Exxon Valdez

The construction of the Exxon Valdez began on July 24,1985 in National Steel and Shipbuilding company in San Diego. A single hauled ship measuring at 987 feet long and capable of holding 1.48 million barrels of crude oil down the Alaska-California-Panama line (west coast of North America). It first set sail on December 18,1986 and began hauling crude oil for Exxon. On March 24, 1989 the Exxon Valdez collided into Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound immobilizing the vessel and rupturing eight of the eleven cargo tanks. Spewing 10.8 million gallons of crude oil into the pristine Alaskan waters contaminating over 1,500 miles of coastline. The cleanup effort was delayed by three days while Exxon scrambled to get the equipment together and that the crash site was so remote that it was only accessible by boat or plane. It costed Exxon over 2.1 Billion dollars and at its peak the clean up crew consisted of 10,000 workers, 1,000 boats, and 100 helicopters and planes. Nevertheless, less than half of the contaminated coastline was cleaned, the rest of the contaminated coastline has gone untouched to this day. The oil spill had devastating effects killing over a quarter million sea birds, about 2,800 sea otters and many other animals. Even today many species have not recovered from the spill over 25 years later animals like herring are on the verge of extinction. The cause of the crash was 100% percent human error at every reason of the blame from the captain being impaired by alcohol, the new radars for the US Coast Guard, lack of watch by the captain, and the inexperience of the third mate. Nevertheless, after the crash the Exxon Valdez was repaired for 30 million and renamed the Exxon Mediterranean and continued hauling oil for Exxon. It changed its name many times afterward and was sold to a ore hauling company in Honk Hong in 2008. It was beached in India on August 2, 2012 where it was scraped for metal. Positives of the Exxon Valdez oil spill were the Oil Pollution act of 1990, banned the use of single hulled oil ships by 2015 and all ships must be doubled hulled, and that scientists have been studying and learning of the long term effects oil has on the environment.

Mobro 4000 Garbage Barge

I was assigned the topic of the Mobro 4K Garbage Barge. I had never heard of this disaster but I knew what a barge was so I had some sort of idea of what this might have been. It turns out that a garbage company named Mobro was looking for a different way to get rid of garbage. So they decided to send out these garbage barges to the ocean and hoped that it would land in North Carolina. Instead the barge traveled all the way to Belize & finally ended up back in NY. A couple European countries decided this was a good idea & are now trying to import garbage to fuel their energy plants.

John Muir

My presentation was on a Scottish man named John Muir. I had heard his name before but I haven't really went into depth about him until i got assigned to do a PowerPoint about him. This man was basically the reason why half of the national parks are national parks. He wrote over 300 articles about his adventures in the woods or his journets throughout parks he been to. He met Theodore Roosevelt and helped found the Sierra Club, which makes notable parks national parks. For example, the Yosemite national park, if it wasn't for John Muir and his team, maybe this park would not have been a piece of American  nature history.

Nature

I feel like nature has its own style. Every tree is different from another tree and everything is just so originally made. We need nature for a couple of reasons. The first is that we need oxygen. Second, everything is so well done. No one can create something like it. Lastly, nature is something that is beautiful even if there are insects. What would happen to those insects if we don't have nature? They will be extinct! Without insects, who knows what can happen. Maybe there will be a big change in our world, and maybe there won't be a change at all.

The Natural World

We, as a class, probably have a lot of different views about what the natural world is meant to do for us and what it is meant to be for our planet.  For instance, some people feel that everything in nature is at humans' disposal and we should take whatever we want, however we want.  Others feel that nature is to be cherished and protected, as it contains many life forms.  There are so many points of view.

What is yours?  You may find that your point of view is influenced by political, religious, or cultural beliefs and practices, and that is fine.  Your comment should clearly communicate your beliefs and why you believe them.  Always proofread, spellcheck, and read over your post aloud with a friend to make sure it makes sense.  

Kyoto Protocol Summary

The Kyoto Protocol is an agreement between industrial countries stating that they must reduce their greenhouse gas emission by various percentages as a means to allow better environments for less developed countries. Although there are multiple ways for countries to meet this requirement, some had chosen to secede from the project, thinking it was just a ploy to give money to third world countries. This entire mechanic is very important because the drastic climate change created by greenhouse gases can be very harmful to less developed countries without the support of the first world countries. Their economy may deteriorate.

Lipari Landfill

Lipari was a 16 acre landfill that one point and time was ranked the number one superfund in the nation. 1958 through 1971 this landfill was used as a dump site for industrial wastes. There chemicals that were dumped went into the ground and even went in the streams and lakes. The landfill was a victim of 40,000 barrels of waste. Eventually in 1971, New Jersey Solid Waste Authority closed this site down. The effects it had on the neighboring areas was that those living near the landfill were at greater risk to getting leukemia and giving birth to low weight babies.