The Great Sparrow Csampaign

The Great Sparrow Campaign

The campaign against the 'Four Pests' was initiated in 1958 as a hygiene campaign by Mao Zedong, who identified the need to exterminate mosquitoes, flies, rats, and sparrows. Sparrows were on the list because the Eurasian Tree Sparrows ate the grain seeds, robbing the farmers of the fruit of their labor. One of    the purposes of the campaign turned farming into a collective, state-sponsored activity. Individual, private farming was banned as part of China's transformation into a communist system. One of Zedong's first actions after collectivizing agriculture was probably intended to protect the farms. The sparrows ate the seeds and seemed to be a major hindrance to the work of farmers. Everyone from the elders to those just learning to walk participated. They would shoot and shake the trees so the sparrows could not perch on the trees and they would fall out of the sky. The others were shot out. Locusts, in particular, swarmed over the country, eating everything they could find. Including crops intended for human food. People, on the other hand, quickly ran out of things to eat, and millions starved. Numbers vary, of course, with the official number from the Chinese government placed at 15 million. Some scholars, however, estimate that the fatalities were as high as 45 or even 78 million.  But the people did not go down quickly or easily. Documents report several thousand cases where people ate other people. The most tragic aspect is that most of those deaths were unnecessary. Though the fields were empty, massive grain warehouses held enough food to feed the entire country but the government never released it.

Sixth Extinction

I presented on the sixth extinction. However, to first talk about that, I needed to teach the class about the previous five extinctions. After describing each extinction I finally jumped into what the sixth extinction was. It is us. The class was very interested to learn about how one day, we as humans could be gone. I taught the class on how we as humans are effecting our earth in a negative way. We are destroying nature, the oceans, and organisms. This is going to lead our extinction, not a asteroid but possibly a famine or some sort if we continue our approach. Finally I used a very helpful video that explained the sixth extinction and how we effect everything around us that will lead to the sixth extinction. 

El Yunque National Forest

In 1876 King Alfonso XII of Spain set aside acres of land. In 1903, that land was established as the Luquillo Forest Reserve by the General Land Office. Three years later, the land became a national forest and then renamed to the Caribbean National Forest in 1935. 72 years later, George W. Bush changed the name to El Yunque. This was to embrace the culture of Puerto Ricans. This was an executive order, and Bush had the right to since Puerto Rico is a territory of America, and is the only tropical forest protected by the United States National Forest system. El Yunque has a tropical climate and it rains on average of four times per day. The temperature ranges from 70-80 degrees so it is always perfect growing conditions for plants. Throughout the 29,000 acres of land, there are over 200 species of trees and animals. Also. the forest is divided into four different zones depending on the high above or below feet.  Today, visitors to El Yunque can go camping, hiking, nature viewing, climb next to waterfalls, and swim in natural streams of water. And for the locals, their are hidden spot where people can go water sliding down rocks and swim in a pool made directly from stone.

Lake Poopo Bolivia's Second Largest Lake

Lake Poopo has since dried up and was once Bolivia's second largest Lake. The Lake's state has been blamed on El Nino, climate changes, and mining pollution. Due people not caring for the lake, some fear that it may never return, while others believe it will take twenty years. The drying up of the lake was a process that should have taken 2,000 years from present day. People who once used the lake for fishing as a source of food, had to go elsewhere. Species in the water died, along with the species that went to the lake to drink water and look for food. Now the Lake is nothing but dried up land. Governments should have taken much better care of the lake in order to prevent it from drying up. Hopefully in the future the lake will either return or we find a way to fix it.

GMO BLOG

For my Friday Symposium, I created a presentation on Genetically Modified Organisms. The first GMO to ever be created was in 1973 by two biotechnologists, Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen. Both of these scientists were extremely important in the start and development of trade arch for GMO’s and we're both awarded National Medals of Science for their hard work. Another important scientist in the research of GMO’s was Rudolph Jaenisch, who used information he got from performing experiments on mice to benefit humans. People have had mixed opinions on the use of GMO’s since they were first introduced to the world. Some of the benefits or Pros of the usage of GMO's are that they can limit pollution, provide nutrients for humans, and cure diseases. On the other hand, some negatives or Cons of the usage of GMO’s are that they can reduce the effects of antibiotics and cause genes to spread. Overall, I believe that GMO’s can be a good thing if they are used correctly. If not, then they can certainly be dangerous which should encourage scientists who use them to use them cautiously.

The Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian Trail can either begin from two different locations. If you would like to start in Maine, you begin in Mount Katahdin and you will end in Springer Mountain in Georgia. Surprisingly the trail stretches to approximately 2,200 miles along fourteen states. There are many different types of species that are located on the trail. Animals include, the American Black Bear, ticks, rattlesnakes, moose, and elk. Depending on the location on the trail, there are a variation of plants on the trail. In the south you can find, oak, tulip trees, and Appalachian Balds. On the other hand, in the north you may find maple, birch, and beech trees. Hikers usually are offered homes to stay the night when they are completing the 2,200 mile hike. A hiker can also stay at a camp but they would have to reserve a spot. Hikers usually begin to walk the trail in March or April and they end in late August. Only 15,000 people have successfully completed the trail.

Love Canal

The love Canal is one of the most awful environmental tragedies in American history. It first started off as it being a dream community that William T. Love always wanted to built but the end result left a lot of people to evacuate there homes. This dream communitie was never built and the land was sold to Hooker Chemical who used the land to dump chemical waste. Later on as years passed and the company kept dumping chemical it they sold the land once again and a school called the 99th street school bought the land and built there school there. The floor of the school cracked and students were getting sick and coming home with burns. Drums started appearing in the backyards of homers and they were told to evacuate as soon as one home owner found out what was going on and told every one and it popped up on the news. The government came in and tried there best to clean the whole area.

Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson was a marine biologist, ecologist, and conservationist whose book Silent Wind along with other writings is credited with advancing the global environmental movement. She was perhaps the greatest writer of the twentieth century. She is also known as the woman who challenged the notion that humans could obtain mastery over nature by chemicals.

Rachel Carson was hired by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries to write radio scripts during the depression. Also during that time she wrote articles on natural history for the Baltimore Sun. She began a fifteen year career in the federal service as a scientist and editor in 1936 and rose to become Editor-in-Chief of all publications for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Rachel Carson wrote pamphlets on conservation and natural resources and edited scientific articles. In her free she turned her government research into lyrical prose, first with an article called Undersea (1937) then in a book Called Under the Sea-Wind (1941), followed by The Sea Around us and The Edge of the Sea. These books held a biography of the ocean and made her famous as a naturalist and science writer for the public. She resigned from government service in 1952 to devote herself to writing.

Rachel Carson was disturbed by the reckless use of synthetic chemical pesticides after WW2 and reluctantly changed her focus in order t
o warn the public about the long term effects of misusing pesticides. She challenged the practices of agricultural scientists and the government and called for a change in the way that humankind viewed the natural world.

Rachel Carson was attacked by the chemical industry and some in the government. She was considered an alarmist (someone who over exaggerates situations and blows them out of proportion) but courageously spoke out to remind us that we are a vulnerable part of the natural world subject to the same damage as the rest of the ecosystem. She testified before congress in 1963 and called for new policies to protect human health and the enviorment.

Silent Spring was a true story using a composite of example drawn from many real communities where the use of DDT had caused damage to wildlife, birds, bees, agricultural animals, domestic pets, and even humans. Carson's passionate concern in Silent Spring is with the future of the planet and all life on earth. She calls for humans to act responsibly, carefully, and as stewards of the living earth. To this day Silent Spring is deemed the corner stone of the new environmentalism.

Where does my trash go?

   There are many places where your trash can go. Your trash can go to one of three main places. Your trash may go to landfills. It may go to recovery resource facilities. Finally it could go to transfer stations.
   Landfills are modern structures built with a clay foundation and several liners from keeping any liquid from getting to the groundwater. When trash is filled up in the landfill, it is covered each day with soil or dry waste to prevent fires and scavengers from getting to it.
   Resource recovery stations is a way that humans decided to try to relieve the construction of more landfills. People named it resource recovery stations, because it was a pleasing name rather than saying someone's trash is going to the incinerator. These were built in order to stop people from building as many landfills as they did. Also resource recovery stations control the emission in the air, as well as converting the trash to possible energy.
  Transfer stations is a facility where solid waste is transferred from collection vehicles to larger trucks or rail cars for longer distance transport to another location for disposal.
  There are many health concerns such as the emissions released in the air when it comes to landfills and resources recovery stations such as possibly causing cancer. However, a major health concern that many individuals do not know about is the emission released by the trucks hauling trash for commutes that can last up to three hours.
   This is where our trash goes. The three most common places our trash is transported to and these places take up a lot of our resources and time. We are currently looking for better ways to dispose of or reuse or trash but that has yet to be discovered.


    

Omniprocessor

The Omniprocessor converts fecal and sewer waste into clean drinkable water, electricity, and pathogen free ash. It takes the waste and runs it through a dryer which separates the water from the waste. The water is then passed through a cleaning system to produce the purest and safest drinkable water you can imagine. Now, the dry waste gets fed into the fire and it produces pressure which in turn produces steam. This steam is then processed though a steam engine, which powers a generator. The generator produces electricity for the entire machine. It practically powers itself. It also produces excess power that can be sent back to the community. Lastly, another byproduct is ash. This ash is pathogen free and can be used as a fertilizer for farms or for bricks.    
The Omniprocessor was ultimately made to help undeveloped countries like Africa, India, and some parts of South America. Its purpose is to help sanitation, prevent pathogens, and environmental damage in places that can't really afford complex systems to treat their waste. One of the machines is already working wonders in Dakar, Senegal. It prevents people from having to empty out their pits and bathrooms manually. Manually removing waste is dangerous, but the Omnipocessor is radically changing the way people see and manage sanitation.
Sophisticated sewer systems like those in the US, are not feasible in undeveloped countries, like Senegal. They need simple innovative ways to properly dispose of their waste. Surprisingly this is a very profitable business and can ultimately change the way waste is processed.












































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9/11 Environmental Disaster

This project or presentation was very interesting and difficult as well.
It had a lot of information that I never knew about 9/11 such as:
I always thought that only happened it in New York City not and others states like Washington D.C, and Pennsylvania.
I did not have any ideas about the effects that caused to the people around it.
When I saw the pictures about the disaster I could not believe it because I've never seen something like that before, those pictures were breaking my heart just to seen how heavy and tragic was the disaster. How many people sacrificed their life for other or getting diseases by helping others.
I am very glad that you gave me this kind of presentation because I enjoyed when I was doing my slides and looking for information.

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park

The united states congress established Yellowstone national park on March 1, 1872
Became an Act into law and then became the world's first national park. Yellowstone national park is located on the north west corner of  Wyoming, and also includes small areas of Montana and Idaho. Protecting this park was important because air pollution is among the most serious threats to the monument and the park itself. The world's famous wolves, buffalos, and grizzly bears of greater Yellowstone are threatened by development, habitats loss and in case of wolves widespread killing. The human history of the Yellowstone region goes back more than 11,000 years. About 11,000 years ago many groups of native Americans used the park as their homes, hunting grounds, and as well as transportation routes. Yellowstone national park is the home for some 10,000 thermal features, and over 500 are geysers. Yellowstone contains the majority of the world's geysers. Geysers are hot springs that erupt periodically, the eruptions is the result of superheated water below ground becoming trapped in channels leading to the surface.

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

An explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon Macondo oil well drilling platform on April 20, 2010. The explosion caused millions of barrels of oil to be released into the Gulf of Mexico. There were several reasons why the Macondo exploded starting with a gas leak and ending with an unsuccessful blowout preventer. As a result of the spill, wildlife was immediately affected. Birds, Turtles, Dolphins, and many more animals were greatly affected by this disaster causing many deaths and a decline in several animal populations. BP has spent over $14 billion and over 70 million personnel hours to clean up the spill. Methods of cleanup consisted of booms and skimmers; booms are physical barriers that trapped the oil inside the booms boundary while skimmers are boats with nets that would pick up oil near the surface. The Gulf of Mexico still suffers today from what happened on April 20, 2010 and BP still continues to fix its mistake.

FRACKING

Fracking is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks to release natural gas inside and essentially using that gas for daily activities such as driving a car. Fracking involves drilling wells as deep as 8,000 feet underground and pumping down chemicals mixed with water and sand that create fissures in the rock, which in turn allows natural gas to be released and pumped back up to the surface for collection. Fracking produces approximately 300,000 barrels of natural gas a day, but at the price of numerous environmental, safety, and health hazards as dangerous chemicals are currently used to create these cracks such as radium and uranium. There is growing concern that the process has contaminated the water supply and air, harming local residents. Fracking has been a problem all over the United States as their have been over 1,000 documented cases of water contamination due to fracking. So the question that you should ask yourself is, "Is getting gas really worth people in danger?"






 

The United States Radium Corporation was built is New Jersey in 1944 and ended in 2007. The company used Hammers recipe of glow in the dark paint for people to see their watches or clocks in the dark. They called this product Undark. Radium Corporation assured that the products would not cause radioactive harm to people since it was in very small amounts. Although it was true for the product itself, it was not true for the works exposed to it. The company had a byproduct of radiation that is called Radon and although not harmful in the open can cause lung cancer if concentrated in homes. The factory caused a contamination of radiation in the Essex County area. Which resulted in the unearthing and reearthing of the areas ground.

Cercla-Superfund

The Cercla also known as Superfund is a law that was enacted by congress with taxed petroleum and chemical companies in case of any clean ups. It also enabled federal authority to respond to releases or any threatened releases that may cause hard to people or the environment. The three basic ideals this law carried out was to created a trust fund in case someone was not held responsible, provided a liability for anyone who was responsible for a chemical waste and it established restrictions on closed and abandoned waste sites. Two major chemical waste disasters led to the enactment of this law. The first was the love canal. The canal was a man made canal with the original plan to make it generate cheap electricity. That never came about so Hooker chemicals bought the property. They then began dumping tons of chemical waste and it accumulated to over 21,000 tons. Hooker chemicals then covered up the canal with layers of dirty compressing it and making it like clay. It was sold to niahra school board. The residents and the school built in the neighborhood began to feel the effects of the waste. Strange diseases such as epilepsy and birth defects began to appear.
       The next disaster was the Valley of the Drums. Paint and coating companies began to dump drums of chemicals in this valley located in Bullit County, Kentucky. Farmers near by began to complain about the smell, and this was due to the releases of the toxic wastes. Nothing could've been done because there were no regulations that opposed this. After the years went by, a fire started which lasted a week. This caused attention by officials but again nothing could be done due to the lack of regulations.
       The United States is divided into ten superfund regions. In our state of New Jersey, there are over
  291 sites. One in specific is located in South Plainfield NJ called Cornell-Dubilier Electrinics. They began disposing PCB waste in the ground, thus polluting the solid, sediments and groundwater. It is still in the process of being cleaned.

The Cuyahoga River Fire of 1969

The Cuyahoga River fire of 1969 was a direct cause of water pollution. This river lit on fire at least thirteen times. It is polluted with a bunch of sewage and oil from nearby factories. A train passed over the railways and there was a debris of oil trapped beneath two wooden frameworks. The train let out sparks, these sparks lit the oil on fire, and as a result the river caught on fire. This happened at 12:00 pm. The Cuyahoga River is located in Northeast Ohio. The most important thing to get out of this fire is that it caused a push in environmentalism (ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment). Once the resident of Ohio pushed for this, new acts were introduced in efforts to help with the water pollution of Cuyahoga River. It proved to be successful because the Cuyahoga River now contains about 60 different species of fish. Since this river fire the North East Ohio Regional Sewer Districts has invested over 3.5 billion dollars towards the purification of the river. There is a projection that over the next thirty years the city of Cleveland will invest around $5 billion dollars to the upkeep of the waste water system. Unfortunately this river will not be the same, however none the less the issue can be managed.

David Suzuki

"David Suzuki The Environmentalist"

          David Suzuki was born on March 24, 1936 in Vancouver, Canada. He graduated from Amherst College in Massachusetts in 1958 with honors in Biology, and a Ph. D. in Zoology from the University of Chicago in 1961. He is now a professor at Emeritus at UBC. David Suzuki is a very important person in today's society. He is the founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. This foundation plays an important role to who David is. David Suzuki is an award winning scientist, environmentalist, and broadcaster. He believes that conversation s the necessity for human kind's survival. Through his radio and television programs, he had tried to educate adults and younger audiences. Thanks to him, Canadians around the world are gathering together to speak with officials in the need to co-exist with nature, making us aware about global warming, toxic pollution, climate change, and renewable energy. He has raised millions of dollars to help clean up Canada and around the world from the toxic hazards that are among us. Thanks to an environmentalist like David Suzuki he is an important person who has made us aware about the hazards and is making a change.

Mobro 4000 Garbage Barge

The Mobro 4000 was an American trash disaster. A barge is a boat used specifically to carry cargo, in this case 6 million pounds (3,000 tons) of trash. In 1967, Islip, New York, like many cities in the US was running out of space to dispose of garbage. Lowell Harrelson an Alabaman builder had the idea to put this extra garbage on a barge and ship it south to Morehead City, North Carolina and make money using the methane gas that came off the decomposing garbage for energy. Because of claims that this barge had rodents and hazardous hospital waste North Carolina rejected it along with New Orleans, Louisiana; Mexico; Belize; and Key West, Florida also rejecting the barge. The barge had no other choice but to go back to Islip. Even while trying to dock in Islip the barge was met with two legal battles rejecting it from docking. The judge ordered the trash to be incinerated after its 6,000 mile (3 month) journey. This was a huge story in the media at the time and left people aware of where their trash would end up and what would happen to it or what wouldn't happen to it.

Endangered Species Act

The endangered species act was signed by Richard Nixon in 1973. It tasks the government with the conservation of vulnerable and endangered species as well as critical environment. Protecting the environment is managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service. The procedure for listing a species' conservation status follows four major criteria: number of species, breeding success, effect of predation and disease, and any known threats such as poaxhing. Animals are ranked on the conservation status scale from "least concern" to "extinct."

The Meaning and Purpose of Nature

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.  

Acadia National Park

The park was founded in 1916 by Charles Eliot and George B Dorr, with the help of Charles W Eliot, Charles Eliot's father. It attained federal status when President Woodrow Wilson established it on July 8, 1916. The fire of 1947 began October 17,1947 burning 10,000 acres beginning along the Crooked Road several miles west of Hulls Cove. It ended on the 14th of November, and was fought by the Coast Guard, Army, Navy, and local residents. The park includes mountains, woodlands, lakes, and an ocean shoreline. In total the National Park consists of more than 47,000 acres. There are over 40 species of mammals; red and grey squirrels, chipmunks, white tail deer, moose, beavers,muskrats, and porcupines, foxes, coyotes ,bobcats, and black bears. The park is found in Maine. Acadia National Park is the third oldest National Park east of the Mississippi. 

Light Pollution

Imagine viewing the night sky in rural Pennsylvania. Next, imagine moving to an urban city. You'll immediately notice the difference in the night skies. Light Pollution is a type of pollution that many overlook. Light Pollution is an excess of artificial lights. It consists of four components: Urban Sky Glow, Light Trespass, Glare, and Clutter. Each of these components play a crucial role in how the environment is affected. Interfering with our internal sleep schedule called the Circadian clock, along with interfering with the activities of Nocturnal animals. Although artificial light has allowed us to work longer at night, it also hinders our ability to wake up in the morning by disrupting our internal awareness of night and day.

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch refers to a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. It spans from the west coast of North America to Japan. Additionally, the Western Garbage Patch (near Japan) and the Eastern Garbage Patch (between Hawaii and California) are linked by the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone, which is located in the North Pacific Subtropical "
Gyre" (system of rotating currents). The circular direction of the gyre drives debris to the center and since the water moves slower towards the center, it traps the debris.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch was discovered by Charles Moore in 1997 as his team was sailing from Hawaii to California. According to the National Geographic, 80% of debris comes from land-based activities in North America and Asia while the remaining percent comes from boats and large cargo ships(mainly in the form of old fishing nets). The plastic in the patches does not biodegrade (get eaten by bacteria and other living organisms). Instead, it photodegrades (breaks down from sun exposure) and breaks into tiny pieces (microplastics) that act like sponges and absorb toxic chemicals. These pieces of plastic are hard to discover because they cannot be identified by the naked eye, may look like other small marine creatures, and may not rise to the surface. As the plastic lingers, it can entangle other creatures, prohibiting them from breathing, moving or eating, which ultimately leads to death. Also, other creatures may mistaken the plastic products for their prey and if enough plastic is consumed, their intestines will be clogged and they will starve to death. The debris disrupts food webs because the microplastics block sunlight which hinder the rate at which primary producers such as plankton and algae can produce food for the other organisms in the ecosystem. As a result, the different populations of species will suffer due to the lack of food.

Marine Debris easily accumulates in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch 

There has not been one individual country that has made a strong effort to clean up this mess because it is very far from any country's coastline. However, individual organizations like "The Ocean Cleanup" are trying to raise money to clean up the mess. Besides the efforts of similar organizations, scientists and explorers have urged the public to refrain from using disposable plastics and to increase our use of biodegradable resources. This monstrous problem can be contained if it is a communal effort.

James Lovelock

My presentation was on James Lovelock. James Lovelock started as just another curious young boy who hunted what he wanted to know. When James Loveock was a four years old his parents gave him a box of wires for Christmas and he wondered why he needed two wires to pass a current when dealing with things like gas or water. James received his degree in chemistry from Manchester University, his D.Sc in biophysics from London University, and his Ph.d in medicine at the London school of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. James Lovelock was most known for inventing the electron capture detector and his Gaia hypothesis. James' Gaia theory proposed a whole different view of our planet.  

The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989 and spilled 11 to 38 million US gallons of crude oil. The Valdez spill was the largest in US waters until the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in terms of volume released.The region is a habitat for salmon, sea otters, seals and seabirds. The oil, originally extracted at the Prudhoe Bay oil field, eventually covered 1,300 miles of coastline. Captain Joseph Hazelwood, who was widely reported to have been drinking heavily that night, was not at the controls when the ship struck the reef. The radar was not turned on. In fact, the tanker's radar was left broken and disabled for more than a year before the disaster, and Exxon management knew it.It took more than four summers of cleanup efforts before the effort was called off .Chemical dispersant, a surfactant and solvent mixture, was applied to the slick. Because there was not enough wave action to mix the dispersant with the oil in the water, the use of the dispersant was discontinued. One trial explosion was also conducted during the early stages of the spill to burn the oil, in a region of the spill isolated from the rest by another explosion. The test was relatively successful, reducing 113,400 liters of oil to 1,134 liters of removable residue, but because of unfavorable weather no additional burning was attempted. The cleanup effort included 10,000 workers, about 1,000 boats and roughly 100 airplanes and helicopters. Exxon says it spent about $2.1 billion on the cleanup effort. Thousands of gallons of Exxon Valdez oil still pollute areas; this oil is still toxic and still hurting the ecosystem near the shore. The government considers, as of 2010, only 13 of the 32 monitored wildlife populations, habitats and resource services that were injured in the spill as fully recovered or very likely recovered. This includes a pod of orcas, which lost 15 of its 22 members after the spill with only of older female left. Persistent oil poisoning, and a cascade of ecological effects, continue.

John Muir The Father of National Parks

       My presentation was on John Muir. He is known as "the father" of our national park system. He got the help of President Theodore Roosevelt they laid the foundation of Roosevelt's innovative and notable conservation programs. John Muir founded the Sierra Club and helped establish Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks.John Muir was most likely this country's most famous and influential naturalist and conservationist.

Chernobyl

Chernobyl is a town in Pripyat, Ukraine. The Chernobyl nuclear Power Plant was commissioned by the government in 1977. The Chernobyl accident was the worst nuclear power plant accident in recorded history. The accident was mainly due to human error and machine malfunction. Once home to 14,000 residents, an estimated number of 500 people reside today due to radiation. The nuclear fallout was greater that of the intentional bombing of Japan with the atom bomb in Hiroshima. The possibility of a second explosion caused scientist to get back to work. As a result, 500,00 soldiers would fight for 7 months to stop the explosion. The explosion would have had a reaction of 3 to 5 megatons, causing half of europe to be wiped out. The government lied about the effects of the Chernobyl explosion. Telling everything was fine, although over 10,000 people had already been admitted to the hospital. Out of all of this, the most dangerous thing was not the explosion of Chernobyl, but the lie of the government.

The Precautionary Principle

The precautionary principle is:

Actions should be taken to prevent damage to the environment even in cases where there is no absolute proof of a causal link between emissions or activity and detrimental environmental effect.  Embedded in this is the notion that there should be a reversal of the "burden of proof" whereby the onus is now on the operator to prove that his action will not cause harm rather than on the environment to prove that harm (is occurring or) will occur.

In other words, should those who wish to introduce a new chemical, a new industrial process, a land-use change, and so on, have to demonstrate that their change will not harm the environment before proceeding?


QUESTION:  Do you accept or reject the precautionary principle?  Explain and defend your answer.  Examples of why you accept the principle, or why you reject the principle, are always good to include.

Proofread your blog comment for grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.