changes are made. Freshwater shortages will grow and become crises because of overuse and wasteful water use and aquifer depletion and overpumping. There are ways to increase freshwater supplies and recover from pollution, but in order for that to happen the harmful societal behavior needs to stop immediately. It makes little sense to try to remedy the problem while simultaneously worsening it, as it would be like attempting to walk up an escalator that is going down. You need to stop the escalator if you actually want to get to the top. 

“Water pollution is any change in water quality that can harm living organisms or make the water unfit for human uses such as drinking, irrigation, and recreation.” Point source water pollution occurs when the issue comes from one specific point, while nonpoint source pollution means that there is no specific source for the pollution. The leading cause of pollution is shown to be agricultural activities, with the main pollutants being eroded sediment, fertilizers, pesticides, and bacterias/antibiotics. Other major sources of water pollution are industrial facilities, mining, and untreated sewage water. Plastics are also a major source of water pollution, from bottles and other products. Plastic as a pollutant is a growing issue because it is being used much more commonly, and it does not break down for at least 1000 years, so every piece of plastic that has ever been created is still here on planet earth. Microplastics contaminate bodies of water and harm the wildlife within that water, and under sunlight and through the consistent motion of ocean waves, larger pieces of plastic break into microplastics and stay that way. 

Another source of water pollution is bacteria and pathogens that get into water from billions of people who don’t have access to toilets and waste disposal/sanitation, which can pollute drinking water and spread illness: “The WHO estimates that each year, more than 1.6 million people die from largely preventable waterborne infectious diseases that they get by drinking contaminated water or by not having enough water to keep clean” (Miller and Spoolman, 2021). Other major sources of water pollution are industry and industrial waste, as well as chemicals. 

This pollution is increasingly dangerous because water use is increasing, with people’s water footprints (the amount of water they use) being much more than they used to be in the past. Because of this, freshwater shortages will grow and become crises, and in the future we may begin to see wars over resources such as fresh water. We are beginning to see the effects of issues such as aquifer depletion and overpumping. There are ways to increase freshwater supplies, mainly utilizing dams and desalination. However, one of the underlying causes of freshwater overuse is the fact that water is not priced at full cost. The charge for wasting freshwater does not reflect the ecological loss. Additionally, irrigation in the agricultural sector is inefficient, which contributes even more greatly to the loss of water, and as water is not priced as it should be, people are not incentivized to change the systems in order to conserve water. 

Rivers and streams can generally recover from mild amounts of pollution due to the fact that they flow, but damming, drought, or diversion reduce this ability, as well as being simply overloaded by pollution, specifically “Wastewater is water that contains sewage, other wastes, or polluting chemicals from homes and industries” (Miller and Spoolman, 2021). Water pollution, the death of wildlife, and the contamination of drinking water is not reserved from underdeveloped countries, it is plenty present in the US. Causes are often the release (accidental or deliberate) of chemicals by industries and mining operations. In fact, “the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) esti-mates that mining wastes pollute 40% of the headwaters of western watersheds and that cleaning up the estimated 500,000 inactive and abandoned mines found throughout much of the western United States will cost taxpayers at least $50 billion” (Miller and Spoolman, 2021). It is more expensive to clean up the waste than to prevent it in the first place, but since these mines already exist and are causing pollution while inactive it is integral that they are cleaned up. Hurricanes can also lead to water pollution, such as in North Carolina, where hog waste was stored in open air containers, which was spread in 2018 when hurricane florence flooded the containers, contaminating waterways and groundwater.

Lakes and reservoirs are less effective than rivers/streams at diluting pollutants because of layers that don’t mix, and they don’t flow. Because of this, polluted runoff affects these lakes and reservoirs harder than flowing bodies of water. Lakes and reservoirs are susceptible to eutrophication, which “is natural nutrient enrichment of a shal-low lake, a coastal area at the mouth of a river… or a slow-moving stream. It is caused mostly by runoff of plant nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates from land bordering such bodies of water” (Miller and Spoolman, 2021). Human agricultural and urban activities contribute to the increased nutrients in runoff, which end up in larger bodies of water.

Pollution of aquifers and groundwater are particularly integral to human health because these sources provide drinking water to much of America. Common pollutants include fertilizers, pesticides, gasoline, and oil. New methods of drilling for oil and natural gas (fracking/ hydraulic fracturing) are new threats to groundwater due to leaky pipes and contaminated wastewater. Groundwater cannot cleanse itself very well due to slow flow, the fact that it is stored between rocks and soil, and the lack of dissolved oxygen to break down pollutants.

Water pollution has no benefits, and no winners. Water pollution affects everyone because we all rely on it as a natural resource. Systems need to be put in place to incentivize us to conserve water and to end pollution from industrial waste and chemicals. In all of the aforementioned pollution situations, reversal and cleanup is much more expensive than preventative action, so that is the route we have to take in order to continue utilizing water resources.

Word Count: 1094

Bibliography:

Miller, G. Tyler, and Scott E. Spoolman. 2021. Living in the Environment.

United States Environmental Protection Agency. 2018. “How We Use Water.” EPA. https://www.epa.gov/watersense/how-we-use-water.

________________________________________________________________

COVID-19 and Climate Change (12/2/20)

In late 2019 and early 2020, a deadly virus swept through China wreaked havoc, and then made its way around the world. It reached the United States in late February, and by mid-March we were in a state of emergency. In “Corona, Climate, and Chronic Emergency,” the author analyzes the difference between the way that countries, specifically the United States, handled coronavirus versus the way climate change has been (or rather, has not been) addressed. 

The virus we know as COVID-19 originally infected bats. Bats made the perfect hosts, because they are social animals that gather in crowds allowing the virus to spread, they fly long distances allowing the virus to travel geographically, and bats have body temperatures that are naturally quite high due to the energy they exert while flying, and inhabiting bats allows the virus to become comfortable in a higher body temperature and become more resistant to human fever temperatures. The virus moved from bats, to an amplifier species (in this case, civets in a chinese market) to humans in a process known as zoonotic spillover. One proposal to handle this zoonotic spillover has been to continue deforestation and essentially just pave over the wild. In theory, this makes a bit of sense, as eliminating the area in which the pathogen thrives would hopefully eliminate the pathogen. However, this process is actually counterintuitive. This is because forests and biodiversity actually buffer us from pathogens. Biodiversity allows for the pathogens to pass between suitable and unsuitable hosts, as opposed to passing directly to humans.

An overarching question of this reading was why is there a disparity between the way governments handled coronavirus versus the way they have handled climate change. Coronavirus was addressed almost immediately, whereas climate scientists have been urging for action for decades with little response. Coronavirus got the capitalist gears of the world to stop turning for the first time ever. Businesses divided into essential and nonessential, companies closed, production halted, and factory machinery converted to make essential items like PPE and ventilators. Other effects included the halting of commercial flight and recreational sporting events and the slowing of fossil fuel production. Due to the dip in the fossil fuel economy, emissions released into the atmosphere plummeted, and the environment effects were visible, such as a reduction in smog in traditionally polluted cities, some waterways clearing and animal species returning (such as dolphins returning to Venice, Italy), and a drastic reduction in noise pollution in big cities such as New York. 

In order to attack the issue of the virus, the governments used wartime rhetoric, discussing an invisible enemy and ordering the production of ventilators as ammunition. The US government waged a war on an invisible enemy, and while the efficiency of the action taken can be greatly criticized, it still stands to mention that there was a bare minimum awareness of coronavirus and action against it, especially before it was politicized. So why was it addressed with more force than climate change, which is arguably the more destructive force? Especially since the steps we as a society would need to take in order to address climate change would not change our lives nearly as much as those needed for coronavirus. Measures for climate change are attainable, as we could so easily switch to a renewable energy economy, since we absolutely have the money and resources to do so. Even before coronavirus we were at war with an invisible enemy: global warming, which is estimated to kill at least 150,000 people a year and whose effect we could very easily lessen. Climate mitigation would not cause a substantial shift to our lives, and it might actually lead to improvements. It wouldn’t force us to stay locked in our homes like the pandemic has, and in fact it would encourage us as a society to go visit people, spend time with loved ones and spend money on experiences rather than products (which would reduce consumerism, pollution, and large scale emissions issues from production).

This still begs the question, why did the response differ? Why did the government immediately militarize against the pandemic but not climate change? Some theories were presented in the book, such as the idea that coronavirus presents more of a threat to human life. However, that has been debunked, due to the fact that the effects from global warming are more likely to wipe out humanity than covid. We can recover from the virus, as it affects everyone differently and even if it reaches bubonic plague levels, it will not wipe out humanity. On the other hand, we can’t “recover” from climate change.

The disconnect in response does have something to do with demographic, and can be best explained by the fact that covid hit the wealthy global north first, rather than the global south, as opposed to global warming, which will affect the rich last and poorer coastal areas, islands, and the global south first. We (the United States) did something about coronavirus because it “was our people dying” -- “our people” being wealthy mostly white people in “developed” countries. Think about all the times we just let things happen in the global south, we would have let covid rage on and not have done anything to protect ourselves because we thought it ‘wasn't our problem.’ We see ourselves as so disconnected from the global south that we don’t think that anything that happens there (in terms of effects from climate change such as drought or famine) could ever affect us.

Environmental destruction, the fossil fuel economy, and capitalism exacerbated the spread and efficiency of the virus, and disparity in its effects highlighted social inequalities. Deforestation is directly related to zoonotic spillover because of loss of buffer biodiversity. Modern deforestation is driven by capitalist interest, as people no longer cut down trees for their own subsistence. Instead, trees that are harvested in one area are shipped off to other countries for profit. Capitalism also drives biodiversity loss through the creation of luxury goods: usually as a species becomes rarer, the hunter won’t put in the effort to find it and the population can recuperate. However, now that people pay for rarity, as it helps affluent people flaunt their wealth and stand out, these species don’t stand a chance, because the hunters are now willing to make the trek for the profit. The consumption of luxury/exotic animals is not distinctly Chinese, it is a habit among higher classes that stems back ages. 

There will be more infectious diseases. We are already beginning to see them occur more frequently per year, and conditions of capitalism as well as ever-increasing globalism will increase the social disparities such as lack of access to healthcare and poor nutrition that make people more susceptible to diseases. A large-scale restructuring of society is in order if we are to address not only the climate disaster that could wipe us out if left uncontrolled, but the related infectious diseases and societal injustices. 

Words: 1163

Blog Question: It is evident that we need to address climate and societal issues in order to prevent another pandemic/prevent further spreading of COVID-19. With this in mind, what should be the first priority?

Bibliography:

Higgins, Tucker, Lauren Hirsch, and Lorie Konish. 2020. “Global coronavirus cases top 2.3 million as pandemic forces businesses to shift plans.” CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/18/coronavirus-live-updates.html

Malm, Andreas. 2020. Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency: War Communism in the Twenty First Century. New York, NY: Verso.

________________________________________________________________

My Role as an Environmental Stakeholder

Through the work I’ve done for this class, I have been exposed to the interconnectedness of many fields of study. I feel that this course gave me the skills to analyze any given environmental issue from philosophical, social, political, economic, and scientific perspectives, which is valuable when looking for causes and solutions for certain problems. My environmental worldview has remained quite consistently earth-centric, acknowledging our place in the ecosystem as equal and not above other living things. However, I have realized our sheer power for change, both negative and positive. While I feel that we should not overstep and destroy habitats for our own gain, we already have, and now it is our job to use our power and influence to reduce our power and influence. 

[theavc]

Data analysis of 34,476 comic book characters reveals they’re sexist as hell

With the smash success of Wonder Woman and the casting of Jodie Whittaker as the new Doctor Who, it seems an effort is being made by the frontrunners in fantasy and sci-fi to allow women a spot at the top of what was traditionally a boys’ club. Need proof that the paradigm needed changing? Look no further than this study from The Pudding’s Amanda Shendruk.

[irgendwasmittext]

Superhelden - männlich gleich stark, weiblich gleich verkopft?

Vorab: An wen denkt ihr zuerst, wenn ihr das Wort „Superheld“ lest? Und welche Eigenschaften verbindet ihr mit dieser Person?

Mein erster Gedanke sah ungefähr so aus:

Extraordinäre Stärke, Verbiegen von Metall, Unverletzlichkeit – viele bringen mit dem Heldentum und diesen Eigenschaften wohl Superman in Verbindung. Er ist als erster Superheld der Comicgeschichte wohl der Superheld schlechthin. Seit seiner Erfindung und der Veröffentlichung des ersten Comics in den 1930ern, in denen er – nicht, wie ursprünglich konzipiert, ein glatzköpfiger Schurke, der die Welt an sich reißen wollte – als uns gut bekannter Unterwäsche über normaler Kleidung tragender Good Guy auftrat, blühte die Superheldenkultur nur so auf. Walt Disney, Marvel und DC veröffentlichen Comics, Filme und Merch von Superhelden – immer darauf bedacht, die Helden als mächtig, stark und überlegen darzustellen und dem Leser eine kleine Flucht aus der Realität zu gönnen. Laut Trabant dienen gerade Helden wie Superman dazu, den Menschen mit der Ungerechtigkeit und durch den Kapitalismus bedingten Entfremdung zu versöhnen (vgl. Trabant 1971, S. 260). Gut, ein weinerlicher Held wäre vermutlich auf dem Markt weder gut angekommen noch hätte er eine Vorbildfunktion erlangen können.

Im Rahmen dieses Blog-Eintrags möchte ich mir gerne ansehen, welche Eigenschaften Helden denn haben, ob es vielleicht spezifisch weibliche und spezifisch männliche Eigenschaften gibt und wie man diese im Unterricht aufgreifen könnte. Schließlich tauchen gerade vor dem Hintergrund der neuen Marvel-Filme immer mehr weibliche Helden auf den Kinoleinwänden auf. 

Wie zuletzt erst in „Black Panther“ bzw. den Avengers-Reihen von Marvel zu sehen ist, können sowohl Frauen als auch Männer Helden sein. Nehmen wir als Beispiel Shuri aus Wakanda. Sie ist die sechzehnjährige Schwester von T‘Challa, der der Black Panther und König von Wakanda ist. In ihrer Heimat verfügt Shuri über ein riesiges Labor, in dem Sie medizinische Instrumente, Kampfutensilien und allerlei andere Gerätschaften entwirft und baut. Von den Machern des MCU, des Marvel Cinematic Universe, wird sie sogar als schlauester Charakter bezeichnet. Und das, obwohl es da auch noch Tony Stark gibt – der sich seine körperliche Übermacht gegen Gegner übrigens über seine selbst konstruierten Anzüge schafft, also eigentlich auch mehr mit dem Kopf als mit den Muskeln arbeitet. Wohingegen Jessica Jones eher untypische Züge für eine weibliche Heldin zeigt: Alkohol, Schlägereien und wenig Emotionalität. Trotz allem tauchen Frauen in Comics und Superheldenfilmen deutlich weniger auf. 

Hier übrigens ein Blick in Shuris Labor: 

Amanda Shendruk, Journalistin für pudding.cool, hat zu den genderspezifischen Fähigkeiten von Superhelden Wunderbares herausgefunden. Sie hat über 34.400 Comic-Charaktere untersucht und dabei Folgendes herausgefunden:

Männer verfügen über physische Fähigkeiten wie Stärke oder Ausdauer, während Frauen eher flink und geschickt sind. Empathie, Intellekt und Telepathie werden mehr bei Frauen als bei Männern gefunden.

Grundsätzlich weisen männliche Helden eher physische Kräfte auf, während weibliche Helden ganz klar in Sachen „Geisteskraft“ vorne liegen. Empathie, Telepathie, Kontrolle von Emotionen sind Frauenbereich. 

Während 30 Prozent der untersuchten männlichen Charaktere „man“ in ihrem Namen haben, weisen 13 Prozent der weiblichen Helden die Verniedlichung „girl“ in ihrem Namen auf.

(vgl. Shendruk 2017)

Ein super Gegenbeispiel bietet übrigens Jessica Jones, die relativ viele der männlichen Merkmale aufweist. Stärke, Schnelligkeit, großes Gerechtigkeitsgefühl und ein relativ kühles Gefühlsleben. Wer mehr über Jessica Jones erfahren will, findet hier Informationen: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Jones

Meine Idee ist es, mit einer abgewandelten Form der Eingangsfrage zu beginnen und die SuS zu fragen, welche Eigenschaften für sie ein Superheld hat. Um das Ganze für die SuS etwas anregender zu erstellen, können die Ergebnisse via answergarden.ch stattfinden – oder man lässt die SuS an die Tafel kommen, je nach Präferenz.

Ich erwarte in etwa Antworten wie: Stärke, Unsterblichkeit, Schnelligkeit, bekämpft das Böse, versteckt sich hinter einer Maske, … Anschließend könnte eine „Textarbeit“ stattfinden: die SuS können entweder online nach Superheldenbildern suchen oder sich an mitgebrachten Comics bedienen und als Ergänzung in verschiedenen Wikis recherchieren. Hier bieten sich unter anderem die Wikipedia-Kategoriensuche unter https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kategorie:Superheld oder das Marvel-Wiki unter https://marvel-charaktere.fandom.com/de/wiki/Marvel_Charaktere_Wiki an.

Die konkrete Aufgabe dabei ist: herausfinden, wie Superhelden dargestellt werden und welche ihre Fähigkeiten sind. Die SuS können sich in verschiedenen Gruppen jeweils auf verschiedene Helden konzentrieren. Zu Beginn der (Doppel-)Stunde sollen die SuS Ihre Ergebnisse vorstellen und es soll in einer gemeinsamen Diskussion herausgefunden, was letztendlich einen Superhelden ausmacht und ob die SuS die Auffassungen der Comic-Darstellungen teilen.

Meinungen? Kritik? Antworten auf die ersten Fragen? Ich freue mich auf eure Kommentare 😊

 Literatur und Quellen:

Wüllner, Daniel (2013):  Achtung, Geschlechtergrenze! https://www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/comics/comicforschung-achtung-geschlechtergrenze/8019304.html (zuletzt angesehen: 17.06.2019)

Shendruk, Amanda (2017): Analyzing the Gender Representation of 34,476 Comic Book Characters. https://pudding.cool/2017/07/comics/  (zuletzt angesehen: 17.06.2019)

Trabant, Jürgen (1971): Superman – Das Image eines Comic-Helden. In: Ehmer, Hermann K. (Hrsg.): Visuelle Kommunikation. Beiträge zur Kritik der Bewußtseinsindustrie. Köln, S. 251–276.

[culturalstudiestheory]

Cultural Studies Continued...

           Cultural Studies theory concerns the media, who controls the media, and how that media influences our society. Cultural Studies assumes that if a show does not please the masses, then there is no dollar-value. If there is no dollar-value, the show will probably be canceled. Regardless of content, if the show’s not making money, corporations don’t want to air it. This becomes a problem when you consider how media influences people.

           Take a look at the growing interest in superheroes and comic book characters. Franchises like Marvel and DC have received an outpour of support since releasing their first films. And their fan base has shown continual growth in recent years. Now, their demographic targets children with cartoon spin-offs and department store toys. But the gender ratio of superheroes is skewed in favor of male heroes. Journalist Amanda Shendruk took a look at the gender ratio of 34,476 comic book characters in an article titled “Analyzing the Gender Representation”. In her analysis, she notes there are only 26.7% female characters in all Marvel and DC material (Shendruk). And less than 12% of mainstream superhero comics have female protagonists (Shendruk). Of that percentage, most of these female characters are misrepresented. Their characters endure hyper-sexualization, unnecessarily brutality, harsh stereotypes, or become token members in their own team. 70% of teams had no female members whatsoever (Shendruk). In an industry built on powerful people, the superhero business makes little effort to represent women. When marketing themselves to a younger, more impressionable generation, this becomes a problem. The misrepresentation of women has long term effects on girls.

           The misrepresentation women experience in media directly affects the self-concept they develop as girls through social comparison. Ronald Adler’s “Interplay: the Process of Interpersonal Communication” describes social comparison as “evaluating ourselves in terms of how we compare with others,” (Adler 73). The group of people that an individual compares themselves to are known by social scientists as “reference groups” (Adler 74). As an individual grows, they measure their success by monitoring how closely they compare to these groups. This is known as reflected appraisal. When the individual compares themselves to the wrong group, it may negatively impact their growth. And when the media fails to represent women, girls begin to develop a skewed reference.

           So before canceling another show like Jessica Jones or Supergirl for monetary value, corporations might consider the lasting effect media has on its viewers.

References

Adler, Ronald B., et al. Interplay: the Process of Interpersonal Communication. Oxford University Press, 2018.

Shendruk, Amanda. “Analyzing the Gender Representation of 34,476 Comic Book Characters.” The Pudding, 2018, pudding.cool/2017/07/comics/.

[richmeganews]

Vox Sentences: An executive order on executions

Vox Sentences is your daily digest for what’s happening in the world. Sign up for the Vox Sentences newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday, or view the Vox Sentences archive for past editions.

California puts a moratorium on the death penalty; a senior Catholic cleric will go to prison for child sex abuse.

A death row reprieve

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order on Wednesday to suspend the state’s death penalty. Voters may ultimately choose whether to permanently remove the death penalty, but Newsom’s move temporarily took 737 inmates off death row. [NPR / Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos]

It’s been more than a decade since the last execution in California, when an inmate opposed the lethal injection protocol in a legal case that is nearing a deadline — which Newsom sidestepped with his executive action. [CNN / Maeve Reston]

“Friends and family of the always forgotten VICTIMS are not thrilled and neither am I!” President Trump tweeted in response on Wednesday. California has the most death row inmates but has not carried out an execution since 2006. The next potential opportunity for voters to decide on the death penalty is the 2020 election, but the measure to eliminate executions has failed to pass in both the 2012 and 2016 elections. [BBC]

Support for the death penalty varies by race, too, with white voters usually supporting executions and black voters opposing the penalty. Black people also struggle to get on juries while also being more likely to go on trial. Newsom added in his decision that more than half of the inmates on death row in California are people of color. [Vox / Dylan Scott]

Newsom also argued to taxpayers that Californians paid $5 billion since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. He campaigned on a commitment to voters’ wishes, which is drawing criticism now that he’s putting his personal policies in front of what ballots have said. [Sacramento Bee / Sophia Bollag]

An Australian cardinal faces six years in prison

Cardinal George Pell of Australia was sentenced to six years in prison for child sex abuse, just weeks after the Vatican held a meeting on combating the issue within the church. Pell is the most senior cleric to be found guilty of child molestation. [NPR / Sylvia Poggioli]

Experts say the case will set a precedent for prosecutions going forward. Pell served as the Vatican’s chief financial officer and advised Pope Francis. The 77-year-old was convicted on five counts. [NYT / Livia Albeck-Ripka and Damien Cave]

The charges involve the case of two boys whom Pell sexually assaulted in the 1990s. The cardinal provided scholarships to the boys, who in exchange were required to sing at his cathedral. The judge also took into account Pell’s seeming lack of remorse (Pell pleaded not guilty and did not testify at the trial). Critics say he should have received a harsher sentence; each of the five convictions he received has a maximum 10 years in prison. [Washington Post / A. Odysseus Patrick]

The judge cited Pell’s medical history when giving the sentence, claiming he took into account the cleric’s age and “cardiac issues.” Pell will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life. The cardinal claims he is innocent and his team plans to appeal the conviction in June. [ABC / Doha Madani and Associated Press]

Pope Francis declared an “all-out battle” against child sexual abuse by clergy last month at the Vatican summit. Pell’s high position within the Catholic Church has highlighted criticism that the summit should have focused on removing clergy in power who allowed abuse to occur under their watch. [Al Jazeera / Max Walden]

Miscellaneous

All Boeing 737 Max planes in the US will be grounded immediately. President Trump gave the order on Wednesday not to fly the planes, which were involved in similar deadly crashes in Indonesia last year and Ethiopia on Sunday. Voice and data records from the most recent crash will be sent to Europe. [Washington Post / Luz Lazo, Michael Laris, Lori Aratani, and Felicia Sonmez]

Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chair, received an extended prison sentence on Wednesday. He faces seven and a half years in prison — the longest sentence for any person included in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the 2016 presidential election. Manafort was found guilty of witness tampering and lobbying crimes. [Politico / Darren Samuelsohn]

The days leading up to the March 29 Brexit deadline are sure to be full of twists and turns. Enjoy this graphic of every potential Brexit outcome. [Quartz / Amanda Shendruk]

Eat what you drop on the floor? Our immune systems are at a loss without exposure to dirt or germs. Humans have gotten so good at minimizing exposure to our environment that we risk depleting immunity strength. [NYT / Matt Richtel]

There are legal ways to gain favor in the college admissions process, through donations or school legacy. But now reports of outright law-breaking by wealthy parents across the country have tipped the scales of the broken acceptance system. [Atlantic / Alia Wong]

Verbatim

“We’re looking at some ways to revisit the law. There’s a lot of discomfort with the law. ... Was it too broad back in the ’70s when it was passed? So yeah, we’re discussing altering that.” [Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on presidential emergency powers in a press conference on Wednesday]

Watch this: Why you still don’t understand the Green New Deal

Political news coverage tends to focus on strategy over substance, and that’s making it less likely that the public will agree on big policy ideas when we need them the most. [YouTube / Carlos Maza and Madeline Marshall]

Read more

UK Parliament rejects leaving the EU without a Brexit deal

The Manafort case is a reminder that we invest too little in catching white-collar criminals

Bubba the Love Sponge, the shock radio host on the Tucker Carlson tapes, explained

The GOP’s deeply flawed paid family leave plan, explained

A “bomb cyclone” is bringing hurricane-force winds and blizzard to the Great Plains

The post Vox Sentences: An executive order on executions appeared first on .

The post Vox Sentences: An executive order on executions appeared first on .

from WordPress http://www.richmeganews.com/vox-sentences-an-executive-order-on-executions/

[biglisbonnews]

Humanity is closer to self-destruction than ever before The Doomsday Clock has advanced to 90 seconds before midnight, indicating that humanity has moved closer to self-destruction than ever before. Read more... https://qz.com/humanity-is-closer-to-self-destruction-than-ever-before-1850022799

[smashpages]

Comics Lowdown: Analyzing gender representation of 34,476 comic characters

A fascinating study takes a look at the gender representation of 34,476 comic book characters. Journalist Amanda Shendruk asks, “Female characters appear in superhero comics less often than males — but when they are included, how are they depicted?”

She examined 34,476 different characters. The study results were published with a plentiful helping of graphs, graphs, and more graphs looking at everything from the types of powers a character has, to the gender make-up of their superhero team, to the naming scheme and frequency of character’s aliases. Some of the findings include:

The data suggest that less-physical powers — such as empathy, intellect, and telepathy — tend to be more represented among female characters. Men however, often have highly physical powers, as well as those that involve gadgets.

30% of all teams have no women, and only 12% have more female team members than male. The majority of those 12%, however, are exclusively female teams.

A full 30% of male characters with gendered names get ‘man’ in their name. That number is only 6% for ‘woman’. However, ‘girl’ is the third-most common gendered name for a female character (13%). ‘Boy’ only shows up sixth for males (5%).

Read more

[votenet-blog]

Your job is a good indicator of your politics

Your job is a good indicator of your politics

Author: Amanda Shendruk / Source: Quartz at Work

Here’s a safe assumption: People donate to candidates who reflect their own politics.

This simple premise led Stanford academic Adam Bonica to analyze over 100 million US state and federal donations to determine the political ideology of people who work in certain industries. Bonica gave people liberal or conservative ideology scores based on the…

[dannyw953]

Taking a paragraph from Amanda Shendruk shows exactly the differences between men and women in comic books. In my dissertation I can use this to establish are more structured argument into the depiction of Women and how they may or may not have changed since the arrival and rise of popularity over time. 

[jennykourypopculture-blog]

Misrepresentation of Women in Comics

At the Graphing Thinking Conference, representations of women, African Americans, and people of Middle Eastern origin were discussed. Panelists André Carrington, Nicole Georges, and Mohamed Hassan shared their background in comics, their current role in the comic industry, and their opinions on representation of these specific areas in comics. While I had no prior exposure to comics before the conference, I gained valuable insight on the topics of gender, sexuality, and race in comics. I argue that there needs to be better representation of women in comics. Women in comics are highly sexualized, women are represented as less important than men in super hero groups, and queer women are represented in the minority in comics.

Women in the comic book world are presented in a manner that focuses primarily on their sexuality and ignores their other positive qualities. Here, Amanda Shendruk discusses female representation as heroines in comics. While most superheroes, male and female, are given a super power in comics, the super powers depicted differ greatly with gender. Women are much more likely than men to have the power of agility, a power that has a highly sexual undertone. Men, in contrast, are much more likely than women to have the powers of strength, stamina, super eating, siphon abilities, and longevity. In line with the notion of male emotional suppression in society, male characters are also much more likely than female characters to have the power of invulnerability. Additionally, female superheroines are more likely to be seen as objects themselves, while male superheroes are usually drawn with super objects, suits, gadgets, or money of their own. At the Graphic Thinking Conference, Hassan discussed a particular comic that represented a Muslim woman. This woman’s choice to be modest in dress and not overtly sexual were constantly attacked by her American, female, sexually promiscuous roommate. This YouTube video by BuzzFeed addresses female hypersexuality in comics by having women attempt the physically impossible sexualized poses of female comic book characters, and comment on the experience:

In addition to female hypersexuality being rampant in comics, women are also presented as less important to the super hero group dynamic in comics. Shendruk expands that only about 8% of super hero teams have more female than male team members. This is an implication of male superiority in the context of the super hero group. About 30% of super hero teams have no representation of women at all. Of the teams that do have all women, the groups are given highly gendered names that almost always reference their femininity in some manner. For example, all girl heroine group names include the Holiday Girls, Lady Liberators, or Female Furies. This practice again focuses primarily on the gender and sexuality of the super heroines in comics, rather than emphasizing their strength, power, and good deeds.

While women in comics are in general highly sexualized and underrepresented in super hero groups, queer women in comics are particularly underrepresented in comics. Panelist Nicole Georges at the Graphic Thinking Conference gave her perspective on queer comic representation, as a queer woman herself. She discussed the misrepresentation of female queerness, by telling the story of her friends making a comic of her that involved her using the phrase “I love vagina.” This depiction is problematic not only because Georges herself would not use that phrase, but also because a straight woman would not likely be shown using the phrase “I love penis.” This depicts a misrepresentation of queer women in comics, a group that is already underrepresented. Click here to see a brief history of queer women in comics given by Katie Kilkenny. As shown by Kilkenny’s timeline, queer superheroines were not really represented at all in comics until the last 20 years. The process of increasing queer representation has been slow, progressing from Maggie Sawyer in 1988 to Wonder Woman and Supergirl in 2016.

[ashleyenst1000]

Extinction and Human Activity (10/21/20)

Ashley Morales

This week’s readings covered extinction and preservation of forests and grasslands. Extinction is natural, but sometimes the rate increases sharply. The background extinction rate is the natural rate of extinction that happens all the time. In fact, most species that have ever existed have gone extinct. However, a mass extinction is at a much more rapid rate than normal, with the causes being poorly understood, but usually having to do with “changes in global environmental condition” (Miller and Spoolman, 2021). Recovery from a mass extinction takes 5 to 10 million years, but it allows space for new life to emerge, and at some point the biodiversity returns to or exceeds the earlier levels. 

Extinction rates are higher currently because of us: we are creating changes in the global environment with increased greenhouse gas emissions leading to rises in global temperature, ocean acidification, and habitat loss. We should not be able to “play God” and decide which species live and die because of our own actions. We are becoming responsible for a potential mass extinction event in which we are allowing species to die off rapidly because we are destroying their habitats and limiting their ways of life. Other species have as much of a right to be here as us, not only because we rely on the delicate balance of ecosystems, but because a species’ existence should not rely on its usefulness to humans. 

A species is endangered when there are so few individuals that it is likely to go extinct. A species is threatened when there are enough individuals to survive the short term, but the species is likely to go extinct in the future. Factors that contribute to likelihood of extinction are: low reproductive rate, specialized niche, feeding at high trophic levels, and fixed migratory patterns among other things. However, if species will just regenerate, then why should we care if our lifestyle speeds up extinction? Well, species provide vital ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling and economic services that we rely on such as food crops, medicinal plants, and ecotourism. Additionally, yes species will regenerate, but as previously mentioned it will take anywhere from 5 to 10 million years to replace the damage. Finally, we have to contend with the ethical dilemma of knowingly killing off species with our actions when we could have prevented or at least prolonged said extinction.

“Biodiversity researchers summarize the most important direct causes of species extinction and threats to ecosystem services using the acronym HIPPCO: Habitat destruction, degradation, and fragmentation; Invasive (nonnative) species; Population growth and increasing use of resources; Pollution; Climate change; Overexploitation” (Miller and Spoolman 2021). Invasive species, whether introduced accidentally or on purpose, can take root and disrupt the natural ecosystems of those areas. The issue is not hopeless, as only 1 of every 100 nonnative species is able to be harmful to an area, but when harm does occur removal is expensive and time consuming. Population growth, increased resource use, and pollution are other causes of extinction. Bioaccumulation is accumulation of a chemical in the fatty tissue and biomagnification is when  a chemical works up the food chain and becomes concentrated in the fatty tissue of higher level organisms specifically. Both of these processes are results of increased chemical use by humans.  Additionally, illegally killing and selling animals for monetary profit contributes to endangerment, especially for bigger animals such as rhinos and tigers. In fact, “four of the five rhino species, including the northern white rhino, are critically endangered, mostly because so many have been illegally killed for their valuable horns” (Miller and Spoolman, 2021).

The US Endangered species act is among the many laws worldwide to attempt to protect these species, along with protection measures such as wildlife refuges, protected wildlife areas, zoos, seed banks, and botanical gardens. For example, Costa rica houses a lot of earth’s biodiversity, an estimated 500,000 different species, and it has become a leader in preservation of biodiversity by establishing a system of nature preserves and natural parks

Individual species are not the only things at risk due to human activity. Our actions are also threatening entire ecosystems such as forests and grasslands. Forests provide valuable ecosystem services like the absorption of CO2 and economic services like providing raw materials. Forest plants also provide the blueprints or ingredients for medicine. Old growth forests have remained relatively undisturbed by humans for 200 years or more. By contrast, second growth forests are results of ecological succession from large-scale removal by humans or natural forces.

Natural forests are homes of biodiversity. However, tree farms or commercial forests are forests that replace old or second growth forests, and “are usually harvested by clear-cutting as soon as they become commercially valuable” (Miller and Spoolman, 2021). Trees are then replanted and cleared cyclically, and farms could be sustainably used to feed the demand for wood products while protecting other forests. There are a few main ways to harvest these trees once they reach the point to be harvested. The first is clear cutting, which is by far the most harmful method. It is the act of completely clearing an area of forest. The second method is selective cutting, which is much more sustainable, and is the cutting of intermediate to mature trees in small groups and leaving the majority of the forest intact to produce more trees with little disruption to the ecosystem. The third method is a variation of strip cutting, which involves clearing only a strip of the forest and leaving the rest. This method is the happy medium between efficiency and sustainability because it spends less time choosing trees but also has less of an impact on the ecosystems than clear cutting. 

Grasslands, in addition to forests, take up a significant portion of land and are the most intensely altered by human activity. We use grasslands for farming, and an issue that arises especially with a population increase and therefore an increase in grassland use. This can lead to overgrazing which is damaging to grassland ecosystems. “Managing rangelands more sustainably and preventing overgrazing typically involves controlling how many animals are allowed to graze in a given area and for how long” (Miller and Spoolman). Rotational grazing is a method that prevents overgrazing in one area and controls unwanted vegetation by frequently rotating the animals that graze in a given area. 

Methods to combat the unsustainable degradation of ecosystems include reforestation, designation of protected forest areas, adaptive management, and ecosystem restoration. Reforestation is “the replanting of forests, especially on degraded and abandoned land” (Miller and Spoolman. 2021), adaptive management is harvesting forests using available knowledge and modifying as needed to increase sustainability, and ecosystem restoration is an attempt to reverse damage to an ecosystem and can involve removing dams and invasive species among other things. 

These restoration methods do have an emphasis on the land itself, but being that every aspect of nature is interconnected, the restoration and protection of ecosystems such as forests and grasslands contributes to protection of species and maintenance of biodiversity as a whole. Our actions have sped up the extinction process and the loss of biodiversity, but we can also attempt to fix it through the aforementioned methods. It is important that we start acknowledging our responsibility to the earth and to other species  by not making survival any harder with our lifestyles. Whether a species dies off should not be our decision to make. 

Word Count:1236

Blog Question: I remember learning about endangered and extinct species as a small child, and feeling like it was a very pressing issue that I couldn’t do anything about. However, as I grew up the issue was addressed much less. Why put pressure on learning about endangerment and extinction if it is never readdressed? And why put that on a child, when the main culprits are large companies and all the child can do is reduce consumption, and maybe not even that seeing as they are a child in a family who usually has little decision making power?

Bibliography: 

Miller, G. Tyler, and Scott E. Spoolman. 2021. Living in the Environment.

Shendruk, Amanda. 2015. “Infographic: Charting the world's sixth mass extinction.” Maclean's. https://www.macleans.ca/society/science/infographic-charting-the-worlds-sixth-mass-exinction/.