Post Comments like this:
1. Your Name
2. A Title
3. A short personal commentary what you learned from it or what made you curious about it given the week's class content. However, it doesn't have to be about the week's content, only something related to human-environmental interactions.
4. Then put a long line ('-------------------)'.
5. Then cut/paste A SMALL PART of the article or topic you found. (This is because blogger.com now has a limit of "4096 characters" in blog comments. However, that should be enough to concentrate on your own comments, and provide an excerpt and a link to the original article. If you do want more space, and I encourage it, post a second time to get another "4096 characters".)
6. Then a small line '---'.
7. Then, finally, paste the URL (link) of the post.
Post for the first week on this thread. I'll set up a new main post each week, and then we will do the same.
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This is a test comment of what to do.
ReplyDelete1. Mark Whitaker
2. My Comment's Title
3. There is something about the following article that interests me, fascinates me, and/or makes me wonder what the article leaves out, etc. I can write as much as I want on this blog about my view on the article and the issues that it discusses. I can write about personal experiences that the article reminded me about. I can write about a different view of the same issues that the article mentions. I can convince people of something, express my intelligence, and express my emotion in this comment.
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[repost introduction to article here]
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[URL / web location of the article]
1. Hye Jung, Choi
ReplyDelete2. A nest made up of cigarette butts
3. I learned “hybridity” shortly through the last class. If something happens (whether it has good influence on environment or not), creatures adapt to new surrounding in their own way and I knew again due to this article below. This point is very interesting to me, because I guessed that creatures would leave their habitats if the conditions changed. However, the birds in cities have adapted in environment of cities by making their nests which is made up of some trash such as cigarette butts, cotton of tennis balls. These things are created and thrown by human. Since there are not enough proper materials like moss and leaves in the city, they cannot help using these trash in order to make soft nests. In this sense, the article shows “hybridity” between human’s action and bird’s habit in cities. But I concern birds’ health. These wastes were created chemically using oil or toxic components, so they could be affected badly by trash especially baby birds.
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알 낳을 둥지 담배필터로 단장 … 도시 새 ‘슬픈 생존’
(A nest made up of cigarette butts ... A sad survival of birds in a city)
도시에 사는 박새의 새끼들은 알을 깨고 나오면 어미 새의 포근한 깃털이 아니라 풀어헤친 담배 필터나 테니스 공의 보푸라기를 만난다. 국립산림과학원의 오정학•박찬열 박사팀은 강원도 점봉산과 서울 청량리 홍릉 숲에 설치한 인공 새집 속 둥지 19개를 조사한 이런 결과를 얻었다고 23일 밝혔다.
(Some scientist researched and compared bird’s houses in mountain and city, Seoul)
점봉산 새집의 경우 모두 이끼•나뭇잎 등으로 틀을 만들고, 그 위에 알을 품는 가운데 일부분은 솜털•깃털 등 자연 재료를 써 포근하게 했다. 그러나 도심 속 둥지의 경우는 삭막했다. 이끼로 기초를 다진 뒤 알 품는 자리는 담배 필터를 찢어 솜처럼 만들거나 테니스 공의 보푸라기를 모아 쓰기도 했다. 이는 도심의 새들이 어쩔 수 없이 주위 환경에 적응한 것으로 풀이된다.
(Birds in the mountain made their soft nest by using natural materials such as moss, leaves. On the other hand, nets in Seoul consisted of cigarettes butts, cotton of tennis ball.)
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http://news.joins.com/article/714/4030714.html?ctg=1200&cloc=home%7Clist%7Clist2
1. Wonmi Nam
ReplyDelete2. Sad Courage(?) of Severn Cullis-Suzuki
3. On the first day of class, we watched a video about Severn Cullis-Suzuki speaking at the UN Earth Summit. The video made me think of a lot of things, mostly sad things (though it impressed me that a 12-yr-old girl had such a courage). Sadly, what she said as a young girl sounded very unrealistic and idealistic to me. I used to joke around with my friends that "why couldn't bin laden and bush be friendly with each other, having lunch at some curry place or a burger place?" We all know that it's the right thing, but an unrealistic thing. Problems are much more complicated than that, and there are just too little people who care. I looked up an article wondering what happened to the girl. She was still and environmental activist, but it seemed to me that not much as changed since the summit. Kids (and other people) still don't care, and the environment's still getting worse. I didn't used to be so pessimistic before, but these days I just can't help being so. What do you think, Prof. Whitaker?
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Inspiring the young to make a difference
By Tim Switzer
March 6, 2010
Standing at the podium in front a room full of people, Severn Cullis-Suzuki still speaks with the same passion she did when she entered the environmental movement at age nine.
But, for the now-30-year-old daughter of famed environmentalist David Suzuki, it's even more important that she inspires those younger than her to grasp hold of world issues.
"A 12-year-old can say things an adult never could and with a clarity that I don't try to have anymore at all because you see things really simply as a child," says Cullis-Suzuki, who first caught the public's attention with an impassioned speech to the United Nations Earth Summit when she was 12.
"There's really a lot of power in how young people look at the world in terms of thinking outside the box -- mostly in a can-do, why-couldn't-we-change-the-way-things-are attitude. There's no understanding of all the complexities we invent when we get older. There's no real barriers and sometimes we need to think like that."
Cullis-Suzuki, who addressed 400 students Friday at the Queensbury Centre, hopes if some young people jump to the fore of whatever issue they wish to be involved in, that will help bring about unity within Canadians to make similar changes.
A study released this week by the World Wildlife Fund showed that only one in five Canadians believe they are doing all they can to combat climate change.
"People are concerned, but the major thing that stops them is they think nobody else cares," says Cullis-Suzuki.
"If I'm living on my street and really care about air pollution, but I see everyone else on my street driving SUVs, why should I give up my vehicles and lose out? Why should I bike to work and be all sweaty?
"That's a major factor we have to address is this feeling of solidarity and contributing to a social movement. If we start addressing that, we would start seeing big change because Canadians do care."
Cullis-Suzuki is not overstating her desire to see that solidarity. She and her husband, Judson Brown, named their eight-month-old son Ganhlaans -- a Haida word meaning: Group of people standing together.
Soon enough, Ganhlaans will likely start hearing the same message his mother has for other young people: Get outside.
"People, especially kids, are not going outside any more," says Cullis-Suzuki.
"The main foundation for why I give a hoot for the environment or the wilderness or nature is because I spent so much time outside as a kid as people always did. Without that core experience and love of camping and going on hikes, why would I bother worrying about the state of natural spaces?
...
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[http://www.leaderpost.com/technology/Inspiring+young+make+difference/2648210/story.html]
1. Franziska Mittelstaedt (Sissy)
ReplyDelete2. Europe's Green Diplomacy: Global Climate Governance Emerges as Test Case for EU
3. As it seems that I am the only student in our course from Europe I want to introduce you a little bit into the "Green Policy" of my continent. As you may know, in the European Union (EU) act several countries together to solve diverse issues to generate synergy effects. On of this issues is climate change.
I think this is quite unique in the whole world, that countries work together that close on one problem. Especially if you consider that only 20 years ago Europe was shaped by the Iron Curtain.
In my opinion, Germany, as one part of the EU, mainly followed the strategy to give a "good green example" to the rest of the world. E.g. we have refund for plastic bottles.
But as you can read in the followed text, Europe slowly realizes that "leading by example" is not enough (anymore).
Furthermore I think this article fits good to the text "Enviromental Sociology: A New Paradigm" by Catton and Dunlap.
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The Lisbon Treaty provides new tools for the Europe Union to combat climate change. But Brussels will have to figure out how to put its new foreign service to use in order to avoid another failure of global environmental leadership like the one seen Copenhagen. Leading by example is no longer enough.
[...]
The European External Action Service (EEAS), the European Union's new foreign service, provides a unique opportunity to increase analytical capacity and to design the right instruments and institutions for confronting climate change.
[...]
For the European Union, the implications of the debacle extend far beyond climate change. Climate change is no longer merely an environmental issue. Economic growth, energy security, and environmental sustainability are interconnected issues at the core of complex power relations. Decisions made during the multilateral climate process impact the future of global governance structures. These decisions will also help define the relations with EU key strategic partners, including the United States, Russia, China, and India. If the European Union is to become a serious global actor, it needs to engage at this strategic level.[...]
Climate change can no longer be left in the hands of environment ministers or even the new climate commissioner alone.
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http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,681931,00.html
1. Dingyuan Hou
ReplyDelete2. All Fish Tested from U.S. Streams Found Contaminated with Mercury
3. After watching the video Alphabet Soup in class, I was really overwhelmed by the thought that how seriously the ocean was already widespread with toxic chemical before we knew it. I was therefore concerned about the issue of bioaccumulation to humans and I found one relevant article. Pollutant produced by humans are not only appearing in waterways, but travelling back to land to be absorbed by ourselves. So if an ocean is contaminated, and planktons in the ocean are eaten by insects, which are eaten by fish, which are eaten by humans, it is possible that chemical concentrations that were initially little could have increased to harmful levels at the top of the food chain, causing a significant risk to humans.
Trying to read the article in a “hybrid” way, I figure that physical and biological sciences give man greater chance to make more use of the natural environment to improve his comforts and conveniences, while excessive exploitation brings about unwanted consequence to his social life.
Besides, there’s some other issue that I thought about in the article. Fish contaminated with high levels of mercury have received attention for the health risks they cause. But because these materials are known poisons, it is no surprise that they would attract special notice. Then what about other unknown materials that could cause potential threats in the future or poison-free materials that can present other problems? Anyway, the idea that how much mercury I might have consumed given the amount of fish I’ve eaten still gives me a chill…
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(NaturalNews) In a new study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), every single fish tested from 291 freshwater streams across the United States was found to be contaminated with mercury.
"This study shows just how widespread mercury pollution has become in our air, watersheds and many of our fish in freshwater streams," said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that builds up in the food chain at ever higher concentrations in predators such as large fish and humans. It is especially damaging to the developing nervous systems of fetuses and children, but can have severe effects on adults, as well. The pollutant enters the environment almost wholly as atmospheric emissions from industrial processes, primarily the burning of coal for electricity. It then spreads across the plant and settles back to the surface, eventually concentrating in rivers, lakes and oceans, where it enters the aquatic food chain.
The number one cause of human mercury poisoning in the United States is the consumption of fish and shellfish.
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http://www.naturalnews.com/028284_fish_mercury.html
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete1. Cho, Hyo Jin
ReplyDelete2. Rebuilding Haiti in an Environmental-friendly way
3. Because of the destructive earthquake, most of the livings in Haiti had collapsed. The article is saying that in the time of rebuilding Haiti, some scholars are suggesting rebuild Haiti in a way to utilize natural resources such as solar power or wind. As Haiti’s energy infrastructure was in dismal, inequality in distribution of energy was Haiti’s social problem. In the time to rebuild Haiti, I think it is wise to rebuild Haiti by using natural resources. Since Haiti is a developing country, utilizing natural resources will be helpful for its national finance. Also, Haiti can be a model country overcoming hard time by being as an environment-friendly country and producing positive effects. Although there is a worry that usually facilities to use natural resource are expensive to install, I think Haiti should see more positive gain and effects they will get in the future.
I am interested in developing countries’ human rights’ problem and nowadays try to have more interests in developing countries’ environmental problem. I think in developing countries, human rights and environment are both in not good care because in my view, most of developing countries usually more focus on economic growth rather than welfare. Especially, it seems that developing countries are more exposed to possibility to worsen environment problem. I post this guessing Haiti might be able to give positive effects to the world by developing through environmental-friendly way.
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4. It would be far better for Haiti to switch to solar power, argues Jigar Shah, the bumptious chief executive of the Carbon War Room, a ginger-group in Washington, DC, who formerly ran SunEdison, a solar power company. His proposal is to start by using off-the-peg solar systems with associated batteries to do much of the work that diesel generators do in post-calamity situations (such as power hospitals). These should be backed up with millions of solar lanterns, which shine by night and recharge by day.
After that, move on to rebuilding houses with cheap solar panels attached, and provide rural villages with minigrids that will allow people to use the power which is generated by the sun, by the wind, or by other means. The cost of such distributed generation systems, Mr Shah says, has fallen by half in the past decade, and they can be set up almost as fast as diesel generators. There are already Haitian enterprises which know how to install solar cells, and they could train others.
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http://www.economist.com/world/americas/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15622227
1. Ah Hyun Suh
ReplyDelete2. Abduction of aboriginal whaling rights
3.
After discussions on the degradation of fisheries last class, as well as its relation to political interest of governments arounds the world, I looked for further material on a fishery topic with political involvement in the issue. One of the representative cases were on whaling. I felt that this issue was not only relevant to what we learned in class but to Korea as well, because the issue is still a concern in the Southern region of Korea.
According to the article, international regulations still have loopholes for countries to continue and even expand commercial whaling and that there are vague standards for "local use" that are exceptions for a ban on whaling. Moreover, countries such as Greenland are trying to increase the quota of whales they are allowed to catch.
Through the article I understood the fact that nutritional and cultural values lay in whaling for some "indigenous" people. However, I felt that this can not be an excuse to let whaling proliferate. Although whaling can not be fully banned in the global fishery arena, I believe that there is a need for stronger monitoring and control over regulations to prohibit countries finding ways to expand whaling.
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Commercial and political interests are abusing historical whaling rights of indigenous people, says Chris Butler-Stroud. In this week's Green Room, he says that ambiguities in international regulations are creating a "dangerous and uncertain" future for whales.
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LINK:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8545073.stm
1. Ah Hyun Suh
ReplyDelete2. S. Korea to Cut Taxes for Electric Car Consumers
3.
After hybrid cars were mentioned in class I looked for an article on regulation changes on the issue. I was interested in the fact the domestic policy environment was becoming friendlier towards hybrids and also on the fact that Korean hybrids were entering the Korean market.
It was mentioned in the article that under the amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Automobile Management Act, low speeding electric cars could drive through roads with a speed limit of 60 kilometers per hour. This was to be initiated from end of March this year. Moreover, domestically made cars were to be available for sale from this year as well. Although there are questions on the application of the new Act as well as unprepared measures on supporting the industry, I believe that this is a step forward in encouraging the hybrid market in the domestic arena.
Along with this change in regulations actual facilities such as road and re-charging systems around Seoul must be built to make the whole idea possible. Regulations in the car insurance system must be extended for electric cars as well. All of this will take some time to be put into effect and create a concrete system for hybrid drivers to follow.
Another part of the article was on tax benefits for hybrid drivers as an inventive for those that choose to drive environmentally-friendly cars. I think this is a quite a widely applied measure around the international society and hope this will build foundations for hybrids cars to roam freely and widely around Seoul.
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South Korean automobile consumers will be able to get tax benefits on purchasing electric cars under the same condition as hybrid car consumers within this year at the earliest.
...under amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Automobile Management Act, low speeding electric car owners will be able to drive through roads with a speed limit of 60 kilometers per hour staring March 30 this year, and domestically made electric cars will be available this year.
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LINK:
http://news.mk.co.kr/outside/view.php?year=2010&no=86670