My ecological footprint measured 4.7 earths and 17.3 acres, this differed from the USA average, 17 acres and 5 earths, below the average earths, but above the amount of acres.
The three sections I maximized were use of electricity, garbage production and consumption of food grown. When minimizing the amount of electricity (enough to survive in the modern world), the amount of earths – 4.6 did not vary that much from my original amount of earths – 4.7. When I maximized garbage production that increased the amount of earths by 3, to 7.3 earths. When I maximized consumption of food grown, I got a number of 3.9 earths. The differing number of earths necessary decreases as natural resources increase; additionally, as unnatural resources are being used the number of earths increase.
As a society, to make the world a more sustainable society we need to cut back on a lot; by doing these footprints you can easily see the effects of eating meat versus eating food grown, or the effects of the increased amount of garbage. We can continue recycling to decrease the amounts of actual garbage, we can decrease the amount of meat consumed to once a week instead of five, we can unplug our TVs and anything plugged in the wall when we’re not home to decrease use of electricity. There’s a lot we can do, it’s just easier to continue living at our convenience. I think this was mentioned in class, that all these things were invented or started because they made things more convenient, we can try to stop the old habits, but we should also try to stop any new habits from appearing, that’ll hurt earth.
While walking around the American Museum of Natural History, feelings of nostalgia arose and suddenly I felt my inner child rising within me. I was walking from exhibit to exhibit, barely reading the labels, I was just so excited to be there, to observe all those awesome exhibits. I spent majority of my day at the museum and I still feel like I want to go back and finish exploring!
Arriving at the hall of biodiversity, (which took forever to find because of how terrible I am at reading maps!) I first observed the exhibit that had the crustaceans. I thoroughly read the labels at the exhibit and found that there were plenty of labels to educate the people on each phylum/subphylum. There were some interesting albeit, very specific facts as well. It spoke about how shrimp are caught in a way that harms the other creatures in the same environment, which was nice to find because it showed the concern for biodiversity loss through human interactions. Also, it had sort of like an interactive label where the observer can click on the specific species and the computer screen would show some facts about it. There was also an informative video on all the species in that phylum.
The second exhibit I observed was the Fungi & Lichen – was as informative as the crustaceans in that it did show a concern for a biodiversity threat when it displayed how fungi are threatened because of human consumption, and lichen because of air pollution. It also included a video about the species in the phylums and an awesome visual of models of lichen and fungi. The exhibit was informative and told the important aspects of these species. There was also a computer screen that can show you facts about each species of lichen and fungi.
I was now ready to observe people in their habitat. I tallied a total of 18 people in the course of 15 minutes for the crustaceans and 13 people in the course of 15 minutes for the Lichens & Fungi. The average time stay was 45 seconds. Majority of people started from the bottom of the exhibit and move their eyes upward – from what it looked like, it seemed as though nobody was actually reading the labels thoroughly, but who can blame them? They have an amazing lifelike exhibit right before their eyes, why read when you can just let your eyes absorb the visual! The first guy that was observing the exhibit was there for quite a while… Because he was there, nobody would want to “share” viewing the exhibit with him so they just skipped over it – which sucked! He was really into taking pictures of the exhibit – he took a picture of each aspect of the exhibit, there were a lot of parts, needless to say, he had a lot of pictures. After he moved along, a common trend of people coming taking a picture and leaving, followed. It was interesting to find out that majority of the people would stare at the exhibit, take a picture, look at the label for like two seconds and then move on. However, it is sort of expected for people to act that way in a museum that large. I think because everybody is in such a rush to run off to the next exhibit, they don’t focus or appreciate each individual exhibit.
I think the information for both exhibits didn’t need to be written in a different way, I truly think it was perfect as it was. I don’t think it is the information that’s not attracting the people to stay, rather I think it was more of the people’s impatience to read the information. If the public would take the time to read each exhibits information thoroughly, watch the video till the end, then the public can and will be educated on everything that was displayed in the hall. I think the museum has done a great job in trying to educate the public on what they put in their exhibits, however, it is the job of the public to make the effort and educate themselves by reading the labels.
I think a way to allow the people to enjoy each exhibit in each hall is to have an entrance fee for each hall; the suggested price of the ticket is $22, say, if they charged a dollar per hall, people would pay for each hall they’d like to observe and actually spend the time observing each exhibit, rather than just taking pictures and making a run for it! Though, that’s just an idea.
I had an awesome experience at the museum and I’m definitely going back after finals!
In late August, when I first heard the news of a potential ebola epidemic, I did not take the news seriously, at all. Recently, when I learned that ebola has been all over the news, threatening the U.S., I realized this is a problem that can affect us.
I have decided to use the ebola virus as an example because it can (though hopefully will not) affect us severely. It is scary to think of how it is an actual threat that is very near, and I think because we can actually see in the future the virus affecting people close to us, for example, in Dallas. I think people, including myself, have more motivation to help causes, in general; when they see the cause, affecting people close and the risk is near, they finally feel the need to help.
The article I chose discusses the Ebola virus in West Africa and then applies the concerning issue in Africa to the United States. The main conclusion the author brings forward is that the situation in Africa can escalate to 10 times the initial rate, therefore the it can become a problem that has great potential to affect us. We therefore have to take measures soon and the measures will only be efficient if everybody complies.
The author brings evidence from the CDC that at the rate ebola is spreading, the number can increase to a range of 600,000 – 1.4 million people infected by January 2015. The WHO predicted 10,000 cases a week by December 1rst.
The author does not have any biases, however he does try to persuade the reader that precautionary action must be taken soon because of the predictions mentioned.
I think the author makes a good point that people should and I believe are currently taking precautionary measures. He proves that there is reason to take such measures and justifies that it is the right thing to do in this case. The virus has been spreading like wildfire and can, for lack of better terms, “destroy the world and humanity” and we would definitely not want that! If we want live to appreciate and know what science is, we should listen to the author and help in the efforts to stop ebola.
Typically, nature and I can’t stand each other. Plants make me itchy, pollen makes me sneeze, and bugs me jump around like a crazy person! I imagined that this experience would be terrible, however, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I imagined.
I arrived at the Macaulay building at 9:05 AM thinking I was late, but the bus hadn’t come yet, and the bus wouldn’t come until 10! Waiting for the bus was a little frustrating, it seemed like we woke up early for no reason. Finally when we boarded the bus we hit an incredible amount of traffic, so we didn’t arrive to the New York Botanical Garden until around 11:30. Nevertheless, we arrived, and we were off to explore some plants! Each of us received a magnifying glasses, and one of us was asked to record the data – I volunteered hoping I wouldn’t have to touch any of the plants. Another one of us was asked to hold clippers to cut plants we would be observing, and another, asked to hold the book of the species to identify each plant we observed.
We arrived at zone 2 and began exploring various plants. The first plant we looked at was the Norway Maple – Acer Platanoides, we learned that this plant was a non-native plant, being that it was native to areas in Europe and southwest Asia. The next plant observed was the Hawthorn – Crataegus sp. (figure 1) this plant is a native plant and on the plant there are some berries, which didn’t seem edible.
Figure 1 – Hawthorn
The next plant we observer was Phragmites Australis (figure 1.1) – we were told that this plant is an invasive species and typically is grown near wetlands. Moving to the next plant, Bitternut Hickory – Carya Cordiformis (figure 1.2). This plant is native and grows in moist areas; there is place on the plant where if you smell it, it smells like gin.
Figure 1.1 – Phragmites Australis
Figure 1.2 – Bitternut Hickery
The next plant we observed was the Eastern white oak – Quercus Alba (figure 1.3), this species is a native plant. This tree provides us and our fellow squirrels with acorns.
Figure 1.3 – Eastern White Oak
We went on to a very pretty flower commonly called the Hibiscus – Hibiscus sp. (Figure 1.4). With this flower and our previous knowledge from biology, we were able to identify the parts of an angiosperm (pistil, stamen, petal, sepal, stigma…).
Figure 1.4 – Hibiscus
The next flowering plant we observed was the bell flower – Lobelia Siphilitica (Figure 1.5). This flower is pretty tiny, you can see that by comparing it to the size of my fingers in the picture below. This species is native and they grow better at cooler temperatures.
Figure 1.5 – Bell Flower
The next flower we observed was the Mullein – Verbasum Blattaria (Figure 1.6), this plant is an invasive species native Eurasia and North Africa. We were told that this is used to repel or kill mosquito or malaria larvae.
We observed many more plants in zone 2 and then we were told we had to get back onto the bus.
The experience was great, I didn’t feel itchy the whole time, because it was enjoyable to learn about the various species of plants. More importantly it was so interesting to learn about the biodiversity within this garden; we were exposed to so many different types of plants, which strengthened the idea of biodiversity. Before this experience I may have just looked at trees as all the same greenery, but now, it is obvious to me that each tree is different in its own way, whether it be the smell, or look of it.
It was amazing to learn about how in a city so focused on urbanization, there is a “city” within, dedicated to accommodate the non-urban aspect of New York City. This changed my outlook of how NYC feels about nature, clearly they do set aside space and time for the sake of nature. The experience is one I will not forget, because living in a city so focused on urbanization I don’t always have an opportunity to connect with nature, this experience allowed me to open up to the beauties and wonders of nature and now I appreciate nature much more. Thank you Macaulay for an enjoyable Sunday!
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