Gary Liss-Zero Waste

I was really surprised that so many large corporations have already adopted the habit of zero waste. If I was aware that is was possible to have zero waste I would have attempted to do more then just recycle a long time ago. What also blows me away was that everyone is liable for their own waste forever. What?! That makes me never want to throw anything away again, but I think that’s the whole point. So if so many communities have adopted zero waste, how can we bring it to our community and work on it together? Now that I am informed I will try to mainly support the companies/ industries that have this policy and start from point one in our community, my home. It seems to be the quickest solution, as Gary stated, for climate change that we can all start today. Reduce, reuse, and recycle!

Joe Medeiros- Green Careers

It would be really nice if everyone would find a job that impacts the environment in a positive way. However, that isn’t always the case. I know that my heart lies in the fascinating language of American Sign. Although, even if my major is not in the environmental field, I have learned throughout this course that I can still contribute to the ultimate goal that we all hope to achieve in saving the environment. Since there is a wide variety of employment in this field I see myself adopting some sort of environmentally friendly minor to work hand and hand together with my major. We are all dependent upon people to develop solutions and put them into actions for the threatening problems that we are facing. No matter what major a person chooses everyone can contribute and do their own part.

Earth Day Importance

Before coming to Sierra College I was completely unaware that there was an earth day and all the issue that go along with it. It is important to the environment for earth day to take place because people, like me, can gain information on how they can help conserve and save our earth. Earth Day is a day that we can all focus on and recognize the earth for all it has and have to offer. Our future depends on it. On April 22, 1970 the first Earth Day was conducted and turned out to be a success with 25,000,000 people gathered together to show their concern for our future. This day is solely focused on finding alternatives too many destructing factors that are dwindling our environment and collaborate solutions to fix many problems. Without this day of acknowledgment many people would be in the dark of these dire situations that need to be addressed. People that attend earth day leave with better understanding on how they can help save the environment even if they are already aware of these issues. I know that from here on out I will contribute to earth day wherever I might be and further the knowledge of conservation onto others.

ANWR- Joe Maderios

I never realized how much we rely on numerous parts of the world. Alaska was one of the last places I expected to be a source for oil. With the combination of temperature and the solid glacier forms would not be the right formula for obtaining oil. I think it is phenomenal that so many habitats exist north of Alaska. I hope one day that I am able to experience the “Sarhingetti” of the wildlife reserve. It is so nice and a relief to here that there is a place on earth that can never be disturbed by construction for developing community and human population. The saddest truth about the ANWR is that one day in the somewhat near future some species will not be there from the continuous warming of the atmosphere. I didn’t know that so many species survive in such an environment. I expected less then a hundred species, including migratory animals, to survive. Hopefully we will be able to come up with an alternative for ice roads that don’t conclude in extinction all kinds of fish in the artic but it will take time. Joe Medeiros is very knowledgeable and always enjoy his lectures.

Perspective Change?

My perspective about issues regarding the environment and the human impact has changed 180 degrees. I have always cared about nature, but I never really knew how important so many issues are that relate to the environment. No one knows how the little careless actions they do impact the environment in the way that it does and continue to do so without a second thought. Most of the people that I have asked about their opinion on the environment have all responded in similar ways. “We’re not going to have a global natural disaster in our lifetime, so why worry about it.” Honestly, before this class I had a similar perspective, but also I was unaware that our planet had as many direct issues that need to addressed. Now I am fully aware of what I can do and do not let a day go by without contributing to an uphill battle on saving the environment. In my opinion, if more people took this class, we would see a more collaborative effort by a greater number of people starting to fix what is in great danger of being destroy

Dr. Thompson--Oil

The only thing that really ever came to mind when the subject oil came up was that it kills many animals and plants each year by oil spills. Obviously I have not been well informed. I never realized how much of our everyday use is possible by a series of chemicals which creates oil. The most unusual fact that surprised me was that humans and a lot of creatures contain oil. It might just be me but that’s weird. The whole process of extracting and transporting oil is extremely interesting and is amazing what natural resources that our ecosystems provide for us. Maybe I missed this point but if we out way coal and oil disaster which one is of greater harm and occurs more? If anyone can answer this question please write me back.

Joe Maderios--Sustainability

I was happy to finally have a lecture on sustainability because it has been a major concern of mine for a long time. It was very alarming to here the statistics of a typical day in the world. The main number that caught my attention was the 116 miles squared of rainforest that is destroyed everyday. What!? At that rate I am surprised that there is any forest left and no wonder our biodiversity is in such a critical state. Our generations to come are relying on us to sustain our resources and be more conscientious about how much we abuse consumption. If not there will sure be many larger hurtles that they themselves will be forced to deal with at a much more critical point then we are now. During this economic hardship it is so important for us to sustain our economy by reusing all materials so that we can conserve what we have left.

Jane Haproff

It was really interesting to me to look at the different religions and there aspect of the environment. Although I am not religious I can relate and except a number of views from the different areas of the world. I found it interesting that Judaism seems to view the value of life and nature as closely to my view as possible. I will now apologize for anyone that I offend right now. However, I do not agree with the view of Catholics and Christians. Just based on information provided for me they both view the earth that it was made for us to be here and when the resources are up it is our time to go to heaven. I guess I might not have all the information that is out there and don’t fully understand the concept but if anyone knows please let me know!

Frank DeCourten

Well I was pretty surprised to have my earth science lab teacher as a guest speaker. I always enjoy his lectures so this one was no different except we have not discussed climate change yet. His lecture was more terrifying then anything. I know that we can not change the impact that we as humans have caused but we can begin to do things differently. Although, it seems that to educate everyone and to come to a consensus about the changes that need to be made could almost never happen at this rate. It’s sad to think that some species will not be able to survive the impact that we have all made on this planet. Like Frank stated it is too late for some effects to be avoided. The scariest thought is that is as long as the atmosphere is heating the ice in the artic will continue to melt at three times the rate that it reproduces and due to the perma-frost releasing the strongest green house gas, methane, which accelerates the rate of warming. This will ultimately be the cause of the non-existence of the Greenland ice cap. It will all end in a domino effect that will over take the world and will be the end of our world eventually.

Lynn Madeiros

I extremely enjoyed the lecture given by Lynn Madeiros on Matter of Fact vs. Matters of Value. I was highly surprised that I really had to think critically when it came to most of the questions. She really makes you think twice before you start an argument! I now understand what the difference between the two is and how to approach an argument. You take a position on a certain subject and support it with facts. One must fully understand both sides of an argument to be able to truly know their position. I honestly have always thought that an opinion was basis enough for an argument but is now sadly set straight. Some of the arguments that I look back on were completely irrelevant. I have learned so much just in that one lecture and will happy use it when I find myself in an argument. I hope that I get the chance to take one her classes because I believe that it would be a very interesting and insightful class.

Viewpoint Environment

My view point of the environment has changed since I have started this class. As a child, I grew up in the wilderness interacting with the environment on a daily basis. To this day I still live in the woods on Nevada County. It was my playground and my get away form real life. I was able to imagine manzanita boshes as forts and where rocks would my telephone to communicate with the outside world. My parents always had me out camping, backpacking, and hiking throughout my entire life. I learned the values of how to care for the environment when I am “visiting” it as my dad would say. However, I never really knew how much our species depends on the earth. My father has always very utilitarian and has been an activist for the environment since I was born but I never seemed to care or listen to what he had to say. He is a person that will be able to sustain himself if the world resources came to an end.

Now when it comes down to my teachers, there were very few and far between that took us outside to interact. Most of them, I think, believe that outside time is for recess. It was not until college that our teacher would say “hey it’s a beautiful day outside. Let’s do class there today.” But still growing up with a father like mine was one of the best things ever. At age 12 I climbed up half Dome in Yosemite Park. That was one of the most amazing sites I’ve ever seen. When my father turned forty he decided to challenge himself by climbing fourteen hundred feet mountains as a hobby. As he still continues today, it’s sad to say that he finds more and litter along the trails that he picks up. A month ago I would have to say that I needed to change my viewpoint but honestly from the beginning of the class my view has alerted 180 degrees. I will no longer walk by a piece of trash on the sidewalk and let it go untouched. I will do as much as I can little by little, due to expenses, to become a greener friendly person. I can only do my part but can also open more people’s eyes to their viewpoint. No one really notices how much they impact our nature. Millions of people through their cigarette butts out the window and don’t even blink an eye. Sadly I was one of them. But one person quitting is a start.

Toxins

Before last week I was completely unaware that toxins and mining go hand and hand. Well considering that I live basically in mining country, Nevada County, I am worried what I have been exposed to and what could possibly happen to my health. Fortunately I do not have kids yet, although, a lot of my friends do. This is a major concern in our area and should be looked into so everyone is aware about health hazards that it could cause. If communities are going to decide to mine they need to figure out a place to store or transport the toxins so they are not polluting living communities. However, is that even possible? Where is a there a piece of land that no species and humans could not be contaminated by the toxins? I believe that the worst thing for our community would be to re-open the Idaho Maryland mine that has been discussed for quite some time now. There is no for sure method that can guarantee that toxins will not pollute our area, therefore, until that is established the area should be cleaned up from the damage that has already been done.

By talking to many people in our community, most are unaware of the damage that mining has done and continuing to do. I think to gain most peoples attention about toxin damage, people would have to be hospitalized or worse, death. Personally I believe it doesn’t matter the level of toxicity of an area because if there is even a low level of toxins it still can effect the environment over a period of time. I am dumb founded on what we would do if we attempted to clean up mine waste. In all honesty I don’t believe there is anywhere on earth to store toxins that are created from mining. It doesn’t matter where the waist goes it is going to contaminate whatever area it is store. It’s an up hill battle. The only sure way to not add anymore toxins to our environment is to not mine. The only other option that we have is to find an alternative, more environmental friendly way to mine for gold, mercury, ect.

Gary Noy The Sierra Nevada Mountain

The story behind the Sierra Nevada Mountains is history that I was not taught in school and was very enlightened on this subject. I’ve been up to the Sierra Nevada Mountains many times; however, I was unaware that they reached as far as Sacramento. The truth is though, I never have been very interested in history but to learn about how things came to be the way they are is very intriguing and draws my interest. I was also unaware how the mines had ultimately hurt our environment and are still seeing the effects today. I’ve grown up around the rivers and have always drunk the water, by accident or intentional, and eaten the fish that us kids worked so hard to catch. I guess we were lucky that the toxicity in them was not high enough, if any, to harm us. I am very surprised that my parents didn’t know more about this area since they’ve lived here for so long because if they knew what I know now I would have probably never went to the river. When you learn about the gold rush in school you only here about the tons of riches that everyone gained from it. It is scary to me to see how much of our water resource that we depend on comes from the Sierra Mountains. If our main water supply is tainted it severely cause problems for the numerous counties that it has always served. I’m curious to find out why more people aren’t aware of this issue. I very much enjoyed Gary Noy’s lecture on the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the impact of some aspects like mining, transportation, tourism, and the overall history of them. I now have a different outlook on the history of the gold rush.

Mike Thornton "Mining Toxic Legacy"

When our guest speaker, Mike Thornton, went more in depth with the effects and the basics about mining put me into more of a panic because where I live. I live in Grass Valley and when he said that they were thinking about re-opening the mine off Idaho Maryland I was blown away. After all of the damage that mining does to the environment, our culture, and everyone’s health, I don’t understand how they could consider it. We have a wonderful area up here and would love to keep it that way but with a re-opening of a mine would only ruin that distant dream. The fact that throughout California there are 47,000 abandoned mines and 87 percent of them have present toxic hazards is a very unsettling feeling. On the other hand, I was fathomed by how much gold was still left in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and can’t blame those who are for re-opening of gold mines, but, with the price of gold lower then what it costs to extract it gives hope to those that just want to restore history for how it was. I was the most surprised to find out that they mined for mercury, which was a major reason for the contamination in the foothills, on the coast and transported it to mine for gold. So at the same time where destroying out mountain range we were impacting the coastal region for one cause. I enjoyed his lecture as well because it went more in depth to the effects on the environment and shed light on what we need to be aware of.

Well for starters I’ve always been an animal activist in the sense that I foster home for over thirty animals for animal save but as far as wildlife species I’ve only had the pleasure of assisting a few. The question of how do we choose the species we need to conserve is a puzzled one. My first instinct would be to conserve the ones that are the closest to extinction although that isn’t always the right choice. Another choice would be to divert our attention to the species that quickest one to repopulate but there again is that the right line of thinking. After reading about conservation of species I understand now that the right way to go about conservation is based on their instrumental value. This theory makes the most sense. Every species is involved in the food chain or contribute to many types of resources so instrumental value helps distinguish more valuable animals then others. Their usefulness as it contributes to the form of economic and ecological service is how biologist determines a value of a species. Although all animal contribute to the biodiversity of our planet but some can not be replaced in that they provide treatments for diseases and supply a variety of food crop. I still feel that all animals are equal in my sees even including spiders and bugs but not from a scientific perspective.

I believe most people focus on the cute and cuddly animals and do not focus on the ones we don’t see in zoos or don’t have a likeable factor. The ones that go unnoticed tend to be the ones that are in the most danger of extinction. We all know that Polar Bears, Siberian tigers, and Panda Bears are all on the verge of extinction due to the environmental changes and illegal poachers. The cute furry creatures are the ones that are featured by the different organizations that try to fund conservation; however, do you ever see a picture of a snake that is threatened and say hey I want to save that species? I think we probably ignore the animals that are not cute and cuddly but also forget to mention all the plants that are facing extinction. Sad but true.

If biodiversity did not exist everything would be the same. We know that we need to focus on saving as many species as possible because if they had no purpose on this planet they would of never existed at all. They all exist as part of our ecological balance and nature usually tends to balance itself out until man comes in and speeds up the process. Although in the past the earth has wiped out its entire species as a natural part of the ecological system but times have changed and the human race now exists. Maybe some species are supposed to be extinct forever but not at the vas rate it is growing. I don’t believe that it is good for the environment for cloned animals be the replacing factor of the rapidly reducing animal population.

I do not believe that we should eradicate introduced species because that is how our nation began to form which eventually became 98 percent of the United States food supply. Can we all look at life and imagine it without cows, wheat, or corn as part of our week to week eating habits? It has been proven that many introduced species are important to the environment and help us survive day to day. On the other hand, unintended introduced species can be detrimental to certain habitats and species such as introducing new diseases that can destroy all these things as whole. We should give attention to some introduced species and work on conserving them as well because some of them are necessary to our life on this planet. There are both good and bad side effects when introducing a new species.

If we would all learn to conserve our use for all resources it might help slow down the extinction process and possibly reverse some. Some how we need to make it harder for people to illegally hunt and extract species but that is a distant vision. Poachers are all over the world are only out for one thing profit. Most high end poachers that make the most impact on the environment are usually in undeveloped countries and how can one try to convince another when eating one percent, if that, of what we eat daily to do the right thing when they are just trying to survive? We need to find a successful solution to the balance between human needs and the needs of wildlife before we wont have a problem to solve.

Ecological Footprint

What size is it? Why?
Well for starters lets just say I am astounded by how much of an impact I perticularly have on the earth. My ecological footprint on the earth is 4.87. Until any of the questions were brought to my attention i had no idea how many factors contribute to the impact on the environment. The largest reason why my footprint is so big is my food intake and habits with food. Unfortunatly I am one of those people who love meat and tend to eat it everyday. I also do not care much for vegtibles or alot of organic foods which in turn makes a big difference. However, in other aspects i try to be conservative with electricty such as turning off lights when i leave a room and using efficent electrity saver utilities. I have a commuting drive of an hour to and from school so my pollution contribution is not good and I tend to not carpool. I live, like we all do, above what i should and need to reduce my contribution in all factors.

What can i do to change it?
Starting with my food imprint i could start eating less meat per week and more of the other stuff. My consumption of meat is well over necessary and natural foods such as vegtibles and organic products are on the lower end of the scale. Shopping at more organic stores and buying foods that actually reproduce, that don't come out of a box, would be a big change in my lifestyle for he good. Secondly with as much driving as i do carpooling is essential to my change. I also tend to drive for no reason but to drive which im going to cut off immeditly. Along with those factors i have a big problem with shopping, buying, and spending on unecessary things i do not need. I have put a stop to it, especially during these hard times, because it was a huge problem in my life and now come to find it wasn't only hurting me. Now when I do need to purchase things i go to thrift stores so i can participate in reusing items and not be one of those overspenders. Im going to be more aware of my impact on the environment and work on reducing my footprint one thing at a time.

Do I even care?
I care ver much about what happens to our enviornment and the impact that i have made. Now that i am aware of what I do and how it impacts everything really draws my concern. Without being informed about these issues i would have gone on living without acknowledging anything. I have always cared about the environment and its spieces. For a long time now i have been a hard core recycler and a caretaker for unwanted animals. I know now that those things are small in comparison but everyone starts somewhere. After being informed I don't know how anyone could not care. I now find myself constantly observing how others live and see what a grave impact some people have on the world. I can only do what I can change in my life and by informing al family and friends.

What are the long term effects of people living with such a large eclogical footprint?
If people with a quiet large footprint keep living the way they do the environment will one day run out of supplies. The earth will eventually be unsustainable for life. Pollution will take over and create unfathimable air quality. Trees will stop produceing due to ground pollution or the harvesting of them to create huge homes for people with too much money. All natural resources that are able to reproduce now will no longer be. A large portion of animals will be extinct with no hope for reproduction. The whole world will eventually be extinct and the race of the human spieces will be gone. Well i am refering to hundreds of years from now or possibly sooner but when the resources are gone they are gone.

Is it fair for people in the united States to have such a large ecological footprint, while in other countries it is so small?
It is most certainly not fair in the least! However, if the world was fair then no one would be without food, and no children would ever die but it is life. If i could have it my way i would take all resources from every part of the world and distribute to everyone equally. No one would be living in poverty and everyone would be equal. Thats just a fantacy though and will never happen. Its not fair for those developing countries to have a small imprint simply becuase they do not have access to most resources or only a certain amount. The United States is living well above what we should but only each person can make a difference if they want to.

Will anything be left for people in other countries when were done? Should we care?

Unfortunatly I do not think so. We use up more then the necessary resoures then we should and at this rate they will be gone before there is time to figure out alternative solutions. However, if enough people wanted to change one thing in their life then yes it is possible for there to be enough resources left for all other countries that need it. By doing something as simple as recycleing, not littlering, using efficent electricty utilities, reusing glass bottles, or even something as simple as a change in diet can change your ecological footprint on the earth tremendiously. It all starts with one person and it may not seem that big of a difference in one person but as a whole can change the future as we know it. WE should all care what happens to others whether they are right next to you or half way across the world. Everyone can make a difference.