Trasportation and EF !

I am trying to elaborate how the transportation of goods effects our EF.

For a brief introduction about the EF please watch the video bellow.

Ecological Footprint in Plain English; Source: 1

In the content bellow I have tried to ellaborate on some isseus about EF and transportation.

1. Well there is more oil used for the transportation of the goods which increases the EF. Furthermore; the goods are produced mainly by one producer which makes the economy centralized in one location and a lot of fertilizer used. People don’t use fresh food but they pay cheaper prices because of specialization and fertilizers.

2. I think that the main problem on relaying on the local production of food would be the price, because the people would not be specialized and the production cost would be higher. In my opinion advantages outweigh the disadvantages because the quality of the local food would be much better than the one produces far away. In addition, the economy would be more decentralized and the standard of living would be less variant from one place to another. Environment effect is the most important advantage of local production, because the fertilizers wouldn’t be centralized in one area and maybe the environment would not be harmed so much by them, and there would be no fuel used for their transportation.

3. The gasoline prices recently increase due to the war in Libya but the gas prices are increasing all the time but with lower rates than what is happening currently. Well when the gas prices increase the transportation cost will increase and a very small change in the gasoline prices can has a very large effect in the data I calculated above.

4. In my opinion the transportation cost would be much lower. This would be due to the size of the other countries which are much smaller than US.  However; today with globalization, the transportation cost are increasing everyday because countries exchange good between each other no matter how far they are. So, this is not anymore a national problem.

The last thing I would like to address to you is to advise you to watch this very short and straight forward video:

https://ecologyclass110.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

Ecological Footprint= The Facts; Source: 2

References:

1. Chin, Emilie and Ding Bernice(Aug 22, 2009). Ecological Footprint in Plain English. Retrieved at April 19, 2011.

2. Lachshmok (Nov 4, 2008). Ecological Footprint. Retrieved at April 19, 2011.

You Think Your Knoledge in Ecology is Good??? Try IT!!

• Purpose

I have put an effort to construct some question that will challenge people with some background on ecology and that are willing to test they knowledge. All the people interested to take the test are welcome. In addition, after you have tested yourselves, you can require the answers to grade their knowledge.

• Part I

The part one consist mainly of question about our world sustainability level.  Our remarkable growth and the effect we have in the environment.

1.       Illustrate the two phenomena that caused a remarkable increase in the population size in human history.

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

2.       An ecological footprint represents the total area of land and water needed to produce the resources a given person or population uses, together with the total amount of land and water needed to dispose of their waste.

a)               True

b)               False

3.       Describe the three main interests of environmental scientists.

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

4.       Environmental science is the pursuit of knowledge about the workings of the environment and our interactions with it.

a)               True

b)               False

5.       Environmentalism is

a)      the same as an environmental science

b)      a social movement

c)       a political movement

d)      a social network

 

6.       What are the three dynamic processes of science?

a)      Observation, testing and retesting

b)      Observation, hypothesis and testing

c)       Observation, testing and discovery

d)      Observation, testing and examine

 

7.       The scientific method is a traditional approach

a)      to test

b)      to observe

c)       to research

d)      to develop a hypothesis

 

8.       An anthropocentrist

a)      extends ethical standing only to humans

b)      judges actions in terms of their effects on people

c)       is consider as a negligible value anything that will not provide benefit to people

d)      all of the above

 

9.       Sustainability means

a)      living within our planet’s means

b)      leaving our children and grandchildren a world as rich and full as the world we live in now

c)       developing solution that work in the long term

d)      all of the above

 

10.    Match the following

a)      Sunlight

b)      Wind energy

c)       Geothermal energy                                                                   

d)      Fresh water                                                                             

e)      Natural gas

f)       Copper, aluminum, and other metals

g)      Soils

TO–>

Renewable natural resources

Nonrenewable natural resources

 

• Part II

The second part consist of question dealing with matter and energy and its purpose for living organism. The different types of organism and how they produce or use the energy are part of this section also.

11.   DNA and RNA carry the hereditary information for organisms and are responsible for hiding traits from parents to offspring.

a)         True

b)         False

 

12. The largest part of energy coming from the sun is visible

a)         True

b)         False

 

13.  Illustrate the difference between a volcano and an earthquake

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

 

14.  Every atom has a nucleus of

a)         electrons, protons

b)         neutrons, electrons

c)          protons, neutrons

d)         none of the above

 

15. The following equation represent the

 

a)         carbon dioxide

b)        magma

c)         photosynthesis

d)        combination of a and b

 

16.  Energy is converted to

a)         production

b)         electricity

c)          biomass

d)         all of the above

 

17.  Tectonics produces

a)         air

b)         energy

c)          earth’s landforms

d)         species

 

18.  Nutrients are elements and compounds that organisms consume and require for

a)         survival

b)         food production

c)          carbon production

d)         all of the above

19. Explain the difference between heterotrophs and autotrophs

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

 

20.  Place each type of light waves in the appropriate place in the photo shown below

The types of light waves: visible light, infrared, microwaves, gamma rays, radio waves, x-rays, ultraviolet.

• Part III

The next question are going to be mostly about the evolution of species during a long period of time, and how the diversity in nature started to exist and still presists.

21.   Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace together proposed the concept of natural selection as a mechanism for evolution and as a way to explain the great variety of living things.

a.       True

b.      False

22.   Natural selection occurs when

c.       You break your finger

d.      You go blind

e.      You genetic makeup of a population changes

f.        You become fat

23.   Match the Following words(circle one)

a. Evolving of trait that lead to better reproduction of an organism in a given Environment

Circle one: Adaptation;   Adaptive Trait; Species;   Biodiversity;   population;   Species;   Mutation;

b. A trait that promotes successful adaptation

Circle one: Adaptation;   Adaptive Trait; Species;   Biodiversity;   population;   Species;   Mutation;

c. The variety of life across all levels of biological organization

Circle one: Adaptation;   Adaptive Trait; Species;   Biodiversity;   population;   Species;   Mutation;

d. A group of individuals of a particular species that live in a particular area

Circle one: Adaptation;   Adaptive Trait; Species;   Biodiversity;   Population;   Species;   Mutation;

e. A mistake in the copying of recopying of the DNA

Circle one: Adaptation;   Adaptive Trait; Species;   Biodiversity;   population;   Species;   Mutation;

24.   Artificial selection is when

a.       God makes a selection

b.       Selection is done by nature

c.       Selection is made by species

d.       Selection is made by humans

25.   In your own words describe the aged distribution of the graph below. In this case Albanian.

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

 

26.   Population density describes the number of individuals in a population per unit area.

a.       True

b.      False

27.   When the population size is larger

a.       The population is more vulnerable to extinction

b.      The stronger the effects of environmental resistance

c.       The population is not well adapted to the environment

d.      The weaker the effects of environmental resistance

28.   Please sketch a sketch that shows an exponential and linear growth curve of a population.

 

29.   Limiting factors that constrained the population growth are

a.       Physical

b.      Chemical

c.       Biological

d.      All of the above

30.   An ecosystem is

a.       The sum total of living things on earth and the areas they inhabit

b.      A group of individuals of a species that live in a particular area

c.       A functional system consisting of a community, its nonliving environment, and the interactions between them

d.      None of the above

 

• Part IV

The following question are related to the way the species in our world interact with each other, and we try to put emphasize in the different types of interactions.

31. Match the sentences with the words underneath them

The full niche of an individual

Circle one: Species coexistence;  Parasitism;    Intraspecific Competition;  Interspecific Competition;  Resource Portioning;    Fundamental Niche

Competitive interaction among members of the same specie

Circle one: Species coexistence;  Parasitism;    Intraspecific Competition;  Interspecific Competition;  Resource Portioning;    Fundamental Niche

Natural selection favoring one bird species becoming more active in the morning and one in the evening

Circle one: Species coexistence;  Parasitism;    Intraspecific Competition;  Interspecific Competition;  Resource Portioning;    Fundamental Niche

Competition among members of two or more different species

Circle one: Species coexistence;  Parasitism;    Intraspecific Competition;  Interspecific Competition;  Resource Portioning;    Fundamental Niche

When an organism depends on another for nourishment or some other benefits while simultaneously doing the host harm

Circle one: Species coexistence; Parasitism; Intraspecific Competition; Interspecific Competition; Resource Portioning; Fundamental Niche

32. Distinguish Predation with Parasitism:

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

33. Human are Parasite creatures.

a. True

b. False

34. Mutualism and Parasitism deal with the relation of one organism with another.

a. True

b. False

35. All of the choices below are Earth’s terrestrial Biomes EXCEPT

a. Desert

b. Boreal Forest

c. Tropical Sea Forest

d. Temperate Grassland

36. A food chain is

a. The food that humans eats

b. A linear series of feeding relations

c. The food that the monkey eats

d. The food that the cows eats

37. Amensalism can be best described when

a. One organism is harmed and the other benefits

b. Both organism benefit

c. One organism is harmed and the other is unaffected

d. Both organism are harmed

38. Which are the two ways communities deal with the disturbance

a. Resistance and Refusal

b. Resistance and Resilience

c. Resilience and Refusal

d. Refusal and Reconstruction

39. The highest rates of precipitation can be found in

a. Savanna’s

b. Tropical Dry Forests

c. Deserts

d. Tropical Rain Forests

40. Illustrate the differences between the Savanna biome and the Desert Biome:

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

 

• Part V

In the 5th and last part we tried to include question that deal with the ethics and economical values and choices.

41. Standard neoclassical economics focuses on processes of production and consumption between households and businesses

a) True

b) False

 

42. Distinguish five types of ecosystem services

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

 

43. River pollution creates

a) profits to the company

b) pollution to the village too

c) external costs

d) internal expenses

 

44. Ecosystem services are said to have

a) market values

b) very high values

c) non market values

d) option values

 

45. What is the purpose of Eco labeling?

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

 

46. Environmental policy making is a problem-solving pursuit that makes use of science and ethics

a) True

b) False

 

47. Removing toxins, recovering nutrients, controlling pollution

a) regulating atmospheric gases

b) regulating climate

c) treating waste

d) all of the above

 

48. Providing ecological settings in which creatures can breed, feed, rest, migrate, winter

a) providing  recreational opportunities

b) providing habitat

c) providing natural resources

d) providing goods

 

49. Which of the following provide recreational opportunities?

a) aesthetic, artistic, educational, spiritual, and/or scientific values of ecosystems

b) ecotourism, sport fishing, hiking, birding, kayaking, other outdoor recreation

c) producing lumber, fuel, metals, fodder

d) producing  fish, game, crops, nuts, and fruits

 

50. Match the following pictures with the appropriate descriptions

(use values, aesthetic values, educational values, option values, scientific values, existence values, cultural values)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Attention!

My aim was to construct some question that test user with basic knowledge in ecology, and to stress some important issues that ecology deals with.

If you have tested yourself and are willing to know about the right answers please leave a comment below.

31. Match the sentences with the words underneath them

The full niche of an individual

Circle one: Species coexistence;  Parasitism;    Intraspecific Competition;  Interspecific Competition;  Resource Portioning;    Fundamental Niche

Competitive interaction among members of the same specie

Circle one: Species coexistence;  Parasitism;    Intraspecific Competition;  Interspecific Competition;  Resource Portioning;    Fundamental Niche

Natural selection favoring one bird species becoming more active in the morning and one in the evening

Circle one: Species coexistence;  Parasitism;    Intraspecific Competition;  Interspecific Competition;  Resource Portioning;    Fundamental Niche

Competition among members of two or more different species

Circle one: Species coexistence;  Parasitism;    Intraspecific Competition;  Interspecific Competition;  Resource Portioning;    Fundamental Niche

When an organism depends on another for nourishment or some other benefits while simultaneously doing the host harm

Circle one: Species coexistence; Parasitism; Intraspecific Competition; Interspecific Competition; Resource Portioning; Fundamental Niche

32. Distinguish Predation with Parasitism:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

33. Human are Parasite creatures.

a. True

b. False

34. Mutualism and Parasitism deal with the relation of one organism with another.

a. True

b. False

35. All of the choices below are Earth’s Biomes EXCEPT

a. Desert

b. Boreal Forest

c. Tropical Sea Forest

d. Temperate Grassland

36. A food chain is

a. The food that humans eats

b. A linear series of feeding relations

c. The food that the monkey eats

d. The food that the cows eats

37. Amensalism can be best described when

a. One organism is harmed and the other benefits

b. Both organism benefit

c. One organism is harmed and the other is unaffected

d. Both organism are harmed

38. Which are the two ways communities deal with the disturbance

a. Resistance and Refusal

b. Resistance and Resilience

c. Resilience and Refusal

d. Refusal and Reconstruction

39. The highest rates of precipitation can be found in

a. Savanna’s

b. Tropical Dry Forests

c. Deserts

d. Tropical Rain Forests

Chapter 4.

31. Match the sentences with the words underneath them

The full niche of an individual

Circle one: Species coexistence;  Parasitism;    Intraspecific Competition;  Interspecific Competition;  Resource Portioning;    Fundamental Niche

Competitive interaction among members of the same specie

Circle one: Species coexistence;  Parasitism;    Intraspecific Competition;  Interspecific Competition;  Resource Portioning;    Fundamental Niche

Natural selection favoring one bird species becoming more active in the morning and one in the evening

Circle one: Species coexistence;  Parasitism;    Intraspecific Competition;  Interspecific Competition;  Resource Portioning;    Fundamental Niche

Competition among members of two or more different species

Circle one: Species coexistence;  Parasitism;    Intraspecific Competition;  Interspecific Competition;  Resource Portioning;    Fundamental Niche

When an organism depends on another for nourishment or some other benefits while simultaneously doing the host harm

Circle one: Species coexistence; Parasitism; Intraspecific Competition; Interspecific Competition; Resource Portioning; Fundamental Niche

32. Distinguish Predation with Parasitism:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

33. Human are Parasite creatures.

a. True

b. False

34. Mutualism and Parasitism deal with the relation of one organism with another.

a. True

b. False

35. All of the choices below are Earth’s terrestrial Biomes EXCEPT

a. Desert

b. Boreal Forest

c. Tropical Sea Forest

d. Temperate Grassland

36. A food chain is

a. The food that humans eats

b. A linear series of feeding relations

c. The food that the monkey eats

d. The food that the cows eats

e.

37. Amensalism can be best described when

a. One organism is harmed and the other benefits

b. Both organism benefit

c. One organism is harmed and the other is unaffected

d. Both organism are harmed

38. Which are the two ways communities deal with the disturbance

a. Resistance and Refusal

b. Resistance and Resilience

c. Resilience and Refusal

d. Refusal and Reconstruction

39. The highest rates of precipitation can be found in

a. Savanna’s

b. Tropical Dry Forests

c. Deserts

d. Tropical Rain Forests

40. Illustrate the differences between the Savanna biome and the Desert Biome:

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

41. Culture can be defined as the ensemble of knowledge, beliefs, values, and learned ways of life shared by a group of people.

a. True

b. False

42. According to the theory of relativism every society has universal rules of what is right or wrong.

a. True

b. False

43. Adam Smith is the father of

a. Economy

b. Philosophy

c. Ecology

d. Physics

44. Standard Neoclassical economics assume that

a. People don’t behave rationally because they have no information

b. People don’t behave rationally because they don’t want to

c. People behave rationally and have access to full information

d. People behave rationally because of their super developed instincts

45. According to Neoclassic theory

a. Growth is always good

b. Growth is sometimes good and bad

c. Growth is always bad

d. None of the above

46. The difference between GDP and GPI is

a. GDP also includes volunteer and paid work

b. GPI includes the volunteer and paid work

c. Both a and b

d. None of the above

47. Ecosystem are said to

a. Have a very big market value

b. Nonmarket value

c. Very small market value

d. All of the above

48. Illustrate ecolabeling :

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_________________________________________________________________________________________

49. Classify and briefly explain different types of economies(at least 3):

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

50. Relate the values with the photos:

 

 

40. Illustrate the differences between the Savanna biome and the Desert Biome:

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ecological Footpritns Around The World

• Introduction

Before I start comparing the ecological footprints around the world I would like to introduce you to some terms necessary to understand the context of my topic. The term ecological footprint it is used to describe the environmental impact in terms of total production land and water required to provide the resources for a person or population consumption and to dispose of or recycle the waste produced . Another term you should know is the carrying capacity of the world, which means the total number of species the world is able to carry. Scientist think that humans ecological footprint is 30% greater than the carrying capacity of the world, terming it as an overshoot (Withgott and Brennan, 5). In addition, EF is a term that refers to the number of hectares a person needs per year.

• Ecological Footprints Around The World

Bellow you will see a table showing some EF around the world, and what is their ration with the average EF, and the average ratio toward the available hectare per person. Then a comparison will follow.

If you carefully look the EF values in the table you can notice that some countries in the world don’t even use near the average hectares per person, for ex. Bangladesh. On the other hand; there are countries such as the United Arab Emirates that have an EF of 9.9 which is almost 20 times greater than the one from Bangladesh. I just mentioned two countries which are in opposite extremes considering their EF, considering that the average world’s EF is 2.23. As you can observe above there are countries such as Morocco, Bangladesh, Albania, Colombia, and Thailand that have an EF which is under the world average. On the contrary, there are countries such as the Germany, Sweden, Australia, and United Arab Emirates which have an EF much larger than the world average. However; there are countries such as Brazil and Mexico have an EF near the world average.

• Some cause for EF differences

The main reason that Bangladesh has a very low EF is because most of it’s people live in Bangladesh’s 70,000 villages. Therefore; they are not using the cars and bussed very often, lowering their footprint substantially. Another factor lowering their footprint is that people living on the villages don’t produce a lot of waste and their food is usually organic and is recycle by the nature itself. In addition, countries like Bangladesh don’t have electricity for 24 hours a day, and they get the drinking water from natural resources instead of filtrating it. Where as people in a country such as Australia are using a lot of cars for transportation. Considering the living standard we can argue that the wast in Australia from the used clothes, used technologies, food wast ,and other wastes increases their footprint dramatically.

The United Arab Emirates EF can be high for the same reasons that the Australian EF is high. However; UAE’s hectare per person is higher because of the high investment in infrastructure currently there. The infrastructure construction can produce a lot of wast. Maybe we also can consider the dry weather as a factor for their high EF since you need much more food and water to survive on dry weather conditions.

One important factor that can increase or decrease the EF(hectare per person)  is the GDP per capita. We can easily say as the GDP per capita increases the will increase as well. However; it doesn’t mean that they increase curve is going to be the same. As you can observe in the table above the GDP per capita of Australia is only 1160 greater than that of the Germany, but the EF of Australia is almost 3 hectares per person higher.  However; we can also observe that the countries that have the lowest GDP per capita have also the lowest EF. So, we can conclude that the GPD per capita is a factor that affect the EF, but EF can be influenced but many other variables as well.

• My Personal Consumption

According to the table above there is a big difference between the average EF in my country and my personal EF. Since the Bangladesh EF is smaller than that from my country, the difference with my personal EF is even greater compared to the Bangladesh EF. Only the UEA have a average EF greater than mine, and only Australia’s EF comes near my personal EF. Considering my ridiculous consumption rates which I was not aware before, we would need 4.5 more planet earth in order to sustain the current number of people living by the same standards as mine.

To sum up, we have to say that is it obvious that our world average EF is 25% more than the world can sustain. Even though most of Asian countries have an EF below the world average. Considering that 3/5 of the world’s population is in Asia, we have to find new methods either to lower our consumption or find out ways that can make the current world sustainable for the us humans. Considering that our EF and our total number our continually growing we have to act fast.

 

The Eastern Island

• The History

The Easter Island used to hold a extraordinary civilization. It is assumed that the density of the population had reached up to 160 people per square meter (Diamond, 395). However; the people living in the Easter Island started cutting they treas faster than they could recover. One unique reasons they used tries was to carry the statues they made in every corner of the island from the place they were created. The lack of treas resulted in a lack of boats, clothes, food and many other factors which pushed the society toward collapse. Humans and treas where not the only species to go extinct. Together with them, different land and sea birds are extinct today as well.

Cultural and environmental factor are assumed to have also played a role in the extinction of Easter Island civilization. One cultural factor that made Easter Island more vulnerable was the low rainfall rate. Another important environmental factor is that “deforestation tended to increase with latitude”, because regrowth was slower in higher latitudes (Diamond, 396). One of the cultural factors affecting the society, was the way the society was organized together to deal with deforestation. In the case of Eastern Island it is assumed that there was no effort to prevent deforestation (Diamond, 396).

• The Eastern Island Today

The Eastern Island is accounted to be an Chilean island, even though the Polynesian identity still dominates the island. Currently there live about 2000 people, most of the natives and a considerable number of them are soldiers of the Chilean Army. The island is a unique place in earth, mostly described as an open air museum because of the stone made sculptures. The amazing landscape of the island, and the warm attitude of the native people make it a very special place on our planet. Concerning the resources today, there are only three sources of fresh water, at Rano Kau, Rano Raruka, and Rano Aroi, in form of small lakes. There are no rivers in the island. Moreover; there are just a few treas in the island today as well. In the present time, out of many sea birds that used to exist, there is only one alive today. In addition, the sea food is their main food resource the people in the island use today.

• Why Tikopia survived?

Tikopia is considered to be a young or active volcano because of the high quantity levels of the soil nutrients. This was an advantage toward the Tikopia civilization because soil nutrients decrease the deforestation rates which was not the case in the Eastern Island. In addition, they started to plant in their gardens instead of intense agriculture which is characterized by slash-and-burn. They also developed a bottom-up approach society organization, and took measures to prevent deforestation together (Diamand, 396). Those are some of the reasons that are assumed to have helped the Tikopia society survive.

Me and the Environment!

About me!

My name is Ideal. This is my last semester before I finish my Bachelor degree in the American College of Thessaloniki. My major is Business and Computing.



Place of origin

I come from Kosova, the city of Gjakova. Kosova currently is the youngest country in the world. It is located in Balkans and its neighbors are Albania, Montenegro, FYROM, and Serbia.

Gjakova is a city that has a artificial lake. The lake is called Radoniqi and is used for water supplies for the region. It also has around 4 or 5 rivers that pass through.

Environment

I was informed that with the current planting techniques we use only 5-6 billion people can be supported by the quantity produced. I was wondering how can vertical farming impact this number?

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki is the current city I live. There are a lot of young people that live here. In addition, there are many tourist that come to visit it. The thing I like most about Thessaloniki is the time when I go out.

Environmental Science

Environmental Science explains how the is affected by all the other sciences we apply, this is the reason why it is called an interdisciplinary pursuit. Yes my field of study falls under the Business science. My field of study is a social science because it deals with social problems and behaviors.

GDP- per Capita Around the world

If we are given the country and its corresponding GPD- per capit we are going ot generate a graph that show us the GDP- per capita around the world.The graph above was generated by those two variables. Therefore; we can reach to a conclusion that the GDP- per capita varies a lot from place to place.